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My training LOST WISDOM AND LOST RESILIENCY declining by age twenty-seven. Compared to
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Before I discuss iron further, let’s consider what the previous generation (born in the 1960s
taught me the traditional wisdom that we have lost— and 1970s) faced at the same ages, millennials
that patients wisdom that I believe to be divine in origin. experienced double-digit increases for eight of
experiencing In Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, Dr. ten health conditions from 2014 to 2017.
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symptoms Weston A. Price discusses the Indians of the This dismal picture is not for lack of medi-
Yukon (pages 279-80), describing how white cal intervention. The U.S. spends more on health
had only two prospectors eating canned foods died of scurvy, per capita than any Organisation for Economic
options: take thought “[a]ny Indian man or woman, boy or Co-operation and Development (OECD) coun-
a drug or girl could have told [them] how to save [their] try and leads the world for performance of
life by eating animal organs or the buds of MRIs, CT scans, tonsillectomies, coronary
continue to trees.” Dr. Price also recounts the story of an bypasses, knee replacements and caesarean
suffer. I didn’t engineer-prospector who “nearly went blind sections. Compared to other countries, Ameri-
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understand with so violent a pain in his eyes that he feared cans also rely more on medication. After age
he would go insane.” The cause (though he did twenty, it’s essentially normal to be on multiple
that there not know it) was vitamin A deficiency. One medications. In short, we spend a whole lot of
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was a third day, while weeping “in despair of ever seeing money, we do a whole lot of interventions, we
option— his family again,” he encountered an old Indian go to the doctor the most—and we get the worst
who recognized the problem. After catching a outcomes. The current system is failing.
address fish, the Indian “threw the fish out on the bank
the root and told the prospector to eat the flesh of the BEYOND SYMPTOM MANAGEMENT
head and the tissues back of the eyes, including Both of my grandfathers were small-town
cause. the eyes, with the result that in a few hours his country doctors who could do everything from
pain had largely subsided. In one day his sight deliver babies to fix broken bones. I went to
was rapidly returning, and in two days his eyes medical school because I wanted to be like them.
were nearly normal.” However, my training taught me that patients
Of course, modern science has since estab- experiencing symptoms had only two options:
lished that animal foods—and particularly the take a drug or continue to suffer. I didn’t un-
tissues in back of the eyes—are one of the rich- derstand that there was a third option—address
est sources of vitamin A. However, the reason I the root cause.
share Dr. Price’s stories is to underscore the fact In my early years of practice, I perfected
that we’ve lost wisdom that we urgently need. the seven-minute visit and the art of billing.
Consider what the U.S. health picture looks With high patient volumes and reimbursement
like today. Compared to other wealthy nations, rates, I helped my county pay off a one-million-
U.S. infant mortality and life expectancy are dollar clinic within a year. Things were going
both rock bottom—more of our babies die, and so well that the clinic even got written up in
Americans as a whole die younger than those The Washington Post. I thought I was living my
from other wealthy nations. American children dream as a small-town family doctor. But there
now “are destined to live shorter lives than was one problem: no one was getting better, and
[their parents].” that bothered me.
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When it comes to the percent of the popula- Looking for answers, I met an integrative
tion over age sixty-five with two or more chronic doctor who told me that there is no such thing as
diseases, we’re number one. Autoimmune “disease,” only “consequences” and inflamma-
diseases, obesity and cancer have skyrocketed. tion. After I sent him ten of my sickest patients
As Bloomberg put it a couple of years ago, and they all came back better, our clinic began
Americans are “retiring later, dying sooner and focusing on going after “bugs” and toxins:
sicker in-between.” Equally worrisome, a study Candida, mold, heavy metals, glyphosate and
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of millennials (born in the 1980s and 1990s) more. (In the U.S., the list of potential toxins is
released by Blue Cross Blue Shield in April long: Over eighty thousand different chemicals
2019 showed that millennials’ health starts are registered for use, but almost none has been
18 Wise Traditions FALL 2020