I’ve always seen health consultations that I give as the first step in a person's new or continuing education in natural health. I give advice on how to balance their health through diet, lifestyle practices, supplements, herbs and other natural treatments. For the client, the experience of the change that occurs for them when following consultation recommendations is a type of self-education. 
 
My advice is based on understanding the state of imbalances that are present in a client's body and mind. To this end, I employ a type of visual, touch and aural diagnosis that I developed through the study of oriental medicines, progressive modern biology and health research. I call this IDx Diagnosis®.
 
All information that is gathered from medical testing is useful for me to understand the advice I need to give, but there is an essential difference between myself and alternative doctors and counselors. If someone's cholesterol or other blood markers are off, I also look at other signs of imbalance in the organs through my diagnosis to see what is contributing to this.
 
From my study of oriental medicines, there is a hierarchy of systems that are out of balance that create problems in the blood:
 
1.The Lungs and Digestive Functions: These two areas of the body are responsible for creating energy and blood/nutrition. They interact with each other to fuel the body with proper nutrients and vitality.

2.The Liver and Colon: If the blood and energy is disturbed, it affects the liver and colon functions. If the lung, digestive, liver and colon functions are disturbed for a long time, imbalances pass on to a deeper level.

3.The Adrenal Glands, Thyroid and Pancreas: If a person's diet is not supplying enough energy and nutrients or if the lifestyle is sapping too many nutrients or energy from the system, these glands are involved and start to affect the whole body function. The adrenal glands (and along with it the thyroid) are considered the internal energy bank of the body. When this internal energy is overdrawn from its bank account, may health problems arise especially those associated with aging (diabetes, heart disease, cancer, etc.)
 
The first step in experiental education is balancing one's diet in order to restore balance to the body. The nutrients and energy from food fuel all bodily functions. To this end, a whole foods diet based on adequate nutrients including carbohydrates from whole grains, vegetables, fruit and natural sugars, proteins from animal and vegetable sources, fats from balanced oils and whole foods along with other natural foods. These are recommended in a particular way to restore balance to organs that are seen to be troubled through IDx Diagnosis® along with relevant medical tests.
 
I will recommend specific foods for an imbalanced organ. Vitamin rich foods are suggested to balance a weak digestive system. Traditionally foods such as organ meats, eggs, fatty fish and fish eggs high in vitamin A were considered deeply strengthening to the whole body. Modern research shows these foods heal the digestive organs because of their high vitamin A content. 
 
When a person eats to balance their organs according to the recommendations I give, an education is taking place. The body and mind is learning through the experience of eating what a more balanced state of health feels like. My diet recommendations last for 3-4 months.
 
It takes 120 days for all the blood cells to change according to modern biology. As the body becomes more balanced, the person feels what it is like to be in balance with their health. My recommendations may change to balance the body for the next 120 days although in actual practice, in a re-visit consultation, I often have to correct the diet that I recommended because it wasn't followed enough.
 
For example, I might recommend that a person avoids raw food because they have an energy deficiency. Raw foods like all watery foods lower the metabolism. In oriental medicines, this is known as an energy deficiency. After 4 months, it might not be necessary to avoid all raw foods. If the metabolism is still low, I might recommend continuing to avoid them or add in foods to raise the metabolism such as grass fed meat or wild salmon.
 
For people with chronic or serious conditions, seeing me every 3 months for a year or two helps them to continue on the healing journey by learning about the effects of different foods that I'm suggesting. After this period is over, many see me for an annual checkup.  Along with this personal experiential education, I suggest  intellectual studies of my programs and writings to help make more sense of their experiential education.

​80 percent of Americans have been found to be deficient in magnesium. Many people do not eat magnesium rich foods, are taking medicines that deplete magnesium or are using up all their magnesium.
 
Magnesium is involved in over 300 biochemical functions in the body, such as regulating heartbeat rhythms and helping neurotransmitter function.  This is why hypomagnesemia (another name for magnesium deficiency) is something you really want to avoid.
 
Magnesium is an essential mineral and an electrolyte. Some of the main functions of magnesium are:

• Regulating blood pressure
• Keeping bones strong
• Balancing nitric oxide in the body
• Supporting growth and development in babies and children
• Supporting proper function of nerves, muscles, and tissue
• Neutralizing stomach acid
• Moving stools through the intestine and preventing constipation

 
The kidneys primarily control levels of magnesium within the body and excrete magnesium into the urine each day which is one reason why urinary excretion is reduced when magnesium and other electrolyte statuses are low. Magnesium is actually the least abundant serum electrolyte in the body, but it’s still extremely important for your metabolism, enzyme function, energy production and much more.
 
Although we only need small amounts of magnesium relative to other nutrients, we must regularly replenish our stores either from foods or magnesium supplements in order to prevent deficiency symptoms. That’s because the body loses stores of magnesium every day from normal functions, such as muscle movement, heartbeat and hormone production.
 
Stress is a major cause of magnesium deficiency. Under stress, the body produces excessive amounts of estrogen. Stress can be caused by many factors such as extreme diets that are missing nutrients, mental approaches to life, lifestyle circumstances, excessive work or a lack of rest or sleep and many other factors. Adequate good quality salt is important to strengthen the adrenals so that the body holds on to magnesium.
 
It is best to get magnesium from foods and in some cases good quality supplements such as magnesium glycinate. Foods that are high in magnesium that are more balanced in their effects are: peaches, avocado, orange juice in moderate amounts, apricots, avocado, bananas, leafy greens, beets, wild rice, buckwheat, oats, black eyed peas, kidney beans, brown rice, wild salmon, halibut and many meats.
 
If you can handle coffee, it is high in magnesium. Magnesium is also high in chocolate, nuts and seeds. Because of its stimulating effects, I don't recommend a daily use of chocolate. Excessive amounts of polyunsaturated fats in nuts and seeds can lower the metabolism which creates a high estrogen state. I recommend the moderate use of seeds and nuts except in the condiment sesame salt.

For many years, I followed the idea that we only need nutrition from food for health and that supplementation wasn’t necessary. When one of my teachers died of cancer after eating what I thought was a perfect vegan diet, I started to ask questions about the macrobiotic vegan approach and the need for supplements. 

I studied many traditions and traditional cultures as well as the different opposing dietary camps, research and clinical use of supplements. I came to the conclusion that a whole foods diet was still the best.

After looking at all these viewpoints, I felt the best diet, though, was one that included a variety of natural vegetable and animal foods. This was the diet followed by the true longevity cultures that have been studied around the world.

At the same time as I was studying this, I started to question the idea that food was enough. Even with nutrient dense vegetable and animal foods, there are health issues that nutritional supplements and herbs could address for both self-healing and prevention. Some of the main issues that affect our health and getting disease include genetic tendencies, environmental and lifestyle stresses, aging and more. Longevity has a been a topic of study in the far east in many Asian countries for thousands of years.  Modern scientific research into aging, food and supplements offers additional clues to life extension.
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In the larger picture, nature doesn’t care if we live long only that we live long enough to reproduce. Longevity is something that we have to take steps ourselves to achieve. In the last decades and today, there is some amazing research into what can keep the body and mind healthier into the golden years and before. 

Recently a study was done in Sweden that showed how taking supplements of Co-Q 10 and selenium can reduce deaths from cardiovascular disease. This nutrient combination has also been found to improve heart function,1,2 improve quality of life,2,3 reduce the number of days a patient stays in the hospital,3 lower cardiovascular mortality risk by 49%, and even provide protection years after the subjects stopped taking the supplements.4

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death both globally and in the US.5,6 It kills more than 17 million people worldwide every year5—more than all forms of cancer combined.7

• Co-Q10 has a long history of use in boosting cellular energy levels and making mitochondria more efficient at releasing energy from chemical bonds in molecules from food.
• Selenium is an essential cofactor for many of the enzymes in our natural cellular free radical scavenging systems.
• Studies now show that CoQ10 and selenium have effects that help protect against tissue-damaging oxidative stress.
• A series of new human studies from Europe shows that the combination of CoQ10 and selenium supplements reduce heart disease risk and improve quality of life.

Both Co-Q10 and selenium have benefits that go far beyond heart health. Co-Q10 has been found in research to have protective effects in the brain and nervous system, in asthma and chronic lung disease, in diabetes and the metabolic syndrome, on ocular health, and even on the aging immune system. The body produces C0-Q10 but the amount decreases substantially as we age.  

Selenium acts by multiple, complementary pathways to prevent cancers from developing. This phenomenon, known to scientists as pleiotropy, allows selenium to attack cancer on many different fronts, at many different stages.8 Selenium boosts the immune system. I have seen first-hand that recommending Selenium reduces the frequency of colds and flus.

The best form of Co-Q10 is Ubiquinol. Selenium is best in the form of Selonomethionine. There is a benefit from getting a selenium supplement with a multiple form of selenium. There is a synergistic effect which makes these two nutrients complimentary to each other.
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1. Alehagen U, Johansson P, Bjornstedt M, et al. Cardiovascular mortality and N-terminal-proBNP reduced after combined selenium and coenzyme Q10 supplementation: a 5-year prospective randomized double-blind placebo-controlled trial among elderly Swedish citizens. Int J Cardiol. 2013;167(5):1860-6.
2. Witte KK, Nikitin NP, Parker AC, et al. The effect of micronutrient supplementation on quality-of-life and left ventricular function in elderly patients with chronic heart failure. Eur Heart J. 2005;26(21):2238-44.
3. Johansson P, Dahlstrom O, Dahlstrom U, et al. Improved Health-Related Quality of Life, and More Days out of Hospital with Supplementation with Selenium and Coenzyme Q10 Combined. Results from a Double Blind, Placebo-Controlled Prospective Study. J Nutr Health Aging. 2015;19(9):870-7.
4. Alehagen U, Aaseth J, Johansson P. Reduced Cardiovascular Mortality 10 Years after Supplementation with Selenium and Coenzyme Q10 for Four Years: Follow-Up Results of a Prospective Randomized Double-Blind Placebo-Controlled Trial in Elderly Citizens. PLoS ONE. 2015;10(12):e0141641.
5. Available at: http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs317/en/. Accessed July 6, 2016.
6. Available at: http://www.cdc.gov/heartdisease/statistics.htm. Accessed July 6, 2016.
7. Available at: http://www.theheartfoundation.org/heart-disease-facts/heart-disease-statistics/. Accessed July 6, 2016.
8. Rayman MP. Selenium in cancer prevention: a review of the evidence and mechanism of action. Proc Nutr Soc. 2005 Nov;64(4):527-42.