Doc Moe: I’m a distributor of certain whole food nutritional nutrients. I don’t call them vitamins and minerals because they’re not because they’re made from whole food. They are located on a farm in Wisconsin that’s been there 95 years. But most of the things that I would recommend to somebody would be made from whole food, and this would go along with any lifestyle changes or food changes, which is the most important thing. But say someone’s blood work showed that a person doesn’t have enough stomach acid.
If you don’t have enough stomach acid, you can’t digest protein. Suddenly, your red blood cells aren’t looking too good because you’re not digesting protein. Typically, doctors would give something to them called a proton pump inhibitor or an acid blocker. This makes the problem worse. Let me explain. You always want to start from the top, the upper digestion. Chinese medicine knows that western medicine doesn’t. You’re only as good as what you can put onto your body. I would give them something that would help their upper digestion. To me, that makes a lot of sense. Because if you’re not digesting something, you may want to talk to people about chewing properly, or don’t drink ten glasses of water every time you eat. Who knows what someone’s doing that’s interfering with their upper digestion. But there is a lot of acid reflux out there. And it’s not coming from too much acid. Most people think it is. It’s coming from too little acid. In other words, they eat something, they don’t chew it, and it just sits there. Now the acid from the food is what’s causing the reflux. Their body isn’t working so well that they have too much acid. I mean, let’s face it, Phil, nothing works better after 50.
Phil Faris: So true.
Doc Moe: All those little cells that produce acid in the stomach aren’t all of a sudden saying, “Oh, let’s produce more acid now that we’re 50 years old.” That’s not how it works. Patients need help with their upper digestion. That would be a good example.
Phil Faris: There is also the fact that insufficient acid creates other issues. For example, if they’re not digesting food, they’re not getting the nutritional value from it. Besides acid reflux, they may have other implications like low energy, weight gain, weight loss and other kinds of symptoms. All because they aren’t getting the nutritional value from what they’re eating.
Doc Moe: It could be a big system issue. This issue goes on from age 20 to 50, then suddenly, you’ve got a 50-year-old in front of you with seven fractures in their back from osteoporosis. I have a client who had seven fractures in her back, and she was practically on a walker. A lot of drugs. They wanted to put her on bisphosphonates, which can make your bones even more brittle, even though it might take away some pain. She came to me for help. Two years later, she’s riding her bike; she’s going to yoga. She’s doing all kinds of things that she thought she would never do because she’d be on a walker or in a wheelchair. The fractures are still there, but her skeleton over a period of two years has gotten better than it was ten years before because you grow a new skeleton every six years.
Phil Faris: What are some of the specific things that you outlined for her to do to get those kinds of benefits?
Doc Moe: One of them would be a big change in diet. Lose the sugar, lose the alcohol, improve the upper digestion. You must do weight bearing exercise, even if it’s just 20 minutes three times a week. Those are the kind of things that will build new bone. And whole food supplements that would build new bone. The same thing I would give to an arthritic dog I’d give to a person.
Phil Faris: So, I rate as high as a dog if I’ve got arthritis, huh?
Doc Moe: No, Phil. I’d rate you much higher!!!
Phil Faris: Thanks. Let me broaden the scope just for a minute because it gives us a context of the issues we’re facing. As I mentioned in the intro, and we’ve alluded to it, our aging population is facing an epidemic of chronic diseases, and most are lifestyle generated. From your perspective, how did we, as a nation, get in such a sorry state of health?
Doc Moe: From my perspective, I can say four words. It’s all about food. It’s all about the industrial revolution. Hundreds of years ago, people got killed by bacterial diseases. They didn’t have all this stuff we have now. This obesity epidemic and this diabetes epidemic wasn’t there, nor was the heart disease epidemic. People have this belief that we are living much longer, and in my mind, none of that’s true. Sure, people might be living a little bit longer, but they’re living in nursing homes and aren’t even really living. I think it all comes down to food, Phil. That’s what’s happening. The biggest problem is pre-diabetes. Your grandkids are going to be lucky enough to live as long as you unless things change. And it’s a sorry fact; I’m afraid to say.
Phil Faris: Specifically, what are the issues with our food? I mean, it tastes great, and it’s everywhere.
