Your Body Already Knows How to Heal Itself

Interview with Dr. Ralph La Guardia: A 41-year medical veteran on why mainstream medicine has it backwards—and what actually works

Dr. Ralph La Guardia has been practicing medicine for 41 years, but somewhere along the way he stopped believing in it—at least the version taught in medical schools and practiced in most hospitals. Triple board certified in Internal Medicine, Bariatrics, and Geriatrics, he describes his "true love" as functional and alternative medicine, an admission that might sound like heresy coming from someone with his credentials. His journey began as an undergraduate reading Linus Pauling's work on Vitamin C and cancer, but it was during his residency that the disconnect became impossible to ignore. While his mentors dismissed vitamins and minerals as "nonsense," La Guardia was watching patients cycle through treatments that addressed symptoms but never causes, managing decline rather than pursuing health. After 37 years in private practice, he's developed an approach that reads more like reverse engineering than traditional medicine: figure out what each organ needs to function optimally, then provide exactly that. His weekly Substack newsletter, "The Medical Underground," reflects this philosophy—deep dives into treatments that work but aren't taught, from using zinc lozenges to cure mouth ulcers to treating early Alzheimer's with medium chain triglycerides and Fiji water.

The stories he tells reveal a pattern: mainstream medicine's reflexive dismissal of simple solutions that actually work. Take his discovery about zinc and mouth ulcers. Conventional treatment involved antibiotics and mouth rinses that, as he notes, "ironically never seemed to work." But zinc is necessary for healing mucosal surfaces and powers over two hundred enzymes in the body. When he started giving patients zinc lozenges, the ulcers that had plagued them for years disappeared within days. He sent a box to a Syrian physician friend who had sought treatment in Damascus, Paris, London, and the United States without success—within a month, the friend called him, astounded. La Guardia claims a 100 percent cure rate. Or consider his approach to thyroid treatment: while most doctors rely solely on TSH tests and synthetic hormones, he runs complete panels, uses natural thyroid containing both T3 and T4, supplements with iodine in the form of kelp, and—here's the controversial part—keeps increasing the dose until the patient's body temperature normalizes at 98.6°F, regardless of what the lab values say. His patients stop being cold, their hair grows back, their energy returns. "The body does nothing by mistake," he insists. Fever isn't a side effect of infection but the body's deliberate strategy to kill pathogens by making the terrain too hot for them to survive.

What makes La Guardia's work compelling isn't just the individual treatments but his insistence that American medicine has the entire framework backwards. We're the sickest country on the planet while spending the most on healthcare, he notes, echoing Robert Kennedy's recent congressional testimony. The soil is dead from chemical farming, robbed of the minerals and microorganisms that should nourish our food. We've replaced healthy fats with toxic seed oils, eat processed foods our bodies don't recognize, and are being poisoned by microplastics and aluminum—which he calls the real existential threats, not climate change. His reverse engineering approach extends beyond individual organs to the entire system: healthy soil produces healthy plants that need no chemicals, healthy terrain in the body allows cells to repel disease, healthy temperatures let the immune system function as designed. After decades of watching young patients develop cancers, diabetes, and autoimmune conditions that shouldn't exist in their age group, he's concluded that the problem isn't finding better drugs to manage symptoms. It's recognizing that the body, given what it actually needs, already knows how to heal itself. His frustration with medical writing that barely scratches the surface—never explaining dosages, never following implications to their conclusions—drove him to create "The Medical Underground," where each week he takes one topic and pursues it relentlessly, providing the specifics other sources omit. At 71, still seeing patients daily while running an 88-bed nursing home and maintaining an organic farm in Connecticut, he continues what he started as an undergraduate reading Pauling: believing there must be a better way, then proving it, one zinc lozenge at a time.

With thanks to Dr. Ralph La Guardia.

Medical Underground | Dr. Ralph La Guardia | Substack

My name is Dr. Ralph La Guardia, I am a physician, triple board certified in Internal Medicine, Bariatrics and Geriatrics. But my true love is Functional Medicine/Alternative Medicine. I have written three books on medicine and currently I have a Substack page entitled the “Medical Underground”, where I write articles weekly on cutting edge alternative medical treatments.

I started the Medical Underground Substack because of my frustration with medical writing on Substack that was superficial, lightly touching on topics without much information such as how to dose a supplement etc. Each week I take a very deep dive into each topic. I like to think of myself as a teacher, guiding my readers through a subject, adding humor and keeping it fun, while at the same time providing lots of information. My writing style is conversational, and I never bury readers in technical jargon without explaining terms to them. If I get to a section that is heavy on science, I tell readers to skip this section if you are not a science geek, LOL.

1. Dr. La Guardia, can you please tell us about your journey into Functional Medicine and what led you start “The Medical Underground”? What experiences shaped your approach to healthcare that differs from mainstream medicine?

I have been a medical doctor for 41 years, and in private practice for 37 years, during which I became disillusioned with mainstream medicine which is all offense and no defense or preventative treatments. My journey into Functional Medicine began with Linus Paulings book on Vitamin C and Cancer which I read as an undergraduate. I was disappointed to discover during my residency that we were not doing anything preventatively but rather just treating problems that arose. Whenever I mentioned this to the physicians teaching us, I was shut down immediately with comments like, “That vitamin and mineral stuff is nonsense”.

Of course I would not accept that when even early in my medical education I had taken it upon myself to read sources of nutrition, orthomolecular, and alternative medicine that demonstrated their effectiveness. I was most taken back my medical mentors and colleagues total lack of interest in anything outside of mainstream medical dogma.

Once I was in private practice, I began to use all sorts of alternative treatments that I combined with traditional approaches for what is known as Integrative medicine. However, over time my approach of going back to basics and seeing what the specific area of disease in the body needed to function optimally. I kind of stumbled into Functional medicine, doing it for many years on my own before I knew it had a name! Kind of embarrassing in retrospect! LOL.

At one point I decided to start writing about my approach and wrote three well received books, The Doomsday Book of Medicine, The Bible of Alternative Medicine, and Infected: Secrets from the Medical Underground.

Then I discovered SubStack and I felt l had finally found a forum where I could write whenever I wanted on subjects that interested me and that would educate patients on alternative, functional, orthomolecular approaches, hence the birth of The Medical Underground. As it turns out, I write an article every week or so, and take a deep dive into the subject of the week. That is a lot of fun for me, but a lot of work, but it is a labor of love.

2. As a medical doctor with 37 years of practice, you describe your “true love” as “alternative medicine.” What is the most surprising discovery that led you to blend conventional and alternative approaches?

It sounds mundane, but I knew that zinc was necessary to help heal wounds and especially mucosal surfaces. In primary care you see many patients with oral ulcers known as aphthous ulcers. Conventional medical treatment was antibiotics, mouth rinses etc, that ironically never seemed to work. I wondered if perhaps these ulcers were either caused by a lack of zinc or would respond to zinc lozenges to promote healing.

Zinc is necessary for the proper functioning of over two hundred enzymes, hence is very useful in the body and not toxic. I was amazed by the rapid recovery of my patients, many of whom had suffered with aphthous ulcers for years!

I would give them conventional treatment with viscous lidocaine to anesthetize any excessively painful lesions.

I even had a physician specialist friend who suffered with aphthous ulcers for years, when I told him to try zinc lozenges, he was polite, but it was evident he didn’t buy it. He was from Syria, and had been to doctors there, Paris, London and in the United States and nobody could heal his ulcers. So, I sent him a box of zinc lozenges in the mail, and lo and behold about a month later he called me and was astounded that his ulcers disappeared in a few days and had not come back. I like to say that at least I made a “true believer” out of at least one doctor.

By the way, I have a 100 percent cure rate for aphthous ulcers with zinc.

3. In your writings, you frequently mention that “the body does nothing by chance.” Can you explain this philosophy and how it guides your treatment approaches?

Another discovery I made when practicing medicine was that “the body does nothing by mistake, everything has a purpose”. A great example of that is Fever, I wrote an entire Substack article on that topic since I feel so passionately about it.

Most doctors view fevers as annoying side effects of an infection, rather than one of the body’s greatest defense mechanisms. Consequently, mainstream docs tell patients to take Tylenol to lower their fevers, when in reality this is only prolonging the infection and taking away the body’s greatest defense mechanisms.

Our bodies produce a fever simply because the bugs that infect us can only do so because they live at or near to our normal body temperature of 98.6 F. Jacking up your temperature with a fever is the body’s way of killing the bugs by making the terrain they live in too hot to survive. Hence, I always tell my patients to, “Let your fever burn”. The only time I treat it is if it goes dangerously high above 102 F. or greater. Allowing a fever to “burn” will dramatically shorten the length of your illness, yet is almost universally ignored by mainstream medicine.

4. After decades of reading medical literature, you acknowledge that “many alternative medical treatments are just nonsense”. What is your personal process for discerning genuinely effective treatments from what you call “snake oil”?

As a Functional Medicine doctor, I have straddle both worlds of mainstream and alternative medicine. Let me tell you there is a lot of nonsense “snake oil” treatments in both. After decades of testing different treatments, I have learned the ones that are useless and the ones that are potent. In my Substack articles I openly question some treatments and openly tell my readers if I have any doubts. An example is recently I wrote an article entitled “Could Diabetes Be Caused by Parasites”. That is a popular claim in alternative medicine circles that I debunked as ridiculous.

Discerning what I call “snake oil” from legitimate treatments is a difficult process that comes with years of experience. I have tried many alternative treatments that sound good when they are being touted but are worthless. The internet is a forum for every crack pot on the planet to blab about the latest wonder treatments they have recently discovered.

The same holds true for many mainstream medical treatments. A great example are the medications for dementia. I have never had any patients who improved with these treatments, all of them progressively worsen over time. The families often hang onto any hope of improvement and often convince themselves that “Maybe dad is a little better, it is hard to tell”. When objectively there is no improvement.

5. You extensively discuss “terrain theory” and the importance of having healthy cells that can repel germs. In simple terms, what is the core idea of terrain theory, and how can someone start improving their body’s terrain today?

In my writings, I often refer to the importance of maintaining the “body’s terrain”. The Terrain I am speaking about is the environment your cells are surrounded by and embedded in.

What I mean by maintaining a healthy terrain is from a Functional Medicine point of view, the first thing I recommend is that you provide your body with all the essential building blocks it needs to be the perfect amazing machine that it is. That means getting adequate hydration, good mineral and trace element intake, keeping a healthy nonacidic pH, and most importantly nourishing your microbiome so it can work its magic. Exercise will increase blood flow and thus decrease inflammation and remove waste, and help properly nourish tissues. Once your body’s cells are immersed in a healthy terrain, they will function optimally, and many medical problems will resolve over time.

It is analogous to a fish tank. Your fish would not be healthy for long in dirty polluted oxygen poor water, the same thing holds true for your cells.

Scientists recently discovered that cells are aware of their surrounding terrain and actually remember it, how weird is that? The extracellular space between and around cells is not a passive medium. Rather it is alive, and active in cell migration and removal of waste products from the cell and the delivery of nutrients and oxygen to the cells. A unhealthy terrain will allow toxins to accumulate and will starve the cells of much needed nutrients and oxygen, leading to cellular dysfunction or what we call disease.

6. You write passionately about the decline of American health, particularly pointing to seed oils and processed foods. When did you first recognize these connections and what was your “aha” moment.

Robert Kennedy recently exposed the horrible statistics of the decline of overall health in the American population in his recent congressional hearings. This has been a passion of mine as for decades as well. The statistics are clear, we are the sickest country on the planet, and we spend the most on treating our ailing population.

Since WWII our farming has changed to industrial chemical-based farming, saturating our soils in pesticides, herbicides and fungicides, and using chemical fertilizers to replace only NPK (nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium). This has poisoned our farmlands killing the most precious resource on Earth, our soil. Soil should be alive teeming with life giving microorganisms, and full of a vast array of minerals and trace elements, that nourish plants providing them with all the nutrients they need. If that is done properly the plants are healthy and do not need all these chemical treatments, just like a healthy human with good terrain will ward off the vast majority of illnesses.

Just like Rome declined by using pewter drinking vessels poisoning the upper classes with lead, the American public is living in a cesspool of toxic chemicals and food devoid of much of its nutritional value. By the way, that is why so many of us are obese, our bodies are screaming for more nutrition, the processed foods we eat are not recognized by our bodies and hence we never feel full, which drives us to keep eating,

We have also replaced healthy fats with unnatural seed oils which are toxic for us, and if that wasn’t bad enough, most Americans eat highly processed packaged foods which are full of salt and sugar and chemicals and lacking in nutrition.

In addition to which, we are all being poisoned by both micro and nano plastics, and aluminum from deodorant, aluminum cans and vaccines to name but a few sources. In my not so humble opinion, the microplastics and nano plastics and aluminum alone without even taking into consideration all the other toxins, are the real existential threats to our survival, not climate change.

My epiphany on this came about from observing young patients in my practice, who are suffering with cancer, diabetes, obesity, to name a few of their problems, not to mention staggering rates of anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, ADD, ADHD. They also have astronomical rates of homosexuality, bisexuality, and every variation and combination you could think of.

Of course, there was always a low level of homosexuality in every generation, but how could this have changed so much in one generation, along with the health problems. People are very touchy about this, any observation from a public health perspective is met with scorn and derision, and consequently no one is asking the questions of how could this abrupt change have taken place in the span of one generation? Even more disturbing is the steady decline in sperm counts and fertility over the last twenty years, In my articles on Substack on both Microplastics and a second article on Aluminum toxicity I describe how both affect both the ovaries and the testicles, where they are deposited, changing forever the “terrain” of those organs, resulting in the decline of both sperm counts and fertility. I often feel like I am the lone voice in the wilderness screaming about these problems, but I will continue to provide my readers with all my insights as they develop.

7. Your approach to thyroid treatment focuses heavily on body temperature rather than just lab values. How did you develop this methodology, and what results have you seen with your patients?

As a Functional Medicine doctor, I approach things from a different perspective than mainstream docs. First of all, most doctors screen for possible hypothyroidism (slow thyroid) with a TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone) test alone. That approach misses the majority of thyroid diseases. I run an entire panel of thyroid tests including TSH, T4 free and total, T3 free and total, reverse T3 and antithyroid antibody levels.

In the past, doctors diagnosed hypothyroidism by body temperature, and it was accurate and worked very well. They would dose natural thyroid hormone usually from pigs, and raise it until their baseline body temperature was 98.6 F.

I do a variation on that where I use the lab tests to identify problems such as lack of conversion of inactive T4 to active T3, which affects over 10 percent of the population and is almost always missed if you don’t test for it. I check anti thyroid antibody levels to identify Hashimoto’s thyroiditis for example.

Once I diagnose a patient with hypothyroidism, I do not use Synthroid like most doctors, which stands for synthetic thyroid, and only contains only inactive T4. I use Armour and NP thyroid which are natural formulations that contain both T3 and T4.

Then from a Functional Medicine approach I provide my patients with iodine which is what the numbers mean on T3 and T4. T3 has three iodine atoms, T4 has 4. I use many forms of iodine but my favorite is kelp. Kelp is made from seaweed, is organic and also provides all the essential amino acids that your body needs to obtain from our food. Iodine is also essential in displacing bromine which is ubiquitous in our diets and foods and displaces iodine making inactive thyroid hormones.

I also give the mineral selenium which the enzymes that remove one of the iodine require to function, this ensures an adequate conversion of T4 to active T3.

Originally, when I was first in practice, I treated patients with natural thyroid hormones and made sure their thyroid hormone levels were within the accepted parameters of normal. The problem was, so many of these patients still were cold, tired, constipated, and continued lose hair, even with thyroid lab values completely within normal range. Mainstream medicine stops there, but I was frustrated by my patients suffering despite normal labs. This prompted me to try to use the “old ways” of titrating up the dose of natural thyroid hormones until their body temperature was in normal range, ignoring lab values. This has worked amazingly, patients are relieved that they have energy, are no longer freezing all the time, their constipation resolved, and their hair is growing back. As a doctor, those kinds of outcomes are very gratifying and reinforces why I originally went into medicine, and patients love it.

8. The role of the vagus nerve features prominently in your thiamine recommendations. What made you connect B1 deficiency to nervous system dysfunction, and how dramatic are the improvements you witnessed?

As I always like to do, first let me give your readers a little background on the vagus nerve, that will allow them to better understand my reasoning.

The vagus nerve is also known as the 10th cranial nerve. It is the largest of the cranial nerves and exits the skull and runs the length of the trunk of your body. That is the reason it is named vagus, which means wandering in Latin.

It is the only cranial nerve that connects to organs outside of the head. It is super important to the body since it is the only way the brain can get input from the body’s organs such as the lungs, heart, liver, gallbladder, spleen, pancreas, kidneys, and small and large intestine. This is also the only way the body can directly communicate with these organs.

The vagus nerve controls all the “automatic” (medically known as the autonomic) body functions that you don’t have to consciously think about, such as your heart rate, breathing rate, skin sensations, blood pressure, saliva production, and many more.

The Medical Underground noted that the symptoms of vagus nerve dysfunction (not working properly) are identical to the symptoms of thiamine deficiency. Knowing that along with the importance of the B vitamin family for nerve health, led me to the conclusion that perhaps I could treat vagal nerve dysfunction with B1 or thiamine. That of course led me to treating patients with vitamin B1 or thiamine to treat vagal nerve problems, and guess what, it took some time, but it worked very well.

I am not the first one to use B1 to treat vagal nerve dysfunction. To my surprise when I was writing an article on it, I did some research and found other Functional medicine doctors had come to the same conclusion!

The beautiful part is that B vitamins like thiamine along with vitamin C are water soluble, hence even large doses are eliminated in the urine helping to avoid any toxicity problems. The flip side of being water soluble is that your body has no way to store B vitamins and vitamin C, hence you need to get them from your diet or supplementation. However, there are types of B vitamins that are fat soluble such as allithiamine and Benfotiamine. Using fat soluble versions of thiamine circumvents the problem of storage and allows the body to build up stores of it, that can be drawn upon as needed. And lo and behold, the benfotiamine I use in patients with vagal dysfunction symptoms works very well. You just have to remember to take it with fat since it is fat soluble or it will go right through you without being absorbed!

I use benfotiamine primarily but also depending on the patient will use methylated B vitamins. The reason I use methylated B vitamins is that approximately 40 percent of the American population have a MTHFR mutation making standard B complex vitamins toxic for them. Treating patients with methylated B complex circumvents the MTHFR mutation problems which prevent methylation.

Using a Functional medicine approach, I utilize B vitamins in their various forms to treat many medical problems. Look at the following table of symptoms of vagus nerve inflammation and the second chart on the symptoms of B1 deficiency and you can see all the various symptoms that could improve with their supplementation.

9. You advocate strongly for iodine supplementation, especially during pregnancy, claiming it can increase children’s IQs by 20 points. Could you explain the basis for this remarkable assertion and why you believe it is not widely adopted?

All physicians are aware of what happens when there is an iodine deficiency in pregnancy, the newborn is deformed and severely retarded and are called cretins. They have a very short life expectancy and die after a few years. The reason for this is that every cell in our bodies needs iodine and has receptors for it. The brain and nervous system have a critical need for iodine, or they will not develop properly. That is an undisputed medical fact, however obstetricians inexplicably ignore this and do not recommend iodine supplementation during pregnancy, which I think is insane. Even young children need iodine for their brains to continue to grow and properly develop.

An American physician named Dr. Jorge Flechas has done remarkable work on iodine and its many health benefits, highlighting its use in pregnancy. He has been treating patients for decades with iodine during pregnancies, and his results are remarkable. He has demonstrated a 20-point jump in IQ in children from the same family. Across the board, these children born from mothers who supplemented with iodine have superior intellect and are remarkable children by any measure. He has very fascinating films that you can watch on YouTube outlining his research.

However, that begs the question, where are the obstetricians and pediatricians, and why are they not all over this recommending iodine to their patients? They have a ridiculous fear of iodine, thinking it will provoke thyroid problems such as thyroid storm. That is totally wrong, just take a look at the Japanese. The Japanese eat large amounts of seafood and seaweed, consequently their intake is about 25 mg a day, way higher than any iodine we prescribe. They have very intelligent children, and by the way iodine also prevents all types of cysts such as breast and ovarian cysts and prevents breast cancer. Japanese women have one of the lowest rates of breast cancer in the world. However, if the emigrate to the United States and begin to eat the Standard American Diet (appropriately abbreviated SAD), there breast cancer rates immediately mirror those of American women, proving there is no gene protecting them.

Like almost all Functional Medicine treatments, there are no adverse side effects, and only additional benefits to iodine supplementation. You can take iodine in various forms, my personal favorite for my patients is kelp. Kelp is organic seaweed and is loaded with other minerals and trace elements besides hefty amounts of iodine. Kelp has the additional benefit of providing all the” essential” amino acids that our bodies need. Essential amino acids are ones that cannot be made in the body and must be obtained from diet. So, as you can see for a pregnant woman this is a real win-win providing so many minerals, trace elements, essential amino acids and iodine, all of which they need in abundance for the developing fetus in their wombs. This is why I strongly recommend kelp supplementation for all my pregnant patients as well as those suffering with hypothyroidism, breast and ovarian cysts.

10. You frequently reference “reverse engineering” biological processes to understand optimal nutrition. Can you walk me through how you apply this thinking to a specific health problem?

Reverse engineering is at the heart of how Functional medicine works. What reverse engineering means is you deconstruct how a organ or system in the body works, looking at its functional components and what they need to optimally function. Then once you know what the organ or system needs, you provide all the necessary nutrients.

A great example is how I approach Alzheimer’s disease. I first look at what a normal brain needs and the different systems it uses to function properly.

Alzheimer’s disease is now referred to as type 3 diabetes. The reason for this is that it is caused by insulin resistance in the neurons of cells of the brain. Insulin is responsible for driving glucose the primary energy source of the brain, into neurons. When there is Alzheimer’s or type 3 diabetes, not enough glucose is entering the brain, hence there is a great deficit of energy for the neurons.

This lack of energy in the brain results in poorly formed proteins which are misshapen. The shape of proteins determines their function, hence misshapen proteins are useless to the cell and begin to accumulate within the cell, eventually making it function poorly and ultimately die. These mishappen proteins are amyloid and tau proteins. Both of which are found in the neurons of Alzheimer patients, eventually forming amyloid plaques and tau tangles which are key pathological features of Alzheimer’s disease.

Hence, Alzheimer’s disease is a disease is primarily caused by a lack of energy in the brain to perform its normal function. As the energy deficit worsens the patient worsens until they are finally catatonic, stop eating and die.

There is a second back up system in the brain that uses medium chain triglycerides instead of glucose as a back up system for energy production. Knowing that, I exploit that secondary system and give my Alzheimer patients medium chain triglyceride supplements to treat their early Alzheimer’s. The reason I say early is because if the disease is too advanced, there will be too many amyloid plaques and tau tangles, and the neurons will be too far gone to help.

I also prescribe methylated B complex, which as I explained earlier is the best form of B vitamins, which are essential for brain health. I also utilize krill oil, which I prefer to fish oil because it is superior in crossing the blood brain barrier and entering the brain. Krill oil also contains astaxanthin (which is why it is red), which is a very potent antioxidant, also protecting brain cells from oxidation and aging. In addition I give magnesium which helps brain health, it is also essential for the functioning of over 300 different enzymes in the body. Once again, demonstrating the wonderful ancillary benefits of Functional medicine treatments.

The last treatment I give for my Alzheimer patients is Fiji water. Fiji water has the highest silicone content in the world of most bottled waters. Silicon is important because it helps bind up aluminum and excrete it from the body. Studies on Alzheimer patients showed great increases in their cognitive abilities after three months of drinking a liter and a half of Fiji water daily. Once again , it has nothing but added benefits from providing adequate hydration as well as many minerals and trace elements in this delicious water.

In short, that is how using reverse engineering I treat my Alzheimer patients.

11. The concept of leaky gut syndrome appears across multiple articles as a root cause of autoimmune diseases. How do you explain this connection to patients and what’s your treatment protocol?

Why I love Functional Medicine is that the first step in any treatment involves analyzing how the body normally functions. Once we know what a specific organ needs to function then we go about recreating the exact conditions required.

One of my favorite conditions to cure is Leaky Gut Syndrome. Leaky gut occurs when the single cell lining of the large and small intestines is damaged. Normally, this single layer of cells called enterocytes has a large brush border on its surface that looks like a shag rug. On top of that lies a layer of probiotic bacteria, which predigests food and allows the broken-down fat, protein and carbohydrates to be easily absorbed by the microvilli of the brush border, where it enters the blood stream and goes to the liver for processing.

The single layer of enterocytes lining the gut fit together and are glued by proteins very tightly, in fact they are termed tight junctions. When those junctions are damaged spaces open between the enterocytes and undigested large portions of proteins, fats, enter directly into the bloodstream triggering all kinds of adverse reactions. Leaky Gut Syndrome is the cause of so many adult-onset food and environmental allergies as well as many autoimmune diseases. The reason is that these large proteins or peptides entering the blood often are similar to the body’s naturally produced proteins. If it is similar to thyroid proteins then your body sees it as foreign and will attack your thyroid, giving you Hashimoto’s thyroiditis. If it is similar to joints you will get inflammatory arthritis symptoms, rheumatoid arthritis and fibromyalgia like pain etc.

So, what I do is first of all heal the enterocytes, and I do this by recreating a very healthy environment. The first thing is to repair the damaged bacterial colonies of the microbiome; I do this by high doses of probiotics and prebiotics (so they have something to eat).

The second step is to look at what the enterocytes need. Interestingly, unlike other cells in the body, they do not require glucose. The small intestine enterocytes need the amino acid L-glutamine and the large intestine enterocytes need fatty acids, usually medium chain triglycerides, and short chain fatty acids. I start those patients immediately on L-glutamine powder supplements along with MCT (medium chain triglycerides) in the form of either supplements or organic coconut oil. I have mentioned this to GI specialists who look at me in astonishment apparently never have made the connection between the unique needs of the enterocytes lining both the small and large intestines and GI diseases like leaky gut.

I also give mixed collagen powder and vitamin C. The reason being that collagen is the most abundant structural protein in the body, and all tissues need it to rebuild themselves. Collagen in turn needs vitamin C to activate it, or it will not work.

The last thing I give for Leaky Gut is colostrum. Colostrum is the “first milk” of mammals, in this case cows. Colostrum protects the newborn from many GI diseases that result in severe diarrhea, dehydration and death and is chock full of nutrients, probiotic bacteria, antioxidants and antibodies. Colostrum is liquid gold and very helpful for GI diseases with nothing but beneficial side effects.

My treatment protocol does not work over night, it takes about six months to heal the intestinal lining and cure leaky gut and in turn all of its consequences.

Once again, all the treatments I use have minimal if any side effects, other than collateral benefits for your health, thus are radically different than synthetic pharmaceuticals pushed by Big Pharma and mainstream medical doctors, which have many adverse side effects resulting in unintentional harm to the patient.

12. Your nitric oxide article highlights multiple pathways for its production that most people never consider. What simple changes can readers make to optimize their nitric oxide levels?

One of my goals in writing my books as well as my Medical Underground Substack is to empower my readers with a variety of ways to treat their medical problems. Each week I take a deep dive into a certain topic. A few months ago I wrote a very popular article on Nitric Oxide, that was very well received.

How important is nitric oxide you ask, good question. Nitric oxide is so important that in 1992 it was proclaimed to be the “Molecule of the Year”. Not to be outdone, in 1998, a Nobel Prize was awarded for discovering the role of nitric oxide as a cardiovascular signaling molecule!

Nitric oxide (NO) is critical for health in general, including brain health and cardiovascular health in particular.

NO is made in the lining of the blood vessels known as the endothelium. It is synthesized from the amino acid L-arginine, oxygen, and NADPH, by a family of enzymes cleverly named endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS).

There is also another set of these nitric oxide synthase proteins in the brain, where it is known as nNOS, or neuronal nitric oxide synthase. There, nitric oxide acts like a neurotransmitter, helping memory and learning.

Nitric oxide is lipophilic allowing it to readily cross cell membranes which are made of layers of fat and protein, thus entering target cells easily. NO has a very short life, once released it only lasts a few seconds. However, since it is a signaling molecule, that’s all it needs. It just sends a signal, and the process begins in the target organ. That is why its short lifespan doesn’t matter, a cascade of activity is triggered by the NO.

There are some cool ways to hack its production. One of my favorites is thoroughly chewing dark green leafy veggies. Here is why that works:

Masticating (chewing) food like your dark green leafy vegetables is very important. Chewing breaks down the food into small pieces thus greatly increasing the surface area that comes in contact with the good bacteria in your mouth which will convert the nitrogen they contain to nitrates. So, giving that contact in your mouth a little time, will allow the bacteria to work its wonders. So, chew your greens slowly and thoroughly!

However, that is only the first step, those nitrates mixed in with saliva and food must go to the stomach and be soaked in strong stomach acids in order for the chemical conversion of nitrates into nitrites which in turn can easily be converted into nitric oxide. This second step is essential, otherwise no nitric acid will be made. That is why if you are on drugs that inhibit stomach acid production, the lack of acid will prevent secondary pathways for NO production. Antibiotics and fluoride destroy the healthy bacteria in your mouth also preventing NO production.
This secondary pathway for NO production is present in every mammal. That alone is a very strong hint that NO is so essential for all the organs in the body to properly function. Nature frequently uses a handful of certain molecules over and over in different species, due to their utility (usefulness).

Another interesting parallel is the connection between oral/dental disease and overall health. I am fond of telling patients that, “No one with bad teeth is in good health”.

One cool hack exploits NO production by the mucus lining of the nose and sinuses. The body produces NO that acts to dilate and protect the sinus and nasal passages, also since NO is gaseous, it gets inhaled into the lung where it helps dilate the blood vessels in the alveoli allowing them to function better.

The second hack to raise NO levels is by breathing through your nose, if you breathe through your mouth, it will not produce any. Humming also causes vibrations in the nose and sinuses stimulating them to increase their NO production!

Another hack is eating foods high in citrulline that will stimulate NO production.

Regular physical activity is another effective way to boost nitric oxide levels. Exercise promotes the production of nitric oxide synthase, an enzyme responsible for generating nitric oxide. Engaging in activities such as aerobic exercises, weightlifting, and even yoga can contribute to maintaining optimal nitric oxide levels.

I decided to take a self-portrait and post it so you all can see how the nitric oxide has helped sculpture my physique. Only kidding, I exaggerated, I am not that tan, LOL.

As you can see there are many ways to hack your NO production, pick what works best for you and your lifestyle and enjoy its numerous health benefits.

13. You repeatedly link human health to soil health, calling it your “dirty little secret.” For someone starting a medicinal garden, what’s the very first step to building healthy mineral-rich soil?

I have preached for years in all my books, the critical importance of growing food organically in healthy soils. It is very easy to supplement your garden or raised beds with minerals, trace elements, mycorrhizal fungi, compost, and manure. Plants don’t need any chemicals sprayed on them. I practice what I preach, my wife and I have an organic farm in Connecticut, which is also a horse farm. Consequently, we have mountains of organic compost made from horse manure, urine, shavings and hay. After about three years it is black gold, chock full of nutrients, earthworms and microbial life. Putting it on my orchards supercharges growth and produces healthy fruit, nuts, and berries that are also delicious.

Food grown in such soil is full of organic compounds that are so beneficial for humans. One of the most potent is Fulvic acid. Fulvic acid acts to open cells to allow life sustaining nutrients, minerals and trace elements to easily enter. Production of Fulvic and Humic acids require a healthy soil microbial population. Use of harsh chemical pesticides, herbicides and fungicides as well as chemical fertilizers destroys these essential soil life forms. Here is a list of some of the amazing benefits of fulvic acid that you can only get by growing food in organic soil.

The beautiful part of using organic gardening methods is not only the many health benefits, but the outstanding taste of your vegetables and fruit and other plants. Who doesn’t love delicious fresh fruit. I was outside today on my tractor, and I stopped by one of my favorite fruit trees and gorged myself on three large peaches, warm from the sun and exploding with flavor, with juice running down my face and dripping off my chin, damn was that good!

If you are starting a garden, you should immediately look to improving the soil. Every soil I have ever come across my entire life could use improvement of its organic content, minerals, trace elements and microbial life forms. Start with adding composted manure and work it into the soil, this will provide both microbial life, earthworms, and lots of organic material. I like to use a product called Azomite, to improve mineral and trace element content which is essential for all plant life. Azomite stands for minerals from A to Z, minerals and trace elements. It has all the minerals and trace elements your plants will need. Avoiding the use of any chemicals on your soil will ensure that the microbial life is not eradicated, so organic gardening is the way to go. The plants grown will be loaded with all the minerals, trace elements and will be full of vitamins and other phytonutrients like chlorophyl, polyphenols and many others, all beneficial for your health.

14. You’ve been practicing medicine for decades and mention studying the human body for fifty years. How has your perspective on health and disease evolved over time?

As corny as it sounds, I absolutely love being a physician. I am 71 and I am mobbed in my office, if that wasn’t keeping me busy enough, I am also the medical director for an 88-bed nursing home, which is like running a hospital, I have my writing, I usually churn out a very in depth article on Substack weekly and I have the farm. Trust me, I am as busy as you could possibly be, but I still go to work daily because I am still as fascinated by the human body and disease as I was as a medical student.

Human health is an amazingly complex subject, that is why most physicians specialize, it is much easier to master one particular aspect of medicine. It also pays much better than primary care, LOL. One of my closest friends in the world is a cardiologist and I constantly refer to him as a “One Organ Doctor”. It works to irritate him every time, which gives me great amusement. But there is truth to that since general internists like me, must know everything that could possibly go wrong with the body, and the mind. We do not have the luxury of saying “that is not my area of expertise”, anything can walk through my office door and has.

With the current avalanche of new medical discoveries, and medications, keeping totally abreast on everything is impossible. Consequently, I look upon it as a challenge, and I continue to read constantly. My wife loves to kid me when I am sitting there reading some medical book as I underline important points and write comments on the top and bottom of each page, she calls it my “casual reading”.

As a result of all my reading, my perspective on human health and disease is constantly evolving, adding information and treatments as I go along. It is very rewarding to hear from patients that I have cured, and it is something I never tire of.

One way my perspective has changed is my awareness of the horrible effects of the typical American diet, laden with chemicals, and highly processed, removing so many nutrients, leaving dead foods that never satisfy our hunger.

The current avalanche of new alternative treatments and their ubiquitous availability via Amazon and the internet, has also widely impacted my practice in a good way. It has opened so many treatment options that I can show to patients right on their cell phones.

Over the last forty years I have managed to remain in solo practice, not owned by any corporate entities, which fits well with my strong independent streak. I still want to be able to hug my patients who are crying, and kiss old ladies on the forehead, staying off any laptop listening and thoroughly examining patients, which sadly has died among so many of my colleagues. Patients universally complain that the specialists I have referred them to never looked up from their computers and didn’t examine them at all. That is mind blowing for me, an old-time country doctor. I think it is a horrible change in medicine for both the patients and the doctors. That is my humble opinion.

My perspectives on health and disease have evolved with my continued education over the years. Basically, it has reinforced my belief in the Functional medicine approach that has come to dominate my medical thinking. It is so pure, so basic, so simple and so amazingly effective that its use has constantly reinforced my belief that I have chosen the right path for my medical career.

15. What are you currently most focused on in your practice and research? How can readers stay connected with your work and access “The Medical Underground” for ongoing health insights?

What I am most focused on currently in my practice and research is a very difficult question. My interests are all over the place, and constantly change depending upon something I have recently read or something that has occurred to me while pondering a medical mystery from one of my patients. That is reflected in the various subject matter I write about. The Medical Underground is first and foremost a medium where I can write about the latest and greatest alternative/orthomolecular/functional medicine treatments that can help my readers and their families.

HOW TO FOLLOW MY WRITINGS:

My Substack articles are free and available by going to medicalunderground.Substack.com. Of course, I would prefer if you became a paid member, LOL.

My three books are available on Amazon and other book sellers they are;

The Doomsday Book of Medicine

The Bible of Alternative Medicine

Infected: Secrets from the Medical Underground.

You can google my name and find various podcasts that I have also done on YouTube.

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