Nutritional medicine is a cornerstone of holistic medicine. It involves the use of a diet of healthy foods matched to patients' biochemical individuality, along with the proper and correct use of nutrient supplements to help maintain optimal physical and psychological health. Holistic physicians have long emphasized the importance of healthy eating and nutritional supplementation in relationship to overall health, and addressing their patients' dietary and nutrient status plays an integral part in their treatment of disease, both preventively and therapeutically.

The importance of proper diet and overall nutrition is often overlooked by conventional physicians, however, who receive very little education about nutrition during their medical training. "The principle that what you eat has a major influence on your health is so simple and logical that it is surprising that the medical profession has had such a difficult time grasping it," says Alan Gaby, M.D., past president of the American Holistic Medical Association, and a leading authority on nutritional medicine.

"Unfortunately today, the average doctor, despite having taken the Hippocratic oath, still rejects Hippocrates' famous dictum, 'Let your food be your medicine and let your medicine be your food,' even though research continues to show that degenerative diseases are caused, at least in part, by our modern diet."

Like all holistic physicians, Dr. Gaby routinely advises his patients to adopt a healthier diet, regardless of their medical complaints. He instructs his patients to avoid "junk foods" and to increase their consumption of whole grains, fresh fruits and vegetables, nuts, seeds, beans, and other unprocessed foods. "The majority of my patients who follow this advice find that their health improves in some way," Dr. Gaby reports. "They experience increased energy, improved sleep, better bowel and bladder function, and find they are more alert and productive. They also suffer from fewer headaches, anxiety, depression, and fluid retention, and find that their joints don't hurt as much. In many cases, this is confirmed by laboratory tests, which show improvement in such areas as their serum cholesterol, triglycerides, liver enzymes, and uric acid levels."

While a shift to a healthier diet can improve health in and of itself, in many cases nutritional supplementation is also needed, due to a variety of factors, such as environmental pollutants, the stresses of daily life, and modern farming and food packaging methods which further deplete the nutrient content of our foods. For this reason, holistic physicians focus on both improving their patients' diets and devising a nutritional supplementation program to meet their specific nutrient needs, as determined by a variety of testing methods. The primary supplements used by holistic physicians are vitamins, minerals, amino acids, and essential fatty acids.

Nutritional Fast Facts

History of Nutritional Medicine

Guidelines for Healthy Eating

How Nutritional Medicine Works

Vitamins

Minerals

Conditions That Benefit From Nutritional Medicine

Guidelines for Using Nutritional Medicine