Early in my career, I bought into what I was taught in medical school. I remember telling my mother-in-law, Shirley, that all her vitamins were doing nothing but giving her expensive urine.

At that time, Shirley was reading books by Adelle Davis and other holistically minded healthcare professionals. She repeatedly tried to get me to read them, but I wasn’t interested.

The turning point came when I decided to try treating my father — who had a 25-year history of heart disease — with natural, bioidentical testosterone and natural thyroid hormone. In a short time, his heart disease disappeared.

After seeing the changes in my father, I remember thinking: “I wonder what other natural therapies are out there.”

That began a quest to re-study biochemistry and search for safe and effective natural therapies that treat the underlying causes — not just the symptoms — of illness.

I started by checking my father’s nutrient status. I found he was severely deficient in many essential nutrients, including vitamins B1, C, and D. Each of these deficiencies is associated with heart disease.

I had been taught that vitamin deficiencies only father didn’t appear to be malnourished. In fact, he was obese.

What I didn’t realize — what I had never been taught in medical school — was that obese people can be malnourished. In fact, many obese people are so malnourished that their bodies fight back by storing fat to survive the hard times that seem to be occurring.

Many obese patients, my father included, have a much easier time losing weight once they correct their nutrient imbalances.