Going UNDOCTORED

I first heard about UNDOCTORED (#CommissionEarned) in early January 2019 I was out grocery shopping at our local ALDI, when I ran into a high school classmate, and my former primary care physician, Dr. David Strobel.

David is currently practicing in a clinic that serves the Pipefitters union, and he said he was seeing lots of benefits for his patients in encouraging them to follow these prevention-oriented practices.

Dr. William Davis, the book’s author, is an interventional cardiologist. After having performed more than 5,000 cath lab procedures, he was jarred by the loss of his mother to sudden cardiac death into taking a fresh look at what he believed about heart health.

The first book that came out of his investigation was the New York Times bestseller Wheat Belly, which advocated a grain-free diet and launched the grain-free movement. I hadn’t heard of that, but given my celiac disease and the need to avoid wheat, barley and rye because of gluten, I was already partway to the grain-free lifestyle.

That, along with my friend David’s vote of confidence, led me to seriously explore the recommendations in UNDOCTORED. Dr. Davis’ point is that many of our diseases of civilization have common roots and can be prevented or in many cases reversed through diet and lifestyle changes.

While he has a somewhat jaded view of the medical industry, Dr. Davis doesn’t believe prevention is the solution to everything. He just believes, and has validated to some extent through his online community, that many conditions can be significantly improved through these upstream interventions.

Highlights of his recommendations:

  • Avoid all grains, not just those that contain gluten. He argues that eating the seeds of grasses is a relatively recent innovation, and our bodies are not genetically adapted to process them.
  • “Don’t buy lean cuts of meat; buy the fatty cuts. If you eat a steak, eat the fat.”
  • Count your blessings, not your calories. Eat until you’re satisfied.
  • Don’t drink cow’s milk. No other mammal drinks the milk of another mammal.
  • Eat “wild, naked and unwashed.” Food should be as close as possible to its natural state, not excessively processed.
  • Cultivate your bowel flora through probiotics and consumption of prebiotic fibers.
  • Don’t take multivitamins. Instead, focus your supplementation on a handful of vitamins and minerals that are seriously deficient for most modern humans.

The last section of UNDOCTORED makes recommendations on those supplements Dr. Davis says are helpful:

  • Vitamin D
  • Iodine
  • Fish Oil capsules high in EPA + DHA
  • Magnesium
  • Zinc

This is a 400-page book, and I’ve only touched some of the broadest points. If you want to check it out further before diving into the book, see Dr. Davis’ blog.

Lisa and I have been implementing most of the recommendations for about 18 months. She has noticed that the Magnesium seems to help her restless legs and has enabled her to sleep better, and I believe the Zinc has contributed to substantial improvement in some skin problems I had experienced.

Given the research about the role of Vitamin D in fighting COVID-19, we’re especially glad we’re doing that supplementation.

In a future post I will share more on the probiotics angle, including some homemade yogurt I have been making for more than a year at Dr. Davis’ recommendation.

Have you read either Wheat Belly or UNDOCTORED? If you have adopted these recommendations, what has your experience been?

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