Throughout my 20+ years of practice one of the most frustrating complaints I hear from new patients is the lack of a proper diagnosis. For most, they have spent years going from one doctor to another, sometimes trying both conventional and alternative methods, to no avail. They come to the clinic sad, angry, frustrated and bitter at the medical community and have little hope remaining. This is the common attitude I am faced with each day.

I certainly do understand how they feel and I can empathize with them. My dad tried for years to get a diagnose for his chronic pulmonary issues. He was diagnosed with congestive heart failure, bronchitis, etc. In the end, he passed away from simple pneumonia due to a string of doctors not taking the time to figure out what was happening inside his body.

A survey was done in the United States by the AMA on how long can a doctor spend with their patients before they begin to lose money. The results were shocking. The national average was 6 minutes. Many reasons were given. Some complained of too many patients in a day. Many doctors will see up to 30 or more patients a day. Proper attention to patients with this schedule is pretty much unattainable. I have made it a point to spend no less than 30 minutes with each one.

Yes, this causes me to see less patients in the day, but each in turn gets a higher quality of attention and I am better able to do a proper intake and discuss their issues. Other reasons were also given. Another example was the cost of our overhead as a doctor. I have found this can also be misleading. I have the same insurance as most doctors in California and I actually have a higher overhead as we are not just a private practice with an office and a receptionist but a full clinic. And yet, I can still spend the time with each patient as needed. The reason for this is sometimes as simple as the overhead of the doctor’s lifestyle itself.

So, it is not unusual to find patients coming into the clinic stating their other doctors simply did not take the time to properly diagnosis their problems. What is also lacking is a proper application of diagnostic procedures. In medical school you learn about a variety of medical procedures and protocols commonly used to diagnosis a patient's presenting complaints. We learn about doing a proper intake when the patient first arrives at the clinic. We do vitals, urinalysis, blood work, scans, etc. All of these are fine and I do take advantage of each of these valuable tools. What is often missing is the education required to investigate the root cause.

Part of the medical code of ethics behind Naturopathic Medicine is to get to the root cause of the condition, not to simply treat the symptoms, This is one of the great powers of the Naturopathic profession, if properly applied. Unfortunately, even in the Naturopathic community, more and more of them are forgetting their lessons in chronic illness diagnosis and are finding it more profitable to simply treat the symptoms. I have also had occasions where an M.D. would come up to me when I was working in their hospitals and would complain about the lack of education they had received in medical school for diagnosing the root cause of chronic diseases. Some of them even went back to school years later to start their certification in Naturopathic Medicine. It is definitely a good start.

Again, after so many years of practice what have I discovered about the root causes among so many patients today in western civilization? In this, I have discovered the accuracy of the old adage, “Life is very simple, it is ourselves who complicate it”.

And, there is good news. Enter, the root cause of most conditions … candida, parasites and heavy metal toxicity.

Within this book I will cover each of these topics in detail, describing what they are, the causes, how to diagnose, conditions caused by them, convectional treatments and how to successfully treat holistically.