I get this question asked of me on a regular basis and it is a good question. The presumption is that our doctors are exposed to and evaluate all treatment options when confronted with a health concern. The conclusion is that if they are unfamiliar with a remedy, supplement, or course of treatment then it can’t be that good or effective. The premise of this assumption is logical, but misguided. I say that it is misguided because we have this unrealistic notion that our doctors know much more than they actually know.

There are two main reasons for this gap in knowledge amongst doctors when it comes to natural treatments. The first is that the lion’s share of information every doctor gets is supplied by the pharmaceutical industry or by journals strongly influenced by this industry. The pharmaceutical industry has a vested interest in not providing information to doctors about the benefits of supplements. People taking more supplements equates to people taking less prescription medications.

The second reason is that doctors are too busy. They simply have no time to set aside to research natural treatments. So, what is pounded in their heads is anything negative about natural supplements and that supplement use is not supported by good studies (many times this is not true). When they hear about a good result from a patient they simply say something like, “Well, it looks like what you did helped so keep it up.” The problem is that they leave it at that. There is no further investigation as to how they might be able to incorporate what was successful for this patient to other patients with similar problems.

Here is a real-life example from one of my patients that illustrates my point. I had a patient who had problems with high liver enzymes and cholesterol. I implemented a liver detoxification along with a couple of other supplements and in 6 weeks she had her blood taken. All of her numbers had returned to normal. She told her doctor what she had done and the response was similar to that above. I told the patient to have her doctor call me so I could explain the logic behind my therapy. I never got a call. In fact, I have NEVER gotten a call even though we have had sometimes miraculous changes in patient’s health.

I ask you to think about how the exposure to something good regarding supplements impacted this doctor’s level of knowledge. It didn’t. They simply moved on to their next patient and gained no lasting knowledge from the exposure to the benefits of using that supplement. This is how a supplement can be so good without your doctor’s knowledge.