Patrick Holford: Simple Wisdom for a Healthy Life

Professor Thomas Seyfried is renowned in the field of cancer for helping keep people with aggressive cancers stay alive by following his science-based protocols. How? That’s what we will find out. Thomas Seyfried is Professor of Biology at Boston College and received his PhD in Genetics and Biochemistry from the University of Illinois back in 1976 when genetics was in its infancy. He was Assistant Professor in the Department of Neurology at Yale University School of Medicine. He has received Lifetime Achievement Awards from the Academy of Complimentary and Integrative Medicine among others and the Uncompromising Science Award from the American College of Nutrition for his work on cancer. Tom has over 200 peer-reviewed publications to his name and is author of the book, Cancer as a Metabolic Disease: On the Origin, Management, and Prevention of Cancer. You can read more about cancer and my ketogenic/low carb Hybrid diet on my website. 

In this podcast I interview two pioneers in making food healthy, from the soil up. Bob Quinn is a botanist with a PhD in plant biochemistry, who helped convert thousands of acres across Montana to growing ancient grains (Kamut) organically. He was the first in Montana to mill whole grain, organic flour starting in 1986.  By 1991 he had certified his entire 3 generation family wheat and cattle ranch as organic.  He continues to experiment to improve regenerative organic systems and find better ways to grow dry land vegetables, fruit trees and berries in Montana, not only rebuilding the soil, but also the farming community for the benefit of health for all. Tim Parton is a Farm Manager in South Staffordshire in the UK. Tim farms in a biological way maximizing the value of nutrition to get the best out of the crops. He does not use insecticides, seed treatments, growth regulators or fungicides, as when the plant is balanced the need for synthetic inputs drops away. Tim has won many awards including Soil Farmer of the Year 2017, Arable Innovator of the Year 2019, Sustainable Farmer of the Year 2019 and Innovation Farmer of the Year 2020. Together, we’ll explore the journey between the soil and your health and why soil degeneration, and modern farming practices are partly responsible for declining mental and physical health. We will also explore the fundamental principles of regenerative farming and gardening. See more information on my website and nutrition and the environment. Find more about my rap Fight the Flour.     

In this podcast I’m talking to Dr William Grant, regarding the recent study showing that those who supplement vitamin D have much less risk for Alzheimer’s and dementia. He knows more about vitamin D and the effects of sunlight than anyone I know. He’s not a medical doctor but a  PhD - in physics with an entire career at NASA. After retiring from NASA, he formed the non-profit organisation, "Sunlight, Nutrition and Health Research Center” in San Francisco to continue his work on the roles of diet and UVB/ vitamin D in reducing risk of chronic and infectious diseases. He published a review of the role of vitamin D in risk of dementia in 2009 followed by several additional publications on vitamin D and Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. He has 284 publications regarding vitamin D listed at pubmed.gov. You can read more about Alzheimer's and Dementia on my website.  

Do you even need them? Is a lack of anti-depressants really the cause of our suffering and are they causing their own suffering in withdrawal? One in two who try to come off them have significant withdrawal symptoms, half of which are classified as severe. I interview John Read who is Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of East London. He has published several research papers on anti-depressant medication.  John is Chair of the International Institute for Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal.  We will also meet Luke Montagu, who became dependent on antidepressants and sleeping pills, had a horrific withdrawal and successfully sued his doctor.  He then set up the Council for Evidence-based Psychiatry to campaign for change and provide support to others. I’ll also be speaking with psychiatrist Dr Hyla Cass MD, previously Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, UCLA School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles and author of several books: Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) , on how she helps people get off anti-depressants using an optimum nutrition approach. Her book Supplement Your Prescription was the first to show how prescribed psychiatric drugs deplete nutrients and how to correct this. For more information about the connection between nutrition and depression visit the Depression and Mood topic section on my website.  

Both the UK and US report record-breaking excess deaths mainly from cardiovascular disease. Why? Is this a covid infection or lockdown knock on effect? Should we be concerned about repeated mRNA vaccines? Is it the consequence of health service overload? Are statins the answer, as UK government proposes? What’s going on and what can you do to reduce your risk? I invite back Dr Tess Lawrie from the World Council for Health to enlighten us on all things covid-related and Dr Malcolm Kendrick, expert in all things cardiovascular and cholesterol related, to explore these topics with you and point the way forward. Dr Malcolm Kendrick, a GP who lives and works for the NHS in Cheshire, is author of The Clot Thickens and The Great Cholesterol Con. Dr Tess Lawrie is the Director of the Evidence-Based Medicine Consultancy Ltd, author of over 80 published research papers and is committed to improving the quality of healthcare globally through rigorous research as a founder member of the World Council for Health. See my website for further information on Heart Health.

Healthcare is broken. Both costs and disease rates are rising. The NHS in the UK is the fastest growing failing business. Who is driving the health agenda? Why is prevention ignored and natural medicine under accelerating attack? Are we the losers and big Pharma the winners? In this podcast I explore this subject with Dr Rob Verkerk, founder of the Alliance for Natural Health who has directed legal actions to protect the right to natural health across a wide range of issues from vaccines to vitamins. As scientific director, he’s authored some 60 papers and knows the inside politics of the health agenda and what needs to be done to not only protect our rights but also fix healthcare. Visit my website to find out more about prevention and government health legislation.

Patrick Holford in conversation with Dr David Perlmutter. My guest this month is Dr David Perlmutter - a legend in the field of nutritional medicine. He is a Board-Certified Neurologist and serves on the Board of Directors and is a Fellow of the American College of Nutrition.  He is six-time New York Times bestselling author. In fact, you may have read one of his books including Grain Brain or perhaps Brain Maker. I’m here to talk with him about his latest book – 'Drop Acid'. Not LSD, but uric acid. We discuss its pivotal role in your health and the metabolic diseases that are devastating humanity, and why we should all become aware of our uric acid level, and why and how to lower it. Read more about uric acid in relation to gout in Goodbye to Gout and more about the Low GL Diet and Healthy Eating on my website.  

There’s a massive increase in both the number of children and adults with allergic-like reactions to foods and chemicals and the severity of these reactions, as well as auto-immune disease, where the immune system, which should be our friend, starts attacking, not only foods and chemicals but our body. Many people are cruising out of covid or vaccination highly compromised, with such auto-immune issues. What is going on? In this podcast I interview Antony Haynes, author of the award-winning Food Intolerance Bible, a pioneer in functional medicine and leading expert in auto-immune disease with 30 years’ experience. Therefore, one of the most common approaches he recommends to his clients involves, not just avoidance, but support for mucosal immunity & integrity, in order to improve oral tolerance. Join us at the cutting edge of science and successful resolution of immune system break downs to learn how to turn to your immune system into your friend, not your foe. See the Immunity and Auto-Immune Disease topic area on my website for more information on immune health.  

Has the covid pandemic left you feeling depressed and unmotivated? My favourite psychiatrist, known for her expertise in non-pharmaceutical approaches to depression and mental illness, is Dr Hyla Cass. I had the pleasure of co-authoring a book with her - Natural Highs, in 2001. At that time Dr Cass was an assistant clinical professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. She is a highly acclaimed innovator and expert in the fields of integrative medicine, psychiatry, and addiction recovery, including withdrawal from anti-depressant medication. She is also an expert in CBD and its effects on mood, sleep and anxiety. In this podcast we look under the hood of psychiatry to come up with the best ways up from feeling down. For further information about natural support for mental health see The Feel Good Factor and www.patrickholford.com/topic/mental-health/

Are you confused about the microbiome? Are you unsure what all the new research you keep reading about actually means and what you’re meant to do as a result? Ben Brown, Director of the Nutritional Medicine Institute (NMI), an educational, advocacy and research group committed to advancing the science and practice of nutritional medicine, unravels what’s being discovered about the microbiome and how that changes what we should do for optimal health. While definitely ‘trending’ we’ll also explore points of contention, the validity of microbiome tests as well as the politics and money behind this new frontier. To find out more about the importance of good digestion, visit my website: https://www.patrickholford.com/topic/digestive-health/