THERAPEUTIC NUTRITION
Nature's Answer to Drugs
Review by Irene Alleger

Dr. Atkins' Vita-Nutrient Solution by Robert C. Atkins, MD Simon & Schuster, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 1998, Hardcover, $24 US, $33.50 Canada, 407 pp.

Hardly a week goes by these days without an announcement in the media of an exciting new drug "breakthrough." For cancer, AIDS, arthritis, Alzheimer's, etc. there is a steady flow of new drugs coming out of the labs - all "promising." Then silence... until months later come reports of serious side effects and even deaths. Some of the drugs are pulled from the marketplace, but the one thing we never hear is how many patients are getting well with these "silver bullets" - what are the actual outcomes?

If you want to hear success stories of patients actually getting well, you have to go to a different source, one like Dr. Atkins' Vita-Nutrient Solution. A leader in integrative medicine for over 30 years, Dr. Atkins, who specialized in cardiology and internal medicine, has a large and successful practice in Manhattan, and has authored several best-selling books, notably his "New Diet Revolution." He is one of the few prominent mainstream physicians who has championed the use of vitamins and nutrients for many years and has collected a substantial amount of clinical evidence which he presents in a very readable text.

Atkins' passionate enthusiasm for nutritional medicine is apparent on every page. He states unabashedly: "The great majority of patients I see... had been told by well-trained specialists that nothing else - besides drugs - could help them. Don't believe anyone who tells you that... Beyond these narrow confines... is a universe of scientifically validated treatments - vitamins, minerals, fatty acids, amino acids, enzymes, and other biochemical substances that exist naturally in our bodies or diet which the medical establishment chooses not to recognize."

He believes that vita-nutrients should not be just a "supporting actor" but the treatment of choice. The introductory chapters of his book give the reader an understanding of how our changed diet (processing, refining, sugar, additives, chemical farming, etc.) sets the stage for degenerative disease. He cites the plethora of recent research, as well, that established the scientific basis of nutritional medicine. This information is in many new books now but what stands out in Atkins' book is the way he follows the logic (or lack thereof) i.e. we maintain our body with the food we put into it, and if the food has been denatured by chemical farming and processing, then our bodies can't get the essential building blocks needed to maintain health, and we succumb to illness. One of my pet peeves is the way mainstream medicine ignores the most basic biological facts. Tissues heal with nutrients, not drugs.

Atkins' book covers every aspect of vita-nutrient medicine: two to five pages each on all the vitamins, minerals, amino and fatty acids, with relevant research cited, insightful clinical comments, and specific recommendations. In "Vita-Nutrients with Unique Roles" Atkins covers important nutrients with specific medicinal value such as Coenzyme Q, Calcium AEP, Phosphatidyl Serine, and others, followed by a section on the Cartilage-Building nutrients, and the Hormones.

The chapter on Herbs is extensive, covering multipurpose herbs, immune-enhancing, infection fighters, cardiovascular, and metabolic herbs; herbs for men, and women, brain stimulants, mental relaxants, and others. This is a book within a book, it's so comprehensive.

The heart of Dr. Atkins' solution is Part 3 - "Targeted Vita-Nutrient Therapy" where the protocols for specific diseases are presented, starting with Cardiovascular Conditions, Diabetes and Hypoglycemia, Nervous System Disorders, Digestive Health, Cancer, and many others. Men's and women's health problems are covered as well. Every commonly occurring illness is included is included in this excellent book, with specific protocols and research backing it up. The author has had more than 30 years of clinical practice using these nutritional treatments and his case studies and latest research shows irrefutable results. Successful outcomes are the difference between this kind of medicine and pharmaceutical allopathic medicine.

Dr. Atkins believes, and rightly so, that the time is ripe for the paradigm shift away from ineffective and harmful drugs to the scientifically proven use of nutrients to treat disease. He reports on more than 100 vita-nutrients and herbs which have been shown to have specific effects on specific diseases. As he says - "The cat is out of the bag!" What is new now is that medical science itself, through research and experiment, is beginning to legitimize the use of non-pharmaceutical nutrients.

Atkins' book is solidly based on published research and many years of clinical evidence compiled by him and many other nutritional practitioners and is exactly what the ailing American public is in need of - real evidence of real results. Dr. Atkins' "Vita-Nutrient Solution" will surely hasten the arrival of nutritional medicine and the demise of pharmaceutical drugs.

(Reprint, Townsend Letter for Doctors & Patients, January, 1999 edition)

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