A new blood test has just been rolled out that is supposed to accurately predict how much longer you will live.  On Monday, articles that appeared in the New York Times and others revealed a new blood test that can tell you many years you left.

How can a simple blood test determine this?  Simple – by measuring the length of your telomeres.

What are telomeres?  These are the DNA strands at the end of your chromosomes. 

Gretchen Reynolds of the New York Times explains:

Telomeres are tiny caps on the end of DNA strands — the discovery of their function won several scientists the 2009 Nobel Prize in medicine. When cells divide and replicate these long strands of DNA, the telomere cap is snipped, a process that is believed to protect the rest of the DNA but leaves an increasingly abbreviated telomere. Eventually, if a cell’s telomeres become too short, the cell ‘‘either dies or enters a kind of suspended state,’’ says Stephen Roth, an associate professor of kinesiology at the University of Maryland who is studying exercise and telomeres. Most researchers now accept telomere length as a reliable marker of cell age. In general, the shorter the telomere, the functionally older and more tired the cell.

So there you have it.  You get only so much length of a telomere at birth.  When it gets used up – it’s gone – and so are you.

But there is a way to lengthen those telomeres.  You can cheat and add length to those existing telomeres.  We have been doing it all along (for other reasons) but we have been on the right track for a long time.

Here’s how to cheat:

Exercise (adds nine years to your lifespan according to a team of British researches).

Healthy foods and supplements:

Green tea.  Andrew Weil says a Chinese study of people over the age of 65 who drank 3 cups of tea per day extended their life span by 5 years versus controls.

Vitamins C and E:  Weil also looked at a study involving women having longer telomeres from higher intake of Vitamins C and E.  (Both are wonderful anti-oxidants).

Omega 3:  Also known as fish oil, we have advocated omega 3′s for a long time.  Weil says that Omega 3 slows down the rate of telomere shrinkage (among other things).  Add in oleic acid, an omega 9, along with the “good” omega 6 (GLA) – and you get an even better combination (see our Omega1000 product that has all of the above omegas in it).

Vitamin D (my favorite):  Add another benefit to the long list of benefits from Vitamin D – it lengthens telomeres, too.  Is there anything that Vitamin D doesn’t do?  Try our Vitamin D5000.  It has 5000 IU’s of vitamin per capsule for a ridiculous cheap price of only $4 per month.

B vitamins – especially vitamins B6, B9 (folate) and B12: All of these B vitamins are good and do many wonderful things for your body.  By the way, the RDA for B9 (folate or folic acid) is a ridiculous 400 mcg/day.  Folic acid is crucial for preventing neural tube defects in pregnancy.  Even mainstream obstetricians advocate a daily dose of 5000 mcg/day, more than 10 times the RDA.

While we are on the topic of ridiculous RDA’s, did you know that the RDA for Vitamin C is only 100 mg?  I advocate 30- 40 times that dose (or 3000 -4000 milligrams per day).  Also, the RDA for iodine is 150 mcg/day (that’s 150 MICROgrams – it takes 1000 micrograms to make one milligram).  We advocate (and manufacture) a dose of 12.5 MILLIgrams per day – or about 80 times more than the RDA.  Iodine is essential for iodine function.

Back to telomeres, it appears that anti-oxidants are vitally important.  Anti-oxidants suppress damage from free radical formation.  What are the best anti-oxidants?  You guessed it:  Vitamins E and C for starters.  How about the catechins in Green Tea?  ECGC in green tea is probably one of the best anti-oxidants known.

Anti-inflammatories are a huge deal, too.  What are the best anti-inflammatories?  By far, Vitamin D is, with omega 3′s coming in second.

Finally, resveratrol, the ingredient touted in red wine, is supposed to protect telomeres.

I hope you are taking all of the above supplements and foods:  Green tea, vitamins B6, B9, B12, C, D and E.  Resveratrol.

Although not on the list, I would throw in CoQ10, D-ribose, and L-carnitine for healthy heart function.

MSM is wonderful, too.  A great anti-inflammatory and a side effect of more youthful skin appearance doesn’t hurt any.

Don’t forget that almost everyone on the planet is deficient in iodine, magnesium, omega 3, and vitamin D.  Supplement all of these. (We carry IodinePlus2, Mag100, Omega1000, and Vitamin D5000.)

Andrew Jones, M.D.

Medical Director, Women’s Health Institute of Texas

www.AndrewJonesMD.com

The events unfolding in Japan since their massive earthquake, tsunami and nuclear power station crisis have been most tragic.  Our prayers, concerns and support go out to the misery now being suffered by the Japanese people.

The destruction of the nuclear reactors at Fukushima has been a major concern for our customers.  We have been inundated by emails sent in by our customers who are raising a number of questions.

By far, the biggest question has been: “Can IodinePlus2 be used to treat for radioactive iodine?”   The answer is yes.

When I designed IodinePlus2, the idea was to combine iodine with potassium iodide, along with two other ingredients: selenium and riboflavin, to make it the world’s best long term supplement for people with thyroid problems (which are almost always related to chronic deficiencies in iodine).

Thyroid hormone cannot be manufactured by the thyroid gland unless there is a sufficient quantity of iodine.  If there is not enough iodine, then your thyroid doesn’t work or is chronically sick.  Simple concept.

Most people on the planet are already deficient in iodine.  Whether it is from a lack of iodine in the food supply due to soil exhaustion, or exposure to halide toxins like bromine (added to pasta), flourine (flouride toothpaste, drinking water) or chlorine, there is just not enough intake of iodine to safisfy the thyroid’s thirst.

Women are particularly vulnerable to iodine deficiency because of breast tissue and pregnancies.  The thyroid is not the only organ that needs iodine.  Breast tissue requires almost as much iodine as your thyroid.  Also, fetal development of its thyroid gland literally “steals” iodine from the mother during pregnancy.  This is why many women start noticing symptoms of hypothyroidism (under active thyroid) after a pregnancy – usually a second or third pregnancy.

Having said all this, I never dreamed that we would be talking about nuclear radiation fallout.  Under active thyroid pandemic was enough of a problem to begin with.  Especially since maintream medicine completely ignores the problem and is ignorant of simple solutions.

Enough of background.  Getting back to your questions, the next one is, “How much IodinePlus2 does one need to take upon radiation (radioactive thyroid isotope 131) exposure?”  The answer from the CDC is to take 130 mg of potassium iodide every 24 hours upon exposure.  For IodinePlus2, this works out to about 10 tablets.

My mentor and thyroid guru, Dr. David Brownstein, has written a recent article on the CDC guidelines as it applies to a mixed iodine/potassium iodide product like IodinePlus2.  The link is here.

Some important points concerning Dr. Brownstein’s discussion is that our product, IodinePlus2, is a combination of iodine and potassium iodide.  The combination is physiologically superior to potassium iodide alone.  The body prefers both kinds.  The total amount of combined iodine/iodide is 12.5 mg, with the iodide component being 7.5 mg.

The really good news is that if you have already been taking IodinePlus2 prior to all these events, then Dr. Brownstein says you can just continue taking the equivalent of 1 or 2 tablets of our IodinePlus2.

Taking this one step further is that Dr. Brownstein is basically saying something different from the CDC.  The CDC says to wait upon exposure to radiation and then start taking a big dose of iodine.  Then they say to take that big dose every day until the exposure ends.   With the possibility that the nuclear power plant may continue to emit radiation for weeks or months, the CDC recommendation is a little outdated.  The CDC recommendation was formulated for Cold War applications after a nuclear bomb goes off in your neighborhood. 

Our situation is different.  We are looking at a long term accumulation of radiactive elements in the atmosphere for months, if not years to come.  A smaller, long term strategy of iodine supplementation is much better and safer than the CDC’s recommendation.

The bottom line is: If you are already taking IodinePlus2, congratulations, you are in good shape.  Continue.  Maybe even increase to a minimum of 2 tablets a day.  You can do this forever, if necessary.

If you have not taken  any significant iodine supplementation before (table salt is insignificant), then I would recommend a loading dose of 4 tablets daily for a week, then go to 2 tablets a day thereafter.

Another question that has not come up from our customers but something I read in the New York Times, was the idea that potassium iodine is unsafe.  That is so wrong that it is almost a criminal statement.  Dr’s Brownstein and Guy Abraham have been working with various formulations of iodine for over 25 years.  They recommend supplementing with amounts that are 80 – 100 times the RDA.

This brings me to my final point:  The amount of iodine is almost all multi-vitamin preparations and drug store preparations are more or less the RDA amounts of 150 MICRO grams.  Recall that we have been discussing units of MILLI grams.  It takes 1000 micrograms to equal one milligram.

There are very few products available with iodine in milligrams.  Read the label very carefully and do the math.

Unfortunately, supplemental iodine only helps with the prevention of thyoid destruction/cancers from exposure to radioactive iodine (I 131).  There are dozens of other radiactive isotopes, including cesium, strontium and plutonium.

Radioactive iodine 131 causes thyroid cancer and hypothyroidism.  Although it has a relatively short half life of 5 days, it still hangs around for a good 30 days before it is mostly gone.  Cesium and strontium have half-lives of about 30 years.  Plutonium has a half life measured in the millions of years.  Cesium and strontium may end up in the water supply, milk and dairy products and love to settle in your bones. 

Plutonium is heavy and probably won’t float around in the air or jet stream, so it stays local.   The Japanese will be dealing with these forever.

Finally, I want to comment on the credibility of information that has been broadcasted since the earthquake struck.  The general public has been getting a lot of mis-information and dis-information.  Frankly, I don’t know who or what to believe.  We have seen a steady progression of articles and announcements from official and government sources designed to calm the public and avoid panic behavior.  Watching the conflicting stories, only to be told later that the disaster is multiple times worse than what was reported earlier is not encouraging.

The credibility of news sources and government reporting is reaching new lows.  You must decide what is best for you and your family and act accordingly.  Parsing articles and trying to read between the lines is something that Russian civilians did during Soviet times.  We are now doing that with the Western media. 

When politicians and government agencies are assuring us on all fronts that everything is fine, I don’t believe them.  It will be years before we really find out what happened.

You can order IodinePlus2 at  www.1-Natural-Living.com or at http://www.andrewjonesmd.com/iodine2.php .

Andrew Jones, M.D.

Medical Director, Women’s Health Institute of Texas

www.AndrewJonesMD.com

www.1-Thyroid.com

The British government has rolled over to the EU big pharmaceutical interests and will implement the first phase of the Codex Alimentarius on May first.  This is very bad news for our British customers and all Brits in general.

Just what is the Codex Alimentarius (CA)?  The Codex Alimentarius Commission was created in 1963 by the World Health Organizationa to “develop food standards, guidelines and related texts such as codes of practice under the joint FAO/WHO Food Standards Programme,” according the official Codex website.  In this context, it sounds responsible and reasonable:  “The main purposes of this Programme are protecting health of the consumers and ensuring fair trade practices in the food trade, and promoting coordination of all food standards work undertaken by international governmental and non-governmental organizations.”

But the reality is different.  The big pharmaceutical companies have taken over the implementation and coordination of this monster.  The Codex Commission has produced documents in excess of 15,000 pages with all kinds of pitfalls.  It is now designed to outlaw and prohibit virtually any food, herb, vitamin or supplement that is not required by prescription or that holds a patent (meaning it is not natural).

The CA essentially prohibits all natural substances, vitamins, herbs and supplements above miniscule amounts.  Under CA, any quantity of a vitamin larger than the RDA is considered to be potentially toxic and is illegal to sell.  For example, the RDA of Vitamin C is only 100 mg.  Standard preparations are virtually never less than 500 mg.  We recommend taking at least 2000 – 4000 mg of Vitamin C per day, or up to 40 times the RDA.  Start getting used to taking bucketfuls of tiny tablets all day.

It gets worse:  Only 28 vitamins will be permitted in the ultra-low doses noted above.  ALL other vitamins, supplements and natural substances will be banned and considered illegal.

CoQ10, one of the most effective heart healthy supplements that even mainstream medicine recommends, will be banned – at any dose. 

Fish oil (omega 3′s), one of the most essential supplements on the planet – will be banned.

Only synthetic versions of these 28 nutrients will be permitted.  All natural versions will be considered illegal.

CA makes the un-labelled use of GMO’s (genetically modified organisms) legal in all foods in all circumstances.  For example, farmers in Irag, must purchase their seeds from Monsanto and are forbidden from retianing seed crops.

The new law under CA sets permissible upper limits of pesticide residues, toxic chemicals, hormones in food and other environmental contaminants that are many times higher than levels advocated by industry and lobbying groups.

CA mandates that all animal feed MUST be treated with antibiotics, hormones and growth stimulants world wide.

Organic, free range and biodynamic farming will become illegal.

CA mandates irradiation of food.

This is not a joke.  This is reality.  An evil, big government, big drug company reality.

Even though the May first implementation is all about herbs in Britain under the guise of THMRS (Traditional Herbal Medicine Registration Scheme), it is still complying with the Codex Alimentarius as pushed by the Eurocrats – which includes the ban on vitamins and supplements mentioned above.   (By the way, the remainder of Europe will impose the CA later this year).

The herbal portion of the law requires sellers of virtually every kind of herb to obtain permits and licenses with heavy regulation by the MHRA.  Getting herbs licensed apparently can cost upwards of US$100,000.  Of course, the whole idea is to drive all small (and many larger) sellers out of business. 

I suppose you can try getting your peppermint tea from the local mafia in London?  Imagine where this is going?

This will affect most our products that we sell in Britain.  Our world-best selling product: IodinePlus2 is about 80 times the RDA – gone.  Vitamin D5000 is twelve and half times the RDA – gone.  Our Omega 3,6,9 product will be banned.  Our hormone products, Progest50, Progest100 will be banned.

I suggest for our British customers to order massive quantities now and start hoarding before the ban kicks in.  Click here to order: www.1-Natural-Living.com .  The lawyers say that the shelf life of our products is two years.  In reality, these will save for 3 years and more, if you store in the refrigerator.

Before any Americans get smug about our friends in Britain and Europe, you are forewarned – the Codex Alimentarius is coming to America.  The recent Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) (don’t you just love these names? – always the direct the opposite of the effect), gives the FDA authority to move forward with Codex Alimentarius implementation.  This has been planned at least, since 2005.

The FSMA, by the way, mandates that the FDA should try to sterilize food entering the US, which destroys much of the foods nutritive qualities.  How about that irradiated fruit from Mexico?

There are even more onerous laws from the FSMA that affect small farmers, growers, flea markets, farmer’s markets and even gardeners. 

I don’t know what else to say.  All the governments around the world are evil.  Some are nastier than others (USA and most of Europe at the top of the list).  They are the enforcers of the corporate/fascist lobbies and will happily kill off and sicken their slaves (citizens) all in the name of big profits.  This is not just in medical/food arena that I write about, but about all facets of life: from banking, finances and money to regulating your every behavior and speech.

We are screwed.  Buy as much as you can now and hoard.  Bad times are coming.

Andrew Jones, M.D.

www.AndrewJonesMD.com

www.Migraine-Headaches-Information.com

Medical Director, Women’s Health Institute

In a humuliating about-face, on January 7, 2011, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Health & Human Services administration jointly announced in a very carefully worded statement that the addition of fluoride to public water systems was a mistake.

They really didn’t use the word “mistake”.  In fact, they still support adding fluoride to water systems, but they lowered the maximum limits for fluoride “acceptable” in your drinking water.

What’s more, is that a second announcement concerning fluoride was made just 3 days later:  This time concerning the use of fluoride in pesticides.   Citing its concern about children’s health and their “over-exposure to fluroide through tap water”, the EPA proceeded to ban all pesticides and food fumigants containing sulfuryl fluoride.

Reading through the government-speak, even the EPA and HHS have figured out something the public knew decades ago.  Even the europeans banned fluoride in their water systems a long time ago.  Your drinking water is poison. 

There are a lot more nasty items in your tap water than fluoride, unfortunately.  We will leave that topic to future posts, but leaky hormones and antibiotics are all over your tap water systems.

What is so bad about fluoride?  Actually, when discussing it as an attached atom, it is called fluorine.  Fluorine is one of the Halogens.  Go look at a atomic periodic chart (remember high school chemistry class?) and you will see a column on the right side called the halogens.  Flourine is at the top of the column, followed by chlorine, bromine, iodine and finally an obscure astatine.

If you look up the “benefits” of fluorine, you will see glowing (and repetitive) statements about its prevention of dental caries.  This was thought to be so wonderful, that somehow municipalities were forced to add fluorine (sodium fluoride) to its water systems.

Actually, fluoride was a toxic byproduct of aluminum manufacturing (read ALCOA).  In a fascinating story of how an industrial giant, ALCOA, successfully fended off potentially crippling lawsuits of industrial contanimation, they engineered a bogus story of how fluoride was beneficial for teeth and (more importantly) safe to dump in to the water table.  The lead counsel of ALCOA, Oscar Ewing, was appointed to be the head of the new federal safety agency in 1947.  This agency was eventually renamed as the Health and Human Services that we have today.

Almost immediately, Ewing, as head of HHS, pushed for national fluoridation of water supplies.  By 1950, 89 US cities had fluoride added to their water supplies.  The remainder followed over time.

What is even more interesting is that there is absolutely zero evidence that fluoride actually prevents caries.  Not one study.  No legitimate observations.  Nothing.  Nada.   The folklore was simply made up. For a great article on this go to here.

Fluoride does nasty things to the human body:  What is mostly discussed are the bone diseases, including premature fractures and spinal deformities.  Mainstream medicine also acknowledges blackening of the teeth.

What is not well known are the thyroid and intestinal diseases. 

Fluoride kills thyroid glands.  The thyroid hormone absolutely requires iodine to function properly.  Iodine is good.  We don’t get enought of it and fluoride simply binds to the thyroid gland and displaces the good iodine.  This may be a huge reason why so many people are hypothyroid (under-active thyroid).

I strongly recommend taking an iodine replacement product, IodinePlus2, which will work the other direction and kick out the bad fluoride.    You can get it here:  www.1-Thyroid.com .

 Yes, fluoride kills bacteria.  That’s why it is so successfully used as a pesticide.  We drink it (and brush our teeth) every day with a pesticide.  Fluoride gets in your intestines and kills off the “good” bacteria.  The good bacteria are like the ones we get in yogurt products – lactobacillus and the like. 

Once you start killing off the good bacteria, bad things happen.  Irritable Bowel Syndrome for starters.  This is followed later by Crohn’s Disease, Ulcerative Colitis and I will throw in Lupus and Rheumatoid Arthritis and pretty much all of the auto-immune diseases.

Fluoride also kills breasts.  Just like thyroid, Mainstream medicine hasn’t recognized that female breast tissue requires a large store of iodine for proper functioning.  Iodine deficient women get fibrocystic breast disease (and hypothryoidism).  Almost everyone is iodine deficient nowadays.

Just like thyroid, fluoride kicks out the good iodine from breast tissue and causes havoc.  Again, we can reverse that process with iodine replacement – IodinePlus2.

A word about iodine replacement:  If you look at the RDA for iodine it says it is around 150 MICRO grams.  Well, that tiny amount will keep you from getting a goiter and not much else.  But it won’t replace an iodine-deficient condition.

You need about a 100 times the RDA for true iodine deficiency.  Hence, the iodine supplements in the local pharmacy are a joke.  This is why IodinePlus2 is the number one iodine replacement in the world.  It contains 12.5 GRAMS of iodine.  This is 80 times more than the RDA.  Twenty five years of experience went into this one.

Bottom line:  Don’t drink tap water.  Use non-flouride toothpaste.  Take iodine supplements (IodinePlus2).  Go to www.1-Thyroid.com

Andrew Jones, M.D.

Medical Director, Women’s Health Institute of Texas

www.AndrewJonesMD.com

It is getting nasty out there.  This week a hit piece on Vitamin D was launched by the Institute of Medicine (IOM).  Hiding behind a government sponsored (and funded) team, a panel of doctors circulated their “review” of “1000″ Vitamin D studies with conclusions that were completely contrary to scientific evidence of Vitamin D.

One of the panelists,  Glenville Jones, PhD, was widely quoted in the media as saying that most people “probably don’t have vitamin D deficiency” and “We think there has been an exaggeration of the public’s interest in vitamin D deficiency”.  It turns out that Dr. Jones is a scientific advisor for Cytochroma, Inc., the pharmaceutical company that is developing a patentable synthetic version of Vitamin D.  Clearly this is a conflict of interest that was never mentioned in their report.

But conflict of interst is just one of many problems with the IOM report.

The panel consulted with 15 world class experts of Vitamin D and decided to suppress their input.  The Vitamin D Council states, “Many of these consultants are either famous Vitamin D researchers, like Professor Robert Heaney at Creighton University or, as in the case of Prof. Walter Willet of Harvard, the single best known nutritionist in the world.”

Aside from hidden agendas, the panel simply refused to consider most of the studies that are out there on Vitamin D purely because most research reports are not reported through randomized controlled trials(RCT).  Therefore, virtually all the research that we have reading about the last few years was completely ignored by the panel.  How convenient.

For example, the IOM claimed they reviewed a “1000″ studies.  Actually, the report only cites 4 (yes FOUR) studies on cancer.  Yes, cancer, one of the hottest areas of vitamin D research.  Four.  What’s worse, is that of the four studies reviewed, none of them used vitamin D doses greater than 1000 IU’s per day, which is way below therapeutic levels.  Is it any wonder they concluded that vitamin D does nothing for cancer?

The panel also tripled their recommendations for daily vitamin D supplementation from 200 IU’s per day all the way up to a whopping 600 IU’s per day.  This is in line with their conclusion that vitamin D is only useful to prevent rickets.  Sure, you won’t get rickets at these doses, but it does nothing to help with the myriad of inflammatory diseases like of heart disease and cancers which may be preventable at much higher doses of vitamin D.  The Vitamin D Council has long recommended a daily dose of 5000 IU’s per day.

Their choice of a “safe” upper limit of 4000 IU’s per day is interesting in that they chose to be silent on the majority of studies they reviewed showing doses of 25,000 to 40,000 IU’s per day were safe.

The Alliance for Natural Health USA is circulating a petition to Congress to review the biased report by a government based and funded organization (OIM).  Anyone can sign the petition.  Just click here.

The conclusion of all this is that most people are still very deficient in vitamin D (just ask the Mayo Clinic) and that vitamin D supplementation is probably one of the most effective means of decreasing your chances of heart disease,  cancers and a host of inflammatory long term conditions that confront our modern living conditions.

I am still taking my daily dose of 5000 IU’s.  The government panel can stick it where the sun don’t shine.  (In that case, they should be taking a ton of vitamn D.)

Andrew Jones, M.D.

Medical Director, Women’s Health Institute of Texas

www.AndrewJonesMD.com

 With my apologies, it has been a couple of months since I was last able to post an article on my blog.  Technical problems resulting from a hacker breaking into the blog crashed the whole thing.

Anyway, two months of repair with my web guru and we are back up! 

There are so many things to say and discuss right now but I want to digress a little bit, first.  There is still time for posting some of the future topics I want to talk about.  

In the meantime, I want to address some issues that we receive from people in our Contact Us emails:  It seems some people think I really don’t exist!  That I am some make-believe creation of a sleazy online scam machine! 

Where does this idea come from?  

If you do a Google search of the Women’s Health Institute, you will find a search term called “womens health institute scam”.  Then from there you go to a site called “migrainetruth”.  The leader is “Arabella” whose main credientials say that she is an American women, wife, mother, former legal secretary and one of the millions with migraine headaches.  

She says she has read my book from “end to end” but never states she took any of my advice.  But she (or her handlers) really don’t like my website(s) – especially the wording of my websites.  For some reason, medical doctors, in her mind, must sit quietly and spout only the garbage handed down by the mainstream medical societies. 

She especially doesn’t like a particular word.  This word, so engenders fear and causes such anxiety in big pharma, mainstream medicine and every other traditional minded zombie:  cure. 

This one word – cure – causes so much angst among my peers and certain vested interests that they will do anything to discredit anyone with an idea that even resembles an improvement over a truly debilitating problem – migraine headaches. 

I have read every post on her blog about me and the Women’s Health Institute.  Here is what sticks out: 

The wording and cadence are practically the same throughout the threads. 

Each is written in almost superb English – and being an avid blog reader – that is almost never the case.

The negative points are also quite similar – it seems someone was reading from a central script.

A professional writer that I know says that he has a client in Ireland who sells hair products (which actually work as his wife can attest to). He’s told me it’s not uncommon for the competition to put up sites “ranking” other companies – and almost always finding them lacking in some serious ways.  Basically – the review sites themselves are shams.

Further, he says, “the reviews they read are not always the unvarnished truth. The fact that trying to do a WHOIS search comes up with basically nothing substantiating the “ABOUT US” claim on the site.  For my money – it’s a false flag site attacking alternate medicine practitioners. That’s why all the direct negative comments about my credentials. 

The only legitimate posts I saw were from our overseas or international customers who are still waiting on their orders to clear customs after 4 weeks.

Otherwise, beware of wolves in sheep’s clothing. 

Let me address the AMA issue:  The American Medical Association is a doctor’s lobbying group with the government.  It highly politicized its membership and is closely allied with government policies and politicians in Washington.  Thirty years ago, almost all US doctors were members.  Today far less than half of all American doctors are still members.  Out of disgust with their political leanings, I resigned my membership in 1993.

Just for completeness, I am indeed, a medical doctor, having attended the University of Texas Medical School at Houston from 1982 – 1986.  Internship and residency in Internal Medicine in Houston from 1986 – 1989.  Board Certification in Internal Medicine in 1989 – and has stayed that way.

I started out as a typical mainstream doctor with the typical mainstream mindset of prescribing some big Pharma drug for every condition.  Over the years, I learned that this was not right.  The whole paradigm was wrong.

After some years of mainstream practice, I encountered my first personal experience with a deficiency problem (low testosterone).  Except I didn’t know it at the time.  Remember, I was a medical doctor – and doctors were supposed to know everything.

Eventually, I met a colleague who was a pioneer in the field of bio-identical hormones.   He then mentored me in the ways I now advocate.  Then I began to practice what I preach.  My practice became a “boutique” practice and rather exclusive catering to women.

In 2006, I created my first website devoted to migraine headeaches using the experiences we learned from literally practicing on women in my clinic.  The idea was to provide the same treatment guidelines to everyone on the planet for just the price of an online book (as opposed to walking in and paying over about $4000 as a clinic patient).

I thought the website would just be a small diversion.  Wrong. 

The website took off – and demanded my time and attention with it.  At that point, it was time to close my practice and devote full time to developing the web concept.  I also wanted to spend more time on pure academic investigation into natural supplements for deficiency conditions.  This expanded into creating websites for PMS, depression, menopause, thyoid, vitamin D and so forth.  The same idea was to take the treatment guidelines we learned from clinical practice and practically give away the advice.

And yes, since I designed the formulas for the supplements that I recommend, I do make a profit off of them.  I have a strong, vested interest in making sure any product I recommend will benefit your health.

We now have about 100,000 customers in 56 countries.  We continue to experience growing pains.  Despite 7 new employees, we still are having difficulties in answering every phone call and email.  We receive about 1000 emails per day and a phone call every few minutes.

Admittedly, we have received requests by professional management types to take over the institute.  But, I still like the small-time office environment where we handle everything in-house (with me watching).  We handle our own orders in house.  No outsourcing.

I am a doctor and scientist first, and frankly not a good manager.  My priorities are making symptoms, illnesses and health problems go away.  My focus is on natural means of supplements with the right ingredients and the right treatment guidelines – with options for adjustement.

My concern with turning management to outsiders would interfere with the health aspects that I promote.  I don’t want to sacrifice the health priorities for business efficiency.  As a result, customer service sometimes breaks down and can’t handle the load.  For that, I apologize.  They don’t teach this stuff in medical school.  We are still re-inventing the wheel on customer service.  In time, we will catch up with the volume.

I thank you for your support and patience. 

To your health,

Andrew Jones, M.D.

Medical Director, Women’s Health Institute of Texas