I am a doctor of naturopathic medicine. I have had private practice, but have spent most of the past decade in the dietary supplement industry speaking, writing, formulating, and more. I have become very passionate about this industry, it's people, and the ability of good people and good products to affect change. Yet for all the good in this industry, there is ample bad. We have far too many examples of deceptive advertising, products laced with drugs, and other unsavory problems. For these reasons and more, I and others have championed continued industry improvements regulating advertising, labeling, and manufacturing.
So here is what happened to me recently. I got a "friend" request on Facebook from a medical school classmate. That's usually a very nice thing because I have lost track of many of my classmates and I generally like hearing about their lives and how they are doing. I accepted the request and left a nice note on my colleague's wall to say hello. The following day my own page was suddenly inundated with posts from this doctor promoting "miracle" weight loss products and denouncing bariatric surgery. Sigh. (Another thing to know about me is that I have spent the past eight years working in the bariatric surgery industry and serving on the board for the non-profit Obesity Action Coalition.) In a matter of moments my "friend" had managed to fill my page with deceptive advertising for products and offend all the weight loss surgery patients I am connected to at the same time.
So I lost a friend and gained some motivation. I know a lot about natural medicine. And I can use this knowledge for good. The driving force behind this blog is to talk about natural products, diets, and related subjects and look at them with a critical eye. If I can make one person healthier and one person safer, I'll feel pretty good about doing this. I think every consumer of natural products should be able to have a way to understand their safety, their efficacy, the reality behind the claims - good and bad. Because it's fun for me, I might also comment on current health topics and news as well. You may even get a recipe or a book review from time to time.
To get you started, here are a couple of other related pieces I have written:
- Nutritional Mythology - this is a piece discussing false advertising claims for weight loss products in the dietary supplement industry. This was written for WLS Lifestyles Magazine.
- Selecting a Weight Management Program - this is a nicely related piece on finding a good weight management program that recently appeared in the OAC Magazine.
In Health,
Dr. Jacques
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