QUESTION: My doctor says a balanced diet is all I need to stay healthy, and I do eat as healthfully as I can. Yet, I still feel like I'm running on empty and like there is something my body must be lacking, or I would feel better.

HEALTHEXCEL: The failure to acquire all the nutrients for which one has a genetic requirement expresses itself in different ways in different people. For some, it's intense cravings; for others, it's feeling hungry five minutes after eating a big meal; for you, it's feeling like you are running on empty; for others, it's something else. Regardless of the specific form it takes, it's just your body's way of communicating; it's your body's language, saying that it did not get the right balance of nutrients to meet its needs.

Your doctor is very right; one should eat a well-balanced diet in order to be healthy. The question which naturally follows, of course, is what constitutes a well-balanced diet? Actually, what constitutes a well-balanced diet for one person, very likely is not right for someone else. The high protein, fat diet of the Eskimo certainly is not right for the vegetarian East Indian. The basis for the determination of what diet is correct for any given individual is a matter of genetic inheritance. Just as your genes dictate your height, bone structure, color of eyes, strength of your digestive system, the efficiency of your immune system, the rate of your cellular metabolism and all the innumerable characteristics which make up the unique biochemical and biological wonder that is YOU, so too, do your genes deter-mine the requirements your body has for fuel. In order to find out what a well-balanced diet is for you, you would need to determine your metabolic type.

QUESTION: What is the difference between Metabolic Typing® and Blood Typing? Is a Metabolic Type the same thing as a Blood Type?

HEALTHEXCEL: With the advent of the recent book on blood types, Eat Right 4 Your Type by Peter D'Adamo, N.D., we are often asked if blood typing is the same as metabolic typing. In short, no. Actually, one's blood type is just 1 of 9 different components used in the process of metabolic typing to determine individual nutritional requirements. Here are the components that we have discovered are necessary to consider in evaluating your metabolic type:

1. Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) - the “master regulator” of metabolism
2. Oxidative System - rate at which nutrients are converted to energy within the cells
3. Catabolic/Anabolic - aerobic / anaerobic metabolism, tissue pH, selective membrane permeability
4. Acid / Alkaline Balance - 6 different kinds of pH imbalances
5. Electrolyte Stress / Insufficiency - concerned with blood pressure, circulation, electric potential
6. Endocrine Type - determines body type, shape, weight gain, etc.
7. Constitutional Type - from AyurVeda and Chinese medicine, concerned constitutional qualities of foods relative to constitutional qualities of individual
8. Blood Type - food lectins specific to ABO blood types
9. Prostaglandin Balance - Series 1, 2, 3 prostaglandin balances

The blood type has more to do with what few foods should be left out of your diet due to their lectin content specific to your blood type. But blood type has little to do with what foods and nutrients should be eaten. For that, we need to consider the body's primary mechanisms that specifically regulate how energy is created, maintained and controlled, such as the ANS, Oxidative System and Catabolic/Anabolic processes. And whereas the blood type is static, non-changing, the different balances, strengths and weaknesses in the other fundamental control mechanisms can and do change.

What is most important to know is that every food and every nutrient has very specific stimulatory or inhibitory effects on these fundamental homeostatic control systems that regulate every process in your body at every level of activity. This is why getting the right nutrition is so critical. Moreover, through metabolic typing we have learned that any food or nutrient can have different effects on different metabolic types. As it turns out, the old adage that “one man's food is another's poison” is literally true. Fact is, you can eat the best organic foods, take the best supplements money can buy, get plenty of rest, exercise regularly and still not feel well. Why? Because you did not eat those foods for which your body has a specific, genetically-based requirement. Only through metabolic typing can you be assured that your food will be the medicine God intended it to be.

QUESTION: I've been a singer by profession for many years. Lately, I've been noting that my voice develops hoarseness and cracking before I'm finished with a performance. Even when I'm not singing regularly, my voice does this with just normal, everyday talking, especially at night. Changing professions at my age isn't easy and I don't want to give up something that I so dearly love and enjoy. Can you offer any suggestions?

HEALTHEXCEL: The type of hoarseness you describe is actually quite common, particularly the variety which occurs in the evening. Usually, this involves a disruption of calcium metabolism and balancing the body chemistry usually results in the disappearance of this problem. When calcium metabolism is disrupted, it often appears due to a shift in the body chemistry toward a more alkaline environment. Just like in a tea kettle which accumulates a calcium build-up from boiling water (which makes the water alkaline, causing calcium to precipitate out of solution), calcium precipitates out of the cells when the body chemistry becomes too alkaline. This disruption of calcium metabolism causes a weakening of cellular integrity and a loss of tone in the sympathetic division of the autonomic nervous system. The combination of a weakening of cellular integrity, diminished sympathetic tone and the systemic alkalinity can result in hoarseness and loss of tonal control.

All one needs to do is balance the body chemistry to restore a more normal acid/alkaline balance, calcium metabolism and sympathetic tone. For some, this means adding more protein, fat and calcium to the diet. For others, it requires decreasing fatty, high purine protein and calcium and increasing those nutrients which help calcium be utilized, such as potassium, magnesium and vitamin B6. To learn specifically what is right for you, you would need to first determine your metabolic type.

QUESTION: My last pregnancy was a joyous experience for me, but the havoc it wreaked on my body was tremendous. The baby was robustly healthy, but I was a wreck and haven't felt well since. It's like the baby took everything she could from my fingernails, hair, teeth and skin. I even had a bone fracture right after birth. Now, I'm two months pregnant again, and don't think there is anything left for this baby to take from my system. Is it too late to initiate a vitamin program that might give the growing fetus some of what it would otherwise leech from my system and help me as well?

HEALTHEXCEL: The reason you have not felt well is very possibly due to the fact that your body's nutrient reserves were likely deficient prior to your pregnancy and became totally depleted as a result of your pregnancy. This situation illustrates from yet another perspective, the vitalness to health and well-being of obtaining the nutrients for which one has a genetic need. You see, each of the vitamins and minerals affects a number of the other vitamins and minerals. One will raise the levels in the body of some, while lowering the levels of others. This is why one must take care to acquire nutrients in the proper balance for one's type. A haphazard approach may actually diminish, rather than replenish reserves. Our belief is that it is never too late! Just starting the right things and stopping the wrong things for one's type, can often produce wondrous results. In balancing your body chemistry by getting what is right for you, you will be helping to maximize the quality of life from a nutritional standpoint for you and your new baby.

"If the food you eat does not contain the right balance of nutrients for your genetic needs,
it won't be adequately burned as fuel, but will end up stored as fat."

QUESTION: I'm nursing my first baby and wouldn't give up the experience for anything! It's rewarding for him and for me, but feeding times seem to leave me drained of more than my milk as far as my energy goes. It's almost like he gets what he needs but leaves me somehow depleted of something my system must need. Is there something I can take to prevent this drop in energy after I feed my baby?

HEALTHEXCEL: It sounds as though in nursing, you are losing one or several of the nutrients your body requires in its production and maintenance of energy, either in terms of the autonomic nervous system or the rate of oxidation in the cells, or both. A proper nutrient balance is necessary to keep the autonomic system in balance with good tone in the sympathetic division, that aspect of the nervous system which is responsible for providing your feelings of energy and motivation. Also, without the proper nutrient balance inside your body's cells, your cells will be unable to manufacture energy efficiently. The solution, of course, is to follow a well-balanced diet that is right for you! This will insure the replenishment of your body's nutritional needs. To learn what is right for you, you will need to find out your body's metabolic type.

QUESTION: My sister, my best friend and I all embarked on Dr. Atkins' weight loss program* with gusto, expecting fantastic results. Two of us got them and one of us didn't . . . guess who? I ended up gaining the weight that each of them lost and feeling terrible to boot, and even though I've been off the diet for 3 weeks now, I can't even look at food without putting on more weight! Is there anything in your program that might make a loser out of me? Sounds strange, but I wouldn't mind having that title!

[Note: The Atkins program is a well-known high-protein, high-fat diet. Similar questions have been received in regard to the Pritikin diet, a low-fat, low-protein diet. The same answer would apply to all such questions. -Ed ].

HEALTHEXCEL: Yours is not, by any means, an uncommon problem and illustrates wonderfully the concept of what is referred to as biochemical individuality, which is just a fancy way of saying that you are unique and that therefore, your body has unique requirements for nutrition.

Weight is an important consideration in one's overall picture of health. Each person has a genetically programmed ideal weight. This is simply the weight at which you look and feel your best. While being overweight may be a symptom of imbalance, or even in some cases, lack of health, losing weight is not necessarily the same as obtaining good health. However, empirical findings have found the normalization of weight to be a natural by-product of balancing body chemistry and building health, which results from the natural maximization of your body's energy potential.

There are two main considerations in the healthful and successful process of weight loss through balancing body chemistry. The first and most important is that you must acquire the right fuel mixture in the nutrients that you ingest. If the food that you eat does not provide the right balance of nutrients for your genetic needs, then it won't be adequately oxidized (burned for energy) in the cells and will end up being stored as fat; and your body's energy levels will be disrupted, causing you to not feel well, besides put on more weight.

The second consideration is the one everyone is familiar with caloric intake. If one continues to take in more calories than are burned, one will gain weight. However, the key is eating the foods that are right for your type. In so doing, you will be balancing your body chemistry, maximizing your energy production, burning your calories more efficiently, and satisfying your appetite because your are supplying your body with all that it needs. The only way to lose weight, keep it off and feel wonderful at the same time is to balance your body chemistry and maximize your energy potential.

QUESTION: I'm a professional athlete and need that extra push for maximum strength, endurance, agility and energy. Would your program be able to give me that edge that I need?

HEALTHEXCEL: Your question is excellent and raises other questions of a more basic nature which need to be addressed to satisfactorily answer the questions you have raised. Where do strength, endurance, agility and energy come from? Before you can understand how a nutritional program may help give you more of the above, you need to know a little about how these arise in the body.

All your body's activities are controlled by your nervous system. The autonomic nervous system controls all involuntary, life-sustaining processes. It is divided into two divisions: the sympathetic and parasympathetic divisions. Nerves from each division branch to all the vital organs in the body. The sympathetic system primarily controls all catabolic, energy-using activity. The parasympathetic system controls all anabolic, energy conserving and building activity. Different people have different inherited strengths and weaknesses so that generally speaking, one system or the other dominates, or is stronger than the other.

If one is too sympathetic, one has good muscle tone and reaction time, but is relatively low in strength and endurance. If one is too parasympathetic, one tends to be strong, have good endurance, but poor reflexes and agility. Ideally, we need to have good balance between the two in order to make use of one's full potential. Also, it is important that all the body's cells, organs, glands and systems work as efficiently and harmoniously as possible.

What is necessary to obtain all this? Energy! Every activity in the body requires energy, whether it's thinking, feeling, digesting, rebuilding body tissue, focusing your eyes or flying a kite everything requires energy. And where does the body obtain its energy? From the fuel it acquires from food. That is why it is vital to obtain the right fuel for your particular body chemistry. By fulfilling your body's fuel requirements, you will be providing it with the optimum potential to work efficiently and in balance.

QUESTION: I suffer so badly from the symptoms of PMS that for 2 weeks a month, my husband and children steer clear of me like I have a disease or something. It's literally hell on earth getting through these periods and I don't know how much more I or my poor family can take. Is there any way you can help me?

HEALTHEXCEL: All bodily processes are controlled by the nervous system in conjunction with the endocrine system. The control of the nervous system is through electrical impulses that travel to and from the brain to all parts of the body. The glands of the endocrine system exert their control through secretions known as hormones. Both the nervous system and the endocrine system depend on the availability of a specific amount and balance of nutrients in order to function effectively.

This need in women changes somewhat according to their monthly cycle. If the proper nutrient reserves are not available, or if the diet is not in accordance with individual needs, a woman's hormonal balance can become quite disrupted. Many have found immediate and welcome relief from the severity of PMS upon ceasing to eat foods and supplements which are unbalancing to their metabolisms, and beginning to eat the foods and supplements which are correct for their metabolic types.

Many people make the mistake of attempting to use nutrition the way a doctor might use a drug.

QUESTION: Frequent colds plague me all year round. I take lots of vitamin C and try to eat well, but nothing seems to put a halt to these colds. It's almost like they are timed to come in a regular cycle. Sometimes I have to end up taking antibiotics, even though they don't help much to make the colds go away any faster.

HEALTHEXCEL: Research has shown that the body's immune system is highly sensitive to the biochemical balance in the body. Immune activity in the body requires a considerable amount of energy. If you do not provide your body with all the specific nutrients that are just right for you, your immune system will not have the energy or the raw materials it needs to function properly.

Many people make the mistake of attempting to use nutrition the way a doctor might use a drug. In other words, use certain nutrients (like vitamin C or zinc, for example), for a certain symptom (to strengthen the immune system). But, nutrients are not drugs and this approach rarely is successful. The reason for this is that everyone has different requirements for different amounts of nutrients. This means that the presence of nutrients in the body, the balance between the nutrients in the body, is different in different metabolic types.

Thus, everyone cannot be treated alike with nutrition the way that they can with drugs. A drug has a known specific effect which is basically the same in everyone an antibiotic will kill bacteria, for example. But, any given nutrient will have different effects on different people, depending on their particular biochemical balance at the time and their metabolic type. Thus, what may help strengthen the immune system in one person, may serve to weaken it in another. Hence the wisdom of Hippocrates, One man's food, is another man's poison!  

QUESTION: I have a job where my ability to concentrate is absolutely essential to my success. Lately, I find myself spacing out and drifting, especially in the afternoons when I would rather take a nap than apply my sluggish brain to what I'm supposed to be accomplishing. This is threatening my livelihood and I'm starting to get scared because I can't seem to fight it or control it. Help!

HEALTHEXCEL: It sounds as though you are experiencing an intensification of the normal acid/alkaline tides in the body. Throughout the day (and night) the body constantly works to maintain the proper acid/alkaline balance in the body, an important aspect of maintaining homeostasis (metabolic balance). This process involves natural tides or cycles, where the body at certain times, is more naturally either acid or alkaline.

When the body chemistry shifts toward alkalinity, there is an accompanying decrease in energy with a tendency toward all hypoactive-type characteristics. When alkaline, one tends toward feelings of rest and indeed, during the normal periods of alkalinity, the body is in its rest, rebuilding, and recuperation stages. If the body goes too alkaline, this restful tendency may develop into adversity resulting in lethargy, loss of energy, sleepiness, apathy, etc.

"When the body chemistry shifts toward alkalinity, there is an accompanying decrease in energy . . ."

The two times when the body is at its most alkaline are at around 2 p.m. or about one and one-half hours after lunch, and about 3 a.m. So, it is natural that one might feel a tendency toward lowered energy after lunch.

The acid/alkaline balance is controlled in great measure by the autonomic nervous system. Sympathetic influence is toward acidity, while parasympathetic influence is toward alkalinity. If your diet is not appropriate for your type, it may be stimulating too strongly your parasympathetic system. This would result in your body chemistry shifting even more toward alkaline at that time of day, considerably disrupting your energy levels. This is made worse by the fact that digestion is controlled by the parasympathetic system. So, with parasympathetic digestive activity along with the natural alkaline swing at that time, it is very important that your diet not push you even further into alkalinity.

Another aspect of energy production which plays an important role in maintaining proper mental activity, as well as the acid/alkaline balance, is the rate of oxidation (burning of nutrients in the cells for energy). Of all the organs in the body, the brain is perhaps the most sensitive to availability of fuel for the use of its cells. The combustion of fuel by the body's cells for energy requires the availability of specific nutrients at each step in the process. If your body does not acquire the right fuel mixture from your diet, it will be unable to produce adequate amounts of energy. Although you may not have thought of it in quite this way before, mental activity requires energy, in fact, even more energy than does muscle tissue, relatively speaking. If the rate of oxidation becomes too slow, there is a natural shift toward alkalinity as well as a lowering of energy. Your descriptions of drifting and spacing-out, aptly characterize the experience of alkalinity from becoming too parasympathetic or too much of a slow oxidizer.  

"Research suggests that many psychological characteristics are based in physiology!"

QUESTION: I am a wonderfully creative and inventive person. My house and office are overflowing with dozens of projects that I've started, but never finished. I peter out on stick-to-itiveness and my mind races on to another brilliant idea before I have even begun to finish the project I started yesterday. I leap excitedly from one thing to another, but all these half-baked creations are cluttering and cramping a once spacious and airy living area! Do you have anything that can put a halt to these brainstorms long enough for me to actually finish one of them?

QUESTION: Energy? I've never been able to understand the people who say they need 3 cups of coffee to get going in the morning. I've got so much energy, I can't sit still to listen to a half hour lecture, or watch a T.V. program. And my bed doesn't know the meaning of having a dead weight on it for 8 hours not even 4 hours! What I would give to be able to relax, truly relax, for just an hour. Tranquilizers make me psychotic, wine or liquor makes me sick, tryptophan doesn't faze me, I'm allergic to sleeping pills, I can't sit still long enough to even try meditating what's left?

HEALTHEXCEL: Both of these questions relate to similar biochemical circumstances and can therefore be addressed together. They also illustrate how the same pattern of biochemical imbalance may be expressed differently in different people. In one example, the imbalance manifests more in terms of psychological characteristics; the other is expressed more in terms of physical energy patterns.

Certainly, there are elements in one's behavior and personality which are learned or are otherwise psychological in origin. However, empirical as well as other metabolic research, suggests that in many instances, psychological characteristics are based in physiology! In these cases, one is driven by, is a product of, or is otherwise strongly molded in a psychological sense by physiological parameters. More specifically, the influences of the autonomic nervous system, the oxidative system and the endocrine system on the rate, quality and efficiency of energy production, as well as the acid/alkaline balance, are believed to play a direct role in defining mental, emotional, behavioral and other personality-related characteristics.

For example, someone who is either too parasympathetic or whose oxidation rate is too slow tends to be alkaline and characteristically tends to be depressed, apathetic, melancholic, has slower mental processes, and feels emotionally flat. Energy wise, he feels as though his get up and go, has got up and went!

Just the opposite of those types are the types who are either too sympathetic or too fast of an oxidizer. They tend to be acidic and are characteristically anxious, uptight, high-stung, emotional, nervous, tense, worrisome and they have fast mental processes. Tending to be hyperactive energy wise, their energy comes in spurts. The sympathetic types do tend to have good concentration and stick-to-itiveness. But, in this area, the fast oxidizer is quite different. Generally, the fast oxidizer has poor concentration and the faster he goes, the “worse” he gets, is his plight.

"What is right for one will not necessarily be right for another."

In fast oxidizers, the rate of energy production from the intracellular combustion of nutrients is out of balance and inefficient. As a result, they burn carbohydrates (fruits, vegetables and grains) far too quickly. The results are the hyperactive tendencies which characterize them. Consequently, fast oxidizers (like Eskimos) do better with fewer carbohydrates and more fat and protein in their diets. Although an evaluation would be needed in order to determine specific nutritional needs, both of the people may try the above suggestions for fast oxidizers and see if they notice a favorable difference.  

QUESTION: I'm afraid of overdosing on vitamins. Your program seems to recommend so many. Aren’t a good multi-vitamin/mineral and a well-balanced diet all a basically healthy person needs to stay that way?

HEALTHEXCEL: In some cases, yes, that may be all a person needs. But, no two people are alike; it is really a matter of individuality. What is right for one person will not necessarily be right for another. One person may be relatively healthy, have inherited a strong constitution, lived a relatively stress-free life in an unpolluted environment, eaten only whole, natural foods, not smoked or drunk alcohol, and desire a minimal, maintenance program.

Another person may be in poor health, inherited a weak constitution, has lived a stressful life in an environment high in pollution, has been raised on junk food, is a smoker and a heavy drinker, and desires to go on a maximum health-building program.

As far as vitamin toxicity goes, although it may be possible, it's highly unlikely. When you consider that there can be as much as a hundred-fold difference in nutritional requirements between people, and that THE HEALTHEXCEL PROGRAM is tailored to individual needs, it should not be a matter for serious concern.  

"Unfortunately, traditional lab tests usually only validate the presence of problems
when they have gone beyond the resistance stage."

QUESTION: I just had a complete physical, blood and urine tests and all. My doctor gave me a clean bill of health. But I know there's something wrong with me! I just don't feel well and I can't put my finger on exactly what it is that isn't right within my body. I just don't feel up to par anymore. If my doctor gave me his final verdict that there's not a thing wrong with me that a good 2 week vacation won't cure, what more can I do to try to find out what's wrong with me?

HEALTHEXCEL: Thank you for your question. It raises issues that are very important and which many people can relate to. One of these is the meaning of the word health. For many, professionals and lay people alike, health is a very relative term. Generally speaking, for many people health simply means being mostly free from adverse symptoms or an actual diagnosable disease. In this view, someone who is often tired, depressed, and irritable, has a low sex drive, insomnia and frequent headaches may be considered normal, and relatively healthy.

But, HEALTHEXCEL takes a different view of health and recognizes three basic possibilities:

• True health or good health
• Lack of health, and
• Illness or disease.

HEALTHEXCEL defines good health as a dynamic state of well-being that is reminiscent of childhood exuberance and joy, and is the result of the body's cells, organs, glands and systems working efficiently and harmoniously. A state of health allows the ready adaptation of the metabolism to the ever-changing environment whether mechanical, biochemical, emotional, mental or spiritual.

Disease is a state where the body has lost the ability to adapt to the environment as a result of imbalance and inefficiency of function of the body's cells, organs, glands and systems. It is at the opposite end of the spectrum from good health and represents a failure in the body to maintain homeostasis.

Lack of health is a state that lies between good health and illness. It is a stage of resistance, where the body is fighting to maintain adaptation. It begins when the body, for whatever reason, has started to lose its efficiency of function due to an imbalance. The imbalance may arise in many ways, i.e., biochemical, nervous, structural, psychological, etc. But, the result is the same: loss of efficiency and balance. When this occurs, the body begins to communicate in its own language, that all is not as it should be. The words in the language the body uses are all the myriad adverse characteristics which may occur, but fail to meet the criteria of a diagnosable disease. Although this state may not be properly characterized as disease, it neither may be accurately termed good health. Far from it, it is a precursor to disease, for if the body loses the battle of resistance and fails in its attempt of adaptation, a diagnosable disease may result.

Unfortunately, traditional lab tests usually only validate the presence of problems when they have gone beyond the resistance stage. For example, the blood is a transport and homeostatic mechanism, meaning that its job is to keep all of its constituents at a certain level (in balance); in order to transport whatever is needed, wherever it is needed in the body. Therefore, even if the body is deficient in calcium, a blood test may show calcium to be within a normal range. What it does not show is that the body may have had to rob the bones and teeth of calcium, in order to keep blood levels normal. Lab tests may be useful in diagnosing disease, but most are inappropriate for identifying the resistance stage of health. Even if they did indicate some problem, they shed little light on how one might go about rebuilding good health. Good health can be regained only by restoring balance and efficiency to the cells and systems of the body. You need to provide your body with the raw materials for which it has a genetic need in order for it to accomplish this task.

The fact that you are interested in your own health and are willing to do something about it is laudable. Each person is responsible for his or her own health and to provide his or her body with all that it requires. It is grossly unfair for people to eat junk food, smoke, abuse alcohol, expose themselves to toxic chemicals at work and at home, drink contaminated water, load their bodies with preservatives and synthetic food, overeat, fail to exercise, become overburdened with stress, fail to get sufficient rest and then become frustrated and angry at their doctors for not making them well!  

QUESTION: I have Candida albicans which prevents me from eating a large variety of foods without adverse reactions. How will this affect the success I'll have using your program?

HEALTHEXCEL: The fact that you are presently unable to eat certain foods will not adversely affect your success with the program. However, a failure to meet your individual requirements for nutrition, may adversely affect your ability to fully rid yourself of Candida!

Killing the Candida is one thing (and not very difficult), but preventing its reoccurrence is quite another. First and foremost, your immune system must be strengthened to the point that it can control the re-growth of the Candida. Otherwise, you may always need to rely on an outside agent to control it. The key to controlling Candida is to balance the body chemistry and improve the efficiency of the immune system, through fulfilling your body's nutritional needs.

"Answers to queries pertaining to diet belong more to
the realm of one's genes, than to philosophical belief."

QUESTION: I follow a religion that frowns on eating meat. If your survey determines that I need meat for my metabolism, and I don't eat it, can I still regain my health?

HEALTHEXCEL: This is a very delicate issue but one that is very important. Certainly, it is one that deserves a straightforward and honest answer.

Our research has led us to conclude that answers to queries pertaining to diet belong to the realm of the dictates of one's genes, rather than to philosophical belief. One of the purposes of religion is to teach us the right ways by which to live. But, the ways of living vary in different parts of the globe. For this reason, one must understand also, that the origins of religious beliefs have occurred in certain geographical areas which, by their nature, provide specific types of food.

Many religions of the East, for example, advocate a no meat diet. Indeed, the natural foodstuffs of those regions provide an ideal diet for the types of metabolisms which have developed over countless generations to be naturally suited to that environment. But, how well could the Eskimos survive without flesh in their diets? Because the Eskimos must eat meat to survive, are they automatically excluded from spiritual development?

Often the cause of allergies is the particular mineral balance of the offending food, contributing to an already existing imbalance in the body.

What about the other side of the coin? If the Eskimos were to eat a no meat diet, they would quickly become ill. Are lack of energy, degenerative disease and all manner of mental and emotional aberrations conducive to spirituality? From this point of view, it may be argued that in order to develop good health and even have a chance then, for spiritual growth, the Eskimo must eat meat!

To answer your question more specifically, the opinion (based on experience) set forth by HEALTHEXCEL is: In order to be healthy, one must acquire all the nutrients for which one has a genetic need. To the extent one can do this, one will be healthy. Some of what is contained in meat can be compensated for with supplements; some of the other intrinsic factors cannot. It just will depend on your body's specific needs. To the extent that you meet them, your health will improve.  

QUESTION: Do the food supplements you recommend contain meat or animal products? I refuse to eat foods from animal sources because of my spiritual beliefs.

HEALTHEXCEL: Many of the supplements recommended in the THE HEALTHEXCEL PROGRAM do not contain meat products. In fact, one of the criteria for selection of a supplement company was the presence or non-presence of meat substances in the products. Except for the supplements specially designed to utilize meat, such as in glandular supplements, the supplements used in the program are manufactured without meat products.

QUESTION: I have multiple food allergies. Can I still use your program even though I'm allergic to many foods and ingredients in food supplements?

HEALTHEXCEL: Very definitely. Your program would simply delete any foods which you could not presently tolerate. What is important and necessary is that you obtain the right balance of nutrients coming into your body. With your food sensitivities, this would mean that your choices would be temporarily more limited than someone without allergies, but you would still be able to obtain what you need from other selections.

Often the cause of allergies is the particular mineral balance of the offending food, contributing to an already existing imbalance in the body. As your body chemistry's balance and efficiency improves, you may find that your sensitivities become less and less. As you progress, you may find that you will be able to tolerate more and more foods.  

"Age, per se, has little to do with health problems."

QUESTION: I am a 37 year old male. I don't drink, smoke or eat any junk food. I don't overeat, I exercise and I take vitamins religiously and my lifestyle is conducive to excellent health. But, I am starting to accumulate a beer belly without the pleasure of drinking beer! What's going on? My body doesn't seem to serve me like it used to.

QUESTION: I've always dreamed of being a professional dancer and finally my dream has come true. Now that it has, my body is deserting me. I'm getting frequent charley horses and in spite of constant training my muscle tone is poor and my strength isn't what it should be. I seem to be fighting to keep what I've always had naturally in the past. Doctors can't find anything medically wrong, either. Why at the height of my success is my body giving out on me? My lifelong dream seems to be fading because my body can't keep up with the vision that I have in my mind. I'm desperate and depressed.

HEALTHEXCEL: Both of these situations may arise due to similar metabolic tendencies relating specifically to an imbalance in the autonomic nervous system. However, without a HEALTHEXCEL evaluation, it is impossible to know for sure the specific causes in each case. However, there are some general principles which may be discussed that apply to both.

First, it is the opinion of HEALTHEXCEL that age, per se, has little to do with such things, i.e., age does not appear to be a primary causative factor, but rather is indirectly involved. What is most critical is the availability or unavailability over time of all the nutrients your body requires to be healthy and properly adapt to environmental change.

The sympathetic division of the autonomic nervous system plays an important role in sculpturing and muscle tone of the body. When the sympathetic system has good tone, one tends to be lean, have good muscle tone and good muscle definition. Conversely, when one is more parasympathetic dominant, the build tends to be wider, thicker, and heavier and the muscle tone tends to be poor.

The adrenal glands are one of the major glands controlled by the sympathetic system and also play a major role in these areas as well. As one gets older a lot of stress is put on the sympathetic system and the adrenal system. If the body cannot adequately adapt to stress because of poor diet for one's type, or environmental stress, emotional stress, etc., the adrenal glands and the sympathetic system will weaken and begin to wear out, in a manner of speaking. When this occurs, the parasympathetic system will, by default of the sympathetic system, begin to dominate. This gradually results in the general transformation of sympathetic into parasympathetic features. Exactly how the changes occur, in terms of where the weight gets added, depends upon the variances in the endocrine system. In some, the weight accumulates around the middle; in others, it's across the back; in others, it's all over.

The important factor to understand is that regardless of the particulars of any given situation, the body is designed to be healthy. The intelligence within each cell knows how to function properly. What is needed is to stop eating the wrong foods and to start eating the foods which are right for one's metabolism. In so doing, one will be doing the maximum to maintain balance between the sympathetic and parasympathetic systems. It is not enough for good health to just eat good food and take nutritional supplements; one must also make sure to get the right kinds and amounts for one's needs!  

"Good nutrition without proper nerve flow is of very limited value."

QUESTION: I'm a chiropractor's dream! My pocketbook stays slim because of all the cash I have to lay out for frequent adjustments, just to keep myself functional. My chiropractor knows his art well and my adjustments feel great until I get home and make some slight movement that undoes everything I just paid for. My problem is that my body just won't hold the adjustments he makes, and I can't live with the pain of a constantly maladjusted spine! So, it's a vicious cycle and I don't know the way out. If I just didn't have to move, I'd be O.K. and everything would stay put. What can be done for me, short of setting up a cot in the chiropractor's office?

HEALTHEXCEL: The structural aspect of health is a very important consideration for one's health and well-being. In fact, it might be argued that it is even more important than the biochemical (nutritional) aspect. It is critical to the functioning of all the bodily systems that the nerve supply from the brain to the rest of the body be unhindered. If the structure of the body should get out of alignment and impinge on the nerve flow, it can have serious consequences.

The relationship of nutrition to structure and the nervous system is a little like that of a car's electrical system and the gasoline. The car may be filled with the best gas available, but without a properly functioning electrical system, the gas is of little value. Similarly, good nutrition without proper nerve flow is of very limited value.

However, there is a reciprocal relationship between nutrition and the structure of the body. The skeleton indeed gives structure to the body and supports the muscles and tissues. However, the muscles in turn give support to the structure. Overly tense muscles, weak muscles or poor muscle tone may allow improper movement of the structure, causing structural misalignment, resulting in nerve inhibition.

Thus, it is most important that the muscles receive the proper nutrients to maintain their prior strength and tone. When this is the case, chiropractic adjustments will hold instead of slip away, along with your money!

QUESTION: I have been caring for my aging grandmother, and since she has been eating the healthy diet that I fix for my family, I have noticed that her alertness, memory and even her level of energy have improved considerably. Would an individualized program for a person her age still be able to reverse some of the aging processes that have taken place?

QUESTION: I have a 2 year old who has been sickly since birth, going through one bout after another. Is she too young to start feeding her foods that might help make her more normal and put her more in league with other healthy youngsters her age?

HEALTHEXCEL: As long as one is alive, food is needed to maintain the life-sustaining processes of metabolism in a state of health and well-being. Both young and old have a genetic requirement for nutrition that simply must be met. The extent that this requirement is met determines in great measure the level of health available. People of all ages may benefit from eating according to the needs of their metabolic type.

QUESTION: I have a beautiful home and family, a successful career and everything to live for. I am thankful for my blessings, but life does not hold any luster or happiness for me in spite of all that I have to be thankful for. I feel like a robot just marking time. Where has my will to live gone? Can you help me get it back?

HEALTHEXCEL: The world is as we are! This old adage has a lot of meaning from the perspective of metabolic typing. The will to live, the ability to enjoy life, the capacity for happiness and for love, the quality of perception, the ability to appreciate and express emotion, all these, and most all of one's mental and emotional qualities, depend on energy.

"Research suggests that certain mental traits can be brought on bychanges in physiology."

For example, if one becomes very tired from lack of rest, all of one's perceptions are dimmed, the mind is dulled and the ability to express emotion is diminished. The quality of one's experience on all levels depends on the rate and amount of energy production.

Whenever the body chemistry becomes imbalanced and shifts toward a more alkaline condition, one's energy patterns characteristically become lowered; one feels slowed down, mentally, physically and emotionally. This may occur as a result of one's diet over stimulating the parasympathetic division of the autonomic nervous system. Or, it may arise when the rate at which carbohydrates are burned in the body becomes too slow. In either case, a correction in diet may do wonders in restoring metabolic balance and allowing one to see the bright side of the world again. 

QUESTION: My psychiatrist says, we just need to work through it, and that, we’re getting there slowly, but surely. But after 5 years of expensive psychoanalysis, I'm beginning to wonder if there isn't something more wrong with me other than just what's in my head.

HEALTHEXCEL: The mind and body are intimately connected. When the mind is awake, there is a correlating set of physiological parameters. When the mind is dreaming, there is a different set of physiological parameters. When the mind is in the state of deep sleep, there is yet a third set of physiological parameters.

Research suggests that certain mental traits can be brought on by changes in physiology, such as in cases of hypoglycemia. Correlations have also been made of certain mental and emotional traits to the general acid/alkaline environment in the body: many characteristics of a hyperactive nature, such as anger and irritability, are seen in an acid chemistry; an alkaline environment appears to give rise to the hypoactive tendencies, such as apathy and depression.

Very often one may realize the need for a certain change in behavior or even understand the psychological occurrence which is at the basis of, say, a depression. But, if that person also has a biochemical imbalance resulting in severe alkalinity, he may never be able to free himself from the depression. For total psychological changes of any kind, the mind and the body must work together. Both the psychology and the physiology, the biochemistry of emotion, must be properly addressed!  

QUESTION: I saw a child-abuse program on T.V. this morning which shocked me to my senses. I realized that the lady who beat her child was not far from the lady that I am when I am upset with my children. I never thought that my child could become one of those statistics, but these days, with my increasing lack of patience, I am beginning to wonder. Please, is there anything your program can do?

HEALTHEXCEL: Many people have had the experience of becoming irritable either just before meals, in cases where they did not have their meals on time, or in relation to monthly PMS. This has been recognized as a mental trait which arises due to low blood sugar or hypoglycemia. This means that the blood did not carry adequate fuel for the cells of the body to function properly. One way the body has of expressing this situation of unavailability of fuel is through a symptom such as irritability.

Many such symptoms irritability, a tendency to anger easily, nervousness, worry, anxiety and others on the opposite end of the emotional spectrum such as depression, apathy and crying for no apparent reason, may also arise for the same reason but not necessarily around meal times. They may certainly occur, as in the first case, from not eating on time. But, more importantly, such symptoms may also manifest due to an improper diet for one's metabolic needs. All such characteristics are the expression of the same problem the body's failure to acquire the proper fuel.

QUESTION: Hay fever! April is when it hits, and from then until October, I'm like a zombie. I live on antihistamines which make my world foggy and like everything is in slow motion, but without them, I can't make it through a day's activities. It's like I'm living life through a veil for half the year. Is there anything nutritionally that can help me look forward to spring, summer and fall, instead of wishing winter would last all year?

HEALTHEXCEL: From the perspective of metabolic typing, it is very possible that you may have a problem with calcium metabolism. When calcium is not properly utilized, the walls of the cells in the body may become weakened and have a tendency to be porous and easily break down. When this occurs, histamines are released into the system in high quantities, making one predisposed to histadelic-type allergies.

"Sympathetic dominant people characteristically have good memories,
while parasympathetic people tend to be forgetful."

Often one may help this problem greatly by improving calcium metabolism. In some metabolic types, this requires a diet of foods high in calcium, fat and protein, all of which will help raise calcium levels in the body, which will bind up histamine and help strengthen cellular integrity. In other metabolic types, just the opposite will be needed: a diet low in calcium, fat and protein, but high in potassium, magnesium and vitamin B6 the nutrients calcium requires in order to be efficiently utilized.

Both metabolic types may have the same problem of allergies due to poor calcium metabolism, but for opposite biochemical reasons. Where one suffers from an actual calcium deficiency, the other suffers from a bio-unavailability of calcium, i.e., calcium is there in sufficient quantities, but can't be utilized properly!

QUESTION: I'm only 28 and yet I'm already starting to have problems with forgetfulness and fading memory. Alzheimer's disease has claimed my mother at age 47 and I'm fearful that I'm already beginning to show the early stages of it. Can nutrition help something like this?

HEALTHEXCEL: Research has shown that rational, logical modes of thought stem from left-brain activity. This kind of thinking is controlled by the sympathetic division of the autonomic nervous system. The sympathetic system is also responsible for good memory. Sympathetic dominant people characteristically have good memories, while parasympathetic people tend to be forgetful. It may be that your diet is causing your parasympathetic system to dominate over your sympathetic system, a situation that may very naturally develop in those following a vegetarian-type diet, but who are unsuited for it. Often such fad diets may be low in certain amino acids which are required for biochemical processes involved in memory.

It is also possible that you may have developed what recently has become known as heavy metal toxicity. The amounts of toxic metals in our environment are growing and the possibility of acquiring toxic levels in the body is growing with them. Metals such as cadmium, aluminum, arsenic, mercury and lead have no life-supporting function role to play in the body. Many have been correlated with specific problems: lead with learning disability, aluminum with Alzheimer's disease, etc.

Unfortunately, they can accumulate in vital organs such as the brain, heart, kidneys, liver, bones, etc., and disrupt their normal functioning. Heavy metals can also displace organic nutrients like calcium, for example, and thereby disrupt enzyme reactions in which the good nutrients are involved.

Maintaining the proper biochemical balance can prevent the absorption and buildup of heavy metals in the body. But the improper nutritional balance may not only allow for the absorption of heavy metals, but also their storage in the body. If the body does not have the right balance, it cannot adequately deal with the metals, and ends up storing them instead of ridding itself of them.

However, restoration of the proper nutrient balance for one's metabolic type, allows the body to regain the ability to pick up the toxic metals from their storage sites and eliminate them from the body. The key is to determine your metabolic type and to then acquire the foods in your diet which meet your individual needs.  

QUESTION: My son is so hyperactive that he's driving me up the wall. The tranquilizers only make him worse. Is there anything I can do short of pulling all my hair out, and his too?

HEALTHEXCEL: Generally, all hyperactive characteristics arise in acidic body chemistry. When the body chemistry becomes too acidic, it may be likened to all the nerve endings being bathed in acid. This naturally results in a kind of overall, systemic irritation, which makes even sitting still a major accomplishment. Such cases are good examples of how one can be driven by his physiology.

Acidity may arise in different metabolic types for different biochemical reasons. In sympathetic dominants, this may occur from too much calcium and protein. In fast oxidizers, this can occur from a diet too high in carbohydrate, especially high potassium foods, and too low in fats and proteins. Of course, sugar, preservatives, food coloring and other food additives may also play a major role in hyperactivity in children.  

"An improper diet may result in a loss of sexual interest and performance,
physically as well as emotionally."

QUESTION: My wife is beautiful, exciting, I love her and we used to have a fantastic sex life. As time goes by, I find that it is harder and harder to become aroused enough to do anything about it. This is causing some friction in our marriage and I'm starting to become worried.

HEALTHEXCEL: Like every other activity in the body, sex requires adequate energy production. More specifically, sexual activity requires good tone in the sympathetic division of the nervous system. An improper diet for one's type which may result in parasympathetic dominance, may result in loss of sexual interest and performance, physically as well as emotionally. If one's diet is not correct for one's type, over time the sympathetic system may simply weaken from the stress of living, allowing the parasympathetic system to dominate, by default.

Adequate histamine levels in the body must also be maintained for efficient sexual response to occur. Slow oxidizers have a tendency to develop sexual dysfunction due to excessive calcium levels which tend to bind up histamine, as well as have an adverse effect on the endocrine glands involved in sexual function.  

"Killing a cancer tumor is not necessarily the same as obtaining good health."

QUESTION: Cancer runs in my family. I am 25 and already have had some early warning signs of the disease. Isn't there something that nutrition can do to help me avoid the same fate as my relatives?

QUESTION: I just had a tumor removed from my colon. The doctors say that they got it all but are using chemotherapy to try to prevent a recurrence. I wonder if there's something I can do to help, too?

HEALTHEXCEL: Cancer, as well as all other degenerative conditions, occurs due to an imbalance in body chemistry and a subsequent weakening in the efficiency of function of the body's cells, organs, glands and systems.

Regardless of the therapy one chooses, balancing the body chemistry and improving the body's efficiency of function is the very least that a person must do in order to have any hope of restoring good health and well-being. In the case of cancer, methods may be used to kill the cancer . . . but, what about that which allowed the cancer to develop in the first place? What about the possibility of a recurrence?

The destruction of cancer is not necessarily the same as obtaining good health. Killing the cancer removes the symptom of a deeper problem; but it does not remove the cause of the cancer the failure of the body's own defense mechanisms.  

QUESTION: There are so many health books on the market claiming a cure for this or that, but if you read 3 books on the same subject, they all tell you to take different things and not to take what the others say you should! How is a person to know which is right? It's so confusing!

Your question hits the proverbial nail on the head as regards nutrition! In one question, you have touched upon the most vital subject that we face today in the fields of health and nutrition. On how well this question is answered by our health professionals, may very well depend upon the future health of our nation. One reason nutrition has been so ignored is directly related to your question. Nutrition appears to be confusing because it does not seem to provide consistent solutions to problems.

In actuality, nutrition from the perspective of metabolic typing, is very consistent and makes total sense. The problem is not with nutrition, but in the manner in which it has been looked at in the past. When an attempt is made to find one diet that is right for everyone, or to find the same results for everyone with the use of a certain nutrient, nutrition appears not only confusing, but also as if it has no scientific basis, i.e., one which is repeatable, testable and verifiable.

The amazing and seemingly confusing thing is that all the books you have read are probably absolutely right! Each was written by an individual who had had certain experiences with a certain nutrient(s). And, for that person, i.e., that particular metabolic type, the conclusions were most likely completely accurate. However, they would only be accurate for that class of metabolic types.

Another metabolic type, researching the same situation, would come up with totally different conclusions, which are equally valid for a different group of metabolisms. The fault lies not in the inaccuracy of the experiences, but rather in the inappropriate conclusion that what is right for one person is right for everyone!

This is why all metabolic research, in order to be valid, must take into consideration the classifications of the metabolisms of the individuals involved in the study. Otherwise, the results will be no more conclusive than the books you have read. This is why, for example, vitamin C may have a miraculous affect on one person, no affect on another, and worsen the condition of a third. To know what is right for you, you must first determine you metabolic type.  

QUESTION: I've been aware of an excellent nutritional program designed by Dr. Kelley (The Kelley Program -Ed.) and wonder how your program differs from his.

HEALTHEXCEL: Dr. Kelley's program also uses the concept of metabolic typing. In fact, Dr. Kelley was the first to use the term metabolic typing and is credited with identifying the autonomic nervous system as the basis for it.

THE HEALTHEXCEL PROGRAM differs from Dr. Kelley's program in several important ways. First, we have discovered that different nutrients affect different people in different ways.

Second, these differences have been found to result in different dominances, or metabolic classifications.

Third, and most importantly, these differences in the metabolic types, which occur as a result of different systems dominating in different metabolisms, provide a more refined and accurate means for the determination of the different requirements for nutrition. In our system, the dominance may occur due to autonomic, oxidative, or endocrine influence. In Dr. Kelley's program, dominance is considered only from the standpoint of the autonomic nervous system. In due respect, Dr. Kelley's program has helped many people. HEALTHEXCEL has utilized many of his pioneering concepts in the development of its program.  

QUESTION: I've spent many hundreds of dollars on every fad program offered, from fountain of youth type programs to easy and permanent weight loss programs, and I'm still a fat and aging woman who is trying desperately to hang on to what little health I still have. Frankly, I'm leery that your program is just another get rich quick scheme and I don't want to waste any more money on fruitless endeavors. Nothing has worked for me so far. Why is your program going to be any different?

QUESTION: What does this program offer me that the dozens of other nutritional programs on the market don't?

HEALTHEXCEL: These are fair questions and deserve straightforward answers. Unfortunately for the pocketbook, the value of such programs can only truly be known by experience. The real proof, as they say, is in the pudding.

The best one can do is to thoroughly try to understand the concepts on which a program is based. If they make sense, then all one can do is give it a try. A little bit of faith is necessary though, to bridge the gap between thinking and knowing, although in cases such as yours where failure has been often encountered, faith can understandably be hard to muster.

Our research has led us to base THE HEALTHEXCEL PROGRAM on the following principles:

• People are as unique on a biochemical level as they are in their fingerprints
• One's biochemical individuality dictates one's needs for nutrition
• The basis for nutritional needs is based in one's genes, not in some philosophy or belief
• Different nutrients effect different people in different ways
• How nutrients effect one's body chemistry, depends on the dominant system in the body, autonomic, oxidative or endocrine
• Based on this concept, there are 9 basic metabolic types, derived from combinations of the sympathetic, balanced and parasympathetic autonomic types and the slow, mixed and fast oxidative types.
• With the addition of the endocrine types, adrenal, pituitary, thyroid and gonad, 36 variations are possible
• Within each of the 36 types, there are variations in balance and efficiency which may be anywhere from slight to extreme
• Health and well-being depend on the rate, amount and quality of energy production in the body, which in turn are dependent on the fuel available through diet and supplementation
• In order to know what food and supplements supply a correct source of fuel, one must first identify one's unique and specific metabolic needs
• Once the metabolic type is determined, then one can know which foods are correct, and just as importantly, which foods are incorrect, for one's metabolic needs.

* * *

It is to the accomplishment of this end that HEALTHEXCEL, INC. is dedicated. It is our firm belief, that any program which does not properly address the concept of the metabolic type will not produce the desired results. To the extent that any program is successful in identifying individual metabolic needs, to an equal extent will it be able to effect changes for good health.

We believe that The HealthExcel Program addresses this issue better than any other program available at the present time. If you can find a program which does it better, buy it! . . . And, please let us know about it so that we can buy it, too!

W.L. and Suzi Wolcott, © HealthExcel, Inc., 1987, 1997, 2003