Conscious Life Journal: Your tag line is “The Doctor of the Future.” What does that mean to you? And how do you see medicine changing in the near future?
Dr. Dean: When Dr. Stephen Sinatra, Cardiologist and Integrative Medicine Specialist, and I met many years ago, he was very intrigued by my MD, ND training. He remarked that the doctor of the future should have those credentials. I agreed and hoped it would be the case.
CLJ: In your book The Magnesium Miracle, you talk about the importance of magnesium. Can you tell why it is important and the best way to absorb it in the body?
DR.D: Magnesium is the most important nutrient in the body. It is necessary for the activation and function of 700-800 enzyme systems in the body. It catalyzes most of the chemical reactions in the body. It synthesizes protein, stabilizes RNA and DNA, transmits nerve signals, and relaxes muscles, whereas calcium contracts muscles. It also produces and transports energy called ATP, yet your doctor thinks it’s just a laxative!
There are simply too many benefits to list in this interview. Magnesium is key to bone health, regulates body temperature, aids arterial functioning, reduces inflammation, and helps with systemic detoxification. Magnesium prevents and treats many common medical conditions including depression, insomnia, heart attacks, kidney stones—the list goes on and on.
Absorption is key to obtaining therapeutic levels of magnesium. Many drugs used for magnesium deficiency symptoms cause more magnesium deficiency. For example, here’s a common pattern that repeats over and over in the average doctor’s office:
You experience a stressful event in your life and, as a result, you suffer with headaches, insomnia, achiness, and exhaustion, which are all magnesium-deficiency symptoms. When you visit your doctor your blood pressure is elevated because you are nervous and stressed. You are prescribed a diuretic, which drains more magnesium from your body. A month later, you return to your doctor and in spite of the medication, your blood pressure is higher. Your doctor prescribes a calcium channel-blocking drug, instead of using magnesium, which is a natural calcium channel blocker. Two months later and you’re shocked when your doctor tells you that now your cholesterol is elevated and your blood sugar is high, both signs of magnesium deficiency! Suddenly you are on two more medications—a statin drug for cholesterol and a drug for diabetes, both of which deplete magnesium!
Another three months and your libido is nonexistent and you still have the original symptoms: headaches, insomnia, achiness, and exhaustion.
I helped develop a product called ReMag (www.rnareset.com), which is the best absorbed form of magnesium available. ReMag is a picometer-sized stabilized form of magnesium ions that is 100% absorbed at the cellular level and capable of reaching therapeutic levels that can help treat dozens of health conditions, including high blood pressure, migraines, and atrial fibrillation. ReMag also helps restore magnesium levels if you are taking magnesium-depleting medications.
CLJ: You provide a wealth of information in your online wellness program. So many wonderful tidbits. Can you share just a few of your latest tips with our readers?
DR.D: Vitalizing Foods – There are thirty-one modules that make up the Vitalizing Foods Pillar. Each is a stand-alone module but together I help you create a daily meal plan that you can actually follow. I cover protein sources, protein powders, food intolerances, sweeteners, the dairy conundrum, the truth about fats, all kinds of veggies, meat, vegetarian alternatives, juicing, legumes, grains, breads, nuts, seeds, fiber, how to get clean water, and even how to eat, chew, and balance it all.
Liver Snacking – Many health gurus encourage eating six small meals a day instead of three, which means you are actually snacking all day long. Or you eat fruit and nuts in-between meals. But this kind of frequent snacking may be doing more harm than good.
During waking hours, in the second and third hour after a meal, about 60% of your energy comes from the liver’s glucose stores and the other 40% comes from fat burning. At night, this reverses, with 60% of your energy coming from stored fat. However, many people eat right before bed, thus canceling out most of their fat–burning opportunity at night.
Instead of snacking on fruit or nuts, snack on the natural sugar supply in your liver, which is stored as glycogen. Your liver will release just the right amount of sugar you need—no more, no less. You won’t need even need extra insulin. When you are regularly using up your liver’s sugar stores, your body keeps replenishing it. Instead of storing fat, you’ll start burning it.
CLJ: If we could just do the basics for well-being, what do you recommend?
DR.D: Most important is to keep hydrated, use sea salt, and take highly absorbable magnesium (ReMag). Drink half your body weight (in pounds) in ounces of water. If you weigh 150lbs, you will drink 75 ounces. Add 1⁄4 – 1⁄2 tsp. of sea salt/Himalayan salt to every liter/quart of drinking water. Add 1 tsp. of ReMag twice daily in a liter of water. Sip throughout the day and see your health improve.