Here’s to your health

Medical profession is increasingly turning to nutrition education

Registered pharmacist JaeHi Neil had a vision. Time after time she had witnessed an extreme lack of understanding among the medical profession and consumers alike of the need for proper nutrition.

Has no one been paying attention? In 1994, the U.S. Congress passed an act stating that proper nutrition is critical to health. In 2002, the Journal of the American Medical Association stated that, given poor nutrition, every adult should supplement their diet. In 2003, the World Health Organization announced that diet could have strong effects on health throughout life.

Ms. Neil realized education was the key. In 2000 she co-founded Proevity Continuing Education Group to educate health care providers to the growing shift from traditional allopathic models to integrative and complementary wellness.

Proevity has seen an increase in the number of licensed medical professionals attending the group’s seminars. Today, medical physicians, pharmacists, dentists and nurses comprise more than 40 percent of the its participants – double the number who received Proevity’s continuing education credits just four years earlier.

Proevity (www.Proevity.com) now has courses accredited through the International Association for Continuing Education and Training, providing Australian and New Zealand health care professionals with the opportunity to learn more about nutrition and the burgeoning science of glyconutrition.

This focus on health and nutrition comes as international communities increasingly address wellness. One quarter of all deaths in New Zealand, for example, were caused by cancer, according to a 2000 study released by the New Zealand Ministry of Health. Heart disease is just as prevalent. Were these causes of death as common just 50 years ago?

At Mannatech, a U.S. manufacturer of proprietary glyconutritional supplements and wellness products, such questions are important. Years ago, the company’s top leaders decided to take an entirely new approach to serving health-conscious consumers, and every day presents opportunities to put the company’s vision, “Better Solutions to Global Health,” into meaningful action.

“The problem is that we really do not have a healthcare system at all—-we have a disease-care system,” says Mannatech’s Medical Director, Stephen Boyd, M.D., Ph.D. “It’s wonderful at treating diseases after they are diagnosed, but there is little incentive for physicians to keep us well before that point.”

Moreover, according to Dr. Boyd, many people mistakenly believe that there are “miracle” cures to treat all their ailments, when in fact science has not made much progress against viruses such as the common cold. Our efforts to stay healthy have been compromised by the declining nutritional value of our foods.

Perhaps consumers and the medical profession should look, in part, to poor dietary habits, which are rampant throughout much of the Western world.

“There’s no question that good nutrition is crucial in the outcome of illness,” Dr. Boyd says. “With each passing day, the population is actually becoming less healthy.”

The medical community increasingly is coming to understand the benefits of nutritional supplementation. In 2002, the Journal of the American Medical Association—the publication of one of the United States’ most respected medical groups—stated, “Most people do not consume an optimal amount of all vitamins by diet alone. . . . It appears prudent for all adults to take vitamin supplements.”

Attempting to address illness by medicine alone has caused its share of problems. Surging medical costs and an aging population have put many nations’ healthcare systems on track to insolvency, so things may very well get worse.

“The current cost to develop a new drug, for example, is approximately $800 million, and virtually every new drug is more expensive than the one it was designed to replace,” Dr. Boyd says. “If something is not done to change current trends, health care as we know it will one day be unaffordable.”

Clearly then, consumers should not just wait to fall ill and then hope that physicians and insurance companies will come to their rescue, Mannatech’s leaders say.

“The only thing that really makes sense is staying healthy,” says Mannatech CEO Sam Caster. “There’s an international movement urging people toward nutrition that supports a healthy lifestyle. As part of this movement, Mannatech has discovered a new class of vital nutrients known as glyconutrients that are changing the landscape of wellness.”

“The baby boom generation is making wellness one of its top agendas,” he adds. “An entire generation is saying, ‘We want to maintain our quality of life, we want to keep our vitality, and we’re not willing to accept the traditional aging paradigm.’”

To that end Mannatech’s supplements enlist technology to provide the body with natural, plant-based nutrients and help maintain a solid foundation for lifelong wellbeing, Mr. Caster says.

“Consumers are increasingly concerned about taking charge of their health,” he adds. “New advances in vitamin and mineral technology, skin care and DNA prognostics are just a few that distinguish Mannatech within the new, burgeoning wellness industry.”

“I see this industry exploding,” Mr. Caster says, “and we will continue being a leader, helping to provide products.