 Today, I'm with Dr. Tim Diamond, and we're going to talk about naturopathic medicine, especially for our times and this guiding principle of vitalism. Before I read Tim's bio to you, I just want to say hi. Thanks, Tim, for being here. Oh, thank you. Yeah, so let me just read your bio for the audience and then we'll get into this conversation here. Sure. So Tim Diamond has been a natural licensed naturopathic doctor for almost 20 years and for the past five years he has been teaching naturopathic doctors, acupuncturists, and herbalists and is now a professor at American College of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Tim also provides classes on in pathology and natural medicine for life coaches, yoga teachers, unlicensed healers, which we'll talk about, and anyone else who is called to study the healing arts. The guiding principle of Tim's work is vitalism, which I'll have you describe. This is an ancient idea that our whole lives are shaped by a powerful force. This force has been called chi, prana, and the healing power of nature. There are many different ways to tap into this, including the use of herbs, foods, the power of thought, meditation, and prayer. So I think a lot of folks in this audience will resonate with that because you know, a lot of us haven't had the best experience with, you know, Western invasive medicine. Right. And anyway, so I'd love for you to start with talking about vitalism, actually. Yeah. What is what is that? I think it's probably the first time a lot of the folks here have heard about it, but I think it's a really powerful idea. Yeah, well, it's it's really the idea that unifies all of the different ancient systems of medicine, including Western medicine. So, you know, modern Western medicine really traces its roots back historically to the ancient Greeks and to Hippocrates. And Hippocrates was describing energy medicine. He was describing vitalism. He just he called it the healing power of nature. And just for those who don't remember or don't know Hippocrates, yeah, all heard of the Hippocratic oath. Yes. Right. Which is to do no harm. Yeah. And that came from Hippocrates, which I guess was some people considered the ancient, you know, father of medicine or something, right? Yeah. Yeah. Philosophically, a lot of things are traced back to the Hippocratic writings. And there's some debate as to whether it actually was a person or not, because we are talking about over 2,000 years ago. But allegedly, there was this person named Hippocrates and his writings were what he called ancient medicine. He was describing something that 2,000 years ago, he was saying was sort of a lost ancient medicine. And it was the idea that, you know, when you're when you're helping someone facing a disease or any condition, any challenge of life, the idea is you don't treat the disease. You support the person, right? You help them in facing that illness. He was very explicit about this. And it came down to some practices like how you handle a fever. You know, you don't suppress the fever. You support the fever because the fever is your vital force trying to heal you. And this is something that's come up in the news some lately with COVID-19, you know, there's there's been some debate as to whether or not people should suppress that fever with an anti-inflammatory. And I think Hippocrates would say, no, don't do that. And and I certainly would. I mean, in rare circumstances, what I say, you know, do you suppress the fever? You suppress symptoms for comfort sometimes, but really in in all the different vitalistic forms of medicine, you're really supporting the body in doing what it's trying to do and giving it the tools necessary to heal. Yeah, yeah, this is this is very interesting. And so can you give some examples of how the body can heal more than people expect? Like a lot of us here, you know, in Western thought, we just say, okay, if I feel the slightly bit sick, which I should go to the doctor and get pills and like you said, suppress symptoms. So give us a few more examples, if you don't mind, like just how does how can the body heal? Because I think it's true. So many of us distrust the body. We think the body is like, it's it's a machine and once it's broken, you got to fix it, you know, you got to fix it with some outside thing versus that the fact that it's self-healing. So yeah, yeah, I think that you want to start with a kind of really obvious self-evident ones. Like an example, a lot of people use is you cut your finger, you know, you don't really have to do anything to make that happen. And to this day, we still don't really understand how your body can organize around this and figure out exactly what it needs to do with that cut or with any kind of unusual injury or pathogen. It's never seen before. There is this innate immune response that kicks in and can heal us or it usually can. And so in the kind of medicine that I practice, I look for the simple things to give support to the body and also there's ideas of tuning the vital force. And I don't do acupuncture, but this is what an acupuncturist would basically be doing with needles. They're tuning the flow of that vital force. I use homeopathic remedies and herbal remedies and body work in that way, but I think it's really a universal principle with that. And I see this work for chronic illnesses. I've seen people that have been struggling with like inflammatory bowel disease and eczema and some really, really serious conditions as well, where they just spontaneously heal. And it goes on the record as like spontaneous remission, you know, but it coincides right with starting with using some natural therapies that are based upon this principle of vitalism. And there is a lot of, you know, debate about this term and a lot of people in the scientific world will describe it as some kind of a forgotten idea or some kind of antiquated theory or some kind of religion, you know, and close the door on that because it doesn't fit with their experiments. And I'm all for that if people want to do that, but you end up closing the door on much of the healing power that is out there and we need that. You know, the medicine we have today is very, very limited. And we're seeing that limitation right now in the news with COVID-19, you know, we don't have a treatment for this and we don't have, we don't have an anti-viral from a pseudical drug and we don't have a vaccine. And I'm hoping that we will, I'm hoping that we will, but in the meantime what we have is our own immune system and our own vital force. And so that's what, that's what we turn to in times like this. We turn to medicine that actually works when we don't have the suppressive therapies. Do you, and what are your suggestions? So two questions I guess related about strengthening our immune system. One is what can all of us do at home without getting the the herbs yet? And yeah, is it, what can we do at home? Just to strengthen our immune system one. And number two is as you treat patients, clients to strengthen their immune system, what kinds of herbs, what kinds of naturopathic remedies do you support? Yeah. Okay. And I should make it clear that in this kind of medicine, there is no actually treating the virus. There is no treating COVID-19. What I'm talking about is strengthening the person, right? And the first thing to do is try to see what the obstacles to health are. Try to see what is out of balance in your life right now. And I've been on the phone a lot lately with my patients and, you know, trying to see what's changed with them recently. And certainly one issue that's coming up is a lot of fear. Some people are living in fear or living in this constant stimulation of the new cycle. And that that is something that then affects the immune system. You know, there is this thing called psychoneuroimmunology, which is basically the study of how the psyche, the mind affects the immune system. And so anything you can do to support that system. And then another thing that I'm seeing in a lot of people lately is staying indoors much more often. And sometimes that is really necessary, because I do have some patients that live in crowded apartment buildings in a crowded city. And getting out is a dangerous thing, because this virus is extremely contagious. But we have to balance that with the fact that staying indoors suppresses the immune system. And we know this from research on people that are forced to stay indoors, like in prison situations and stuff like that. People's immune system. And why is that? Do you know why? Well, the ancients would say it's because we need fresh air. But I don't really know. I just know that we change when we get out, and especially getting out into nature. There's studies showing that the stress hormones drop down just by short exposure to nature. And so you do what you can on that. But those are some fundamental things. And looking at nutrition to see if you're having all of the right vital nutrients to support your immune system. And these days I've been talking to people, especially about the antioxidants, like the carotenoids, which are found in carrots, and it's the pigment that is in pigmented vegetables, so the orange and the red colors, the yellow colors. This is something that was observed about 100 years ago in one of the earliest research studies on nutrition. They were studying school children and what determined how many sick days they had looking at their diet. They took, and it was tens of thousands of school children they did this with. And they found that it, the biggest thing was the amount of carotenoids they had in their diet. This boosts up the immune system, while at the same time cooling down the inflammatory response of the immune system. And it looks like it can be helpful with what people are seeing with the cytokine storm of COVID-19, where the inflammation gets really, really out of control. So thank you for that. And when you talk about, you know, earlier when I was introducing you, you mentioned that, you know, you teach classes to, about natural medicine to life coaches, yoga teachers, unlicensed healers and anyone called to study the healing arts. So what is an unlicensed healer? Yes, one of my favorite subjects. So I am a licensed healer. Okay, but I have a long history of kind of back and forth on that. I started by, I started as a massage therapist, and then I was, you know, making a lot of recommendations to people, and I was, you know, counseling people, and you know, was working as a professional healer, but I had no license at all. Actually, this was back in the days when massage therapists weren't required to have licenses. And then I decided I wanted to, like, get really serious about my education, and I felt like I had to get a license. So I became a licensed physician in the state of Washington. And then to make a long story short, I felt like I had to move to California, but California wouldn't support my license. So I just basically hung up a shingle saying that I was a wellness consultant. And I started applying my same tools, you know, I was doing homeopathy and herbalism and body work and counseling, probably mostly counseling. And in order to do that legally, I did actually have to learn some things about the law, and I got some counseling from a lawyer. And I learned that basically we can work in support of people's health with an understanding of medicine and we can provide a great deal of health. And then what happened is I was kind of following the rules of being an unlicensed healer, and then because of certain laws changing in California, I became licensed as a doctor here, which stands today. I'm a licensed primary care doctor. But what I found is that once I'd gotten used to working as an unlicensed healer, it wasn't necessarily going to be all that different once I started working people with the license. A few things changed. Like I could use the language in a different way. I could make the diagnosis. I could tell someone you have this, or you know, or you don't have that. And that's kind of a certain power that is afforded to people that have a license, but it isn't necessarily what people need for their healing. I have kind of a different perspective on it, which I would say is really the ancient perspective on what it means to be a doctor. So the word doctor actually means teacher. And I think that is the best thing that we can be as healers. We are teachers. You know, we can educate people about their immune system, about nutrition, or about how the emotions are affecting them. And then they can basically make the diagnosis themselves if that should be necessary. And that is more and more what people are doing. So I've kind of made it my mission lately to empower people to take that up and take up the healing work that they're doing as serious medicine. You know, because I mean, I work with healers and I consider it to be absolutely relevant to my medical health through my, you know, my state of health. So, yeah, that an unlicensed healer is someone who is basically supporting health, but stepping outside of the restrictions of the licensed professions. Got it. Got it. So there are a lot of unlicensed healers watching this probably. Okay, good. There's a class you teach. You may teach several classes to unlicensed healers. These are online courses so people can take them from anywhere. And one of the classes you teach is pathology. Yes. Now, do you have a certain passion for that? You have taught it for a while. Why should unlicensed healers of all types learn pathology? Well, I think there's several reasons. And first of all, I think it helps you to understand the depth of your work. So a lot of healers see themselves as only working on like the emotions, for example, or the spiritual level with a person. And you can think, well, maybe yeah, that's going to be good for them. That's going to be good for their physical health and all that stuff. But when you actually study pathology, which is the study of disease actually, you begin to see the early ways in which these things form in people's lives. And it gives you a depth of understanding of people. That's what I find. And there's also a special kind of connection that you can make with people when they know that you know something about pathology, about the way the body works and the way that things can go wrong sometimes. You can hold a space for someone through their healing process, and it makes it easier when you're facing people who do have a real health challenge. You can you can witness what's going on with them and have a depth of understanding about it. And also some awareness of, you know, when things are, when things are going okay and when things are not going okay, you can learn to, you know, when it's necessary to send people out for some further medical care. So it's in a way, keeping them safe. And I just have to say that when I first started to learn the subject, I had a lot of resistance about it. I mean, I wanted to learn the healing arts, you know, I wanted to learn to help people. And, you know, the subject of pathology just seemed altogether dark and negative. Yeah, yeah, it's like, it's like, why are we focusing on the negative that's exactly positive and the things that we can do right. Exactly, exactly. I think I did kind of fight it a bit through my education. But then when I started actually sitting with people after that education, I found that I could be much more present and a deeper understanding of what is going on with them. So there's those reasons and many others too. I mean, pathology is a kind of language of medicine. And when people, for instance, receive a diagnosis, they usually get kind of immersed in that language. Like, we're seeing that with COVID-19 right now. I mean, I have friends and patients that seem to know more about it than I do. I mean, they're up to date on exactly what the, you know, how it's transmitted and what the rate of transmission is and what the numbers are. And people are learning about cytokines and the cytokine storm and all this stuff. And that's what people do. A lot of people, not everybody, but a lot of people do. And if you're a healer and you have some depth of understanding about that and maybe a more broad depth of understanding about it. Not just, yeah, this particular illness, this particular time, but you have the broader understanding of how things can go wrong with people with their health. What can actually happen? It helps you get to a deeper level with people. Another, I want to ask you about two other classes you teach. One is cardiology and the other one is about the gut. You know, you also recommend this for unlicensed healers as well. Yeah. Why cardiology? Well, it's one of the main subjects of pathology and it happens to be the form of pathology that affects most people in the modern world. Pathology is a big issue for basically everyone. It is the number one cause of death in the modern world. Well, cardiology, heart disease is what I should say. Pathology of the heart is the number one cause of death. And the heart is such an interesting aspect of us. I mean, it is this emotional center for us as well. And I, you know, I want people to study this as deeply as possible, but to leave out what we know about the diseases of this part of the body, the diseases of the system. To me, it's like leaving out a big, pretty big part of it because if you start working with people healing their heart, you are literally affecting their physical heart as well. It has deep ramifications and I think that it's hard to appreciate that without knowing some of the depth around that. So cardiology for healers is what I have is sort of like the first line course on that and I do want to cover all of the different systems of the body and the subjects of pathology, infectious disease, and all of these things to really make a well rounded healer. And then the gut is also something that you teach. And so what about the gut? I mean, actually, I would say the gut is sort of microbiome. You know, these terms are kind of popular these days, but you teach a class about healing the gut. So tell us a bit about that. Yeah, well, this would be a class in covering all of the major pathologies of the gut, as well as how to approach healing on that part of the body and here is another really fascinating and core part of healing. There's this ancient idea that health begins in the gut. And when you think about it, our whole bodies really begin in the gut. Whoops, sorry. Turn that up there. So we begin from our gut, if you look at any part of your body, you know, you can look at your, your fingernail. And if you could look at it really, really closely and you could look right down at the atoms of your fingernail, and see where those come those atoms of your fingernail are literally atoms of food that you ate about six months to one year ago. That's literally what it is made of. And so when we start looking at this transformative process that begins in the gut to create who we are it's it shows that the gut is really important. And a lot of people are learning things today about the microbiome. And I'll cover that somewhat in the course but a lot of what I'm going to be covering is kind of the the basics of pathology again the basics of gut pathology to understand all of these different things that can go wrong and can create acute illness and chronic illness and how to recognize that in people and how to support natural healing in that area. That's great. Thank you so much, Tim for for sharing your knowledge and wisdom with us. So the website is learn healing arts.com learn healing arts.com. I'll be sure to put the link in the notes of the video. If anyone's watching this and is in California you can actually, you know engage with Dr Tim for virtual ethnic appointments, you can't do this with people outside of California though. Yeah, one of the restrictions of having a license. It restricts me to working with people in California because it's a California license. Right, right. But but anyone anywhere in the world can take your online courses on these different things. Yes, maybe people will request courses from you but you definitely have the cardiology one the pathology one the gut one is coming up. So anything else Tim you want to share before we finish the conversation. No, I think that's good. So yeah thank you for having me. Yeah, absolutely thank you for doing your work. Thank you.