Sheldon Baker03.03.14
Dr. Smith is an author and blogger, radio talk show host, creates and conducts webinars and appears in informational health and wellness videos. His engaging ability to present complex medical topics, be it inflammation, diabetes, migraines, food sensitivity or weight management, in a clear, conversational manner has won him a sizable following of anti-aging and disease-prevention enthusiasts. Also known as “Dr. Mike,” he was a recurring guest in 2012 on “The Suzanne Show” with Suzanne Somers on the Lifetime Network, appeared on “Gem of the Caribbean,” a television show dedicated to disease prevention and is often seen in several regional infomercials as an expert guest. He is also heard on numerous syndicated national health radio shows and hosts “Healthy Talk” on www.RadioMD.com, where he interviews celebrities, authors and a wide range of health experts, while providing his own expert opinion.
A graduate of the University of Texas, Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, Texas, Dr. Smith completed an internship in internal medicine at the University of Utah and a residency in radiology at UT Southwestern Medical Center.
Health E-Insights: Why did you write The Supplement Pyramid?
Dr. Smith: People want to improve their health and they are finally realizing that supplements can play a role in getting healthy—but they don’t always know what to take. There are tons of books and blogs and videos that promote the benefits of specific nutrients, like omega-3 oils, antioxidants and herbal extracts, but after reading these resources so many people are still left asking, “Do I need to take this?” This is why I wrote The Supplement Pyramid. By completing the assessments I developed, people can finally know which supplements are best for them and which ones they can probably do without. Additionally, The Supplement Pyramid prioritizes their supplements as well. The importance of the supplements to a given regimen decrease moving up the pyramid. My book clearly explains how all of this works. After reading my book, you can have a supplement regimen that’s personalized and prioritized.
Health E-Insights: Suzanne Somers wrote the forward. She must have thought a lot about this book?
Dr. Smith: She loves it. Her whole approach to supplementation and hormone replacement is based on personalization—exactly what my book can do for people who complete the assessments. She wrote about my book, “Supplementing your deficiencies, restoring what’s missing, circumventing genetic predispositions are all possible when you know what’s out there to accomplish these changes. Supplementation with knowledge gives peace of mind that you have taken charge of your health.” Yes, exactly! She gets it. Using supplements wisely, in a personalized manner, is what works—not haphazardly, trying every latest fad that the industry promotes. I take you step-by-step through your family and personal history, clinical assessments covering everything from cancer and heart disease to arthritis and dementia and laboratory tests to help you build your very own, personalized supplement pyramid. You end up with a regimen that reflects wise supplement choices.
Health E-Insights: Do you think this book serves as an educational tool?
Dr. Smith: That’s exactly what it is. Unlike a traditional supplement book, which is informational only, The Supplement Pyramid is designed to build personalized regimens. With my book, you’ll know exactly what it is you need to take based on your family and personal history, current symptoms and disease risk factors.
Health E-Insights: You’ve developed a series of medical quizzes. What is this designed to do?
Dr. Smith: The quizzes identify your health issues. The questions making up each quiz, there’s 16 total, are from clinical assessments used by doctors every day. So the quizzes aren’t the typical fluff you see in mainstream magazines. The questions I’ve included in each quiz ask about current symptoms and disease risk factors. These are the same questions your doctor would ask you during an office visit. Based on your answers, a score for each quiz is generated. Your score comes with specific, evidenced-based supplement suggestions—suggestions aimed at treating, preventing and reducing your risk of disease.
Health E-Insights: What’s the most important message to take away from reading your book?
Dr. Smith: Health conscious people can finally take the guesswork out of taking supplements and personalize their regimens with The Supplement Pyramid. It provides a wealth of vital information for people to move toward an optimal personalized supplement regimen. Like traditional food pyramids that help us design and follow a healthy diet, The Supplement Pyramid offers a three-tiered plan—foundational, personalization, and optimization levels—to help readers follow a healthy supplement plan. But unlike the food pyramid, The Supplement Pyramid is design to meet their unique, personal needs. Step-by-step instructions and detailed interactive medical quizzes, along with useful information about blood testing, help readers determine the most important nutritional supplements for their bodies. People can also go to www.MySupplementPyramid.com to build their supplement pyramids online.
Health E-Insights: What supplements do you take?
Dr. Smith: Let’s look at my supplement pyramid. I take all four foundation supplements. An ideally dosed multivitamin, omega-3 oils, ubiquinol CoQ10 and probiotics. Next, based on my family history, personal history and quiz scores, I take cruciferous vegetable and coriolus mushroom extracts for cancer prevention, grape seed extract for blood pressure, DHEA for hormone restoration and lactoferrin for immune support. On days when I travel and typically don’t eat as healthy as I should, I take digestive enzymes and a comprehensive antioxidant formula.
Health E-Insights: Do you also have an approach to healthy eating?
Dr. Smith: Yes. For starters, I eat several, progressively smaller meals throughout the day. This maintains a youthful metabolism and has kept my weight stable for years. I limit white foods to rare occasions—breads, pastas and sugars. I eat vegetables and fruit in a 2:1 ratio at every meal, including breakfast. For example, for lunch I might have two servings of carrots and celery with one serving of fresh berries. I eat organic produce as much as I can and free-range, hormone free, grass-fed animal protein. I eat a lot of oily fish. Other than coffee in the morning and an occasional afternoon black tea, I drink water. And the last thing I want to say is probably the most important: I am consistent, not perfect, following my diet plan. I do indulge on rare occasions. I love ice cream.
Health E-Insights: Do you see any significant trends taking place in the supplement industry?
Dr. Smith: Yes, using food and supplements to influence gene expression in positive, life-extending ways. This field of study is called Nutrigenomics or Epigenetics. We have discovered that certain foods and nutrients can affect how a gene is expressed. The gene itself is not changed, but its expression is changed. This has potential in helping mitigate chronic age-related diseases—at the genetic level.
Health E-Insights: You’ve written a book, host a radio show on RadioMD and do national media interviews. What’s next on your horizon?
Dr. Smith: I would like to see The Supplement Pyramid concept expanded to specific diseases, children and even pets. That means writing several more books. I would like to take my infotainment style to a broader audience—expanding my television and online presence.
Health E-Insights: What’s the best complement you’ve ever received?
Dr. Smith: One of my first patients as a medical student was an older women named Babe. She said to me, “You listen well.”
Editor’s Note: The Supplement Pyramid and health quizzes are available at www.MySupplementPyramid.com.
Sheldon Baker is well known for creating nutraceutical brand marketing and public relations campaigns. For Health E-Insights interview consideration, contact him at Sheldon@NutraInk.com. And follow him on Twitter @NutraInk.
A graduate of the University of Texas, Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, Texas, Dr. Smith completed an internship in internal medicine at the University of Utah and a residency in radiology at UT Southwestern Medical Center.
Health E-Insights: Why did you write The Supplement Pyramid?
Dr. Smith: People want to improve their health and they are finally realizing that supplements can play a role in getting healthy—but they don’t always know what to take. There are tons of books and blogs and videos that promote the benefits of specific nutrients, like omega-3 oils, antioxidants and herbal extracts, but after reading these resources so many people are still left asking, “Do I need to take this?” This is why I wrote The Supplement Pyramid. By completing the assessments I developed, people can finally know which supplements are best for them and which ones they can probably do without. Additionally, The Supplement Pyramid prioritizes their supplements as well. The importance of the supplements to a given regimen decrease moving up the pyramid. My book clearly explains how all of this works. After reading my book, you can have a supplement regimen that’s personalized and prioritized.
Health E-Insights: Suzanne Somers wrote the forward. She must have thought a lot about this book?
Dr. Smith: She loves it. Her whole approach to supplementation and hormone replacement is based on personalization—exactly what my book can do for people who complete the assessments. She wrote about my book, “Supplementing your deficiencies, restoring what’s missing, circumventing genetic predispositions are all possible when you know what’s out there to accomplish these changes. Supplementation with knowledge gives peace of mind that you have taken charge of your health.” Yes, exactly! She gets it. Using supplements wisely, in a personalized manner, is what works—not haphazardly, trying every latest fad that the industry promotes. I take you step-by-step through your family and personal history, clinical assessments covering everything from cancer and heart disease to arthritis and dementia and laboratory tests to help you build your very own, personalized supplement pyramid. You end up with a regimen that reflects wise supplement choices.
Health E-Insights: Do you think this book serves as an educational tool?
Dr. Smith: That’s exactly what it is. Unlike a traditional supplement book, which is informational only, The Supplement Pyramid is designed to build personalized regimens. With my book, you’ll know exactly what it is you need to take based on your family and personal history, current symptoms and disease risk factors.
Health E-Insights: You’ve developed a series of medical quizzes. What is this designed to do?
Dr. Smith: The quizzes identify your health issues. The questions making up each quiz, there’s 16 total, are from clinical assessments used by doctors every day. So the quizzes aren’t the typical fluff you see in mainstream magazines. The questions I’ve included in each quiz ask about current symptoms and disease risk factors. These are the same questions your doctor would ask you during an office visit. Based on your answers, a score for each quiz is generated. Your score comes with specific, evidenced-based supplement suggestions—suggestions aimed at treating, preventing and reducing your risk of disease.
Health E-Insights: What’s the most important message to take away from reading your book?
Dr. Smith: Health conscious people can finally take the guesswork out of taking supplements and personalize their regimens with The Supplement Pyramid. It provides a wealth of vital information for people to move toward an optimal personalized supplement regimen. Like traditional food pyramids that help us design and follow a healthy diet, The Supplement Pyramid offers a three-tiered plan—foundational, personalization, and optimization levels—to help readers follow a healthy supplement plan. But unlike the food pyramid, The Supplement Pyramid is design to meet their unique, personal needs. Step-by-step instructions and detailed interactive medical quizzes, along with useful information about blood testing, help readers determine the most important nutritional supplements for their bodies. People can also go to www.MySupplementPyramid.com to build their supplement pyramids online.
Health E-Insights: What supplements do you take?
Dr. Smith: Let’s look at my supplement pyramid. I take all four foundation supplements. An ideally dosed multivitamin, omega-3 oils, ubiquinol CoQ10 and probiotics. Next, based on my family history, personal history and quiz scores, I take cruciferous vegetable and coriolus mushroom extracts for cancer prevention, grape seed extract for blood pressure, DHEA for hormone restoration and lactoferrin for immune support. On days when I travel and typically don’t eat as healthy as I should, I take digestive enzymes and a comprehensive antioxidant formula.
Health E-Insights: Do you also have an approach to healthy eating?
Dr. Smith: Yes. For starters, I eat several, progressively smaller meals throughout the day. This maintains a youthful metabolism and has kept my weight stable for years. I limit white foods to rare occasions—breads, pastas and sugars. I eat vegetables and fruit in a 2:1 ratio at every meal, including breakfast. For example, for lunch I might have two servings of carrots and celery with one serving of fresh berries. I eat organic produce as much as I can and free-range, hormone free, grass-fed animal protein. I eat a lot of oily fish. Other than coffee in the morning and an occasional afternoon black tea, I drink water. And the last thing I want to say is probably the most important: I am consistent, not perfect, following my diet plan. I do indulge on rare occasions. I love ice cream.
Health E-Insights: Do you see any significant trends taking place in the supplement industry?
Dr. Smith: Yes, using food and supplements to influence gene expression in positive, life-extending ways. This field of study is called Nutrigenomics or Epigenetics. We have discovered that certain foods and nutrients can affect how a gene is expressed. The gene itself is not changed, but its expression is changed. This has potential in helping mitigate chronic age-related diseases—at the genetic level.
Health E-Insights: You’ve written a book, host a radio show on RadioMD and do national media interviews. What’s next on your horizon?
Dr. Smith: I would like to see The Supplement Pyramid concept expanded to specific diseases, children and even pets. That means writing several more books. I would like to take my infotainment style to a broader audience—expanding my television and online presence.
Health E-Insights: What’s the best complement you’ve ever received?
Dr. Smith: One of my first patients as a medical student was an older women named Babe. She said to me, “You listen well.”
Editor’s Note: The Supplement Pyramid and health quizzes are available at www.MySupplementPyramid.com.
Sheldon Baker is well known for creating nutraceutical brand marketing and public relations campaigns. For Health E-Insights interview consideration, contact him at Sheldon@NutraInk.com. And follow him on Twitter @NutraInk.
