The Medical Medium: Healing Foods

Editor’s note: We trust that you’ll quickly understand that this medical medium is operating well outside the bounds of medicine and science. But to avoid any confusion, our in-house PhDs want to remind readers that his claims cannot be substantiated by science.

We’ve been wanting more—much more—from Medical Medium Anthony William ever since our trusted health expert, Dr. Alejandro Junger, introduced us to him and his debut book, which explored new ways to heal chronic, misunderstood illnesses. William is one of the most unconventional and surprisingly insightful healers today: As he explains, the voice of a divine force called Spirit guides him to identify the roots of his patients’ hard-to-diagnose illnesses and find the best solutions to restore their health. While the way William works is undeniably otherworldly, his recommended health regimens are blissfully practical and attainable, and lean heavily on the inherent healing powers of food. Which is the subject of his long-awaited, incredibly fascinating second book, Medical Medium Life-Changing Foods: Save Yourself and the Ones You Love with the Hidden Healing Powers of Fruits & Vegetables.

Now, William is sharing four of his wonder foods—apples, celery, ginger, and honey—with us. Below, he breaks down what makes them so powerful (don’t expect the reasons to be familiar), which ailments (from anxiety to Lyme disease, adrenal fatigue, and brain fog) to target with each food, along with favorite recipes for incorporating all four into your diet.

Medical Medium Life-Changing Foods

by Anthony William

In our world today, it can feel impossible to figure out what to feed yourself and your family. You want to eat healthfully, though not to the point of deprivation—you don’t want to forfeit the soul-soothing comfort of a delicious meal. You want to pick the “right” foods, though just what those are isn’t always clear. Out of so much advice about which foods are supposed to be beneficial and which to avoid, how do you make sense of what it means for you? After all, you and your loved ones are special. You’ve faced specific symptoms and illnesses, suffered distinct injuries (emotional and otherwise), and have your own unique hopes and dreams.
What if you knew the exact foods to add to your life—foods to protect you, foods you could trust, foods that were tailored to your goals and your needs? Enter the life-changing foods. My new book, Medical Medium Life-Changing Foods: Save Yourself and the Ones You Love with the Hidden Healing Powers of Fruits & Vegetables, reveals the secrets of what these fifty-plus foods can do for you, why we need them now more than ever, and which to pick based on your circumstances. In the excerpt below, you’ll find critical healing information about four readily available foods—apples, celery, ginger, and raw honey—so that you don’t have to wait a moment longer to move forward.

All of the life-changing foods are amazing for overall health. Each one also has specialized properties, so you can select what to eat based on your particular needs, whether on a physical, emotional, or spiritual level. One food, for example, can help you put an end to mystery infertility, combat autoimmune disease, stave off Alzheimer’s, ease ADHD, boost your immune system at bedtime, connect you back to your true self, and help you hold on to good memories—and that’s just for starters. (That food is raw honey; more on its other amazing attributes soon.)

When you discover these answers, you welcome healing knowledge that has the power to change everything. When you know what a fruit, vegetable, herb, spice, or wild food has to offer, and when you focus on eating more of it on a regular basis, you get to let go of the massive food confusion. Instead of living in fear and struggling to keep up with each day, you give your mind and body the fuel they need to adapt to our changing times. You finally get to take control of your life, and to guide the ones you love to health and happiness.

Apples

Never underestimate the power of an apple. This fruit’s anti-inflammatory properties make it a top pick when you’re faced with practically any illness. Encephalitis (brain inflammation), IBS (intestinal inflammation), and viral infection (which can result in nerve inflammation) are just a few conditions in which apples can play the critical nutritional role of calming your system by reducing viral and bacterial loads that create inflammation.

The phytochemicals in apples make them a true brain food, feeding neurons and increasing electrical activity. Apples with red skin contain anthocyanins and even traces of malvidin (a type of anthocyanidin), which are partially responsible for the red color. These pigments have anti-obesity properties and compounds that increase digestive strength, encouraging weight loss. Apples also have traces of flavonoids, rutin, and quercidin—phytochemicals that are responsible for heavy metal and radiation detoxification—as well as the amino acids glutamine and serine, which help detoxify the brain of MSG. This fruit helps cleanse and purify the organs, improve circulation in your lymphatic system, repair damaged skin, and regulate blood sugar.

Apples are the ultimate colon cleanser. As the pectin from an apple moves through your gut, it collects and rids your body of microbes such as bacteria, viruses, yeast, and mold. It also gathers and expels putrefied, impacted protein and debris that’s been hiding in intestinal pockets and feeding colonies of harmful bacteria such as E. coli and C. difficile. This makes apples an excellent antiproliferative for healing SIBO (small intestinal bacterial overgrowth) and other digestive disorders.

Apples are also hydrating on a deep, cellular level. They provide precious trace minerals such as manganese and molybdenum, as well as electrolytes and critical mineral salts that help the body rehydrate after exercise or stress of any kind.

Conditions

If you have any of the following conditions, try bringing apples into your life: kidney disease, liver disease, Alzheimer’s disease, arthritis, seizure disorders, multiple sclerosis (MS), thyroid disease, hypoglycemia, diabetes, transient ischemic attack (TIA), urinary tract infections (UTIs), adrenal fatigue, migraines, shingles, mold exposure, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), osteomyelitis, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), acne, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Lyme disease, obesity, small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO), anxiety, tinnitus, viral infection, vertigo

Symptoms

If you have any of the following symptoms, try bringing apples into your life: ringing or buzzing in the ears, diabetic neuropathy, dizzy spells, room spins, balance and equilibrium issues, heart palpitations, acid reflux, hypoglycemia and other blood sugar imbalances, mineral deficiencies, body odor, premenstrual syndrome (PMS) symptoms, rib pain, fatigue, bloating, gas, constipation, nervousness, anxiousness, frozen shoulder, weight gain, back pain, blurry eyes, brain fog, body pain, confusion, ear pain, body stiffness, brain inflammation, dandruff, menopause symptoms

Emotional Support

The apple is an ancient food that brings us back to the source. It is one of the very first foods to have comforted us, and so apples connect us to a sense of sanctuary. This makes them ideal for when you’re feeling depressed, alienated, invalid, powerless, useless, worthless—you get the idea. If the time ever comes when you feel you aren’t being validated, eating apples can help change your course.

Apples open up a part of you and change the energy within and around you to attract happier and brighter things. They can bring back your vibrancy, elevate you, lighten your spirit, and make you more energetic. This is because for thousands of years, we’ve stored apples to get us through the winter months. The fruit is a ray of hope that puts us in touch with the good life. It’s instilled in our bodies that when the outside world seems bleak, an apple can reconnect us to life, rebirth, sunlight, and summertime.

Spiritual Lesson

Apples teach us not to get burned by the frost of insensitivity from others. Unlike crops that risk damage from autumn temperatures, many apple varieties continue to grow and ripen through the cooler months, protected by their frost-resistant skin. When a cold front from a friend, lover, or colleague comes upon you, take heed from the apple and draw a protective shield around yourself until conditions improve.

Tips

• Red-skinned apples with the most color are best.

• Try eating three apples a day. If you commit to this routine, you could see your health improve in unexpected ways.

• At least once a year, go to an organic orchard that allows you to pick apples yourself. The skin of fresh, unwashed, pesticide- and wax-free produce contains elevated microorganisms that are critical to the health of your gut and immune system. The act of picking fruit is also one of the most powerful, grounding meditations that exists.

Apples with “Caramel” Dip

This is the perfect snack to have waiting when your kids get home from school: crispy apple slices laid out alongside a gooey caramel dipping sauce. You may want to double the recipe, because this dish will disappear before you know it.

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Celery

Celery is one of the most powerful anti-inflammatory foods, because it starves unproductive bacteria, yeast, mold, fungus, and viruses that are present in the body and flushes their toxins and debris out of the intestinal tract and liver. Pathogens like these are so often the underlying cause of inflammation—in their absence, your body is much better able to handle whatever life throws your way. At the same time, celery helps good bacteria thrive.

Consuming celery is the most powerful way to alkalize the gut. That’s in part because celery (which is technically an herb, not a vegetable) is high in bioactive sodium. It also contains cofactor micro trace mineral salts as yet undiscovered in research. These are varieties of sodium and other trace minerals (more than 60 of them) that are present in celery and work symbiotically and systematically with each other and with celery’s regular sodium to raise your body’s pH and rid toxic acids from every crevice of your body, including your gut. This process is ideal to cleanse and repair intestinal linings.

At the same time, celery offers enzymes and coenzymes, and it raises hydrochloric acid in the stomach so that food digests with ease and doesn’t putrefy. This helps prevent a multitude of gastrointestinal disorders. Adding celery juice to your diet is the best way to resolve ammonia permeability, an unrecognized condition in which ammonia gas seeps through the intestinal lining and causes health issues such as dental rot and brain fog. (You can read more on ammonia permeability and the misunderstood leaky gut syndrome in my first book.)

While celery may seem to some like a bland, boring food, it is anything but. In addition to the above, celery improves kidney function, helps restore the adrenals, and can even bring ease to one’s mind and thought patterns, with its mineral salts feeding electrical impulse activity and supporting neuron function, which is key if you suffer with ADHD, brain fog, or memory loss. When it comes to celery, think electrolytes. It hydrates on a deep cellular level, lessening your chances of suffering from migraines. Celery is ideal to address each of the Unforgiving Four factors (threats responsible for the rise of illness), plus it offers stress assistance and also repairs your DNA. I could go on and on about the benefits of celery juice for all manner of ills. It is one of the greatest healing tonics of all time.

Conditions

If you have any of the following conditions, try bringing celery into your life: acne, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism, eczema, psoriasis, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), leaky gut, infertility, Lyme disease, migraines, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), pelvic inflammatory disease (PID), thyroid diseases and disorders, low reproductive system battery, diabetes, hypoglycemia, adrenal fatigue, anxiety, sepsis, urinary tract infections (UTIs), kidney stones, kidney disease, pancreatic cancer, pancreatitis, fatty liver, chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), fibromyalgia, lupus, Sjögren’s syndrome, Addison’s disease, rosacea, lipoma, bladder cancer, interstitial cystitis, Crohn’s disease, colitis, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), thrush, hyperglycemia, hypertension, depression, apnea, thyroid cancer, bacterial vaginosis, edema, injuries, parasites, yeast infections, insomnia, mold exposure, bacterial infections, viral infections, ammonia permeability

Symptoms

If you have any of the following symptoms, try bringing celery into your life: intestinal spasms; cysts; low hydrochloric acid; sluggish liver; low cortisol; high cortisol; brain fog; food allergies; acidosis; hypothyroid; hyperthyroid; blurry eyes; joint pain; headaches; bloating; gas; abdominal pressure; abdominal distension; chronic dehydration; eye dryness; frozen shoulder; acid reflux; inflamed gallbladder, stomach, small intestine, and/or colon; rashes; nausea; white film on tongue; Candida overgrowth; anxiousness; memory loss; high blood pressure; food sensitivities; swelling; inflammation; muscle spasms; leg cramps; fatigue; mineral deficiencies; brain inflammation; sleep disturbances

Emotional Support

We tend to hold a lot of fear in our guts. Nervousness causes those sensations we know as tummy flips or butterflies in the stomach, and anxiety can run deep through the nervous system, putting our guts in knots. Celery restores the entire digestive system. Use it for its calming effects when you are feeling frightened, panicky, shocked, fretful, nervous, threatened, unsure, afraid, or defensive.

Spiritual Lesson

All too often, we make life more complicated than it needs to be—or else we oversimplify what’s truly a complex issue. This push-and-pull happens in all areas of life, especially health. In one approach, people overthink health problems and throw all kinds of potential solutions at them. In the other approach, people take a health challenge that’s actually a delicate interplay of many factors and try to make it seem like it’s just a simple case of the body going haywire out of the blue.

For true healing to occur, we have to embrace a balance of the simple and the complex—and celery teaches us this. Drinking celery juice is the simplest of measures, so simple that people often write it off as too easy to make a difference in how they feel. They figure that adding several other ingredients to their green juice will add that many more nutrients. While green-juice blends can be very healing (see recipe below, for example), there is nothing that equals the simple power of pure celery juice. It is as healing, transformational, and life-changing as it gets—and that’s due to its complex nutritional makeup, which needs to be left undisturbed to work its magic. It’s an important reminder for other areas of life. Where else do we need to have an intricate understanding of a situation to conclude that the simplest approach is the best?

Tips

• To press the reset button on your body, juice celery by itself. For the full effect, drink a full 16 ounces of fresh celery juice daily—and make sure it’s on an empty stomach to raise hydrochloric acid levels most efficiently. For dramatic results, drink two 16-ounce glasses of fresh celery juice a day.

• If your goal is to cleanse your body of toxic heavy metals such as mercury, aluminum, lead, copper, cadmium, nickel, and arsenic, add a half cup of fresh cilantro when you’re juicing your celery.
  An easy way to get more celery into your diet is to add two to four sticks of it when blending the smoothie of your choice.

Easy Green Juice

This green juice is clean and sweet, making it an easy way to get in an extra dose of greens. It’s the perfect way to start off any morning, and you may be surprised that the kids in your life will love it, too.

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Ginger

In this world, we live by reaction. We start the day with certain goals, and before we know it we get a phone call about a minor emergency, or an appliance breaks, or a client calls with an urgent request. Suddenly we’re in crisis mode—and we may not be able to leave this state for the rest of the day, because the moment one issue is resolved, a new one takes its place. All day long, every day, we’re putting out fires, large and small. This reactivity is what we need to survive. At the same time, never winding down can set us up to be hyperreactive—like when there’s traffic when you’re already late to pick up your child from soccer practice, and without even thinking, you honk the horn at the car in front of you for stopping at a yellow light.

Ginger is one of the most important tools for giving ourselves respite from a reactive state. When you’ve been going a mile a minute from morning until night and you finally start to check out mentally and emotionally, the physical body often stays reactive, in a heightened, spasmodic state. This is how stress-related illnesses such as adrenal fatigue, acid reflux, sleep apnea, spastic bladder, insomnia, digestive issues such as spastic colon and gastritis, and chronic muscle pain can get kicked up. Ginger is the ultimate antispasmodic. A cup of ginger tea can calm an upset stomach and relax any other areas of tension for up to 12 hours. Rather than acting as a nerve tonic, it acts as a tonic for the organs and muscles, telling the body that it can let go, that everything is under control.

If your throat muscles are tight from speaking or yelling too much, or from having to hold in something you wish you could say, ginger is an amazing relaxant for the area. It also helps relieve tension headaches and flush excess lactic acid from muscle tissue into the bloodstream and out of the body—because it’s not just strenuous exercise that causes the release of lactic acid; stress does, too. If you sit at a desk all day with stress pumping lactic acid through your muscles, it needs a way out, since you’re not moving around to keep it flowing on its normal path.

Ginger’s antispasmodic properties come from its more than 60 trace minerals, well over 30 amino acids (many of them undiscovered), and more than 500 enzymes and coenzymes all working together to calm reactivity. And as an antiviral, antibacterial, and anti-parasitic, ginger deserves all the accolades it gets for promoting a healthy immune system. Ginger is also ideal for stress assistance, DNA reconstruction, enhancement of your body’s production of B12, and so much more. It will be 100 years before research uncovers how much ginger truly holds.

Conditions

If you have any of the following conditions, try bringing ginger into your life: pancreatitis, gallstones, adrenal fatigue, spastic colon, sleep apnea, spastic bladder, insomnia, laryngitis, common colds, influenza, hiatal hernia, Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)/mononucleosis, migraines, small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO), thyroid disease, pelvic inflammatory disease (PID), HHV-6, eczema, psoriasis, anxiety, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), plantar fasciitis, Raynaud’s syndrome, radiation exposure, all types of cancer (especially thyroid cancer and pancreatic cancer), celiac disease, chronic sinusitis, ear infections, fungal infections, hiatal hernia, human papilloma virus (HPV), insomnia, lymphedema, lupus, rheumatoid arthritis (RA), psoriatic arthritis, shingles

Symptoms

If you have any of the following symptoms, try bringing ginger into your life: muscle spasms, muscle cramps, ganglia cysts, muscle tightness, muscle pain, temporomandibular joint (TMJ) issues, anxiousness, gastritis, bloating, stomach cramps, stomach pain, canker sores, acid reflux, upset stomach, headaches, gallbladder spasms, pelvic pain, back pain, dizziness, lightheadedness, sinus pain, congestion (particularly of the chest and/or sinuses), cough, urinary frequency, incontinence, urinary retention, weight gain, food allergies, abnormal Pap smear results, mineral deficiencies, food sensitivities, belching, diarrhea, brain fog, chronic nausea, colon spasms, cough, congestion, digestive disturbances, high cholesterol, sleeping disturbances, fatigue

Emotional Support

Ginger is ideal for those who feel forced to hold back what they have to say. When you are silenced, there are circumstances where the right course of action is to speak up anyway, and circumstances where you get the sense that saying your piece, however valid, would make the situation worse. Ginger is for the latter. Because holding in your true sentiments can make you feel locked up and stifled—and even put you into muscle spasm—it’s very important to release all that tension, and ginger performs the job beautifully.

Spiritual Lesson

Ginger teaches us that we don’t always have to have an insight, breakthrough, or solution in order to let go of what’s not helping us. We don’t have to process everything or stress ourselves out reliving it. We don’t have to react. There are enough other situations that require our reactions; there’s no sense in taking on extra. Just like we can turn to ginger to work the kinks out of our muscles and the knots out of our stomachs, we can let it work that antispasmodic magic on our souls, cleansing us of wounds and damage without us having to do anything other than let it.

Tips

• Ginger can be reused throughout the day. It’s fine to keep using the same ginger for multiple servings of tea.

• Drinking ginger tea during a full moon increases the medicinal effects of the ginger by 50 percent.

• Consume ginger shortly before or during a time period when you have to make a serious life decision.

• Just before you take a therapeutic bath, drink ginger water or ginger tea to enhance the bath’s healing power.

Ginger Limeade

This ginger limeade is so refreshing. It will be especially helpful to anyone trying to transition off of caffeinated energy drinks. The subtle heat of fresh ginger juice makes this drink one you will come back to time and time again.

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Raw Honey

If you feel out of touch with miracles, then reacquaint yourself with honey. Unprocessed honey in its raw, living form is nothing less than a miracle from God and the earth. Honey has saved human life during drastic times of starvation, and it will become critical again in the future as a food for our survival. You don’t need to be in dire circumstances to benefit from honey, though. Take a moment to think about what this wild food really is: nectar. It is liquid gold that can turn your life around.

For those who are afraid that honey is just pure sugar and therefore should be avoided, put your worry aside. If you turn your back on honey, you’re missing out on its amazing health benefits. The sugar in honey is nothing like processed sugar—don’t confuse it with table sugar or high-fructose corn syrup. Rather, because bees collect from plant species far and wide, the fructose and glucose in honey are saturated with more than 200,000 undiscovered phytochemical compounds and agents, including pathogen-killers, phytochemicals that protect you from radiation damage, and anti-cancerous phytochemicals. When drawn into cancerous tumors and cysts, this last class of phytochemicals shut down the cancerous growth process—meaning that raw honey can stop cancer in its tracks. Honey’s highly absorbable sugar and B12 coenzymes make it one of the most powerful brain foods of our time. Plus, raw honey repairs DNA and is extremely high in minerals such as calcium, potassium, zinc, selenium, phosphorus, chromium, molybdenum, and manganese.

Our immune systems are constantly adapting to whatever microorganisms we encounter—which is why raw honey, one of the most adaptogenic foods on the planet, produced by bees, one of the most adaptogenic beings on the planet, is so important for supporting immunity. Honey in its raw form is a secret weapon against infectious illness. When you’re dealing with weakened immunity and feel like you’re extra susceptible to catching colds, flus, stomach bugs such as norovirus, and food poisoning, raw honey assists your body in keeping a strong first line of defense by strengthening neutrophils and macrophages so they can fight off pathogens. (It’s not yet documented by medical science that these and other white blood cells feed off of immune-stimulating phytochemicals.) These properties also make raw honey anti-inflammatory—because it inhibits pathogens from procreating and thus releasing toxins that elevate inflammation. Honey is truly medicine for our planet.

Conditions

If you have any of the following conditions, try bringing raw honey into your life: sinus infections, ear infections, diabetes, hypoglycemia, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), allergies, sties, eye infections, MRSA, staph infections, mystery infertility, small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO), low reproductive system battery, insomnia, adrenal fatigue, colds, influenza, norovirus, all types of cancer, bipolar disorder, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), Alzheimer’s disease, dementia, all autoimmune diseases and disorders, parasites, food poisoning, respiratory infections, colds, influenza, bronchitis, laryngitis, thrush

Symptoms

If you have any of the following symptoms, try bringing raw honey into your life: sore throat, postnasal drip, inflammation, canker sores, sleep disturbances, bacterial infections in the gut, all neurological symptoms (including tingles, numbness, spasms, twitches, nerve pain, and tightness of the chest), body odor, dry skin, cysts, eye dryness, dizzy spells, earaches, ear pain, eye floaters, fever, headaches, hot flashes, joint pain, lack of energy, loss of libido, fatigue, memory issues, memory loss, sinus issues, shortness of breath, stomachache

Emotional Support

Honey’s sticky nature isn’t just a physical trait; it also applies itself on an emotional level. If honey is in your life, then when you experience something good—something that lifts you up and feeds your soul—that memory sticks to you, and you don’t lose it among the negative experiences that threaten to distract you.

Spiritual Lesson

If you could trace your family lines back to their oldest days, you would find ancestors who subsisted on honey. Raw honey was not a survival food in the sense that it simply got people by until something better came along. Rather, it was (and still is) incredible medicinal nourishment. Honey is written into our lineage. Who we are—our souls, our DNA—in a sense derives from honey. This means that if we avoid honey, we’re shutting off a part of ourselves that connects all the way back to the beginning of human life. Trends that cut us off from honey go to show how disconnected we can really become. Connecting with honey puts us back in touch with ourselves. It prompts us to ask what else we’ve turned a cold shoulder to that made us who we are today. What else deserves reevaluation?

Tips

• Add raw honey to lemon water to enhance the honey’s bioflavonoids and give the drink an additional immune boost.

• If you feel like you’re coming down with something, take a teaspoon of raw honey before bed. This is also a good remedy to enhance a night’s sleep.

• Use raw honey in place of all processed sugar and other sweeteners you normally use. Look for wildflower honey, if you can find it.

• Applied externally, honey is great for healing small wounds and revitalizing the skin. Try it on scars where you want to speed up the healing process.

• Consuming honey prior to meditation strengthens the mind and brings about happy sensations throughout the body.

Honey-Coconut Ice Cream

Fair warning: This ice cream recipe is dangerously good. It only takes a few minutes to prep with an ice cream maker, and in under an hour, you can have ice cream that is cleaner and way more delicious than anything available in the store. As a bonus, you’ll have some leftover almond milk that you can use in smoothies or enjoy cold from the fridge.

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Reprinted with permission from Medical Medium Life-Changing Foods: Save Yourself and the Ones You Love with the Hidden Healing Powers of Fruits & Vegetables. Copyright © 2016 by Anthony William. Recipe photos by Ashleigh & Britton Foster. Published by Hay House; November 8, 2016.

For over twenty-five years, Anthony William has devoted his life to helping people overcome and prevent illness—and discover the lives they were meant to live. What he does is several decades ahead of scientific discovery. His compassionate approach has time and again given relief and results to those who seek him out. He is the host of the weekly radio show “Medical Medium” and the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Medical Medium Thyroid Healing: The Truth behind Hashimoto’s, Graves’, Insomnia, Hypothyroidism, Thyroid Nodules & Epstein Barr; Medical Medium Life-Changing Foods: Save Yourself and the Ones You Love with the Hidden Healing Powers of Fruits & Vegetables; and Medical Medium: Secrets Behind Chronic and Mystery illness and How to Finally Heal.

The views expressed in this article intend to highlight alternative studies and induce conversation. They are the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of goop, and are for informational purposes only, even if and to the extent that this article features the advice of physicians and medical practitioners. This article is not, nor is it intended to be, a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment, and should never be relied upon for specific medical advice.