The next four books we will be covering and the dates of the next four book clubs are:
Pottenger's Cats, by Francis Pottenger - July 12 @ 7 pm
Don't You Know Who I Am? by Dr. Ramini Durvasula - July 26 @ 7 pm
The Green Pharmacy, by Dr. James Duke - August 9 @ 7 pm
Dr. John Lee's Hormone Balance Made Simple - August 23 @ 7 pm
Book club consists of a livestream (yours truly) to Facebook and Youtube, followed by a paid-subscribers only Q&A via Zoom at 8:30 pm. Starting this month, 50% of all book clubs will be paid only. I will be recording them via Zoom and posting them to this Substack as both videos and transcripts (unedited). Of the book clubs in July and August, Pottenger's Cats and The Green Pharmacy will be for paid subscribers only. I encourage you to sign up for the paid version, because some of my thoughts stay behind the paywall due to how controversial they are. As always, thank you for your paid subscriptions to my Substack and my affiliate sales.
Why did I pick these four books and why are these books vital for you to understand?
I'll be dedicating a blog post to each of these books weekly over the next several weeks. Here is a glimpse into why I picked these four books next and what each has to do with another.
"When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world."
- John Muir
Pottenger's Cats is a book about what happens to cats when you alter their diet from what they normally eat in nature. One of the truisms of animal health and physiology is that they are less robust than we are. Introduce a stress, toxin, or nutritional imbalance to an animal's diet, and they will manifest disease far faster than humans. The phrase “canary in the coal mine” is not just for coal miners - it applies to cigarettes, cell phones, junk food, and every other conceivable health threat.
Dr. Pottenger lived in Southern California in the early 1900's, when the radio had only just been invented, when food processing was as simple as canning, whene wide-spread refrigeration was still a long way off. As part of his practice, he tested adrenal extracts on cats. He found that the same doses of the same adrenal extracts had extremely different effects on cats. He became fascinated by what defined the differences between these animals. It follows that the same drug, herb, or nutrient can have extremely different (even opposite) effects in humans - this is indeed what we see in clinical practice.
Pottenger began controlled studies of his cats on different diets and found that even minimal food processing led to profound differences in the health of the animals. Moreover, their health deteriorated from generation to generation, ending in complete infertility after a few generations. The corollaries to our modern problems with infertility are obvious, but bear detailed scrutiny as to their true causes. I believe this is one of the most important texts ever written in the history of medicine - I do not say that lightly. You will not want to miss this episode.
Don't You Know Who I Am? is a book about the rising rates of narcissistic behaviors in our society. If you're currently bewildered by how dysfunctional our society has become, look no further than narcissism. The phenomena of narcissistic behavior - how it is born, how it grows, and how it leads to the downfall of individuals and entire societies - is a tale as old as time. In the book of Genesis, God obliterates Sodom and Gomorrah for their sins, but it isn't until the book of Ezekiel that we get more details on exactly what was going so wrong in these two cities. The sins that Ezekiel lists as, "the sins of Sodom," are pride, abundance of idleness, fullness of bread, and failure to strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. The hallmark of narcissism is pride, but the rest flow from this as predictably as water rolling downhill. We are living through a time when these four errors characterize everything about our society.
"Illnesses do not come upon us out of the blue. They are developed from small daily sins against nature. When enough sins have accumulated, illnesses will suddenly appear."
- Hippocrates
Where do bad habits come from? I have found that, before many of my patients fall ill, they are the victims of some degree of narcissistic abuse, which drives them into the bad habits that ultimately create their disease. Their bad habits are in some ways a cry for help, and in others a recreation of their abuse. They abuse their bodies and find health gurus and doctors to participate in this. It’s disturbing and disturbingly common - believe me - so you should tune into my book club and learn about it.
What does this have to do with Pottenger's cats, you ask? As the cats became increasingly malnourished one generation after another, their behavior became increasingly violent and dysfunctional. The males became increasingly submissive and weak. The females became increasingly violent and assertive. Sound familiar? Bad behavior is strongly linked to nutritional status. It is not the determinant of our behavior, but rather it is the terrain in which our behavior grows as we grow. Changing your diet can change your mind, and I have seen few people truly change their behavior without changing their diet.
The Green Pharmacy is a reference book on herbalism. Why are we reading something that sounds so dry? Because I think it's a book every family should have on its bookshelf. The book is a commonsensical introduction to herbal medicine, which regular folks have practiced since time immemorial. Frequently, families call me with acute complaints (from conjunctivitis to candida) and the first book I reach for is The Green Pharmacy. There are, however, very important caveats to the use of herbal medicine, as we will discuss during the book club, and many dangerous misconceptions that people have about how to use herbs to treat disease or improve their health.
What do herbs have to do with narcissism and nutrition? Nutrition lays the foundation for herbs to work upon. Herbs do nothing in the absence of the proper nutrients. This is why so many people fail to improve with herbal medicine, or see their gains in health plateau. This is why I hardly mention herbs when I first start a case. They are indispensable, but they are only a small part of a larger picture. What do herbs have to do with narcissism? Many narcissists cloak their narcissistic agendas in religious or spiritual terms, and plant medicines can help them to manipulate people into very, very bad decisions. Herbs can warp the mind. To the cunning and adroit narcissist, they are a weapon to manipulate their victims. This is why I tend to avoid people selling spiritual experiences involving hallucinogens. It is why I gravitate toward sober people who do not regularly use mind-altering drugs to cope with reality. This is why witches have such a bad reputation in the West - what do you think goes into a witch's brew? Herbs, herbs, and more herbs. What are modern pharmaceutical drugs? They either come from plant-based compounds or they have equivalent actions to herbal compounds. A friend of mine used to accuse modern American naturopaths of having devolved into, "allopaths with herbs." What he meant was that modern American naturopathic medicine has lost sight of curing disease and is instead settling for using herbs (not to mention nutrients) the way that allopaths use pharmaceuticals.
Dr. John Lee's Hormone Balance Made Simple is one of my favorite texts on hormones. John Lee was a general practitioner in Northern California who practiced in the latter half of the 20th century. He pioneered the use of progesterone for the treatment of osteoporosis. He realized and demonstrated in his practice that proper levels of hormones are essential to good health. This book on hormone balance pertains almost entirely to women, who face far greater challenges in balancing their hormones than men do. Hormones are vital to life. They turn on and off virtually all aspects of your physiology. They are biochemical levers and switches that turn on and off in response to signals in your environment, and are created out of raw materials derived from what you eat. Much hay is made and much ink spilled every year by health and wellness gurus who wish to reinvent a wheel that John Lee long ago defined as well as any practitioner ever will. Everyone should read this book, because it describes the hormonal imbalances by which women's lives can be ruined, and the simple practices that can be used in order to bring their hormones back into balance.
What do hormones have to do with cats, narcissism, and herbs? The physiological and behavioral changes that Pottenger observed in his cats are all linked to hormonal imbalances. His first inspiration to study cats lay in observing the different responses they manifested to the same amounts of a hormonal extract - adrenal extract. Hormones only act properly in the presence of the proper nutrients. This is the number one reason why hormone replacement therapy may fail and, with proper nutrition, very little hormone replacement (as far as dose) is necessary in most cases. Hormones drive behavior, and because they drive behavior, they have everything to do with narcissism. We are seeing rampant narcissism in our society because we have a profound lack of ethical and masculine men who are willing to make the sacrifices necessary to defeat these narcissists, or at least get them under control. Men who are weak and low in testosterone (this now describes a large proportion of Western men) are easily controlled and manipulated. For a man and women, getting their hormones right is the first step toward independence from the fear-mongering and self-doubt that narcissists use to control their victims. What about herbs? Herbs can be used to treat hormonal imbalances, and this means that sometimes we are better off using an herb when some would use a hormone. Hormones are under lock and key (for the most part), because they can be abused and create severe side effects. They are some of our most powerful therapeutic tools. Frequently, I will use an herb instead of a hormone, because it is a gentler option with fewer possible side effects.
If all of these connections seem a little thin, you'll have to forgive me. It's a lot to tie together in under a few thousand words. I will be explaining these links in greater and greater detail in the book clubs themselves.
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I’m very much looking forward to these next 4 books. Just the book club alone is worth the subscription! Thank you Dr. Stillman. I do have to mention your YouTube video on Omega 6s vs Omega 3s was tremendous! I got the PEO Solution book and hope we can circle back in Sept/October and continue the “fats” conversation.