An interview with Dr. Joseph Mercola

As a practitioner with over 30 years of experience, Dr. Joseph Mercola brings a wealth of knowledge to the table. A 1976 graduate of the University of Illinois in Chicago, Dr. Mercola attended the Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine Midwestern University from 1978-1982 and completed his Family Practice Residency with the Chicago Osteopathic Hospital in 1985.

Having been interested in health and wellness from an early age, it wasn’t difficult for Dr. Mercola to choose medicine as a career. Passionate about helping others, he opened a family practice in Illinois shortly after completing his residency but became disillusioned with prescribing pharmaceuticals and seeing little results. In time, he began to look at health and wellness through different eyes and consider how a new approach might reap better results.

“The more you learn about health, the more you understand it really is quite simple. There are some basic principles that if you adopt them it pretty much causes the body to move closer to health and away from disease,” said Mercola. “Obviously there are some complexities but thankfully with technology we’re developing interesting strategies that delve into the molecular biology and genetic defects that occur and cause impairments and finding that those can be modified and addressed with supplementation or avoiding certain foods.”

With neurological disorders on the rise, Dr. Mercola is putting much of what he has learned over the years to work at combating those illnesses and educating others on how a few simple strategies can slow down the hands of time. As a presenter at the upcoming Practitioner’s Brain Regeneration Conference, Mercola will focus on what he has learned over the past year about oxidative stress related to mitochondrial dysfunction and the affects this can have on the DNA.

“For the most part science has only recently figured out oxidative stressors, they were confused about it for the last 50 years or so,” said Mercola. “There are some pernicious things that don’t cause oxidation but they cause reactive stresses in the body which can decimate DNA, accelerate ageing and increase chronic degenerate diseases but there are simple strategies that can be done to change that.”

During his presentation at the Practitioner’s Brain Regeneration Conference in Orlando, Dr. Mercola will address the common causes and molecular mechanisms of neurodegeneration. He will review the current literature dealing with how this occurs and provide simple and inexpensive solutions to remediate the neurodegenerative challenges.

“By understanding some of the most common and pervasive threats that we as healthcare clinicians are exposed to, and more importantly that our patients are exposed to, and the metabolic consequences that they have, we can address those effectively,” said Mercola. “There are some simple solutions if you understand the basis of what is causing the pathology. There is a lot of confusion on this and I’ve been digging deep into it, reading hundreds and hundreds of studies to come up with a better understanding of some of the fundamental forces that cause us to age prematurely and get chronic degenerative diseases.”

Dr. Mercola is a passionate life-long learner who enjoys research and sharing what he learns with others. Board certified in family medicine, he has seen over 25,000 patients using natural therapies and in 1997 he founded mercola.com, the most visited natural health web site on the planet with over 30 million unique visitors every month. His desire to help others keeps him learning, growing and pushing himself forward.

“Like most physicians I went in to medicine to help people, so I enjoy the opportunity to share what I learn and I’ve created a platform to do that in a creative way,” said Mercola. “I really love engaging with the public live because it allows me to fine tune it, otherwise I’m just stuck doing research or writing. You really need to connect with live people occasionally to refine the message and that’s what events like the Orlando conference allow me to do.”

Dr. Mercola has been associated with ACIM for three years and considers most of the physicians who are members to be friends who sharpen him. He considers the Orlando conference to be among the best and most informative and is his personal favorite to attend.

“The Orlando conference brings together a relatively small group of people but I don’t know of any other group that is more grounded in the basics and actually able to apply energetics, which almost all natural medicine groups don’t get,” said Mercola. “I have a lot of good friends there and it’s like a homecoming of sorts for me or like a medical school graduation reunion that I really enjoy attending. It’s like from the moment I get up to the moment I go to bed I learn so much and it’s not just the presenters but the exhibitors are great also. It’s just a really special time for me.”

For more information about how you can hear Dr. Mercola along with other leading integrative practitioners at the Brain Regeneration conference click here.