Jon Barron's Personal Journey to Becoming the Health Renaissance Man

Kevin: Let's start by just giving a brief introductionweeks. That means your medical doctor, in
about yourself so everyone knows. Why don't Igeneral, has six to eight hours of nutrition. If you
let you tell the story and then we'll move on toread two good books, you know more than your
the real information.doctor.
Jon: All right, let me sort of keep it short. I'veKevin: Yeah. That's the truth, isn't it?
been involved in health and nutrition for over 40Jon: All you have to do is look at a hospital food
years.and anyone who believes that promotes nutrition
Kevin: Wow.is out of their minds, but this is what doctors
Jon: I actually started working with foods when Ibelieve promotes nutrition and you are listening to
was like 16. My father was one of the first foodthese people for advise on nutrition - big problem.
technologists in the country and I actually workedSo coming back to my background, I learned
with him designing some foods - designing, of allfrom these guys that they treated the body as a
things, an ice cream line at the age of 16.whole. They didn't treat certain diseases. The
Kevin: Okay.other amazing thing that I learned from them is -
Jon: When I went to college I was planning toI found within 15 or 20 minutes of meeting
become a doctor. I went in as premed. Therepeople, they can almost universally - they would
were a couple of things; one is, I wasn't dedicatedlean in and they would tell me who was going to
to it but the bigger problem was that I wasget welll. It didn't matter how ill they were and
becoming very disillusioned back in the mid 60'ssometimes there were people who were really ill
with where medicine was going. And, even at theand were like days from death, they will get well.
age of 17 back then, I was writing theWhat would happen is everybody comes in saying
relationships with diet and ageing and supperthe same thing, you know. I've been here - dah,
foods that were available then, such as bee pollendah, dah - does this happen, I've been told I'm
- how they could affect ageing. Along the way, Igoing to die, I'll do anything it takes to get well
began to sort of search out the people who wereand then these guys, the doctors, would lay out a
doing it and these are people who I would callprogram and this is program that deals with the
miracle doctors. Back then, if you want to learnwhole body - the whole thing, you have to clean
alternative health, you didn't have all the choicesout, you have to detox, you have to change
you have now. You didn't have newsletters, youyour diet, all these things and suddenly there
didn't have schools - it was - the doctors whowould be a look that would come across people's
were doing it were all worried about gettingfaces. Some would say, okay, I will do this better
thrown in jail. Even today in half the states in thisthan anyone has ever done it before but a large
country, it's illegal for even a medical doctor tonumber of people would say, wow, that's really
prescribe alternative treatments for things likecomplicated. I thought you were just going to
cancer.give me an herb or something. It seems easier to
Kevin: Wow.have it cut out and that was an amazing attitude.
Jon: So back then it was even worse to findAs I said - something that I would hear as I
these doctors. You had to find someone whowould go give lectures all around the country - I
knew someone, who knew the doctor becausewould talk about the base line of health program
you were so paranoid, but the guys who weredoing all of this healing for the whole body - don't
practicing back then were doing some amazingtreat specific diseases - the whole thing. At the
things and what I learned is that people who hadend, people would swarm up and they go, wow,
been told they were going to die, were gettingthat's incredible. I never it phrased like that before.
well. They base it on people who had goneIt makes so much sense. You've got to do the
through - and cancer, of course one of the bigwhole body right. Well, I have this condition, what
one. People had gone through a round of chemopill should I take.
and surgery. Nothing worked and they had beenKevin: Yeah.
sent home and would come to these doctors andJon: And they all go back to that magic bullet. So,
were getting well. We're they all getting well? Ofwhat I learned is you have to deal with the whole
course not, but a significant percentage of thosebody and the people who get well are that people
who were told they were going to die didthat understand that and make a commitment to
recover.do. The more of a commitment you make, the
There are a couple of interesting things that Ibetter your odds are. No guarantees, only odds. I
noticed is it didn't matter which doctor that I waswould joke - we've all heard the story of the guy
talking to, they were all doing variations on awho lives 80 years, smoking and drinking every
theme and this became the essence of the baseday and doesn't die of disease, he dies because
line of the health program is they tended not tohe gets shot by a jealous husband who finds him
treat disease in the same way medical doctorsin bed with his 20 year old wife. It could happen
do. Medical doctors are into magic bullets. I thinkand you hear about it occasionally, but the odds
there is an outgrowth in the history of medicineare, if you smoke and drink every day, you are
and science in general where everything getsbasically going down in your 50s with lung cancer
categorized and isolated and the body getsor cirrhosis. Those are the odds. You eat well
treated like an engine where you know, ifevery day, you can drop dead like Jim Fix the
something goes wrong with the carburetor, yourunner did. But in general, your odds are much
swap out a part. So the idea of treating the bodybetter of living longer.
systemically is gone from medicine. It's all down toAnyway, back to my background - I work these,
individual pieces, which works great if you're in anI've studied with them - I began to write down
automobile accident or your name's John Waynewhat they did and so for actually about 30 years,
Bobbitt. If you're John Wayne Bobbitt, you areI've been putting out newsletters and trying to
better off with a surgeon than an herbalist.sort of document what I learned about treating
Kevin: Absolutely.the body as a whole and different programs they
Jon: But when it comes to the major diseases wewould use and also along the way - about 20
face where they tend to have multiple causes toyears ago - I began to formulate because these
be systemic in nature, that approach doesn'tguys wanted to practice medicine, not make
work as well. The standard treatment or one offormulas. So I began to learn how to make the
the main standard treatments for cancer isformulas that would be effective in treating these
chemotherapy. Chemotherapy is designed to kill athings and what I learned is, in most cases the
cancer, a particular manifestation of it, it doesn'tproblem with most formulas is they are not
get to the root cause unless you believe that youstrong enough and people don't use enough. They
get cancer, because you are suffering from aare afraid of them. If you are using natural
chemotherapy deficiency.formulas, you have to use strong enough ones
Kevin: Sure.and they, you have to use enough and a lot of
Jon: If you're not, it isn't doing it. In factthe reason people don't go strong enough is cost.
chemotherapy is a known carcinogen. The idea ofGood quality herbs, for example, cost a lot more
medicine, of treating everything in isolation, inthan bad ones. Herbs actually carry grades based
treating with bullets, doesn't work well. What theon their quality.
miracle doctors were doing is they would treatIt's a little like cooking herbs - if anyone's done
the body as a whole and I found it didn't matter ifany cooking - you can buy saffron, Mexican
people were coming in cancer or MS or whatever,saffron - get a big bag for about four or five
they put them on essentially the same programdollars. You can get Spanish saffron - you get a
which was designed to deal with the whole bodylittle vile with like 12 threads in it and that can cost
at once. The theory is, they are not treatingyou $18.00 - a huge number. But the difference is
disease, they are just trying to optimize theit takes you a couple of teaspoons to flavor a
body's ability to do what it's designed to do and ifdish with the Mexican saffron. One thread will
you think about it, the body is actually a prettyflavor an entire dish - one or two threads of the
remarkable machine, all the things it does. It'sSpanish, it's that much more intense. Well you see
designed to stay healthy, to build, to rebuild andthe same kinds of things in herbs. You can buy
repair itself. That's what it does and it's only whenginseng for $5.00 a pound or $400 to $600 a
you interfere with that that you start to run intopound for the organical wild crafted. That's a huge
problems. An interference is you either overload itdifference. Put them in your formula and on the
with things that it can't handle, toxins or you don'tlabel, they both say ginseng but which one actually
provide it with enough nutrients. A simple light onworks. So you have to use good enough quality,
that is you can't build the same body out ofhigh strength and that's how you get results.
pepperoni pizza, beer and ding dongs that you canThat's really a round about sort of way of saying
out of real food.what do I do which is sort of like - I write about
Kevin: Yeah.the things I've learned. We have a newsletter
Jon: You get calories and that's again a sense ofnow on jonbarron.org. It's free and goes out
isolation. Anyone who thinks that doctors knowaround the world. It actually mails to virtually
nutrition or goes to doctors for nutritional advice,every country in the world and my favorite stat
they don't study this. In medical school they eitheron that one is that I have six e-mail addresses
get no classes, none on nutrition or they get onethat all end in fda.gov for subscribers.
and a class is one hour a week for six to eight