decreased exposure to toxins as the preeminent activities for drugs, $1.63 is spent on treating their side effects. Therefore,
disease resilience. We can become, he urges, our own best Pizzorno urges, abandon the nutritionally deficient standard
physician. American diet, minimize the bodily accumulation of toxins such
“We each have a tremendous ability to determine what our as lead, arsenic and mercury; and perhaps combine this with
health is going to be. It’s not dependent on doctors, it’s de- nutrients and herbs tailored to one’s unique biochemistry.
pendent on how we live our lives,” Pizzorno said. “From the “Simply put, get into the body what’s needed and get out
most basic perspective, our bodies are physiological machines of the body what’s not,” Pizzorno said, quoting a friend of his,
that require good nutrition and the avoidance of toxins to Sid Baker, M.D.
work properly.” Pledging to “do natural medicine right,” Pizzorno has striven
In Pizzorno’s view, conventional drugs are one potential to institutionalize and bring credibility to the practice.
source of toxicity. Not only do they obscure disease origins, “When I started the [naturopathic medicine] school, the
the discovery of which could mean restored and enduring most modern text was published the year I was born, there
health, they are deathly. Properly prescribed drugs are the were no qualified faculty, no funding from foundations to sup-
fourth leading case of death in the United States. port natural medicine research, no pathway to accreditation,
“I’m not entirely against them. They have their place. But the legal and political environment was totally hostile. It was
the problem is that people use drugs instead of healthy liv- all negative,” he said. Pizzorno has revolutionized all of this.
ing,” said Pizzorno, also noting that for every dollar spent on As the founding president of Bastyr University in Kenmore,
22 Harvey Mudd College FALL/WINTER 2009
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