SUPERHEALTH WITH KYLE DREW
An Honor To Be in Michigan
Greetings to my friends in Michigan!!
by Kyle Drew

Guardian Welcomes New Columnist
Editor's Note: Kyle Drew has spent his entire professional life either in the conventional or alternative health industries. Trained in both chemistry and public relations, he worked as an EMT, medical technician, science tutor, phlebotomist, lab technician, and after college, became a pharmaceutical sales representative. It was here where he got a behind-the-scenes lookinto how medical decisions are made, and how pharmaceutical drugs are tested and then promoted to an unwitting public. Unwilling to continue promoting what he considered to be poison, (he sold chemotherapy), Kyle resigned. Since 2003, he has done nutritional counseling through the Health Food Center in Oklahoma City and hosted their radio show, SuperHealth, and since 2005, he has worked with his "nutritional hero," Doug Kaufmann.

It is my absolute pleasure to begin joining you each month here in The Lakeshore Guardian. I’ve had the privilege of working with my hero, Doug Kaufmann, for the past three years, and have traveled with him to Harbor Beach twice. (I have my Harbor Beach and Bad Axe caps to prove it!) Having had the chance to visit with many of you, I can tell you that I am very much at home each time I get to join Doug for our trips to Michigan, and I look forward to joining you each month in this wonderful paper.

For those of you who didn’t have the chance to come to any of Doug Kaufmann’s seminars, allow me to introduce myself.

I am an ex-drug rep with degrees in Chemistry and Public Relations, and was an EMT prior to that. I’m also a natural health junkie. I’ve spent five years on the radio in Oklahoma City hosting a show called, SuperHealth, (which is sponsored by the Health Food Center, a health food store whose ad you’ll find in this very paper), and I’ve spent the last three years working with Doug. In between that, I do nutritional counseling.

Some of you only casually know what a drug rep actually does, so let me explain it to you. We come in to doctors’ offices every day, armed with free lunches, free books, free trips and other goodies, and we use these as a means of having a couple of minutes to explain to the doctors why he/she should write prescriptions for our drugs. They don’t actually purchase drugs from us. Instead, we try to impress upon them that when they see a patient for whom our drugs are appropriate, they remember to give you a prescription for our drugs. In a sea of “me-too” drugs, we want them to remember only ours. Sometimes, it’s a tough job.

You, as a health care consumer, are told by the drug industry that the job of the drug rep is to “educate” the physicians, and nothing more. In a sense, one could make that argument. But from the standpoint of a drug rep, “educating” the physicians isn’t the end game. Instead, the goal is entirely that of getting more and more of our drugs to be prescribed. Period. We, like all other sales reps, have quotas. Those quotas are tied to the number of prescriptions our doctors write. If we meet our quotas, everything is rosy. If we fail to meet our quotas, it doesn’t matter how much “education” we’ve dispensed, we have failed and our jobs are at risk.

Doing well means that you can earn over a six-figure income, plus bonuses. Doing poorly means that you can be replaced very easily by an army of ambitious, hungry sales reps waiting in the wings in this extremely competitive industry.

I was very fortunate to have done well as a drug rep. I usually ranked near the top of my district in sales, I won plenty of awards, and at the time of my departure, I was told that I had won Sales Rep of the Year. So, why would I ever think of leaving the drug repping business? After all, you get a good paycheck every two weeks, a free car, a nice expense account and wonderful trips.

The truth is, I couldn’t do it anymore. I felt like Judas. That is, I took the money, and sold my soul in the process.

You see, I genuinely believe that true health doesn’t come from drugs. The only thing your body recognizes as being useful is nutrition. That’s it. The side effects from the drugs you take? It’s because your body doesn’t recognize those drugs as friendly, and it’s doing its best to get you to stop taking them, in most cases. You see, I believe that God put food on the planet as the sole means of subsistence and health. If it’s grown from the ground, it’s a food. If it comes from a chemistry lab, it doesn’t belong in the body.

The naysayers try to bring up ridiculous arguments, like, “Well, what about hemlock? What about poison ivy? They come from the ground, and you wouldn’t dare put those in your body would you?” I think we’re all smart enough to know that not every plant is medicinal. I also think we all acknowledge that at times, medicine is necessary.

But the point is, if we try to obtain health through the long-term use of substances that aren’t nutritive, we’re not doing ourselves any favors, and any honest assessment of our body’s physiology will immediately reveal that.

This column will be opinionated. You might find yourself agreeing with some things, and challenged by others. As someone who has been in both the conventional and “alternative” sides of medicine, I can tell you that I’m challenged every week by various philosophies. But I rest easy knowing that my philosophy springs from seeing the wholesale failure of conventional medicine to safely and effectively treat chronic diseases without side effects, followed by the marvelous successes of aggressive, sound nutritional interventions. Nevertheless, I am not a physician, and nothing I say should be a substitute for the advice of your personal, licensed healthcare professional.

I’m honored to visit with you each month. I’m honored to be associated with The Lakeshore Guardian, Doug Kaufmann and good stores like the Health Food Center. We are all part of your team. You’re the captain, and we’re simply resources to help get you on your road to SuperHealth.

Until next month!

DISCLAIMER: The information provided here is intended for educational purposes only. It is not meant to either directly or indirectly diagnose, give medical advice or prescribe treatment. Please consult with your physician or other licensed health care professional for medical diagnosis and treatment.