Your new book Over-The-Counter Natural Cures, identifies safe, inexpensive supplements that address major areas of our health. Why did you use mass retailers as the place to find wellness? The convenience of stores like Walmart, Target, and other major chains is an inescapable part of most everyone’s lives – like it or not. In most any American city, you can find a store within 10 minutes. Therefore, I chose mass discount retail outlets along with the internet so that anyone could obtain safe and inexpensive supplements to help save them from the pandemic killers like obesity, diabetes, heart disease and even cancer.

How do you know that the supplements you recommend are pure? Each supplement mentioned comes with free access to their Certificate of Analysis (COA) so you can verify for yourself that they are pure and contain the ingredients they should! A COA certifies the safety of ingesting a supplement based on state-of-art, quality control methods. It can cost as much as $1000 per supplement when testing for bacteria like E. coli, heavy metals like mercury, and various fungi, while at the same time measuring the amount of active ingredients and identifying any unknown adulterants. But it’s yours free, which means you don’t have to spend your own money to make sure that these supplements are safe for you and your family to swallow! All the supplements were shown to be pure.

What do people fail to understand about the need for – and proper use of – supplements? Most people fail to understand that their body requires certain nutrients for optimal survival and that the only way to obtain them is either via diet or supplements. Most of today’s biggest killers are simply the result of gaping nutrient deficiencies, not drug deficiencies. Remedy the deficiency and you remedy illness. But, people also fail to realize that proper nutrient intake must also be accompanied with proper lifestyle habits.

Shane, why are you called “The People’s Chemist”? I’m The People’s Chemist because I am bringing my extensive knowledge of medicine and health to the people for their benefit, rather than using it to make drugs for the benefit of Big Pharma. My work isn’t done to satisfy a drug or supplement company’s bottom line, and I’m not pushing outlandish, hard to follow health tips. In a fun and easy to read format, I teach everyday people how to achieve optimal health without all the hassle and expense of modern medicine. I prove that you don’t need a college degree, a prescription, tons of money or a medical dictionary to live young.

Why did you identify the best lifestyle habits as those that control blood sugar? I identified those habits that control blood sugar as the best for living young because so many functions of the body rest on proper blood sugar levels. From vibrant, younger looking skin, to optimal libido, to proper hormone output and energy levels, a person must control blood sugar to achieve these.

How can you call for eating more fat? The media has created a fat fearing frenzy. While pushing low calorie and low fat foods, they have erroneously steered America away from healthy fats that come from grass fed beef, coconut oil, seeds, nuts, avocados, and real butter. This has been one of the biggest factors in expanding America’s waistline while increasing the rates of type II diabetes. By abstaining from healthy fats, people are missing out on increased metabolism, maximized nutrient absorption and most importantly appetite control. While healthy fats are higher in calories, they make us feel fuller quicker, which equates to smaller portions, less meals and ultimately, a metabolism that operates in overdrive! You don’t have to take my word for it though. Simply try it for three weeks. By replacing 50% of your calories with healthy fats (three meals per day), you can watch your appetite decrease and the fat melt off. Over-The-Counter Natural Cures teaches this principle and how best to apply it in great detail.

Why are artificial sweeteners just as bad as sugar? Sugar consumption causes fat storage by throwing our hormones out of whack. Artificial sweeteners can do the same thing. Their sweet taste induces a “Pavlov” effect within the body, causing it to think that old-fashioned sugar is being consumed. Subsequently, our fat storing hormones begin to surge within the body. This explains why so many studies have shown artificial sweeteners to be ineffective at warding off obesity.

Why do you say immunity is a choice? Few people realize that the immune function is a direct result of proper nutrient intake. If we are not getting the right nutrients or ingesting items that deplete the body of them, our immunity fails. In this sense, immunity is a choice. You choose whether or not you’ll get the right nutrients to ward off “biological nasties.”

Can people really stop taking their cholesterol drugs and actually get healthier? Yes, despite all the hype, not a single cholesterol lowering drug has been proven to increase lifespan. Today’s cholesterol lowering guidelines are nothing more than cheap ploys to convert healthy people into patients. Studies involving large populations prove that as we age, cholesterol increases in order to protect us not kill us. Those with average cholesterol levels of 300 have been shown to survive longer than those with total cholesterol levels of 170 mg/dL. This explains why cholesterol lowering drugs don’t help us live longer.

What role does sleep play in our health – and how do we get a good night’s sleep? Restful sleep is essential for slowing the aging process. It not only optimizes our anti-aging hormone, but also reduces stress levels. Unfortunately, prescription drugs don’t confer restful, natural sleep. They only induce fatigue. That is why waking up after a night of sleep drugs is so hard. I teach that the best sleep can be obtained with a select valerian supplement available at Walmart combined with some quick exercise techniques and ridding the diet of insomnia-producing toxins.

What regimen do you recommend for avoiding cancer? As we’ve learned from the failed “War on Cancer,” there is no guarantee against beating it. However, most people fail to realize that our body is fully capable of beating cancer before it becomes invasive. Cells are programmed to commit suicide if they are damaged and turn into rogue cancer cells. This built-in protection mechanism is fully dependent on our habits and the proper intake of select nutrients! The regimen I teach ensures that our nutrient intake and lifestyle habits keep this safe-guard at its peak operating ability so that we can fend off  cancer for life.

Obesity and diabetes are at epidemic levels in America. What do you propose as a defense for them? Habits create and eradicate type II diabetes. If you treat your habits, you can treat diabetes. Whether it is the right exercise, eating frequency, diet or supplement use, anyone can learn to live thin, slim and free from diabetes. But, there is so much misinformation; people have no idea how to properly apply these habits to their lifestyle. Over-The Counter Natural Cures clears the confusion.

Can one wake up and have younger-looking and healthier skin? To wake up with younger looking skin, a person has to learn a handful of habits that ensure the integrity of collagen and elastin. To do this, you have to be aware of the environmental, dietary and sun factors that are involved, as well as the proper way to use the right supplement.

What is “nutrient logic” – and how does it help us avoid serious health threats? Nutrient logic dictates that humans cannot thrive without key nutrients, and that today’s pandemic killers are simply the result of gaping nutrient deficiencies. In contrast to choking down symptom masking drugs, nutrient logic addresses the cause and conquers illness by filling the corresponding deficiency. It’s as simple and logical as resurrecting a dying, sun-deprived plant with sun exposure. A mountain of scientific evidence supports this logic if you really need proof. And as a pharmaceutical chemist I’ve been studying it for more than twenty years. And the evidence has always proven that nutrient logic can save health and wealth. Nutrient logic has been saving lives throughout history. For thousands of years, diseases like scurvy, pellagra, beriberi, and rickets ravaged millions of people. In the early 1900s, Nobel Prize winning scientists – people who believed in nutrient logic and had a flare for the scientific method – discovered that these pandemic killers were caused by rampant nutrient deficiencies, not infectious agents. The simple act of filling the nutritional void with select nutrients (not drugs) cured millions of people – inexpensively! Not a single prescription was required. Scurvy was eradicated with vitamin C, pellagra with niacin, beriberi with thiamine, and rickets with vitamin D.

What is the “right” supplement?

• The right supplement should be backed by science and years of successful use.

• The right supplement is not adulterated with fillers such as sugar (dextrose), artificial flavors, and preservatives.

• The right supplement has verifiable purity via a certificate of analysis (COA) to prove that it doesn’t have any adulterants.

• The right supplement is manufactured under Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved general manufacturing principles (GMP).

• The right supplement provides the proper natural form of a plant, herb or nutrient as warranted by science. All too often, supplement formulations use the incorrect and inferior isolates, ratios or synthetic mimics of nature to replace essential nutrients.

• The right supplement targets a specific action (like reduction of inflammation-causing molecules) to elicit a positive reaction (reduced risk of heart disease).

• The right supplement won’t interfere with commonly used drugs or cause risky interactions

• And finally, the right supplement should help you feel vibrantly healthy within 30 days.

What is an example of what you call a “grocery store fat trap”? A grocery store fat trap is nothing more than a scheme designed by food manufacturers to make you eat more of something that you think is healthy – like beef jerky. You could think of these foods or food additives as fat fertilizer. They are great for a company’s bottom line but really bad for your “bottom.” One of the most prominent traps is high fructose corn syrup. It’s labeled as being natural, yet is made in a lab, and over the long haul, impairs your body’s ability to know when it’s eaten too much food.

Can we have any faith that Big Pharma is truly looking out for our best health interests? No. Prescription drugs are the top killer in the U.S and the industry as a whole has done nothing to curb the threat. They continue to push for speedy approval, thereby failing to discover long term risk and have ramped up their false advertising efforts which promote drugs as vitamin. Watch out!

How did you come to discover the cures of Over-The-Counter Natural Cures? My wife asked me if the “cheap” supplements at Walmart and other mass retailers were any good and if people could take them in place of risky prescriptions. I answered, “Yes!” and she told me that I better write a book about it so that other people could become aware of it.