Ray Sahelian, M.D. biography
Dr. Ray Sahelian, M.D., is a world famous medical
doctor, bestselling author, natural medicine expert, and supplement product
formulator. He obtained a Bachelors of Science degree in nutrition from
Drexel University and completed his doctoral training at Thomas Jefferson
Medical School, both in Philadelphia. He is certified by the American Board of
Family Medicine. His reputation and popularity keep increasing and many people
see him as one of the top stars in the natural health industry poised to become
(if not already) the top expert in the world on the topic of natural
supplements. His email newsletter, called Supplement Research
Update, reaches more than 100,000 individuals and is one of the most
respected health newsletters in the nutritional industry. His website is the most visited in
the world on the topic of natural supplements maintained by a medical doctor.
See www.RaySahelian.com.
Subscribe to a FREE Supplement Research Update newsletter. Once or twice a month we email a brief abstract of several studies on various supplements and natural medicine topics, including natural cures and treatments, and their practical interpretation by Ray Sahelian, M.D.
Media interviews
Dr. Ray Sahelian has been seen on television programs including NBC Today, NBC
Nightly News, CBS This Morning, Dateline NBC, and CNN, quoted by countless major
magazines such as Newsweek, Modern Maturity, Health, and newspapers including
USA Today, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, and Le Monde (France). Millions
of radio listeners nationwide hear him discuss the latest research on health.
Many of his books, including
Mind Boosters have been translated into several languages, including
Japanese, Korean, Italian, German, Russian, French, and Chinese.
Benefits and risks of supplements
Dr. Ray Sahelian is internationally recognized as a moderate voice in the
evaluation of natural supplements. In his books, articles, and website, he
discusses both the benefits and risks of these supplements. He thoroughly
evaluates both the published research and has hands on experience with patients.
Doctor takes his own medicine
What makes Dr. Ray Sahelian stand out even more than other experts in the
nutrition field is that he constantly tests on himself various herbs and nutrients
in varying dosages to determine what kind of effect they have. Almost all other doctors who write
about supplements do so based mostly on published research. It is through this experimental and experiential method
that has provided him with significant insights into herbs and supplements that
few other medical doctors have discovered. In addition, Dr. Sahelian, over his
many years of medical and nutritional practice, has had personal feedback from
thousands of his patients who take supplements, along with tens of
thousands of supplement users who have emailed him writing about their
experiences, both positive and negative. There's hardly anyone else on this
planet who has gathered this type of nutraceutical information from so many
varied sources.
Expert developer of nutritional products
Dr. Sahelian is in private practice in Los Angeles, CA. He writes articles for
several health magazines. He also offers his consulting
and formulating services to medical and nutritional companies. His newest
formulations are
Eyesight Rx for vision improvement within hours or days,
Passion Rx , one of the most popular herbal
sexual products on the market.
Passion Rx enhances sexual pleasure in men and women, increases libido, and improves erectile
function.
Mind Power Rx, Joint Power Rx, MultiVit Rx, a
multivitamin product
Interview for Vitamin Retailer
magazine, 2007, by James Gormley
1) You came out with a number of popular health books
on natural hormones, including Melatonin (1995) and DHEA (1996). Natural hormone
supplements have become another group of regulatory scapegoats, it seems, with
even the regulatory status of DHEA being threatened on Capitol Hill. Are you
still a fan of hormone supplementation and what do you think of these threats to
safe products such as DHEA?
When it comes to the availability of natural
supplements, I am a libertarian in the sense that I believe government should be only
minimally involved and only ban substances from the public that are immediately,
and extremely, dangerous. I also believe that the government should be consistent
in its approach, and not be hypocritical. For instance, acetaminophen and aspirin kill thousands of
Americans each year and cause serious side effects in tens of thousands of
users. Why are they available over the counter and why was ephedra pulled off
the market for causing just a few deaths? If strict governmental guidelines or
bans are placed on supplements, why not then follow the same logic and limit or
ban the sale of aspirin, acetaminophen, and even alcohol? Alcohol certainly
kills and harms more people than ephedra. What about limiting sales of
sugar-laden sodas that cause obesity and diabetes in our children?
Drinking more than one soda a day is associated with an increased
incidence of metabolic syndrome, What
about making it illegal for people to ski downhill since each weekend there are
many people who get hurt on the slopes, some with permanent injuries? I
have a friend who had a severe back injury at age 18 from a skiing accident and
since, for decades, has chronic pain which has led to a codeine and pain pill
addiction. One skiing outing weekend ruined his life.
We
live in a society that should accept that there are risks to some of the
actions we take or some of the products and foods we ingest. If we were to
tightly regulate every little detail of a citizen's life, we would no
longer have the freedoms we currently enjoy. Citizens are responsible
for their own health and it is the responsibility of each person to learn as much about a food, drink, supplement,
hormone or medicine before ingesting it, and to learn as much about the risks of
a physical activity or sport before engaging in that activity. Along with
these freedoms come the potential for a citizen to harm himself or herself with
a bad decision. But, that is the price we pay for our freedoms.
Having said this, I do believe that the misuse of certain over the
counter hormones can be harmful, and I hope that companies voluntarily limit
dosages of these hormones and consumers recognize that more is not better.
Hormones are very potent, and even 1 or 2 mg of DHEA can have a strong influence
on the body. I personally do not like DHEA being sold in a dosage greater than 5
or 10 mg, but, as I mentioned above, the freedom to have these available is of
greater importance to me than governmental micromanagement of our choices. There
is a grave slippery slope when governments begin to micromanage every aspect of
our lives. Plus,
there is no guarantee that those in official positions know better than wise
scientists and doctors, or are any more honest,.
2) In 1998 you wrote a book on 5-HTP. Last year we ran an article in VR
entitled, “The Return of L-Tryptophan” to herald the parting the clouds of
regulatory vagueness regarding its status. Are you glad that L-tryp is back—what
do you feel its best uses are?
Yes, I am glad tryptophan is back. This amino acid can
be best used for sleep and mood elevation. There is absolutely no reason, as
explained above, that this amino acid should not be available to the consumer. I
am not aware of any serious side effects with tryptophan since it returned to
the market a few years ago.
3) After 1998, you branched out into other, more broadly oriented health books,
such as The Common Cold Cure (1999), Mind Boosters (2000) and Natural Sex
Boosters (2004). Do you now prefer writing books that encompass many supplements
and/or focus on a health area as opposed to supplement-specific books, and
either way, why?
The mid 90s were the golden years for single supplement
books since, after to the passage of the 1994 DSHEA law, melatonin, DHEA, and
several previously banned supplements suddenly became available. The public was
hungry for information on these single supplements, enough that they would buy a
whole book about them. However, there has not been much of a blockbuster single
nutrient that has become available in the past few years and it is therefore
preferable to write on broader topics. Plus, with the availability of
information on the internet, it is more difficult to sell books on single
supplements.
4) Retailers—and their customers---appreciate your books. Are there any words of
advice you could offer to retailers as to what educational vehicles work best
for them and their customers, such as books, magazines, hand-outs, etc?
It's not necessarily where the information is printed
or available, but rather the quality of the information or the source. It is
very difficult in our industry to have unbiased information. Most people who
know a lot about supplements are somehow also involved in the manufacture or
sale of nutritional products. Academics and scientists who don't sell products
and are likely to be unbiased are also the very ones who seem to know very little
about the clinical and practical uses of these supplements since they often just
get their info from lab or rodent studies as opposed to hands on clinical
experience in the office with patients or taking the supplements themselves.
Some academics may also be on the payroll of drug companies and write articles
in medical journals that have a bias against supplements. We can't rely on the
mainstream
media since most of the articles on natural supplements are penned by health
writers who cover a wide variety of medical topics and know very little about
natural supplements or how to interpret results of studies. Unfortunately, it is
very difficult for the consumer to know which sources to rely on. I can suggest
one thing. If the article a person is reading highly touts a particular
supplement in glowing terms and does not mention side effects, and these glowing
terms are used even though there's a lack of human studies, then one should be
skeptical. On the flip side, if an article lambasts a particular nutrient, and
hardly mentions the potential benefits when used safely, then it should be read
with skepticism.
5) So what’s next for Dr. Ray Sahelian?
I am currently adding more research information to my website http://www.RaySahelian.com/bio.html which has become one of the largest databases for natural supplement and natural healing research in the world, and perhaps the most visited website in the world on the topic of natural supplements maintained by a medical doctor. Over the last few years I also began formulating herbal products. I realized that I had such an extensive personal, clinical, and research understanding of how many herbs worked that it was time to share this knowledge with the public by putting together nutritional formulas. As such I have created several popular products. Passion Rx is for sexual enhancement; Eyesight Rx is for visual improvement; Mind Power Rx is for brain boosting; and I also have created Prostate Power Rx, Joint Power Rx, Veg Rx, and MultiVit Rx. I also offer my consulting services to several vitamin companies and write a popular and free email newsletter for Physician Formulas, a highly respected supplement company that was founded in 2004. The name of the newsletter is Supplement Research Update and it has become one of the most read natural health newsletters in the country.