InsideOut Interview: Mark Brown

by Owen Lipstein May/June 2009

Dr. Mark Hyman is the founder and medical director of The UltraWellness Center in Lenox, Mass., which offers patient- rather than disease-centered, approaches to medicine—called “functional medicine”—by focusing on how core systems in the body can become imbalanced, and then restored, to prevent or cure chronic illness.

Dr. Hyman, who spent nearly 10 years as co-medical director of Canyon Ranch resort in Lenox, has authored four New York Times Best Sellers; is the editor-in-chief of Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine, the most prestigious journal in the field of integrative medicine, and the medical editor of Natural Solutions magazine; and is a frequent guest on TV programs like “Good Morning, America” and “The View with Barbara Walters,” and on CNN, PBS, and NPR, too.

We spoke with him about the body-mind relationship and his latest best seller, The UltraMind Solution: Fix Your Broken Brain by Healing Your Body First (Scribner, 2008).

Owen Lipstein: I started a magazine that I’m sure you’re familiar with, American Health, in 1981. And the subtitle was “Fitness of Mind and Body.” I say that—

Mark Hyman: Way ahead of your time.

OL: Yeah, it was, for years and years, a kind of Cinderella success. I say that just because your book is very radical, in a sense. If you were to explain it to someone, how would you describe your departure from traditional treatment therapies?

MH: Well, the first thing is, the way we’re thinking about these problems is completely wrong. The way we’re thinking about depression, or anxiety, or dementia, or ADD [attention deficit disorder], or autism, doesn’t represent the science any longer. Breaking them up into these diagnostic groups that have no relationship to the cause is outdated, and very 20th century. The 21st-century way of thinking about disease is based on the cause, not the symptoms. Psychiatric medicine, and neurology, [are] based on symptoms, not cause.
So that’s the departure: fundamentally, thinking about the underlying causes, and the common roots of many of these problems, and dealing with those common roots. Rather than using drugs to suppress symptoms, we’re using multiple therapies to normalize function, and optimize these core systems in the body that are at the root of all disease.

OL: You haven’t taken the traditional route, although you were trained in a more-or-less traditional way. Tell us about your earlier work, particularly at Canyon Ranch, and how your thinking changed over time.

MH: I was trained as a traditional doctor, board certified in healing medicine practice and family medicine practice, for many years. I was in the emergency room for many years. Then I got a job at Canyon Ranch, and realized that I was much more interested in addressing the lifestyle and environmental causes of disease, rather than simply putting out fires all over the place. That’s what really led to the development of this model, which is called “functional medicine.”
And functional medicine isn’t something I invented. It’s simply a development that’s happening in medicine—throughout medicine—right now, that looks at what we call “systems medicine,” or how all the systems of the body, at the root of disease, relate and connect, and how we have to work with those systems instead of getting focused on diseases. What we’re able to do, at Canyon Ranch, is really have a living laboratory to try out these concepts and ideas.

OL: You talk about symptoms and diseases as brain problems—that what we think of as brain problems can actually be imbalances in the body that show up in the brain.

MH: Right. So, let’s say you come in with depression. You feel sad, and hopeless, and helpless. You’re not sleeping, you have no sex drive, and you’re not interested in your daily activities. Most [of these symptoms] can be attributed to all sorts of stories, right? It can be because your parents were mean to you when you were a kid, or because you don’t like your boss, or because—who knows what, right?
So there are all these sorts of psycho-spiritual explanations, and sometimes those are the right explanations, but often they’re not. And we really stop thinking, and we say, “Well, this is all in your head: Your thoughts, related to depression, are all really in your head. So we need to give you something that’s going to work on your head: either psychotherapy, or medication.”
But the reality is that it may be a different set of problems that are actually in your body. You may have a low thyroid function. You may have a vitamin D-deficiency. You might have mercury poisoning. You could have insulin resistance, or pre-diabetes. You could have a virus in the part of your brain that controls mood. You could have a folate deficiency. So there are all sorts of causes that are easily treatable, if you think about them and identify them, that are really based in changes in your immune system, and your hormones, and your gut, and your detoxification systems. These are the basic, fundamental systems in the body that drive all disease.

OL: Do you find that some of the traditional Western medical establishment is resisting this type of thought?

MH: On the contrary, I think that there’s a recognition, across medicine, that the ways in which we’re practicing don’t really work very well. And our model of drug-based therapy as a cure for all problems—that has really gotten pretty beaten up over the last few years. More and more, as the science is evolving in each specialty, there’s an awareness that there’s been a change in thinking about disease, and that we have to deal more with the fundamental issues and causes, rather than just assuming that [problems are] all medication deficiencies.
So doctors are prescribing supplements. They’re looking at lifestyle more. They’re interested in these methods, and they’re dissatisfied with what they’re doing. So I think there’s more and more openness. I just met a psychiatrist who treats his patients with folic acid and fish oil—and this is not an alternative psychiatrist. I met a cardiologist who’s recommending coenzyme Q10, fish oil, and folic acid to his patients. So there are definitely changes happening.

OL: What kinds of foods are bad for the brain?

MH: Bad food for your brain is food that’s not food; for example, things like high-fructose corn syrup, trans fats, processed foods, antibiotics and hormones. These are all things that affect us in negative ways, so we should really try to focus on—as much as we can—eating real, whole food that doesn’t contain these components. There are other things in our diet that can affect the brain adversely, too: too much caffeine, alcohol, and sugar also have negative impacts.
The foods that are good for your brain are basically real food. I think we have to understand that there are different components of food, and different qualities, and that the quality of food is as important as the categories. Protein, for example: Well, you can have a lot of acidic beef and animal protein that may not be that great for you, or you can have more plant-based proteins, like beans, nuts, seeds and fish, and so forth. There’s also a need for the right carbohydrates, which are plant-based foods: phyto-nutrients, fiber, vitamins and minerals from vegetables and fruit, and so forth. And then there’s the right fats, which are essential for maintaining proper brain function and structure. Those are the omega-3 fats, from fish oil, and sometimes nuts, like walnuts, or flax seeds, and so forth.

OL: Why are those non-foods bad for your brain? What do they do?

MH: Clearly, trans fats are inflammatory. They cause instant resistance. They block transmission of neurotransmitters. Sugars have been linked to instant resistance, which leads to Alzheimer’s and [to] depression. And alcohol: A little bit is good; a little more can be very damaging to the brain. Artificial sweeteners, like aspartame, are phytotoxins that irritate the brain. Then there’s also gluten, and dairy, [to] which some people can be allergic, or [which can] cause irritating phytotoxicity in the brain, through various peptides.

OL: Someone comes in to your practice and says, “I’m depressed.” How do you address that?

MH: When someone comes in with depression, I don’t really know what’s wrong with them. So I just simply start from the beginning. They have a collection of symptoms we call “depression,” but those aren’t the cause of their symptoms. I have to begin thinking about the causes.
Then I go through their medical history, and I spend a lot of time asking questions. I want to know about all sorts of different symptoms, from toxic exposures to digestive symptoms to immune systems to blood sugar issues. Hormonal things—I mean, if someone’s in pari-menopause, that’s a big clue. If someone has dry skin, is constipated, has lost the outer third of their eyebrows and has weight gain, they probably have thyroid problems. If someone is eating no fruits and vegetables, and has a horrible diet, they might have folate deficiency. If someone has intestinal inflammation, and they have bloating and gas and all sorts of digestive issues, they might have absorption problems [with] B12. Or, if they’re inside all the time, and they live in the Northeast, they might have vitamin D deficiencies.
So, through a series of questions, I want to know what’s going on. If they eat tuna sushi all the time and they have a mouthful of fillings, they might have mercury poisoning. Through a very detailed history, I can get a good idea of where the problems are, and then I can begin to do some diagnostic tests to confirm or refute my hypothesis, and come up with a plan to treat the cause. It may be a B12 shot. It may be a thyroid medication. It may be things to balance their hormones. It may be vitamins, and so forth.

OL: A lot of people are reading this book. It’s very detailed and solution-specific. Have you been surprised by the reaction?

MH: I’m happy. I think it’s hitting a nerve. People are very interested in looking at things differently. They’re tired of drug ad after drug ad on television for anti-depressants—and they know there’s some other solution, and they’re not really hearing about it. And this offers the hope of a possibility of something different. So I think people are gravitating towards it.

OL: Is the new consciousness about the value of what’s in our food part of the change, too?


MH: Absolutely. I mean, the Obamas are having an organic vegetable garden put in their back yard. That’s pretty dramatic.
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