Putting It into Practice

• The orthomolecular coach's role
• Food first
• The first coaching session
• Coaching across the life stages
• Medications, depletions and red flags
• Talking honestly about the research
• Dr. Blaylock on vaccines and COVID-19

The entries tell you what each nutrient does and how much. This closing chapter shows how a coach puts them together for one person.

The orthomolecular coach's role

An orthomolecular coach teaches, builds plans with clients and tracks results.

• Teach. Explain what each nutrient does, its food sources and forms, and the amounts in this book, with the doctor whose work they come from: "Dr. Hoffer used niacin with thousands of patients, starting at 1,000 mg three times a day."
• Build the plan with the client. Start from food, add one nutrient at a time, and find the right amount for this person (the In depth sections of the entries show how).
• Track results. Use a simple journal and review it every 4–6 weeks, adjusting amounts as the client changes.
• Teach clients to test. Clients order their own lab tests from direct-to-consumer labs or home kits, and you show them how to read the results against Arukah's ranges.
• Know the interactions. Check every medication against Putting It into Practice: Medications, depletions and red flags. Blood pressure, seizure, steroid, psychiatric, heart, thyroid and diabetes drugs and warfarin are adjusted or tapered only by the prescriber, so the client tells the prescriber before adding a nutrient that changes their effect.
• Know the red flags. Chest pain, sudden weakness, thoughts of suicide, unexplained weight loss, blood in the stool or urine, or a high fever in a child call for medical care now.
• Know where to find an orthomolecular physician. Point clients who want one to the practitioner list on Orthomolecular.org.

Food first

Supplements work on top of a good diet, never instead of it. Dr. Saul's food teaching in Doctor Yourself comes down to a few habits:

• Mostly plants, plenty raw. Vegetables, fruits, beans, nuts and seeds, with much of it raw or juiced.
• Juice your vegetables. Fresh vegetable juice is "liquid nutrition" that even a weak digestion can take in. Dr. Saul suggests regular juice days, and teaches raw cabbage juice for the stomach lining.
• No junk. Dr. Hoffer's rule for every patient: no sugar, no artificial colors or flavors, no preservatives, no processed snacks. Dr. Benjamin Feingold showed that artificial colors trigger hyperactivity in sensitive children.
• Drink plenty of good liquids. Water and fresh juices, not soda; liquids thin mucus.
• Eat well on any budget. Beans, sprouts, home-grown greens and juicing cost little (How to Be Healthy Even If You're Broke).

Whole-food eating comes first; an orthomolecular coach always starts there.

The first coaching session

Before the session: the client signs Arukah's consent and disclosure form and completes the intake form.

Intake checklist

• Goals in the client's own words (energy, sleep, mood, joints, immunity, focus)
• A typical day of eating and drinking, including sugar, caffeine and alcohol
• Current symptoms and how long they have lasted
• Every medication, supplement and herb, with amounts
• Known conditions, especially kidney, liver, heart, thyroid, diabetes, bleeding disorders and cancer
• Pregnancy, breastfeeding or plans to conceive
• Recent lab results the client is willing to share (vitamin D, B12, ferritin, RBC magnesium, thyroid panel, liver tests); clients without them can order them from a direct-to-consumer lab or home kit
• Sleep, movement, sunlight, stress, relationships and support
• Red flags that need medical care now (see Medications, depletions and red flags)

Helping the client build a foundational plan. The OMNS Pragmatist's Primer and Dr. Saul's books describe a common starting foundation. The coach and client build it together, one step at a time.

Coaching principles for any plan

1. One change at a time. Add one supplement every 3–7 days so the client can tell what helps and what bothers them.
2. Start low, go slow. Then find the amount that works (bowel tolerance, saturation, symptom relief).
3. Divide the dose of water-soluble vitamins through the day.
4. Read labels. Check the form (citrate vs. oxide, d- vs. dl-alpha), the amount per serving (not per capsule), and units (IU, mg, mcg). Avoid artificial colors and needless fillers.
5. Track and review. A simple daily journal of symptoms, sleep, energy and bowel habits, reviewed every 4–6 weeks.
6. Share the list. The client gives the full supplement list to every prescriber, pharmacist and surgeon, because of the interactions in Medications, depletions and red flags.

Coaching across the life stages

Children. Dr. Saul's message: "If you say no to drugs, you have to say yes to something else—and that something is nutrition." The approach starts with no junk, no artificial colors, real food, outdoor play and less screen time. Dr. Hoffer reported treating children with attention problems using niacinamide in divided doses, and Dr. Ruth Harrell reported gains in children with learning disabilities using high-dose vitamins. Practical tips: chewables, powders in juice or applesauce, capsules opened into food. Children's amounts are set with the parents and scaled to the child's weight.

Autism. Dr. Bernard Rimland reported that vitamin B6 with magnesium helped many autistic children, and that benefits faded on placebo and returned when supplements resumed. Dr. Saul stresses divided doses, a full B-complex alongside B6, and stopping at once if tingling or numbness appears.

Pregnancy. Pregnancy raises the need for many nutrients. Retinol stays below 10,000 IU a day, and isotretinoin and many herbs are avoided (see Vitamin D3). Iodine follows the Iodine entry: Brownstein uses 12–25 mg in pregnancy, with the amount set by an iodine-literate practitioner or midwife. Helen Saul Case's work is a good resource, and the plan is built with the woman and her midwife.

Older adults. Common themes are low B12 (check it before accepting a dementia label), low vitamin D, low magnesium, bone loss, high blood pressure, eye health and many medications. Dr. Saul's tips:

• Blood pressure: weight loss and walking first; sit quietly 10 minutes before measuring at home, and compare home readings with office readings ("white coat" readings run high).
• Eyes: the AREDS study found that vitamin C, vitamin E, zinc, copper and carotenoids slowed macular degeneration in people already at risk.
• Memory: B12, a B-complex with meals, and omega-3; Dr. Saul cites a mouse study in which niacinamide restored memory (an animal study, not yet shown in people).

Allergies. Dr. Saul teaches vitamin C as a natural antihistamine, taken to bowel tolerance, along with avoiding artificial additives, testing dairy, drinking more liquids and juicing. Severe allergies (throat swelling, trouble breathing) are emergencies: the client uses their epinephrine and calls 911.

Medications, depletions and red flags

Many common drugs deplete nutrients, and some nutrients change how drugs work. A coach knows these patterns, adds the depleted nutrients to the plan, and spaces or avoids the ones that interact. Blood pressure, seizure, steroid, psychiatric, heart, thyroid and diabetes drugs and warfarin are adjusted or tapered only by the prescriber, so the client tells the prescriber before starting a nutrient that changes their effect.

The prescriber may not be trained in orthomolecular nutrition. If the client wants a doctor who is, the practitioner list on Orthomolecular.org is a starting place; the client checks credentials, and keeps the prescriber informed.

Red flags: refer to a doctor or emergency care now

• Chest pain, fainting, sudden weakness, numbness or slurred speech
• Thoughts of suicide or self-harm (call or text 988 in the U.S.)
• Trouble breathing or throat swelling
• Blood in stool, urine or vomit; black stools
• Unexplained weight loss, a new lump, or a fever that will not break
• Signs of supplement trouble: yellow skin or eyes, dark urine, severe nausea, tingling or numbness, heart rhythm changes

Talking honestly about the research

Clients will hear that "vitamins are a waste of money" or "vitamin E is dangerous." OMNS argues that many negative studies were built to fail:

• Dose too low. Testing 200 mg of vitamin C and concluding vitamin C "doesn't work" (Vitamins: It's Dose that Does It).
• Wrong form. Synthetic dl-alpha tocopherol instead of natural mixed vitamin E; folic acid instead of folate.
• Too short, or one nutrient alone. Nutrients work as teams over months.
• Headlines beyond the data. How to Make People Believe Any Anti-Vitamin Scare shows how press releases outrun the study.

A good coach also knows the limits of the evidence on the orthomolecular side:

Words to use: plain statements with their source and a plan: "Magnesium relaxes muscles; Dr. Dean uses 600 mg a day," "Dr. Hoffer used niacin with thousands of patients," "Let's start 200 mg at bedtime and track your cramps for two weeks." Words to avoid: "guaranteed," "you won't need your medication," and any promise of a cure. Disagree respectfully with other practitioners and never run them down. When a client's doctor is skeptical, help the client bring a short list of supplements and one or two OMNS references to the next appointment.

Dr. Blaylock on vaccines and COVID-19

Dr. Blaylock's newsletters include strong views on vaccines and COVID-19, and clients may ask about them. They are taught here as his views, with the issue they come from. Public health agencies and most physicians disagree with many of these claims, and the vaccination decision is the client's own.

What he wrote

• September 2008, Vitamin D's Hidden Role: he linked repeated, closely spaced vaccinations, and the ethylmercury and aluminum in some vaccines, with brain inflammation and autism in children low in vitamin D ("children receive some 36 vaccines by the age of 2"). He blamed the rise in autoimmune disease (MS, lupus) partly on the number of vaccines, naming tetanus, hepatitis B, MMR and DPT; advised avoiding mercury-containing flu vaccines; and wrote that health officials should hand out vitamin D3 rather than promote "ineffective and dangerous flu vaccines."
• July 2020, Why Low Vitamin D Endangers Your Health: he called face masks "virtually useless" against viral spread and praised fresh air and sunlight; said drug companies blocked cheaper drugs such as hydroxychloroquine; wrote that vitamin D3 "helps prevent damage caused by vaccines"; and predicted that a mandatory COVID-19 vaccine would bring a rise in autoimmune disorders.
• May 2021, Magnesium Can Protect You: he wrote that COVID-19 survival under age 65 is about 99% and that the virus did not meet his definition of a pandemic; that the mRNA vaccines were not properly tested, citing VAERS reports of more than 10,000 serious reactions and 2,000 deaths at the time; and that the spike protein can cross-react with human tissues and trigger autoimmune disease. "I would not take these vaccines." On children: "You can vaccinate a child, but you can't unvaccinate them."
• February 2023, Omega-3 Fatty Acids Protect Your Brain: he called Americans "probably the most overvaccinated people in the world," wrote that vaccines activate the brain's immune cells (microglia), and opposed mRNA vaccination of children.

His nutrition protocols after vaccination

• May 2021: after an mRNA vaccine, magnesium, nano-curcumin, vitamin C, tocotrienols, B-complex vitamins, a DHA/EPA oil and probiotics; after the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, the same plus beta-glucan once a week.
• February 2023: DHA 2 g three times a day with meals (his stated amount for this situation, six times his usual 1,000 mg a day in the Omega-3 entry); vitamin D3 5,000 IU a day with blood tests; mixed tocotrienols 50 mg three times a day with food; buffered vitamin C 1,000–2,000 mg three times a day between meals; nano-curcumin 250 mg three times a day; slow-release magnesium malate or citrate 250 mg twice a day with meals.

For coaches: share these as Dr. Blaylock's views and name the source; the vaccine decision is the client's. The nutrients in his protocols carry the same cautions as anywhere else in this book; 6 g of DHA a day, for example, matters for anyone on blood thinners (see From A to Zinc).