Reed is another of the amazing people that I have come into contact through Sean Croxton, Reed is a true pioneer of Nutrition and has an immense amount of knowledge. Well I will let him tell you more about himself, his FDN system and his views on nutrition.

TG:  Hi Reed, and thanks for giving up some of your busy day to talk to us!

TG:  For anyone who has not heard of you, can you tell us a little about your history in the Wellbeing and Nutrition industry?

RD: I was the Case Manager and Health Director at the Better Health & Wellness Centre in Poway California for 8 years.  I worked with a chiropractor as her clinical nutritionist and saw every patient.  I also ran my own bone density testing business and screened over 11,000 people for bone density problems.  Many of those people became clients for the purpose of improving their bone density and other health complaints, especially hormonal problems.  So I was fortunate to have a very high volume practice and the opportunity to do my own research.  I packed a lot of clinical experience into those years and was able to make my own observations about why some people would improve, and others would not improve, depending on what they did to address their complaints. So I developed a process of intake and investigation and protocol that has helped thousands of people, and now I teach that system, called Functional Diagnostic Nutrition, all over the world.

TG:  So what got you started your interest in Nutrition?

RD: 37 years ago I picked up a book called “Healing Ourselves” by an oriental medicine doctor.  It helped me adopt the view that we are responsible for our own health and not to rely on doctors.  I learned there are many signs and symptoms that western docs just don’t consider, so even though I wasn’t in the health and wellness business until years later, I kept my mind open, and searching and doubting (in a good way).  When I finally began researching people’s health, as a corporate human resource director, I fell under the spell of natural health and wellness methods once more.  At first, I was just trying to improve a company’s bottom line by keeping the employees healthy.  But, oddly (as fate would have it), that’s about the time I lost my executive position and decided to change careers.  I completed a nutritional therapy certification program with a doctor-friend of mine and that began the journey to where I am today.

TG:  Can you tell us a little about the FDN (Functional Diagnostic Nutrition) system?

RD: FDN is a system of investigation into specific pillars of health – the hormone, immune, and digestion and detoxification systems.  We order saliva and urine testing to determine what is malfunctioning. By going after the malfunctions, the client/patient rebuilds health from the foundation up.  FDN is a very scientific way to apply the inside-out approach that most holistic and naturopathic providers like to take.

TG:  What lead you to developing the FDN system?

RD: While studying and practicing ordinary clinical nutrition, I kept getting the feeling that I was more or less a supplement salesman.  I was very uncomfortable with that from the start, and it didn’t seem to help people all that much anyway. I found myself helping people to get off drugs and, along with chiropractic treatments, they improved physically. But it seemed they were required to buy a lot of stuff and, down the road,  many people still had their main complaints of fatigue, sleeplessness, lethargy, allergies, inflammation, skin, IBS, depression, poor mental focus and low libido type complaints. And for me, there was too much trial and error in the therapeutic nutrition model that I was using at that time.

One day at a seminar, I learned about some functional lab work we could order.  That opened up a whole new world to me and I started to order every test under the sun on as many people as possible. We ordered cartons full of test kits and I went kit crazy.  I also cleared the shelves of all products and told the staff and patients that from now on we were going to deal only with the underlying causes of disease, instead of focusing on symptoms.

So, eventually, a kind of detective work evolved that had me nailing down those underlying causes with just a few tests and a couple intake forms. I had some miracle cases and some not so good cases.  But many people completely resolved their long term chronic conditions and I finally felt like I was doing some real good in the world.

After I coined the phrase Functional Diagnostic Nutrition, and lectured on it for a few years, I was asked to develop the FDN Certification Course for health professionals.  It’s a very exciting course to take, its relatively simple to learn and presents a turn-key method or clinical model you can use immediately.  Basically, we’ll show you how to use functional lab testing to get to the root cause or malfunctions that need to be restored in order to repair in the body. And we’ll show you how to implement protocols that get the client to take responsibility for their own health results.

TG:  What do you feel clients will get from using a FDN practitioner over any other form of nutritional approach?

RD: As an FDN provider, the first thing you get is tremendous recognition from the client/patient that you are the first provider they met that offered them a way to discover why they are having symptoms.  Clients really appreciate that.  I mean, their eyes really light up when the test results totally match their complaints, and you are explaining functionally, why they have felt so lousy for so long.  We call that match up “clinical correlation” and we’ll teach you to get clients to this level.  The credibility you gain is very helpful.  Especially when a lot of clients have been told by doctors that it’s all in their head!

With FDN you walk your client through the intake and testing process step by step, and educate them on what the test results mean, and work together with them to make the necessary improvements.

So, probably the biggest advantage for an FDN are the tools that we use to identify the malfunctions of the organs and systems, plus the underlying and hidden stressors that caused the dysfunction.  Our detective work zeroes right in on the real problem.  Once you are working on the causal level, your clients will make significant improvements in the way they feel, and more often than not, actually resolve many common health complaints.

TG:  How easy is it for personal trainers to become FDN trained and how will it help their business?

RD: As long as you have a decent computer and internet access it’s really easy to take the course.  You can register online at www.fdnmanager.com and take all the lessons online at your own pace.  Once you get a log-in key, you can access all the lessons, videos, recordings and exams at your own convenience.  You should be familiar with MS Excel and Word and be able to open and save files to a computer.  The actual case files where I recorded the live consultation are incredible learning tools.

You’ll also run a saliva and urine test on yourself! And the course includes a mentorship program for a mock up client that we walk you through, plus your own first two real clients.  So besides the online course time, there is interactive time with a mentor that shows you the ropes.

You can charge whatever you want to dispense test kits and interpret the results and make your recommendations to the client.  Personally, I charge the about $200 per hour for FDN results and recommendations counselling, but I have graduates that charge more.  Many alternative doctors who don’t even offer FDN charge much, much more for their work.  I think that once you become familiar with the clinical model we teach, you’ll see your own way to increase your income using FDN and functional lab testing.

TG:  What does an average day involve for you?

RD: I work at my computer and phone, both day and night helping FDN trainees get through the course, working with my FDN Mentors and my webmaster, and my own researching and writing projects.  I stopped taking new clients a while ago but I refer new people to my FDN graduates and help them along. We have FDNers in 13 countries so far, so that keeps me pretty busy.  I also work one day a week for BioHealth Diagnostics Laboratory, assisting doctors all over the U.S. with test result interpretations and case management.  I spend as much time as possible at seminars or in teleconferences learning functional diagnostics.  And I also like to box and ride my bike when I get the chance.

TG:  Who have been your major influences in the world of health, fitness and nutrition?

RD: Well, there was the book by Naburo Muramoto I mentioned, I read that about a hundred times since I was 19 years old.  No doubt there are countless teachers and lecturers, but mostly I have to thank Dr. LeiLani Vidal, a really good chiropractor that taught me how to run a busy practice and for all the training we attended together over the years.  Dr. William Bailey, D.O., has been my medical director for about 9 years now and a good friend who mentors me on the medical side of things as well as the osteopathic side.  William Wolcott, the world’s leading authority on Metabolic Typing is a mentor and friend and co-researcher who prompted me to start the FDN Certification course. I’m especially glad he wrote the book “The Metabolic Typing Diet” which jumped off the shelf at me years ago and started our journey together. David Vaughan is one of the top clinical nutritionists in the world and developer of Foodpharmacy Software, he has helped me develop FDN. As well as Dr. Alan Weinstein a PhD and DC who has been very helpful.  I also have to thank Dr. David Singer, the most productive chiropractor in the world who taught me how to do lectures and health screenings, but also how to develop and stick to ones purpose in life.

TG:  What has been your most rewarding moment in the Wellbeing industry so far?

RD: I can give you many, many examples of the joy that one feels after helping a fellow being to completely overcome a long-term chronic health condition simply because we found the underlying cause, instead of just treating symptoms.

One woman was really depressed, because she was overweight, which was due to medication she was on for a chronic skin rash and hives. Once we discovered the cause of her skin problem, she got off the meds within nine days, then started losing weight and became her old cheerful self again.  It sounds simple to us now, but her doctor had told her that she had her choice – either take the medicine and accept being fat, or don’t take the medicine and deal with really itchy skin.  When she became depressed, he offered to write another prescription for depression!

Another woman was diagnosed bi-polar, plus overweight, plus severe acne. She was able to get off all meds, lose the weight and clear up her skin within 12 months and, no surprise here, her psychiatrist decided that she wasn’t bi-polar anymore!

I’ve worked with adults and children that overcame asthma attacks, migraines, obesity, sleep issues, CFS, IBD and many, many, very satisfying cases.

TG:  In your opinion how important is the link between nutrition and physical activity?

RD: Very important, critical in fact.  We all would agree that you must exercise to remain healthy and live a long, high quality life. In order to exercise properly, you need good energy production on a cellular level. To restore vitality, to condition the heart, to build your lung power and increase stamina, etc. – you must give the body all the nutrients that it genetically requires.  Just as importantly, we should refrain from eating or ingesting the things that are harmful and that eventually cause malfunction.  The wrong diet for your type, low blood sugar, foods that you are sensitive to, foods with chemicals — they are all very stressful to the body.  Even eating whole foods can be stressful when you have sensitivities to any of them, so part of FDN includes identifying those foods and additives and eliminating them.

TG:  If you could only give someone one piece of advice on how to improve their levels of wellbeing what would it be?

RD: Realize that symptoms are a signal from the body that something is wrong.  If the red light comes on the dash board, most people wait a day or two to see if it goes off, then they take the car in to find out the cause.  But when it comes to our bodies, many of us ignore the symptom, even calling it normal. Or we just take something that makes us feel better for a while.  That is equivalent to unplugging the light instead of fixing the problem.   So if you can’t sleep, or have no energy or no vitality or you are overweight, or skin problems or just about any other problem, make a decision that you will find the root cause and don’t give up until you find it.

TG:  How do you see the FDN system developing in the future?

RD: The FDN system provides a model of health care that can be practiced and coached by well trained and caring people all over the globe.  We help others to restore normal function and return to normal health, and even maintain superior health!  FDN can add life to one’s years, not just add more years to one’s life.  Besides reducing medical costs, I see FDN as a way to improve quality of life in general.  By disseminating FDN knowledge all over the world, we may actually put some power into the hands of the people, and out of the control of those who would take advantage of us.

TG:  What does the future hold for you?

RD: I’m going to be pursuing my mission and purpose, which is to educate as many people as possible about FDN, so that they, in turn, may educate others.

TG:  Reed, thanks for sharing with us! It has been a pleasure.