Customizing medicine to the patient is a practice that dates as far back as 4000 years in China. The oldest known form of individualized treatment is Classical Chinese Medicine where practitioners read pulses, tongues, and faces to diagnose the medical needs of a patient. Descriptions like, damp, dry, heat, wind, yin and yang, to name a few, would indicate the pathology present and treatment needed. They would suggest foods and plants that would balance the exacerbation the patient had presented with. 

Ayurveda is another form of customized health care originating from India. Ayus meaning "life and longevity" and veda meaning science, or "the science of life and longevity". This method individualizes treatments by classifying a body into three predominant types: vata, pitta, and kapha. The practitioner determines the Ayurvedic constitutional type by observing the body size and shape, temperature, and reading the pulse among other qualities. From this a proper diet and specific medicines can be chosen that would be best suited for the specific person. These ancient forms of diagnosis eventually evolved into body and personality typing like that developed by Kretschmer and expanded upon by his successor Sheldon with the ectomorph, endomorph and mesomorph types. Dr. Abravanel suggested similar body characteristics in his typing of the Adrenal, Gonad, Thyroid and Pituitary types (also known as the A type G, T or P types).

Besides these researchers, there were others way ahead of their time that used chemistry to determine individualized food and medicine protocols. From a the softer science of body typing came scientists highly trained in the fields of chemistry, physics, mathematics, and biology that mastered methods of diagnosing chemistry patterns to determine dietary and nutritional needs. Carey Reams, a biochemist, biophysicist and mathematician who created the Reams Biological Theory of Ionization (RBTI), based his findings on the understanding of pH, or the relative acidity or alkalinity of body fluids along with findings of carbohydrate, electrolyte, and nitrogenous waste metabolism. He was a great pioneer with his early beginnings in soil chemistry and agriculture. With his strong faith he was lead to an equation that he utilized to determine how mass (food) turned into energy within the body. He helped thousands regain health in his fasting retreats and taught numerous others which carry his legacy today. Dr. Iverson is fortunate to have been mentored and befriended by two of Reams' long time students Ken Meadows and June Wiles. Classes in RBTI are still being taught by June Wiles, the founder of NCA (Nutritional Counselors of America), in Tennessee.

Emanuel Revici MD, a successful practitioner from Romania, may one day be honored for his ground breaking work on fatty acids, pH, and their unique application for the treatment of cancer and chronic pain. He put great emphasis on the terms "anabolic" and "catabolic" and their shifts as controlled by specific sterols, fatty acids, and mineral elements. His techniques and beliefs were highly refuted by the American Medical establishment for over 50 years despite the fact he achieved excellent success in patients with cancer and chronic pain.

Metabolic typing was further investigated and developed by George Watson and his observations of fast and slow oxidizers and their relation to common psychiatric illnesses. These oxidation states were later examined and studied further by Rudolf Wiley. They similarly concluded if they provided a diet that was primarily vegetarian to slow oxidizers they would become well while the same diet for fast oxidizers would create poor outcomes.

Complementarily Francis Pottenger, who modeled the work of John Beard, developed an understanding of the autonomic nervous system and the dominance of either the Sympathetic or the Parasympathetic branch to determine the appropriate diet for patients. He found that a sympathetic dominant pattern with the increased activity of adrenal hormones faired better on a vegetarian diet than the Parasympathetics who were better balanced with higher fat diets. William Donald Kelley and his successor Nicholas Gonzales later expanded on Pottenger's work and have worked with thousands of cancer patients to regain health through metabolic nutrition and enzyme therapy.

James D' Adamo developed another form of patient specific typing, which was made popular by identifying foods most compatible with specific blood types. It is by no coincidence that the above methodologies and types have many crossovers and similarities. For instance blood type A persons with their tendency to need a predominantly vegetarian diet will often test constitutionally as vata or pitta, A or T-type, Slow oxidizers or Sympathetic. This validates the common trend being found from ancient diagnostic methods and across multiple variants of scientific practices.

* Introduction    * Traditional Diets & Weston Price    * How We Test