I had the pleasure of interviewing my husband Alex Poptodorov regarding his journey to pursuing his N.D. Degree. I am excited to be bringing this interview to our Mother Earth News readers to provide some insight into Naturopathic Medicince and why he chose this field.
At one point you wanted to practice Western medicine. What created the shift in your life and why did you decide to pursue the Holistic route instead?
There were two main reasons. One is that I always had an affinity for health and vitality. I admired people who looked strong and lived the healthy lifestyle.
The second reason was when my health started to fail. I had anxiety, panic attacks and was officially diagnosed as bipolar.
I also had severe digestive and eliminative issues.
After 8 solid years of going to psychiatrists and being on heavy medications and being told there was no cure I thought to myself, there has to be a better way.
I started to research, read and apply the principles I was learning. It was not long after that I was able to get off of all 4 medications. Little by little I started to feel better and my digestive issues started to drastically improve.
It took me about 3 years to really learn and fix the issues I had.
Was it during this time that you decided to pursue your N.D. Degree?
It was towards the end of those 3 years that I decided to pursue my N.D. degree because I first hand experienced and saw the healing power of what I was applying. Nothing can be more perfect that what God gave us in nature.
I also started to apply many of these principles with our clients and experienced tremendous results.
How do you feel about western medicine? What are your views?
When it comes to diagnostic tools and physical trauma we have come far and beyond. Doctors today can put a person back together after severe trauma and the advances can truly save lives.
As far as medications go, there are certain medicines in rare cases that can be useful in acute situations such as someone contracting a severe infection.
As far as other medications go, I personally feel our society has become quite dependent on them and many people are heavily medicated when they don’t need to be. There can be a severe amount of damage and side effects from these medications.
How do you feel the Holistic approach can relieve someone from being dependent on medications?
It is my personal belief from what I have seen, researched and experienced myself that the Holistic approach is really very simple. It consists mainly of stopping what is hurting you and starting to employ life principles that keep your body in balance. These are principles that your body needs in order to function optimally. For example, breathing clean air, drinking clean water and eating/sleeping properly.
Conventional medicine tends to focus on treating the symptom and never really addressing the root cause of the problem.
Holistic medicine focuses on identifying and treating the root cause rather than the symptom.
This way, you experience a long lasting effect.
What do you plan on doing once you receive your ND degree?
My plan is to be able to help touch as many people as possible. Our technology era is phenomenal because it allows me to take advantage of the inter net to reach and help people all over the world. Advances such as Skype, inter net and other technology make this possible.
I want to educate people how to live a proper lifestyle and use our God given resources on this earth to heal their bodies. This is done through implementing proper healthy living principles.
How have you grown and evolved since starting your ND program?
I am expanding my knowledge on herbs and their use quite a bit. I am also starting to appreciate more and more the life giving energy of our food supply. I am deeply researching the methods of our food production and delivery. As a result, I have embarked on a local food movement and my next step is to grow my own food.
Ultimately, one day I would like to be able to find/purchase my own pristine land that I can live off of self sustainably by growing food/medicinal herbs, meat, dairy/eggs and vegetables.”
Give us a day in the life of Alex. How do you pursue health and feed your body?
First and foremost, I try to get at least 8 hours of quality sleep per night. I turn off all EMF emitting devices at night before going to sleep. I also make sure the room is in complete darkness. I keep my window open and the temperature around 70-72 degrees.
First thing in the morning I wake up and drink 16 oz. of purified water with Himalayan sea salt.
I then begin to arrange and set up my vegetables for my juice. In the meantime, I drink another 8-10 oz. of purified water with apple cider vinegar.
I will then make and drink my juice usually consisting of celery, cucumber, lemon, lime, cilantro, parsley and beet.
My breakfast consists of a smoothie with 8 ounces of raw goat milk kefir (we just did a blog post on making your own kefir at home if you are interested)
Alex’s Start-the-Day-Right Superfood Smoothie
1 Tbs of Goji berries
1 Tbs of Dr. Shultz Super food
1 inch of turmeric root
1/2 cup wild blueberries
1/2 mixed berries
4 fertilized egg yolks
1 Tbs of dried nettle
1/2 cup raw nuts
Lunches usually consist of wild caught fish or grass fed/pasture raised meat with lots of fresh/lightly steamed vegetables and one to two avocados.
I snack on RAW nuts throughout the day.
Dinner usually consists of a luscious green salad with some good quality meat.
I typically train with weights 3-4 times per week intensely with 2 to 3 days being dedicated to cardiovascular activities, sauna and stretching/trigger point therapy.