Naturopathy: Health through nature

Romeo Perron, a patient from Infanta, Quezon Province, was due for an open heart surgery. But after 10 days of naturopathic treatment under the care of Dr. Tam Mateo, his blood cleared and there was no longer any need for him to undergo an operation.

Dr. Elinando Cordoba, who used to have a kidney dialysis, claims that after following Dr. Tam’s diet, taking Live Green (an organic combination of herbs) and Dr. Tam’s Miracle Tea (an herbal tea for cleansing and detoxification), he now enjoys "a life free from dialysis, with more vigor and strong immunity." He adds that he has saved his money, his kidneys, and now enjoys his life.

May Grace Divino had ameblastoma or cancer of the jaw and her doctor gave her only six months to live because the cancer had eaten into her bones. But she survived her doctor’s six-month moratorium, thanks to Dr. Tam’s diet, Live Green, and Miracle Tea. When she visited her doctor, he thought she had died and that the person before him was a ghost. That was more than two years ago and Mary Grace continues to live a healthy life.

While the names are pseudonyms to protect the patients’ identity, the cases are just a few of the numerous ones that Dr. Tam Mateo, the first Filipino naturopathic doctor and cancer nutrition specialist, has handled.  A graduate of the Alabama College of Natural Healing (now the Clayton College of Natural Healing) in Birmingham, Alabama, Dr. Mateo is also a health crusader and a medical missionary. His journey to where he is now is an interesting story. At 20, he went to California and worked as a registered respiratory therapist at North Hollywood Medical and Dental School. By age 30, he was rich. He had a house and lot and drove a Mercedes.

"But when we get sick, we find that money cannot buy happiness," he rues.

Eight months before he went to study at the Alabama College of Natural Healing, he developed hypertension.  Two years before that, he got interested in natural healing and read the books of Ellen White. Meanwhile, his wife had contracted breast cancer, so he used his knowledge of natural healing to treat her condition. She survived cancer and he recovered from hypertension. 

A Seventh Day Adventist, Dr. Tam is a vegetarian. He has been a vegan for 14 years now – avoiding meat, eggs, dairy, and other animal products. His healthy diet shows on him. At 50, he looks 30, and moves with the agility of a teenager. Clad in a casual orange shirt and loose denim pants, he is a human dynamo generating kinetic energy in this four-storey building at 433 F. Legaspi St., Maybunga, Pasig (tel. no. 900-0547 to 49 or cell phone 0919-3293473) .

The practice of naturopathy gained official recognition in the 1800s, when Dr. John Harvey Kellogg and his colleagues used natural remedies to treat patients. But even before that, in the earliest of times, people turned to nature to maintain and restore health. Naturopathy is a system of therapy which uses such natural healing agents as air, water, food or nutrition, sunshine, and exercise to combat ailments. It avoids the use of artificial substances for healing. Naturopathic doctors focus on the root cause of the disease and apply preventive medicine and nutrition. Dr. Tam says that the natural method involves herbal medicine, fruits, vegetables, and nutritional therapy.  

When you detoxify the body and cleanse the system as a whole, it reaches the cellular level. Even if you take natural food, it will not have the desired effect because of the accumulated toxins in the body. Natural remedies, if not administered correctly, will not work as they should.

Dr. Tam first explains to patients that bad habits like smoking, the wrong diet, and a sedentary lifestyle trigger disease. He tells them to give up smoking, eat right, and exercise. He stresses avoiding artificial and processed food which contains flavor enhancers, food coloring, and preservatives. He decries the use of hormones which are pumped into chicken, cows, and other animals and end up in people’s bodies.

The Miracle Tea has a natural liposuction effect. Bloated bellies deflate after detoxification. Unlike ordinary laxatives, Dr. Tam’s Miracle Tea is not a chemical irritant and not habit-forming. It has no side effects because it is organic.

Dr. Tam’s Live Green provides essential nutrients, enzymes, hormone precursor, and powerful antioxidants. It is a mixture of organic powdered dehydrated leaf juice concentrate from green kamut, an ancient Egyptian wheat grass, alfalfa, and barley. It is one of the richest sources of vitamins A, B, C, and E because it contains precursor materials in forms like phytocyanins, bioflavonoids, and beta-carotene. It contains some 16 vitamins in its precursor from 23 trace minerals, phytochemicals, and active carotenoid pigments. It has at least 18 amino acids, including the eight essential amino acids that the body cannot manufacture.

Dr. Tam’s patients make a beeline to his vegetarian restaurant on the ground floor of his building on F. Legaspi Street, for their supply of Live Green and Miracle Tea and as they wait for their orders, they trade stories of how they got well from using these products.

Patients who undergo Dr. Tam’s procedural treatment find themselves free of cancer. Cases like these inspire Dr. Tam to continue his medical mission. To reach more people, he conducts free health seminars at his clinic every Sunday, from 2:30 to 5 p.m., and holds free consultations, Mondays through Thursdays, from 2:30 to 4 p.m. People who come to him for consultations have already been diagnosed by medical doctors. Dr. Tam also has three live programs on the following radio stations: DZRB-Radyo ng Bayan 738 kHz, Sundays, 7-8 p.m.; DWIZ 882 kHz, Sundays, 9:30-10:30 p.m.; and DZAR 1026 kHz, Wednesdays, 7-8 p.m.

Dr. Tam is working round the clock to help people help themselves, by changing their unhealthy lifestyle to a healthy one, in order to improve and prolong their lives. He reminds them of Ellen White’s eight laws of health – air, water, oxygen, nutrition, exercise, temperance, a positive attitude, and trust in divine power.