About this episode
Today we honor this long-standing tradition with one of my favorite medical minds. Meet Michael Klaper, MD. For the past 40 years, Dr. Klaper has distinguished himself as a gifted general practitioner, internationally recognized teacher, and sought-after speaker on diet, health, applied plant-based nutrition and integrative medicine. I became acquainted with Dr. Klaper during his eight-year term at the TrueNorth Health Center in Santa Rosa, California. A nutrition-based medical clinic specializing in therapeutic fasting and health improvement through a whole-food, plant-based diet, TrueNorth is renowned for successfully navigating people to better well-being through non-intervention lifestyle protocols. In addition, Dr. Klaper served as an advisor to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) project on nutrition for long-term space colonists on the moon and Mars. He was also a member of the Nutrition Task Force of the American Medical Student Association and served as the Director of the non-profit Institute of Nutrition Education and Research. Diet is key to reversing many of the most feared degenerative diseases known to medicine. And yet, applied nutrition is not typically integral to medical school curriculums. To solve this problem, Dr. Klaper partnered with PlantPure Communities to form Moving Medicine Forward, a medical school nutrition education initiative designed to change the way future doctors treat their patients through improved nutrition and lifestyle education. The most important work of his career, Dr. Klaper lectures at medical schools nationwide, educating students on using plant-predominant nutrition and positive lifestyle changes to truly heal their patients -- and ultimately improve the health of future generations. Early in his career, Dr. Klaper realized that many of the diseases his patients brought to his office were made worse, or actually caused by the high-fat, high sugar, overly processed Standard American Diet. When he began treating his patients not with pharmaceuticals and surgical interventions but instead with diet and lifestyle protocols -- specifically a whole-food, plant-based diet and active lifestyle -- he started getting unprecedented results. Over time, he observed his patients miraculously reverse a litany of chronic ailments, including atherosclerosis, high blood pressure, hypertension, obesity, adult onset diabetes, and even some forms of arthritis, asthma, and autoimmune disease. Today Dr. Klaper shares his wisdom and experience, picking up where we left off in our first podcast conversation, published six years ago to the day ( RRP #77 ). We discuss his mission to help empower the next generation of doctors to better heal their patients. And we explore his dream of eradicating the chronic lifestyle epidemics that unnecessarily afflict millions of people every single year. The visually inclined can watch it all go down on YouTube. And as always, the audio version streams wild and free on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. The most energetic and youthful 72-year old I've ever met, I aspire to this beautiful and gentle man's enthusiasm for life and commitment to service. I sincerely hope you enjoy the exchange. In the meantime, stay safe everyone. We're in this together. Peace + Plants, Rich