Recently orthomolecular therapist Frank Jonkers was interviewed by Fit with Nutrition, the interview is available exclusively in the Fit with Nutrition magazine and from our website.
You can read all about it below. You can also download a PDF file, click here:
Fit with Nutrition magazine – Interview Frank Jonkers
‘I am of: measuring is knowing’
Interview orthomolecular therapist Frank Jonkers:
What is the highest body weight you have ever had?
‘That was 135 kg, at a height of 1.85 cm. That was around the year 2000. I still had my own IT company at the time.
I smoked, drank alcohol and ate quite “varied”: pizza, shoarma, snack bar. It had crept in. Eventually I got the bill: I was quickly out of breath, had incipient cardiovascular disease, pre-diabetes.
At some point I made the switch.
I started moving again and wanted to eat better. But the doctor recommended meal replacements. That didn’t seem like the solution. On the Internet I then continued my search.’
What did you find?
‘Not as much information as you can find now, but I still stumbled upon fascinating things. And these were diametrically opposed to what the family doctor said.
I thought: even if only 50% of what I read here is true … I wanted to know more about that. Thus began my scavenger hunt, and it led, among other things, to orthomolecular medicine.
I took a course and started applying it to myself. I noticed gigantic differences. My family doctor waved that away: he thought it was all “coincidental.” But I lost weight, became healthier and healthier, my symptoms disappeared. Other people asked, “How did you do that?”
That’s how I got more guinea pigs. And then I saw that it worked for many more people. That’s how I ended up on the track I’m still on today. Yes, from an IT background.
Did that background help?
‘Yes. At the time, I was dealing with IT networks with my IT company. We developed firewalls and the like. We provided equipment to scan networks.
If a network was under attack or something went wrong, you started looking at: what exactly is happening? And then: how can you create a preventive path to avoid that? We took a very rational, logical approach. But I missed that in mainstream health care. There it was mostly: trial and error.
One gives medication: if medicine A doesn’t work, then we go on to Z. If that doesn’t work either, then we try surgery, or a combination of both. Nothing more is actually done.
That motivated me to take all kinds of courses and go in this direction. It really became my passion.
And that’s how you got a new profession in 2011?
‘Yes. I started a practice in Heemskerk. First as a weight consultant. By now I am an integral therapist. My practice is called “BodySwitch,” which refers to flipping the switch.
What I do is a combination of orthomolecular, phytotherapy, mindset and exercise. I am interested in lifestyle factors that make us get and stay healthy. Around 2013, I joined the Society for the Advancement of Orthomolecular Medicine (MBOG).
Then I wanted to add phytotherapy, and colon therapy.
From the IT world, I was taught: measuring is knowing. Therefore, I also started working with laboratories that specialize in nutrient and fecal testing, among other things. This is the only way to find out: which processes go wrong? Because if you know the cause and you can address that, then the syndrome is solved.
That is also the discussion I have to have every time with, for example, general practitioners who accuse me of quackery.
How do you respond to that?
‘Then I say, “Boy, let’s turn the story around. How long has this patient been a client of yours?”. Then they think, and say, for example, “Twenty years.”
Then I reply, “And you haven’t solved the problem yet – how can that be?” . If you ask someone to paint your house and it’s still not done after 20 years, what’s wrong?
Medicine that doesn’t look for the causes ultimately ensures that we have to keep paying that high health care premium and keep muddling through.
What vision do you put forward in opposition to that?
‘Make sure patients can reverse the disease process again, that they are in control. That is our vision. Make sure the patient himself knows what to do, through education.
From history, the doctor is a kind of teacher, teaching the patient wisdom about his body and how to keep it healthy. Over the last hundred years, the advent of pharma has totally diluted that approach.
What undermines our health more than anything else?
‘An accumulation of factors. Such as use of dairy and gluten. But also all the toxins and pesticides in common foods, such as glyphosate. It’s in almost everything, and undermines the gut, among other things.
Also consider heavy metals, such as mercury and cadmium. We now have over nine million chronically ill people in the Netherlands. That’s more than half the population.
I myself eat from my organic vegetable garden, of 300 m2.
There is small fruit: blackberries, blueberries, raspberries. I have fruit trees. I have now also put up a glass greenhouse so I can harvest year-round. There’s purslane in there, spinach, things like that. The freezer was full at the beginning of winter with 60 kg of our own string beans, green beans, broccoli, cauliflower, kale. It’s also fun to do.
My son says, “It sure is hard work for your food, isn’t it Dad?”
It’s not always easy. He himself just pulls a bell bell pepper from the plant and eats it. That’s how he was raised. If he gets a bell bell pepper from the store, he says: “This one tastes very different.”
Anything grown in the open ground is much more flavorful and healthy than what grows on glass mats.’
Back to your practice: there are now sixteen Bodyswitch branches. Where do you want to go?
‘The ambition is to become the largest provider of lifestyle medicine, through a franchise system called BodySwitch.
All BodySwitch practices work from the same vision. There are too many islands, not only in mainstream medicine but also in the complementary field. Our goal is to work together as much as possible.
There is a lot done in orthomolecular practices, but with that there are also things that I find too vague and floaty. I am of: measuring is knowing. I think that also gives you the best connection to the mainstream. After all, that’s when you speak the same language. Therefore, in our view, bioresonance does not fit in. Regardless of whether it works or not, because bioresonance can give good results.
But I can’t explain it to a general practitioner: he compares it to a divining rod.
What can you explain?
‘Thorough blood tests, even if those tests go beyond what the doctor himself requests in terms of determinations. Then I can explain the parameters, what exactly was determined. And then you find connection with such a doctor.
And then if I also measure periodically on that client and show that blood levels are improving, that inflammation is going away and symptoms are decreasing … Then such a family doctor or medical specialist says, “Hey, that’s interesting to see.”
Not every doctor is open to that, but you find connection much faster. So in this way we try to work from our practices. Doctors don’t always respond with immediate enthusiasm, but that’s part of the game.
Give an example?
‘Sicco Weertman. He is now our doctor in Amsterdam, where he has a BodySwitch practice.
I originally came in contact with him through a patient in whom I wanted to have further blood tests done.
Weertman, who was a family physician in training at the time, responded something like this: And who the hell are you? A nice introduction was that. But we joined each other for coffee. We had whole conversations and many appointments.
He became fascinated: “Hey, I didn’t have this at all in my education?” A world opened up to him. Also because he read my book(Core Healthy!), published in 2014, noting that it is substantiated with many studies.
In the end, he chose our concept so he can really help people get healthier and better.
You’re getting wind anyway, because lifestyle medicine is on the rise.
‘Yes. But pioneering is always difficult: you have to take a long breath and meet a lot of resistance. But I always think: if you get a lot of resistance, you’re on the right track.
There are still many doctors who get angry when you reduce medications with the patient. Whereas I think: let’s all try to do that as much as possible.
I myself work a lot with chronic and autoimmune diseases, such as Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, rheumatoid arthritis which again is often a concomitant disease.
Not every gastroenterologist is immediately enthusiastic about what I do.’
You work with supplementation. Many lifestyle doctors reject that. Do you understand that?
‘No. I find that strange. The reports of dietary deficiencies are well known, for years. If the soil is low in selenium and magnesium, how can plants absorb it?
In fact, the vitamin D situation is dramatic. GPs often do nothing with this, and even refuse to act when I show them the results: “Oh well, it’s good.”
Then I say, “No, it ís no good, because that patient has big problems!” Does anyone have rheumatoid arthritis? Look first at vitamin D. Provide that if there are deficiencies. I don’t understand when doctors are against supplements.
Look at Covid-19: we are now spending hundreds of millions of dollars on vaccines. You could have given the entire population free vitamin D and a good multi, for the whole year, for much less money. That would have solved a huge number of problems!
For example, many elderly people with higher vitamin D levels can suddenly do without a walker.
Did you take nutritional supplements yourself this morning?
‘Yes. I use a lot of supplements. People then ask, “Are you sick?” Then I say, “No, but I want to keep it that way.” I want to grow old healthy. That’s kind of my objective.
I take about sixty to eighty tablets/capsules every day. It starts with a good multi. I also take calcium, magnesium and zinc, also because I don’t use dairy.
I take a number of supplements to keep my bowels in order. One should think of herbal preparations.
I take a high dose of vitamin D. I take vitamin C with quercetin, especially now at this time with the viral infections going around.
I take resveratrol, vitamin E, a vitamin B complex and vitamin B12. With that, I think I’ve mentioned the most important supplements.
I also test blood values on myself once a year to see if I am still right with my dosages. Sometimes I also do a stool test.
I also grant my car an MOT inspection every year, so why not myself.’
What would you do if you became Minister of Health tomorrow?
‘I would first form a good team around me. Then I would plug into health, rather than the disease model. I would make sure that all family physicians would work with lifestyle so that medication becomes the last stage of treatment. That would create a lot of resistance from the pharmaceutical industry, and also from the European Union. Hence, I would first form a good team around me.
I would reorganize hospitals into health homes. Health insurers should start reimbursing from a different perspective. It also means that all internists should be retrained. In fact, I think everything should be on the upswing.
My little son has a lot of lego. If-he doesn’t like something, he breaks it down. Then he rebuilds everything. In fact, we should do the same with the health sector. The way it is now – that is on the verge of collapse. If it had been a company, it would have been bankrupt long ago. Only: we are bound by a strangulation contract!
Every year we have to pay more health care premiums, but no one is satisfied. You don’t get what you want. How is it even possible that we are still paying? Patients are scandalized in healthcare. So how can you still remain a customer? That surprises me so much.
If I had done that at my IT company, I wouldn’t have been left with a customer.
Do you have any advice for readers?
‘Eat organic. That is the basis. In addition, I advise people to omit dairy, as well as gluten. Then keep your intestines healthy: casein from dairy affects the intestinal wall. And so does gluten.
Want to know more about Frank and his facility in Heemskerk? Then click on the link below:
Also see the accompanying PDF file of the article:
Fit with Nutrition magazine – Interview Frank Jonkers
