Andreas Michalsen: “Blood Donors Have Fewer Heart Attacks”

Andreas Michalsen has just published Heal with the force of nature (Planet). He is an internist and defends naturopathy from conventional medicine by vocation and conviction, as his father and grandfather, also doctors, did before.

He explains that his grandfather wanted to be a doctor after seeing the benefits of water cures for himself. His father, Peter Michalsen, would follow the same path and was a pioneer in obtaining the complementary official degree in Natural Treatments granted by the College of Physicians of the old state of Württemberg.

“In my house the fundamental thing was never the diseases but the resources available to patients to cope with them,” says Dr. Andreas Michalsen.

Naturist by vocation and conviction

In addition to being an internist, Andreas Michalsen is Professor of Clinical Naturopathy at the Berlin University Hospital Charité and director of the Naturopathy Unit at the Immanuel Hospital in Berlin.

Both in his daily practice and in his work as a scientist, he places crucial importance on mind-body medicine (meditation, yoga, stress reduction), nutrition, therapeutic fasting and humoral therapies.

—At the age of seven he had bronchitis and his father took him to the North Sea to make a cure with seawater. Did it end your bronchitis?
“I was with my father on the island of Sylt for three weeks.” Every day she gargled with salt water, inhaled salt water, and even drank a little bit of salt water. That was the first naturopathy cure by adaptation of my organism that I experienced in my own flesh.

It was a cure by the so-called stimulus-reaction principle. The stimulus of the wind and cold; the sea salt in the nose, the inhalations combined with movements on the beach… All this together made my bronchitis disappear.

—Your father had to defend naturopathy and balneotherapy against his conventional medical colleagues. Is integrative medicine accepted in Germany today?
“I have a professorship at the University of Berlin and this shows a certain recognition.” There has been a generational medical changeover and, in fact, the Immanuel Hospital in Berlin, where I work, is a public hospital with different departments: internal medicine, naturopathy … and patients access our naturopathic services from Social Security.

– What treatments do they perform?
—From leech treatments, herbal medicine or hydrotherapy, to Ayurveda, meditation, yoga …

“What type of patient requests this medicine the most?”
—More women than men, women between 40 and 65 years old especially. They are people with good training and high purchasing power.

– What is the most demanded?
—Fasting, mind-body medicine, herbal medicine …

—They perform treatments with leeches and obtain extraordinary results in problems such as osteoarthritis, tennis elbow…
—I am also surprised by the good results.

Leeches have certain substances in their saliva. When a leech sucks, all the muscle tissue contracts and these substances, which are anti-inflammatory and analgesic, infiltrate the joint and its surroundings: ligaments, tendons and muscle. Patients get better quickly.

In osteoarthritis it can be applied about twice a year, with infinitely better results than hyaluronic acid infiltrations.

—You also defend “bleeding” or blood donation.
—Giving blood is good for preventing diabetes and hypertension. Different scientific studies in Scandinavia show that people who donate blood regularly have a lower incidence of heart attack.

There are two explanations: the first is that iron proteins are reduced. It is not good if we have little iron, but neither if we have too much. Often people who eat poorly, who eat a lot of meat, tend to have more iron and this iron promotes arteriosclerosis.

On the other hand, when we donate blood, new red blood cells are created, softer young blood cells and this is better for blood supply.

“Different scientific studies in Scandinavia show that people who donate blood regularly have a lower incidence of heart attack.”

“How often should these blood donations be made?”
“Two or three times a year is fine.”

—You also defend fasting as a way to promote health…
—Fasting is a reset for the body. We eat continuously: take away meals, pastries, sugars … The body is always busy digesting and hormones such as insulin increase more and more.

If we fast, we help the system to normalize.

“How should we make it healthy?”
—There is the possibility of fasting at intervals. One day a week take a break from 14 to 16 hours, taking advantage of the night. If we sleep 8 hours we will only have coffee or tea until noon.

Another possibility is to eat very little three days a week, and another is the fasting cures, for example for a week. In this case, drinking only two small glasses of juice, one in the morning and one at night, and a vegetable broth at noon. That is the Büchinger method.

—And when we don’t fast, you propose to eat two good meals. Why is it better to eat two meals than five?
—Taking two meals a day is the best way to eat. The ideal would be to have a good breakfast and a good lunch, but in our social life dinner is the quintessential family meal, where we have time to share, and we will not be sad abstaining.

“Eating two meals a day is the best way to eat.”

Therefore, I recommend eating well at noon and something light for dinner, and in the morning, a coffee or tea.

“And why a coffee?”
—Coffee is very beneficial for the liver, against Alzheimer’s, against Parkinson’s, against diabetes, against gallstones …

“I said it because it is a very common food but very questioned …
” Last year a study came out in the United States that showed that people who drink three to four coffees a day live longer.

—In the Immanuel Hospital in Berlin they perform Ayurvedic medicine treatments. What problems are they most suitable for?
—Nutritional therapy is used a lot, where spices are very present: turmeric, peppers …

Also yoga and oil treatments, such as shirodhara, in which for 40 minutes a splash of oil is poured on the forehead that has a powerful effect on anxiety or stress problems, and abyanga, a very complete body massage.

It is a holistic therapy, very effective in chronic diseases such as osteoarthritis, diabetes, Parkinson’s …

3 keys to naturopathic medicine

Naturopathic medicine focuses on promoting a lifestyle that helps to regain and maintain health. These are some of his basic ideas:

• Use simple things: get enough sleep and use medicine that integrates body and mind, such as meditation and yoga, walks in nature or a vegetarian or vegan diet
• Periodic fasts: it is important to perform a fasting cure once a year, and the best time is in spring. And fast at intervals, the more days the better. It is the way to free the body from excessive load.
• Natural healing: when you have a mild illness or a beginning of illness, you must first treat yourself with naturopathy and medicinal herbs and not go directly to antibiotics.