Twenty years ago, everyone thought I was strange because I ate very little meat, owned a huge juicer and a refrigerator full of organic carrots, and took a handful of supplements every day. But then again, most people were not raised the way my parents chose to raise me. My Father is from Missouri, but when he was discharged from the Army after World War II, he decided to start a business in the Orient. That is where I was born and raised, and spent every chance I could traveling from the Philippines to Hong Kong to Japan and everywhere else I could talk my way into. This is where my love of herbs and non-traditional medicine was born. At a very early age, when everyone else was playing with dolls, I took an interest in the plants and herbs and what they did. As I got older, I spent any vacation time I could investigating the little herbal shops on every back street the Orient had to offer. Their odors, colors, tastes and effects were so intriguing to me, that my family thought I was entirely too serious for my age. My love of herbs, non-traditional medicine and helping people live their lives in better health are still my priority and I have shared them with my family and friends for as long as I can remember.

My name is Judy Phillips, founder of Jash Botanicals, and I’m not an M.D., I’m an herbalist. There’s a big difference between the way doctors and herbalists approach health. Doctors are trained to treat people when they get sick. They will usually give you a drug or an expensive list of supplements to buy—they will send you to a surgeon for invasive and risky surgical procedures.

Herbalists are trained to help people avoid getting sick or overweight or depressed in the first place. We don’t load you up with half-dozen medications and 20 different supplements, one or two for every health problem you have. Instead, we give you just a few simple but powerful ways to encourage your whole body to work in harmony, the way it was designed to.

Unlike the medical industry, our motto isn’t, “a pill for every ill.” We heal you at the system level, not just the disease level.

When you have a strong immune system, healthy neurotransmitters, great digestion and elimination, good blood chemistry, balanced hormones, and normal inflammatory response, you simply don’t tend to get illnesses. Why? Because a problem with one or more of these six major systems is the cause of every major illness you can name, from Alzheimer’s to cancer to osteoporosis.

Have you ever wondered why there seems to be so much illness in our country these days? The answer might surprise you.

We don’t “catch” medical conditions such as high blood pressure, cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer’s, diabetes, or arthritis. These health problems develop over time. Often, they begin as biochemical imbalances or nutritional deficiencies in the body.

If you look at the statistics, the rise of today’s diseases runs parallel to the decline of many important nutrients in our foods and our diet. It’s as plain as the nose on your face. Drugs can’t possibly be the solution to these ills because nutritional deficiencies are the cause. Only better nutrition can improve our health.

When I first began to witness the power that certain nutrients such as vitamins, herbs, minerals, enzymes, ect have over most diseases some 30 years ago, I couldn’t believe my eyes. It’s like flipping a switch that turns on the body’s self-healing process. The change is so immediate that it will surprise you. No drug, no matter how good it may be, can possibly accomplish this.

If you watch TV these days, you’d think there’s a prescription drug for anything that ails you. That’s just what the drug companies want you to think. More than 3 billion prescriptions were sold in 2003, up from about 2 billion a decade ago. Ask yourself: Have we really gotten that sick in just 10 years?

Of course not. The real answer is that our nation, and our doctors, are fast becoming overly reliant on a slew of synthetic drugs as substitutes for a healthy lifestyle. This is a dangerous trend.

Drugs are no substitute for good nutrition, and doctors should know this. Only nutrition can repair our cells, restore our organs, and regenerate our health. But most people don’t realize that the older you get, the more nutrients your body needs to defend and repair itself—and to maintain good health. But you simply can’t rely on diet alone to provide enough of these nutrients.

Our foods are weaker and now lack many essential vitamins and minerals. That’s because modern farming methods have “burnt-out” our topsoil. In addition, agricultural chemicals, pesticides, and environmental pollution place an added strain on human health. Commercial processing destroys even more of a food’s nutrition. Then there’s all that stress caused by today’s economic, political, and personal problems. This uses up key nutrients (like vitamin B12, C, and other antioxidants) at an alarming rate.

It’s easy to see why food alone isn’t enough to keep you in abundant health. Even if you ate a perfect diet, you could never get the nutrition your body needs to repair itself these days. As you age, your body needs extra nutrients because it absorbs fewer of them because it is less efficient.

It’s been shown time and again: Abundant health requires abundant nutrients. That’s why nutritional supplements and herbs are so important. These ingenious little pills and tinctures are concentrated power houses of the vitamins, minerals, and other precious nutrients our body needs for optimum wellness. They alone provide the nutritional abundance that can prevent disease—accelerate the repair process—and neutralize the barrage of free radical molecules that prey upon us as we age.