Primum non nocere or “first, do no harm” is an important part of the Hippocratic oath that all physicians must pledge to uphold. It’s a promise that Zach Bush MD came to appreciate deeply the longer he practiced medicine and realized how much harm was being done to the health of patients from external daily sources. He expanded his care of patients beyond treatment of illness to researching root causes and developing solutions.
With triple board certification in internal medicine, endocrinology, and hospice care, Dr. Zach has a uniquely broad perspective. After years of practicing medicine, he realized that good health is so much more than the benchmarks associated with typical medical care. He explains, “There’s a huge difference between making blood sugar, blood pressure, or a cholesterol panel look good, and the outcome for the patient.” His interest and resulting research led to new insights on the intersection of the microbiome (the gut), human health and disease, and our food production systems. Dr. Zach adds, “I realized that food was failing us. The nutrition that had been working in the 1970s, ’80s, and ’90s suddenly wasn’t working anymore.” His data points to sectors of big farming, big pharma, and Western Medicine at large as contributing to the downward trend of human health—a trend he is working to reverse.
As an internationally recognized educator, author, researcher, and physician, his work is creating ways for all stakeholders to collaborate and address these root causes. His mission is straightforward if not simple—reset the future of health for all people and the planet.
According to Dr. Zach, it’s critical that we hit the reset button on the way we farm, the way food is processed, and how medical care is administered.
He says, “I want you to know that I am optimistic that there is a solution, that there is a path forward. However, it is important to realize that on our current trajectory, we can see not only our own extinction but the mass extinction of the planet.”
