Book summary “Let's play doctor”: summary

Introduction

You face a medical system driven by high costs, rising failure rates, and pharmaceutical dependency that often leaves chronic conditions unresolved. You might feel trapped by conventional practitioners who dismiss preventive nutrition and rely strictly on symptom management.

You can successfully become your own primary health care provider by utilizing accessible self-help methods, understanding clinical diagnostics, and replacing nutritional deficiencies.

J. D. Wallach shows you how to bypass orthodox medical monopolies through practical self-reliance. The book equips you with essential clinical terminology and home reference libraries to evaluate health conditions independently. You will learn to perform domestic diagnostic tests, apply natural healing arts, and use targeted nutritional protocols.

How can you diagnose ailments at home without expensive laboratory equipment? Which alternative therapies effectively replace toxic pharmaceutical drugs? What specific nutritional deficiencies cause chronic degenerative diseases?

1. Taking Charge of Your Health Care

You can eliminate reliance on expensive orthodox medical systems by acquiring basic diagnostic tools, medical reference books, and practical self-help procedures. Arthur F. Coca, M.D., noted in The Pulse Test that the medical profession focuses on treating symptoms rather than finding causes because that is where the financial harvest lies. In the United States, 817 billion dollars are spent annually on the medical-pharmaceutical complex.

Patients can successfully become their own primary health care providers by reducing reliance on orthodox doctors and utilizing accessible self-help methods.

You can save money and avoid 40 percent of all hospitalizations that result from iatrogenic disease. Take pre-med night courses at a community college and read medical literature to build your expertise.

• Accumulate a basic medical library, home pharmacy, and necessary medical instruments.
• Take pre-med night courses at a community college and read medical literature.
• Set office hours for follow-up visits and checking bandages at home.
• Dress the part of a pre-med student by wearing a white lab coat for cleanliness and status.

Medical Terminology and Library Setup

Understanding medical abbreviations, prefixes, and suffixes allows laypeople to accurately translate medical records, prescriptions, and laboratory reports. Medical language uses specialized Latin and Greek roots to form a guarded secret of the medical guild. Typical physical examinations and lab work cost 350 to 500 dollars.

• Study standard medical abbreviations, prefixes, and suffixes to interpret clinical charts.
• Learn the four parts of a typical prescription: superscription, inscription, subscription, and signature.
• Use medical conversion tables for weights and volumes to measure dosages accurately.

A proper home medical library should include specialized reference books to cross-reference diseases, drug data, and anatomical definitions. Standard medical textbooks typically cost 120 dollars. Dr. Wallach served as an expert witness in a case where a naturopathic doctor was falsely blamed for a patient's death caused by a VA hospital staff administering eleven painkillers and sedatives without reading the Physicians Desk Reference.

• Acquire Dorlands Medical Dictionary for anatomical and medical definitions.
• Obtain the classic Merck Manual to review disease causes, symptoms, and orthodox treatments.
• Keep the Physicians Desk Reference to check drug compositions, indications, and side effects.
• Utilize government-supported medical school libraries and audio cassettes for ongoing education.

Home Diagnostic Equipment and Testing

Home health care requires specific diagnostic and surgical instruments, known as medical toys, to monitor vital signs and perform minor procedures. Normal oral temperature is 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit or 37 degrees Celsius. Normal rectal temperature is 101.2 degrees Fahrenheit or 38.5 degrees Celsius. A typical blood pressure reading measures 125 over 80 millimeters of mercury.

• Use an oral or rectal thermometer to check for fevers or monitor basal body temperature.
• Check knee and elbow reflexes with a reflex hammer to assess spinal cord and nerve status.
• Monitor pulse and respiratory rates using a digital watch with running seconds.
• Measure arterial blood pressure using a sphygmomanometer and stethoscope.
• Sterilize all surgical instruments by boiling them in distilled water for 30 minutes.

Advanced physical therapy tools, lighting equipment, and minor surgical gear enable comprehensive home-based treatments and diagnostics.

• Apply a vibrating C tuning fork to a sensitive limb or digit to test for hairline fractures.
• Use a microscope to examine blood smears, stool samples for parasite eggs, or fungal infections.
• Employ ultraviolet lamps to diagnose ringworm, which glows green under the light.
• Use whirlpool attachments and heating pads for hydrotherapy treatment of sore muscles, arthritis, and hemorrhoids.

2. Home Laboratory and Clinical Diagnostics

You can perform accurate home health assessments, including pulse allergy tests, basal body temperature checks, and blood and urine analysis, while avoiding homeostatic masking traps.

Executing Home Tests

The pulse test allows individuals to detect food, chemical, or pollen allergies at home by monitoring heart rate changes. When an allergic substance contacts the body, the heart rate increases. You can perform this test with simple steps:

• Determine your base pulse rate per minute upon awakening.
• Double check your pulse rate upon awakening.
• Eat or drink the suspected food, smell the suspected chemical or smoke, or sniff the suspected pollen or dust.
• Recheck your pulse rate in 15, 30, and 60 minutes.
• If your pulse rate goes up ten points, you are allergic to that food or substance.

Chinese restaurant syndrome causes heart palpitations and tachycardia in sensitive individuals when they encounter MSG. Basal body temperature taken in the armpit provides a reliable home indication of thyroid function. Poor thyroid function is indicated by a low basal temperature combined with chronically cold hands and feet and morning sluggishness, while too much thyroid supplement causes finger tremors and an increased pulse. You can check your status at home:

• Shake down the thermometer the night before and place it on the night stand to prevent unnecessary movement.
• Place the thermometer in your axilla first thing in the morning before stirring out of bed.
• Check if your basal body temperature is 97.8 degrees or less.
• Check if you have chronically cold hands and feet and if you are slow in the morning.
• To check for hyper thyroid activity from too much supplement, hold your arm out horizontal to the floor and observe your fingers for noticeable trembling.

Simple home dip sticks and glucosticks can test urine and blood sugar at a fraction of standard medical costs. Urine dip sticks cost about $1.50 per test compared to a typical orthodox doctor charge of $25.00 for a urine test. Glucosticks and glucometers allow individuals to perform a six-hour glucose tolerance test to detect diabetes and hypoglycemia, which fasting blood sugar tests miss. Follow specific actions for these checks:

• Perform a finger prick with a sterile lancet to obtain a drop of blood for a glucostick or glucometer.
• Incubate the drop of blood on the glucostick special sensitive pad for 30 seconds and compare with the color chart.
• For an accurate six-hour GTT, determine fasting blood sugar, drink a Glucola solution containing 100 gm of glucose within five to ten minutes, and test at thirty minutes and hourly up to six hours.

Blood Chemistry and Shorthand Evaluation

Homeostatic mechanisms keep blood values within narrow physiological ranges, meaning a person can be severely ill or nutrient-deficient while showing normal blood test results. Because the body vigorously maintains blood components, thousands of people pass annual physicals costing $500 with clean bills of health only to experience severe health failures shortly after. For example, individuals can suffer from spontaneous fractures due to advanced osteoporosis while their blood calcium remains entirely normal within the standard range of 9 to 10.8 mg percent.

Understanding laboratory shorthand for complete blood counts allows patients to interpret their own cellular blood evaluations. A CBC evaluates red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets. Specific components include RBC carrying oxygen, HGB binding oxygen and carbon dioxide, HCT measuring the percentage of RBCs to serum, MCV measuring average cell size, MCH measuring hemoglobin weight, MCHC measuring hemoglobin concentration, WBC acting as immune cells, and platelets preventing hemorrhage. Healthy red blood cells have an average lifespan of 120 days. Normal RBC ranges span 4.5 to 5.5 x 10 mm3 for males and 3.9 to 5.0 x 10 mm3 for females. Normal HGB values are 14-18 gm/100 ml for males and 12-16 gm/100 ml for females. Normal HCT spans 42-52 percent for males and 37-47 percent for females. Normal platelets range from 250,000 to 500,000.

SMAC-24 blood panels evaluate twenty-four serum components, though their utility is limited by the body's homeostatic efforts to maintain blood levels during deficiencies. Patients can bypass expensive office visits and waiting rooms by having their doctor order lab tests over the phone. Normal ranges include 65-80 mg/100 ml for fasting blood glucose, 180-200 mg percent for cholesterol, 30-85 mg percent for desired HDLs, 60-120 mg percent for LDLs, and 6.0-6.8 mg percent for total protein.

Microscopic examination of samples and hair mineral analysis provide reliable home testing methods for parasites and heavy metal toxicity. Parasitic ova and microorganisms can be identified in feces, mucus, and urine using glass slides and a microscope at 440x magnification. Pinworms require a special clear Scotch tape technique applied to the anus at night. Hair analysis is widely recognized by courts and medical practitioners as a valid indicator of tissue heavy metal levels and macro and trace mineral status. Collect samples with specific steps:

• To check for pinworms, place a five-inch piece of clear Scotch tape on the anus with the sticky side toward the anus to pick up eggs.
• Place the tape on a slide with the sticky side on the slide and examine through a microscope to find the eggs.
• Collect a hair specimen by yourself and submit it to a hair analysis lab for a computerized printout evaluation of mineral levels.

Orthodox medicine relies on a flawed rule-in and rule-out laboratory process with a low success rate, whereas accurate diagnosis requires meticulous patient observation. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle based Sherlock Holmes on his pathology professor, whose exceptional observational powers could deduce a patient's background and complaints from minor cues. In contrast, orthodox doctors overdepend on labs and referrals, achieving a reported diagnostic accuracy of only 50 percent when checked at autopsy or by another physician. A 1986 study showed that 55 percent of chronic hospital patients suffered from overt malnutrition. You can apply observational methods directly:

• Collect the facts and rule out impossible diagnoses based on those facts through simple deduction.
• Establish normal baselines for blood pressure, pulse, six-hour GTT, weight, and physical inspection of remote areas.

Many severe psychiatric conditions and behavioral disorders are actually physical symptoms caused by food allergies, hypoglycemia, and nutritional deficiencies rather than mental illness. Orthodox psychiatrists often treat underlying nutritional and allergic symptoms with drugs and institutionalization without understanding the root cause. Proper testing for hypoglycemia and food sensitivities can reveal straightforward physical triggers that, when addressed, lead to rapid recovery. Address these conditions systematically:

• Perform a full allergy exam and a six-hour glucose tolerance test when evaluating severe emotional or psychological symptoms.
• Avoid cow's milk and sugar if food sensitivities or prediabetic curves are identified.
• Refer to the nutrient and toxicity flow chart when dealing with health problems to identify potential nutritional deficiencies.

A 32-year-old Canadian mother spent seven years institutionalized for neurosis and depression before receiving proper allergy and blood sugar testing. She was completely cured within three weeks by avoiding cow's milk and sugar, treating hypoglycemia, and using autoimmune urine therapy. A 42-year-old actor treated with tranquilizers in London and Spain for manic depression, psychosis, and a suicide attempt showed a severe prediabetic curve with a one-hour blood sugar level of 319 mg percent and a low crash level of 38 mg percent during his GTT. He achieved complete recovery and returned to acting within one month after dietary correction.

3. Alternative Healing Arts and Home Therapies

You can safely utilize acupuncture, homeopathy, megavitamin therapy, and natural birth practices to prevent and treat illnesses without relying on conventional pharmaceutical interventions.

Ancient battlefield observations showed warriors pierced by arrows frequently reported relief from chronic diseases, leading to the development of acupuncture points. The Chinese system relies on meridians and points based on parameters like Yin and Yang, the Five Main Elements, and circadian rhythms. Efficiency depends on needle caliber, depth, twirling, sharpness, and treatment duration. Acupuncture dates back to 3500 BC, and the Yellow Emperor published the first official acupuncture text in 200 BC.

You can apply acupuncture and related therapies using specific practical steps:

• Locate points using Cun measurements where one Cun is approximately the width of the widest part of the patient's thumb and a fen is 1/10 of a Cun.
• Insert the needle to a depth of five fen or 1/2 inch just below the skin.
• Leave the needles in place for 20 to 30 minutes.
• Sterilize needles between uses by heating in an autoclave or in the oven up to 350°F for 30 minutes.

Homeopathic medicine operates on the principles of letting like be cured by like and using minimum doses through serial dilutions. Dr. Samuel Hahnemann proved that Cinchona bark, a malaria cure, gave malaria symptoms to healthy people, leading to the testing of hundreds of substances. You prepare solid homeopathic remedies by grinding them up with lactose through trituration with ten-fold dilutions. You prepare liquid remedies by mixing with alcohol and shaking through succussion with ten-fold dilutions. You can administer traditional remedies such as taking four drops of Bach flower diluted remedies four times per day.

Naturopathic medicine emphasizes disease prevention and the body's inherent healing ability through a broad scope of natural diagnostic and therapeutic modalities. Naturopaths operate under the core principle of first doing no harm, covering the full practice of medicine excluding major surgery and most allopathic drugs by utilizing botanical medicine, physical therapy, and clinical diagnosis.

• Apply naturopathic modalities including nutritional science, natural hygiene, botanical medicine, physical medicine, oriental medicine, and homeopathy.
• Exclude major surgeries involving brain, chest, and abdominal cavities and the use of most legend drugs.

Home Birth and Nutritional Deficiencies

Pregnancy is a normal biological process rather than a disease, and home births are safer, significantly cheaper, and result in fewer infections than hospital births.

Orthodox obstetrics promotes hospital delivery and excessive C-sections primarily for financial gain and schedule convenience, leading to high intervention rates compared to home deliveries managed by midwives or naturopaths. Doctor Semmelwise noted that among 183,955 newborns delivered by orthodox doctors at the Vienna Children's Hospital between 1774 and 1836, 80 percent died, compared to a 5 percent mortality rate for those delivered by midwives who washed their hands. Currently, 35 percent of all hospital births are delivered by C-section.

• Perform monthly self-examinations including breast self-examinations and self-internal vaginal and cervical examinations.
• Increase animal protein intake to 120 to 200 grams per day if experiencing sudden weight gains after the 20th week of pregnancy to counter low blood protein and fluid retention.
• Contact an ND, chiropractor, or midwife for assistance if choosing a home birth.

Cystic fibrosis is not a genetic accident but a recreatable selenium and fatty acid deficiency in the fetus or newborn caused by maternal malabsorption. At Cornell University, chicks hatched from selenium-deficient hens developed classical cystic fibrosis of the pancreas, and when given selenium within 30 days of hatching, the condition was totally cured within 21 days. In 1958, Dr. Paul de St. Agnese put forth the sweat test and Dr. Klaus Schwartz reported selenium as an essential nutrient. Wallach discovered cystic fibrosis in NASA monkeys in 1978, following a joint Chinese autopsy study of 1700 children where 35 percent had classical cystic fibrosis lesions.

• Administer selenium and essential fatty acid supplementation to infants and mothers to address and prevent cystic fibrosis symptoms.
• Treat food allergies aggressively and use nutritional supplementation to correct maternal malabsorption syndromes.

Megavitamin therapy utilizes pharmacologic or therapeutic doses of vitamins and minerals to treat severe physical and psychological disorders. Pioneered in 1968 by Linus Pauling and Abram Hoffer under orthomolecular medicine, these high doses supply necessary raw materials to overworked organs and tissues. You can administer megavitamin doses such as five to 100 grams of vitamin C for conditions like colds, arthritis, and cancer, compared to the recommended daily allowance of 30 mg. You can also use 3000 mg per day of niacinamide for various psychoses.

4. Targeted Nutritional Cures for Major Diseases

You can prevent and reverse chronic degenerative conditions such as arthritis, diabetes, cystic fibrosis, and cancer by correcting specific trace mineral and vitamin deficiencies.

Preventative health maintenance through daily nutritional supplements is a small financial trade-off to avoid expensive major diseases. You might spend considerable money maintaining automobiles like BMWs, yet neglect your own body. Preventive maintenance with a baseline of vitamins and minerals costs between $1 and $5 per day, which acts as cheap insurance against diseases like heart disease, arthritis, and cancer.

• Take supplements at preventive levels in divided doses three times per day to keep blood levels elevated for at least 12 hours.

Digestive Health and Joint Care

Achlorhydria causes the absence of stomach acid, allowing intestinal bacteria and yeast to enter the stomach and ferment high-carbohydrate foods. This process results in gas, bloating, and deficiencies in B-12, calcium, and protein. It also triggers new food allergies due to the absorption of partially digested large protein fragments.

• Supplement with betaine HCl at a rate of 75 to 250 mg 15 to 20 minutes before each meal.
• Take 1 to 2 oz. of vinegar with English bitters before meals if betaine HCl is absent.
• Use plant-derived colloidal minerals to tonify the stomach.

Celiac disease involves the loss of small intestinal villi and scarring, reducing absorptive surface area and laying the groundwork for multiple degenerative diseases. Classically caused by wheat gluten sensitivity, identical intestinal damage is also triggered by cow's milk albumen and soy protein. By age 45 to 50, ninety percent of the intestine can be damaged, leading to poor assimilation of nutrients and causing downstream conditions like diabetes, cancer, and muscular dystrophy.

• Use the pulse test for allergies to identify sensitivities to whole wheat, cow's milk, and soy products.
• Eliminate and/or rotate the offending allergen for 90 days to repair the injured gut.

Arthritis is caused by nutritional deficiencies and mineral imbalances, specifically improper dietary calcium-to-phosphorus ratios exacerbated by meat consumption. Orthodox medicine lists arthritis as unknown and treats symptoms with aspirin or prednisone. In reality, rheumatoid arthritis involves chronic infection with Mycoplasma spp., and all arthritis is aggravated by poor calcium-to-phosphorus ratios found in standard grain and meat diets, which dissolve bone calcium.

• Consume calcium at 2,000 mg/day or more if eating meat frequently, and magnesium at 800 to 1,000 mg/day.
• Take cartilage or chondroitin sulfate at 1,000 mg t.i.d.
• Add tetracycline at 250 mg q.i.d. or H2O2 for rheumatoid arthritis to deal with Mycoplasma.

Endocrine and Oncological Protocols

Diabetes is easily prevented and treated with supplemental chromium and vanadium, but this information has been suppressed for economic reasons. Research by Walter Mertz of the USDA showed chromium prevents and treats diabetes and hypoglycemia. Furthermore, the University of Vancouver stated vanadium can replace insulin for adult-onset diabetics.

• Start chromium and vanadium at 25 mcg/day in initial stages to prevent insulin shock, then increase gradually.
• Check urine blood sugar before and after meals to adjust insulin downward.
• Eliminate processed carbohydrates and avoid meat in the beginning stages.

Cystic fibrosis is a preventable and curable deficiency disease linked to selenium and essential fatty acids rather than an untreatable genetic disorder. Orthodox pediatricians claim cystic fibrosis is a genetic disease, relying on a sweat test that can yield false positives from at least 17 different conditions. Dr. Joel Wallach reproduced cystic fibrosis pancreatic and liver changes in animal models using a congenital selenium deficiency.

Dr. Joel Wallach reproduced cystic fibrosis changes in baby monkeys, which were confirmed by experts from Johns Hopkins, Emory University, and the University of Chicago, and later found 35% pancreatic CF in autopsies of children suffering from Keshan Disease in China.

• Treat the infant as early as possible with selenium IM at 10 to 25 mcg per day, followed by plant-derived colloidal minerals orally.
• Provide 5 gm of flaxseed oil orally t.i.d.
• Determine and eliminate allergies to wheat, cow's milk, or soy.

Alternative cancer therapies utilize non-toxic metabolic agents and oxygen-boosting treatments that outperform conventional cut, burn, and poison methods. The five-year survival rate of cancer patients has not changed over 20 years despite conventional surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy, and untreated patients often lived longer. Various alternative compounds target cancer cells by starving them of glucose, increasing cellular oxygen, or altering pH.

• Administer hydrazine sulfate to inhibit glucose production from lactic acid in the liver.
• Use cesium chloride for high pH therapy to create an alkaline environment inside cancer cells.
• Apply laetrile to release small quantities of cyanide toxic to cancer cells but harmless to normal cells.
• Use germanium to increase oxygen flow into cells and stimulate interferon production.

Conclusion

You now possess the foundational knowledge required to step outside the failing orthodox medical system and manage your health independently. By combining home diagnostics, natural therapies, and targeted nutritional supplementation, you take full control of your physical well-being and protect your family from institutional neglect.

1. Acquire standard clinical reference manuals and diagnostic equipment to evaluate your own vital signs and metabolic markers at home.
2. Monitor daily health indicators such as basal body temperature, pulse rates, and elimination patterns to catch imbalances early.
3. Eliminate processed foods, sugars, and common dietary allergens that trigger inflammation and disease processes.
4. Supplement your daily diet with essential plant-derived colloidal minerals, vitamins, and amino acids to prevent nutritional deficiencies.
5. Utilize safe alternative healing modalities including homeopathy, herbalism, and physical therapies before turning to pharmaceutical interventions.

10 Key Ideas

1. Patients can successfully become their own primary health care providers by reducing reliance on orthodox doctors and utilizing accessible self-help methods.
2. Acquire Dorlands Medical Dictionary, the Merck Manual, and the Physicians Desk Reference to establish a proper home medical library for cross-referencing diseases, drug data, and treatments.
3. The pulse test allows individuals to detect food, chemical, or pollen allergies at home by monitoring heart rate changes where an allergic substance causes the heart rate to increase.
4. Homeostatic mechanisms keep blood values within narrow physiological ranges, meaning a person can be severely ill or nutrient-deficient while showing normal blood test results.
5. Many severe psychiatric conditions and behavioral disorders are actually physical symptoms caused by food allergies, hypoglycemia, and nutritional deficiencies rather than mental illness.
6. You can apply acupuncture and related therapies using specific practical steps such as locating points with Cun measurements and inserting needles to a depth of five fen.
7. Pregnancy is a normal biological process rather than a disease, and home births are safer, significantly cheaper, and result in fewer infections than hospital births.
8. Arthritis is caused by nutritional deficiencies and mineral imbalances, specifically improper dietary calcium-to-phosphorus ratios exacerbated by meat consumption.
9. Diabetes is easily prevented and treated with supplemental chromium and vanadium, but this information has been suppressed for economic reasons.
10. Cystic fibrosis is a preventable and curable deficiency disease linked to selenium and essential fatty acids rather than an untreatable genetic disorder.