About DR.F
In her own words
I graduated from Saint Louis University as an M.D. in 2003 with my pre-med as a laboratory technician. I passed the board exams on my first try and thus began my journey.
When I was first starting out, I pledged my allegiance to conventional medicine which I studied whole-heartedly. Like a child, I was very naive. I thought that pharmaceutical medicine had all the answers to man’s health dilemmas because that’s what I was taught. Like many other people, I wanted to belong to a community or group who are like minded. So, I went to trainings in hospitals, attended seminars and read researches to enhance my knowledge and skills in the craft I chose.
My late father, Antonio R. Agustin was an esteemed herbalist. He told me one day to quit training in the hospital and join him on his journey. Since he was not a Medical Doctor, he knew that he was not qualified to attend to the sick. I immediately left Manila and worked with my dad for 12 years.
In the early days I was still hesitant to avoid using Pharmaceutical-based medicine, since I had dedicated so many years to studying them. Back then, I was basically prescribing synthetic medicine along with herbs, vitamins and minerals to my patients. I went to schools abroad to enrich my knowledge about Natural Medicine. I spent many years and massive amounts of money traveling abroad to learn since the knowledge I sought was not available in my own country. It saddened me that progressive countries all over the world have their own “Natural Medicine” that they are proud to showcase. I had to originally study many foreigner’s protocols of treating patients rather than promoting a truly native Filipino way.
Over time, I came to understand that I was blinded by the promise of “conventional” medicine. It wasn’t until my own family got sick that I completely questioned my beliefs. No drugs were helping them. Instead of getting better, their condition deteriorated day by day. I was utterly depressed. I felt helpless as a medical doctor. I couldn’t understand what was wrong with the protocols I followed.
I read the medical books repeatedly and asked my colleagues about their experiences. Yet nothing seemed to quell their sickness. Finally, after thorough evaluation, I resorted to experimentation. Hopelessness almost drove me to give up. In my work, it can often be confounding when prescribing drugs due to all of the side effects, combination side effects and even the lack of effects.
When questions would arise in patient care when I was in practice, my college professors and mentors would simply say that I didn’t have the right combination of drugs and needed to further evaluate the patient to get the right mix of drugs for them. Yet none would prescribe what should be done.
In the midst of all this misdirection and pharmaceutical peddling, I was stopped cold in my tracks when I saw what was said by Dr. Allan Roses, M.D., the worldwide vice-president of genetics at GlaxoSmithKline, one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world. He said that fewer than half of the patients prescribed some of the most expensive drugs actually derived any benefit from them. “The vast majority of drugs – more than 90 per cent – only work in 30 or 50 per cent of the people.” I knew there had to be another way.
I whipped up my first natural cough remedy made of honey and cinnamon and gave it to my daughter. To my surprise, on the second day, her cough miraculously disappeared. I was shocked and intrigued at the same time. Could it be that the best solution to asthma was in my kitchen pantry? Amazed, I hurried to the nearest bookstore and grabbed several books on natural medicine. I learned so much that first day. It was an eye opener especially to a medical doctor like me.
That day I learned 3 things. First, is that honey and cinnamon are potent antimicrobial foods with anti-inflammatory properties. Second, I came to realize that I was taught profit-based medicine instead of health-based medicine. Third, I felt like I’d received the keys to a wonderful kingdom. This was a time of awakening for me. I had opened my mind to new scientific knowledge and was rewarded with these eureka moments of discovery and understanding.
There comes a time in your life when you finally get it. The massive inner workings of the human body and how they directly related to nutrition came into focus. These concepts were barely whispered in my medical school training, whereas pharmaceuticals were unabashedly screamed from the rafters. We were simply taught a pill for every ill and when I realized this elaborate con, it made me sick and ashamed. I came to understand that I’d been willfully misled in my education for the benefit of drug interests and the medical status quo. My interest is in the health of patients and I refused to be a pawn for things that I don’t believe work. I reassessed and redefined who I am and what I really believe in. My first big decision was to give up on these ineffective synthetic medicines.
My moment of helplessness was indeed an awakening for me. I was never the same again. I felt like Dorothy Gale in The Wizard Of Oz, when she woke up in her black-and-white house after it was deposited by the tornado in Oz and she walks out the door into the bright Technicolor world of Munchkinland.
Natural, nutrition centered philosophies made me a better person, mom, daughter and wife. As a career woman, I have become a wiser practitioner, a conscious and active environmentalist, an agriculturist, a best-selling author, a passionate speaker and a humble student of nature.
My life is now more colorful than ever. I wake up every morning with a purpose. I feel that the Lord blessed me with a great treasure when I was led to discover the beauty of the power of nature.
With the help of my husband, I’ve been able to explore vast areas of my practice. Every day I study and discover many effective and unheard research that have been buried in time. The more I read, the more I learn I knew so little out of medical school and this is still very humbling. It’s disappointing to come to the realization that medical school is in many ways another example of the extensive marketing arms of pharmaceutical companies.
In the Philippines, I was responsible for about 150,000 people during my 16 years in practice there. The track record that I was able to develop speaks for itself. Now, I’m in the U.S. and in a position to assist far more people than ever before with my formulations. Every single formulation I’ve developed is based upon my track record and extensive experience of what I know to be truly effective.
My prayer is that through my knowledge and efforts, you too can find exactly what you’re looking for in an ideal nutritional complex.
With love for all,
Dr. Farrah