Sid: My guest by way of the telephone is Dr. Ray Strand. He is an MD practiced in Rapid City, South Dakota. In fact I’m speaking to him at his home where he has a horse ranch there.  And for those that are just tuning in Dr. Strand would you just briefly tell us your medical background.

Ray:  Well Sid, I graduated from the University of Colorado Medical School in 1971.  And I finished my training at Mercy Hospital in San Diego, California.  And then I returned to the Black Hills of South Dakota to practice medicine.  And I’ve been in private family practice here now for over 31 years.

Sid: And on yesterday’s broadcast we pointed out that the number 3 cause of death in America, or the number 4 depending on what the statistics are or how you approach it is prescriptions, drug reactions to prescriptions.  So knowing that, looking at your book seeing all the problems people can run into should we just quit taking our medicine?

Ray:  Well Sid, that would be the last thing that you would want to do.  You know medication is very important and your doctor has to be involved in both prescribing, or discontinuing any medication.  But what I’ve… the purpose of writing the book was not scare people away from medication but to actually get them to use them more wisely and to understand that there’s an inherent risk with all medication no matter what their doctors prescribing. And becoming more proactive in understanding what drugs they’re taking and what they should be looking for so that they could avoid being part of those statistics.  Because over half of these can and should be avoided if people just knew what to do.

Sid:  Well I know that I was in a hospital and they gave me the wrong stuff and fortunately it wasn’t life threatening but it was horrible, they made a mistake. Does this happen often in hospitals?

Ray:  Well sad to say it does. This is a very sad thing and we as physicians don’t like to admit it or don’t really pay much attention but it happens all the time. In fact Sid the statistics show that over a million hospitalizations occur each year because of drug adverse drug reactions.  And other studies are showing us now that just came out in the New England Journal of Medicine that even outpatient of the prescriptions prescribed that over ¼ of the prescriptions prescribed will be accompanied by an adverse drug reaction. So this is a very common thing. Not all of them are life threatening but it happens very, very frequently.

Sid: Well, I wish more people would read your book “Death By Prescription” because there are risks that really aren’t pointed out to us that when we get our blood pressure medication, when we get cholesterol medication, when we even take antibiotics.  And you point all this out in your book especially, but the trigger word that you used is “We must be proactive.”  In other words as a doctor if I had gone to you a number of years ago you would have…and I said to you “I have this alternative medicine doctor; or I have these vitamins and herbs.” You would say; what would you say?

Ray:  Well before 9 years ago I was your typical doctor, I didn’t believe in vitamins or anything other than the drugs that I had been trained to prescribe and use. But I would have told you “I think it just creates expensive urine or it’s costing you money, it’s not worth it you can get everything you need from going and just eating good food.”  And that’s the way that I was trained and I really did not understand the health benefits that nutritional supplements can offer.

Sid: Briefly though it’s because of your wife that you changed your thinking.

Ray:  Well, it was and it always hits home and my wife has a disease called chronic fatigue fibromyalgia.  And I have lived with that all of our married life and it’s a chronic pain, a Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and her health was slowing going downhill. But in 1995 Sid she came down with a serious pneumonia. And in spite of seeing 4 different specialists and being placed on 9 different medications. She actually ended up getting through the pneumonia but left with a very serious chronic fatigue. And this went on month, after month, after month and she could only get out of bed probably one hour a day. And she’s a horse trainer by her own occupation and she couldn’t do anything. And so what happened was at that time some lady just called up and said “Gee I had some vitamins that helped my husband and maybe you’d want to consider taking them.” And Sid my wife knew how I felt about vitamins so she actually had to ask me for my permission. And I was even surprised by my response “Honey you can try anything because we’re not doing you any good.”  And I’ll tell you Sid before my eyes her health started to improve, within weeks she was better and within months she was better than she’d been in years. And I have to say it was like the Lord took a wet noodle and slapped me across the face and say “Pay attention to this; there’s something here.” And so for the last 9 years all I have done is read the medical literature trying to find out why this happened with my wife.  Was it just a miracle of the Lord or is there something in taking nutritional supplements that we can help to actually improve our health and it was something that we were just never trained in.

Sid: Give me an example beyond your wife of a patient that before 9 years ago you would have perhaps prescribed certain medications but today you say I see these tendencies in your blood tests and this is what you should do so you won’t have a disease.

Ray:  Well, the easiest one is fibromyalgia because when I did this I actually called in 5 of my worst fibromyalgia patients and I said “I don’t know what this…” Because doctors don’t have a drug, we treat symptomatically I prescribe an anti-inflammatory like a non-steroidal maybe an antidepressant something for sleep, maybe you know maybe a muscle relaxant you know symptomatic medicine because we have no treatment for fibromyalgia.  Well, once I found this I said “Look, why don’t we just try what my wife tried and I did” and every one of these patients improved.  And Sid that was amazing and I think that I’ve been able to help over 1000 fibromyalgia patients through my consultation,  my books and what I do.

Sid: Now there seems to be almost an epidemic of people with diabetes as you call it in your book insulin resistant explain.

Ray:  Well what’s happening is we’re faced now with the diabetes and obesity epidemic.  I mean the CDC, or the Centers for Disease Control, just came out with a statement last summer that a child born today runs a 30% risk of developing diabetes in their lifetime.

Sid: Why is that?

Ray:  Well it’s because of the all American diet and the lack of activity.  What we have called this healthy diet a high carbohydrate low fat diet is actually the worst diet in the world for our health.  It’s not only causing the great rise in diabetes but it’s also causing you know the obesity epidemic.

Sid: Oh, so therefore we should just do Atkins.

Ray:  Well, and I would say “No.”

Sid: No!  Well, there’s nothing left, but go ahead. (Laughing)

Ray:  What happens is carbohydrates are not the problem, it’s the high glycemic carbohydrates or the highly processed carbohydrates.  What Atkins does, he’s on the right track that carbohydrates are the problem, but then he eliminates them and puts you in a false state of starvation. And what happens is the body can’t utilize the fat and protein that you’re eating so it has to actually use a secondary fuel source and it breaks down muscle and fat to produce a secondary fuel source which are called keytones. Well, this not only is not healthy it’s dangerous and what happens is people have to realize that man you can’t eliminate the carbohydrates because that’s where all the antioxidants, the minerals and the vitamins in your fruits and vegetables.

Sid: Why don’t you just take some vitamins and won’t that just take care of it.

Ray:  Well, it helps but it’s not… see the trouble is Atkins came out with his diet in 1970… early ’70’s and it’s been around for 35 years. He’s changed it, he’s modified it but even he himself originally said “You should not be on this diet longer than 2 weeks.” And then they tried…

Sid: I don’t hear that being touted anywhere.

Ray:    No not lately it has the induction phase now and it goes up a little bit more and a little bit more.  But see when you go on the Atkins diet you basically start to use your glycogen stores, those stores in your muscle and liver for the quick sugar and which 2 or 3 days that’s gone. But when you lose a glycogen you also lose water, so you lose 6 to 8 pounds immediately within 3 days but it’s not fat lose it’s water and glycogen.

Sid: Hmm.

Ray:  As soon as you start to eat again that will come right back.

Sid: Well, I’m going to get personal; I had you look at my blood work and you said to me that I see exactly what your problem is. You said… explain that.

Ray:  Well what the problem is that we tend to spike our blood sugar too much and we abuse our insulin and it keeps having to control blood sugar and overtime Sid, we become less sensitive to our own insulin. And that’s called, insulin resistance.  Well the body compensates for that by actually making more insulin so our blood insulin levels rise.  When that happens blood pressure goes up, our triglyceride level goes up. That good cholesterol, or HDL, goes shooting down. And I do a ratio where I divide the HDL cholesterol into triglyceride which is another fat in the blood.  If it’s greater than 2 or 3 you’ve developed insulin resistance.

Sid: So I have a choice then, I can either change what I eat or I can take medication.  Which is better for me?

Ray:  Well the trouble is the insulin resistance starts years before you become diabetic or you develop heart disease. And so what happens is your arteries begin aging 1/3 faster than they should. And then what happens is by the time I diagnose diabetes and ready to treat those people… the first day I diagnosed diabetes 60% of those patients already have major cardiovascular disease; 80% of our diabetics are still dying of heart disease. Physicians need to go back and start treating these people earlier.

Sid: That’s what you mean by proactive; we’re out of time right now we’ll pickup right here on tomorrow’s broadcast. I mean he’s got things in his books that I’ve never even contemplated before like oxygen can cause your body to rust.  But the good thing is he’s a proactive physician.  He tells us what to do; I’ve not known what kind of diet to go on; I have not known what kind of vitamins.  I mean I’ve gone slight berserk on vitamins; it’s so simple in his book.

Sid:  We want everyone everywhere to be prepared so that they won’t miss out on the greatest move of God’s Spirit in history.  My guest Carlos Sarmiento had an experience; I mean how would you like to eavesdrop on a conversation between God the Father and Jesus about the end times. And hear the mandate “It’s time Son,” talking to Jesus “To get My bride.”  I mean that’s where we are right now. Carlos you’re provoking me to so much jealousy to be able to listen to that kind of discussion and then we discuss that many things you heard were actually downloaded into your spirit to be released at specific times.  A great deal of the teaching that you teach today comes from that.  But you had an encounter shortly after that at an IHOP conference where all of a sudden the presence of God was not just on you it was all over that conference, but what happened?

Carlos:  Well you know as the first time there at the IHOP Kansas City Conference did not knowing what to expect.  The only reason that I went there Sid in the first place was because after my encounter of course I was seeking the Lord for my direction and understanding what I was going through.  One day I received a piece in the mail with an invitation to go to this End-Times Prophetic Conference.  And all I could tell you was that the word End-Times Prophetic Conference jumped out of that brochure and I heard the voice of the Lord say “Son, go there and I’ll tell you what to do next.”  So that’s how I got there because the Lord says “If you go there I’ll tell you what to do next.”  I was in the place of seeking; I was asking the Lord for understanding.  And so I get to Kansas City and I’ve only felt this one other time where when I walked into the park…where I stepped onto the parking lot I could feel this rush of glory and of  beautiful presence of the Lord.  And the first time I went to that was when I first went to Pastor Benny Hinn’s service at the Atlanta Christian Center.  I had never met Mike Bickle, I had never heard of the International House of Prayer.  But it took me back to my experiences to the glory and the presence of God in the early days as a young minister.  So I remember sitting in that conference and sitting near the back of the congregation because I tried to get their early enough but to my surprise the place was already packed. I could feel, and what I felt was very very strange I felt this incredible presence but I knew that it came out of a Spirit of love, intimacy, and unity.  Those are the 3 things that really popped out to me; I could tell that there was a great love for the Lord.  There was a desire for the people to contend for intimacy and I felt this unity one. I felt that the whole congregation; the whole massive group where was about 3000 people there. They were running after the same thing; there was a spirit of agreement that’s what I was feeling.  And I remember sitting in the back and listening to the teaching and feeling the presence of the Lord. And then all of a sudden it was like something came upon me and for almost the entire service I shook and just wept and wept and thinking to myself “You got to stop this people are going to think that you’re crazy.” But I just couldn’t contain myself; and it was in that experience that I heard the Lord gave me my next set of instructions.  The Lord said “Son, I have encountered you because you’ve always been a person of intimacy; you’ve always loved Me; you’ve sought Me; you’ve got a little distracted here and there but Carlos I’m bringing you back to your first love number one.”  And then the Lord said this, “I’m asking you I want to raise you up to be one of my end-time forerunners.”  Now when I heard that I had no clue what that meant.  I just said “Lord, whatever that means yes, I’ll be a forerunner.  But the Lord said “I want you to be one of My forerunners and as a forerunner I want you to shout it out; I want you to prepare My people; I want you to prepare the church wherever I open doors for you.”  And I believe that even right now as I’m speaking to you and speaking to this audience that there are people that can hear me and hear My voice that I know that the Holy Spirit is provoking them and touching them because they want more than what they are currently experiencing. I’m here to say that there is more, there is a lot more to the life of God; there is a lot more to our purpose and our destiny and our experience in God. But we’ve got to come back and do it His way.  And so with that encounter with the Lord He said, “Carlos I’m asking you to be one of My forerunners, and I’m asking you to prepare My church and to prepare My bride.”  And He said this “My church is asleep and she’s not watchful, she’s not looking for my return and she’s not ready.”  Then it made sense to me, that’s what the Lord says, “It’s time to get Your Bride.” I began to understand that I was a member not only of the church, not only am I child, not only am I a son, not only am I part of the Body of Christ, not only am I part of the church.  But I’m also part of the Bride of Christ and there’s different levels of intimacy of relationship with God.  I believe that the highest level of intimacy is Bride ship; is that Bridal identity. And God began to show me “Carlos My church has no clue what is to be the part of the Bride of Christ.”  And that I believe is the last end-time revelation that the Holy Spirit is going to reveal to the church is Bride ship.  Bridal identity, because the greatest relationship, the most intimate relationship on the face of the earth is between a man a woman and between a husband and a wife.  That’s the most intimate relationship.  And Paul relates that he say “I speak in man’s terms but what I’m really trying to give you a spiritual truth about Christ and the church.” And in that encounter the Lord was saying “My church is asleep, she’s distracted and she’s enjoying ministry but she forgets that I Am the ministry; Carlos I Am the ministry and I’m returning My church back to her first love.” And so I’ve been on a journey every since then; and seeking the Lord to establish once again the great commandment of loving the Lord with all of my heart, mind, soul and strength.

Sid: Oh, and that’s where we left off on yesterday’s broadcast.  You were downloaded key heart issues to have the church ready for the next greatest move of God’s Spirit. And what you said in heaven, it came right out of your spirit man that something you hadn’t even pre-mediated. “No, we’re not ready!”  And you actually didn’t know what you were saying, but the church isn’t ready. So you said “That there were key heart issues that the Holy Spirit has told you to teach on.” Tell me what they are.

Carlos:  Okay, the first one I would say is intimacy with the Eternal Godhead; that’s intimacy.  That’s returning back to our first commandment; Jesus made it very clear in Mark 12:30 He said “You shall.”  He didn’t say you should, it’s a good idea.  It’s a command, He said “You shall love the Lord God with all you heart, all your soul, all your mind and all your strength.”  And then He then qualified it by saying “This is the first commandment.” And I believe what the Holy Spirit is doing more than anything, beyond the most… more important than miracles, more important than supernatural, more important than signs and wonders, is the church returning back to her first love.  Because when we look at church history, when we look at the Bible all of history and all of creation was about one thing, it’s about a wedding. Creation began at a wedding at the Book of Genesis.  Jesus’ first miracle in John Chapter 2 was at the wedding of Cana of Galilee. And history as we know it in Revelation 22 ends with the Spirit of God saying “And the Spirit and the Bride.”  It doesn’t say the Spirit and the church it says “The Spirit and the Bride say Come.” So we see creation, the beginning of Jesus’ ministry and then the end of human history as we know before we go into the eternal kingdom the millennial kingdom is all about God and man becoming one.  That’s what consumes the heart of God is intimacy with the Lord.

Sid: Okay, I’m a pretty practical type of person; I’m listening to you on let’s say the radio right now and I’m saying “Yes, I want that intimacy but can you give me some practical steps?” What practical steps do you take for intimacy with the Lord Carlos?

Carlos:  For me personally, I’m not allowing distractions or complacency any longer distract me from time with the Lord.  How do you spell love? You spell love with time and same thing with the Lord.  The way that we grow in our love for Jesus and love for the Lord is very… it’s the same Biblical disciplines we’ve been taught over and over again time with the Lord through prayer, worship, the word of God. But making it priority in your life.  For me because of this encounter I see the value of it; I see that I turned away from the Lord you know as far as my intimacy and my level of love of the Lord.  So what I’ve done I’ve made it a priority, the first thing in my life that I desire to major in is I desire to known as a lover of God.  How do I do that?  I spend time with the Lord.

Sid: What is your prayer life like, I’m curious take me behind that bedroom door with the door closed what are you doing?

Carlos:  I used to ask that question, you know so and so could you tell me about your prayer life?  And one of the things I realized and I’ve found and I want understood is this.  Prayer is not A-B-C-D-E-F-G do this. I believe that there are some insets in God’s words. So here’s my prayer life.  I begin my day I love beginning my day with the Psalms; so what I do is I’ll take my Bible out and I’ll read a Psalm, I’ll read a couple of Psalms and then all of a sudden a Psalm will hit me, something and I will personalize it. So when David says “One thing I have asked of the Lord that will I seek; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.”  So I’ll say Lord, this is my desire “Give me the heart of David, and so I’ll mediate on that, I’ll communicate, I’ll commune with that.  Because I believe that Psalms really are a revelation not only of man’s heart cry for the Lord.  I believe it’s God downloading into the heart of the prime example of a lovesick believer and David whose known to be a man after God’s own heart.  I believe it was God downloading that in David so that we can have the written example how we can seek the Lord.  And when we study the life of David it’s very simple, he just spent time with the Lord he loved to worship the Lord. So I begin my day with reading the psalms.  I speak it out loud; and as something hits me I’ll begin to mediate on that for example if I… “One thing have I asked of the Lord.”  And if I feel that the one thing portion of the scripture hits me I begin to pace around, I’ll sit down, whatever I feel, there’s no rules.  I actually begin to say “Lord make me a person of…

Sid: I’ll tell you what I’m fascinated hearing how the Holy Spirit has been training you to  have that higher level of intimacy but we’re out of time right now.  However how would you like Carlos to be your personal trainer? And the key heart issues that are going to revolutionize your walk that you will not miss this visitation.  I mean you want to be on the same rollercoaster ride down hill that you see going on in the world? That you see in a seeker sensitive church that doesn’t have a clue about what we’re talking about.