Dr. Mercola has always been passionate about helping preserve and enhance the health of the global community. As a doctor of osteopathic medicine (DO), he takes a “whole-person” approach to wellness, helping you develop attitudes and lifestyles that can help you Take Control of Your Health.
By sharing valuable knowledge about holistic medicine, regenerative practices and informed consent principles, he has become the most trusted source for natural health information, with a legacy of promoting sustainability and transparency.
Dr. Mercola is an osteopathic physician who, similar to MDs, finished four years of basic clinical sciences and successfully completed licensing exams. Hence, he is fully licensed to prescribe medication and perform surgery in all 50 states. Also a board-certified family physician, he served as the chairman of the family medicine department at St. Alexius Medical Center for five years.
Moreover, he has written over 30 scientific studies and reports published in medical journals and publications. With his written contributions and extensive experience in patient care, he was granted fellowship status by the American College of Nutrition (ACN) in October 2012.
"The No-Grain Diet"
Dr. Mercola’s Early Days
Born and raised in the inner city of Chicago, Dr. Mercola was a very active child whose fascination with health, wellness and technology led him to pursue medical school. He studied osteopathic medicine at Midwestern University, where he also learned how to truly learn and never stopped since. All the while, he was able to maintain an active lifestyle, seeing its positive impact on his overall health. He even competed in the Chicago Marathon and finished in just over three hours.
With a thirst for knowledge and experience, he worked at a physician’s office as a pharmacy technician, and later at the Illinois Eye Bank. He also worked at the Kidney Bank, after being inspired to help people with, or at risk of, kidney disease through preventative methods. In 1985, he performed routine checkups, school physical exams and saw chronically ill patients as the sole practitioner at a private wellness clinic in Schaumburg, Illinois.
I was prescribing medications but realized that they were not working in many cases.– Dr. Mercola
Determined to find better answers, he began exploring the world of natural medicine in the early 1990s, and slowly started to integrate healthy diet and exercise into his patients’ lives. After observing that these methods were working, he completely switched his focus to a preventative, holistic approach, and that was the start of it all.
Founding Mercola.com
Dr. Mercola founded Mercola.com in 1997 as a portal for up-to-date natural health information and resources that can help readers and subscribers adopt better lifestyles and achieve optimal health. It’s one of the first health websites that focuses on holistic medicine and is now routinely among the top 10 natural health websites.
Mercola.com also strives to expose corporate, government and mass media hype that diverts people from what is truly best for their health. It serves as a harmonious community for educated and open-minded individuals who belong to a variety of populations — from homemakers to health care experts — all seeking to improve and maintain their state of health and determined to change the modern health paradigm.
Originally based in Hoffman Estates near Chicago, Illinois, Mercola.com now operates in Cape Coral, Florida, and has a remote office in Manila, Philippines.
Dr. Joseph Mercola, DO