Martha Jones, Ph.D., was an unusual woman for her time. She insisted upon receiving her education in a decade where women were expected to get married and have children-not receive college educations. In 1915, Martha Jones attained both her B.A. and her M.A. from Vanderbilt University. Her expectation for her education was that she would advance the study and field of nutrition in order that others might not experience the ill health of her childhood. Upon graduation she took a year off school to work and save money. Her work led her to dealing with politics and nutrition, including the food served in prisons. Once Martha Jones brought to public light the corruptive influence upon diet in the prison system, widespread reform was instituted. Prison officials threatened her well-being, but her work resulted in change, including the turnover of prison personnel. One year later (1917) Martha Jones had saved enough money to attend Yale University and in 1920 received her doctorate in physiological chemistry. After completing her studies, she held various teaching and chair positions, and while doing so, performed experiments that eventually proved the relationship between nutrition and tooth decay. In 1928 she received an invitation to work at Queen’s Hospital in Honolulu, which she accepted. During her time there she successfully formed a health clinic that treated babies suffering from maladies, including tooth decay, with nutritional therapies. Dr. Jones established a nutrition department at Asbury Theological Seminary in 1961. Her vision was one in which the message of nutrition and prevention of tooth decay was spread by missionaries throughout the world. That year the Martha R. Jones Foundation for Health Education was established in Wilmore, KY, at the site of Asbury Theological Seminary. Martha Jones passed away at the age of 89 on January 21, 1974, in Morehead, KY.

Dr. John A. Myers began his quest for personal health as a child as he suffered ill health after nearly dying of diphtheria at age three. His education included a degree in engineering from John Hopkins University in 1927 and later returning to his alma mater to pursue medical studies, completing his studies in 1935.

His training in the use of measurement and control devices in engineering afforded him a unique background, enabling him to scientifically discern functional control in metabolic aspects of disease. He was particularly interested in trace minerals and the interrelationships of the biochemistry of cellular function as well as the application of nutrition to improve the metabolism of the body’s systems. Myers used the teeth and the eyes, the most highly differentiated structures of the body as measuring agents for evaluating metabolic response to treatment. Dr. Myers was a member of numerous professional societies both in the United States and abroad. He was a Founder Diplomat of the International College of Applied Nutrition as well as an Honorary Board Member of the Price-Pottenger Nutrition Foundation.

Dr. George E. Meinig, DDS, was an expert in the areas of nutrition, root canal therapy, oral surgery, periodontal (gum) disease, temporomandibular joint disturbances (TMJ), gnathology (full mouth reconstruction), and acupuncture therapy. His fascination with nutrition and its connection to oral health led him to become an active proponent and member of the Price-Pottenger Nutrition Foundation.

Dr. George Meinig invested over 30 years in continuing the work of the Price-Pottenger Nutrition Foundation, beginning his tenure as a member of the Board of Directors in 1968. During Dr. Meinig’s association with PPNF, he spent 18 months studying Dr. Weston A. Price’s 25-year root canal research found in Dental Infections, Oral and Systemic & Dental Infections and the Degenerative Diseases, Vol. I and II. In 1993, Dr. Meinig published Root Canal Cover-Up, which presented research on chronic jaw bone infection and the dangers of root canal filled teeth to the lay public.

Edward C. Rosenow, MD, (1875-1966), was the former head of Experimental Bacteriology at the Mayo Foundation. He is known for his prodigious body of work spanning more than 50 years and including exploring the relevance of vaccinations during the influenza pandemic of 1918-1919. His work included normal realms of bacteriology into the study of the role of microbes in pneumonia and streptococci. Later, he expanded his studies into the areas of encephalitis, Parkinsonian encephalitis, respiratory arrhythmia, torticollis, early-onset dementia, schizophrenia, epilepsy, poliomyelitis, neuralgia, and multiple sclerosis. One of Dr. Rosenow’s greatest contributions was his conclusion that the germ theory is incorrect and misleading. His studies led him to believe that the killing of germs by use of drugs and other means is useless, unless accompanied by a restoration of a properly functioning metabolism and the good habits and diet that maintain a healthy body inhospitable to disease-related germs. Dr. Rosenow’s work was further studied by other outstanding people in the fields of nutrition and hygiene such as Dr. Weston A. Price, Dr. Royal Lee, Dr. William Albrecht, and many others.

D. Raymond Schmidt, OCR, played semi-professional baseball for several years and then entered a Trappist monastery, Order of Cistercian Reform. He developed an interest in nutrition during these 12 years, and after leaving the monastery, spent 11 years researching the effects of uncooked foods on human physiology. Part of this time he studied under his 120 year-old Hopi Indian adopted grandfather, a famous herbal medicine man in Arizona. Ray was instrumental in ensuring the completeness of PPNF’s research collections. He lent his skill set to PPNF in many areas including transferring the original 18,000 negatives taken by Dr. Price onto safety film. He was a member of a research team associated with determining an optimal diet for humans. For six years he researched bacterial studies of gut flora in man and gorillas and organized research on vitamin B-12 levels in patients on various diets. This work was done in conjunction with U.D. Register, PhD from Loma Linda University School of Health. For another five years he was involved with the first United States production of a rare form of blue green algae (A. Flos Aquae) with the biochemist and allergist, Victor H. Kellman, PhD. They supplied algae for research on biological applications and use in human health and published several papers on this. Raymond Schmidt played an active role in shaping the health food and nutrition movement and was instrumental in bringing the first blue green algae products to market in the United States. Ray was a long time PPNF Advisory Board member. He was a great researcher of the medical literature, especially on the subject of lipids, phytates and activator x.

Dr. Knight carried on a family tradition, as both his father and grandfather were physicians. At the tender age of eight he decided upon medicine as a career and never regretted the decision. Following the receipt of an AB degree from Dartmouth College in 1926, he obtained his MD from P & S Columbia in 1930 and interned at both Presbyterian and Bellevue Hospital in New York. Upon entering private practice in Westchester County, NY, Dr. Knight soon realized that something was wrong with routine ear, nose and throat treatment. Deciding that allergy was a significant factor in unsatisfactory treatment results, he took postgraduate courses and attended clinics in this subject. As a result, much of his practice and treatments focused on addressing allergies. It was not long before he realized that good nutrition was fundamental to the healing arts and this was a part of his approach to all medical problems for most of his career. Dr. Knight was on the staff of the Cottage, St. Francis and County General Hospitals in Santa Barbara as well as being a Consultant in Allergy to Our Lady of Perpetual Help Hospital in Santa Maria. He was active in many medical societies including the California Allergy Society, Los Angeles Society of Allergy and the International Correspondence Society of Allergists. He was a fellow of the American Academy of Ophthalmology and Otolaryngology, the American College of Allergists and the International Society of Allergists and the International Society of Allergists (Founders Group). In 1967 Dr. Knight became the founding President of the Weston A. Price Memorial Foundation (now the Price-Pottenger Nutrition Foundation). He served in that position for 17 years. Dr. Knight wrote many papers on allergies, chemical pesticides, chemical pollution, and fluoridation hazards and was a frequent witness in court trials across the United States as an expert of the dangers of mass chemical pesticide use.

Robert T. Pottenger. Jr., MD, exemplified his family’s great pioneering spirit and abiding interest in nutritional science. He received his BA from Princeton University and his MD from Columbia Medical School. He interned at San Francisco County Hospital and did a residency at Stanislaus County Hospital, before starting a private practice in Hawaii and then Pasadena, CA. Dr. Pottenger specialized in internal medicine and chronic disease treatment, with special emphasis in the area of food allergy. He was instrumental in the editing of the book Pottenger’s Cats – A Study in Nutrition. He was also an early advocate for legalization of raw milk in the Los Angeles area, writing many letters protesting the state mandate that all milk be pasteurized. Some of his many affiliations included the American Association of Medical Milk Commissioners (acting president), the Society of Clinical Ecology (president), and the American Academy of Applied Nutrition. He also served as secretary and, later, an honorary board member, of PPNF.

Dr. Francis M. Pottenger, Sr. received the degree of Bachelor of Philosophy at Otterbein College, Westerville, OH in 1892. He subsequently received from his Alma Mater the degree of Master of Philosophy in 1897, Master of Arts in 1905, and Doctor of Laws (Honorary) in 1909. He attended the Medical College of Ohio in 1892-1893, and was graduated by the Cincinnati College of Medicine and Surgery with highest honors in 1894. He took post-graduate work in New York in 1900, and four times went abroad to study in the hospitals of Vienna, Berlin, Munich and London. After practicing general medicine in Norwood, OH, 1894 - 1895, he established at Monrovia, CA, in the latter year, and was the first physician on the Pacific Coast to specialize extensively in diseases of the chest. This specialization was begun in 1901, and the following year Dr. Pottenger founded the first organization of its kind in the United States: The Southern California Anti-Tuberculosis League, of which he was President for three years. It was later merged into the California Tuberculosis Association. At this time he was known in Europe by his writings, and was appointed one of the American members of the first International Committee to combat Tuberculosis. The Pottenger Sanatorium was one of the most famous institutions devoted to the treatment of pulmonary diseases. It was established in Monrovia in 1903, opening its doors on December 5 of that year with accommodations for eleven patients. Then expanded to accommodate approximately 134 patients. The long service and unfaltering prestige of this institution reflected the disposition of the founder constantly to regard the patient as well as the disease as the subject of study. The physiological and psychological qualities of patients he believes should receive equal attention to the vagaries of the disease itself. At the age of twenty-five Dr. Pottenger had become assistant to the chair of surgery at Cincinnati College of Medicine and Surgery, and after settling in Monrovia lectured at the University of Southern California on diseases of the chest and climatology, 1903 - 1904. He was professor of clinical medicine, 1905 - 1909, in the medical department of the University of Southern California, and professor of diseases of the chest in the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Los Angeles from 1914 - 1920. Available from Price-Pottenger, Dr. Pottenger's timeless classic, Symptoms of Visceral Disease: A Study of the Vegetative Nervous System in Its Relationship to Clinical Medicine.

Dr. Francis Marion Pottenger, Jr. was a notable physician and researcher who conducted a groundbreaking study known as "Pottenger's Cats." Born in 1901, he was the son of Francis M. Pottenger, Sr., a California physician who co-founded the Pottenger Sanitorium and Clinic for Diseases of the Chest, a tuberculosis health center in Monrovia. He obtained his medical degree from Otterbein University. Dr. Pottenger was driven by a keen interest in the relationship between diet and health. Pottenger's Cats, conducted over a decade from the 1930s to the 1940s, focused on the effects of diet on successive generations of cats. The study divided cats into groups, feeding them different diets such as raw milk and raw meat, or cooked meat and pasteurized milk. Dr. Pottenger’s experiments resulted in strikingly clear outcomes. Cats on a diet of raw milk and raw meat exhibited robust health, with healthy fur, strong bones, and good reproductive health. In contrast, cats on a diet of cooked meat and pasteurized milk suffered from health issues like weak bones and dental problems. The most intriguing findings emerged when Dr. Pottenger observed the effects across generations. Cats that continued on the inferior diet showed a decline in health that worsened with each successive generation. Evidence of skeletal deformities, allergies, and decreased fertility was identified as direct consequences of poor nutrition. Dr. Pottenger's work highlighted a concept that we know today as epigenetics – the idea that environmental factors can impact gene expression and health across generations. His study emphasized the critical role of nutrition not only in individual health but also in the health of future generations. The Price-Pottenger Nutrition Foundation is named for Weston A. Price, DDS and Dr. Francis M. Pottenger, Jr. Combined, their study of Indigenous nutrition practices and diet research continues to influence scientific understanding of nutrition's role in health, including how we view dietary choices and their far-reaching effects on future generations.

Born in 1894 in the tiny community of Picture Rocks, Pennsylvania, Melvin E. Page, the son of a physician and the eldest of three brothers (two of whom were successful inventors) became one of the most revolutionary pioneers in balanced body chemistry and nutrition. After one year in college, Dr. Page discontinued his studies and embarked on a career as a school teacher. He gained a position as master of a one room schoolhouse in Rosebud, Montana, during which time he was forced to hunt wild game for food, make corn meal cakes and eat whatever he could attain from the dryland farmers. In winter the temperatures averaged 25 degrees below zero. After two years, he decided to return to the University of Michigan where he obtained his Doctor of Dental Surgery degree, was made Captain in the ROTC, became middle weight boxing champion and a member of Sigma Epsilon Fraternity. In 1919, Dr. Page began his dental practice in Muskegon, Michigan, where he became known as one of the top prosthodontists in the country. He invented dentures based on engineering principles which diminish trauma, the loss of vertical distance, and the loss of alveolar bone is kept to a minimum. During this time he also became aware that it was necessary to remake the classic dentures for many of his patients within two and one-half years. Their mandibles (jaw bones) would resorb under the dentures and bridges. In fact, this is a common problem that still exists owing to inadequate nutrition (and in some instances a combination of factors) especially among North Americans. He wanted to learn why bones resorbed – why the mouths of his patients deteriorated. He made his investigations at Mercy Hospital and at Hackley Hospital in Muskegon. He ran more than two thousand blood chemistries and discovered that no absorption of bone occurred (and no cavities) when the calcium to phosphorus ratio were in a proportion of 10 to 4 in the blood. The Department of Dental Research of the United States Air Force confirmed his findings of a calcium/phosphorus ratio to be correct 42 years later. Dr. Page also found, according to current test readings, that the blood sugar level should be at 85, plus or minus 5. (Sclavo test) Restore this ratio and sugar level, and the resorption would stop. Thus, the basic research of Dr. Melvin E. Page uncovered the knowledge that sugar increases serum calcium. Calcium is drawn from the bone tissue and is carried in the serum. Dr. Page was the youngest man to have been on the staff of either hospital. His idea that diet and nutrition could cause a biochemical condition affecting the teeth, and the fact that he dared to suggest, to referred patients, that they change their eating habits by eliminating sugar among other things, was beyond acceptability. He was ostracized by his professional colleagues for his approach and so he temporarily terminated his research in blood chemistry at the hospital and his private practice. Dr. Page’s group of colleagues and close friends included Samuel Beal, DC; D.C. Jarvis, MD; Royal Lee, DDS; Dr. William Sheldon; T. L. Cleaves, MRCD, of England; Francis M Pottenger, MD and Weston A. Price, DDS; as well as J. I. Rodale (Prevention Magazine) and Victor Pierce. These men were all pioneers in the development of alternative medicine as we know it today. They all believed that since man in his natural state, consuming the proper nutrients, was able to live without degenerative disease, perhaps our headlong rush into industrial age might have overlooked some of life’s basic principles for healthy living. Leaving Michigan, Dr. Page resettled in St. Petersburg, Florida. While waiting to acquire his dental license, he became a deep sea commercial fisherman. Once again, difficult times drove him back to nature and the outdoors which he loved. This love permeated the very heart of the practice which he established in Florida in 1940 and continued until his death. At the age of 84, this nutritional pioneer still walked a mile to and from his office almost daily. His practice was a team approach with his wife Helen, who was his diagnostic technician and whom he married in 1963. His treatment and philosophy was simple and logical. However, it did not offer the convenient and fast cure looked for by so many individuals. The condition of your body at any given moment took as long to develop as your present age. Fad diets, over-night cures and radical therapies can do nothing more than create harmful side effects. Dr. Page believed that body chemistry, when properly balanced by proper nutrition and other factors, will not only prevent dental problems but will naturally affect the rest of the body as well. He bluntly stated that you cannot affect the teeth through body chemistry and nutrition, without having beneficial effects on the entire body. The history of this man as concerns his work is an interesting narrative of a true pioneer, who has forged ahead with his ideas in spite of tremendous difficulties from colleagues in the dental and medical profession, the press, and others who scoffed at his forward-thinking ideas, such as:

• The harmful effects of the use of sugar.
• The harmful effects of using chemical additives and other food preservatives for the sake of “shelf life.”
• Using Vitamins, Minerals and Digestive Enzymes to supplement daily food intake.
• That milk is not the perfect food for everyone.
• That a person’s endocrine system must be in balance for optimum physical and mental health, through the use of micro doses of endocrines (where warranted)

Dr. Page was a man truly interested in the welfare of his fellow man, and who unselfishly devoted his life on a total basis to serve mankind. He was a man who realized many years ago the danger mankind faces because of technology that creates an artificial environment, one that can insidiously destroy us all. This significant message challenged all patients when they entered the office of Dr. Page. It was a key to the unyielding determination of this man and his work to expose and combat increasing dangers of civilization as they affect all of us in our personal lives. Dr. Page was a member of the Academy 100 of the State of Florida, of the New York Academy of Science, and the International Society for Comprehensive Medicine. He was a life member of the American Dental Association. He was a Fellow of the International College of Applied Nutrition and of the Royal Society of Health (England). Recognition certificates from many associations and professional fraternities, too many to list, lined one complete wall of his office. He published numerous articles on his work in nutrition in such periodicals as the Journal of the American Dental Association, Applied Nutrition, the Western Society of Periodontology, Nutrition and Health, Prosthodontics, and the Dental Digest and also Prevention Magazine. Books which he has written include:Young Minds With Old Bodies – 1944; Body Chemistry in Health & Disease – 1953; Your Body is Your Best Doctor– 1972, Keats Publishing, Inc.;Degeneration – Regeneration– 1949; Health Versus Disease. From a generous donation by Dr. Page's wife, Helen Page, Price-Pottenger Nutrition Foundation has been given the rights to keep Dr. Page's works in print and available to the public. In 1972, Dr. Page was invited to present his work at the World Congress of the “Federacion Dentaire International”, held in Mexico City. His work has been a source of reference and interest internationally as well as nationally for many scientists, dentists, physicians and writers interested in the field of nutrition and health. After all – these ideas had been his for some forty years! At the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine Centennial celebration, a department wing was named the “Melvin E. Page, DDS Oral Medicine Diagnostic Laboratory,” recognition by his peers for his nutritional work. Only today are we coming to a fuller understanding of the value of his research into Calcium-Phosphorus levels and how it works in the balancing of body chemistry. His unique system of graphing the endocrine system has proven most valuable in determining a greater understanding of a person’s genetic potential for life. These systems were refined from research performed on more than 3000 case studies. Thirty years ago, Dr. Page, using the system he developed, consistently was successful in healing many of the degenerative diseases most common today.

Dr. Royal Lee, DDS, founded Vitamin Products in 1929, which was later renamed Standard Process. Raised on a farm near Dodgeville, Wisconsin, his interest in science and nutrition began early at the local elementary school. At age 12, he compiled a notebook of definitions on biochemistry and nutrition, and he began collecting books on these subjects. What started as a hobby continued throughout his lifetime to eventually become part of the Dr. Royal Lee Memorial Library. Dr. Lee graduated in 1924 from Marquette University Dental School in Wisconsin. While attending the university, the importance of nutrition became his primary interest. A paper he prepared in 1923 outlined the relationship of vitamin deficiency to tooth decay and showed the necessity of vitamins in the diet. His research led to the development of CATALYN, a vitamin concentrate derived from whole foods. Introduced in 1929, CATALYN became the nucleus of a complete line of nutritional supplements at the Vitamin Products Company. Dr. Lee believed the key to maintaining the quality of nutritional supplements was a unique manufacturing process. He designed high-vacuum, low-temperature drying equipment to preserve the living enzyme systems of the whole foods. These technologies continue to be used today. In addition to his work in the nutrition field, Dr. Lee was the inventor of a wide variety of dental, mechanical, automotive and electrical equipment. He filed over 70 patents for all types of equipment, processes, advanced electrical motors, speed governors and food products.

Dr. Cheraskin attended both St. Joseph's College in Philadelphia and Georgetown University in Washington, DC, before receiving his AB degree in 1939 from the University of Alabama. After taking the MA degree at the Tuscaloosa campus, he entered the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine and under the World War II enforced year-round professional education program, received his MD in the latter part of 1943. A 9 months rotating internship was all the government allowed before military service and he took his in medicine at Hartford Municipal Hospital in Connecticut.  He spent the next two years in the Medical Corps of the United States Army and then completed a year's residency in medicine at St. Mary's Hospital in Evansville, IN.  Dr. Cheraskin tried several small town general practices in Moundville, AL for a year, which must have been like doing penitence for a man with Cherri's sophisticated and research oriented mind. He joined the faculty of the Medical College of Alabama in 1948 and it didn't take Dean Joe Volker long to recognize a brilliant man with a tremendous educational background who still didn't know what he wanted to do in life.  While serving on the faculty of the Medical College, he completed an accelerated program in the School of Dentistry and received his DMD degree in 1952.  He was chairman of the Department of Oral Medicine and received a full professorship rank in 1956. Dr. Cheraskin was a member of many professional and honorary organizations and was internationally known as an author and lecturer. Dr. Cheraskin did research and wrote numerous articles and books, some of the topics that he has written on are:  Vitamin C, Smoking, Oral Health, EDTA chelation, Periodontal Disease, Low Carbohydrate High Protein Diets, Glucose Metabolism, Predictive Medicine, Diet, Macular Degeneration and many more.

Dr. Henry G. Bieler studied medicine at the University of Cincinnati, where he came under the lifelong influence of Dr. Martin Fischer, the great physiologist and philosopher. For over fifty years he was a doctor and treated motion picture stars, coal miners, politicians, farmers, those of the professional worlds - in fact, men and women from every walk of life. He brought thousands of healthy babies into the world, including his own children and grandchildren. Outdoorsman, musicologist, sculptor and scientist, Dr. Bieler was his own best example of the person the patient can become. He is the author of Food Is Your Best Medicine, Modern Madonna and papers on the adrenal glands.

Dr. William A. Albrecht, Emeritus Professor of Soils and former chairman of the Department of Soils at the University of Missouri College of Agriculture, was a member of the Missouri staff starting in 1916. He held four degrees, AB, BS, MS, and PhD, from the University of Illinois. He traveled and studied soils in Great Britain, on the European continent, and in Australia. Born on a farm in central Illinois, in an area of highly fertile soil typical of the Corn Belt, and educated in his native state, Dr. Albrecht grew up with an intense interest in the soil and all things agricultural. These were approached, however, through the avenues of the basic sciences and liberal arts and not primarily through applied practices and their economics. Some teaching experience after completing the liberal arts course, with some thought of the medical profession, as well as an assistantship in botany, gave an early vision of the interrelationships that enrich the facts acquired in various fields when viewed as parts of a master design. These experiences led him into additional undergraduate and graduate work that was encouraged by scholarships and fellowships until he received his doctor's degree in 1919. In the meantime, he joined the research and teaching staff at the University of Missouri. Dr. Albrecht's studies in soils have dealt with the functional viewpoint or the soil's service in nourishing microbes, plants, animals and all life. Research in nitrogen fixation developed the technique of using colloidal clay as a nourishing medium for plants, and as a means of bringing plant-soil relations under more careful control and better understanding. This has been the basis for his interpretations of soils in their broader implications as a nourishment source for animals and man. Dr. Albrecht was the author of many scientific and popular articles on soils and soil fertility. With unremitting zeal, his contributions emphasize the fundamental necessity of feeding plants, animals and humankind through ministrations to the soil itself, correcting the deficiencies of diet at their point of origin - in soils that have been assayed and found wanting. Both as a writer and speaker, Dr. Albrecht served tirelessly as an interpreter of scientific truth to inquiring minds in every group and institution that would implement this knowledge in service to mankind.

Best known as the Cleveland dentist who traveled the world studying native diets and the effects of modernized foods, as outlined in his timeless classic Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, he was also a consummate writer on dental issues. Spurred by the death of his only child at a very young age from endocarditis after having a root canal completed, he began his research to prevent other parents from having to live the same fate. His other classic work Dental Infections Oral and Systemic and Dental Infections and the Degenerative Diseases outlines his 25 years of root canal research. He also has written over 267 other papers and speeches on various subjects from new denture-making techniques to calcium metabolism to juvenile delinquents and the nutritional causes; most are available through PPNF.