Dr. Tim Warwick is a naturopathic doctor and longevity specialist who helps people understand how metabolism, inflammation, gut health, movement, and lifestyle choices shape long-term wellness.
In this episode of The Hope & Health Podcast, Mathew Embry talks with Dr. Warwick about what really drives chronic health challenges, how he investigates each patient’s full history, and the simple, science-based strategies that support better energy, resilience, and quality of life.
Welcome to Hope & Health. Today we're talking with Dr. Tim Warwick, a longevity specialist, naturopathic doctor, and founder of the Longevity Lab. Dr. Warwick shares his comprehensive approach to treating chronic illness, including multiple sclerosis, through evidence based natural medicine, detailed testing, and personalized protocols.
The Longevity Lab is a multi-disciplinary clinic that's been operating for about three years with a focus on longevity medicine, keeping people healthy as long as possible and reducing disease burden. With a team of over 20 people, the clinic sees a wide range of patients, from those who are healthy and want to remain that way to others dealing with chronic, sometimes quite debilitating illnesses. The goal is to improve health and help patients work towards remission or whatever optimal health looks like for their individual situation.
Dr. Warwick completed an undergraduate degree in biological and physical science, with extensive study in biochemistry, chemistry, and genetics. From an early age, his family reinforced the importance of eating healthy, maintaining a family garden, and focusing on the pillars of health including physical activity, relationships, and sense of purpose.
After discovering naturopathic medicine during his undergraduate studies, he completed four additional years of education before graduating in 2013. One of the biggest misconceptions is that naturopathic medicine is a weekend course, but in regulated jurisdictions like Alberta, it's a rigorous profession requiring at least three years of undergraduate education plus four years to earn the ND title. Naturopaths in Alberta are regulated under the Health Professions Act, just like medical doctors, surgeons, nurses, and dentists.
When someone with MS comes to the Longevity Lab, they undergo a detailed hour long initial visit. The team dives into health history, going through a chronologic timeline from childhood illnesses through any significant traumas, accidents, injuries, concussions, and medications. Dr. Warwick thinks of himself as a health detective, asking questions intentionally to figure out what systems or pathways could be contributing to autoimmunity. Things like concussions, viral infections like mono, and other factors are all examined as possible causal factors.
The clinic also examines lab work including inflammatory markers, nutritional markers, and autoimmune markers to determine whether the immune system is behaving properly.
Once testing is complete, the approach is individualized. For some people, diet might be the biggest barrier. For others who already eat clean, diet might be lower priority. Dr. Warwick focuses on several pillars of health:
Nature and Movement: Getting outside, exercise, fresh air, and vitamin D optimization
Community and Purpose: Relationships and sense of purpose in life
Nutrition: Both diet and supplementation, plus elimination strategies
Gut Health: Addressing the digestive system, chronic infections, and dysbiosis
Sleep and Stress Management: Critical for those with autoimmunity
Creativity: Writing, music, storytelling, problem solving, and good conversations
There's no perfect diet for everybody. As a starting point, Dr. Warwick recommends something resembling a Mediterranean diet with whole foods, minimal sugar and processed food, lots of brightly colored fruits and vegetables, healthy fats, and good quality protein. For some patients, this might be modified toward a low carbohydrate approach, depending on metabolic health.
Metabolic syndrome means problems with cholesterol, body weight, blood pressure, and blood sugar. The body loses its ability to burn fat for energy. Restoring metabolic flexibility through intermittent fasting, whole foods, exercise, and B vitamins is essential and tends to track with longevity.
For anyone living in Canada or similar northern climates, vitamin D supplementation is critical. The dosage needed for autoimmunity is higher than standard recommendations. While the general population reference range is 50 to 200 nanomoles per liter, for autoimmunity Dr. Warwick aims for 125 to 200, because that's where you turn on genes related to the immune system.
You won't hit those levels with doses less than 1,000 units a day. Dr. Warwick personally takes about 6,000 units in the winter. Unfortunately, vitamin D testing isn't easily accessible in Canada anymore unless you have specific diseases like osteoporosis or parathyroid disease. Most people pay out of pocket, typically around $60.
B vitamins are critical for MS patients. The myelination pathway is very B vitamin dependent. While B12 gets a lot of praise, all B vitamins work together, with B12 depending on B6 and B9 (folate).
Most patients are evaluated for methylation, an important pathway involving B vitamins essential for myelin production, detoxification, and neurotransmitter production. About one in three people have fairly significant methylation issues. These can be identified through genetic testing and blood markers to measure pathway efficiency.
Food allergies have rapid onset, within 15 minutes you're itching or swelling. Food sensitivities are more subtle, taking hours or even a day before symptoms appear, and they might build with more exposure. This makes them harder to identify.
For sensitivity testing, patients eat a fairly diverse diet beforehand to reduce false negatives. The testing can unmask subtle food reactions that might be contributing to inflammation and immune dysfunction.
IV therapy delivers nutrients directly into the blood, bypassing the gut to achieve essentially 100% absorption. For MS applications, curcumin (the anti inflammatory compound in turmeric) is particularly relevant. While studies in cell culture look fantastic, getting it to the cell is problematic because it doesn't absorb well orally. Intravenous delivery overcomes that barrier.
Other important nutrients include NAD (Nicotinamide Adenine Dinucleotide), important for cell repair and DNA repair. As we age, we produce less NAD. Glutathione is another molecule that declines with age and can be delivered intravenously for optimal effect.
Chelation therapy involves binding toxic heavy metals like mercury, lead, cadmium, and arsenic in the body. There are hypotheses that these metals can contribute to autoimmunity through hapten formation, where a metal binds to a protein and changes how the immune system perceives it, causing immune responses.
The challenge is that we all have some heavy metals. Blood testing only gives a recent snapshot, not decades of exposure. For metals like cadmium, which has a 50 year half life in certain tissues, chelation is effectively the only way to remove it in this lifetime.
Chelation uses agents like EDTA, often combined with glutathione, methylated B vitamins, or vitamin C to support the detoxification process. Everything is individualized based on the person.
The gut microbiome is a common issue Dr. Warwick sees consistently. Even people who eat really healthy are experiencing imbalances due to modern challenges. The microbiome consists of hundreds of different types of bacteria and trillions of individual bacteria. Its health and balance dictate much about immune system function and gut barrier health.
Leaky gut (intestinal permeability) occurs when the gut lining becomes damaged from medications, alcohol, chemicals, toxins, or dysbiosis. When damaged, things that shouldn't come through leak into the bloodstream, including bacteria, pieces of bacteria, or food particles. This confuses the immune system and causes inflammation.
Comprehensive stool testing can evaluate microbiology, inflammatory markers, indicators for leaky gut, and short chain fatty acids. Fixing the gut involves addressing problematic bacteria while promoting beneficial bacteria diversity.
EBV is the famous virus associated with MS, but other herpes family viruses can also contribute. These viruses go into hiding and may come out later, causing immune disruption and potentially autoimmunity. Other chronic infections can be part of the issue as well.
Dr. Warwick is particularly interested in root canals and dental infections. Root canal treatment removes the blood supply and nerve from a tooth, but your immune system is in the blood. That dead tooth has no immune system. Over time, inflammatory granulomas can form as the body tries to protect itself from invaders, creating immune reactions. Since there's no nerve, it can be a painless chronic infection.
Your mouth is part of your gut, so healthy dental care matters. People with periodontal disease or gum disease create another breeding ground for chronic infections.
Dr. Warwick is typically the fourth doctor MS patients see, after emergency, family doctor, neurologist, and perhaps rheumatologist. Patients come when they're on medications but not feeling optimal, perhaps still having relapses every few months, knowing there's got to be something else.
If patients put in the work, many see results within three months. He's had patients with frequent relapses who bounced from medication to medication with nothing working. After addressing comprehensive factors, it's been years since their last relapse and they're stable, either on or off medication, feeling great.
The most dramatic recoveries involve patients who were nearly wheelchair bound and are now walking again. It's amazing, though Dr. Warwick wishes there were more funding for trials to show people this approach works and give hope that they're not stuck on expensive drugs with significant side effects for life.
Personal accountability is critical. Patients who put in time and effort get results. Patients who are passive and expect to be fixed probably won't get better. There's no magic pill. It takes work, determination, and perseverance.
Healing isn't linear. There are bumps and plateaus that can be frustrating, so being mentally strong is important. Dr. Warwick can tell within five minutes whether someone has the mindset to really dig in.
Even if MS improvement isn't as dramatic as hoped, there are collateral benefits. Joints feel better, metabolic health improves, and mental health improves.
Where should people with MS find hope? Support at home is really important, though it's tough when family isn't all on board. Having conversations with people closest to you is a good start. Working with experienced practitioners and joining community groups can be valuable. Meeting someone who's had MS for years or decades can alleviate fear and increase hope.
Thirty years ago, natural medicine and conventional medicine were clearly divided. While progress is slow, Dr. Warwick sees more acceptance that there's evidence for natural medicine and a place for diet with virtually all chronic illness. All the information is in medical journals. It's just a matter of acceptance. Medical dogma takes time to dissolve, but it's happening, little by little.
Dr. Tim Warwick's approach at the Longevity Lab represents a comprehensive, evidence based model for treating MS through natural medicine. By examining everything from vitamin D and B vitamins to gut health, food sensitivities, heavy metal burden, chronic infections, and dental health, he creates individualized protocols addressing root causes rather than just symptoms.
The key factors are thorough testing, personalized treatment plans, patient commitment and accountability, and addressing multiple systems simultaneously. While the approach requires more effort than simply taking medication, the potential for dramatic improvement makes it worthwhile for those willing to put in the work. With proper guidance, testing, and commitment to the pillars of health, people with MS have real reasons for hope.
