Cancer and the New Biology of Water with Dr. Tom Cowan

Guest Bio: Tom Cowan, MD

Dr. Tom Cowan was born and raised near Detroit, Mich. He did my undergraduate degree in zoology at Duke University, graduating in 1977.  After college he spent two years teaching gardening as a Peace Corps volunteer in Swaziland, Southern Africa.

During his Peace Corps years, he was introduced to the work of both Rudolf Steiner and Weston A. Price.  These introductions were to have a great influence on the rest of his life and career.  After the Peace Corps, he went to medical school at Michigan State University, College of Human Medicine, and received my M.D. degree in 1984.  Dr. Cowan did a family-practice internship at Johnson City, N.Y., in 1984-85, and then set up his own general-medicine practice in 1985.  At the time, his focus was on nutrition and Anthroposophical medicine.  

After a few years in New York State, Dr. Cowan moved with his family to Peterborough, N.H. During his 17 years there, he became the vice president of Physicians for Anthroposophical Medicine and, along with Sally Fallon Morell, helped found the Weston A Price Foundation.  Dr. Cowan still serves on the board as its vice president.  In 1998, he wrote, along with Sally Fallon and Jaimen McMillen, the first of six books, The Fourfold Path to Healing.

In 1999 Dr. Cowan married Lynda Smith, and in 2003 they moved to San Francisco, where he re-founded his general-medicine practice.  Since 2003 he has written five other books: The Nourishing Traditions Book of Baby & Child Care, along with Sally Fallon Morell; How & Why to Eat more Vegetables; Human Heart, Cosmic Heart; Vaccines, Autoimmunity and the Changing Nature of Childhood Illness; and Cancer and the New Biology of Water, the last three published by Chelsea Green.  He continues to work and reside in San Francisco.  In the past few years, along with his two sons, Asher and Joe, they have started two businesses: Dr. Cowan’s Garden, which focuses on his love of food and gardening; and Human Heart, Cosmic Heart, which provides strophanthus and other natural medicines to a wider audience.

Dr. Cowan is an avid gardener, and perhaps one of his proudest accomplishments is growing about 80 percent of the plants they consume.  He has three grown children, one stepson, five grandchildren with one more on the way, and takes as many long walks on the beach as possible with his beloved, Lynda.