Parris Kidd, Ph.D.
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 Dr. Parris Kidd is an internationally recognized researcher and educator in the area of dietary supplementation and a prominent leader in the application of scientific principles to the development of safe and effective supplement products. Kidd entered the movement for better healthcare in 1983 when he pulled out of the University of California academic system and moved into the science of “free radicals.” In the years since then he has researched and published on any number of important nutrient supplements. More recently he has received added recognition for his scientific popularization of the premier brain
nutrient phosphatidylserine (PS).
Dr. Kidd grew up in Jamaica where he attended the University of the West Indies and received a first—First-class Honors—in the Biological Science-Zoology special degree program. He was awarded a coveted Jamaican government scholarship to study overseas and in September 1968 began his Ph.D. study at the University of California at Berkeley. The massive anti-war and anti-racist upheavals at that campus had a deep impact on him, firming his inborn resolve to contribute to progressive social change.
After he completed his Ph.D. research on the cell biology of fertilization Dr. Kidd received grant awards from the American Heart Association and later the National Institutes of Health to do post-doctoral training in cardiovascular research. He maintained a colony of hamsters with hereditary heart disease, analyzed drug damage in rat hearts, observed single heart cells beating in culture, operated the electron microscope late into the night. But Dr. Kidd could not become at ease with the ivory tower attitudes of most of his faculty
colleagues. Eschewing the elitism of the university establishment and wanting his scientific work to be more directly relevant to people’s every day health needs, he left the university to do independent
consulting work in nutrition and human health.
Dr. Kidd’s first big nutrition project was on free radicals and antioxidants; by 1985 he had written several papers on the subject and published (with Stephen Levine) the 500-page textbook Antioxidant Adaptation—Its Role in Free Radical Pathology. This work foretold the current consensus that cumulative free radical damage is linked to degenerative diseases and aging. It was the first coherent articulation of nutritional antioxidants as the body’s natural antitoxins, anti-inflammatories and anticancer agents. It became a classic of the
“alternative” movement and catapulted him into the intellectual leadership of his newly-chosen field.
A few years later Dr. Kidd was approached by Dr. Wolfgang Huber, who had worked as an editorial referee on the antioxidant textbook. They decided to co-found a consulting company. Wolf Huber was extremely competent and with his decades of seniority proved an effective mentor for his younger partner. In 1990 they released Living with the AIDS Virus—A Strategy for Long-Term Survival. This textbook brilliantly articulated an integrative strategy for AIDS management. It meticulously documented the biology of the virus, pharmaceutical and nutritional options for its management and the scientific case for early, comprehensive intervention following HIV infection. This book paved the way for integrative/holistic management of HIV/AIDS and created a model for the management of all chronic disease. Dr. Kidd was soon being invited into community forums around the world, there to educate on how to live with the virus that causes AIDS.
As his AIDS work expanded in the early 90s, he expressed his talent as a public speaker. His presentations are crystal clear, fast-paced and highly informative. He has a gift for demystifying complex science and is just as effective addressing large public groups as he is presenting highly technical material to physicians and scientists. Dr. Kidd has now lectured around the world on topics as diverse as HIV-1/AIDS and the immune system, osteoporosis, atherosclerosis and cholesterol control, liver protection, gastrointestinal health, prostate support and brain function. He has also translated his extensive clinical and mechanistic knowledge of the many nutrient classes into product formulations: to date he has developed some 20 supplement products targeted at a number of the body’s organ systems.
Dr. Kidd’s articulacy also penetrates the mass media: he is a regular guest on such nationally-recognized radio shows as Dr. Robert Atkins, Dr. Ron Hofmann, Jolie Martin Root, Danielle Lin, Gary Null and Deborah Ray. He has been interviewed on BBC Radio, Australian stations and Jamaican radio, as well as on PBS, Fox, Cox and many other television channels.
Dr. Kidd also regularly publishes printed features, writing a regular column for totalhealth magazine and doing in-depth scientific reviews for Alternative Medicine Review, a peer-reviewed journal indexed in MEDLINE. His intellectual efforts altogether have earned perhaps hundreds of millions of dollars for his clients. But Dr. Kidd remains grounded in honest scientific inquiry. He sees himself as a professional serving all the planet’s people, making whatever contributions he can towards improving the human condition.
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