ENTREPRENEUR WATCH

Dr. James D'Adamo is the founder of Portsmouth-based D'Adamo Institute for the Advancement of Natural Therapies. Michael McCord photo

As more and more attention is paid to the growth of the biotech industry in the Greater Boston region and the larger debate about the direction of health care in the country, Dr. James L. D'Adamo has proven that he definitely marches to the beat of a different entrepreneurial drum. For more than 50 years, the 70-something D'Adamo has carved out a highly innovative and profitable niche as a leader in the growing field of serious alternative medicine at the D'Adamo Institute for the Advancement of Natural Therapies.

D'Adamo is a nutritional specialist who a half-century ago discovered during research what he believes is a crucial but overlooked link between blood type and dietary needs and exercise regime as the keys to good health. Over the past five decades he has treated an estimated 65,000 patients in Europe, Toronto and Montreal, Canada and in New York. He established his American base in Portsmouth after visiting the city more than a decade ago while on a lecture tour. His Bridge Street naturopathic therapy center has a staff of 20 and blends as many as 40 old and new therapeutic machines and practices. It draws patients from all over the world looking for alternatives to traditional medicine through a holistic approach for a healthier lifestyle.

He is the author of three books, "One Man's Food ... Is Someone Else's Poison" (1980), "The D'Adamo Diet" (1989) and "Beyond the Blood Type Diet," which is scheduled for release at the end of the year. He amazingly has done almost no advertising or marketing for his institute. His celebrity patients include the actor Martin Sheen and the singer Roberta Flack, both of whom came to D'Adamo through word-of-mouth references.

D'Adamo said his therapeutic approach isn't cheap or easy, but he believes the investment in new lifestyle choices and knowledge gained about how our bodies work can be literally a matter of life and death. During a recent interview with Ventures, he told me one of the keys to success is to be aware that "you can never cure a symptom."

On treating patients: I've never cured a soul in my life and I'm proud of that. When I look at a patient, I don't see a person, I see an individual. And when I examine a patient, all I'm doing is becoming subservient to the wishes of your body. I'm not playing God in a white jacket. I have never healed a patient in my life. There is only one healer "" nature.

On his critics: We work from a totally different dictionary (compared to traditional medicine.) We focus on taking the poisons out of the body but for most of my career I've been looked at as a witch doctor, a charlatan. There are those who have tried to destroy my practice because they don't understand what we are doing and don't believe in alternative healing. But all of this work (into blood types) is being accepted and others are attempting to use our research and therapies. That is why it's important for me to write and to travel across the country to lecture.

On his diagnosis of modern society: We're a sick public. It's true that we are living longer but how are living? We are creating invalids. Our patients come here because they have tried organized medicine and found that it doesn't work for them. It's hard to see people as individuals and see that one menu (of diet, therapy and exercise choices) does not fit all. One man's good food can be another's poison. Our patients wanted to be treated in a natural way and for many there's so little understood and little known about the right ways about how our blood types and sub-blood groups correlate with our diet, exercise and how we process information.

On his plans for the future: Many of our patients are medical rejects who have cancer or heart problems and they sometimes stay in the area for as long as two weeks for their therapy work. We are planning to create a new state-of-the-art naturopathic facility that will have beds for those patients.