In Support of Barry Durmaz
Trusting the Designer, Not the Drug
What God entrusts, a man must steward — in truth, and against all lies
Friends and family — I've taken a step I don't take lightly. As many of you know, I'm a veteran facing lymphoma and nerve damage, and after two years I've made the decision to pursue healing God's way: through nutrient-dense food, sound nutrition, training, and drug-free care the VA won't cover. My family and I have put the whole story and the need on one page.
I'm asking for your help. If you're able to give, it goes directly toward this vital work of recovering excellence in health, and means more than I can say. And whether or not you can give, please share this link today with anyone who might care — the more people who see it, the further it reaches.
https://www.supportnow.org/barry-durmaz
Every claim here is documented. If you’d like to read the records yourself — my physician’s letter, the nerve assessment, the VA’s denial — they are posted at householdembassy.com/va_case_file.
Every claim here is documented. If you’d like to read the records yourself — my physician’s letter, the nerve assessment, the VA’s denial — they are posted at householdembassy.com/va_case_file.
Thank you for walking alongside us. — Barry
--------------------
My name is Barry Durmaz. I’m 61 years old, a veteran, a husband, and a father, and I’m writing to invite friends old and new to stand with me at a real crossroads. Scripture says two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labor (Ecclesiastes 4:9–10) — and it is in that spirit of partnership that I share my story and my need.
I was raised by my Turkish father to treat causes, not symptoms — to look beneath a problem for its root rather than quiet its surface. That upbringing shaped how I see everything, and it is exactly where I part ways with so much of modern medicine, which so often treats the symptom and never the cause.
I’ve been diagnosed with CLL/SLL — a form of lymphoma — and I’m also living with confirmed nerve damage in my feet and legs. A clinical nerve assessment measured my right leg at 38% of normal sensation and my left at 34% — both functioning at roughly half of normal capacity. As a veteran, I have access to the VA, and I’m grateful for it. But the path it offers is almost entirely chemotherapy, drugs, and radiation. After much prayer, I’ve decided to pursue healing the way I believe God designed the body to heal — through nutrition, lifestyle, sound stewardship, and genuine medical guidance, giving Him the glory for the healing power He placed in natural substances, as the Scriptures teach.
The Daily Reality
I won’t pretend this is abstract. Some days carry a drag and heaviness I can feel in my whole body — the kind that abnormal blood work explains but doesn’t make easier to bear. One comprehensive lab’s composite measure placed my biological age at nearly 84, twenty-three years beyond my calendar age. My sleep is disturbed, and I wake unrestored. My legs and feet cramp severely and tremble on their own. It changes day to day, and I rarely know which kind of day I’ll be given.
The nerve damage is not a number on a page — it’s the texture of my days. My feet are going numb. My balance is unreliable; I knock things over without meaning to, and my depth perception has dimmed so that the world doesn’t sit quite where my eyes tell me it does. Worst are the nights: I’ll stretch in my sleep and my legs seize into painful contortions, cramps so fierce they wrench me awake. I feel the connection between the damaged nerves and the muscles that now betray me — and I am determined to understand it well enough to heal it.
I’ve come to see this affliction as a summons. A man cannot master what he does not understand — and I am resolved to understand my own body, not to hand it over passively, but to steward it with knowledge, under my physician’s care. This is self-government at its most personal: the inner mastery of the one body God entrusted to me. I am pursuing this for myself, for my family, and so that I can recover the strength to give myself fully to the mission we are called to.
Overcoming Cancer God's Way: Two Years, and a Decision
Overcoming Cancer God's Way: Two Years, and a Decision
This is not a hasty turn. For two years I have walked the conventional path — diagnosed, monitored, and treated through the VA and its referrals, grateful for the access my service earned me. I have done the testing. I have weighed the regimens offered. But after two years, I have come to a sober conclusion: I have been given a diagnosis and treatment, but no true remedy aimed at the cause — including the question of toxic exposure, which my own VA hematologist formally raised and which was never resolved.
What I encountered again and again was a system built for mass production rather than for the person in front of it — packaged, one-size-fits-all protocols, with little room for an individualized approach that asks what my body, in my circumstances, actually needs to heal. One example stands for many: the VA declined to cover a continuous glucose monitor for me because I am not yet on insulin — even though I am prediabetic, and the very purpose of monitoring would be to keep me from deteriorating to that point. They were willing to wait until I was sicker before providing the tool that might prevent it. So I bought it myself. I don’t doubt the goodwill of many who serve in this system; I question a model that treats the patient as a category rather than a soul.
I am not embittered by this — but I will not pretend I am not angry. Scripture says, be angry, and do not sin (Ephesians 4:26). I am angry, righteously and with purpose, at a bureaucratic system that met my questions with evasion rather than care. My anger is not bitterness; it is fuel — the resolve to do something about the problem, in a way that honors God. Two years of struggle have brought me to the conviction that I must take up the stewardship of my own body — to understand it, to address root causes, and to pursue health the way God designed the body to heal. That is the decision this campaign asks you to stand behind.
I am not doing this alone or recklessly. I am under the care of Dr. Clair Zimmerman of Advanced Research Wellness Center, a highly credentialed, drug-free physician here in Lancaster County. His oversight keeps what I’m pursuing serious and accountable. In his own words, he commends me as one “meeting these challenges with rare seriousness — studying diligently, applying sound nutritional principles, and stewarding his body as the gift I believe it to be.” Our work together goes beyond my own care; we’re collaborating on educational projects about drug-free health, and I’ll be sharing some of that as I go.
Consider the proportion. Conventional cancer treatment in America commonly costs from about $45,000 in a single year to well over $150,000 — and for blood cancers like mine, later-stage care can climb toward $170,000 or more per patient (National Cancer Institute data). Much of that is spent managing disease rather than restoring health. What I’m asking for is roughly $30,000 — to fund training, therapy, and the food, supplements, and protocols that let me take responsibility for my own recovery. I’d rather invest a modest sum in understanding and stewarding my body than have a fortune spent treating me as a passive case.
I am also pursuing every legitimate channel — including asking my congressional representative to look into the VA’s denials — so that no other veteran faces the same wall I have.
But I want more than to be treated — I want to understand. So I’m enrolling in formal study in the natural health sciences — the full Naturopathic Track at Trinity School of Natural Health (Certified Natural Health Professional, Certified Holistic Health Practitioner, and Certified Traditional Naturopath), along with the Digestive Health Professional diploma from the Food Enzyme Institute.
Dr. Zimmerman has recommended an extended gastrointestinal panel through DiagnosTechs — a noninvasive stool and saliva assessment of digestive function, microbial balance, and intestinal inflammation. When I asked him how I could know which beneficial bacteria I'm lacking, his answer was direct: this panel is the only way to know, rather than guess. I don't want to guess at what my body needs or assume adequate levels of bacteria that may not be there. I want the knowledge, so the support I take can be targeted rather than blind. This too falls outside what the VA will cover.
Dr. Zimmerman has recommended an extended gastrointestinal panel through DiagnosTechs — a noninvasive stool and saliva assessment of digestive function, microbial balance, and intestinal inflammation. When I asked him how I could know which beneficial bacteria I'm lacking, his answer was direct: this panel is the only way to know, rather than guess. I don't want to guess at what my body needs or assume adequate levels of bacteria that may not be there. I want the knowledge, so the support I take can be targeted rather than blind. This too falls outside what the VA will cover.
I refuse to live by lies. So much of what we’re told about how our bodies work is propaganda, and real wisdom means investing the time and cost to learn the truth and apply it — recovering historically sound lifestyle and health practices over modern manipulations. I sought help through patient advocates and community support and too often found smoke and mirrors — a system that seemed to have lost its compassion and its understanding of what I actually need. I don’t say this to wound anyone; I say it because the truth must be told plainly. That clarity has come at a price, and it’s worth every penny.
The Healing Power in Real Food
I have become deeply convicted about the healing found in the most nutrient-dense, real foods — above all, bone broth and marrow. I’ve begun making and drinking broth daily, and reading Sally Fallon’s Nourishing Broth, I’m seeing the quiet power in what our forebears knew: the collagen, gelatin, minerals, and marrow that build the body back up. This is food as God designed it — medicine grown from His creation, not a synthetic formula.
Here is a way to help that costs nothing but a connection: if you raise animals, know a farmer or custom butcher, or can point me to quality pasture-raised soup and marrow bones — beef or chicken — I would be grateful. And if someone feels led to sponsor or ship a case of wild-caught Alaskan sockeye salmon — one of the most nutrient-dense foods there is, flash-frozen straight from the boat — that too would be a real and lasting gift. Leads, gifts of bones or fish, or a willingness to ship them my way are all genuine help. I am gathering the most healing foods I can find, and I’d be honored to have you be part of that.
I believe in the kindness and goodness of God, and in the healing power He placed in plants, in food, in the natural substances of His creation. I am pursuing health His way — with nutrient-dense, real food as my medicine wherever it can be — rather than reaching first for synthetic drugs and their harms. I cannot promise the outcome. But I can promise the faithfulness: to steward this body well, to seek the truth, and to give God the glory for whatever healing comes. And if God grants me health, I intend to spend it — writing, teaching, and helping others recover the same way, to make America healthy again beginning with my own body.
Every gift goes directly toward these costs. A friend, Jeremiah, already gave $500 toward the neuropathy work, and that early kindness gave me courage to tell this story openly.
When you support me, you support an entire family. My health is the foundation for the work God has called us to — the ministry of Household Embassy International Services, and the launch of American Virtue Magazine. As a family, we're preparing to step forward to speak hard truth that makes soft hearts — truth that calls for repentance and resurrects self-government in the home, the kind of light a fearful, hardened culture badly needs. To do that work with excellence, I first have to recover my energy and my health.
And if you'd like to sit with me a while, you are welcome. Adversity is no reason to close the door on fellowship — if anything, it's a reason to open it. Leave a note here or write me at [email protected], and we'll find a time. Hospitality in hard seasons is its own kind of medicine.
Thank you for reading, for praying, and for whatever you're able to do. You're not just helping one veteran get well — you're strengthening a self-governed, burden-removing, yoke-destroying American Christian and his whole family for the work ahead.
With gratitude,
Barry Durmaz
Paradise, Pennsylvania
Paradise, Pennsylvania
------------------------
Where Your Gift Goes
This campaign's goal is $28,050–$28,150 — the full cost of my recovery, unfolding in three phases over roughly two years. Every gift moves the whole plan forward; reaching each phase makes the next one possible.
A clinical nerve assessment (April 2026) measured my right leg at 38% of normal sensation and my left at 34%. I have a therapy option that would cost about $7,000. Rather than spend it all on a single course of treatment done to me, I may direct some or all of it toward education, food concentrates, and knowledge I can apply for the rest of my life. It would be wonderful to do both — but I won’t be presumptuous.
A complete naturopathic education, pursued in sequence because each credential builds on the one before it: CNHP (10 months), then CHHP (36 weeks), then CTN (16 weeks). Tuition is interest-free and paid over the length of each program.
Credential | Tuition | Materials
CNHP — Certified Natural Health Professional (10 months) | $4,000.00 | $302.28
CHHP — Certified Holistic Health Practitioner (36 weeks) | $3,800.00 | $206.00
CTN — Certified Traditional Naturopath (16 weeks) | $1,900.00 | $30.00
Full Naturopathic Track total | $9,700.00 | $538.28
Track total: $10,238.28.
CNHP — Certified Natural Health Professional (10 months) | $4,000.00 | $302.28
CHHP — Certified Holistic Health Practitioner (36 weeks) | $3,800.00 | $206.00
CTN — Certified Traditional Naturopath (16 weeks) | $1,900.00 | $30.00
Full Naturopathic Track total | $9,700.00 | $538.28
Track total: $10,238.28.
Deep training built on the work of Dr. Howard Loomis, whose enzymes I already take with real results. The two-seminar series in Madison confers the Digestive Health Professional diploma.
Introduction to Food Enzyme Nutrition (required online bundle) | $350.00
Seminar One — Madison, WI (July 17–18) | $695.00
Seminar Two — Madison, WI (Aug 14–16) | $695.00
Travel to Madison, WI — two trips (est.) | $[ ]
Subtotal | $1,740.00 + travel
Introduction to Food Enzyme Nutrition (required online bundle) | $350.00
Seminar One — Madison, WI (July 17–18) | $695.00
Seminar Two — Madison, WI (Aug 14–16) | $695.00
Travel to Madison, WI — two trips (est.) | $[ ]
Subtotal | $1,740.00 + travel
Foundational training in reading blood chemistry and metabolic markers — so I can understand and steward my own labs, not merely receive them. The life of the flesh is in the blood (Leviticus 17:11). Dr. Zimmerman recommends monthly reporting of a blood panel to the Optimal DX platform; the course is taught by Dr. Dicken Weatherby, whose blood-chemistry text I already study.
Optimal DX — FBCA Mastery course (incl. 12-mo platform + certification) | $1,497.00
Optimal DX platform, ongoing after year one (~$20/mo) | ~$240 / yr
Optimal DX platform, ongoing after year one (~$20/mo) | ~$240 / yr
Later-phase option: Metabolic Fitness Pro (Drs. Bryan & Julie Walsh) — a broader functional-medicine clinical training, notable for its evidence-first skepticism toward over-testing and over-supplementation. optimaldx.com
5. Diagnostics the VA Declined to Cover — $696
Tests I paid for out of pocket because the VA would not, so I could make informed decisions about my own care:
Stelo continuous glucose monitor (12-week subscription) | $252.00
Function Health comprehensive blood panel | $365.00
Neuropathy assessment (measured 38% / 34% nerve function) | $79.00
Subtotal | $696.00
5a. Recommended Diagnostic — Not Yet Completed
Extended GI Health Panel (DiagnosTechs, ordered by Dr. Zimmerman) — recommended to identify specific bacterial deficiencies so that support can be targeted rather than guessed at.
Estimated cost: $450 – 550
Function Health comprehensive blood panel | $365.00
Neuropathy assessment (measured 38% / 34% nerve function) | $79.00
Subtotal | $696.00
5a. Recommended Diagnostic — Not Yet Completed
Extended GI Health Panel (DiagnosTechs, ordered by Dr. Zimmerman) — recommended to identify specific bacterial deficiencies so that support can be targeted rather than guessed at.
Estimated cost: $450 – 550
6. Food Concentrates (per month)
A physician-guided protocol of food concentrates, taken under the care of Dr. Clair Zimmerman — immune, sleep, metabolic, cardiovascular, and foundational support. (Nutrient-dense healing foods are budgeted separately below.)
7. Healing Foods — Nutrient-Dense Eating Protocol (per month)
Real, whole food as medicine — distinct from the concentrates above; these are the groceries of recovery. Several can be met through in-kind gifts, which lowers this cost directly.
Pasture-raised marrow & soup bones (broth) | ~8–10 lbs | $30 – 50
Wild-caught Alaskan sockeye salmon | ~5 lbs (10–13 portions) | $100 – 110
Pasture-raised meat & eggs | monthly supply | $120 – 160
Organic produce & greens | monthly supply | $100 – 140
Healing-foods monthly total | $350 – 460
Wild-caught Alaskan sockeye salmon | ~5 lbs (10–13 portions) | $100 – 110
Pasture-raised meat & eggs | monthly supply | $120 – 160
Organic produce & greens | monthly supply | $100 – 140
Healing-foods monthly total | $350 – 460
In-kind gifts welcome: donated pasture-raised bones, a sponsored case of wild sockeye, or a share of pasture-raised meat all reduce this line directly — a way to help that isn’t a check.
The Phased Plan
The Trinity credentials are pursued in sequence — CNHP (10 months), then CHHP (36 weeks), then CTN (16 weeks) — so this unfolds over roughly two years, one credential per phase. Each phase carries its own mix of training, supplementation, and food, so every stage moves the whole recovery forward.
PHASE 1 — FOUNDATION (CNHP, ~10 months) — this campaign's $10,450–10,550 goal
Training: CNHP (10 mo) + Food Enzyme Institute + Optimal DX $7,539
Diagnostics already paid out of pocket ~$696
Extended GI Health Panel (DiagnosTechs, recommended by
Dr. Zimmerman, not yet completed) ~$450 – 550
Food concentrates + healing foods (3 months) ~$1,700
Phase 1 total ~$10,450 – 10,550
PHASE 2 — DEEPEN (CHHP, ~36 weeks) |
Training: Trinity CHHP + ongoing food concentrates & healing foods | $4,006 + nutrition
PHASE 3 — COMPLETE (CTN, ~16 weeks) |
Training: Trinity CTN + ongoing food concentrates & healing foods | $1,930 + nutrition
Neuropathy therapy (stretch, if pursued) | up to $7,000
Full vision (all three phases + nutrition + stretch) | ~$28,050-$28,150
How to read this: The $10,450–10,550 goal here funds Phase 1 — the first Trinity credential (CNHP), the full Food Enzyme diploma, blood-analysis training, the diagnostics already paid, and the first months of the food and supplement protocol. Because each Trinity credential is its own program of study, CHHP and CTN follow in Phases 2 and 3 rather than all at once. The neuropathy therapy is a stretch goal. Reaching each phase makes the next one possible.
Why this is out of pocket: As a veteran, I have access to the VA — but its path is almost entirely chemotherapy, drugs, and radiation. The drug-free, nutrition-based road I’ve chosen, under a credentialed physician’s care, is not something the VA covers. That’s why I’m turning to friends who share this conviction.
Updates
Keep up to date as needs change.
Gift Cards
- Created Jul 02, 2026
- •
- Therapies, Treatment & Equipment
- Report Support Page
Support Page
Browse all the options to help, in one place.
Words of Support
Donate, send meals, or lend a hand to include words of support.
Clythe Butson 1 day ago • on 'Gratitude, Challenges, and a Trip to DC' update
Thomas Proffitt 6 days ago • with donation
Satomi Hirano 24 days ago • with donation
Ruth Mancini 24 days ago • with donation
SHERRY L GREGG 3 months ago • with donation
Triforce Ministries 3 months ago • with donation