About Us

Jackson GI Medical

Founded by Dr. Frank W. Jackson, M.D., we are dedicated to being a responsible provider of nutritional information.

Chairman & Founder: Frank W. Jackson, M.D.

Dr. Jackson was educated at Princeton, Johns Hopkins Medical School and the University of Pennsylvania and praticed gastroenterology for almost 40 years. He is the founder of several companies, including Jackson GI Medical, Chek-Med and Meducate.

In his own words: About Dr. Frank W. Jackson

The Past: My undergraduate college was Princeton University. Medical school and subsequent gastroenterology training were at Johns Hopkins and the University of Pennsylvania respectively. While in practice, I began to write patient education articles in my field of gastroenterology including many on diets, diseases, drugs and procedures. I expanded this writing into general health essays as well. All of this material, over 1,000 pages, was placed on my practice web site at gicare.com for my patients. Much to my amazement, this patient education section became one of the most popular and frequently visited medical practice web sites on the internet. I shook my head in surprise and retired, leaving the practice to my son and his colleagues. However, it nagged at me that I had created a portal for so many people and I felt I still had so much to say.

The Now: Retirement, however, was a notable failure. I simply could not leave my interests in the medical field. Always an advocate of dietary intelligence, I found myself researching more and more into the food fiber and prebiotics field. Prebiotics are the plant fibers we eat that are used by the colon’s bacteria to grow and produce many health benefits. Probiotics, on the other hand, are those beneficial bacteria that are put into yogurt, other dairy products and now a variety of pills.

In particular, I was impressed at the steady decline of fiber in the Western diet over the past hundreds of years at the same time that the GI diseases of Western civilization were increasing – diverticulosis, irritable bowel syndrome, Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis and colon polyps and cancer. Was this a coincidence? We don’t really know yet, but there are some intriguing bits of evidence being uncovered, suggesting this may be the case.

So, in my spare time I have decided to bring the field of prebiotics ^[1] to the public, using this web site, jacksongi.com. I have written all the materials you will find here. All of this information is what I would term medically credible. I rely on my colleagues in the academic and research field to provide the evidence for what I say in the topics herein.

Much of the evidence is “soft”, meaning it does not have the certainty that is required of a new drug. Still, it is the best there is and there is no hype or exaggeration like you might find elsewhere. In many of the topics, I have included references at the end.

The Future: So, medical credibility is what we stand for. I spent 38 years in the practice of gastroenterology. I know that I have advised or treated thousands of patients. Now, with this new endeavor, I see an opportunity to bring current, evidence-based dietary knowledge to a great many more in the public sector. The scope of the internet, is both awesome and inspiring. I view this as a privilege and responsibility. I remain very proud of what I’ve done over the years.

I relish the opportunity to bring current knowledge to many others. I view this new company as a trusting partnership between those of us in the medical field and those of you we strive to serve.

What might the future hold for those who follow what I would call dietary intelligence? If this were followed well and on a regular basis, there would be no need for dietary fiber supplements. Your weight might fall as well as your blood cholesterol. A reduction in the risk of various cancers is likely. There are even researchers who say that dietary intelligence, such as advocated here, can prolong life and perhaps prevent dementia.

For those with any gastrointestinal disorder, please note that while these materials may be of help in learning about your disease, they should not be used in place of the care and advice you receive from your physician.

Frank W. Jackson, M.D., Chairman
Jackson GI Medical

URLs in this post:

[1] prebiotics: http://www.jacksongi.com/introduction-to-prebiotics/