Damon Schlenske is in the business of simplification. Visit with him about what you perceive as a complex health problem and he'll put your mind at ease with simple advice peppered with proverbs like "Let your food be your medicine; let your medicine be your food."

Another of his favorites is "When you're green, you grow; when you're ripe, you rot."

Indeed, the words of the certified nutritional adviser, or nutritional landscaper as he likes to call himself, seem too cliched to believe, but when you meet his wife Jeanette, you witness what a strict adherence to Schlenske's advice can do.

"Two drops of blood saved my wife's life," Schlenske said.

That sounds a bit cryptic, and to understand what he means you have to understand his wife's history with breast cancer. Actually, all you have to understand is that last year Jeanette was diagnosed with breast cancer; this year the cancer is gone.

In between, Jeanette refused chemotherapy, radiation and surgery; sought alternative therapies in Europe; and replicated those therapies at home. The services Damon offers at New Life Care Inc. are based on those therapies.

According to the Schlenskes, those therapies, or protocol, include eating a diet appropriate for her blood type and occasionally raising her body temperature to more than 105 degrees in a Far infrared sauna. The hyperthermia treatment is based on cancer research conducted by 1930s Nobel Prize winner Otto Warburg, Damon said.

But it begins with those two drops of blood. Those two drops of blood are what determined the course of Jeanette's diet and, what the Schlenskes believe, led to her subsequent cancer-free existence.

Not all of Damon's clients have a health crisis as life-threatening as Jeanette's. Damon doesn't look at symptoms, he says, he just gathers the facts and gets whatever is "out of whack back into the normative range."

Bill Panter hadn't had a decent night's sleep in 30 years.

"I couldn't sleep because of gas," Panter said. "I was on three or four types of pills - all kinds of antacids, and other stuff. Damon checked my blood and took me off everything. If I eat good, I sleep good. I eat according to my blood type, and if I stick with it even halfway, I sleep real good."

What exactly is a blood type diet?

Most blood-type dieters follow the advice in a book called "Eat Right 4 Your Blood Type," by Dr. Peter J. D'Adamo. The theory is that there are foods that are compatible and incompatible with the four basic blood types. For instance, type O's can tolerate more protein while a vegetarian diet is more compatible with type A's.

Naturopathic physician Dr. Michael Bergkamp is a firm believer in food compatibility and immune response.

"There are definitely foods that cause people allergies - lactose intolerance, celiac disease - if we have those, why wouldn't there be others," Bergkamp said.

Bergkamp added that there is paleolithic and anthropologic evidence that suggest blood type can be linked to food compatibility.

Type O is the oldest blood type and is associated with hunter-gatherers, Bergkamp explained. Type A came along when folks settled down into agricultural communities.

Jeanette's daily menu consists of lots of barley and carrot juice, salad, fruit and nuts.

"Every once in a while, I'll have pizza or a burrito," Jeanette said. "But when the body has the nutrients it needs, the cravings go away."

And it didn't stop the Schlenskes from indulging in the traditional fare of turkey and stuffing over the holidays.

But that's the thing. It's not just about the blood type, Damon says. It's about getting people back in that "normative range."

When you visit Damon's office, he asks you some questions, then takes those two drops of your blood. One drop is used for blood-tying; the other is placed on a slide and immediately held under a special microscope used for live blood cell analysis - this is called Darkfield Microscopy. The Darkfield microscope is connected to a computer monitor so that Damon and his client can see a magnified view of the live blood cells and their "ecological terrain," which according to a pamphlet provided by Damon, includes the body's pH, mineral and enzyme balance.

In addition to blood, Damon takes urine and saliva samples and "landscapes" the protocol.

"It's the river of life - blood, urine, saliva," Damon said.

Several more of Damon's clients report benefits like better quality sleep and more energy.

"Eating healthier and learning better ways to take care of yourself - it really does change your whole life," said Carol Shackleford.

"We just do it to try to feel more healthy, and we do," said Dick Crosby, who along with his wife, has experienced allergy relief and better sleep.

And according to Damon, attention to the river of life can help with such diverse problems as chronic fatigue syndrome, parasites, muscle weakness, joint inflammation and mental stress.

What seems a simple solution to a complex problem, might really be just a simplification of the problem.

"You can't micromanage the body internally," Damon said.