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Dr. Nalini Chilkov discusses An Integrative Approach to Cancer at the Functional Medicine Discussion Group meeting on March 28, 2024 with moderator Dr. Ben Weitz.
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Podcast Highlights
Dr. Nalini Chilkov is the founder of the American Institute of Integrative Oncology Research and Education and the creator of the The OutSmart ® Cancer System. She is committed to training front line clinicians worldwide to become skilled and confident in serving the health needs of patients whose lives have been touched by cancer by utilizing her OutSmart Cancer® System. She is the author of the best seller, 32 Ways to Outsmart Cancer_How to Create A Body Where Cancer Cannot Thrive and is recognized as an authority and pioneer in the fields of Integrative Cancer Care, Cancer Prevention and Immune Enhancement. Dr. Chilkov has lectured worldwide and at the Schools of Medicine at UCLA and UC Irvine and is a frequent expert resource to the media. Her websites are Nalinichilkov.com and the American Institute of Integrative Oncology.
Dr. Ben Weitz is available for Functional Nutrition consultations specializing in Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders like IBS/SIBO and Reflux and also Cardiometabolic Risk Factors like elevated lipids, high blood sugar, and high blood pressure. Dr. Weitz has also successfully helped many patients with managing their weight and improving their athletic performance, as well as sports chiropractic work by calling his Santa Monica office 310-395-3111. Dr. Weitz is also available for video or phone consultations.
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Dr. Ilana Gurevich discusses Constipation with Dr. Ben Weitz.
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Podcast Highlights
2:16 "We are living in a constipated world", according to Dr. Gurevich.
2:44 Dr. Gurevich finds treating constipated patients much more challenging than patients with diarrhea.
3:57 Red Flags.
8:55 Idiopathic and Functional Constipation.
14:42 Drugs.
15:34 Functional Constipation.
Dr. Ilana Gurevich is a board-certified naturopathic physician and acupuncturist and is currently co-owner of two large integrative medical clinics, one in northwest Portland and one in northeast Portland. She runs a very busy private practice specializing in treating inflammatory bowel disease as well as IBS/SIBO and functional GI disorders. Dr. Gurevich is also one of the co-hosts of a successful podcast, Turd Nerds, along with Drs. Rebecca Sand and Ami Kapadia. Her website is OpenWellnessPDX.
Dr. Ben Weitz is available for Functional Nutrition consultations specializing in Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders like IBS/SIBO and Reflux and also Cardiometabolic Risk Factors like elevated lipids, high blood sugar, and high blood pressure. Dr. Weitz has also successfully helped many patients with managing their weight and improving their athletic performance, as well as sports chiropractic work by calling his Santa Monica office 310-395-3111.
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Dr. Lani Simpson discusses How to Test for and Manage Osteoporosis with Dr. Ben Weitz.
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Podcast Highlights
5:01 Osteoporosis.
8:16 Trabecular bone score.
Dr. Lani Simpson is a Doctor of Chiropractic who has established herself as an expert at bone health and women’s health over the last 35 years. She is a Certified Clinical Densitometrist, which means she is an expert at reading bone density tests, and she was the first alternative doctor to be awarded this certification. She produced Down to the Bone, a CEU course for practitioners and she has been presenting the Heat is on, Menopause and PMS seminars for chiropractors, acupuncturists, and other practitioners for the last 35 years as well. She is the cofounder of the East Bay Menopause and PMS center and of the East Bay Osteoporosis Diagnostic Center. Her website is LaniSimpson.com. Dr. Simpson will be teaching an advanced course on Osteoporosis starting on April 20, 2024: Ultimate Osteoporosis Course.
Dr. Ben Weitz is available for Functional Nutrition consultations specializing in Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders like IBS/SIBO and Reflux and also Cardiometabolic Risk Factors like elevated lipids, high blood sugar, and high blood pressure. Dr. Weitz has also successfully helped many patients with managing their weight and improving their athletic performance, as well as sports chiropractic work by calling his Santa Monica office 310-395-3111.
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Dr. Andy Barlow discusses How to Break the Code of Chronic Disease with Dr. Ben Weitz.
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Podcast Highlights
2:18 The difference between traditional medicine and functional medicine is that traditional medicine tends to focus on the symptoms whereas functional medicine focuses on the root causes.
5:45 Molecular mimicry.
Dr. Andy Barlow is a certified Chiropractic Neurologist and an expert in Functional Medicine. Dr. Barlow has identified specific codes that unlock the mysteries of chronic health problems. He is a two time best-selling author and his new book is The Code Breaker: Unlocking the Mysteries of Health and Vitality and Establishing the Foundation for a Disease-free Life. Dr. Barlow's website is BarlowBrainandBody.com.
Dr. Ben Weitz is available for Functional Nutrition consultations specializing in Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders like IBS/SIBO and Reflux and also Cardiometabolic Risk Factors like elevated lipids, high blood sugar, and high blood pressure. Dr. Weitz has also successfully helped many patients with managing their weight and improving their athletic performance, as well as sports chiropractic work by calling his Santa Monica office 310-395-3111.
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Allison Samon discusses A Functional Medicine Approach to Autoimmune Disease with Dr. Ben Weitz.
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Podcast Highlights
1:33 Allison was suffering with chronic pain in her knees, her back, and her butt and had numbness in one of her feet. She suffered with migraines and chronic fatigue... He recommended that Allison eat an orange instead of drinking orange juice and stop eating pasta or cereal or lean cuisines for dinner and start eating whole foods and her inflammation started going down, her knee sopped hurting, her migraines went away, and she eventually regained her health.
9:07 Autoimmune diseases. There are three factors that can result in autoimmune disease, which are a genetic predisposition, gut dysbiosis/leaky gut, and some kind of insult to the terrain, such as an infection, trauma, or microbial imbalance.
Allison Samon is a Functional Nutrition and Lifestyle Practitioner who works virtually with people to get out of chronic illness, escape from mystery symptoms, and help re-design their lifestyle so they can be fit, energized, and pain free in ways that are easy, fun, and sustainable. Allison struggled with unexplained chronic pain for over 10 years. Her remarkable healing journey became the basis for her programs: Reboot from Chronic Illness and the Chronic Illness Recovery Blueprint. She’s also written an ebook “Detoxing Endocrine Disruptors: Essential Checklist” and is a featured author in the Amazon International Best Seller: Teach Your Expertise. Her website is AllisonSamonFunctionalNutritionist.com.
Dr. Ben Weitz is available for Functional Nutrition consultations specializing in Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders like IBS/SIBO and Reflux and also Cardiometabolic Risk Factors like elevated lipids, high blood sugar, and high blood pressure. Dr. Weitz has also successfully helped many patients with managing their weight and improving their athletic performance, as well as sports chiropractic work by calling his Santa Monica office 310-395-3111.
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Dr. Mark Houston discusses An Integrative Approach to Hypertension with Dr. Ben Weitz.
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Podcast Highlights
3:20 Hypertension. What causes high blood pressure are three finite vascular responses, which are inflammation of the arteries, oxidative stress in the arteries, and immune dysfunction in the arteries.
4:59 Hypertension is blood pressure higher than 120 over 80 but several large cohort studies show that the risk starts at 110 over 70.
6:28 Untreated hypertension.
7:15 Proper way to measure blood pressure.
9:58 White Coat Hypertension.
10:58 Genetic Factors.
11:50 Plasma renin activity and serum aldosterone levels help guide care for patients with hypertension.
13:57 Diet and Lifestyle. There are four main diet factors that affect hypertension: 1. Low sodium--below 1.5 gms per day, 2. High potassium--at least 5 gm per day, 3. High magnesium--at least 1,000 mg per day, and 4. at least 12 servings of fruits and vegetables per day.
16:48 Toxins.
17:11 Micronutrients.
17:48 Exercise.
18:25 Endothelial dysfunction.
24:12 Nutrients.
27:32 Medications.
Dr. Mark Houston is the director of the Hypertension Institute in Nashville, Tennessee and he is the go to expert on cardiovascular disease in the Functional Medicine world. Dr. Houston is tripled board certified in hypertension as an American Society of Hypertension (ASH) specialist and Fellow of the American Society of Hypertension (FASH), Internal Medicine (ABIM) and Anti-aging medicine (ABAARM). Dr. Houston teaches doctors around the world about cardiovascular medicine as part of the A4M programs. Dr. Houston is also a very prolific author, having written many books, the latest two being Precision and Personalized Integrative Cardiovascular Medicine and Controlling High Blood Pressure through Nutrition, Nutritional Supplements, Lifestyle, and Drugs. Dr. Houston's web site is HypertensionInstitute.com.
Dr. Ben Weitz is available for Functional Nutrition consultations specializing in Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders like IBS/SIBO and Reflux and also Cardiometabolic Risk Factors like elevated lipids, high blood sugar, and high blood pressure. Dr. Weitz has also successfully helped many patients with managing their weight and improving their athletic performance, as well as sports chiropractic work by calling his Santa Monica office 310-395-3111.
Podcast Transcript
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Dr. Ben Weitz discusses Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth.
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Podcast Highlights
Dr. Ben Weitz is available for Functional Nutrition consultations specializing in Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders like IBS/SIBO and Reflux and also Cardiometabolic Risk Factors like elevated lipids, high blood sugar, and high blood pressure. Dr. Weitz has also successfully helped many patients with managing their weight and improving their athletic performance, as well as sports chiropractic work by calling his Santa Monica office 310-395-3111.
Podcast Transcript
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Dr. Ashley Beckman discusses Mold and Mycotoxins with Dr. Ben Weitz.
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Podcast Highlights
Dr. Ashley Beckman is a doctor of Chinese Medicine, a Functional Medicine practitioner, and an Epigenetics expert. She combines ancient wisdom with modern medicine to transform your health. Her website is drashley.com.
Dr. Ben Weitz is available for Functional Nutrition consultations specializing in Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders like IBS/SIBO and Reflux and also Cardiometabolic Risk Factors like elevated lipids, high blood sugar, and high blood pressure. Dr. Weitz has also successfully helped many patients with managing their weight and improving their athletic performance, as well as sports chiropractic work by calling his Santa Monica office 310-395-3111.
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Dr. Rand McClain discusses Testosterone Replacement Therapy at the Functional Medicine Discussion Group meeting on February 22, 2024 with moderator Dr. Ben Weitz.
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Podcast Highlights
Dr. Rand McClain is a Doctor of Osteopathy and a Regenerative and Sports Medicine specialist. Dr. McClain is a leader in alternative and regenerative medical treatments at his Regenerative and Sports Medicine Clinic in Santa Monica, California. He utilizes various anti-aging therapies in his practice, including Bioidentical Hormones, stem cells, peptides, hyperbaric oxygen, cryotherapy, and nutritional supplements. He wrote a best-selling book, Cheating Death in 2023. His office website is psrmed.com.
Dr. Ben Weitz is available for Functional Nutrition consultations specializing in Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders like IBS/SIBO and Reflux and also Cardiometabolic Risk Factors like elevated lipids, high blood sugar, and high blood pressure. Dr. Weitz has also successfully helped many patients with managing their weight and improving their athletic performance, as well as sports chiropractic work by calling his Santa Monica office 310-395-3111. Dr. Weitz is also available for video or phone consultations.
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Dr. Mona Morstein discusses Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth with Dr. Ben Weitz.
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Podcast Highlights
Dr. Mona Morstein is a naturopathic doctor who is practicing Functional Medicine at Arizona Integrative Medical Solutions in Mesa, Arizona with a focus on treating patients with autoimmune diseases, hormonal conditions, diabetes, thyroid, and gastrointestinal disorders like SIBO and IBS. She is the author of the best-selling book Master Your Diabetes: A Comprehensive, Integrative Approach for Both Type I and Type II Diabetes and she lectures frequently at medical conferences. She can be reached through the Arizona Integrative Medical solutions website, AZIMSolutions.com.
Dr. Ben Weitz is available for Functional Nutrition consultations specializing in Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders like IBS/SIBO and Reflux and also Cardiometabolic Risk Factors like elevated lipids, high blood sugar, and high blood pressure. Dr. Weitz has also successfully helped many patients with managing their weight and improving their athletic performance, as well as sports chiropractic work by calling his Santa Monica office 310-395-3111.
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Dr. Christy Sutton discusses the Iron Curse, part 1 with Dr. Ben Weitz.
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Podcast Highlights
1:50 High iron levels can negatively affect your health.
4:42 Most patients with elevated blood sugar will not typically have their iron levels checked. A full iron panel maybe costs $40 and yet it is rarely run.
11:25 When we look at labs it is important that the recommended lab ranges reflect a healthy person and not a sick person range.
Dr. Christy Sutton is a doctor of chiropractic who published her first book in 2018 on genomics: Genetic Testing: Defining Your Path to a Personalized Health Plan. She then diagnosed her husband with hereditary hemochromatosis, and high cortisol from a pituitary tumor, which she believes high iron contributed to. Her new book is The Iron Curse: Is your doctor letting high iron destroy your health, about the risk of high iron or hemochromatosis and the health consequences that can result from it. Her website is DrChristySutton.com.
Dr. Ben Weitz is available for Functional Nutrition consultations specializing in Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders like IBS/SIBO and Reflux and also Cardiometabolic Risk Factors like elevated lipids, high blood sugar, and high blood pressure. Dr. Weitz has also successfully helped many patients with managing their weight and improving their athletic performance, as well as sports chiropractic work by calling his Santa Monica office 310-395-3111. Dr. Weitz is also available for video or phone consultations and he uses DUTCH testing regularly.
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Niraj Naik discusses Soma Breathwork with Dr. Ben Weitz.
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Podcast Highlights
Niraj Naik is a certified UK pharmacist turned holistic wellness and breathwork expert. Niraj funs a global breathwork community and trains hundreds of breathwork experts in his Soma Breath techniques, which is taught at numerous wellness centers in the US, Europe, and Asia, including the University of Cambridge. Niraj is working on a new book, Breath Works, which is soon to be released. His websites are NirajNaik.com and SomaBreath.com.
Dr. Ben Weitz is available for Functional Nutrition consultations specializing in Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders like IBS/SIBO and Reflux and also Cardiometabolic Risk Factors like elevated lipids, high blood sugar, and high blood pressure. Dr. Weitz has also successfully helped many patients with managing their weight and improving their athletic performance, as well as sports chiropractic work by calling his Santa Monica office 310-395-3111. Dr. Weitz is also available for video or phone consultations and he uses DUTCH testing regularly.
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Dr. Aristo Vojdani discusses the Early Detection and Prevention of Autoimmune Diseases at the Functional Medicine Discussion Group meeting on January 25, 2024 with moderator Dr. Ben Weitz.
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Podcast Highlights
Dr. Aristo Vojdani is the Father of Functional Immunology and he has dedicated his life's research to helping us figure out what are the triggers for autoimmune diseases and many of the tests he has developed for Cyrex Labs are focused on this. Dr. Vojdani has a PhD in microbiology and immunology and he has authored over 200 scientific papers published in peer reviewed journals. Dr. Vojdani is the co-owner of Immunosciences Lab in Los Angeles, which offers testing for various types of infections, including Lyme Disease. He is the Chief Science advisor for Cyrex Labs, whom he has developed all of the testing for, including the Lymphocyte Map test, Array 2 for Leaky Gut, and Array 5, The Multiple Autoimmune Reactivity Panel, and from Immunosciences, the Autoimmune Viral Trio Panel.
Dr. Ben Weitz is available for Functional Nutrition consultations specializing in Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders like IBS/SIBO and Reflux and also Cardiometabolic Risk Factors like elevated lipids, high blood sugar, and high blood pressure. Dr. Weitz has also successfully helped many patients with managing their weight and improving their athletic performance, as well as sports chiropractic work by calling his Santa Monica office 310-395-3111. Dr. Weitz is also available for video or phone consultations.
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Dr. Howard Elkin and Dr. Ben Weitz, discuss Rhabdomyolysis with Dr. Ben Weitz.
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Podcast Highlights
2:17 Rhabdomyolysis (rhabdo) is characterized by an acute destruction of muscle tissue and the contents of the destroyed muscle tissue--myoglobin--is emptied into the bloodstream. This myoglobin makes the urine appear brown in color and thick and it can overwhelm the kidneys and cause kidney destruction and renal failure...
6:24 Certain drugs like statins that are used to lower cholesterol can play a role in causing rhabdo, since they can adversely affect skeletal muscles, though this is more common in the older statins that are lipophilic like simvastatin (Zocor) and atorvastatin (Lipitor) than the newer statins that are hydrophilic like fluvastatin, rosuvastatin (Crestor), and pravastatin. This can be made worse if certain other drugs are taken at the same time that inhibit the cytochrome p450-3A4 liver detox pathway, such as certain antibiotics (such as clarithromycin), antifungals, calcium channel blockers and certain other drugs. Also, the use of alcohol, amphetamines, and methamphetamines can worsen the likelihood of the occurrence of rhabdo.
8:34 Patients with rhabdo usually present with intense pain, extreme fatigue, and their urine is very dark, even brown, because of myoglobin that is being released. They will have elevated CPK in their blood as well as elevated myoglobin.
Dr. Howard Elkin is an Integrative Cardiologist with offices in Whittier and in Santa Monica, California and he has been in practice since 1986. While Dr. Elkin does utilize medications and he performs angioplasty and stent placement and other surgical procedures, his focus in his practice is employing natural strategies for helping patients, including recommendations for diet, lifestyle changes, and targeted nutritional supplements to improve their condition. Dr. Elkin has written an excellent new book, From Both Sides of the Table: When Doctor Becomes Patient. His website is Heartwise.com and his office number is 562-945-3753.
Dr. Ben Weitz is available for Functional Nutrition consultations specializing in Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders like IBS/SIBO and Reflux and also Cardiometabolic Risk Factors like elevated lipids, high blood sugar, and high blood pressure. Dr. Weitz has also successfully helped many patients with managing their weight and improving their athletic performance, as well as sports chiropractic work by calling his Santa Monica office 310-395-3111. Dr. Weitz is also available for video or phone consultations and he uses DUTCH testing regularly.
Podcast Transcript
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Charlotte Blease, PhD, and Cosima Locher, PhD, discuss The Nocebo Effect with Dr. Ben Weitz.
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Podcast Highlights
1:45 The placebo effect is when a patient feels better after taking a sugar pill of some other treatment that is not thought to be able to help them, because they believe that it will help them. When a scientific study is conducted they often have a placebo arm with one group getting the pill with the active ingredient and the other group getting a pill without the active ingredient, which is referred to as the placebo group. And yet a significant percentage of the patients who get the placebo improve. The nocebo is sort of the opposite of the placebo in that if the patient believes or has fears or expectations that they are likely to have side effects or a negative result from a medication or treatment, they may have such negative effects. The book The Nocebo Effect: When Words Make You Sick is designed to bring awareness to the nocebo concept, which has been much less researched than the placebo effect. And this book also attempts to bring some solutions so that nocebo effects occur less frequently.
Charlotte Blease, PhD is a philosopher and health researcher at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, and the Department of Women’s and Children's Health at Uppsala University, Sweden. The book that Charlotte and Cosima helped write is The Nocebo Effect: When Words Make You Sick.
Cosima Locher PhD is a psychologist who has published in leading medical journals and is the co-founder of the Pain Net, an international network of researchers interested in chronic pain with a special focus on the placebo and nocebo effects.
Dr. Ben Weitz is available for Functional Nutrition consultations specializing in Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders like IBS/SIBO and Reflux and also Cardiometabolic Risk Factors like elevated lipids, high blood sugar, and high blood pressure. Dr. Weitz has also successfully helped many patients with managing their weight and improving their athletic performance, as well as sports chiropractic work by calling his Santa Monica office 310-395-3111. Dr. Weitz is also available for video or phone consultations and he uses DUTCH testing regularly.
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Valentin Prisecaru and Jeff Ingersoll discuss Genomic Testing with Dr. Ben Weitz.
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Podcast Highlights
5:02 Genetics or the Human Genome refers to the genetic code that is made up of only four letters, A, G, C, and T and this code about 3 billion letters long. The majority of the genome is still kind of a mystery because we don't know exactly what it does. But we do know about 20 or 30,000 genes that code for proteins or for RNA or a few other things.
Valentin Prisecaru is a scientist who with Dr. Peter D'Adamo helped develop the Opus-23 platform that is the basis for the Genomic Insights, the Genomic Health Profile offered by Diagnostic Solutions Lab. Diagnostic Solutions Lab web site is DiagnosticSolutionsLab.com and the phone is 877-485-5336.
Jeff Ingersoll is the President of Diagnostic Solutions Lab, which besides the Genomic Insights profile, offers my favorite stool test, the GI Map, a cytokine panel Cyto DX, an organic acids profile, an amino acids profile, as well as food allergy and foods sensitivity panels.
Dr. Ben Weitz is available for Functional Nutrition consultations specializing in Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders like IBS/SIBO and Reflux and also Cardiometabolic Risk Factors like elevated lipids, high blood sugar, and high blood pressure. Dr. Weitz has also successfully helped many patients with managing their weight and improving their athletic performance, as well as sports chiropractic work by calling his Santa Monica office 310-395-3111. Dr. Weitz is also available for video or phone consultations and he uses DUTCH testing regularly.
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Mark Newman discusses Hormone Metabolism and Testing with Dr. Ben Weitz.
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Podcast Highlights
1:48 Dried urine testing or DUTCH testing uses a dried sample for convenience, which is a big advantage over the other leading type of urine hormone testing, which is the 24 hour urine test that requires carrying around a jug of urine that you keep in the refrigerator all day. This is very inconvenient and you lose the the changes in those hormones levels, esp. cortisol, that vary throughout the day using a 24 hour sample. The dried urine test you collect samples throughout the day so you can look at the cortisol pattern, which correlates with what is seen on saliva in studies that have been published. And the urine testing of hormones allows you to see the metabolites of estrogens and androgens that you can't see on blood testing....
4:57 On the other hand, dried urine testing does not allow you to measure SHBG, which can be measured through blood, such as when a woman is on birth control and this drives up her SHBG, which drives down her free hormones. Urine testing is also not a good way to measure thyroid hormones. Also, if your kidneys are not functioning well, then you are not excreting urine as well as you should and this can impact urine testing. Also, saliva has some advantages for the cortisol awakening response (CAR)...
8:50 Estrogen metabolism. Urine testing allows for monitoring of estrogen metabolites that you can't get with serum testing and this can give us some information about how the person processes their hormones and also provides some information about estrogen related cancer risk....
Mark Newman, MS is a recognized expert and international speaker in the field of hormone testing. Mark spent nearly 25 years developing and directing urine, blood, and saliva-based hormone testing along with other biomarkers like organic acids. His unique experience led him to pursue a revolutionary way to test hormones; so Mark began his own lab, Precision Analytical Inc., to create the latest innovation in hormone testing, the DUTCH Test® (a Dried Urine Test for Comprehensive Hormones). In pursuit of the most accurate, evidence-based testing and best practices, Mark has co-written multiple peer-reviewed research papers and abstracts, highlighting the accuracy and clinical utility of dried urine hormone testing. Mark’s primary educational goal is to find and communicate truths about HRT monitoring to help providers care for their patients. He understands that each form of testing has its own strengths and weaknesses, which is why he encourages clinicians to follow the evidence even when lab testing isn't clinically helpful. For clinicians to learn more about the DUTCH test, go to DUTCHtest.com. Patients can find a referral to a DUTCH Lab provider to order and interpret the testing for them.
Dr. Ben Weitz is available for Functional Nutrition consultations specializing in Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders like IBS/SIBO and Reflux and also Cardiometabolic Risk Factors like elevated lipids, high blood sugar, and high blood pressure. Dr. Weitz has also successfully helped many patients with managing their weight and improving their athletic performance, as well as sports chiropractic work by calling his Santa Monica office 310-395-3111. Dr. Weitz is also available for video or phone consultations and he uses DUTCH testing regularly.
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Dr. Jessica Hehmeyer discusses Weight Loss Mastery with Dr. Ben Weitz.
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Podcast Highlights
1:37 Some of the biggest challenges that clients have when trying to lose weight include the fact that people were born into a psychological force field that doesn't serve them. By force field, Dr. Hehmeyer is referring to a series of conversations and perspectives that are not a good match for the outcomes that people want to happen. The first problematic conversation that people have is that what you eat or not is a moral decision--that food is good or bad or that if you cheated on your diet, you did something bad, and this can lock people into a cycle of shame. It would be better to see what we eat or not and whether we exercise or not will simply produce certain outcomes and this is not a moral situation. If we want different outcomes, we need to make the necessary changes.
3:50 People have different motivations for eating and for what they eat. Losing weight is not easy and that is why these new weight loss drugs like Ozempic are being used by so many patients that can afford them.
4:50 As we dig into the science of these GLP-1 agonist drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy, we can find many natural alternatives that can produce the same effects as these drugs have, such as fiber and berberine and eating healthy fats, without the potentially horrible side effects of these drugs, such as intestinal paralysis or obstruction, which can lead to death, or gall stones or pancreatitis.
8:11 Obstacles to weight loss.
19:24 Dietary approach to weight loss.
Dr. Jessica Hehmeyer is the founder of Well Empowered, where she practices data-driven, outcome oriented Functional Medicine. She is a Doctor of Chiropractic, an IFM certified practitioner, a Licensed Dietician Nutritionist and a Certified Nutrition Specialist. She is also an expert in the fitness industry. Her website is Wellempowered.com.
Dr. Ben Weitz is available for Functional Nutrition consultations specializing in Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders like IBS/SIBO and Reflux and also Cardiometabolic Risk Factors like elevated lipids, high blood sugar, and high blood pressure. Dr. Weitz has also successfully helped many patients with managing their weight and improving their athletic performance, as well as sports chiropractic work by calling his Santa Monica office 310-395-3111. Dr. Weitz is also available for video or phone consultations.
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Dr. Ben Weitz discusses the Implications of a new paper on Centenarians and Biomarkers and in particular whether having higher levels of cholesterol are better for longevity.
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Podcast Highlights
The paper that is discussed in this podcast episode is Blood biomarker profiles and exceptional longevity: comparison of centenarians and non-centenarians in a 35-year follow-up of the Swedish AMORIS cohort, published in Geroscience in September, 2023.
1:09 While it is difficult to conduct randomized trials using humans to test strategies to improve longevity, is that humans live a long time, so you would have to do a 100 year study, another way to get ideas about longevity is to study centenarians to see how they made it to 100. This new study on centenarians and blood biomarkers cited above resulted in some results that were expected, including that centenarians had higher lower levels of glucose, which is not surprising, since higher levels of glucose are associated with diabetes, non-alcoholic fatty liver, poor metabolic health, insulin resistance, and more inflammation. But a few of the results seem to be surprising, including that centenarians had higher levels of cholesterol and of iron.
3:37 A popular health podcaster--Mike Mutzel on his High Intensity Health podcast--recently remarked (published Sept 29, 2023 on YouTube as Low Glucose, High Cholesterol & Living to 100 Years Old) that this paper demonstrates that higher levels of cholesterol are associated with better health and longevity. I disagree that that is the right conclusion to draw from this study.
4:26 This study looked at total cholesterol levels, which is not the best way to assess your risk of cholesterol causing heart disease. It would be better to look at LDL-C and even better to look at LDL particle number or ApoB or oxidized LDL or small, dense LDL.
5:52 Cholesterol. When we look at the charts supplied in the paper about cholesterol levels we see that to begin with, the difference in levels of cholesterol were very slight as compared to differences in glucose and other parameters. Second, we see that for men aged 64-74 they actually had slightly lower levels of cholesterol, while men aged 75-84 had slightly higher levels of total cholesterol. It might be more appropriate to conclude that having lower levels of cholesterol are beneficial in that they will likely result in lower levels of heart disease, but that once you hit your 80s it probably doesn't matter as much, since developing heart disease likely takes decades of build up. Also as you get older, lower cholesterol levels can be an indicator of poor overall diet and of vitality, and in the 80s and 90s sarcopenia and frailty can be bigger causes of mortality due to falls and weaker immunity making you more vulnerable to not being able to fight off viruses or pneumonia.
9:40 Iron. The other marker that was somewhat surprising was iron, where overall slightly higher levels of iron were associated with longevity. But this is similar to the cholesterol story. Those men and women in the 85-99 year old group had slightly higher levels of iron, though those in the younger groups had the same of lower levels of iron. High levels of iron above what is needed to produce hemoglobin to produce red blood cells are generally associated with higher levels of oxidative stress and negative health consequences. On the other hand, higher levels of iron at the oldest decades may be associated with higher levels of nutritional status and less frailty. Those 90 year olds with greater vitality and greater muscle mass and bone mass are likely to live longer because they are less likely to fall and break a hip.
Dr. Ben Weitz is available for Functional Nutrition consultations specializing in Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders like IBS/SIBO and Reflux and also Cardiometabolic Risk Factors like elevated lipids, high blood sugar, and high blood pressure. Dr. Weitz has also successfully helped many patients with managing their weight and improving their athletic performance, as well as sports chiropractic work by calling his Santa Monica office 310-395-3111. Dr. Weitz is also available for video or phone consultations.
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Kim Shapira discusses How to Improve Your Health and Lose Weight with Dr. Ben Weitz.
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Podcast Highlights
1:26 Some of the biggest challenges that clients have when trying to lose weight include that they do not listen to what's going on inside their own body. You need to be mindful and use your rational mind, which knows that food is fuel. Our irrational mind thinks food is comfort, joy, entertainment, the enemy, fun.
6:08 In order to figure out which foods are good for us, Kim likes to run the Everywell Food Sensitivity panel, which is done by pricking your own finger at home and sending it in and this test is reasonably priced.
10:56 Kim has six rules for eating and the first one is to only eat when you're hungry. And she also recommends the 15 minute rule so that you learn to eat slowly and that is to only eat no more than half of your food in 15 minutes by putting half as much food on your fork or spoon, put your fork down between bites, and chew your food many more times than you are used to, and eating slowly. It takes about 15 minutes from the time we start eating for the hormone leptin to be secreted that helps tell us that we are satiated. After 15 minutes you can check in with yourself and see if you are satisfied or not yet. Many of us today are eating so quickly and frequently and so much that we don't really know what being hungry is. We are hard wired to be afraid of being hungry, since this means that our survival is at risk. But in the modern world where food is readily available, we should get used to being hungry and it is important to be hungry every 2 to 4 hours. If you are not hungry every 2 to 4 hours, your body fat is too high or you overate your last meal.
18:40 Emotional triggers. Early in our lives we tend to develop our own individual emotional triggers, which take us out of our rational mind into your irrational mind. This leads to emotional eating. We flip from from thinking about food as fuel to food as comfort or food as fun. When we have a thought that food is a good idea, which should scan our body and take some deep breaths and figure out if we're really hungry or just wanting to eat for an emotional reason.
20:19 Hormones. There are a number of hormones that play a role in regulating appetite, including ghrelin, leptin, insulin, and cortisol. When our tank actually gets a little low, ghrelin sends a signal to the brain telling us it is time to start focusing on the next meal. When we eat slowly, we give leptin a chance to tell our brain that we're satisfied. When we respond to stress incorrectly, such as the stress from either lack of sleep, too much sleep, alcohol, or food choices that are inflaming your body, the way that your nervous system is responds can cause our cortisol, our sex hormones, and our blood sugar to get out of whack. This is when we tend to store excess energy as fat. We need to work on meditation and mindfulness and long walks and listening to high vibration music and singing and humming and having more joy in our life, so we can relax our nervous system so we can say to our body, "We're actually safe. We're safe right now. You are safe to carry on. We do not need to store that way."
24:24 Exercise. When it comes to exercise, Kim recommends getting 10,000 steps per day, which is common recommendation. We need to work on muscle strength, muscle endurance, and balance.
Kim Shapira is a dietician with a BA in Kinesiology from Tulane and a Masters degree in Human Metabolism and Clinical Nutrition from Boston University and author of This is What You’re Really Hungry For: Six Simple Rules to Transform Your Relationship with Food to Become your Healthiest Self. Her website is KimShapiraMethod.com.
Dr. Ben Weitz is available for Functional Nutrition consultations specializing in Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders like IBS/SIBO and Reflux and also Cardiometabolic Risk Factors like elevated lipids, high blood sugar, and high blood pressure. Dr. Weitz has also successfully helped many patients with managing their weight and improving their athletic performance, as well as sports chiropractic work by calling his Santa Monica office 310-395-3111. Dr. Weitz is also available for video or phone consultations.
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Dr. Jeffrey James discusses Hypothyroidism with Dr. Ben Weitz.
[If you enjoy this podcast, please give us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, so more people will find The Rational Wellness Podcast. Also check out the video version on my WeitzChiro YouTube page.]
Podcast Highlights
3:17 Hashimoto’s thyroiditis is the most common form of low functioning thyroid or hypothyroidism. Dr. James noted that he has seen hundreds of women suffering with hypothyroidism and most of these women don’t even get tested for Hashimoto’s, since from the perspective of conventional medicine, if the woman has low functioning thyroid/high TSH levels, they will be treated with Synthroid or levothyroxine, which is synthetic thyroid hormone. If it has an autoimmune origin, it doesn’t change the pharmaceutical outcome. But if you have Hashimoto’s thyroiditis you have an immune system problem rather than a primary thyroid problem. We need to try to understand what would cause your immune system to dysregulate and want to attack your own body tissues? Unfortunately, once you have one autoimmune disorder, you’re 50% more likely to develop another one. Dr. James explained that a lot of women complain that they’re exhausted, they’re putting on weight, they’ve got brain fog, they’re losing their hair, they’re constipated, their skin is dry, they’ve got brain fog, they have this constellation of symptoms, and they’re cold. When they go to their doctor, out comes the prescription for Synthroid. Unfortunately a majority of women end up back in their doctor’s office after a few months or a few years and they don’t feel any better. Their primary MD or endocrinologist then tries to dial in their TSH. If they are depressed, then they get prescribed an antidepressant like Effexor or Cymbalta. If they have headaches, they get prescribed Imitrex. If their blood pressure goes up, they are prescribed antihypertensive medications like Lisinopril or Amlopidipine or hydrochlorothiazide. Dr. James sees a lot of these women who feel like they are not being seen or their complaints are not being addressed by their physician.
9:10 Functional Medicine practitioners are not simply treating each symptom with a pharmaceutical drug to ameliorate that symptom but are looking at your underlying metabolism, physiology, endocrinology as well as the root causes of the autoimmunity that is often driving these imbalances that can often be corrected with diet and lifestyle changes. The patient with hypothyroidism could have an underlying GI infection or a biotoxin illness. They could have a genetic susceptibility to not being able to process mycotoxins that are either in their environment or that are in their foods that they’re eating. They could have a Lyme infection. They could have a viral infection or a gut infection, a parasite or a bacterial infection in their gut that’s driving an immunological response. Any of these things can create a low level inflammatory response that can affect thyroid production, conversion, or uptake, all of which create symptoms that are very similar. From a Functional Medicine perspective we want to see which way the physiology is tilting and we want to see if their lab values are optimal and not just normal or not.
11:05 The medical system in our country where once per year you go in for a physical exam with very minimal testing only to look for a pharmaceutical intervention is a failed system. Just look at how poor the health of our country is. We need to test more widely to see how well our bodies are functioning.
Dr. Jeffrey James is a Doctor of Chiropractic, a Chiropractic Neurologist, and a Functional Medicine practitioner and his office is LA Functional Neurology. He has been in private practice in West Los Angeles since 1989. His website is DrJeffreyJames.com. His office phone is 310-396-3100.
Dr. Ben Weitz is available for Functional Nutrition consultations specializing in Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders like IBS/SIBO and Reflux and also Cardiometabolic Risk Factors like elevated lipids, high blood sugar, and high blood pressure. Dr. Weitz has also successfully helped many patients with managing their weight and improving their athletic performance, as well as sports chiropractic work by calling his Santa Monica office 310-395-3111. Dr. Weitz is also available for video or phone consultations.
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Dr. Jeffrey Gross discusses Regenerative Medicine with Dr. Ben Weitz.
[If you enjoy this podcast, please give us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, so more people will find The Rational Wellness Podcast. Also check out the video version on my WeitzChiro YouTube page.]
Podcast Highlights
1:02 Dr. Gross was a neurosurgeon offering his spinal patients anti-inflammatories and therapy and epidural injections and performing spinal surgeries for 25 years. He realized that the surgeries that he was performing had not changed much in decades and there were a percentage of patients who did not want surgery and he wanted to find alternatives to surgery. Dr. Gross looked into stem cells and regenerative medicine to see what alternatives could be offered to patients who did not want to get surgery.
3:58 Regenerative Medicine is the field of using your own body to tap into it's ability to heal itself using your own cells activities. When we are an embryo and we are a ball of cells and then we have organs and tissues and those cells have picked a job to do. Before these cells pick a job, they are stem cells. Stem cells can be coached into different jobs, but once they pick a job, they're done as stem cells. The placenta of a mother is very rich in stem cells and the placenta makes a lot of supportive proteins, which we call the matrix. Stem cells like other cells make signaling particles to talk to neighboring cells called exosomes.
8:10 Exosomes. If we take perinatal, amniotic fluid derived stem cell exosomes, we can provide a stem cell signal to a patient. If we use stem cells, each stem cell will also give off thousands of exosomes, sharing their signal with your own cells. We don't know if exosomes are better than using stem cells, but exosomes are cheaper and easier to access and they are smaller and can cross the blood/brain barrier, unlike stem cells.
10:20 Stem cells when given to patients do not go in and form new cells in their body but stimulate their own cells to, for example, generate new cartilage proteins in their knee. Some people consume bone broth or bone marrow and they contain stem cells and exosomes and while cells get degraded when consumed, exosomes do not and can have positive effects on the body.
12:48 For therapeutic purposes, adult stem cells are less effective than perinatal stem cells derived from the placenta or from umbilical cord blood, which are probably less effective than embryonic stem cells. But true embryonic stem cells derived from embryos are not currently available in the US for therapeutic purposes, though these embryonic stem cells can be induced to go backwards to become pluripotent stem cells and there is a lot of exciting research going on with these cells now.
14:39 The keys to making stem cells maximally effective include making sure the patient who receives them is maximally healthy to begin with with respect to diet and lifestyle and taking the proper supplements. Both the quality and the quantity of stem cells can play a role in the effectiveness of stem cells. Adult stem cells are less likely to be effective than perinatal stem cells since they are likely to be damaged by living and exposure to factors that may have damaged them and adult stem cells from fat are less likely to be effective because fat often contains inflammatory signals. When you take your car for an oil change, you don't put the old oil back in.
18:14 Intravenous stem cell benefits. Intravenous stem cells provide a general anti-inflammatory signal to your cells and you switch the pathways from defense mode to improved operations mode. You are slowing down degradation of tissues and focusing on regeneration of tissues.
Dr. Jeffrey Gross is a trained neurosurgeon who spent years performing spinal and nerve surgeries and who is now focused on regenerative and anti-aging medicine. His clinic which has offices both in Henderson, Nevada and in Orange County California is called ReCELLebrate. His clinic can be reached at 1-844-4RECELL.
Dr. Ben Weitz is available for Functional Nutrition consultations specializing in Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders like IBS/SIBO and Reflux and also Cardiometabolic Risk Factors like elevated lipids, high blood sugar, and high blood pressure. Dr. Weitz has also successfully helped many patients with managing their weight and improving their athletic performance, as well as sports chiropractic work by calling his Santa Monica office 310-395-3111. Dr. Weitz is also available for video or phone consultations.
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Dr. Robert Hedaya discusses Integrative Psychiatry with Dr. Ben Weitz.
[If you enjoy this podcast, please give us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, so more people will find The Rational Wellness Podcast. Also check out the video version on my WeitzChiro YouTube page.]
Podcast Highlights
1:38 Dr. Hedaya noted that from his time in medical school he was always oriented towards getting to the root cause of things. After writing his first book, he was on the edge of chronic fatigue and he dove into the metabolic medicine approach of Dr. Jeffrey Bland, which later was changed to Functional Medicine. Dr. Hedaya was a neuropharmacologist trained in cognitive behavioral therapy and after bringing Functional Medicine into the mix he found that he was no longer doing this medication merry-go-round and most of his patients were now getting better. Dr. Hedaya explained that after writing his second book, he hired a statistician to assess the patients he had treated for treatment-resistant depression. All 23 of these patients when they started had a mean Beck Depression inventory of 34, which is in the severe range, and by about 10 months everyone was normalized with only one change in medication but also adding the Functional Medicine approach.
4:18 Insights into a Functional Medicine approach to psychiatry. The key to using a Functional Medicine approach is to be a medical detective and to also understand that psychiatric problems are not primarily psychological, but more related to physiology and infections and hormonal problems and genetics and epigenetics and gastrointestinal things, etc.. The mental realm is directly part of the physical realm. If your physical health is lacking, if you're lacking in nutrients, if you're having toxins and infections and other things that are affecting your physiology, that's also going to affect your mind. Dr. Hedaya recalled his first patient from 1984 who was a 50 yr old woman with panic disorders and she did not have a great marriage and had bunch of things going on, but she didn't get better despite psychotherapy and medications. He determined that she had a vitamin B12 deficiency and after her first injection, her panic went away and that's when he realized how powerful the Functional Medicine model could be. When assessing B12 status, if your serum B12 is low normal, you probably have a B12 deficiency. But you can also look at the size of the red blood cells, the MCV, on the CBC. If you are B12 deficient, your red blood cells will get larger because they hang around longer--macrocytic anemia. If you are iron deficient, your red blood cells will be smaller--microcytic anemia. But you could have normal size red blood cells if you have both iron and B12 deficiency, because they will offset the effects on the red blood cell size. We should also look at methylmalonic acid (MMC) and homocysteine as measures of B12 status, though MMC only accounts for 17% of B12 status. You also need to look at medications that interfere with B12 status and if they are older they tend not to absorb as much B12 because of reduced HCL production.
10:57 Iron.
11:29 Other nutrients, incl fish oil, vit D, zinc, and protein.
12:12 Thyroid adrenal axis.
15:30 Genetics, includeing NR3C1, FKBP5, CRH receptor 1 and 2, CRH binding protein, these control proteins that control the effective steroids inside your cell at the level of the nucleus.
18:18 Gut Health.
25:32 Ketogenic diet.
30:24 HYLANE technology.
Dr. Robert Hedaya is an MD/Psychiatrist who is board certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology and he also teaches Functional Medicine approaches to psychiatric disorders with the Institute of Functional Medicine. He is also a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Georgetown University Medical Center. He wrote a number of books, including Understanding Biological Psychiatry, The Anti-depressant Survival Program, and Depression: Advancing the Treatment Paradigm. He treats patients with psychiatric disorders with a Functional Medicine approach, pharmaceuticals when indicated, and he has now pioneered the use of the HYLANE program, which includes Hyperbaric Oxygen, EEG guided laser, and neural exercises. His website is WholePsychiatry.com.
Dr. Ben Weitz is available for Functional Nutrition consultations specializing in Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders like IBS/SIBO and Reflux and also Cardiometabolic Risk Factors like elevated lipids, high blood sugar, and high blood pressure. Dr. Weitz has also successfully helped many patients with managing their weight and improving their athletic performance, as well as sports chiropractic work by calling his Santa Monica office 310-395-3111. Dr. Weitz is also available for video or phone consultations.