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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Dr. Jill Carnahan discusses her Unexpected Health Challenges with Dr. Ben Weitz.
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Podcast Highlights
1:40 Breast cancer. Dr. Carnahan has faced a number of personal health challenges in her life, including a battle with breast cancer while she was in medical school. During her third year of medical school she was taught how to do a breast exam and she performed one on herself and she found a lump. At first she didn't think it was serious, but she had a mammogram and an ultrasound and she was getting suspicious looking at the images, but the radiologist blew her off and told her that since she was 24 years old that it was no big deal. Jill went on to have surgery and the surgeon told her that it was very aggressive ductal carcinoma and that she was in the fight for her life.
6:41 Dr. Carnahan then went through a very aggressive, very toxic, 3 drug chemotherapy regimen. One of the drugs she was given is very toxic for the heart and she was given a dosage just slightly less than that amount. She lost all of her hair, affected her skin, and she had massive gut symptoms. Dr. Carnahan admits that she did go against the recommendations of her oncologist not to take any antioxidants, but she knew intuitively that taking a few antioxidants was better for her body. After the chemo she had radiation and then multiple surgeries. Eventually she was considered cured of cancer. Then nine months later she started having cyclical fevers, diarrhea, abdominal pain and she was not allowed to call in sick, even working at the hospital. She passed out one day while working in the emergency room and was taken to emergency surgery for a cyst in her intestines and she was diagnosed as having Crohn's disease.
Dr. Jill Carnahan is an MD who runs the Flatiron Functional Medicine clinic in Louisville, Colorado. Dr. Carnahan is one of the first 100 doctors certified by the Institute of Functional Medicine. Dr. Carnahan is a popular inspirational speaker and writer and she often teaches other health care practitioners the Functional Medicine approach. Dr. Carnahan has written a new book, Unexpected, Finding Resilience through Functional Medicine, Science, and Faith. She can be contacted through her website, JillCarnahan.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. Jesse Armine discusses Leaky Gut 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
6:50 Leaky gut is really all about the cell membrane which covers the cell and is supposed to keep things out of the cell that need to stay out and allow other things that should get in to get in. All of the energy of the cell comes from the mitochondria and is run through the cell membrane through this particular organelle called ATP synthase. The cell membrane of the gut is the barrier to bacteria and antigens and medications and alcohol and inflammation from getting into the system.
Dr. Jesse Armine is a Doctor of Chiropractic and a registered nurse. He has specialized training in methylation, genetic research, Neuro-Endo Immunology, Functional Medicine, Nutrigenomics, Applied Kinesiology, and Nutritional Counseling. He specializes in diagnosing and treating complex, multifactorial illnesses with a concentration in neuropsychiatric expressions/autism and chronic illnesses. Dr. Jess lectures worldwide and continues to treat patients mostly remotely. He co-authored a book with Elizma Lambert ND entitled, “Leaky Gut, Leaky Cells, Leaky Brain”. His website is DrJessArmine.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. Maggie Ney discusses Bioidentical Hormone Replacement with Dr. Ben Weitz.
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Podcast Highlights
2:38 Perimenopause and Menopause....
8:46 The Women’s Health Initiative Study first published in 2002: Is Hormone Replacement Therapy Dangerous, Increasing the risk of breast cancer, heart disease, and stroke? A lot of women are now afraid of taking hormones because they think that they will have an increased risk of breast cancer. And a lot of doctors are still afraid of prescribing hormones because of this study. But this is a mistake because there were many flaws with this study. To begin with, the average age of the women in this study who were starting to take hormones was age 63, which not when most women start to take hormones. 70% were overweight and 60% were obese and a lot of them were past smokers and had hypertension. The estrogen used was an oral form of conjugated equine estrogen (Premarin) and synthetic form of progesterone known as a progestin (Provera). There was a group of women who did not have a uterus, who were given only estrogen/not progestin and they actually had about 18% less breast cancer, so clearly estrogen does not cause breast cancer. Dr. Ney feels that this study has done irreparable harm for a generation of women and 21 years later we’re still trying to educate women and doctors about bad hormone replacement therapy. (Risks and Benefits of Estrogen Plus Progestin in Healthy Postmenopausal Women: Principal Results From the Women’s Health Initiative Randomized Controlled Trial. JAMA. 2002;288(3):321–333. doi:10.1001/jama.288.3.321)
16:24 Relative risk vs absolute risk....
19:30 Dr. Ney’s favorite recommended options for hormone replacement therapy includes the FDA-approved options for estrogen, including a patch, a gel, a spray, or the Femring. Dr. Ney usually starts with estradiol in the patch form. And then she usually recommends a bioidentical progesterone in an oral, micronized pill form, such as Prometrium....
Dr. Maggie Ney is a licensed naturopathic doctor and a Menopause Society certified practitioner. She’s a director of the Women’s Clinic at the Akasha Center for Integrative Medicine in Santa Monica, California, where she has been supporting women through perimenopause and menopause since 2006. Dr. Ney is co-founder of HelloPeri, (TheHelloPeri.com) an online resource for women going through perimenopause, and she’s been featured on The Doctors show and Goop for expertise on women’s health and hormones. Her website is DrMaggieNey.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. Jason Hawrelak discusses Probiotics and SIBO 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
4:30 Specific Strains of Probiotics for Specific Purposes....
9:27 Probiotics can be antimicrobial....
17:31 When Dr. Hawrelak treats patients with SIBO he will generally choose selectively acting antimicrobial herbals and a prebiotic like partially hydrolyzed guar gum. PHGG is better tolerated by SIBO patients than other prebiotic fibers like inulin, FOS or GOS from a gas production perspective. And then for methane, he might use the BioGaia and Lactobacillus reuteri as well. Dr. Hawrelak finds using the PHGG to stimulate buyrate production works better than taking supplements of butyrate.
24:22 When Dr. Hawrelak orders SIBO breath testing he does not order the Trio Smart that tests hydrogen, methane, and hydrogen sulfide gases but he continues to do the 2 gas test, but often has patients repeat the test 3 times with lactulose, glucose, and fructose and each for 3 hours. He doesn't yet trust the 3 gas SIBO breath test.
Dr. Jason Hawrelak is a researcher, lecturer, naturopath, and nutritionist with over 20 years of clinical experience with a focus on the treatment of gastrointestinal conditions. Dr Hawrelak is the Head of Research at ProbioticAdvisor.com, which is an incredible database of information about probiotics. Dr. Hawrelak completed his PhD examining the capacity of probiotics, prebiotics, and herbal medicines to modify the gastrointestinal tract microbiota. He teaches and lectures on probiotics and the microbiome all over the world. He has written many papers and over 20 textbook chapters. Probiotic Advisor can be found here: https://www.probioticadvisor.com/. Dr. Hawrelak continues to work with patients at Gould's Natural Medicine clinic in Hobart, Australia.
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. Peter Bongiorno discusses An Integrative Approach to Depression and Anxiety at the Functional Medicine Discussion Group meeting on September 28, 2023 with moderator Dr. 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
9:27 The Neurotransmitter Theory of Depression and Anxiety....
16:02 SSRIs....
20:32 Dietary Factors....
23:35 Blood Sugar....
30:54 Coffee....
32:58 Alcohol....
36:17 Sleep....
38:19 Exercise....
47:04 Labs....
55:25 Nutritional Supplements....
Dr. Peter Bongiorno is a Naturopathic Doctor and Acupuncturist and he is the co-director of InnerSource Natural Health and Acupuncture, with offices in New York City and on Long Island. He also works with clients around the world via phone and Skype. He did research at the National Institutes of Health in the department of Neuroimmunology and then went to Bastyr University to study naturopathic medicine and acupuncture. He wrote a number of books, including Healing Depression in 2010 and Holistic Solutions for Anxiety and Depression in Therapy: Combining Natural Therapies with Conventional Care in 2015, both targeted for physicians, as well as How Come They’re Happy and I’m Not, and Put Anxiety Behind You: The Complete Drug Free Program.
Dr. 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. John Lewis discusses The Benefits of Polysaccharides 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
13:26 Polysaccharides....
20:25 Polymannose....
25:51 Aloe polymannose multinutrient complex....
35:06 Alzheimer’s study lab results....
44:45 MS study. These patients with relapsing remitting MS were placed on a similar aloe polymannose multinutrient complex four times per day for 12 months. The FAMS (Functional Assessment for MS) questionaire was used for functional assessment and results showed very significant improvements in every scale. MS patients frequently get infections and these patients who took the nutritional intervention had much fewer infections. Serum biomarkers, quality of life, symptom severity, and functioning also improved. [The Effect of a Polysaccharide-Based Multinutrient Dietary Supplementation Regimen on Infections and Immune Functioning in Multiple Sclerosis] and [The Effect of Broad-Spectrum Dietary Supplementation on Quality of Life, Symptom Severity, and Functioning in Multiple Sclerosis]
Dr. John Lewis is the founder and President of Dr. Lewis Nutrition and the website is DrLewisNutrition.com. Dr. Lewis was a professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Miami School of Medicine and he was the principal investigator of over 30 different studies in his research career. Much of his research has focused on the effects of nutrition, dietary supplementation, exercise, and medical devices on various aspects of human health and disease. One study that he was involved with that we will discuss is The Effect of an Aloe Polymannose Multinutrient Complex on Cognitive and Immune Functioning in Alzheimer’s Disease.
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.
View the Show Notes For This Episode
Michael Hobson and Karen Weitz discusses The Science and Energetics of Water 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
6:16 Primary water. This Aquene Springs water is a primary water. It does not come from rain that forms underground aquifers and accumulates in lakes and rivers. Oxygen is actually the most common element in the earth's crust, followed by silica as the second most prevalent element. Oxygen combines with hydrogen to form water and they form steam because of the heat in the earth's crust and it comes to the surface and roars out of the ground at 140 degrees Fahrenheit. So that's an example of primary water that is made in the Earth's crust on a continuous and ongoing basis.
12:14 Silica. The Aquene Springs water is high in silica dioxide, which is a silicon atom with two oxygens, which is the most common form of silicon found in nature. And silica, which is a trace mineral, has lots of benefits for our health. Silica is the basis for bones, hair, teeth, skin, it helps with blood flow, is beneficial for cardiac health, and is also helpful for gut issues. It also binds with aluminum, a heavy metal, and pulls this out of the body. As we age we tend to lose water and aging is a process of dehydration and losing silica also contributes to a loss of health. Michael also recommends a plant based diet partially because this will also result in getting more silica in your diet.
20:05 Hydration. There are a few ways to improve out hydration. One is to drink water. Another is to eat foods that contain water, like fruits and vegetables. Taking a shower or a bath also helps to hydrate you, since we absorb water through your skin. An additional way that we get hydrated is through the electron transport chain.
Michael: Well, there's that. Okay, I'm with you on that. Chlorine's, not necessarily a good thing for our bodies, for skin, but there's a third way that Ben, I think will appeal to you from the scientific standpoint. And that is the well-known process of the electron transfer chain, which was discovered by Albert St. Georgi, won Nobel Prize in 1937 as a result of some of this work. So it turns out that particularly at night, but even during the day in the human body, we take carbohydrates or fats, which store what? Hydrogen. But hydrogen in a very interesting form, not in H2 like it is when it's bound to oxygen for water, it's atonic hydrogen, it's H. If you look at those molecules, it's H bound up with other molecules. So hydrogen bonds to those in a way that when this electron transfer process happens, hydrogen atoms are released, they find each other, and when hydrogen atoms combine , two Hs find each other and form H2, they release energy in the form of heat. And at the same time they bind to oxygen because what do we have in our body? We have oxygen, which is a crucial element. So what I'm saying to you is that the output of the electron transfer mechanism is heat, to warm our bodies to keep them stable at 98.6 degrees and water. So we actually make primary water in our bodies.
Michael Hobson is the founder of Aquene Springs, which is a source of pristine primary water that comes out of the ground at 80 gallons/minute and it is a silica-rich, deuterium depleted water with a low surface tension. Michael is a mathematician, an econometrics professor and a corporate business consultant. He had several businesses in the music industry and his interest in frequencies eventually brought him to water. His website is AqueneSprings.com and using the discount code Rational10 will get you 10% off an order of this special water.
Karen Weitz is a Reiki energy master, Akashic Reader, Reiki Master, and Sound Alchemist. Her website is AllInDevineTime.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.