Ask Dr. Soram

I am so happy to announce that this Friday December 21, 2012 I will appear on the Dr Oz Show! You can click here to find your local station and time for the show. Most of my patients and I myself will be at work during this daytime show, so we are going to “Tivo” -record the show to watch when we get home.

I recorded the show in New York in September. It was really a fun thing to do and I was delighted that they gave me three segments with Dr. Oz.

In the first segment we talk about Integrative Medicine. In the second segment we talk about vitamin D and my book on vitamin D. In the third segment, the producers of the show had flown in two of my “Fans” from my website and my podcast site and we met for the first time live on stage in front of the audience! This was truly a thrilling moment to know that I have “Fans” out there, like you who are benefiting from my writing and my podcasts.

After we meet each other, I then teach the two ladies and Dr. Oz a few exercises of Kundalini Yoga. As most of you know I’ve been doing Kundalini Yoga for over 40 years. I still practice it every morning when I get up.

Let me know what you think when you watch the show! I’m excited to see it myself! I hope to hear from you.

My Interview For This Show

I hope you are enjoying my interview of Michael Gregor M.D. as much as I am.

This is part two of my interview and we start out with my asking Dr. Gregor about calcium. He gives the recommendations for calcium of 1000 mg per day.. He does encourage all of us to get our calcium from food however rather than pills.

I then go on to ask Dr.Gregor about the use of the very popular Human Growth Hormone shots. Some of my patients get the shots from other colleagues in town and I do not feel that they are safe. Dr. Krieger gives a very clear explanation on why Human Growth hormone shots are not good for you. Growth hormone not only helps transform the abnormal cells and cancer cells in the first place, it also helps them survive and increases their growth, migration and invasion.

We talk about the difference in growth hormone levels in vegetarians who eat dairy and in vegans who do not. This makes for a very interesting conversation.

We then go on to talk about Premenstrual Syndrome which is so common in our society. Dr. Gregor estimated that one in three women have this condition. Dr. Gregor talks about the amazing research with the spice saffron. Not only did swallowing pills of saffron help women with PMS, but even smelling saffron was helpful! This is amazing! The oral dose of saffron that was used is 30 mg. He encourages you to buy it in the spice aisle rather than in the drugstore aisle. This way you can just add it to your food.

Dr. Gregor laments that there are not more people like him who “troll” through the medical literature finding things to bring out to the world that are not in the major medical journals but which are solidly researched. Dr. Gregor tells me that he has had 5 million hits on his website to watch his videos.

Dr. Gregor and and I then discuss Hormone Replacement Therapy for menopausal women and andropausal men. He is not a big fan of bioidentical hormones. I point out to him  an article which has recently looked at a 10 year study of hormone replacement on women that started hormones at menopause. The study showed that using hormones from the beginning of menopause did not increase the incidence of cancer at all,and indeed decreased heart disease by 50%.

That concludes the second part of our interview in the next and final part of the interview will open with my questions to Dr. Gregor about exercise.

Please send in your questions or leave comments on my site so that I know you’re out there listening! Also please RATE me on iTunes so we can spread the word on the importance of Integrative Medicine for our health. Also you can follow me on Twitter and on Facebook. Now that I’ve gotten my Facebook fan page set up it is so much easier.

Welcome back everybody from Thanksgiving! I hope you had a wonderful time with your friends and family. For many of us Thanksgiving is our favorite holiday of the year. We should all be grateful for what we do have, in spite of what we may not have.

Integrative medicine is increasingly coming into the news and we are all realizing the important role that our Lifestyle has in affecting our health.

In this podcast I discuss several new articles which have come out.

First I talk about the new information which is just come out on the importance of vitamin D for elderly women. Low vitamin D in these two articles have been associated with impaired cognitive function. This is directly connected with the new epidemic that we are seeing of Alzheimer’s disease. The article is HERE.

I then go on to talk about the new information on high fructose fueling the type II diabetes epidemic. This is research done at the University of Southern California and also the University of Oxford. These articles show that there are potential significant risks in consuming high levels of high fructose corn syrup. Unfortunately the United States has the highest consumption of this product. The average American consumes 55 pounds of high fructose corn syrup per year. The second highest is Hungary with 46 pounds per person per year.

The author is quoted as saying “This research suggests that high fructose corn syrup can increase the risk of type II diabetes”. The researchers are calling for better labeling of both fructose and high fructose corn syrup content in foods and beverages in our country. You can read the article HERE

Before we start our interview I talk about the article that just come out showing that many couches in the United States contain toxic chemicals which are associated with lowered IQ, impaired motor development, impaired behavioral development, and low birth weight in children

You can read about it HERE

MY GUEST THIS WEEK

In this podcast I’m delighted to have my colleague Michael Gregor, M.D. Dr Gregor is a founding member of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine. He is a physician, author, and internationally recognized speaker on nutrition, food safety and public health issues. Currently Dr. Gregor serves as the Director of Public of Health and Animal Agriculture at the Humane Society of the United States. Hundreds of his nutrition videos are freely available at NutritionFacts.org with a new video uploaded every day.

I encourage all my readers to subscribe to his daily video by signing up at his website HERE. You will find his daily 2 minute videos of great value for improving your health.

In this interview I ask Dr. Gregor how he founded nutritionfacts.org, and it’s a very interesting story about how he gets all his articles and does the videos by himself. All of this information is on his website for free and it is amazingly updated on a daily basis.

I use this podcast to ask some important questions that my listeners and I are probably very interested in.

I start out by asking him what are his thoughts on the best diet to prevent cancer and heart disease.

We go on to discuss the whole myth about protein and a vegan diet. There is a lot of information on this in the interview.

We then go on to talk about fish oil, DHA and EPA. Again we discussed this extensively and I will let you draw your own conclusions from the podcast.

In the next part of my interview we will discuss the importance of calcium and the correct dosages to take. I also ask him on the next podcast about growth hormone shots which are so popular amongst people who can afford it. In the next podcast we also talk about hormones and specifically PMS and menopause.

Please send in your questions or leave comments on my site so that I know you’re out there listening! Also please RATE me on iTunes so we can spread the word on the importance of Integrative Medicine for our health. Also you can follow me on Twitter and on Facebook. Now that I’ve gotten my Facebook fan page set up it is so much easier to join me!

This is the second part of my podcast interview with Walter Crinnion ND, on the role of environmental toxins in causation of Attention Deficit Disorder in children.

I open this podcast talking about how proposition 37 was turned down by the voters thanks to an enormous amount of money put in by large corporations who did not want their products to lose money. This was a proposition which would have required products containing genetically modified organisms to be labeled. (GMO’s)

You can learn more about this subject by going to the website www.responsibletechnology.org.

I also remind you about the importance clean fresh seeds that we all grow our food from. There is an excellent video that is narrated by Jeremy Irons that you can watch at this website.

We open this podcast by talking about the role that heavy metals play in the diagnosis of ADD and ADHD.

Dr. Crinnion talks about how the mother is eating tuna to get the fish oil to have a smart kid. But the methylmercury that comes along with the fish can dramatically increase the child’s risk of ADHD. Dr. Crinnion expresses that mercury and PCBs which is also in farmed salmon negates the benefit of the fish oil and take the brain the other way.

We talk about a product called Neuromins in which is a DHA product that is derived from a vegetarian source. He also points out that DHA also helps older people with their brains as well!

We then talk about the role of lead in contributing to ADHD as well. There is a new article in the October 2012 issue of environmental health perspectives in which they discuss prenatal methylmercury and lead and ADHD symptomatology in childhood.

Dr. Crinnion also reminds us that women should take calcium whilepregnant to prevent lead being leached out of their bones and going into the fetus.

We both discuss how heavy metal toxicity in the mother is easily treatable before she becomes pregnant.

Dr. Crinnion reviews the specific  lead blood levels in children that are associated with ADD.

We talk about the myth that people think children get lead poisoning from eating paint in their house. In point of fact if there is lead paint in a house it breaks down on its own into the fine dust which is then breathed in in the house. Also lead from leaded gasoline used in cars before it was made illegal, still remains in the soil around the homes.

Dr. Crinnion gives the example of a nice area in downtown Seattle that was close to Interstate 5. They recently found that the soil in the beautiful upscale neighborhoods in the area near the freeway were so contaminated with lead that the owners were told to cement over the dirt and not to let the kids play.

Also he points out that there is lead in cigarettes so that if a parent is smoking in the home, the child gets exposed to lead that way as well.

We also talk about plastic toys and how they may contain lead especially for imported from China. This includes the recent fiasco of a large food chain which had to recall over 1 million toys that they had given out to children because they discovered lead in all the toys.

Herbert Needleman M.D. was one of the original doctors who show that lead in low levels can affect children’s neurodevelopment.

Organophosphates and phthalates are also problems in regards to ADD. Parents do not realize this. For example they will install a new shower curtain which out gases phthalates for a long time. Phthalates are plasticizers. Parents should begin to pay attention to the personal care products which contain phthalates.

Also air filtration and furnace filtering on important issues in the house to keep the air clean

We talk about preconception care and our ability now with modern technology to measure women’s levels of these chemicals and metals before they get pregnant in addition we can clean them out.

As a side issue Dr. Crinnion reminds us that the higher the level of phthalates in your blood and urine the bigger your waistline. This is because they were also metabolic disruptors.

The question comes up how do you find a doctor and its knowledgeable about this. Dr. Crinnion has created on his website a list of the doctors that have taken the environmental training course that he’s been giving for the last 12 years.

I refer you to Dr. Walter Crinnion’s excellent book Clean, Green, and Lean, which is an excellent practical guide to how to get your house clean of foreign chemicals. This would be a great asset for preparing your house for a new baby.

The book is here

And kindle version here.

Please send in your questions or leave comments on my site so that I know you’re out there listening! Also please RATE me on iTunes so we can spread the word on the importance of Integrative Medicine for our health. Also you can follow me on Twitter and on Facebook. Now that I’ve gotten my Facebook fan page set up it is so much easier to join me!

References from this Podcast

Case-control study of blood lead levels and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in Chinese children.

Prenatal Methylmercury, Postnatal Lead Exposure, and Evidence of Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder among Inuit Children in Arctic Québec.

Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder and urinary metabolites

Once again, I welcome my colleague and friend Dr. Walter Crinnion to my podcast. In this podcast we talk about the role of common environmental chemicals and how they affect children specifically in relation to ADD and ADHD.

However, before we get to the substance of this podcast I want to remind you that for a few more days,  this very important documentary on the role of GMOs in your health and health of your family is still online to watch for free. I urge you to watch it and to apply it to your life.

It is free to watch HERE!

I remind everybody that we now know  that one in six children in America has a developmental disability. The spectrum of these disorders includes autism, learning disorders or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder which is what we are talking about today.

From 1997 to 1999 from the US Center of Disease Control and Prevention studies, they recognize the 12.8% of children were diagnosed with a developmental disability. In 2008 this rose to 15%. These studies lag behind the current date, but we do know that it is continuing to rise.

There is great expense involved in taking care of children with ADHD – taking your children to the doctors, getting diagnosed, taking medications getting special schooling etc. in addition there is a tremendous emotional and stress cost to the family as well as to the child with ADHD. And the emotional costs to the child, continue to add up throughout their whole life.

Therefore if we as parents can do anything to prevent this are helping to alter and improve their lives.

We then go on to talk about all the environmental toxicants, all of which are common that are contributors to ADHD.

The good news is that the majority of these toxins levels are very correctable by changing one’s diet and lifestyle as well as the things in the house. So the majority of things which have been highly associated with ADHD are fixable things and that is the good news.

In addition when you make the changes in diet and lifestyle they will help everybody in the household –the whole family not just a child.

Everybody thinks that these children are JUST the children of farmworkers who are  getting exposed to pesticides all day. Dr. Crinnion quickly dismantles that myth.

We go on to talk about organophosphate pesticides which are the ones found in non-organic fruits and vegetables. For example one of these dimethyl – triphosphate, when found in children above the CDC mean levels, doubled the risk of the children getting ADHD. And this was not in the womb, but in children that were being raised from birth.

Just this last September there was an update from the CDC. In looking at this particular pesticide, the levels in children aged 6 to 11 have been going up each year that the CDC looks at it. This correlates with the incidence of ADHD  going up.

Dr. Crinnion and I both recommend that you go to the Environmental Working Group (EWG) site and download the list of the 12 most pesticided fruits and vegetables for when you go shopping.. That is where you want to spend the extra money and go organic.

That food list is here for your phone, tablet or print out

and more information here

This is important for the  woman while she is pregnant as well, because organophosphate pesticides during pregnancy is also recognized the cause chronic neurological problems in the child.

We then go on to talk about chlorinated pesticides, and PCB exposure in utero and ADHD. Current exposure to these primarily comes from farmed salmon and catfish. We talk about how mothers who are pregnant are wanting to make the kid smart so they eat fish to get the fish oil. They do not realize they are also getting these persistent pollutants. Dr. Crinnion gives the name of several brands of farmed fish.

Dr. Crinnion point out that there are a blood tests that can be done for any woman who is considering conceiving to see what her levels are. I do these routinely on women in my practice who want this information before they conceive.

Dr. Crinnion reminds me that the same toxicants that we are talking about are also associated with higher rates of asthma, allergies, obesity, diabetes and a whole host of other adverse health problems in the child.

Dr. Crinnion stated: “You want the best for your kid. This is some of the cheapest insurance you can get.”

We then go on to talk about using pesticides in your house to treat insects. Both Dr. Crinnion and I strongly encourage you to look for nonchemical alternatives to bug problems.

Some of my patients wanting to make their house pretty before the baby is born lay down new carpeting. We talk about  the risks associated with that.

I refer you to Dr. Walter Crinnion’s excellent book Clean, Green, and Lean, which is an excellent practical guide to how to get your house clean of foreign chemicals. This would be a great asset for preparing your house for a new baby.

The book is here

And kindle version here

In part two of this podcast with Dr. Crinnion I will go on to talk about the effects of heavy metals and phthalates, which are found in personal care products and their relationships to ADHD.

Please send in your questions or leave comments on my site so that I know you’re out there listening! Also please RATE me on iTunes so we can spread the word on the importance of Integrative Medicine for our health. Also you can follow me on   HYPERLINK  Twitter and on  Facebook. Now that I’ve gotten my Facebook fan page set up it is so much easier to join me!

References from this Podcast

 EWG Safe Cleaning Tips

Developmental neurotoxicity of industrial chemicals

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and urinary metabolites of organophosphate pesticides.

Prenatal exposure to organophosphate pesticides and IQ in 7-year-old children.

Increased risk of ADHD associated with early exposure to pesticides, PCBs.

Prenatal organochlorine exposure and behaviors associated with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in school-aged children.

Before I talk about this podcast I want to mention that I was at the Healthy Expo in Los Angeles yesterday and heard Jeffrey M. Smith speak about “Genetic Roulette”. From his lecture I got an even stronger understanding of the role that GMO’s could be playing in all of our health. I see GMO’s as just yet one more environmental toxin.

Click here to read my entire post on this subject.

Here is the GMO website I talk about

You can click here to watch the Movie for free this week on Genetic Roulette

In this podcast I conclude with part three of my interview with Dr. Ron Karlsberg, Professor of Medicine at UCLA School of medicine.

We finish up discussing this very valuable test called the Coronary CT Angiogram.

We start off this interview with the cost of this test which at some centers in Southern California is $1500 and others only $800. Dr. Karlsberg describes how you will see your own heart in three dimensions. You are able to slide through the arteries of your heart. Some of Dr. Karlsberg’s patients have been movie producers who want to use this technology in their next movie!

We talk about the preparation for the procedure including how they will most likely give you an intravenous medicine to slow your heart rate and possibly a nitroglycerin spray under your tongue to let your arteries be more clearly visible. I also recommend that you take a nutraceutical called NAC 500 mg twice a day for three days before the test and two days after the test. This minimizes the impact of the iodine dye that will be injected on the kidneys.

Dr. Karlsberg then discusses some of the other preparation for the test.

I then asked Dr. Karlsberg if a patient gets this test, do they need any other test. His reply is as long as any blockage found is less than 55% no further tests are needed.

We also discussed whether carotid artery ultrasound scanning would be additionally helpful.

If the arteries are calcified and sometimes the soft plaque is not as visible and we discussed this.

Dr. Karlsberg points out that in patients who have mild symptoms or symptoms that were not clearly cardiac that this test could replace a real angiogram to get clarification about the cardiac status.

I then asked Dr. Karlsberg about when a follow-up test would be done. In a word his answer is in 3 to 5 years.

We then briefly talk about the indications for bypass surgery for the heart.

I then asked Dr. Karlsberg what LDL level he likes patients even without disease to have. and his answer is that the he would like to see the LDL between 100 and 130.

He reminds us of the recent TV show on CNN called the Last Heart Attack. I encourage you to watch this if you’ve not seen it already.

Dr. Karlsberg closes by reminding us that this test is a CT scan not an MRI, so you are not enclosed in a narrow tube whatsoever. Whether you are in a big donut that is several feet above your face.

For more information about Dr. Karlsberg and this test you can go to Cardiovascular Medical Group or their research foundation at CVRF.net.

Please send in your questions or leave comments on my site so that I know you’re out there listening! Also please RATE me on iTunes so we can spread the word on the importance of Integrative Medicine for our health. Also you can follow me on  Twitter and on Facebook. Now that I’ve gotten my Facebook fan page set up it is so much easier.

For the TRANSCRIPT of this Interview click PAGE 2 just below

In this podcast I announce that I am going to be on a medical daytime TV show in the near future. I am not allowed to put its name on the internet until 7 days before the show. The show has been filmed and should air in the 2nd or 3rd week of October. Stay tuned to my podcast and my website www.drsoram.com for an announcement as soon as I know. Also, I will be tweeting it and putting it on my Facebook page. Please follow me on twitter or LIKE me on Facebook!

I also talk about how I had the privilege to meet with Dr. Wayne Dyer while I was visiting in Hawaii. We had a wonderful conversation together and it was most uplifting to me. I highly recommend to you his new book which is a bestseller called Wishes Fulfilled. It is a difficult time on planet earth for all of us, and this book will help guide you to getting what is most important to you.

Or you can get it on Kindle here.

I also mentioned in the podcast the teacher Neville and I definitely can recommend his book called the Power of Awareness.

Or you can get it on Kindle here.

We then go on to part two of my interview with Dr. Ron Karlsberg. As you know, he is a clinical professor of medicine at UCLA School of medicine.

This interview for those of you just joining, is about the importance of the CT angiogram and how it can save lives.

In this part of the podcast I asked Dr. Karlsberg about radiation exposure in the test and the use of iodine as a contrast medium. We also talk about other risks which are very low level. We go over the details of the preparation for the test, and Dr. Karlsberg points out that in over 5000 cases that they have performed at his office, they haven’t had even one complication from any medicines that were used. He also points out that his centers and other centers have invented ways to reduce the radiation by 90% –specifically for you scientists out there the estimated radiation from this test is 2.5 milli-Sievers.

We then go on to talk about the indications for the test especially in symptomatic people. We also talk about the use of the test in the asymptomatic patient. In this case, which is how I often do it in my office it is considered a screening procedure.

I then talk about a particular patient mine who was having chest pain and how we were able to immediately get him in for the CT angiogram and found his arteries to be completely wide-open. We knew then that is chest pain was not cardiac in origin.

Another situation where this test is especially valuable is in a patient with a very strong family history of premature heart disease.

We then briefly talk about the “widow maker” artery and exactly what it is.

Of course the question of whether insurance covers this test comes up and the good news is that some insurances do pay for the cardiac CT.

Dr. Karlsberg points out how this test could actually allow someone with no cardiac plaque to come off of some of their cardiac medicines– specifically statins.

Dr. Karlsberg goes on to talk about new drugs that he is evaluating with which the HDL also known as the good cholesterol can be increased by 130%.

After this part two of the interview, I go on to answer several questions submitted by listeners just like you. I appreciate the questions because it lets me expand the show and also give guidance to my listeners.

In this podcast I address the questions sent in by Gail and another listener Akea (? not sure about how she spells her name) regarding SIBO and its treatment. I am seeing so many patients with SIBO and I talk about why I think it is becoming more prevalent.

Please send in your questions or leave comments on my site so that I know you’re out there listening! Also please RATE my on iTunes so we can spread the word on the importance of Integrative Medicine for our health. Also you can follow me on Twitter and on Facebook. Now that I’ve got my Facebook fan page set up it is so much easier.

Best wishes

I am back from my vacation in Maui with my wife and friends and we had a  great time!  We went to the ocean every day and even spent an entire day of the ocean with good sunblock and an umbrella.

Just two days after I got back from Hawaii I went to the Dr. John McDougall advanced weekend in Santa Rosa California that I told you about on the last podcast. It was a fantastic meeting. Dean Ornish M.D., was the lead speaker and he gave a wonderful talk about the work he’s doing with diet and lifestyle in reversing heart disease and stabilizing or reversing prostate cancer. Here is his site

and here is his lecture on TED

Also William Roberts, M.D., the editor of the American Journal of Cardiology also gave a great lecture and you watch a free YouTube video of him entitled “Humans are Herbivores”.

I encourage any of you who are vegans or are interested in being a vegan to come to the next intensive that he has which will be in March of next year.

For those of you who were not able to attend the conference, you can watch the recorded videos on Dr. McDougall’s website.

There is a fee for this but it is well worth it, and you don’t  even have to leave your house!

In this podcast today,  I interview one of my cardiac consultants, Ron Karlsberg M.D. Dr. , is an expert clinical interventional cardiologist with extensive experience in consultative cardiology, clinical research and he is the recipient of over 300 research grants in cardiology. Dr. Karlsberg has a special interest in digital medical imaging. He is a recognized expert in incorporating state-of-the-art treatments and cutting-edge medical therapies into clinical practice. He directs the CVM G advanced imaging Center which is one of the first office-based 64 CT centers. The CVMG Advanced Imaging Centers in collaboration with Cedars Sinai Medical Centerne of the large experiences in advanced office-based cardiac Imaging.

In this interview, Dr. Karlsberg and I discuss a new technique called the CT Cardiac Angiogram. In our discussion, we review exactly what is involved  in this cardiac test. We discuss how this test compares with the traditional EBCT calcium score.

We discuss the two types of plaque that the heart can get-calcified plaque, and soft non-calcified plaque. A person with no calcium plaque has at least a 95% chance of not having a cardiac event (for example a heart attack) in the next five years.

The difference between the CT angiogram and a simple calcium scan or EBCT is that the angiogram uses a small amount of contrast media which is medical iodine. In the CT angiogram, very sophisticated enhanced software allows the doctor to create a 3-D image of the heart and actually see the coronary arteries. With this technique early cardiac plaque can be identified and specifically plaques that are at risk for closing (occlusion) are very visible.

With soft plaque, early intervention is very important. Soft plaque can break off and cause a heart attack.

We discuss exercise tests and Dr. Karlsberg points out that these tests measure the consequences of reduced blood flow. These tests will go positive once there is an 80 to 90% blockage of an artery. He points out that exercise testing can miss narrowing of the arteries including serious narrowing. He points out that exercise testing tends to underestimate the amount of plaque.

Dr. Karlsberg reminds me that the CT angigram is new technology and we must be cautious about integrating this test with the other tests available to cardiologists.

He states that a CT angiogram will never miss disease if the study and technique are good.

In my next podcast I will have part two of my interview with Dr. Karlsberg. We lead off that conversation with a discussion of what are the risks associated with the CT Angiogram.

Dr Karlsberg can be contacted through his website .

Do you have family or friends who have had heart disease? Have they had this test? Do you see the advantage and usefulness of this test in screening people who are at risk but to have no symptoms? I look forward to hearing from you either in comments below or through e-mail at [email protected].

This podcast is going to be short today because I’m just going to give you an announcement. I hope to have a wonderful interview which I did with Dr. Ron Karlsberg, who is one of the original physicians who has helped create and study the Coronary CT Angiogram, and I promise you in a couple weeks we will. I’ve decided to practice my own preaching and do some conscious living and I’m going to take a little time off from podcasting for this cycle because I am going to take some personal travel time with my family.

In addition, I’m very excited to let you all know and share with you that I will be attending the Dr. John McDougall Retreat, which is an advanced study weekend on September 7th to 9th. By the time you listen to this, this conference will be sold out, but you can go to DrMcDougall.com and you can actually sign up to watch it live via the internet, which is fabulous if you don’t want to travel up to Santa Rosa. This is on the weekend of September 7th to 9th.

Dr. McDougall, as you may know, has a retreat center where people with chronic disease – everything from heart disease to cancer – come and go and spend ten intensive days on lifestyle management and Dietary changes; and he has these wonderful advanced study weekends and I’m going to attend this in person myself this time because some of his guests are just too good to miss.

W. Clifford Roberts, who is the current editor of the American Journal of Cardiology and executive director of the Bailor Cardiovascular Institute in Dallas, (pictured in this article) will be speaking. He has a wonderful YouTube video entitled Humans are Herbivores. Times are really changing when the editor of the American Journal Cardiology, the most prestigious journal of cardiology in the United States, is coming to speak at a conference about lifestyle and diet.

In addition, Dean Ornish is going to be speaking there. He is a world renowned researcher in the treatment of common diseases with diet.

In addition, George Lundberg, who is the former editor of JAMA (The Journal of the American Medical Association) and currently the editor of Med Page today, is going to be speaking.

And, on top of that, my colleague and friend Keith Block, who’s the founder of the Block Center for Integrative Cancer Treatment, is coming to speak.

So, it’s going to be a fabulous weekend. I wish all of my listeners could come up, but, as I said, by the time this podcast plays, I know it’s going to be closed; but they will have internet availability, so you can watch it on the internet. There is a fee, but it’s quite reasonable for the whole weekend.

So, when I come back from this, I am sure I’m going to have plenty of things exciting to share with you. In addition, as I said, in the wings, is my interview with Dr. Karlsberg about the CT Angiogram, which is a very special interview and I’m in the process of preparing that but won’t be able to do it until I get back.

So, with that, I want to thank all of you for tuning in today. If you have questions, you know you can email me at [email protected] or you can call me directly and leave a voicemail at 310-499-0275. Thank you for joining me on Ask Dr. Soram, and I’m wishing that your life is filled with enlightened medicine, conscious living, and compassion healing. I’ll see you back in two weeks.

In part three of my interview with Chef AJ we start out by talking about how important it is to stop eating oil and sugar. She learned this from attending lectures by Dr. Esselstyn, who you as you probably know is now President Bill Clinton’s physician.

Chef AJ recommends reading two books. One is called The End of Overeating and you can get Kindle version HERE.

The other book is called The Pleasure Trap. These books explain why these food substances are so addictive.

You can also get it on Kindle here.

She then talks about a noted cardiologist in Texas, Baxter Montgomery, M.D. who talks about genetic diseases. He has an interesting saying which is “it’s not the disease that runs in the family, it’s the recipes! That’s what is running in your family!”

His book is HERE.

His YouTube video is HERE.

Chef AJ feels that disease is 90% under our own control whether we get sick or not is determined by our behavior and our food habits.

She points out that we use food to solve our emotional stress, almost as a medicine. She notes that when people are stressed it lowers their dopamine and instead of doing the things that they should do to increase their dopamine such as exercise, volunteer work, or meditation, they rather go for the vending machine many times a day and in her opinion what they are looking for is dopamine.

We then go on to talk about epigenetics, which as you know is the future of medicine I believe. She reminds us as I’ve reminded you many times with food we can actually change our genetic expression.. This takes us out of being in the victim category. She reminds us that eating poorly is so commonplace that it’s now accepted

I then go on to ask her to talk about what is wrong with milk and cheese? She points out that what mankind ate for most of the course of the history of the planet was not Dairy. This is a relatively recent phenomenon. She points out that human beings are the only species that not only drink milk after maturity, but actually drink milk of another species.

She reminds us that the problem with milk is the casein protein in it, and she points out that Dr. Colin Campbell stumbled upon the recognition that it was a potent carcinogen.

She tells us that Dr. Campbell was originally a dairy farmer! He got hired by the dairy industry to find a way to get cows to produce more milk and in his research stumbled upon the fact that the protein in milk, called casein, was carcinogenic and he was able to turn cancer on and off by giving the animals casein. Read about this HERE

She also points out if you had your own cow in your own yard and you didn’t feed it GMO grain and if you wanted to milk it yourself maybe that would be okay but we must understand how animals are raised in dairy farms.

We then go on to talk about the ingredients in milk and you will be surprised what they are! I will not print them here!

She gives us a vivid description of what’s happening in the dairy industry. She also points out that about 50% of the world’s antibiotics go to farm animals. She strongly states that she believes that when people eat animal products like meat and dairy they are eating tissues that have had mass quantities of hormones and antibiotics pumped into it.

She discusses how the USDA inspects all milk to make sure there is not too much blood or pus in it.

She recommends that those who are addicted to cheese can try switching to a processed product called Daiya, and that in Los Angeles some pizza restaurants will make a vegan pizza with that cheese. It tastes like cheese and its melts like cheese and she recommends it as a great transition away from cheese. Get details on the podcast itself.

We then transition to talking about AJ’s book entitled Unprocessed. I specifically ask her about the section where she talks about the “Yabbuts”. She describes that a Yabbut (pronounced “Yeah but”), is an excuse. She got this expression because her clients would come to her place and say I need to stop my sugar – Yeah-But!

One of the main Yabbuts is that it’s too expensive to eat healthy. She points out that Dr. McDougall has calculated that you can eat this way for $3.33 a day. In addition she recommends the book by Alan Jeffrey called Vegan on For Dollars a Day.

We then go on to talk about the other Yabbut’s in her book, which I will let you listen to on the podcast directly or read in her book.

Chef AJ reminds us how easy it is to cook things at home when you use a pressure cooker. She specifically recommends an electric pressure cooker which is independent of the stove.

She reminds people often that just because you can’t do everything in the diet doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do anything. She reminds us to move in the direction of optimum health by adding more fruits and vegetables in your day. This is better than doing nothing.

We close by talking about her website which you can visit here and her book Unprocessed

She also mentions the course that we talked about in part one of her interview on November 3 and November 4. More information about this can be found at HealthytasteofLA.com.

She also has a three-hour course where you will learn to cook 10 different meals that are healthy, satisfying and vegan. She points out that people even fly in from other parts of the country to just take this course. As you know I took her course and found it very helpful and very inspiring.

I look forward to bringing Chef AJ back on another show where we can perhaps talk about sugar.

If you like this podcast, please do rate me on iTunes. This way more people can learn of the podcast, and we can all work together to lift the health consciousness of our planet.

In addition please leave your comments below or you can send an email to me at [email protected] or by leaving a voicemail message at my Integrative Medicine Hotline 310-499-0275.

I look forward to hearing from you.

For the TRANSCRIPT of this Interview click PAGE 2 just below

In Part 2 of my interview with we start out by talking about the ubiquitous olive oil. We get Chef AJ’s perspective on olive oil. Olive Oil is indeed a highly processed food she points out. You can’t just take some olives and press them in your house and get Olive Oil. She points out that we don’t sit down and eat 40 to 50 olives in one sitting which is what it would take to make some olive oil. This is about the Mount of olives in 1 tablespoon of olive oil. That is 120 calories of pure fat which is 14% saturated fat as well.

She further points out in this epidemic of obesity, where it is predicted that 50% of Americans will be obese, why would we want to feed them a food that is 4000 calories per pound? This is the most calorically dense food on the planet, and it doesn’t fill you up! She therefore recommends eating flax seed not the oil, the corn not the corn oil!

Indeed, it Chef AJ points out that it takes 16 ears of corn to make 1 tablespoon of corn oil.

She goes on to talk about the study that looked at the Mediterranean Diet and how that is not represented correctly to Americans. In that study they asked the people to stop eating powder and substitute olive oil. Therefore this is just a commentary that olive oil is in the that is powder for cholesterol. This was very surprising information to me because I’d never heard that about the Mediterranean Diet.

She talks about how it is important and much healthier to eat the wrong foods such as the olives, or the flax, or the corn.

We then talk about agave. She points out that UCLA did research that showed that fructose contributes to the growth of cancer. Agave is 90% fructose and high fructose corn syrup is only 55% fructose. She points out that the average American eats 150 pounds of sugar per year.

Our government recommends no more than 6 teaspoons of sugar per day. One soda can has 12 teaspoons of sugar in it. What does a Big Gulp have in it? This will help you understand why they are trying to eliminate the very large size soda is in New York at this time.

I point out to Chef AJ that my patients want something sweet and food and what she recommends is date paste which you can get from this website.

I then ask Chef AJ about Stevia another popular sweetener. She notes that this is what many health oriented chefs use. However she points out that Joel Fuhrman MD notes that Stevia is so sweet that it is not a natural sensation to the human taste and tends to make a person want to eat more and more sweets.

I then going on to talk with Chef AJ about what brought her to this way of life and this understanding of our diet. She was on to relate her personal health story which started with heavy rectal bleeding. After seeing her medical doctor and getting a diagnosis she went to Optimum Health Institute in San Diego California.

In the next and last part of the interview we will go on to talk about Milk and the dairy industry.

Thank you for joining me in my podcast. Remember you can send me questions at [email protected], or you can call our hotline for questions at 310-499-0275.

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