Del Bigtree discusses the issues with Vaccine Safety in his interview with Dr. Ben Weitz and why vaccines are not being made as safe as they could. I introduced Del Bigtree as an Award winning producer for the TV show The Doctors and for the controversial documentary, Vaxxed.  I asked Del how he came to be so passionate about vaccine safety? Del explained that he is passionate guy and he cares about people. He also said that he is skeptical that when selling drugs that make billions of dollars that the companies will always have the public’s interest number one at the highest decision making level. Money always seems to come first. He investigates with that level of skepticism.  Vaccines are a product that are meant to make us healthier and his investigation into them has revealed that safety is really the last consideration rather than the first. And we are talking about a product that is injected into one day old babies. This should require the up most scrutiny into their safety but the opposite seems to be true.

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3:32 We have a product in vaccines that are being mandated across this country and forced, such as in California, where they eliminated the exemptions. This means that the state decides what gets injected into our children and we have no say in the matter, if we want our kids to go to public and most private schools.  That is a dangerous step for a democracy. We have to be careful about losing control over our rights. Some people don’t believe in vaccines, for a variety of reasons or just want to spread them out more. And for those who do believe in vaccines, we need to make them as safe as possible. We have to understand that every year kids are injured and some are killed by vaccines. There is a long list of problems and we should try to reduce this list.

5:38  I said that there is something appealing about the concept of vaccines, from a Functional Medicine perspective. We know that infectious diseases have been big killers of people throughout the ages. For bacterial infections, we have antibiotics, but for viruses, we don’t have any effective drugs. The concept of vaccines is appealing because it involves using your body’s own immune system to create antibodies to fight off viruses. It is more natural than using a foreign drug to kill off the infectious disease. Unfortunately, in our capitalist health care system, profit is a big factor. One of the things in our system that forces companies to make safer products is that they can get sued if they make a less safe product. Unfortunately, when it comes to vaccines, that market force has been eliminated by the 1986 National Vaccine Injury Act, that prevent the companies that make the vaccines from being sued. I asked Del to explain this law and why it plays a role in vaccine safety.  Del said that he also believes that it is a noble pursuit for science to figure out a way to protect us from infectious diseases and that vaccines are a great idea. But have we have to make them as safe as possible and it is really law suits that forces companies to make safer products. If 2 or 3 air bags fail in your car and you have Toyota is recalling every car on the continent. Two kids die getting their heads caught in cribs and they are recalling every crib. Thus the market incentivizes companies not to put out unsafe products, because it costs them millions of dollars to recall it. But the vaccine industry is one of the only companies that does not have that liability. That is because the vaccine manufacturers were getting so many law suits because of the DTP vaccine, which was a very problematic vaccine that was causing a lot of injury and deaths, and they went to congress and lobbied to get this National Vaccine Injury Act passed,

Dr. Rosalba Courtney discusses how dysfunctional breathing can lead to health problems and how breathing assessment and training can improve this with Dr. Ben Weitz.  Dr. Courtney happened to be in the US to teach a course on breathing techniques to practitioners.

 

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2:15 I asked how Dr. Courtney came to be so involved with breathing therapy? Dr. Courtney explained that as an Osteopath and as a Naturapath in Australia she was always looking for natural treatment methods for patients who were not responding with her normal manual therapy methods, including patients with very rigid rib cages and asthma patients who were not responding. She learned a few breathing techniques, both of which came out of Russia–the Alexander technique and the Butyeko technique. The more she used these breathing techniques, esp. in those difficult to treat patients, the better results she got. In 2003 Dr. Courtney got a PhD in breathing and she developed a method and protocol for the assessment and training to improve breathing.  Dysfunctional breathing is common and has three main components: 1. Biomechanics of breathing, including whether you breathe through your nose or your mouth, how you use your breathing muscles, and the patterns and rhythms of your breathing whether they are functional or dysfunctional, 2. the Biochemistry of breathing–how breathing is affecting your pH, your body balance, your carbon dioxide and oxygen, 3. the Psychophysiological aspect of breathing–How you are perceiving your breathing?  Are you perceiving it accurately?  Are you aware of breathing, can you connect with it? Is breathing pleasant or unpleasant? How has fear, anxiety and stress conditioned your breathing?  You have to figure out how is this person’s breathing wrong, what’s caused it, and which breathing techniques to use to fix it.  There is the Butyeko breathing technique that uses reduced breathing and breath holding. There are other methods of breathing that work more with the nervous system and try to optimize the function of the vagus nerve and create sympathetic/parasympathetic nervous system balance.  She also works with intermittent hypoxic training, which is acclimatizing the body to higher altitude conditions to improve the body chemistry.

5:42 I then asked for Dr. Courtney to clarify what dysfunctional breathing is and I mentioned that despite the importance of breathing, most of us don’t really ever think about our breathing.   Dr. Courtney explained that breathing functions like a pump to create pressure changes to pump air and fluid through the body. Breathing has biochemical functions, including to regulate oxygen and carbon dioxide and pH. There are secondary functions of breathing where breathing interacts with many systems of the body. Breathing affects speech and oscillations in the body. It is involved in self regulation of the brain and the nervous system. Breathing is also involved in posture and motor control. Functional breathing is breathing that fulfills its functions appropriately and dysfunctional breathing is breathing that does not. Dysfunctional breathing is often linked to symptoms, such as unexplained breathing discomfort.  You might be over breathing or using excessive tension.  You can end up with chronic neck, shoulder, or back pain.  And this pain will not be responsive to normal treatment.

8:07  The normal person breaths 21,000 times per day and if you are over breathing, then this can lead to chronic pain, On the other hand, sometimes manual treatments like chiropractic and massage can help reset breathing.

9:01  I mentioned that most of us think that the purpose of breathing is to bring oxygen to the tissues in the body, but it is equally important that we get the right amount of carbon dioxide as well. Most of us think, oxygen good, carbon dioxide bad, but it’s not that simple. Dr.

Dr. Michael Ruscio speaks with Dr. Ben Weitz about Gastroesophageal Reflux Disorder.  Dr. Weitz gave an introduction to the topic, explaining that GERD occurs in up to 20% of Americans and is marked by the contents of the stomach coming up into the esophagus and creating a burning sensation.  There could be vomiting, a chronic cough, chronically bad breath, and possibly erosion of the teeth.  This can eventually lead to chronic inflammation of the esophagus, esophageal strictures (narrowing of the esophagus), Barrett’s esophagus, which is a pre-cancerous condition, and can even lead to esophageal cancer.   It is believed that the cause of GERD is a weakening or dysfunction of the lower esophageal sphincter that normally prevents bile acids, pancreatic enzymes, and stomach acid from travelling up from the stomach into the esophagus, where they can cause a burning and inflammation of the sensitive esophageal tissues.  This is why the primary surgical procedure for GERD is the Nissen fundoplication, in which the upper part of the stomach is wrapped around the lower esophageal sphincter to help strengthen it.  But from a Functional Medicine perspective, this definition of GERD does not help us very much, because we need to know what the underlying cause and what other factors it is related to.  This is why I have asked Dr. Michael Ruscio to help provide some clinically useful information. Dr. Ruscio is a doctor of chiropractic, a Functional Medicine practitioner, a researcher, and an educator, lecturing all around the world on the gut and thyroid.

 

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3:22  Dr. Ruscio, what are some of the main factors that lead to gastroesophageal reflux? Dr. Ruscio explained that he would like to walk us through a four part intervention hierarchy that will help to codify the different mechanisms and treatments for GERD. We should imagine a pyramid and start with the base and address the least invasive and most common items first, such as diet. At the apex of the pyramid are the most invasive interventions, such as surgical procedures. We’ll start with diet, then we’ll go to dysbiosis, the third will be stomach acid levels, and the fourth will be natural treatments that can help to alleviate some of the symptoms in a pharmaceutical manner, such as lowering stomach acid.

5:21 When we come back to the first level we first have to look at food allergies or sensitivities. This may be approached with a paleo or autoimmune paleo diet or an elimination diet and the foods typically eliminated are wheat, dairy, caffeine, night shades, spicy foods, alcohol, and night shades are some of the most common ones. Food sensitivities can provocate reflux and this is why histamine blocking agents, which are often recommended to treat GERD, may be working by blocking the effects these food sensitivities. Elevated histamine levels can raise hydrochloric acid levels in the stomach and this is why histamine blocking agents can lower stomach acid levels.   Dr. Ruscio talked about following either a paleo diet, an autoimmune paleo diet, or an elimination diet and then slowly reintroducing the foods you have eliminated and see what foods work for you and which foods don’t work for you.  There are also other dietary approaches that may work including a low FODMAP diet, which eliminates foods that may cause gas and bloating, which may push up against that lower esophageal sphincter and keep it open. At least one systematic review shows that IBS and GERD have quite a bit of overlap.

10:15  I commented that I know that Dr. Ruscio tries to avoid necessary testing, but I have sometimes found it helpful to do food sensitivity testing to find out which foods, esp. if they are not the obvious foods like gluten, dairy, and soy. Dr. Ruscio explained that he’s not against testing but he tries to use testing judiciously in order to avoid having his patients spend more money than necessary and he’...

Dr. Christine Horner speaks to Dr. Ben Weitz about strategies to deter the aging process using the principles of Ayurveda, diet, exercises and lifestyle.  Dr. Horner explained that when she went to medical school, they learned very little about preventing chronic diseases or promoting your health. She explained that most cases of breast cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and other chronic diseases can be prevented. Her breakthrough moment was when she learned how to meditate and about Ayurvedic medicine.  

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Dr. Horner can be reached through her website, http://www.drchristinehorner.com/ where you can buy a copy of her book, Radiant Health Ageless Beauty. Dr. Horner is also available for consultations and for public speaking. 

Dr. Weitz is also available for nutrition consultations as well as chiropractic work at 310-395-3111.

Dr. Holly Lucille talks about Thyroid Health with Dr. Ben Weitz.

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1:05 I introduced the topic by explaining that thyroid enlargement, known as goiter, from a lack of iodine was the main cause of hypothyroidism for many years until we started the nationwide iodine supplement program where we added iodine to salt. We saw goiter go away but rates of Hashimoto’s autoimmune hypothyroid skyrocketed.  And restricting iodine intake is often helpful for autoimmune hypothyroid.

4:25 I asked Dr. Lucille what alerts her when she sees a patient in her office that they might have thyroid problems? Dr. Lucille explained that active thyroid hormone, T3, getting into our cells is responsible for our metabolism and any signs of hypometabolism, such as weight gain, fatigue, constipation, hair thinning, and depression, alert you to the possibility of a thyroid problem.

5:35 I asked if hypothyroidism is suspected, what lab tests should be ordered?  Dr. Lucille explained that the reason we run lab tests in the first place is to confirm what we already suspect clinically.  She prefers to be comprehensive in her lab testing for thyroid, rather than just running the TSH, which is what many doctors run. Dr. Lucille used an analogy of a runner running a 440. Leg one is the higher brain center of the hypothalamus and the pituitary that are getting signals from the rest of the body as to the need for thyroid hormone. Leg two is the communication down to the thyroid itself. Leg three is the making of thyroid hormone directly at the level of the thyroid, mostly T4. Leg four is the conversion of T4 to active T3. She likes to run a total T4, a free T4, A free T3, TPO and TGB antibodies, reverse T3, and Thyroid Binding Globulin.

9:02 I asked, just to play Devil’s advocate, if I am an insurance company or a conventional MD, since T3 and T4 correlate with TSH, why do you have to run all these other tests?  Dr. Lucille said that in some of the problematic cases she sees, these don’t necessarily correlate.  These tests allow us to figure out where the problem of an under-functioning thyroid is and how to fix it. Also TSH is unpredictable with age, infection, stress, calorie restriction, inflammation.  Also, there is a big controversy as to what the healthy range for TSH is.  Normal at one time was up to 4, then 3.5, and now many consider up to 2.5 as normal. Dr. Lucille mentioned that the National Academy for Clinical Biochemistry has said since 2002 that the TSH should be between .5 and 2.0. Many studies show that TSH above 2.5 is associated with metabolic syndrome, elevated fasting triglycerides, increased blood pressure and an increase in body mass index.  TSH is not enough to properly assess thyroid disorders, other than thyroid tumors.

10:55 I told Dr. Lucille that I would play Devil’s Advocate one more time and asked, why do we need to do these tests for autoimmune thyroid (TPO and TGB antibodies) if there is nothing that we can do about autoimmune conditions? Dr. Lucille related a conversation she had with a prominent endocrinologist that since we know that most cases of under-functioning thyroid is related to autoimmune destruction why doesn’t he regularly run these antibody tests and he said that because his treatment would not change. Dr. Lucille said that she is concerned that if all you do is place the patient on Synthroid and you don’t do anything about the underlying autoimmune condition, then the autoimmune condition will progress into attacking another organ of the body.  Even though their TSH is within normal limits, such patients will continue to suffer.

13:22 This is why it would be beneficial for most patients to not only see their conventional MD for diagnosis and treatment,