YouTube Livestream Q&A Transcript, January 21, 2025

Question

“Is fluoride toothpaste unsafe for use for cancer patients and is hydroxyapatite toothpaste okay to use? What do you use and recommend?”  [0:01:49]

Answer

I don't like fluoride for anything. On the elemental chart, it's in the halides which the one we need is iodine. It's the smallest, lightest weight. Then I think the next one is chloride. Then above that is bromide or fluoride and then bromide. So, these halogens/fluoride would be considered toxic. So I would never have ever considered it for use in human use for toothpaste or anything else for that reason. There are a lot of medications that involve the use of the fluoride halogen on the elemental chart. And we tend to have some challenging problems with these as prescriptions. Tendonitis, like with ciprofloxacin, is an antibiotic often used in infections like the urinary tract, and the patient will then develop some form of tendon fragility and have a ruptured tendon, usually the Achilles tendon. So, I try to stay away from fluoride in my toothpaste and all. So, I wouldn't use it in cancer patients. 

Is hydroxyapatite toothpaste okay? Yeah, because it's a mineral that helps to fill in that area of your teeth that might have some divot or ding erosion in it, and that will help your body to form a new tooth formation. And so, yes, that's safe to use. What do I use, they asked the question and recommended it. I am using a toothpaste that I have used from Alex Jones’ father, he's a dentist, and he generated a toothpaste line over the past years that has in it some silver. Argentyn silver is what I use as a generalized antiviral, antibacterial, and antifungal treatment. But he puts the silver into the toothpaste, it has hydroxyapatite, and it has charcoal in it as well to absorb toxins. So, that is what I use. And I went to the shop at www.alexjones.com or www.Infowars.com. There's Dr. Jones, who is his father's dentist. And I think it's drjones.com or something like that. So, that's what I use. 

Question

“For several hours after an IV chelation, the amount of toxicity that existed prior to the chelation can be assessed by analyzing the resulting urine, but then little is known about the new current level of toxicity after the six hours of urine collection, right?” [0:04:48]

Answer

Well, a lot of research needs to be done and we need money not to go, in my humble opinion, to foreign locations, but rather to be invested in as natural as possible research here in the United States. So, I fault our CDC and NIH for taking money and getting royalties on it and patents instead of trying to look at wonderful, healthy things that have been around for 70-80 years, doing remarkable benefits to the cardiovascular immune system, and many other neurological neuropathies improved by using chelation therapy. So that's where the money needs to go. So, when we put in EDTA, that's ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid, I use the calcium disodium form. This goes into the body and it grabs onto toxic metals like lead, mercury, arsenic, aluminum, cadmium, and so forth, and it pulls it out through the urine. So when you urinate after receiving a dose, of an IV of EDTA, calcium disodium EDTA, we can see in the urine a load up to, I think, a 4,000 percent increase from a random urine taken before the IV is started. And so, we can really remove a lot of this. Now, the measurements of how much continues to be urinated out over the course of 12 hours, 24 hours, 48, and 72 hours, would be a very interesting and valuable study, but they just don't exist. And if there are any, it's such a small population. We, doctors, will use our time, and our money, and we look at things like this, but the numbers that are involved in these studies, or on the clinician themself, are limited. Therefore, I can't tell you how much the percent increase in the unloading of toxic metals continues beyond 24 hours. So, you're correct. But I would definitely watch Chelation Therapy Data Review and Development: An Inside Look. Dorothy Merritt, MD. She does a beautiful summary of the science and the history of heavy metals and the improvement from the trial to assess chelation therapy that involved 1,708 post-heart attack patients on standard of care that received chelation in addition to standard of care, along with the chelation and vitamin antioxidant multi-mineral, and there was a tremendous benefit cardiovascularly to them. Then they saw the subset of people with diabetes. Since there's such an epidemic of diabetes exploding, and since it was so especially beneficial to the diabetics, they did a study on diabetics. They also then did a third study, Tech Trial 3, on peripheral vascular diseases. There's a tremendous reperfusion of a limb that had been clogged and was at risk for amputation. So, the YouTube I would go to is Chelation Therapy Data Review and Development: An Inside Look, Dorothy Merritt, MD. Okay, so that will be helpful. 

Question

“Hi, previously asked you about microsomal calcium disodium EDTA 225 mg drops Dr. Ardis. He makes this. You asked for details to help determine if it's a good treatment. Do I call and give it to your assistant? Contains ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid, Glycerosomal tech, sulfur binding, I can’t fit all ingredients here.”  [0:09:24]

Answer

I think all chelation therapy is a good treatment. I'm very much in favor of it. However, it has to be under the prescription and management of a licensed medical doctor. The problem is they don't teach you to the doctors. You would have to go. Primarily, I was one of the ones teaching at the American College for the Advancement of Medicine and certifying medical doctors and nurses in the proper administration of EDTA. So, I can't speak to Dr. Ardis. I don't know if he's a medical doctor. I think he's a chiropractor. So, he may make the product, but I wouldn't say that he should be distributing it without the proper licensure. I'm in favor of it though. 

Question

“Men our ages, 60 years old and higher, are dealing with testosterone deficiency as well as our libido, or lack thereof. What can we do to bring those issues back to some form of normalcy?”  [0:10:42]

Answer

Typically, exercise with weightlifting is one of the best ways for a man to raise naturally his testosterone. Of course, getting rid of processed foods in his diet, and eating real food, real beef, liver, chicken, fish, pork, eggs, and vegetables that are cooked. My preference, I like cooked vegetables to reduce the plant anti-nutrients that they usually contain, such as broccoli, asparagus, green beans, Brussels sprouts, and asparagus with butter and salt and pepper. And then with doing weight lifting, upper and lower body, at least three times a week, maybe four times a week or every other day, so you have a day of rest and repair. On my off days, I would do a long brisk walk and cardiovascular work. Getting adequate hydration. We believe in structured water. You can learn about that by watching the YouTube by Dr. Gerald Pollack called Electrically Structured Water by Dr. Gerald Pollack. So, water, weight lifting, getting rid of processed food, doing a healthy amount of protein. 

How much protein? I usually recommend my patients, whatever their weight is. So, if you're a 200-pound man, you want to have about 1 gram of protein for every pound of lean mass you have. So, let's say a man is 200 pounds and he has maybe 120-140 grams of protein lean mass, then he should have 120 or 40 grams of protein a day. The older you get, it's probably wiser to also use a digestive enzyme to help you break down the protein and the fats because this slows aging, and that will also help with the general metabolic syndrome that's developing from the high carb process, high fructose sugared foods, and that should be a big help to you. You could add to that later in, wake up in the morning with the sunrise, get your circadian rhythm linked to the planet, and with sunrise, get outside barefoot and stand in the wet grass for three minutes and just be grateful, whatever you want to think for those three minutes and let your electrochemical being kind of get in synchronization with the circadian rhythm of the planet. Then the infrared light, which is the richest and most valuable in the morning, will penetrate your skin, your skull, and stuff and help with all your cellular energy. So, as your energy improves, and as your body starts getting rid of these junk foods, and processed foods, you're eating more protein-rich and you're doing exercise to generate muscle mass growth, everything should improve, the testosterone level. But you have to remember, if you test your testosterone, the testosterone level will be usually the highest in the fall because men have a biannual phase. Women have a monthly phase, whereas men have a biannual. So, it raises and raises until fall, and then it drops off in the spring, and then gradually builds up from early summer all the way to the end of the fall. And so, you would have to check your peak testosterone generation. Probably around October would be a good time or November. Hopefully, that helps you with your question on that. 

Question 

“I'm going through radiation for breast cancer and wondering if there's any natural remedies or alternative treatments you can recommend to lessen the side effects.”  [0:15:13]

Answer

We normally encourage all patients who are getting radiation treatment to do intravenous high-dose vitamin C and that with ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid calcium disodium (EDTA). The patients that we have done this with over many decades have done fabulously. They've had less skin damage from the radiation. So, we recommend high-dose vitamin C. Find a clinician who does that and talk with your oncologist. High-dose vitamin C is actually pro-oxidative, meaning it's not an antioxidant. It's not working against the radiation. This is a misunderstanding that the radiologists and oncologists have. So, the high dose of vitamin C is very beneficial with the EDTA chelation to improve the microcirculation. Another thing that we recommend is a very low-carb diet, basically a carnivore diet, which will enhance the repair of the cell membrane with phospholipids and proteins. These special fats make up the dual layer of the sandwich, you might say, of the lining of the cell membrane here. So, you can see it's like a double layer here, these are phospholipid fats. And these are like receptor proteins. So, you have to eat a lot of roasted chicken, roast beef, fish, and so forth to repair all the damage that you're going to get from the treatment of the radiation that you're getting. 

We recommend high-dose vitamin D. We recommend systemic enzymes on an empty stomach twice a day, so that it can clean away the injured and debris material. We drink water, we prefer structured water, and that would be Gerald Pollack, PhD, teaching us about structured water, healing the cell membranes, giving health and resilience to the healthy cells, drinking half your weight in pounds as ounces of water every day, getting a good night's sleep. Also, get up in the morning, stand in the grass, let the infrared light come to you, and promote healthy transmembrane potential. That's what this infrared does. It helps the energy of your body. So, those are the things that we would say there. And you could go to ACAM.org. They are doctors who we have taught at the American College for the Advancement of Medicine, www.ACAM.org Put in your address and you can get a circumference of doctors. Typically, if they went for their training, they're open-minded and they're looking for functional means/mechanisms to help their local patients. And if they're trained in chelation therapy, then of course they can give you these IVs. 

Question

“Hi, Dr. Rita. Is it okay to do routine labs with a scratchy throat and no fever?”  [0:18:41]

Answer

Yeah, because typically it might just be a food allergy. It could be the dry seasonal weather. But yes, that would be my answer. 

Question

“Do you have a recommendation for a good red light/near-infrared light product? Is there a trustworthy company? What would we look for? The reason I asked about an infrared product is because I live in a cold climate.”  [0:19:00]

Answer

The one I use is SaunaSpace. I think it's SaunaSpace or SaunaSure. I have a tent. It looks like a trapezoid. So, the back is narrow and it fans out, and it's a tent I go into my bedroom, and I put my infrared lamp on and I sit in there for about 45 minutes and my body temperature goes up to About 101 degrees. And so, I get wonderful heat shock proteins and stimulation of my immune system. So, that's what I use, SaunaSpace or SaunaSure, I forget the name of it, but that's what I use. 

She also says, “The reason I asked about an infrared product is because I live in a cold climate.” Yeah. So, that's what I would do. Now, they sell the lamps individually, so you don't have to have a tent like I do. You can just get one of the bulbs. Mine has one, two, three, four. Mine has four bulbs, I think, in it. So I get a huge amount, or at least an increase about, nothing compared to what you get in the sunlight in the morning, but it's a very significant amount of infrared light. And you can just buy one of the bulbs and put it on a stand, and you can just be watching the TV or I can have it on me right now and it'll go right through my clothes and stuff. And I think the name they call that is called Photon. I think they gave it a name called Photon SaunaSpace or SaunaSure. That's what I use. 

Question

“What are your thoughts on taking apple pectin powder supplement 1400 mg capsules made by Nature Wins? I think it's made also by Dr. Ardis.”  [0:21:19]

Answer

Apple pectin is a source of, the apple rind, or I don't know what you call it, the stuff you scrape off the apple, cut off of it, peel. It is a form of soluble fiber, and soluble fiber is very helpful in feeding our good bacteria. If we're eating junk food or, a processed diet, the good bacteria that we have to eat fibrous material that is insoluble, and there's very little in an American standard diet. So, apple pectin provides that, and so this would be a good product. Apple pectin is also associated with better gut health, a better immune system, and better mood, as well as it does have some ability to absorb toxins that might be in your gut, so it will bind them up, kind of like charcoal does.

Question

“Is blood pressure affected while taking Detoxamin?”  [0:22:37]

Answer

Detoxamin is the trade name of a company that I don't think is in the United States; Otherwise, they'd be shut down. Detoxamin is an EDTA chelation suppository. And I was involved in the research on that. We did the pharmacokinetics. We used the dogs and we had the carbon labeled EDTA and we saw it was biphasic. So. when you put it in the rectum, it gets a second pass through the enterohepatic circulation in your gut. And it has a very good impact compared to any other suppository method of delivering medicines. But remember, this is a medicine and it should be prescribed by physicians. So, Detoxamin is the trade name of the company that does provide this, but I think it's in a foreign country because they couldn't do it here in America due to the regulation of it being a drug and only being prescribed by physicians. Now, the answer to that is, yes, it will improve your blood pressure. Why? Because EDTA chelation therapy has been shown to impact nitric oxide production, and your blood vessels, with the enhanced circulation that you get on all the little capillaries that even improve male erectile function, this capillary dilation is effectuated by nitric oxide production. Nitric oxide production always occurs when you use EDTA chelation. So, yeah, that dilation of the blood vessels will lower your blood pressure. That's why chelation is always so very valuable for high blood pressure and cardiovascular problems. 

Question

“Do the TLC doctors prescribe ivermectin or hydroxychloroquine for the avian bird flu or other diseases? How would you treat a skin infection called pityriasis rosea? How would you treat staph infection skin infection? Are these from EBV? Or Herpes 6 or 7 or?”  [0:24:38]

Answer

The answer is if it's appropriate with the patient to give an antiviral treatment, and those are ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine. They're known as anti-parasitics, but they also have antiviral properties because they have many mechanisms of action, and one of them is anti-viral. So, yes, this is quite valuable for the avian flu. That's why I'm not worried about it at all. Of course, we want you to be low-carb to have a healthy immune system. We want you to take vitamin D. We do recommend you have vitamin C. We recommend that you get a multi-mineral, Albion amino acid chelated with zinc. Zinc is very valuable as an anti-viral assist in these things. So, yeah, we certainly do do that. 

He goes on to ask, “How would you treat a skin infection called pityriasis rosea?” Well, that's a viral illness. Once you have the rash, there isn't anything you're going to do to treat it because it already erupted through the skin, and that skin then has to heal. So, there's really no treatment. Now, if you have viral symptoms such as fever, chills, aches, myalgias, or arthralgias, then taking extra D. High-dose vitamin C is a natural anti-viral. We could do a vitamin C drip.  Vitamin D has antiviral and immune-boosting benefits, fasting for 24 hours, stimulating your immune system, and drinking enough water, especially if it's structured water. So that's what I drink all the time. And I have in my jar here my Analemma wand with my structured water in the crystal here, and this crystal, with the structured water, then entrains the rest of the regular water. So, I'll take my vortex water and I'll pour it in my drinking bottle or jar here. And now I filled up my jar, which was empty, and the glass crystal is now entraining all the water that is poured in here to behave to the dominant frequency of structured water. So it makes the water much more helpful for me to drink, especially in this dry weather. 

How would you treat staph infection of the skin? Well, staph, if it's an erupting pustulating, erythematous area on your skin, you'd have to use antibiotics for anti-staph. And so, you could use some topical anti-bacterial, you could use oral anti-bacterial. I would also use Argentyn Silver because this is anti-bacterial, anti-viral, and anti-fungal. So, it depends on how big an area is. If it's a tiny small area on the skin, then I think you can avoid oral antibiotics and just try using fasting and enzymes and Argentyn Silver, extra vitamin D, zinc multi min, TLC Multi Min, and observe that area on the staph. So, it's at the discretion of the clinician and the patient. 

And he goes on to say, “Are these from Epstein-Barr Virus or Herpes?” Really no. Pityriasis Rosea is a different type of virus and staph is a bacteria. So, no, these are different. And these are things that were designed to live in and around and amongst without a problem. And so, if you keep a nice low blood sugar, exercise, drink plenty of water, get a good night's sleep, don't eat late at night, and take extra vitamin D, and zinc, I use Juice Plus for my antioxidants, then you should not have any concern about Epstein-Barr Virus or herpes to be getting out of control. 

Question

“Hi, Dr. Rita, what do you recommend for toothpaste? I went fluoride-free about 5 years ago and am getting more cavities now than ever in my life. Same with my kids.”  [0:29:22]

Answer

I go on www.InfoWars.com. And Alex Jones’ father is a dentist, and he has a product line called ww.drjones.com, and there, his toothpaste has charcoal in it and silver hydroxyapatite and that's what I use for my teeth. 

She goes on to say, “I went fluoride-free about five years ago, and I'm getting more cavities now than ever in my life. Same with my kids.” No. The research I think is abundantly clear, that has nothing to do with the cavities. More likely, since we're seeing a tsunami of diabetes and metabolic syndrome and obesity in teenagers, even newborn babies are being found to have metabolic syndrome and obesity at birth, so it's more likely you're getting sugars that are feeding the bad bacteria in your mouth, suppressing the good bacteria, and that's why you're getting caries, not from the lack of fluoride. 

Question

“What toxins from the Los Angeles fires could be in our Orange County air and what's the best thing for us to do about it for those affected in L.A. and here?”  [0:31:28]

Answer

I would say the high-dose vitamin C and chelation therapy. The materials have these plastics. They have in their fluoride polyvinyl chloride. They have volatile organic acid and lots of mercury and heavy metals are being released. In fact, any foliage burning is an easy way to release tons of mercury because chlorophyll is a chelator naturally for heavy metals. So, when you burn forage fires and trees, they have already detoxed out of the air a lot of the heavy metals, and if you burn it up, then you're just re-releasing it back. So, chelation with high-dose vitamin C is what I would definitely recommend. 

Question

“Hi Dr. Rita, I am a 55-year-old woman and in general good health except that I’m on 20 mg of rosuvastatin. I wanted to reach out to your online store to purchase a daily regimen for wellness, and I was wondering if you could let me know what to order. Also, what do you think of berberine to lower LDL? Thank you and God bless you.”  [0:32:35]

Answer

This is not meant to be personal medical advice to any one particular person. This is an educational forum. So, we don't prescribe or make individual recommendations. But in general, what I find is that most people, especially the American population, which has so much processed food, I recommend everyone, to find out your blood type. When you know your blood type, if you're a blood type A, you have to absolutely use Ortho Digestzyme. It has betaine hydrochloric acid and digestive enzymes to help you digest your proteins and your fats because that's what we're made of. This is all protein and fat here. This is not made of fruits and vegetables. Now, fruits and vegetables contain micronutrients that we use, but we're structurally made of protein and fat. Therefore, if you're a blood type A, you would really need Ortho Digestzyme or betaine hydrochloric acid with digestive enzymes with every meal you eat. That would be number one, find out your blood type. 

Number two, if you're older, older people, just as we age and we start having a decrease in our functionality, one of the areas is in our digestive system, and with less production of acids, less production of digestive enzymes, we cannot extract from our proteins and fats as much as we used to when we were younger. So, even if your blood type is B, O, AB, and such, the older you get, and I would say somewhere around 55 I had to start taking digestive enzymes so that I maintain my strength, immune system, vitality, and repair myself as well. That's very important. Depending on your age, you might look at digestive enzymes in anyone's health care plan. Most of us, I would say upwards of 93% of people are iodine deficient. I recommend iodine and I use the Iodoral 12.5 mg tablet, one a day, as a general rule for all people, vitamin D, vitamin D3 with K2. Normally, I recommend no less than 5,000 IU with 45,000 mcg of K2. But in general, I find that everyone's so low in D as well, that I use D 10,000 with K2 90 mcg. Then I ask the local doctors or the patients to recheck their lab in two to three months so we can see what these levels are. 

The other thing is I recommend Juice Plus. Juice Plus is probably the number one researched nutraceutical in the world with more studies in it than any individual-marketed supplement out there, hands down by far. Not that there aren't other good nutrients out there, but Juice Plus is the king of research and has established that. So, I would use that. And then, because the food is so nutrient-poor, I have Corinne Netzer’s Encyclopedia of Food Values here on my desk. And food back in the 1950s, and 40s, they did assays of how much sea minerals are in them. It takes about eight oranges today to equal the nutrient density of what was in orange in the 1940s. We have so genetically modified our food to plump it up, to make it look beautiful, to give it more sweetness, rather than being concerned about the nutrient quality. Genetic modifications, the soil is being raped through industrialized farming. So, we have much poorer food. So, we talked about digestive enzymes, we talked about D, we talked about multi-minerals, and we talked about a good antioxidant. Juice Plus is the basic value of 30 different fruits, vegetables, and berries in capsule form without the sugar. That would probably be the core minimum that I would start recommending for anyone. 

Question

“Last week you discussed both tooth cavitation and said that you are having one of yours removed. Since I have similar dental issues, would you mind telling us what dentist is doing the procedure for you? Thank you and God bless you.”  [0:37:39]

Answer

Yeah, that was Dr. Jacqueline Younesi and her husband, and I can't pronounce his name, but if you go to Jacqueline Younesi, she’s the dentist who I went to in Newport Beach, and they did a superb job, all the super technology, 3D imaging, and stuff, and I had a great result. In fact, after it was done, and they cleaned out the infection around my tooth, I definitely felt a lift. Like I told a friend of mine I felt like there was a yoke, even though I have great energy and excellent lab, my C-reactive protein in the past two years since a root canal was done, which I shouldn't have done, I'm so busy caring for you guys that I just suddenly had the tooth pain. I went to my neighbor's dentist friend, had it handled, and it just wasn't the right thing to do. Got rid of the pain, and I was able to work and be of service, but ultimately it was actually harming me. So now that the infection is gone, and I feel this weight, this lift-off, and I'm looking forward to my lab to see if that hs-CRP came down. 

Question

“What is your opinion on the use of vagal stimulation devices to help vagal tone? I suffer from PVC, near syncopal episodes, digestion issues, and swallowing issues that I attribute to a weak vagal tone. Is there a device you prefer over the others for this indication? Thank you.”  [0:39:27]

Answer

We have a sympathetic stimulatory autonomic nervous system, and we have a parasympathetic autonomic nervous system. The biggest nerve in our body is the vagal nerve that comes out the back of our brainstem, and it goes all the way down into our gut, even to our bowels. And so, many things harm our vagal nerve by damaging foods in our gut. Many things can be done to improve it. You could take probiotics to help your vagal nerve. You could eat a low-carb diet. You could take prebiotics, like that apple pectin we were talking about, artichoke, inulin, and things like these that are soluble fibers. You could exercise. Exercise is a tremendous natural vagal stimulation. You could get out in the morning with the sunrise barefoot in the wet dew of the grass and get your body grounded to the earth, it's called earthing or grounding, and let the infrared light in the morning rising sun penetrate through your skull and your clothes and help synchronize your whole body. You can take deep breaths, the inspiration of breath, and then a very long protracted exhalation technique of breathing are very helpful for this. Of course, all the healthy things of a healthy lifestyle, the exercise, the water, the good sleep hygiene, getting to bed on time, getting the electromagnetic blue light out of your environment and your electronics away from you when you're sleeping, listening to a wonderful tonal music, and what I mean by tonal music is nothing metallic or complex, but like violin/cello. These are very vagal, calming things. 

Now, on top of all this, massage can help, certain maneuvers with acupuncture can help, and a foot massage. There are what they call lines in your body, the fascial lines that have a point at the bottom of your foot that are also studied in Chinese medicine associated with vagal tone. So, you can get a foot massage. Use a tuning fork, like a 256 C tone, and then touch part of your body at these sites. Acupuncturists do that. So, there's all kinds of things. Now, if you buy a stimulator device, electronic, there are some people that actually use electronic devices to try and stimulate along the access of the vagal nerve down near the collarbone. I think that's a bit bizarre. I'm not familiar with that, so I shouldn't really judge it, but that's the extreme. You can do all these other wonderful things. 

Question

“What can I do to make my body stay asleep during the night? I'm 72. I finish dinner at 6:30. I go to bed at 10:30, but I always wake up at about 3 AM. Can't fall back asleep until I eat a bit or read or write. How to fix this?”  [0:43:27]

Answer

I think what I would do is, are you on natural hormones? Hormones help you sleep like progesterone is a hypnagogue. I take progesterone, and so that helps me sleep. Another thing is exercise. Weight lifting and aerobics, a minimum of three times a week, help the sleep hygiene. Finish eating at 3 o'clock in the afternoon and skipping dinners. So, change your eating cycle to stop eating at 3 PM and then try and go to sleep. Try and go to sleep earlier. I think 10:30 is too late. There are somatostatins that are released according to the earth's cycle and the sun and the moon, and these electromagnetic energies work on us and animals to get us to rest. But, since we can flip lights and turn lights on, we don't go to bed, we stay up. The electromagnetic energy in and around the walls of your room could be checked. If you're not adequately hydrated, most Americans are not drinking enough water, and having chronic dehydration makes your nerves more irritable, estradiol is a calming agent. If you can take estradiol and progesterone. Getting up in the morning and standing with your feet in that grass, getting some earthing, grounding done, and letting that infrared light come through your skull, your skin, your clothes, and your body's energy. Vitamin D helps with sleep. Magnesium helps with sleep. So, those would be some of the things I would think of. 

Question 

“What are your thoughts on body scans or something like the lifeline screening for prevention? Are they accurate?”  [0:45:41]

Answer

That's a difficult thing to say because I am going to take a more detailed ancient old-fashioned premise. I think we already have too much electronics in and around us with our cellphones, all the waves going through us, putting on aura rings, all these devices. In fact, there tends to be some benefit to having some of these crystal stones that tend to absorb and protect these points in your heart, and on your chest, they wear these stones that diminish the electromagnetic energy and irritation that they can do. So I'm not in favor of these things. That's where I stand on that. 

Question

“Do you think Berberine to lower LDL is good?”  [0:47:07]

Answer

My answer to that is I think exercise is good for lowering your LDL. I think water is good for lowering your LDL. I think a low-carb diet is good to lower your LDL. I'm not talking about the extreme ketogenic carnivore diet. I'm talking about just even lowering your carbohydrate volume, your starch, your beans, your rice, your pasta, your bagel, your fruits, your nuts, your seeds, your beans, all these things we're eating way too much. And stopping eating around 3 in the afternoon. And then waking up and having breakfast. So, we have a better burn if we eat breakfast and lunch. Those are the things. Now, berberine does have a way to help with sugar metabolism, and this is what metformin is based on, these helped generate the research on GLP-1 and this kind of glucose-regulating appetite feedback mechanisms. So, do I think berberine is useful? There is individual research indicating it has benefits, but there is no research on someone who is just taking the berberine compared to someone who is exercising, drinking water, getting a good night's sleep, lowering their carbohydrates, and not eating late. So, until that study is done, I'm going to go for a healthy lifestyle over berberine.

Question

“Hi, if I had a gastric bypass surgery and have consistently low iron, how can I increase my iron besides iron infusions because my stomach can't handle taking iron supplements.”  [0:49:05]

Answer

Organ meat is a wonderful way to enhance your digestion and reception of iron. You can get beef liver in capsule form. That's one way to do it. And it's so well chelated, that’s the natural way it is, it's not upsetting, and that's the direction I would recommend for you.

Question

“It is Kawasaki Disease Awareness Month. Can you explain why Kawasaki disease often gets misdiagnosed with other illnesses and how parents can advocate for their children so that they don't miss the critical 10-day window for treatment? And why don't more cardiologists treating adults have more training in Kawasaki’s disease to help patients who had Kawasaki’s disease when younger?”  [0:49:52]

Answer

That's a boatload of a question. Kawasaki's disease, really the cause of it is unknown. Is it a viral illness? Probably, but we don't know for sure. It's a constellation of symptoms that show up usually in children under 5. They have red hands, maybe puffy hands, peeling, hands, they have a red tongue and you can see the papillae on it, and their lips are red and cracked and blistered. Sometimes they get conjunctivitis. Sometimes they get a rash all over and it can appear variable, but it never is a vesicle. It's not a vesicle-like blister. And fever. Usually, the fever is at five days or so. And then they can get vascular inflammation, and I think the association is with aneurysms of their coronary arteries. So, it weakens the wall of the vasculature. Apparently, there's something in the endothelium that is irritated and it creates a weakness in the wall of the blood vessel, so these children can wind up getting cardiovascular disease. And this is probably why you are so concerned about it. Yes, this does happen. It's rare. They don't know that it's genetic either, and I think it's more in Asian families. So, that's why they're wondering if it's genetic. 

You know, I don't have an answer. Thank God it's rare. It doesn't have a high mortality rate, to my understanding, but I'm going off of old, old, old 45-year-old medical school training. But in general Kawasaki's disease is a childhood phenomenon under age 5, and about a quarter of the kids who get this constellation of symptoms are at risk for developing coronary artery aneurysms. And so, they should be seen. The pediatrician should be much more aware of this, calling on their cardiologist to do echocardiograms and lab tests for inflammation. But the cause is unknown. So, fortunately, it is manageable. They use immunoglobulin therapy. They'll infuse the child usually with IgG antibodies. That's what they use on generalized viral illnesses to kind of disinflame the body and kind of bind up any pathogens that may be around. So, that's all I can say about that. 

Why more cardiologists don't think about this when they're younger? You know, when I was a kid, when I was 15, I got a very bad sore throat. Oh, lymphadenopathy is another part of it. And I was hospitalized and then they released me once they were sure that this wasn't a serious illness because I had a very high fever and I was delirious, so they admitted me. But the doctor who was my admitting doctor, our family doctor was a cardiologist, and he just did an EKG, and lo and behold, I had rhythm disturbances on my EKG And that's when they had the little metal bulbs with the air squeezy cup back then, that was funny, I remember that, and I was called right back into the hospital and I stayed there for months. So, I had pan-myocarditis and I had a very serious disease. Back in the 1960s, this was, I was a teenager, yeah. As a medical student, I realized the mortality, I didn't get an immunoglobulin infusion either, the mortality was very high for a viral infection of the heart. And I think I heard him say it was the Coxsackie virus, not Kawasaki. But look at it, I would say I got married the next year at 17, I got into the military, ROTC, and passed the Air Force physical two years afterward. So look at, you know, we are fearfully and wonderfully made. And my dad got me chelation, my dad got me shots of high dose vitamin C, all kinds of vitamins. And was it that? Was it my chelation and vitamin C and the vitamins my dad got me? I think so. I think that's what pulled me through because there was no medical treatment for it. I was just having crazy, wild atrial fibrillation, flutter, and all kinds of crazy problems with my heart. And then I worked hard, internship, you know, up 48, almost 72 hours and being 9 months pregnant, you know, that's a big testimony to the cardiovascular system surviving. And so, we are fearfully and wonderfully made and God can heal us if we work with our patients and open our hearts to look beyond just prescription medicines and imaging studies. But talk about our lifestyle, our sleep, our hydration, our social stresses, our work stresses, our environment, where we're living, the electromagnetic. All these things do make a difference. So, I think we have to increase our training for our physicians to include this. 

Question

“Hi Dr. Ellithorpe, I've been a patient of yours for years and have been so blessed by your health advice. A question for a 33-year-old male family member. When a person’s total cholesterol is normal, but their LDL is 200, is that a problem? He eats low carbs and his sugars are 85, but he does eat red meat and pork a lot. What do you recommend Thank You!”  [0:56:37]

Answer

Answer, not necessarily. We love cholesterol here. In my understanding, there is no such thing as bad cholesterol. There are unique scenarios of familial hyperlipidemia in which even in children, I think the youngest child that ever had a heart attack, I think, is 3 years old, this is in familial hyperlipidemia, and there are lipoprotein enzymes that deal with the management of fat in our body. We have to have the fat and there's a whole system of management for it, and the vast majority of us are able to handle it as long as we don't have all these high cheap fructose, toxins, carbohydrates, and if we exercise and such. But there are those people who we're learning, like in the keto or the carnivore group over the past 10 years, but I've been doing this, I don't know, 40-some years, and there are what we call lean mass hyper-responders, meaning these are men and women who are very athletic, exercising, very low carb or carnivore-like and they have high LDLs, even though their triglycerides are very low, their HDL from all their exercise is nice and high, and the HDL triglyceride ratio is beautiful. Their blood sugars are wonderful. They don't have any metabolic problems or metabolic syndrome. But there is a subset of healthy people who do the low-carb carnivore diet, and high-fat diet, that are lean mass hyper-responders. It does not appear, but the research is still being done now, it does not appear that these people are at higher risk for heart disease just because their LDL was higher. And I am actively studying this. There's a wonderful YouTube called High Cholesterol is Healthy by Dr. Ken Berry and David Diamond. They discussed these studies. But there's a newer one that came out this year, just recently, this past year, yeah, in 2024, and I haven't had time to completely study it, but I am studying it right now.