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Listen in as Dr. Mike provides the answers to a wealth of health and wellness questions.
Additional Info
- Segment Number 5
- Audio File healthy_talk/1523ht3e.mp3
- Featured Speaker Mike Smith, MD
- Organization Life Extension
- Guest Website Healthy Talk MD
-
Transcription
RadioMD Presents: Healthy Talk | Original Air Date: June 3, 2015
Host: Michael Smith, MD
It's time for you to be a part of the show. Email or call with questions for Dr. Mike now. Email AskDrMikeSmith@RadioMD.com or call now 877-711-5211. What are you waiting for? The doctor is in.
DR. MIKE: Pretty consistently now, about every three of four weeks, I have to make a call out for more email questions. I usually, then, get a whole bunch over a couple of day time span and then they drop off. But that usually keeps me going for a while.
AskDrMikeSmith@RadioMD.com. Send me any question you want, as vague or as detailed as you want. You can give me your name, ask me to try to answer the question on a certain day and I will do my best to do that. Or you can just be anonymous. Whatever. AskDrMikeSmith@RadioMD.com. So, here was a question:
"Why do we build resistance to antibiotics and are there new ones coming soon?"
More and more - and this is a good thing – we are seeing mainstream media talk a little bit about a very serious situation. We are developing more and more bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics that we have been using for a long time. It is scary because some of these bacteria that we were able to control like staph infections, for instance, are now becoming a significant problem. T.B.--a significant problem. There is a growing list of bacteria – what we call super bugs – that we really have no treatment for anymore. Even more scary, the sexually transmitted ones. Syphilis is becoming harder and harder to treat. This is a significant medical issue about resistance to antibiotics.
Let's make sure we're clear here because this person is asking, "Why do we build resistance to antibiotics." It is not us that are becoming resistant to the antibiotics. It's the bacteria. It is a very simple concept.
You have a bacteria that can divide very quickly and it goes through several generations in just a short time span. For us as humans, a generation - what do we consider a generation? 40 years now or 50? Generation X, baby boomers, they are generations. It is years; it's not hours. But that is the problem. Bacteria, literally within hours, can go through hundreds of generations given the right environment. If it's an environment that is beneficial to them and providing there are plenty of nutrients, plenty of room, whatever, they divide like crazy. That's the problem. Every time a bacteria divides and makes another bacteria, there is the potential for just forming these random mutations.
When you are overusing antibiotics and you are putting that antibiotic in the environment surrounding that bacteria and it starts to divide, if there is this random mutation, that, then, allows it to be resistant to that bacteria you essentially select for that resistant bacteria. Because the bacteria that can still be killed by that antibiotic--they die off and now you just have this one sole bacteria who is resistant to the drug--and the bacteria begins to divide and starts making sister bacteria that are resistant.
It is just random mutation. It's just the fact that viruses and bacteria are just dividing like crazy, hour by hour, allowing for the chance of resistance from random mutations to increase significantly. It's the big problem with HIV, the virus, right? Why do we have to put the patients with HIV on 3 drugs? Because it reduces the chance of resistance. Because the virus divides like crazy.
It is not that we are becoming resistant to penicillin. There are strains of syphilis out there that penicillin is less and less effective against. It's the bacteria. It's scary. If we don't make some changes and if we don't slow down the use of antibiotics – which I don't think is going to help us that much anyway.
We need to control how often and how much we use antibiotics, not just in us, but also in our livestock. We need to do that but I think it might be a little bit too late, to be honest with you. We need the development of new types of antibiotics that bacteria have never been exposed to. We need whole new classes of drugs. Unfortunately, there is not a lot of research going into new classes of antibiotics at this point. There is not a lot of incentive for pharmaceutical companies to do that. You don't make a lot of money off of antibiotics.
Even though they are used a lot, they are pretty cheap overall. There is more money to be had in things like chemotherapy and cholesterol lowering drugs and what have you. But there are some interesting new developments. Because the second part of the question was "Are there any new ones coming soon?" I did some research. I think the most interesting to me are a new class of antibiotics called defensin mimetics.
These are chemical compounds that we are developing in a lab that are modeled after intrinsic – your very own immune defense proteins. These are proteins that play a role in the defense. Kind of like front line defense against bacterial infections.
You have immune cells called antiprogestin cells that will recognize a foreign bacteria. It will engulf that bacteria. Once it does that, it breaks the bacteria down and takes those broken up pieces of the bacteria and places it on its surface. So, the real immune fighting cells will come into contact with that antiprogestin cell – that bacteria presenting cell – will recognize that this is a antiprogestin cell and that activates the other immune cells. These defensin proteins are really important in that activation process. So, they help the antiprogestin cells to activate. They help the B cells to activate to make more antibodies. They help the T cells to activate and attack the bacteria quicker.
So, these defensin proteins play a critical role in controlling the infection before it gets out of hand. They are like the first responders, if you will. There are companies developing new antibiotics that are modeling these defensin proteins. We are going to get a faster activation of the immune system. We are going to use our own immune system with these drugs to fight the infection and these defensin mimetics drugs also can kill the bacteria themselves.
They do so in the same way that the immune cells do which is usually with free radicals – pro-oxidative molecules--that can penetrate into the bacterial cell wall and break it down and that kills the bacteria.
When you do it that way, when you enhance the immune response, when you kill the bacteria in the same way that your own immune system does it, the chance of resistance is significantly decreased. So, you don't have to worry so much about those random mutations from bacteria that are dividing like crazy when you use defensin mimetics--compounds modeled off of these defensin proteins that your immune system uses anyway. I think that is really awesome.
I think this is a new class of antibiotics that we really need to do a lot more research in. I could really only find one defensin mimetics that is in human clinic trials right now. It is called Brilacidin. It is made by a company called Cellceutix. Cellceutix is making Brilacidin which is a defensin mimetics and it is in what is called Phase 3 clinical trials, which is in humans. That should be, hopefully, available soon.
This is Healthy Talk on RadioMD. I'm Dr. Mike. Stay well. - Length (mins) 10
- Waiver Received No
- Host Mike Smith, MD
Listen in as Dr. Mike provides the answers to a wealth of health and wellness questions.
Additional Info
- Segment Number 4
- Audio File healthy_talk/1523ht3d.mp3
- Featured Speaker Mike Smith, MD
- Organization Life Extension
- Guest Website Healthy Talk MD
-
Transcription
RadioMD Presents: Healthy Talk | Original Air Date: June 3, 2015
Host: Michael Smith, MD
RadioMD. It's time to Ask Dr. Mike. Do you have a question about your health? Dr. Mike can answer your questions. Just email AskDrMikeSmith@RadioMD.com or call now 877-711-5211. The lines are open.
DR. MIKE: I have a question here about the dog flu vaccine. Maybe you are aware. I think it started in Chicago in some of the shelters. Dogs were actually getting the flu. There is a flu version for dogs. I think more and more vets are now suggesting to the owners of their patients that they should get the vaccine. I am going to get to that. I wanted to do something else real quickly. This question just came up.
Apparently, there is on radio on-line programs, maybe even on some morning shows, there are some researchers who are talking about Type 2 diabetes being caused by bacteria and particularly, staph. So a question just came into my email:
"Is it true that Type 2 diabetes is caused by staph infection?"
I find it interesting because I also know now that the vaccine industry is already jumping all over this research and are now looking at developing in the future Type 2 diabetes vaccines. I just wanted to address this real quick because the question just came in. You know, diabetes is ultimately insulin resistance and that, in and of itself, is multifactorial. It's hormonal. it's neurotransmitter based. it's dietary. It's stress related-- cortisol plays a role. It's not a simple linear, "this happens and you get diabetes," staph infection and you get diabetes.
It is not like that, there are lots of different things. Genetics play a role. This is where I have an issue sometimes with my training as an allopathic medical doctor. This conventional wisdom that there is one problem, one diagnosis, one drug, one treatment and then one outcome. This very linear-type thinking with conventional doctors and that is not how it works. Life is complex. Diseases are often complex, especially the age-related ones.
I think it is interesting. Could staph be an association; a risk factor? Maybe so. But to then jump all over this and spend billions of dollars developing a vaccine I think is a little bit ridiculous when we need to be spending more money on real cancer drugs, on new antibiotics. I just think the money could be spent better. That was more just getting on my soap box.
I have a dog, so I thought this was an interesting question. "Should I get my dog the dog flu vaccine?" I just had no idea how to answer this question, so I went to WebMD Pet Health. I don't use WebMD that often, but they have a really nice pet health section on-line and there is a writer there – I don't know who she is, I have never met her before – but I love what she writes.
Her name is Stephanie Booth. I don't even know what her role is at WebMD Pet Health. But she is just a great writer and all of her stuff is reviewed by vets and in this case, a Dr. Amy Flowers. We know that there is a dog flu. We know that it has always been around, but there was a flare up going on in--I think it was Chicago.
I took my dog to my vet. I take her there to get groomed and there was a sign there talking about dog flu vaccine. They didn't ask me about it but now that I think about it, there was actually a sign about a month ago. First of all, what are the symptoms? How do you know your dog has a flu? Ultimately, I just look for changes in behavior for my dog.
I think that is the best way to know if there is something wrong. Not eating, not sleeping, not doing the normal things they like to do. Kind of like us. Apparently, according to Stephanie Booth from WebMD, she writes, "Just like when people get the flu, you can expect your dog to sneeze, have a runny nose and even a cough." I don't think I've ever seen a dog...I saw a dog cough on a Seinfeld episode once. But I don't know if I've ever actually seen a dog cough.
But, definitely, the runny nose, the sneezing and all of that. And, of course, they can have fevers. If your dog is okay, you can do a rectal temperature. Make sure your dog is okay with that. They might not appreciate that. It goes on to say here, "Up to 20% of dogs with the flu don't show any symptoms. How serious is it?" is the next question, Stephanie asks. "Most dogs who get the virus don't die, but canine influenza can cause more serious illness than the average respiratory infection.
In some cases, it can turn into pneumonia. Just like with humans. At that point the disease becomes more dangerous. Puppies and older dogs, just like babies and older adults, are more likely to get severely ill once infected."
A very similar profile. Dog influenza has a very similar infectious profile as human influenza. "What are the chances my dog will catch it if they are exposed to it? Close to 100%. The vast majority of the dogs in the United States have not been previously infected or vaccinated against dog flu." It spreads easy, just like regular flu in humans.
It spreads easy. You have to be in close contact with another dog that has it. There is a good chance that your dog is going to get it as well. If your dog is a year old, up to 5 or 6 years old, probably nothing is going to happen and they may not even be symptomatic. But if it is a puppy or older dog, you may have to worry a little bit.
She mentions that there are certain breeds at most risk. Dogs with smooshed in faces like pugs, French bull dogs, although any dog can get it, these types of dogs tend to have more symptoms, more respiratory issues with it simply because of their anatomy. Let me answer the question, then.
"Should I get my dog the dog flu vaccine?" I do believe, coming from a background in immunology and microbiology - that was my undergraduate before I went to medical school. I have studied vaccine science probably more than most doctors have. I do believe in vaccine science. It does work. Exposing yourself a little bit to a stressor allows your body to deal with that stressor more. As a matter of fact, there are doctors who are researching that concept a lot more.
It is called hormesis. It is where you apply a little bit of a stress and see how the body responds and develops defenses. That's what vaccines are. Vaccines are a form of hormesis. Apply a stress and an immune system responds to it. The vaccine, of course, being the stressor.
I am not against vaccines. I think that they are important. They have eliminated a lot of chronic diseases, infectious diseases, and I think they have application even in cancer now. I do believe in them. But I also know that the vaccine industry, the companies that are investing a lot of money in vaccine development, tend to jump the gun a little bit. They tend to get a little over excited about something.
Here's the thing about dog flu. Dogs really don't travel all that much, do they? One of the reasons influenza can be so devastating to us, especially if it is a new strain, you know? The reason you end up having these epidemics and even global pandemics is because we travel all over the place as humans. Right?
Even back in the Spanish flu days, countries that did not have it told their people that they could not travel out of the country until this was dealt with and the Spanish flu never went into those countries. We know that if we eliminate travel and contact—exposure--the flu itself will die off and everything will be fine. Unless you are in a city, an area that it's known to be in and also that you are exposing your dog to other dogs, like at dog parks, I wouldn't worry about it. No, I wouldn't get the vaccine at this point.
I am in south Florida. As far as I know, the dog flu is not in south Florida. My dog goes to a couple of dog parks, but I'll keep an eye out on it. But I am not just going to throw a vaccine into my dog for no reason. So, if you are in an area where it's at and you are exposing your dog to other dogs, go ahead and get it. If not, leave it alone.
This is Healthy Talk on RadioMD. I'm Dr. Mike. Stay well. - Length (mins) 10
- Waiver Received No
- Host Mike Smith, MD
What substances should you be avoiding to help reduce your chances of inflammation?
Additional Info
- Segment Number 3
- Audio File healthy_talk/1523ht3c.mp3
- Featured Speaker Daniel Twogood, DC
- Book Title Chronic Pain Gone 90 Days
- Guest Website Dr. Daniel Twogood
-
Guest Bio
Dr. Daniel Twogood graduated from the University of California at Santa Barbara in 1973 and from Cleveland Chiropractic College in Los Angeles in 1983.
He began practicing at the International Sports Medicine Institute in West Los Angeles in 1983 where he treated many of the athletes in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. He opened his own practice in Apple Valley, California, in 1985 where he discovered the diet/pain connection. He has written four books on chronic pain; the latest is entitled Chronic Pain Gone 90 Days. -
Transcription
RadioMD Presents: Healthy Talk | Original Air Date: June 3, 2015
Host: Michael Smith, MD
Living longer and staying healthier. It's Healthy Talk with Dr. Michael Smith, M.D. Here's your host, Dr. Mike.
DR. MIKE: Alright. So, we are going to continue our discussion with Dr. Twogood. Focus, I guess, now a little bit on the things we can do to begin the healing process so that our chronic pain can be gone in 90 days. Dr. Daniel Twogood is a chiropractor. He has written four books and the latest one is called, Chronic Pain Gone 90 Days. Dr. Twogood, welcome to Healthy Talk.
DR. TWOGOOD: Thanks very much.
DR. MIKE: Just to summarize a little bit what we were just talking about – the chronic pain, is what you believe is really about three kinds of stress that lead to an inability to heal properly, correct? And we need to address the underlying causes to begin that healing process which takes about 90 days and that is kind of the basic message of your book, correct?
DR. TWOGOOD: That's right.
DR. MIKE: I found it interesting when I looked at your book, Dr. Twogood, you start off immediately talking about these pro-inflammatory substances that we should just avoid at all costs. Two of them I found interesting – chocolate and MSG. Why don't we talk about that first? A lot of research is showing chocolate, especially dark chocolate, is good for us. But you are saying there are some compounds in it that could cause or raise inflammation?
DR. TWOGOOD: Right, that's exactly it. In fact, it is--the foundation of my work--is very, very simple. And that is the medical approach is – and most people have a mentality in this country that if something is wrong with you like a chronic condition or blood pressure or whatever it is, there has got to be something that you can take that will heal your condition – a pill, a supplement, a drug. What specific food should I eat to be antioxidant or anti-inflammatory, etc.?
My approach is the exact opposite. Since I base my work on my belief that the human body will heal itself, it is a matter of eliminating specific pro-inflammatory substances that are feeding the inflammation. Once that happens, then the inflammation will begin healing.
So. we talk about chocolate. There is a lot of research. In fact, that is one of the biggest questions I get, "Well, what about dark chocolate? I thought it was good. All of the research says this." My research is observational or what is called anecdotal. And that is that what we do here, what I've done for many, many years is, let's try changing a few things and see what result we get.
So chocolate, the bottom line is the most powerful pro-inflammatory substance there is. Why do I say that? Because over the course of years of trying to find out what substances are causing this inflammation and eliminating them, that's what we see. Chocolate is related to the dairy protein in a way that I don't really understand but the most common cause of chronic inflammation is a protein called casein which is in milk and dairy foods – which is milk and cheese and yogurt and all of the dairy foods. That is where most fibromyalgia comes from.
That is where most arthritis comes from. It is an inflammatory reaction to that specific protein that's in milk and dairy foods. Observationally, all of the patients that I see who react to the milk protein with inflammation, psoriasis, or whatever it is, they also react to chocolate, only their reaction is worse. So, the patients who are questioning that, I say, "Okay, let's do this. Let's take you off the chocolate and whatever else I think is significant and let's see what happens." Once they recover I say, if you are really curious – and this usually happens accidently – people will have some chocolate.
And then they will come and see me and say, "I have a migraine for no apparent reason". Or, "My back flared up again, or my knee," or whatever it is. We go over everything and we find out it was their exposure to chocolate twelve hours ago. It sounds really bizarre to people but once they have seen the reaction two, three or four times, they finally realize that it is true. What I suggest in the book is that you don't have to believe my research or anybody else's research just try it on yourself.
DR. MIKE: Dr. Twogood, I think what you hit on is important here. I have talked about this before with my listeners. There are different types of research. There are different types of evidence. And like you said, there is anecdotal, observational, historical and that does have a place in medicine and how we practice medicine. It is really the art of it.
You have done exactly what we all do as scientists. You have observed what goes on in individual patients and you've come up with some ideas, some hypothesis and I think that is awesome. That is one form of medicine.
DR. TWOGOOD: Sure, and it is absolutely necessary with pain. There is no way to prove whether a patient has pain or not. There is no imaging study; there is no blood study that says, "Oh, we know you are hurting." We have to trust the patient and the patient has to tell us. So, pain is purely anecdotal. When patients come in and tell me they are hurting, I believe them.
And when they are not hurting, I believe them, too. Of course that, again, is anecdotal. I included in my book some objective studies. They are photos of a chronic inflammatory condition of the skin is psoriasis. There are pictures of a case that totally recovered from psoriasis by eliminating milk protein. That is a very objective study. That is not anecdotal.
That is the person can say they have psoriasis or don't have psoriasis, but the pictures show that before they changed their diet they did have psoriasis and after they didn't. Now, we didn't have photos following up on that, but what happened to the patient after that was they found out that every time they re-exposed themselves to casein protein their psoriasis started to come back. Again, that is objectified by the photos. But, pain is anecdotal.
We as physicians have to be trustworthy and the patients have to be trustworthy and we have to put our nose to the grindstone and figure out what is causing these cases. Whether the studies are controlled, have variables, etc. This is serious work and the anecdotes are extremely important to like you said, all of us.
DR. MIKE: I want to impress upon the listeners, Dr. Twogood, that what you are doing here, for you chronic pain is the healing process has broken down. Chronic inflammation is playing a role here. It is being fed by some of those stressors we talked about which could be some of these pro-inflammatory substances. So, in a sense you are trying to help this person to stop feeding the flames of that chronic inflammation leading to that chronic pain. What about MSG? You talk about that in your book, but I thought MSG was already pretty well-controlled and restricted. Is that not the case anymore?
DR. TWOGOOD: That is not the case and that is a common belief, what you just said. Actually, MSG is monosodium glutamate. It is a chemical flavor enhancer that is used in lots of processed foods: Chinese food, canned soup, restaurant soup, breaded food. It is all over the place. I wrote a book in 1997 about it called MSG Is Everywhere. The reason I wrote it and called it that is because MSG is everywhere. It came into the country in 1948 from Japan and its use has increased every single year.
The problem with it is that a lot of people don't believe that it has an effect on the human body, which it has a very powerful affect. There are other researchers who have seen that. But they hide it under lots of different names hydrolyzed protein, natural flavors, hydrolyzed yeast, yeast extract, to name just a few. Processed food contains this chemical substance and not everybody has sensitivity to it. However, it is a toxic substance so if a dose is high enough, like with alcohol, then, eventually, you will have a reaction to it.
Many people are very sensitive to it with reactions like panic attacks, mood changes, migraines, swelling in the hands, mysterious bruises. These are all observational symptoms that I have seen in my practice. It is a substance that, in my mind, should be illegal. But barring that, it should at least have a warning on the package that says "this package contains MSG".
DR. MIKE: Food manufacturers are getting really good, Dr. Twogood, at taking what we know to be harmful substances and simply just changing the name. They get approval from our own government to do that. And that's where a lot of people – you don't see MSG listed on the label anymore but it comes in as a yeast extract or something like that.
Real quickly, so we eliminate some of these substances, give me your top 2 or 3 foods that you like people to eat to reduce pain.
DR. TWOGOOD: That is an approach that I don't really go into. Whole, natural foods are the solution for everything. That is what we are designed to live on. Sure there are some people who have sensitivities to some of those – strawberries, peanuts, etc.
DR. MIKE: Dr. Twogood, that was a big question for you. We'll just have to leave it there. Whole foods are the best way to go. Thank you for coming on, you did a great job.
This is Healthy Talk on RadioMD. I'm Dr. Mike. Stay well. - Length (mins) 10
- Waiver Received No
- Host Mike Smith, MD
Learn which healing nutrients you can use to eliminate chronic pain.
Additional Info
- Segment Number 2
- Audio File healthy_talk/1523ht3b.mp3
- Featured Speaker Daniel Twogood, DC
- Book Title Chronic Pain Gone 90 Days
- Guest Website Dr. Daniel Twogood
-
Guest Bio
Dr. Daniel Twogood graduated from the University of California at Santa Barbara in 1973 and from Cleveland Chiropractic College in Los Angeles in 1983.
He began practicing at the International Sports Medicine Institute in West Los Angeles in 1983 where he treated many of the athletes in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. He opened his own practice in Apple Valley, California, in 1985 where he discovered the diet/pain connection. He has written four books on chronic pain; the latest is entitled Chronic Pain Gone 90 Days. -
Transcription
RadioMD Presents: Healthy Talk | Original Air Date: June 3, 2015
Host: Michael Smith, MD
Healthy Talk with Dr. Michael Smith, M.D. And now, here's the country doctor with the city education, Dr. Mike.
DR. MIKE: So, if you suffer from chronic pain and I tell you that I have a guest who believes you can manage – more than manage this--you can eliminate chronic pain in just 90 days, you're probably really excited about this and want to hear what my guest has to say. This is an important issue, without a doubt. A significant percent of adults in this country suffer from chronic pain for different reasons.
Regardless of the reason, we know that chronic pain increases stress, mood disorders, impacts sleep and when you put that all together, that can impact how well you function and even how long you can actually live. This is something that is a definite issue we need to talk about more.
My guest is Dr. Daniel Twogood. He graduated from the University of California at Santa Barbara in 1973 and from Cleveland Chiropractic College in Los Angeles in 1983. He has been doing this stuff for quite some time. He began practicing at the International Sports Medicine Institute in West Los Angeles where he treated many of the athletes in the 1984 Olympics.
He opened his own practice in 1985 where he discovered the diet-pain connection. He has written four books on chronic pain and the latest is Chronic Pain Gone in 90 Days. Dr. Twogood, welcome to Healthy Talk.
DR. TWOGOOD: Hey, thanks for letting me share this information with your audience.
DR. MIKE: Let's just get right to this. I know there are some people, Dr. Twogood, when I talk about or when you talk about eliminating chronic pain in 90 days, come on. There are some skeptics out there, right? Is this really realistic?
DR. TWOGOOD: There should be skeptics. We should be skeptical about everything, especially about chronic pain. You know the title of the book, Chronic Pain Gone in 90 Days, does seem grandiose because we've all been taught and learned from our experiences or from other people that we know that chronic by definition means that it is not going to go away. There are many people in this country walking around with chronic disorders that their well-educated, well-trained doctors have told them a chronic condition is not going to go away like fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis, migraines, chronic back pain, chronic fatigue, irritable bowel syndrome.
There are a ton of these diseases where what has happened to this group of people, who are a large percentage of our population, they have been to doctors; they have been to acupuncturists; they have been to chiropractors; they have been to everybody and they are not getting any relief.
Whatever it is that we are offering, it's not working. If, as a chiropractor, I keep doing the same thing over and over again, 80% of my patients are going to respond and this 20% is going to get only palliative care. When I saw that happening many years ago I thought, "Well, that is not satisfactory. I can't keep treating them the same way. I have to do something different." When we talk about chronic pain being gone in 90 days, that is just how long the healing process takes place when you finally do the right thing for the human body.
DR. MIKE: From your perspective, the word chronic - and this is maybe a big point for my listeners – the word chronic, and in this case chronic pain, doesn't necessarily mean that there is not a cure for it or a treatment for it that will work.
DR. TWOGOOD: Right. It is a conundrum, basically. We don't give up hope. I think that, as a practitioner, I always give my patients hope. If what I'm doing isn't working, I have to try something else. But chronic conditions are conditions that, there are lots of definitions. They haven't gotten better in a reasonable period of time.
A lot of times, you'll strain your back working in the yard and you know that if you use some heat and rest it for a few days, that it is going to go away. Just like if you stub your toe or do anything else. We know how long regular pain lasts and we expect to hurt for a while. Perhaps we might have to do something. We might have to go to a chiropractor and wear a brace or have surgery or take medication or whatever the situation is, but we know that within days and weeks – well within 90 days - that we are going to heal from whatever that owie is. But chronic people they know, guess what? It has been weeks. It has been months. I'm not getting better. At first, they are waiting for it to heal and nothing is happening.
Then they start in to the doctor routine and they are going around in circles not getting better. Everything that I do in my work is based on my firm belief that the human body is a really well-built organism and it will heal. We have seen it. We have all seen it in ourselves thousands of times. You cut yourself open; you don't have to do anything. Amazingly enough, within days and weeks that wound heals. A scab forms; it goes away and you are good as new.
DR. MIKE: Good point.
DR. TWOGOOD: Chronic pain is basically failure to heal. Our job--my job--as a practitioner is to find out what is causing this failure in this really well-built system.
DR. MIKE: Let's talk about some of them. What are some of the causes for us to fail to heal leading to chronic pain?
DR. TWOGOOD: I go by a very simple concept. All pain is caused by a process called inflammation, which people are hearing a lot in the literature now. So, they know. Inflammation is a series of chemical events that happen in the body as our body's reaction to the various forms of stress. Injury, stress, or infection. Like, if you hit your thumb with a hammer, it becomes inflamed. And we know that if we stop hitting our thumb with the hammer, that inflammation is going to proceed to healing.
When that inflammation is raging, that is the beginning of the healing process and it causes swelling, heat, redness and it stimulates nerves in the area that send a signal to the brain that is interpreted as pain. Pain is caused by inflammation. Inflammation proceeds to healing in most cases. In chronic pain, that inflammation is run away and it doesn't stop. So, it is being fed by something. This inflammation fails to go away or it keeps coming back. That's what causes chronic pain.
DR. MIKE: How much does stress in our lives play a role in feeding this inflammatory process?
DR. TWOGOOD: The definition of stress has to be established here. Stress, in my research, is the cause of all pain and all disease. But stress, again, has to be defined. Stress comes in three forms. The one form that most people identify with when we talk about stress is mental stress – jobs, relationships, bills, your health, etc., etc. These mental problems that crop up all through life that cause you to feel stressed out. But it's the accumulation of the three forms of stress that causes the body to break down.
There is the mental stress that I just talked about. There is physical stress, like bending, lifting, twisting, falling, auto accidents, etc. And there is the one that everybody misses – the third one is chemical stress. That is our body's reaction to specific chemicals that enter the body through inhalation, ingestion or contact.
The human condition is most powerfully affected by what you allow into your bloodstream and that is usually through the mouth. That is the foundation of modern medicine, right? If you go to a doctor they are going to prescribe something for you to swallow, a specific substance.
DR. MIKE: What you are talking about here in this Chronic Pain Gone 90 Days is – because now you are addressing that chronic inflammation. You are going to address the stress and those three parts of stress in each individual person. In a sense, you are now correcting that healing process. And if you do correct it, most healing processes take 90 days. That is where you are getting the 90 days from, correct?
DR. TWOGOOD: Right, yes. That is the normal healing process. As a matter of fact, most chronic pain, most pain that we have experienced at all, it happens before 90 days. Ninety days is the outside. For a lot of people between 7 and 30 days, if you eliminate what is interfering with the healing process, they will heal in a normal fashion, like we've all seen. Ninety days is the outside. If we are doing the right things, if we are eliminating the things that are interfering with the healing process, healing will take place.
DR. MIKE: In your book, you mention something called generalized adaptation syndrome. What is that real quickly?
DR. TWOGOOD: The generalized adaption syndrome is your body's reaction to all of these different stressors. You have a reaction to some inflammatory, it proceeds to healing. What happens is, when you are exposed to a stressor like cold, you shiver for a while and then your body adapts for a while. Then, if you continue to be exposed to the cold, after a while your body can't adapt anymore and it fails and you get illness from it.
DR. MIKE: So. that is part of where the healing process is breaking down. We are not adapting the way we are supposed to be. When we come back. we will continue with this and I also want to get into some of the pro-inflammatory substances you think we should avoid.
This is Healthy Talk on RadioMD. I'm Dr. Mike. Stay well. - Length (mins) 10
- Waiver Received No
- Host Mike Smith, MD
A recent study found a three-way link between antibiotic use in infants, changes in gut bacteria, and disease later in life.
Additional Info
- Segment Number 1
- Audio File healthy_talk/1523ht3a.mp3
- Featured Speaker Mike Smith, MD
- Organization Life Extension
- Guest Website Healthy Talk MD
-
Transcription
RadioMD Presents: Healthy Talk | Original Air Date: June 3, 2015
Host: Michael Smith, MD
Anti-aging and disease prevention radio is right here on RadioMD. Here's author, blogger, lecturer and national medical media personality, Dr. Michael Smith, M.D. with Healthy Talk.
DR. MIKE: So, is giving antibiotics to infants safe? Or for that matter, babies and toddlers? Granted there are times when antibiotics are absolutely necessary. Bacterial meningitis, for instance, or pneumonia – bacterial pneumonia. There are times when antibiotics are absolutely necessary, but we also know we are overusing them. And not just in us, by the way, also in livestock where we eventually get our chicken and our beef. We are definitely over using them. So, what about when your child, your infant, baby or toddler, simply just has the sniffles--some sinus stuff going on, or weird stuff draining out of their nose? Does that automatically mean we need to be using antibiotics?
Some new research is showing that infant antibiotic use--and I think we can extrapolate this to babies and toddlers, but this study was focusing on infants, so I'm going to stick with that target population--infant antibiotic use is linked to diseases later in life, adult diseases. I am pulling this report from a publication called Vertical New Science and they are summarizing some research that was published in the Journal of Cell Host and Microbe from the University of Minnesota. What they found was a three-way link among antibiotic use in infants, changes in the gut bacteria and diseases later in life.
The change in gut bacteria, the term for that is called dysbiosis, and I might refer to that throughout this segment. Dysbiosis is simply where you have an imbalance in the gut flora. That is just another way of saying gut bacteria, even some healthy yeast species. That dysbiosis has been linked already, for instance, in adults to diseases, infections and allergies, autoimmune disorders, obesity.
Now, the question becomes, if we start to change the normal gut flora--that balance--really early in life, like in infants, is that dysbiosis we're creating there going to cause some of these same diseases? Or does it increase the risk for some of these adult diseases later in life? The answer to that is "yes". The purpose of this study--the methodology and the execution of the study--was put together by a graduate student. I don't have his or her name here. But again, the University of Minnesota, in the Biomedical Informatics and Computational Biology Program. Wow! So, things are getting really fancy in college.
When I was going through we had biology and microbiology. What this student did, of course, with the help of other researchers, I'm sure, is they developed a predictive model. The reason they have to say it that way is you can't really study infants like this.
So, you have to look at the information that is already out there. You've got to put it together in a mathematical formula that then can predict what would happen if you have dysbiosis in an infant.
So, they developed that model. They developed the math involved which definitely has a lot of clinical application, I think, in the future. They developed a predictive model that could measure how the normal gut flora develops and what antibiotics would do to that and, eventually, does that cause disease later in life. It is a really interesting study that they put together.
If you look at the hypothesis, they start off by reminding us that antibiotics are by far the most commonly prescription drugs given to children. They account for about one-fourth of all medication prescribed to kids with a third of these prescriptions considered unnecessary. That is a common statistic even put out by our own government that about a third of antibiotic prescriptions are not necessary. What
I mean by that is, you have a viral infection that is causing some sniffles and cough and cold, but the doctor wants to do something. Doctors, especially pediatricians, they don't like to tell parents, "Well just go wait it out. Lots of fluids. Rest." That is really hard for parents.
Parents want something to be done. I think we are all kind of responsible here. The parent wants something done, the doctor, knowing that this is probably a viral infection, still writes the prescription for an antibiotic. So, we are overusing these drugs. Studies have shown, over and over again, profound short- and long-term effects of using antibiotics when they are unnecessary and causing dysbiosis.
The question becomes, though, in this study, in this predictive model, that the researchers and this graduate student from the University of Minnesota were looking at was really: can we prove that using the antibiotics, especially when it is unnecessary, truly causes dysbiosis in the infant and that down the line increases the risk for adult disease? That's what they were studying. They developed this framework, this mathematical map of how antibiotics may be acting in the gut to cause disease later in life.
They took current knowledge linking antibiotics, dysbiosis and disease from thousands of research papers and proposed a framework for studying these types of questions. Like, if I give too many antibiotics is that really going to cause dysbiosis?
Is that going to increase the risk of allergies in this infant later in life? They put all of this information together in this new kind of framework – this mathematical framework. They discovered as they were doing this that there are four things or parts to dysbiosis that can happen when an infant is given an antibiotics. If you have one--just one--of these changes, that does increase the risk for disease later in life.
Four changes can happen to the normal gut flora when you have given antibiotic to an infant. Here's what they discovered. Number one, the loss of what is called "keystone taxa". These are really keystone species in your gut that are really, really important. You don't even need a lot of them. They are powerful, healthy bacteria, these species that protect you. When you can lose that in children and infants, you can lose the diversity of the normal gut flora. You can have shifts in metabolic capacity.
The gut flora is important to how we metabolize vitamins and minerals. You can also have blooms of pathogens. Basically, a disease can set in the gut. What they discovered by analyzing this in this mathematical framework is if you can show that at least one of those four things have occurred, you can then predict infant dysbiosis and the increase risk of adult diseases. The two main diseases that stood out – and I found this interesting. If you give antibiotics to an infant and they have one of those four changes, or maybe all four, or three out of four whatever.
So, you see the loss of the keystone species, diversity is down, pathogens – any of those things happen, you can predict adult diseases. Specifically, allergies and obesity. Interesting, huh? Allergies and obesity were the main links to dysbiosis in infants.
It is interesting that we are having an obesity epidemic in this country in adolescents, young adults, and that correlates well with the use of over use of antibiotics in those children. It is an interesting connection.
My take home message to you is if your infant has to have antibiotics, do things like continue to breast feed. Very important. There are infant probiotics you can use. You want to make sure they get the species bifidobacteria and lactobacillus acidophilus.
Those are the two most important species probably to a growing and developing child. You can even do something called kefir, for instance, but you have to make sure – kefir is a milk product that has a lot of natural probiotics that can be used.
But it's not really infants. That has to be babies at about year one. They have to be drinking milk already – normal, like cow milk for them to do kefir. There are things you can do if they really do need those antibiotics and I strongly suggest you do them.
This is Healthy Talk on RadioMD. I'm Dr. Mike. Stay well. - Length (mins) 10
- Waiver Received No
- Host Mike Smith, MD
Listen in as Dr. Mike provides the answers to a wealth of health and wellness questions.
Additional Info
- Segment Number 5
- Audio File healthy_talk/1522ht5e.mp3
- Featured Speaker Mike Smith, MD
- Organization Life Extension
- Guest Website Healthy Talk MD
-
Transcription
RadioMD Presents: Healthy Talk with Dr. Michael Smith | Original Air Date: May 29, 2015
Host: Mike Smith, MD
You’re listening to RadioMD. It’s time to ask Dr. Mike on HealthyTalk. Call or email to ask your questions now. Email AskDrMikeSmith@RadioMD.com or call 877-711-5211. The lines are open.
DR. MIKE: This next question, I have been debating about answering. I have had it for a while now. I decided, “Why not, it’s a Friday.” It’s kind of an “open Dr. Mike day” type thing. Let me go ahead and try to tackle this. I want you to know that the answer I am going to give to this question is just purely my own world view, my own belief, my own faith system. The question is being asked so I get to answer it. The question is simple.
“What is life? I am asking this because billionaire inventor J. Craig Venter” – that’s interesting, this billionaire inventor and his last name is Venter – “gave an answer about DNA software systems. I was just curious what you think.”
This guy J. Craig Venter answered the question, “What is life,” by talking about DNA software systems. I found his answer. It was reported in the Wall Street Journal a couple of months ago. The question again, “What is Life?” Here is his reply. By the waym this J. Craig Venter gentleman he is the founder of a company who is really into the genome sequencing stuff. So, that tells you why he is focusing on DNA with his answer.
Here’s what he said: “The short answer is life is a DNA software driven system. At least on this planet, as far as we know, every species is driven by their DNA software totally and completely. The much more complicated answer deals with energy balance and a cellular system and transporting molecules in and out. But it all gets down to reading your DNA software from second to second--every one of your cells. Making new proteins, making new versions of your cells. Without this software you can’t make new hardware.”
DNA has been called the backbone of life and I get that. I agree with everything he just said. Here is something that I find really interesting. He refers to the DNA as a software system. That’s really interesting because as I have studied medicine and I have studied biology and microbiology--and I have been doing this for quite some time now. Really, in 1989 is when I really started to get into science. So, I have been doing this for a while. Something that has always just been amazing to me is how a lot of the cellular processes, the reactions, the enzymes, how muscles contract, how ATP is made. They require the use of these proteins that fold up in ways that almost resemble machines. I can’t help but see this design quality in all of these different enzymes and proteins and DNA. There is a design quality to it that has lead me in my own personal beliefs to believe in a designer. I’ve said it before on my show. I am a Christian and I believe in a creator and a personal creator. I answer the question, “What is life,” I guess, more based from that world view. Craig Venter is taking more that naturalistic approach – I don’t know his background. I’m just going by what he said here. He’s giving the answer to, “What is Life”” He is going back to the naturalistic approach. In naturalism, there is no creator. Matter has happened through random processes over eons of time. There are some people who believe that matter itself is eternal. People who are atheists or naturalists, they answer the question with no help from an outside transcendent God or creator. They don’t allow that in their belief system. That’s fine. For me it is that life isn’t just a process; it’s not just a chemical reaction. I agree that there is a DNA software system in the body. I think that there are all kinds of interesting software and hardware systems in the body that have a design quality to them. So, to me, there is a designer. Where we differ, I guess, Craig Venter would just say that the DNA software system has evolved over time. For me, it was designed and placed in the cell. I agree with everything that he is saying. I think it just really comes down to how did it begin and how did it get into the cells. For me, there is a designer. I’ve come to appreciate the design quality and all of these different cellular processes, enzymes and proteins. Life to me isn’t just the physical. It’s soulish. It’s personhood. It’s spiritual. All that kind of stuff. That is just my personal answer. I don’t know if I did a good job answering that.
Another question: “What are the safest ways to whiten teeth?” I am assuming this person is asking the question because on one of the morning talk shows – and I know this because a friend of mine was talking about it. I don’t remember what network it was on. There was a segment on, is teeth whitening safe – is it good for your teeth or bad for your teeth? Maybe this person is asking this question that based on that show. Are there safe ways to whiten your teeth? Maybe. The things that whiten the teeth the most, like hydrogen peroxide, for instance, are going to have some enamel issues and may not be the best thing for your gums. I had a dentist friend of mine say, “If you ever do anything to whiten your teeth and it makes your gums tingle or burn, get it out of your mouth. That’s not good.” Pretty much all of the big, main ways that you can whiten your teeth, at least outside of a dentist office – on your own, in your home, over the counter stuff – all of those things that really can do a good job cause gums to tingle and burn. They are probably not good, like hydrogen peroxide. Baking soda might be a safer way to do it. A lot of people love baking soda. They say it works great. I don’t think it is going to be as powerful as some of the other bigger teeth whitening systems out there but baking soda might be a way to do it. There is another form of peroxide called carbamide peroxide. Carbamide peroxide is very similar to hydrogen peroxide but it is more carbon based. It is supposed to be a little bit safer for you. I don’t have any specifics on it. But I do know there are some dentists who prefer carbamide peroxide versus hydrogen peroxide. Maybe carbamide and baking soda combination would be a safe way to whiten your teeth. How about this, though? How about avoid the things that cause the stains in the first place? The coffees, the teas – I know that is hard to do because I enjoy all of that stuff, too. Maybe cutting out some of the coffee, or brushing your teeth when you are done drinking or eating those kinds of food that can stain teeth. Maybe just cutting those foods out a little bit and when you do consume them, brushing your teeth right away. Maybe that would be a safe way to keep teeth white, or to prevent the stain in the first place. Just a thought. I don’t have anything else, but I’m trying to think off the top of my head. We do know that some of the mouthwashes now, too, have in them some of those teeth whitening chemicals that you find in the strips. Some people are questioning the use of those mouthwashes every day. Be careful there. Some of the toothpastes that say ‘extra whitening’, they use abrasives. If you ever see in your toothpaste little circles or dots those aren’t things that dissolve. Those are little plastic abrasive things. They don’t really leave your system. Be careful with those. As a matter of fact, when you clean out deep pockets you can find some of those small little plastic dots from those toothpastes. So, be careful with that as well. So, carbamide peroxide and baking soda.
This is Healthy Talk on RadioMD. I’m Dr. Mike. Stay well. - Length (mins) 10
- Waiver Received No
- Host Mike Smith, MD
Listen in as Dr. Mike provides the answers to a wealth of health and wellness questions.
Additional Info
- Segment Number 4
- Audio File healthy_talk/1522ht5d.mp3
- Featured Speaker Mike Smith, MD
- Organization Life Extension
- Guest Website Healthy Talk MD
-
Transcription
RadioMD Presents: Healthy Talk with Dr. Michael Smith | Original Air Date: May 29, 2015
Host: Mike Smith, MD
It’s time for you to be a part of the show. Email or call with questions for Dr. Mike now. Email AskDrMikeSmith@RadioMD.com or call 877-711-5211. What are you waiting for? The doctor is in.
DR. MIKE: My first question I am going to be pretty quick with because I think to really get into this would take a longer time and I’ve got some other questions that I want to do. The question from a listener is
“Is the HPV vaccine really necessary? We’ve never seen problems with HPV until ‘now’.”
And the person did now in quotes. I think I understand what they mean by that. There is this belief among some people that the whole vaccine industry is a fraud or whatever and they are making up diseases. Pretty soon, we are going to be taking hundreds of vaccines throughout our lives to prevent all kinds of stuff. The theory of vaccines…They work great. My degree was in immunology and microbiology before I went to medical school. I have studied vaccines probably more than most doctors. They do work. They do have benefit and they have done some great things for us as humans over the past few decades. The question specifically here is about HPV--human papillomavirus. In girls it can cause cervical cancer. It also has been linked to cancer of the esophagus and the soft tissues of the neck and that happens in boys more than girls. Is it really necessary? I am not ready to say “yes” or “no” at this point. But I want to really address the second part of this where is says, “We’ve never had a problem with HPV until ‘now’ ” and this person puts that in quotes. I understand what the listener means by that. HPV has always been around. It has always been linked to cervical cancer and neck cancers. We’ve always done just fine. Is the vaccine really preventing a lot of these cancers from happening? Is it really necessary? I get all that. What I want to mention to this listener is this: but we live in a different time today. We live in a different environment. We have a lot more people. We have teenagers having sex at younger and younger ages and a lot more often. That has been shown in lots of different epidemiological type studies when they ask about smoking and drinking and drugs and sex. All of it is happening younger and younger. Girls are going into their first period younger and younger. It is a different time and a different place. It is not a fair comparison to take today and say, “Why should we do this vaccine today when HPV has always been around?” Twenty years ago was very different then today in terms of the number of people, the number of partners, the number of times teenagers are having sex before they get out of high school. All of that is different today. Because of that, we should be looking at HPV a little bit more and we should be looking at the vaccine. I am not saying it is absolutely necessary yet. I think we need some more research on it but it is just a different time today than it was 20, 30, 40 years ago. It is a legitimate question. Is HPV worse today? Not so much. The virus is more virulent. Is it just spreading more because we have more people or kids are having sex younger, that kind of stuff? I think it is a legitimate question.
Next question.
“Are coffee enemas really as good as some experts say they are?” I looked at this question and I said to myself, “I don’t know a lot about coffee enemas.” I had some of the Life Extension advisors put together what they believe to be the pros and cons of coffee enemas. I am going to go over the pros and cons. In doing this, I asked a health advisor at Life Extensions who I know does coffee enemas and really believes in them to give me the pro part. For the con part, I asked an advisor who I know is absolutely against coffee enemas. I have heard them having little debates at lunch about this. I wanted to get the pro from the person who does it; the con from the person who doesn’t like it and let’s just see where we are at with that. By the way, I know a lot of people in the industry who do them and they swear by them. Historically speaking, anecdotally speaking, people love them. They say they feel better. They have more energy. Suzanne Somers, a good friend of mine – I have been on her show. She has been on my show. She does them. She swears by them. Let’s just see what the Life Extension health advisors had to say.
Here is the pro person. This is from the health advisor that does them: “Coffee enemas are used by holistic physicians for all sorts of conditions including cancer. Lots of people find help with constipation, fatigue and liver detoxification concerns. I know this sounds bizarre because you prefer to taste your coffee, not insert it rectally. Agreed.” I’m not going to read everything, but, seriously, coffee enemas may help to relieve constipation, insomnia, cognitive problems. They may eliminate or control parasites, yeast infections, other pathogens. “Coffee enemas are frequently used in natural cancer protocols such as the Gerson therapy,” which is a type of natural cancer therapy that was done many years ago by a guy named Dr. Gerson. “Coffee enemas were outlined as a treatment in the Merck manual, in the mid-1970s.” It’s not the enema as much as it is the coffee that helps. You are exposed to a barrage of toxin compounds in your life and you can easily become overloaded. Some of you cannot detoxify properly. Coffee enemas help you make glutathione, an antioxidant that sends poisons packing. Ultimately, what the person who has done coffee enemas is saying is there is some historical use, even in conventional medicine. “The coffee itself helps to boost glutathione levels which is critical to detoxification pathways.” I don’t know if that is true. I am not sure. There are a lot of different types of antioxidants in coffee. There is obviously caffeine. I would have to review the literature to see if some of those antioxidants in coffee or the caffeine is linked to glutathione production. I haven’t seen that before, so I’m not sure. But that is what is being stated here. I am going to play devils’ advocate as I read the pros and cons. I am questioning that. “Coffee enemas can be done at home inexpensively.” That I’ll go with. “You just need a comfortable spot on the floor in your bathroom or bathtub. As the coffee is retained in your bowel, the fluid goes through your intestinal wall through the portal vein into your liver.” Even that connection, I’m not sure about. So, large bowel, specifically rectum, through the intestinal wall. We do know the colon can absorb some fluids like water. Whether or not that gets into the portal vein or not, that’s questionable. The portal vein is usually more connected to the small bowel. So, I don’t know about that. “The stimulating effects and healing compounds in coffee jump start your liver and gall bladder. Bile will flow and help you get rid of toxins.” There are some of the pros. I question that whole thing about glutathione and I question the whole thing about getting into the portal vein. That’s the pros.
This is from the cons health advisor. “Coffee enemas are considered unsafe and should be avoided.” Pretty straight forward. Knowing this health advisor that is exactly how this person would say that. “Rare but serious adverse effects like septicemia, ”--which is bacteria in your blood—“rectal perforation”—Oh, come on. That is pretty rare. “And electrolyte abnormalities have been caused by coffee enemas. “All of that, yes. Septicemia, perforation, electrolyte – all of that can happen with any kind of enema, but let’s be honest those are rare, rare, rare events. He even says, “Deaths from the administration of coffee enemas have been reported.” I have never seen that before. I have to question that. “Coffee enemas are based on a pre-scientific idea called autointoxication - the belief that we are being poisoned by toxins because we are not digesting and eliminating waste products from our colons. This concept is not new and has roots as far back as our records of medicine. Autointoxication as a concept was discarded over time as the scientific basis for disease was discovered.” That is not true. Autointoxication is still something being studied and thought about even in conventional circles. That’s not true. So, here we have the pros and the cons. I’ll let you decide. I’m personally not going to do it. I am going to stick to drinking coffee. But the debate is still out.
This is Healthy Talk on RadioMD. I’m Dr. Mike. Stay well. - Length (mins) 10
- Waiver Received No
- Host Mike Smith, MD
One of the trickiest balances of exercise is maintaining (and growing) muscle strength while losing weight.
Additional Info
- Segment Number 3
- Audio File healthy_talk/1522ht5c.mp3
- Featured Speaker Mike Smith, MD
- Organization Life Extension
- Guest Website Healthy Talk MD
-
Transcription
RadioMD Presents: Healthy Talk with Dr. Michael Smith | Original Air Date: May 29, 2015
Host: Mike Smith, MD
Anti-aging and disease prevention radio is right here on RadioMD. Here is author, blogger, lecturer and national medical media personality, Dr. Michael Smith, M.D. with HealthyTalk.
DR. MIKE: You know if you are trying to lose weight getting ready for summer or looking good in your bathing suit during summer, whatever, or just even for a wedding or for a big event, what have you. If you are trying to lose weight, it is important that you preserve muscle mass. Think of it this way, muscle is your most metabolically active tissue. What do I mean by that? I just mean muscle uses sugar and makes energy out of it better than any other tissue. If you want to support metabolism while you try to lose weight, you’ve got to keep your muscle mass up. It’s that simple. If you are losing weight, you are losing fat, that sounds good. But you are also losing muscle. At some point, your metabolism is going to drop so much all of your efforts are going to be reversed because metabolism is going to crash because you are losing muscle. It is just not healthy to lose muscle, either. When you lose muscle, that is associated with a lot of risks. Risks for metabolic diseases. Risk for heart issues. It goes on and on. We want to make sure that whatever weight loss plan that you are on that you preserve muscle tissue. We want to make sure that we prevent muscle loss when we are losing weight. How can we go about this? I am going to read you this article. It came out of the Journal of Nutrition and it reports the outcome of a trial of overweight and obese individuals and “found a protective role for whey protein supplementation against some of the loss of muscle that occurs with dieting.” Again, this comes from the Journal of Nutrition, 2014. “Researchers randomized 40 subjects to receive” - that’s a decent size – “a 14-day, low calorie diet supplemented with whey protein, soy protein or the addition of carbohydrate providing a number of calories equal to that of the protein supplement.” Basically, you have 40 people, 14 days, a third of them were on a low calorie diet with whey protein, a third were on a low calorie diet with soy protein and a third of them were on a low calorie diet with the addition of a carbohydrate in the same number of calories as the soy or the whey protein groups. Basically, a whey, soy and an extra carbohydrate group – three groups. They looked at a measure of muscle maintenance that is known as myofibrillar protein synthesis – you can actually assess this. They looked at this myofibrillar protein synthesis, this measurement of muscle maintenance while fasting, and following a meal, before and after the two-week diet. They measured this muscle synthesis essentially before to give it a baseline and afterwards. “Prior to the start of the diet, this myofibrillar protein synthesis was found to be more stimulated following whey consumption in comparison to the soy or carbohydrate ingestion. While all groups experienced a similar decline,” dieting is going to cause you to lose some muscle mass unless you are exercising,” the decrease in muscle mass was less among those who received whey versus the soy or that extra carbohydrate.” Whey does seem to be a way, if you are dieting to preserve some of that muscle mass; to prevent some of that muscle wasting and loss that we see when people are trying to lose weight. I have a note here, the editors did say something. “Among those who received carbohydrates, the decrease in the protein synthesis averaged 31% in comparison with only 9% in the group that received whey protein and soy.” The worst thing you could do is load up on carbs, I guess, when you are losing weight. You definitely want to increase protein intake is what the editors are saying here. You definitely want to increase protein when you are trying to lose some weight if you want to prevent the muscle loss and whey seems to be the better one to do. You can take a whey protein shake or something. That is important. Should we start recommending a whey protein shake for anybody on any diet? I don’t know. There may be something to it. It is pretty well known that most Americans aren’t getting enough protein anyway, so for all of us to do a little extra whey or soy protein or whatever kind of protein you want is probably not a bad idea anyways. Doing some whey protein when you are dieting, in my opinion, based on, at least this preliminary data, is really important to preventing muscle loss.
Let’s talk about some other ways, though, that you can prevent the loss of muscle when you are on a diet. Number one, don’t cut your calories too drastically. Ten, fifteen or twenty percent. Maybe that is going to be your goal. Cutting out 10, 15 or 20% of your total calorie intake, but you do that slowly over time. Drastic and sudden drops in calorie intake will result in more muscle loss. Not only that – I coined this term called “diet shock”. I think I have talked about it on the show before. Diet shock is where you cut your calories so much that you may lose weight initially but the calorie loss is so profound to the body, the body actually thinks that you are starving. It shocks itself into a starvation mode and it crashes metabolism. Cut your calories. Aim for about 10-20% of a decrease in total calorie intake. But do it slowly over time. Maybe the first week on a diet you only cut your calories 5% and do that for a couple of weeks. Then, you drop it 10%. Do that for a couple of more weeks. Eventually, you get to 15% but do it slowly. Your goal might be eating 20% less calories a day, but don’t start there. Number one, you are going to be really hungry. You are going to want to cheat anyways, and it is not good. You are more prone to lose muscle when you cut calories too quick. Eat to meet your protein need. That is really important. Most people need around 72 milligrams and, basically, it is a gram of protein per kilogram of weight. So, let me say that again because I messed that up. It is a gram of protein for kilogram of weight. You want to stick with that no matter what you are doing, whether you are trying to lose weight or not. Make sure you are getting enough protein and if you need to, add some whey. Do a whey shake or something. Cut calories slowly over time. I don’t like fad diets. I don’t like crash diets. You are going to lose muscle and go into what I call diet shock. Do it slowly and make sure you are getting enough protein every day. Number three, exercise. That is one of the best ways to prevent muscle loss is to exercise. We can talk about whey protein. I have some other suggestions here: fish oil, hydrazine, carnitine, branch chain amino acid, medium chain tryglcerides. These are all things you can take to preserve lean muscle mass but if you are dieting and doing this stuff and you are not exercising, then you are not doing right anyways. Cut your calories slowly, get your protein needs and exercise. Eat less and burn more. That is the best way to keep metabolism balanced and that is going to lead to lasting, successful weight loss. If you are dieting, at least get some whey protein, based on this study published in the Journal of Nutrition, 2014.
This is Healthy Talk on RadioMD. I’m Dr. Mike. Stay well. - Length (mins) 10
- Waiver Received No
- Host Mike Smith, MD
Is there a way to feel energized while traveling through several different time zones?
Additional Info
- Segment Number 2
- Audio File healthy_talk/1522ht5b.mp3
- Featured Speaker Mike Smith, MD
- Organization Life Extension
- Guest Website Healthy Talk MD
-
Transcription
RadioMD Presents: Healthy Talk with Dr. Michael Smith | Original Air Date: May 29, 2015
Host: Mike Smith, MD
Living longer and staying healthier. It’s HealthyTalk with Dr. Michael Smith, M.D. Here’s your host, Dr. Mike.
DR. MIKE: We are going to talk about preventing jet lag now. This is a good topic for me because I do travel for Life Extension as the spokesman and senior scientist. I don’t think that I am a frequent flyer. Many, many years ago when I worked for the pharmaceutical companies before I went into natural medicine and I traveled every week. I definitely was a frequent flyer way back then. But here, now, with Life Extension I fly all over the country. Really, maybe once a month – 12 to 14 trips a year. I don’t know if that is frequent or not. I can tell you this – I am affected more and more by jet lag than I ever was before. Maybe I’m just getting older. When I was younger, flying all of the place with the pharmaceutical companies it didn’t really bother me that much. I would get to a new city and we would go out and have good dinners. Now when I travel, I get to the hotel and eat something and I go right to bed. Maybe I’m just getting old. But this is a good topic for me. As a matter of fact, I just came off a trip recently and I really had a hard time getting my energy back for a bit. I thought, let’s look into some of the new stuff out there about jet lag.
Here’s what we know. Most methods for reducing the effects of jet lag are based on two facts; there are two things you have to know before we can really talk about it. Number one, in healthy people circadian rhythms – this is your day-night cycles. Basically, lots of hormones and neurotransmitters are based on day-night cycles . We call it the “circadian rhythm”. The circadian rhythm is ultimately synchronized with daylight. That’s the first thing that you have to understand. Your daytime/nighttime cycling is really determined by when the sun comes up. Number two, the effects of daytime and nighttime on the circadian cycle is mediated by melatonin. Daytime/nighttime cycles called circadian rhythms are really based upon when the sun comes up and they are modulated by the hormone melatonin. Melatonin is in the pineal gland in the brain. It is released in the absence of light. So when the sun sets, melatonin goes up. As dawn breaks and light begins to come in, your body senses this, it kicks in what some doctors call the “circadian pacemaker”. I thought that was kind of cool. Melatonin drops off, cortisol goes off and you wake up. Cortisol plays a role in this, too. Cortisol and melatonin are opposite each other. When the sun goes down melatonin goes up, cortisol drops. When the sun comes up cortisol goes up, melatonin drops. There is a link there.
We do believe that the best way, then, to prevent jet lag is to prepare your circadian rhythm for the change in time zone with bright light therapy and melatonin. By the way, I want to say something about melatonin. This is kind of off the topic, but that’s okay. It’s my show and I can do this. Melatonin is not just for sleep and circadian rhythms. When you hear melatonin most people think – sleep aid. The first thing I want you to know is that melatonin is not really a sleep aid, by the way. Melatonin, although it can put you to sleep, it really promotes healthy sleep stages. There are about five sleep stages and you are supposed to go through these stages two or three times every night. Melatonin controls all that. If you are having trouble falling to sleep, there are better things you can take than melatonin, in my opinion. You might want to take a sleep aid with melatonin so that when you do fall asleep, you can go through these normal cycles. As a matter of fact a lot of these sleep aids knock you out and you don’t go through these cycles. Maybe you sleep but it’s not healthy, reparative, restorative sleep. Melatonin does a lot more than just that. Melatonin is an antioxidant. Melatonin seems to be – again this is a lot of new research – but melatonin may play a role in helping other antioxidants work better like superoxide dismutation, vitamin C and glutathione. Melatonin has a lot of different roles. As a matter of fact, even in cancer treatment, by the way. Probably because of its strong antioxidant properties. There is a lot of interesting research going on with melatonin. It is really about melatonin light in your eyes. If you really want to prevent jet lag you have to focus on light, your eyes and melatonin. We call this chronosense. “Chrono” means time and “sense” means you are sensing it. Chronosense means sensing time. Your body has an ability to know when it’s light, obviously, and when it’s dark – nighttime. Your body knows when it should sleep and when it should wake up. That is all controlled ultimately by light coming into your eyes which then affects melatonin. When light hits your eyes, even when they are closed, the light still gets through, the lids aren’t perfect. Look at a bright light, close. Your eyes you can still see the light. When the sun comes up the light comes into your eyes, it hits the retina. When that happens, melatonin goes down. When the lights are turned off, the retina no longer inhibits the melatonin and the melatonin can go up. So, there’s a connection between light, your eyes and melatonin. That is what gives you chronosense. The sense of time. It is important to maintain that sense of time when you are flying to different time zones. Most of the research with jet lag is looking at light therapy and melatonin. I have known this for a while and I have been flying with Life Extension for eight years and more and more I am feeling the effects of jet lag and I have done none of this stuff. I don’t take melatonin. Normally, I sleep just fine. I’ve never thought about melatonin even though I knew all this. I don’t know what is wrong with me. Maybe I need to start doing this. Let’s talk about minimizing jet lag with melatonin. In a 2003 British jet lag study, researchers published a review of the clinical trials that use bright light with and without melatonin in an effort to re-establish circadian rhythms in a new time zone. They were using melatonin with or without light. Remember light, your eyes and melatonin all play a role here. Here the researchers from Britain took people and sent them out to different time zones. All of them were on melatonin but some were given bright light therapy; some were not given bright light therapy. What they found, pretty straight forward, was that when melatonin – about 2 to 5 milligrams – was given with light therapy, jet lag symptoms reduced significantly. What do I mean by bright light therapy? In some cases, they had people just waking up in the new time zone and the first thing they did was open up the drapes and look right at the sun, with their eyes closed obviously. That is bright light therapy. They actually had some light boxes for some people. You can actually buy these things. You can travel with them. They are not the light boxes we use to treat seasonal affective disorder. They are smaller versions of that, but you can travel with these things. Some people did that. But basically, you wake up and you let light hit your eyes immediately. You take melatonin at bed. When you get to the new time zone, it’s probably best to stay outside for a little bit in the new time zone. Since you are in the new time zone, stick to that new time zone when it comes to bed. You still go to bed at ten o’clock in that new time zone, if ten is the time you go to bed. You get to that new time zone; you adjust to that new time zone – going to bed, waking up. Take about 2 to 5 grams of melatonin before you go to bed and the minute you get up get some real light on your face. Get outside and the effects of jet lag, with just those two things, can be dropped off significantly. Light and melatonin. You can also do something called pre-entertaining this is where you pretend like you are in a new time zone before you actually get to the new time zone. That was shown to be helpful, too. But the best thing that you can do is get to the time zone, go by that new time zone, get some melatonin and wake up and get sunlight on your face and that seems to help. I am going to try that.
This is Healthy Talk on RadioMD. I’m Dr. Mike. Stay well. - Length (mins) 10
- Waiver Received No
- Host Mike Smith, MD
How can vitamin D and metformin work together to protect your colon health?
Additional Info
- Segment Number 1
- Audio File healthy_talk/1522ht5a.mp3
- Featured Speaker Mike Smith, MD
- Organization Life Extension
- Guest Website Healthy Talk MD
-
Transcription
RadioMD Presents: Healthy Talk with Dr. Michael Smith | Original Air Date: May 29, 2015
Host: Mike Smith, MD
Living longer and staying healthier. It’s HealthyTalk with Dr. Michael Smith, M.D. Here’s your host, Dr. Mike.
DR. MIKE: Based on some new research, the combination of vitamin D and Metformin, the diabetic drug, could be quite effective in preventing colon cancer. This is really important because 70% of cases of colon cancer are thought to be preventable really through just dietary and lifestyle modifications. Seventy percent preventable – colon cancer. It makes sense that we are doing more research into these types of lifestyle supplement nutrition studies to prevent colon cancer which has plateaued in the United States over the past few years, but still remains a significant cancer for people in this country. I think the best way for us to approach this is to first talk about what are the common risk factors for colon cancer. It will make more sense than, at that point, to go into the study. You’ll understand why vitamin D and Metformin were studied as potential preventions.
Let’s look at some of these common risk factors for colon cancer. First of all, let’s start with lifestyle: diet, a diet high in red meat. Especially cows that are eating grain. They have a higher Omega 6 content that is going to raise inflammation. If you are doing grass-fed beef, that is probably better, but red meat, conventional red meat from conventional farms – not good. If you are eating 80% animal protein and 20% plant – not good. Low physical activity. Obesity. Of course, smoking. Smoking increases the risk of just about every type of disease. Alcohol consumption – to a point. We know that one to two drinks a day can be beneficial. But there is a point of diminished returns for alcohol consumption. Then there is a point where it becomes detrimental. Insomnia – in recent studies has been shown to be a risk factor. There are some basic lifestyle things that increase your risk for colon cancer. Genetics and family history play a role as well. About 75% of colon cancer cases are considered sporadic, meaning that they happen in somebody with no family history of colon cancer but 25% seem to be inherited. In at least 25%, we can find another family member that has colon cancer. We do believe that there is a genetic predisposition here. We also know that certain disorders like when you have a lot of polyps in the colon – it’s called familial adenomatous polyposis. In some cases, you could have hundreds and hundreds of polyps in the colon. That tends to run in families and that tends to increase the risk of colon cancer. So, there is what seems to be a genetic and family history link in at least 25% of the cases. Obviously, high levels of inflammation. About a month ago I talked about the use of aspirin in certain cancers. Aspirin, of course, is an anti-inflammatory. It has some great affects in helping people have improved outcomes in colon cancer because you are reducing inflammation. We know that the inflammatory enzymes, cyclooxygenase. These are highly active in colon cancer. If we can calm those enzymes down, maybe we can prevent colon cancer but also treat it with things like aspirin and curcumin and boswellia. Those would be some more natural choices. We also know that low folic acid levels – as a matter of fact 13 studies including over 725,000 subjects showed that people with the lowest amount of B vitamins and folic acid had a 15% increase risk of colon cancer. Low foliate, low B vitamins increases the risk. Here is where it really gets interesting. There are two other lifestyle types of risk factors - metabolic syndrome and low vitamin D. Metabolic syndrome is a collection of different symptoms: low good cholesterol, high triglycerides, high sugar – often pre-diabetes or diabetes - blood pressure issues, obesity – that’s metabolic syndrome. Often many diabetics fall into this category. That is a risk factor. As a matter of fact, it says here, “Higher levels of insulin and glucose in the blood can increase the risk of developing colorectal cancers. A study that reviewed different trials from 1966 to 2005 found that a diagnosis of diabetes raised the risk of colon cancer by more than 30% in both men and women.” Metabolic syndrome is connected to colon cancer and also low vitamin D levels. There was a review of nine studies that found for every ten nanograms per mil increase in serum vitamin D, the relative risk of colon cancer decreases 15%. So, if you all of these different risk factors and we consider that many of the cases of colon cancers are completely preventable because of these types of risk factors.
It makes sense, then, that there were a group of researchers out of China that looked at vitamin D and Metformin as a way to prevent colon cancer. Vitamin D will obviously correct the low vitamin D levels and the Metformin can correct the glucose and insulin issues seen in metabolic syndrome. So, it makes sense that they studied this. This was published in February 2015 in the issue of Cancer Prevention Research. The researchers from China started with the hypothesis that vitamin D helps to regulate cell proliferation, differentiation and program cell death - apoptosis. A normal cell will divide and specialize into a colon cell and as it gets older it does kill itself – apoptosis. Vitamin D regulates a lot of that process. We also know that Metformin is an AMPK activator which helps in those same processes as well. The hypothesis here is that vitamin D and Metformin can work together, synergistically, to improve cell division, cell growth, cell differentiation. They administered varying doses of vitamin D and Metformin for 18 weeks to rats that were given a compound that renders the colon very susceptible to the development of colon cancer. The rats were given a compound that basically causes colon cancer. And then they gave that compound in the context of vitamin D and Metformin. In comparison with vitamin D and Metformin alone the combination of a moderate dose of vitamin D and Metformin resulted in the formation of fewer abnormal areas, abnormal cells, abnormal polyps and tumors in both experiments. That is really encouraging. Here you have, granted, a rat study – I often talk about rat studies. It’s okay. We’ve got to start somewhere. Animal models are fine. Rats actually have a very close physiology to us. Here you have a situation where the rats were given a compound that is known to cause colon cancer. They were given vitamin D or Metformin or a combination of both. The combination of both working on that hypothesis that they will work synergistically together to improve cell differentiation and growth and apoptosis will prevent the development of cancer. That is exactly what happened. And it was just moderate dosing of vitamin D and Metformin. This really does open up the possibility for more research looking at vitamin D and Metformin as a combination, especially in people at high risk for colon cancer.
This is Healthy Talk on RadioMD.
I’m Dr. Mike. Stay well. - Length (mins) 10
- Waiver Received No
- Host Mike Smith, MD
