1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:03,340 Does stress or anxiety play a part into that as well? 2 00:00:03,420 --> 00:00:07,760 Because I have psoriasis and mild psoriatic arthritis. 3 00:00:08,020 --> 00:00:12,040 And I know when I get stressed, it seems to get a little bit worse. 4 00:00:12,220 --> 00:00:14,880 I don't know how much that plays into the whole equation. 5 00:00:15,180 --> 00:00:21,840 So when you have an autoimmune disease, I want to stop and lean into this a little bit. 6 00:00:23,640 --> 00:00:26,900 Autoimmune disease is kind of like a schoolyard bully. 7 00:00:26,900 --> 00:00:32,340 If he's picking on kids over here, he's probably picking on kids in other places too. 8 00:00:32,340 --> 00:00:58,100 Welcome back to another episode of the Space Tomatoes podcast. 9 00:00:58,100 --> 00:01:02,200 Today we have our hosts, myself and Alex. 10 00:01:02,700 --> 00:01:03,400 Say hi, Alex. 11 00:01:04,240 --> 00:01:04,620 Hello. 12 00:01:05,080 --> 00:01:06,540 Today we have a special guest with us. 13 00:01:06,640 --> 00:01:12,740 This is Dr. Kevin Smith, who is a board-certified chiropractor and functional medicine practitioner. 14 00:01:13,620 --> 00:01:18,400 He has vast clinical experience and has been in practice since 2001. 15 00:01:18,900 --> 00:01:21,100 Welcome to the show, Dr. Kevin Smith. 16 00:01:21,100 --> 00:01:21,560 Thank you. 17 00:01:21,700 --> 00:01:23,280 Thank you very much for having me. 18 00:01:23,280 --> 00:01:32,660 It's a pleasure to be here, and I wanted to say how grateful I am to be able to share some good information with your audience. 19 00:01:33,880 --> 00:01:35,120 Awesome, awesome. 20 00:01:35,640 --> 00:01:40,160 So what got you into doing this? 21 00:01:40,280 --> 00:01:49,640 What was the onus or the impetus behind this, what I would say, fundamental shift in the way medicine is practiced? 22 00:01:49,640 --> 00:01:57,360 Okay, so let me give you a quick and dirty background of where I come from. 23 00:01:57,760 --> 00:02:02,160 So I'm from Pittsburgh, and I did my pre-medical training here in Pittsburgh. 24 00:02:02,720 --> 00:02:08,820 Then I went to the Palmer College of Chiropractic in Davenport, Iowa, and I spent about four 25 00:02:08,820 --> 00:02:14,060 years there and graduated with my doctor of chiropractic degree in 2001. 26 00:02:14,880 --> 00:02:18,100 I then moved back to Pittsburgh and opened up a practice. 27 00:02:18,100 --> 00:02:23,940 and people were coming to me for things that you normally associate going to the chiropractor for 28 00:02:23,940 --> 00:02:32,120 back pain, neck pain, headaches, sports injuries, automobile accident injuries, things like that. 29 00:02:32,120 --> 00:02:38,900 And word was getting around. I was doing a good job. But every once in a while, people would come 30 00:02:38,900 --> 00:02:46,520 in with some weird, mysterious problem that I couldn't fix under using the tools that I got 31 00:02:46,520 --> 00:02:52,660 from chiropractic school. And that led me to become curious and figure out what can I do to 32 00:02:52,660 --> 00:03:02,640 help more people. And eventually I started to take seminars and all kinds of things on clinical 33 00:03:02,640 --> 00:03:13,040 nutrition. And that led me to study blood chemistry analysis and thyroid care. And that led me to 34 00:03:13,040 --> 00:03:21,580 learn about functional medicine. And right now in this country, there are two broad categories 35 00:03:21,580 --> 00:03:28,660 of healthcare that you can choose from. There's allopathic healthcare, which is what a medical 36 00:03:28,660 --> 00:03:34,560 doctor typically does. And then there is a functional medicine, which is what I do. 37 00:03:34,560 --> 00:03:46,360 Now, allopathic healthcare, what they do is they try to manage a symptom in the form of using a chemical, usually in the form of a drug. 38 00:03:47,080 --> 00:03:58,940 So whether it's high blood pressure or thyroid disease or autoimmunity or whatever, they prescribe medicines to try to help manage the symptoms. 39 00:03:58,940 --> 00:04:05,300 functional medicine on the other hand is a personalized patient-centered approach to 40 00:04:05,300 --> 00:04:12,900 health care and that asks the question why why do you have this problem why do you have high 41 00:04:12,900 --> 00:04:18,780 blood pressure why are you overweight why do you have thyroid disease why do you have autoimmunity 42 00:04:18,780 --> 00:04:26,500 and what they found is that there's no there's no problem that just happens just because there's 43 00:04:26,500 --> 00:04:31,600 usually some kind of an underlying driving force that caused this in the first place, 44 00:04:31,740 --> 00:04:39,140 or what I call a root cause. So what functional medicine does, the doctors have to put on a bit 45 00:04:39,140 --> 00:04:43,680 of a detective outfit and figure out what's going on. They have to dig a little deeper, 46 00:04:44,240 --> 00:04:50,240 order more blood tests, and find out exactly what contributed to the problem in the first place. 47 00:04:50,440 --> 00:04:56,240 And that's a very different type of a healthcare approach than the stuff that most people 48 00:04:56,240 --> 00:05:05,440 have been exposed to. Okay. So when you look for these roots, what are some common areas you look 49 00:05:05,440 --> 00:05:13,180 as kind of a general rule of thumb that guide where you go? 50 00:05:13,900 --> 00:05:22,260 So there's a couple of different things that can contribute to a state of ill health. There is 51 00:05:22,260 --> 00:05:30,980 anemia, which is a problem where you can't transport oxygen on the red blood cells throughout 52 00:05:30,980 --> 00:05:36,800 your body. There is blood sugar problems. That's the number one stressor in the body. 53 00:05:37,580 --> 00:05:45,180 There is cortisol issues. That's a chemical produced by the adrenal glands that sit right 54 00:05:45,180 --> 00:05:49,660 above your kidneys, and they control the fight or flight response of your body. 55 00:05:49,660 --> 00:05:56,480 There is sex hormones such as estrogen, progesterone, testosterone. 56 00:05:57,340 --> 00:06:04,100 Remember, boys and girls make both, and they need to be secreted in the right amount for the right gender and the right age. 57 00:06:04,480 --> 00:06:11,620 So, for example, a 22-year-old woman is going to have a different estrogen response than a 70-year-old woman. 58 00:06:11,620 --> 00:06:21,780 There is gastrointestinal problems, problems with bowel transit times like diarrhea or constipation or problems with absorption. 59 00:06:22,540 --> 00:06:26,880 There's problems with food allergies or food sensitivities or intolerances. 60 00:06:27,540 --> 00:06:30,420 There's problems with chemical allergies. 61 00:06:31,240 --> 00:06:41,980 Simple things like household cleaners that you may be using every single day to clean your dishes or to do your laundry can have a profound effect on some people. 62 00:06:42,580 --> 00:06:46,020 And there's stealth infections that can have an effect. 63 00:06:46,020 --> 00:07:07,480 All of these things collectively can mess up your body's physiology and cause problems with your thyroid, with your blood sugar response leading to insulin resistance, have a poor night's sleep, all kinds of things that can wreck your health. 64 00:07:07,480 --> 00:07:12,300 And so all of these things need to be explored and to be considered. 65 00:07:12,540 --> 00:07:18,260 And we have some lab tests that can help us to figure out what exactly is going on. 66 00:07:20,080 --> 00:07:22,940 Do you think diet plays a large part in that as well? 67 00:07:23,460 --> 00:07:23,660 Yeah. 68 00:07:23,840 --> 00:07:27,860 So clinical nutrition is one of the things that I've studied for a long time. 69 00:07:28,040 --> 00:07:34,580 So diet, clinical nutrition, that is one of the founding building blocks of health care. 70 00:07:34,580 --> 00:07:56,040 So if a person is eating a whole lot of processed foods, heavily refined sugars, other types of things that they think are perfectly fine to consume on a regular basis, they could potentially cause harm down the road. 71 00:07:56,040 --> 00:08:12,560 And, you know, your eating habits, if you eat a lot of fast food, if you eat a lot of processed foods, if you eat a lot of sugar, that will definitely cause a problem either now or in the future. 72 00:08:13,320 --> 00:08:17,140 So that is definitely one of the things that I pay attention to. 73 00:08:17,140 --> 00:08:22,460 Do you find it difficult to help patients make the changes? 74 00:08:23,000 --> 00:08:27,740 Because both Havik and myself have made tremendous changes in our own personal diet, 75 00:08:27,920 --> 00:08:30,680 and I know it was difficult to accomplish that. 76 00:08:31,100 --> 00:08:34,840 And I would think for a lot of people that would be a huge hurdle to jump over 77 00:08:34,840 --> 00:08:38,000 because it's much easier to just take a pill to fix everything, 78 00:08:38,320 --> 00:08:41,740 which is what I think a lot of the standard health care system pushes. 79 00:08:42,720 --> 00:08:43,920 That's exactly right. 80 00:08:43,920 --> 00:08:48,980 It is very difficult to change a lifetime of bad eating habits. 81 00:08:49,340 --> 00:09:00,180 But what I found is that if you give people a big enough why that it's going to drive and motivate them, they will overcome these habits. 82 00:09:00,180 --> 00:09:17,880 So one of the biggest things that is a challenge in my life is being a coach or being a psychologist or a cheerleader and teaching people that they have to change their habits first and foremost. 83 00:09:18,560 --> 00:09:20,020 Good habits lead to good health. 84 00:09:20,460 --> 00:09:22,060 Bad habits lead to bad health. 85 00:09:22,580 --> 00:09:25,460 And there are some things that are fundamental. 86 00:09:25,460 --> 00:09:30,860 I mean, the body can be very, very difficult to learn everything about it. 87 00:09:30,980 --> 00:09:48,640 But as far as the basic building blocks of health care, proper good nutrition, hydration, plenty of sleep, exercise, paying attention to your posture and your joints through chiropractic care. 88 00:09:48,640 --> 00:09:57,680 these things are are not difficult to to do but they do require a bit of a concerted effort 89 00:09:57,680 --> 00:10:03,520 but changing a little at a time is i think the key if you try to 90 00:10:03,520 --> 00:10:08,580 to bite off more than you can chew then you can run into some problems 91 00:10:08,580 --> 00:10:17,520 yeah so i just had a thought completely slipped my brain this is awesome 92 00:10:17,520 --> 00:10:24,820 i really do that happened to me last time when that happens speaking of issues right yeah 93 00:10:24,820 --> 00:10:34,460 as lx had mentioned we we both have changed uh a lot about our diet right um we both 94 00:10:34,460 --> 00:10:43,980 i'm a farmsteader right so i live on a small farm uh lx is is a homesteader more of a suburban 95 00:10:43,980 --> 00:10:51,960 homesteader type. And one of the big things is, has been not just going to, you know, the periphery 96 00:10:51,960 --> 00:10:59,380 of stores, right? We, we are huge advocates of if it's not on an outside wall, don't buy it, 97 00:10:59,700 --> 00:11:04,780 don't consume it and stay very far away from it because it's probably going to kill you. 98 00:11:05,540 --> 00:11:10,460 Sorry for saying it that bluntly, but that's, that's the eventuality of it. Right. 99 00:11:10,460 --> 00:11:18,800 I teach people the same thing, to shop on the periphery of the store, to stay away from the middle part. 100 00:11:19,440 --> 00:11:21,420 If it's a plant, eat it. 101 00:11:21,560 --> 00:11:23,640 If it's made in a plant, don't eat it. 102 00:11:24,060 --> 00:11:24,280 Right. 103 00:11:25,100 --> 00:11:30,140 If it's got any ingredients that you can't pronounce, don't buy it. 104 00:11:30,300 --> 00:11:33,700 If it has more than five ingredients, don't buy it. 105 00:11:33,700 --> 00:11:46,260 So sticking with simple little things like that are good goalposts to have, good markers to help guide you as to what is good for you and what to stay away from. 106 00:11:46,920 --> 00:12:01,180 The only industry that I hold in more contempt than the pharmaceutical industry is the food industry because they are very sneaky and they put a lot of things into foods that are not very good for you. 107 00:12:01,180 --> 00:12:11,180 So it's really surprising for people to hear this, to hear these messages like a lot of ketchup is mostly sugar. 108 00:12:12,180 --> 00:12:14,800 And yeah, high fructose corn syrup. 109 00:12:15,000 --> 00:12:23,600 And it's cheap because it's a subsidized crop and they can afford to put that in sodas and ketchups and cookies and all kinds of stuff. 110 00:12:24,400 --> 00:12:30,180 Go try and find a loaf of bread that doesn't have corn syrup in it. 111 00:12:30,180 --> 00:12:36,020 high fructose corn syrup is it's everywhere you know and then you go for maltodextrin exactly 112 00:12:36,020 --> 00:12:42,500 maltodextrin another sugar that that you know you see that it doesn't say there's nothing about that 113 00:12:42,500 --> 00:12:48,340 says to a normal human being right non-scientifically trained non-medically trained 114 00:12:48,340 --> 00:12:56,580 that this is actually a sugar and it will have an insulin response so what what i found is that um 115 00:12:56,580 --> 00:13:01,040 ultimately we are composed of cells. 116 00:13:01,880 --> 00:13:03,960 We are made of cells. 117 00:13:04,180 --> 00:13:10,060 So the cell is the smallest unit that the body is composed of. 118 00:13:10,960 --> 00:13:12,900 Cells get together to form tissues. 119 00:13:13,660 --> 00:13:15,740 Tissues get together to form organs. 120 00:13:16,320 --> 00:13:18,420 Organs get together to form systems. 121 00:13:18,420 --> 00:13:21,560 And systems get together to form a human being. 122 00:13:21,900 --> 00:13:24,140 But if you look at the cell, a round cell, 123 00:13:24,140 --> 00:13:39,340 The cell wall allows for the transmission of nutrients and food and water and all kinds of information that the cell needs to survive. 124 00:13:40,400 --> 00:13:50,340 And on the cell wall are receptor sites, receptors kind of like antennae that people used to have on the roof of their house to pull the three channels they used to watch. 125 00:13:51,180 --> 00:13:52,740 I'm dating myself now. 126 00:13:52,740 --> 00:14:02,460 But anyway, on the cell wall of every cell, there is a receptor site for thyroid hormone. 127 00:14:03,360 --> 00:14:11,020 So thyroid hormone, T3, kind of functions like the accelerator pedal in your car. 128 00:14:11,520 --> 00:14:14,460 If you step on the gas, the car is going to speed up. 129 00:14:14,500 --> 00:14:20,140 And if you take your foot off the gas, the car is going to slow down or it's going to go to a stop, right? 130 00:14:20,140 --> 00:14:26,260 So every cell needs a supply of thyroid hormone to make it work right. 131 00:14:27,740 --> 00:14:37,640 And so if you're talking about neurons in the brain, if the neuron is not getting a good supply of thyroid hormone, 132 00:14:38,940 --> 00:14:43,020 the symptoms that are going to happen to that person could include brain fog, 133 00:14:43,020 --> 00:14:51,680 or it can include memory loss or cognition issues or problem-solving issues. 134 00:14:52,180 --> 00:14:56,320 It could affect a student and his ability to learn. 135 00:14:57,220 --> 00:15:00,380 So ultimately that could be caused by the thyroid. 136 00:15:00,380 --> 00:15:08,580 If it's the gut, then the responses could be that gut motility slows down 137 00:15:08,580 --> 00:15:14,400 and it can be responsive with constipation or the opposite of that. 138 00:15:14,520 --> 00:15:20,300 It could speed up and cause diarrhea, causing problems with absorption of nutrients. 139 00:15:21,220 --> 00:15:22,800 And that is a very big problem. 140 00:15:23,020 --> 00:15:26,080 The gut is considered the body's second brain. 141 00:15:26,080 --> 00:15:39,860 So it can affect the peripheral manufacture of serotonin and dopamine, which are neurotransmitters that control mood and happiness, things like that. 142 00:15:40,960 --> 00:15:46,400 If it affects the heart, then it could cause the heart to speed up or slow down. 143 00:15:46,720 --> 00:15:55,880 Every single cell in your body, all 70 trillion cells, all of them have a receptor site for thyroid hormone. 144 00:15:56,080 --> 00:16:02,700 What that means is that the thyroid gland could be a master regulator of your entire body. 145 00:16:03,140 --> 00:16:12,540 So whenever you see people that have irritability, nervousness, brain fog, cognition issues, 146 00:16:12,960 --> 00:16:18,000 their hair falling out in clumps, the loss of the outer one-third of the eyebrow, 147 00:16:18,760 --> 00:16:23,140 their fingernail beds are cracked and brittle, they have loss of libido, 148 00:16:23,980 --> 00:16:26,000 they have sleep irregularities. 149 00:16:26,080 --> 00:16:35,680 Either there are problems falling asleep or problems staying asleep, or they have irregular menstrual cycles or infertility. 150 00:16:36,100 --> 00:16:41,300 All of that could be traced back to abnormal thyroid physiology. 151 00:16:42,560 --> 00:16:50,540 And so to complicate it, the cell wall could also be degraded because of chronic inflammation. 152 00:16:51,320 --> 00:17:04,920 Chronic inflammation is the root cause of every disease that we know about such as cancer heart disease diabetes COPD joint problems all kinds of things like that 153 00:17:06,460 --> 00:17:08,940 And guess what causes inflammation? 154 00:17:10,180 --> 00:17:11,340 Too much sugar. 155 00:17:11,640 --> 00:17:12,020 Sugar. 156 00:17:12,740 --> 00:17:16,820 So we can go back to the sugar problem right away. 157 00:17:16,820 --> 00:17:26,860 and it can also be caused by toxins or gut problems so it can get complicated very very 158 00:17:26,860 --> 00:17:33,460 quickly and one of the things that i do is to figure out what's causing these problems in the 159 00:17:33,460 --> 00:17:39,880 first place by analyzing and ascertaining what how are the cells breaking down 160 00:17:39,880 --> 00:17:50,160 okay yeah that makes a lot of sense especially you know i'm a big proponent of gut biome 161 00:17:50,160 --> 00:17:59,100 being one of the first places to look to heal thyself um and you know the sugars piece just 162 00:17:59,100 --> 00:18:05,980 in addition to that at least from my perspective i think is you know sugars aren't always what you 163 00:18:05,980 --> 00:18:13,540 put in your mouth and you think are sweet, right? When you eat a piece of bread, your body's going 164 00:18:13,540 --> 00:18:19,500 to turn that into sugar, right? There's just, there are a number of foods, you know, especially 165 00:18:19,500 --> 00:18:25,060 the carbs. And, you know, that's kind of an oversimplification because broccoli has carbs 166 00:18:25,060 --> 00:18:32,100 in it and won't trigger that insulin response. But at the same time, the more, you know, simple carbs, 167 00:18:32,100 --> 00:18:39,680 as well as some of the complex ones, potatoes being another one, right, lead into that as well. 168 00:18:39,760 --> 00:18:46,160 And then the absorption issue where if you can't get the minerals, if you can't get the nutrients, 169 00:18:46,160 --> 00:18:54,980 the phytonutrients, et cetera, to power these, you know, these little electrical impulses that are sending, 170 00:18:54,980 --> 00:19:02,740 you know, the right amount of a hormone to the needed cells, then, you know, this all 171 00:19:02,740 --> 00:19:11,780 starts to look very, very promising and viable from a, a, not a treatment perspective, but from 172 00:19:11,780 --> 00:19:18,960 a holistic change that is more akin to a cure of the problem as opposed to a treatment, right? 173 00:19:18,960 --> 00:19:35,120 Yeah. So whenever you eat something, whether it's a carb or protein or a fat, one of the macronutrients, there's a hormone in your body called insulin that's produced by the pancreas gland. 174 00:19:35,120 --> 00:19:44,700 And the job of insulin is to take the sugars from whatever you eat and shuttle it into the cell to make energy. 175 00:19:44,700 --> 00:19:57,040 So the insulin molecule takes glucose out of the bloodstream and shuttles it into the cell plus oxygen to make ATP. 176 00:19:57,820 --> 00:20:09,140 No matter what you eat, whether it's carbohydrates, proteins, or fats, insulin is going to be secreted by the pancreas to meet the demand. 177 00:20:09,140 --> 00:20:17,180 So you want to think about the different macronutrients, kind of like sticks that you use to make a campfire. 178 00:20:18,020 --> 00:20:22,720 The carbohydrates are like the little kindling that you use to start the fire. 179 00:20:22,960 --> 00:20:24,300 They go up very quickly. 180 00:20:24,940 --> 00:20:31,660 So if you eat a carbohydrate-rich meal, it's going to burn out, and then you're going to be left hungry very soon after that. 181 00:20:32,180 --> 00:20:38,900 If you get thicker sticks, like wrist-thick sticks about the size of your wrist, that's like proteins. 182 00:20:39,140 --> 00:20:47,760 they burn slower and they last longer. And then the big logs that you can put on the fire after 183 00:20:47,760 --> 00:20:55,520 you have some coals, they're like fats. So if you eat a fatty meal, you're going to be full for a 184 00:20:55,520 --> 00:21:01,520 long, long time, just like the logs are going to burn for a long time if you put those on a campfire. 185 00:21:02,520 --> 00:21:09,000 So what people are doing is they're consuming too many simple carbohydrates. 186 00:21:09,640 --> 00:21:13,840 Like you said, a broccoli is a carb and a Twinkie is a carb. 187 00:21:13,840 --> 00:21:16,740 But they're not made to equally, right? 188 00:21:17,220 --> 00:21:22,740 So you've got to be careful about that, not to label everything as one thing. 189 00:21:22,940 --> 00:21:27,120 Just like there's good fats and there's bad fats, there's good proteins and bad proteins, 190 00:21:27,600 --> 00:21:29,620 there's good carbs and there's bad carbs. 191 00:21:30,600 --> 00:21:36,480 A simple carb is something that your body is going to be able to use very quickly and very readily. 192 00:21:37,320 --> 00:21:44,180 And so the analogy that I would use for that would be a Twinkie or a snack cake or something like that. 193 00:21:44,300 --> 00:21:47,840 It's not going to last for a long period of time. 194 00:21:48,200 --> 00:21:59,140 Whereas if you eat good fat, like something very rich in omega-3 fatty acids, it's going to last for a long, long time. 195 00:21:59,140 --> 00:22:05,020 It's going to keep you satiated for a while, and it's not going to keep you hungry all the time. 196 00:22:05,740 --> 00:22:13,660 That's why when you eat Chinese food, you're hungry in an hour because there's so many broccoli and simple rice and all that stuff. 197 00:22:13,940 --> 00:22:25,940 It doesn't last for a long time, whereas if you eat a really fatty meal with salmon or mackerel or sardines, it's going to keep you good to go for a long period of time. 198 00:22:25,940 --> 00:22:37,260 So I tell people, don't think like all carbs are the same, all proteins are the same. You have to be very specific with what you're going to be consuming. 199 00:22:37,260 --> 00:22:49,760 interesting so how much how much so one of the things that i've actually been on a uh a journey 200 00:22:49,760 --> 00:22:57,480 of exploration on is is thyroid uh issues in general uh near and dear to my heart not personally 201 00:22:57,480 --> 00:23:05,240 my own thing uh but um one of the things that that it i just it keeps coming back up it keeps 202 00:23:05,240 --> 00:23:11,700 coming back up. And there's plenty of anecdotal evidence, but it seems the industry is just 203 00:23:11,700 --> 00:23:19,600 terrified of this. And I think there's potentially some decent reasoning in the outside cases for 204 00:23:19,600 --> 00:23:30,900 this is the usage of iodine. So in the United States, the number one cause of 205 00:23:30,900 --> 00:23:40,480 low thyroid disease is Hashimoto's disease. It's an autoimmune condition that your white blood 206 00:23:40,480 --> 00:23:48,280 cells attack and destroy the thyroid gland. That's in the United States. According to the Academy of 207 00:23:48,280 --> 00:23:57,580 Endocrinology, 90% of all cases of low thyroid is due to Hashimoto's disease. Outside of the United 208 00:23:57,580 --> 00:24:06,420 States, the number one cause of low thyroid is due to iodine. As Americans, we don't have the 209 00:24:06,420 --> 00:24:14,520 problem of low iodine. The reason is because we put salt on everything. So we're getting a 210 00:24:14,520 --> 00:24:24,740 sufficient amount of iodine in our diet. So just a small interjection there. I don't eat any salt 211 00:24:24,740 --> 00:24:27,760 that has iodine in it. 212 00:24:28,460 --> 00:24:31,780 Jacobson is pretty much the only salt that I use. 213 00:24:31,780 --> 00:24:35,420 So when you talk about people that have made lifestyle changes, 214 00:24:35,540 --> 00:24:42,540 they may have completely removed iodized table salt from their diet. 215 00:24:42,540 --> 00:24:46,480 And they're not eating processed foods, which means they're not getting it there. 216 00:24:46,640 --> 00:24:48,780 It's certainly not growing in your vegetables, 217 00:24:48,780 --> 00:24:53,280 which leaves you with kelp as a supplement or, you know, 218 00:24:53,280 --> 00:24:59,600 an iodine supplement of some form. Is that wrong? Did I misspeak on that? 219 00:25:00,600 --> 00:25:06,880 I would say that there are people out there that will remove as much iodized salt from their diet 220 00:25:06,880 --> 00:25:16,040 as possible. But the majority of Americans still eat out and the stuff is still salted. And it's 221 00:25:16,040 --> 00:25:21,000 still they use iodized salt. And when you go to a restaurant, you don't have complete control 222 00:25:21,000 --> 00:25:22,900 over everything that's served to you. 223 00:25:24,360 --> 00:25:29,680 But overall, by and large, the majority of the people in the United States, 224 00:25:29,680 --> 00:25:32,240 it's not due to iodine deficiency. 225 00:25:32,940 --> 00:25:34,880 It's due to an autoimmune condition. 226 00:25:35,940 --> 00:25:42,140 And so the immune system in your body is your body's defense mechanism. 227 00:25:42,980 --> 00:25:49,460 And it's your white blood cells that go around your body through the bloodstream, 228 00:25:49,460 --> 00:25:59,160 and they look for viruses and bacteria and parasites and things that potentially can cause you harm. 229 00:26:00,200 --> 00:26:06,280 But every once in a while, it mistakenly attacks your own body. 230 00:26:07,240 --> 00:26:10,520 And that is what is termed autoimmune disease. 231 00:26:11,040 --> 00:26:14,600 Auto meaning self and immunity destroying your body. 232 00:26:14,600 --> 00:26:26,240 So there's over 100 different autoimmune diseases that have been identified by researchers, and they are named based on what body part is being affected. 233 00:26:27,060 --> 00:26:33,320 If the immune system is attacking the thyroid gland, that's called Hashimoto's disease. 234 00:26:34,460 --> 00:26:37,140 It was first discovered around 1920-something. 235 00:26:38,140 --> 00:26:44,140 And if it attacks the lung fields, that's called sarcoidosis. 236 00:26:44,600 --> 00:26:48,260 If it affects the brain, that's called multiple sclerosis. 237 00:26:49,280 --> 00:26:54,340 If it affects the large intestine, that's called Crohn's disease. 238 00:26:55,200 --> 00:26:58,880 If it affects the small intestine, that's called celiac disease. 239 00:26:58,880 --> 00:27:04,360 If it affects the joints in the hands or the spine, that's rheumatoid arthritis. 240 00:27:05,120 --> 00:27:12,240 And if it affects the skin, that's called psoriatic arthritis, which is a clinical variant of rheumatoid. 241 00:27:12,240 --> 00:27:17,500 There's a hundred different types of autoimmune diseases. 242 00:27:18,320 --> 00:27:30,440 And anytime somebody walks in my office with some weird, mysterious problem that you cannot determine what it is by a simple blood test, it's most likely autoimmune disease. 243 00:27:31,320 --> 00:27:34,420 And in my office, you're autoimmune until proven innocent. 244 00:27:36,740 --> 00:27:37,820 I like that. 245 00:27:37,820 --> 00:27:49,560 But the majority of the people in the United States that have low thyroid function, it's linked to an autoimmune disease called Hashimoto's. 246 00:27:50,220 --> 00:27:57,140 And what happens is that the white blood cells start to attack and chew up the follicles. 247 00:27:57,140 --> 00:27:58,600 Think of like Pac-Man. 248 00:27:59,120 --> 00:28:01,580 The little Pac-Man goes around and eats the little white dots. 249 00:28:01,940 --> 00:28:04,360 That's what happens with autoimmune disease. 250 00:28:04,720 --> 00:28:07,180 But instead of the white dots, it's the thyroid follicles. 251 00:28:07,820 --> 00:28:20,920 And by the way, that's why people that take thyroid medication, things like Synthroid or Levothyroxine, they always have to increase it. 252 00:28:21,280 --> 00:28:24,500 Not always, but the majority of the time they have to increase the dose. 253 00:28:25,300 --> 00:28:33,760 You start off like at 50 micrograms and then 88 micrograms, then 100, then 125, then 150, on and on and on. 254 00:28:33,760 --> 00:28:40,400 because as the thyroid gland continues to get destroyed by the immune system, 255 00:28:40,620 --> 00:28:44,060 they have to increase the dose to keep up with the demand. 256 00:28:45,420 --> 00:28:53,740 And about 17% of people that have thyroid disease are going to be helped by medications. 257 00:28:54,160 --> 00:28:59,100 That means 83% of the people will not be helped by the medications. 258 00:28:59,100 --> 00:29:07,160 that's why i think that just relying on techniques and methodologies that were created in the 1960s 259 00:29:07,160 --> 00:29:14,260 is no longer sufficient you have to evolve as time goes on yeah and then so 260 00:29:14,260 --> 00:29:25,540 very interesting stuff isn't part of this also due to a form of atrophy that comes along when 261 00:29:25,540 --> 00:29:31,780 you're pumping in the hormone itself, you're trying to counter the fact that it's not producing. 262 00:29:32,680 --> 00:29:39,740 But when that's present, doesn't a certain amount of atrophy start to also occur? Like you said, 263 00:29:39,740 --> 00:29:48,600 the typical case is that Senthroid or Levothyroxine is going to increase in dosage, 264 00:29:48,680 --> 00:29:54,880 and it's increasing. And I believe everything you're saying, no question, but I do have a 265 00:29:54,880 --> 00:30:03,900 question about that, that atrophy aspect? Well, the first of all, autoimmune disease 266 00:30:03,900 --> 00:30:11,860 accounts for some cases, but it can also be your thyroid function can also be interrupted 267 00:30:11,860 --> 00:30:20,560 or impacted by what I call triggers. And a trigger is something other than autoimmune disease 268 00:30:20,560 --> 00:30:27,740 that does this. And once again, those triggers are things like anemia, blood sugar problems, 269 00:30:28,280 --> 00:30:35,520 cortisol issues, sex hormones, chronic inflammation and oxidative stress, GI problems, 270 00:30:36,420 --> 00:30:43,380 food sensitivities, chemical sensitivities, and stealth infections. And those triggers, 271 00:30:43,720 --> 00:30:50,060 what we want to do is we want to identify what's going on with that person. And the way that we 272 00:30:50,060 --> 00:30:56,700 identify them is through testing, lab testing, and that comes in the form of blood, urine, 273 00:30:57,160 --> 00:31:04,280 stool, and saliva. By checking those things out, we can systematically identify what is going on, 274 00:31:04,360 --> 00:31:10,180 what's causing, what's driving the problem, what is the root cause of this, and then lastly, 275 00:31:10,740 --> 00:31:15,480 eliminate the triggers. And by rebalancing the different structures of the body, 276 00:31:15,480 --> 00:31:19,160 we can put an end to the misery of low thyroid symptoms. 277 00:31:20,060 --> 00:31:21,920 Hmm. That sounds promising. 278 00:31:21,920 --> 00:31:24,940 Does stress or anxiety play a part into that as well? 279 00:31:25,040 --> 00:31:29,380 Because I have psoriasis and mild psoriatic arthritis. 280 00:31:29,640 --> 00:31:33,640 And I know when I get stressed, it seems to get a little bit worse. 281 00:31:33,840 --> 00:31:36,500 I didn't know how much that plays into the whole equation. 282 00:31:36,800 --> 00:31:43,460 So when you have an autoimmune disease, I want to stop and lean into this a little bit. 283 00:31:45,220 --> 00:31:48,500 Autoimmune disease is kind of like a schoolyard bully. 284 00:31:48,500 --> 00:31:53,920 If he's picking on kids over here, he's probably picking on kids in other places too. 285 00:31:55,000 --> 00:32:09,320 So if you have an autoimmune disease, it's very likely that there are other places in your body that are also either being affected right now or will be affected in the future. 286 00:32:10,040 --> 00:32:21,900 Some of the places that are very common are the thyroid gland, the skin, the joints, the brain, the lung fields, the small intestine, the large intestine. 287 00:32:23,280 --> 00:32:32,020 And not everybody is going to have multiple areas of involvement, but it's a very, very high percentage. 288 00:32:32,740 --> 00:32:37,320 The second thing about autoimmune disease is that it cannot be cured. 289 00:32:38,080 --> 00:32:43,360 Anybody that tells you that they can cure an autoimmune disease is lying to you. 290 00:32:44,240 --> 00:32:49,060 But while you can't cure it, you can put it into remission. 291 00:32:49,480 --> 00:32:53,200 So it's no longer causing mischief in your life. 292 00:32:53,500 --> 00:32:59,800 It's kind of like the electricity that goes to the chandelier above your dining room. 293 00:33:00,280 --> 00:33:04,040 While you can't flip a switch and turn it off, you can dim it down. 294 00:33:04,040 --> 00:33:12,020 so you can limit how much damage that that psoriasis can wreak havoc on your life. 295 00:33:12,860 --> 00:33:20,120 The medical or allopathic approach to this is to use a chemical to suppress your immune system. 296 00:33:20,500 --> 00:33:22,500 That's all those commercials are on TV. 297 00:33:22,940 --> 00:33:25,840 They're all immune drugs, every single one of them. 298 00:33:26,500 --> 00:33:29,080 And rather than suppress your immune system, 299 00:33:29,080 --> 00:33:39,100 I would like to find out what can be done to reduce the effect of the harm from your immune system 300 00:33:39,100 --> 00:33:44,700 so that you're not susceptible to colds and flus and you're not sickly all the time. 301 00:33:45,400 --> 00:34:00,880 The people that get say cortisone cortisone is a steroid It an immune suppressant So they will give that to people with say with knee pain or with hip pain or low back issues But you can only get it about 302 00:34:00,880 --> 00:34:07,260 four times a year because if you get an injection more often than not, then you're going to be 303 00:34:07,260 --> 00:34:13,520 susceptible to infectious agents all the time. That's the reason that the doctors will only give 304 00:34:13,520 --> 00:34:17,960 But again, they're only interested in suppressing your symptoms. 305 00:34:18,560 --> 00:34:22,740 They're not interested in going after the root cause of the problem. 306 00:34:24,580 --> 00:34:27,160 Yeah, that's been my experience as well. 307 00:34:27,160 --> 00:34:33,780 I stopped going, and I know it's not a dermatology issue per se, that it is an autoimmune issue. 308 00:34:34,280 --> 00:34:38,260 And that's pretty much where they wanted to go is give me a biologic. 309 00:34:38,380 --> 00:34:39,220 And I said, no, thank you. 310 00:34:39,220 --> 00:34:46,460 By the way, excuse me for interrupting you, but Hashimoto's disease is not a thyroid disease. 311 00:34:46,940 --> 00:34:48,420 It's an immune system issue. 312 00:34:49,620 --> 00:34:53,780 Just like you experienced with the psoriasis. 313 00:34:54,160 --> 00:34:56,120 That's an immune system issue. 314 00:34:56,480 --> 00:34:59,380 That's beating up your skin really bad. 315 00:35:01,820 --> 00:35:04,400 So you are 100% correct. 316 00:35:04,700 --> 00:35:07,280 It is not a dermatology-based problem. 317 00:35:07,280 --> 00:35:08,680 It's an immune problem. 318 00:35:08,680 --> 00:35:16,720 All right. And I did have, well, I guess I still am diabetic technically, but my A1C has been, 319 00:35:17,320 --> 00:35:22,500 I think 5.4 was the last A1C that I got, and everything's pretty much under control. I don't, 320 00:35:22,500 --> 00:35:27,680 you know, able to control the diet now and without any medications, thankfully. 321 00:35:28,740 --> 00:35:30,020 But I mean, it's still a journey. 322 00:35:30,240 --> 00:35:36,400 So speaking of that, there's actually four types of diabetes that have been described 323 00:35:36,400 --> 00:35:44,380 in the medical literature. Type 1 is juvenile onset diabetes where your immune system is 324 00:35:44,380 --> 00:35:51,520 attacking the beta cells of the pancreas. Your body cannot produce insulin and you need to take 325 00:35:51,520 --> 00:36:01,840 insulin for the rest of your life. That's a bonafide autoimmune disease. Type 1.5 is the 326 00:36:01,840 --> 00:36:10,020 same exact mechanism, but it happens after puberty. It happens during adulthood. So people 327 00:36:10,020 --> 00:36:18,600 that have type 1.5 diabetes need to be on insulin, and it's not due to overconsumption of simple 328 00:36:18,600 --> 00:36:26,620 carbohydrates or the lack of exercise. It's that their immune system is destroying or has destroyed 329 00:36:26,620 --> 00:36:34,200 the beta cells of the pancreas. Exact same mechanism. Type 2 diabetes, which probably 330 00:36:34,200 --> 00:36:41,380 accounts for about 90% of all cases of diabetes, is due to lifestyle modification. That's a 331 00:36:41,380 --> 00:36:50,500 self-inflicted wound. So it's due to diet and your exercise habits. It's completely reversible. 332 00:36:50,500 --> 00:36:58,520 and type 3 diabetes which is talked about in the medical literature is also known as 333 00:36:58,520 --> 00:37:04,200 alzheimer's disease so there's a direct relationship between out of control 334 00:37:04,200 --> 00:37:07,280 blood sugars and early onset dementia 335 00:37:07,280 --> 00:37:16,400 interesting wow i've heard some correlation with cholesterol as well not sure that there's any 336 00:37:16,400 --> 00:37:24,720 merit to that, but it could make sense. Well, that's a big can of worms right there. 337 00:37:25,120 --> 00:37:31,240 Right. In my opinion, cholesterol is an innocent molecule that's been accused of a crime it 338 00:37:31,240 --> 00:37:36,280 didn't commit. Yep. Just like eggs, just like a number of other things. 339 00:37:36,960 --> 00:37:42,620 There's a lot of mythology in healthcare. They said that eggs were terrible for you. You got to 340 00:37:42,620 --> 00:37:49,200 take statins you gotta do this and and follow the food pyramid back in the days when the the base of 341 00:37:49,200 --> 00:37:57,420 the food pyramid was grains and and cereal and pasta and bread and then we learned that no that's 342 00:37:57,420 --> 00:38:03,440 actually wrong and and what who sponsored the food pyramid well that was the agricultural 343 00:38:03,440 --> 00:38:10,560 industry and the dairy industry that did that yeah kellogg and and the like also had some big plays 344 00:38:10,560 --> 00:38:17,320 and they're looking out for all of their bottom line. 345 00:38:17,940 --> 00:38:20,280 Well, they're not interested in your health. 346 00:38:20,420 --> 00:38:21,920 They don't care about your health. 347 00:38:22,260 --> 00:38:23,740 They care about their shareholders. 348 00:38:24,300 --> 00:38:24,840 That's it. 349 00:38:25,300 --> 00:38:25,440 Yeah. 350 00:38:26,980 --> 00:38:27,580 Interesting. 351 00:38:27,880 --> 00:38:31,840 So your practice is in Pennsylvania, correct? 352 00:38:32,380 --> 00:38:32,720 Yes. 353 00:38:32,720 --> 00:38:33,740 I'm in Pittsburgh. 354 00:38:34,320 --> 00:38:37,100 I'm in a suburb of Pittsburgh called Bethel Park. 355 00:38:37,100 --> 00:38:41,000 but I help people from out of state. 356 00:38:41,940 --> 00:38:44,240 We just, through the phone or through Zoom, 357 00:38:44,900 --> 00:38:47,060 we can drop ship them their supplements, 358 00:38:47,620 --> 00:38:48,520 their test kits. 359 00:38:49,000 --> 00:38:51,340 They can go to an online supplement dispensary 360 00:38:51,340 --> 00:38:52,640 that I use called Fullscript 361 00:38:52,640 --> 00:38:54,100 and get whatever they want, 362 00:38:54,420 --> 00:38:55,860 deliver right to their front door 363 00:38:55,860 --> 00:38:57,720 and if they pick priority shipping, 364 00:38:58,060 --> 00:38:59,040 they'll get it in two days. 365 00:38:59,780 --> 00:39:03,660 So they don't have to be in the Pittsburgh area 366 00:39:03,660 --> 00:39:04,520 to work with me. 367 00:39:04,840 --> 00:39:06,720 I've had clients that have been in Texas 368 00:39:06,720 --> 00:39:11,460 I've had clients in California, in Utah, in Colorado. 369 00:39:12,300 --> 00:39:25,240 So wherever your listeners are listening from, I would prefer to stay in the continental United States because of tariffs and customs and all that crazy stuff. 370 00:39:25,240 --> 00:39:36,340 But if you're in the continental United States, you can work with me and you can figure out what's causing you these problems without having to be restricted by geography. 371 00:39:36,720 --> 00:39:44,540 Do you have specific labs that you work with to do the testing or do you have a kit, home kit of some form? 372 00:39:44,540 --> 00:39:52,560 Yes to both. So I work with traditional nationwide labs like LabCorp or Quest Diagnostics. 373 00:39:52,840 --> 00:40:00,400 And I have functional medicine labs like Cyrex or Meridian Valley Labs or Genova. 374 00:40:00,400 --> 00:40:06,620 or there's probably a dozen of them that I work with on a regular basis. 375 00:40:07,320 --> 00:40:14,220 So there's no one test that can give you 100% of all the information out there. 376 00:40:14,940 --> 00:40:18,620 So they all have a job to play. 377 00:40:18,740 --> 00:40:24,140 So if we want to look at what foods that you're allergic to 378 00:40:24,140 --> 00:40:27,860 or what foods I should say that you have a reactivity to. 379 00:40:28,280 --> 00:40:30,200 I work with Meridian Valley. 380 00:40:30,400 --> 00:40:33,880 So how this works is it's a blood spot panel. 381 00:40:34,360 --> 00:40:40,480 So you draw a couple of drops of blood from your fingertip and you put it on a test card. 382 00:40:40,480 --> 00:40:49,320 And then we mail it out to the lab and they test your blood against 95 different food antigens. 383 00:40:50,300 --> 00:40:59,440 All the usual suspects to find out what you have a high reactivity to or what your body has a low reactivity to. 384 00:41:00,400 --> 00:41:07,180 So basically, the more reactive that your body is, the more sick that you'll get if you're exposed to this thing. 385 00:41:07,660 --> 00:41:09,400 I tested this on myself. 386 00:41:09,560 --> 00:41:17,300 I have a problem with dairy, with some grains, with crab, and with almonds. 387 00:41:18,100 --> 00:41:21,080 And that made me very sad because I love to eat crab. 388 00:41:22,540 --> 00:41:24,840 I don't stop eating crab when I'm full. 389 00:41:24,920 --> 00:41:27,120 I stop eating crab when I'm tired. 390 00:41:27,120 --> 00:41:35,900 so um back in the old days um red lobster had this thing called crabby mondays 391 00:41:35,900 --> 00:41:39,980 and they'd see me coming and they go oh god him again 392 00:41:39,980 --> 00:41:49,620 i i i very very small amounts or i'm i'm really sick for the rest of the day 393 00:41:49,620 --> 00:41:55,060 wow yeah that would be a big bummer i don't eat it very often but 394 00:41:55,060 --> 00:42:03,160 i think probably one of my favorite foods is dungeness crab just that would that would be a 395 00:42:03,160 --> 00:42:09,660 bummer yeah oh i'll tell you what the old in the old days the way to figure out what your body 396 00:42:09,660 --> 00:42:15,820 was what foods were making you sick was to do what's called an elimination diet 397 00:42:15,820 --> 00:42:27,260 And you would basically go on a super bland diet and slowly and methodically reintroduce certain foods and see if that food could provoke a response. 398 00:42:27,880 --> 00:42:36,300 This method is so fast and it's relatively cheap to do and you can get a ton of great information. 399 00:42:37,000 --> 00:42:42,000 I found out a lot of – I've helped a lot of people just by doing a food allergy test. 400 00:42:42,840 --> 00:42:44,340 Okay. Very cool. 401 00:42:44,340 --> 00:42:48,360 Is that anything that would be covered by insurance at all or not typically? 402 00:42:48,660 --> 00:42:49,420 Not typically. 403 00:42:49,940 --> 00:43:00,620 Insurance is mostly covering the standard approach that your primary care physician does, which is a very small overview. 404 00:43:00,620 --> 00:43:17,080 So how this works is when you go to the primary care physician's office, he's going to look up your insurance and he's going to order exactly whatever the insurance will cover so that he can prescribe it so he can justify prescribing a drug. 405 00:43:17,940 --> 00:43:23,600 So by the time, if you think about this, by the time you even walked in the PCP's office, 406 00:43:24,400 --> 00:43:27,960 your treatment plan has already been predetermined for you, 407 00:43:28,580 --> 00:43:34,300 usually by an actuary that sits in a cubicle in another city has never met you, 408 00:43:34,620 --> 00:43:40,280 never looked at your labs, never read your x-rays, never interviewed you or did a consultation. 409 00:43:41,120 --> 00:43:45,080 And so this is called industrial style medicine. 410 00:43:45,080 --> 00:43:57,800 Whoever walks in the door is going to get the same thing over and over, and they're going to get a very glossy, superficial veneer of this process. 411 00:43:58,020 --> 00:44:02,880 They're never going to figure out what's truly the root cause of your problems. 412 00:44:04,460 --> 00:44:08,480 Yeah, and this is rampant in the industry. 413 00:44:08,480 --> 00:44:11,440 I mean, it gets worse when you look at it. 414 00:44:11,440 --> 00:44:18,720 you know, the insurance companies, there are, there are some of them out there that own large 415 00:44:18,720 --> 00:44:24,760 hospital chains, which means of course the doctors are essentially working for the insurance companies. 416 00:44:25,280 --> 00:44:31,340 The billing, everything else is all tied together and it just, it's, you know, it's sick care. I'm a, 417 00:44:31,340 --> 00:44:38,280 I'm a big fan of avoiding the doctor unless one of two conditions are, are occurring. Number one, 418 00:44:38,280 --> 00:44:44,680 something that should be solid is no longer solid and in more pieces than it was supposed to be. 419 00:44:45,040 --> 00:44:51,840 Number two is when you're leaking. Okay. If you are leaking, go see, go seek help. Right. 420 00:44:52,680 --> 00:44:58,760 Other than that, I'm not, I'm not anti-pharmaceutical and I'm not anti-physician. 421 00:44:58,880 --> 00:45:03,420 I think that everybody has a role to play and there's a time and a place for everything. 422 00:45:03,420 --> 00:45:12,660 sure we as americans we spend about 4.3 trillion dollars a year on health care 423 00:45:12,660 --> 00:45:20,240 that's more than the next 20 countries combined it's such an enormous amount of money and here's 424 00:45:20,240 --> 00:45:28,620 the thing for every dollar spent on health care 90 cents is spent treating chronic conditions 425 00:45:28,620 --> 00:45:37,860 chronic conditions. Now, the difference between an acute problem and a chronic problem for your 426 00:45:37,860 --> 00:45:44,620 listeners. Thank you. I was actually going to ask you. An acute problem is a new issue. It's a new 427 00:45:44,620 --> 00:45:53,860 problem or a problem that would require a heroic measure to save a life, such as a heart attack, 428 00:45:53,860 --> 00:46:03,400 a stroke, a broken bone, a gunshot wound, a burn, a laceration. And medical doctors that are trained 429 00:46:03,400 --> 00:46:09,560 in the United States are brilliant at fixing these problems. They are the best in the world, 430 00:46:10,140 --> 00:46:17,140 but they don't have a good track record when it comes to chronic conditions. When it comes to 431 00:46:17,140 --> 00:46:24,820 chronic conditions, they don't cure anything. They manage problems. I can think of one exception, 432 00:46:25,420 --> 00:46:30,840 and that would be a bacterial infection where you need a round of antibiotics to clear it out. 433 00:46:31,400 --> 00:46:39,920 But when it comes to things like high blood pressure or low thyroid or a problem with 434 00:46:39,920 --> 00:46:47,360 diarrhea or constipation, if you want to test this, stop taking your blood pressure medication 435 00:46:47,360 --> 00:46:55,780 for a week and see what happens. It's going to go back up again. You're going to have to take 436 00:46:55,780 --> 00:47:03,740 the medication forever and ever and ever. There's very, very rare circumstances where they put you 437 00:47:03,740 --> 00:47:08,480 on a medication and then you stop taking it a week later, except for antibiotic therapy. 438 00:47:09,460 --> 00:47:24,660 Now, that leads me to say that one thing that I've said before is that I want to figure out the root cause of a medical problem, of a healthcare problem. 439 00:47:25,540 --> 00:47:29,440 Not to say that they're wrong. 440 00:47:29,540 --> 00:47:31,700 It's just a different philosophy that I have. 441 00:47:32,180 --> 00:47:34,880 So I have to do a little bit of digging. 442 00:47:34,880 --> 00:47:39,880 I have to figure out what could be contributing to this problem. 443 00:47:40,020 --> 00:47:51,500 And the way that I do that is to identify a trigger or assume it's an autoimmune disease and put an end to that by rebalancing the different systems of the body. 444 00:47:54,400 --> 00:48:00,460 Yeah, and I'm not anti-medical establishment in general, right? 445 00:48:00,460 --> 00:48:05,840 My father was a doctor and surgeon. 446 00:48:06,660 --> 00:48:11,440 My mother, another doctor, different kind. 447 00:48:11,860 --> 00:48:13,600 So I'm not anti that. 448 00:48:14,240 --> 00:48:20,900 I guess to rephrase my statement, I generally avoid them in the terms of generalized health. 449 00:48:20,900 --> 00:48:36,940 I think you're far better off managing your stuff with your diet, with exercise, with sunshine and time away from screens and other things that cause massive amounts of stress in our lives. 450 00:48:38,160 --> 00:48:42,420 Worst of all, we actually go and look for it and eat it up. 451 00:48:42,420 --> 00:49:01,720 Um, but you know, things like this, I think have a more, are more impactful, at least in my history than going and seeing a doctor, going and seeing a doctor is a, an almost 100% guarantee that you're going to walk out of there with medications to take. 452 00:49:01,720 --> 00:49:09,600 and i'm not telling anyone nor would i tell anyone not to take medication that was prescribed to you 453 00:49:09,600 --> 00:49:18,900 but i would tell everyone go go figure out what this is and talk to some other people uh you know 454 00:49:18,900 --> 00:49:27,240 someone outside of allopathic medicine to see you know like dr smith here can can we at least 455 00:49:27,240 --> 00:49:33,940 you know curb this problem right can we at least dim it like you said right turn the lights all the 456 00:49:33,940 --> 00:49:42,240 way you know to the dimmest setting um and we again we spent 4.3 trillion dollars on our health 457 00:49:42,240 --> 00:49:47,900 can you imagine how little we need to spend if they just followed that advice that you just said 458 00:49:47,900 --> 00:49:54,580 if they just ate very clean they got plenty of sunshine they got plenty of exercise they slept 459 00:49:54,580 --> 00:49:59,980 eight hours a night. They manage the stress. They just took care of themselves. 460 00:50:01,040 --> 00:50:10,960 Most problems I found are self-induced. And it's because we are addicted to the screen. 461 00:50:10,960 --> 00:50:17,500 We're addicted to the social media and we don't eat correctly. We go to McDonald's 462 00:50:17,500 --> 00:50:24,300 six times a week and then biggie size our Lipitor. That was a joke. 463 00:50:24,580 --> 00:50:32,600 i like that one not not really it's a little close to home for plenty of people who do that 464 00:50:32,600 --> 00:50:38,320 out of people but yes i thought that was good well one of the things is that they eat what 465 00:50:38,320 --> 00:50:58,740 people will eat whatever they want they will drink whatever they want they smoke whatever they want and they will look for pharmaceuticals to clean up the mess afterwards and good habits lead to good health bad habits lead to bad health so if you could tell people to just eat clean 466 00:50:58,740 --> 00:51:08,840 eat good whole foods get plenty of sleep get plenty of uh water get plenty of sunshine get 467 00:51:08,840 --> 00:51:14,860 outside and play like you did when you were a kid, a lot fewer problems would happen. 468 00:51:15,640 --> 00:51:23,060 Yeah. And we usually, you know, when we have these discussions around, you know, food and health, 469 00:51:23,060 --> 00:51:31,380 et cetera, we challenge people, right? Just try this 30 days. Just give it 30 days, right? Cut out 470 00:51:31,380 --> 00:51:38,040 sugar and cut out simple carbs. Just, just cut all that out. Just those two things. That's it. 471 00:51:38,040 --> 00:51:44,880 it's hard it's not easy you will feel weird i still miss bread two years later i still miss 472 00:51:44,880 --> 00:51:52,320 bread every day same well i mean i i've had i've had this conversation where i i start people off 473 00:51:52,320 --> 00:51:58,260 on an autoimmune paleo diet that's usually the starting place because that gut that typically 474 00:51:58,260 --> 00:52:04,360 cuts all the bad stuff and they look at me like i just said something mean about their mother 475 00:52:04,360 --> 00:52:12,860 right yeah i can imagine right yeah as little kids like a lot of people were given a reward 476 00:52:12,860 --> 00:52:19,640 for doing well in school or doing a good deed they were given a cookie or they were given another 477 00:52:19,640 --> 00:52:28,600 sweet and they so psychologically they associate good stuff to happen in the form of sweets so then 478 00:52:28,600 --> 00:52:34,380 along comes this crazy doctor that's saying, don't eat so much of that, eat this instead. 479 00:52:34,500 --> 00:52:41,120 And they're like really, really hostile and confused. So I, I realized that some people 480 00:52:41,120 --> 00:52:46,280 aren't ready to hear the message, but I also believe that as the teacher, as the student is 481 00:52:46,280 --> 00:52:55,220 ready, so there goes the teacher. So when they're ready to hear the message, they will reach out. 482 00:52:55,220 --> 00:53:03,240 you're absolutely right my personal story and i'm not you know saying whatever but i lost about 120 483 00:53:03,240 --> 00:53:07,000 pounds and like i said i got off all those medications and people say wow you you know i 484 00:53:07,000 --> 00:53:11,040 especially people i haven't seen in a while just say yo you look great what what can i do to do 485 00:53:11,040 --> 00:53:18,080 that and i tell them and they're like eh no thanks that's that's kind of what it ends up being yeah 486 00:53:18,080 --> 00:53:41,200 And it is, it is difficult when you first start doing that. There's a period of time you physically feel the cravings, right? It's just a weird feeling. Your body is like, give me bread, give me sugar, give me something. And, and it literally feels physically weird. It doesn't feel comfortable. 487 00:53:41,200 --> 00:53:48,000 but once you get past that an interesting thing happens because i'm not you know i'm not so strict 488 00:53:48,000 --> 00:53:53,940 that those things have been cut completely out of my life right uh in that we will have a special 489 00:53:53,940 --> 00:54:00,420 occasion and maybe i'll have a piece of bread or you know uh like you know we have a little retreat 490 00:54:00,420 --> 00:54:05,980 that we do with friends and my wife will make homemade cinnamon rolls right and i mean she does 491 00:54:05,980 --> 00:54:13,140 the whole thing from scratch and they're amazing. But what I will tell you is after eating them, 492 00:54:13,960 --> 00:54:21,540 that same level of weird feeling happens to me and it's uncomfortable and it's my body going, 493 00:54:21,660 --> 00:54:29,140 this is garbage. Why are you putting this in here? And, but it does take a good 30 days at least 494 00:54:29,140 --> 00:54:35,440 before you start to get past that little hump and it becomes really easy. Like you just, 495 00:54:35,440 --> 00:54:40,560 I think about it here and there, and I'm, oh man, a piece of sourdough would be really good. 496 00:54:42,020 --> 00:54:55,740 I heard one time a comedian talking about a Cinnabon in the airport, and some of these people were buying a Cinnabon when they reached their destination, when they got home. 497 00:54:57,660 --> 00:55:03,860 They weren't just buying a treat on their way to a destination somewhere. 498 00:55:03,860 --> 00:55:07,120 They were on their way home and they still ate it. 499 00:55:07,220 --> 00:55:09,820 So I don't understand that mentality. 500 00:55:11,340 --> 00:55:15,640 I think that, well, I don't smoke. 501 00:55:15,740 --> 00:55:16,440 I don't drink. 502 00:55:16,500 --> 00:55:17,360 I don't do drugs. 503 00:55:17,640 --> 00:55:20,200 I do drink some coffee from time to time. 504 00:55:21,060 --> 00:55:26,480 But by today's standards, I would be considered a boring person. 505 00:55:27,500 --> 00:55:27,700 Right. 506 00:55:27,920 --> 00:55:33,340 But I'm also not going to suffer with chronic issues all the time. 507 00:55:33,860 --> 00:55:40,200 Some people tend to be very reactive instead of proactive with their health. 508 00:55:40,700 --> 00:55:43,100 And I want people to make that change. 509 00:55:43,180 --> 00:55:45,840 I want them to be more proactive than reactive. 510 00:55:46,200 --> 00:55:46,940 Some people are. 511 00:55:47,080 --> 00:55:48,520 They'll join the gym. 512 00:55:48,880 --> 00:55:50,180 They'll hire a personal trainer. 513 00:55:50,820 --> 00:56:02,620 They will seek out better nutrition or take supplements to try to round the corners and do things that make sense to keep everything in top shape. 514 00:56:03,860 --> 00:56:06,780 Other people, they will go to the gym. 515 00:56:07,100 --> 00:56:08,260 They'll go one time. 516 00:56:08,360 --> 00:56:11,780 They'll think they're going to look like Arnold Schwarzenegger after one visit. 517 00:56:12,560 --> 00:56:13,660 I try that. 518 00:56:13,740 --> 00:56:14,460 It doesn't work. 519 00:56:16,860 --> 00:56:23,180 So a little at a time over a long period of time is where it's at. 520 00:56:24,760 --> 00:56:25,880 Yeah, absolutely. 521 00:56:25,880 --> 00:56:31,060 At the risk of putting you on the spot, and I really don't mean to place you on the spot. 522 00:56:31,060 --> 00:56:39,620 I do know a lot of people in our lives that are on a budget for one reason or another, whether they're retired or whether they can't work and they're on disability. 523 00:56:40,080 --> 00:56:52,720 How much should somebody budget if they want to see someone like you and not be trapped into seeing just their PCP like they have been for years and they have these issues that they really need to take care of? 524 00:56:53,540 --> 00:56:59,440 Well, I think that you have to ask the question, what would be the alternative? 525 00:57:00,340 --> 00:57:10,360 If they didn't take care of their health, how much would it cost them to need to see an endocrinologist for the rest of their life? 526 00:57:11,180 --> 00:57:15,080 How much money are people needing to spend on drugs? 527 00:57:16,660 --> 00:57:22,280 The average person that comes in to see me is on seven different drugs. 528 00:57:23,040 --> 00:57:27,980 I always ask their drug list because I want to find out what they're taking and what kind of problems that they're having. 529 00:57:27,980 --> 00:57:32,240 and the average person is taking seven drugs. 530 00:57:32,920 --> 00:57:34,980 Now, here's the problem with that. 531 00:57:35,260 --> 00:57:41,000 If you're taking one drug, there's a lot of data on that drug. 532 00:57:41,260 --> 00:57:46,300 It's been researched from the time of inception until the time that it's released to the public 533 00:57:46,300 --> 00:57:48,440 is about 13 years. 534 00:57:49,120 --> 00:57:53,120 And so they start off with doing a review of the literature 535 00:57:53,120 --> 00:58:00,560 and then in vitro studies and vivo studies and cohort studies, 536 00:58:00,560 --> 00:58:07,320 and they build it up until they reach random control double-blind studies. 537 00:58:08,040 --> 00:58:17,440 And then it goes through three layers of FDA research until they find that the risks are minimal 538 00:58:17,440 --> 00:58:19,860 and the rewards are maximized. 539 00:58:19,860 --> 00:58:28,740 so what happens if you take that drug and then six months later you go back to the doctor and say 540 00:58:28,740 --> 00:58:32,580 doc this drug isn't helping me anymore i need something stronger 541 00:58:32,580 --> 00:58:41,340 so now the doctor gives you the second drug how much data exists when you take drug one 542 00:58:41,340 --> 00:58:43,280 and drug two together. 543 00:58:44,360 --> 00:58:45,660 Absolutely none. 544 00:58:46,260 --> 00:58:47,500 Zero data exists. 545 00:58:48,400 --> 00:58:56,400 Now imagine if you take drug one, two, three, four, five, six, and seven all together, and 546 00:58:56,400 --> 00:58:59,440 they all have a potential of a side effect. 547 00:59:00,840 --> 00:59:00,920 Okay. 548 00:59:02,400 --> 00:59:10,960 That's one, and pardon the interruption, but that's one of my chief issues with allopathic 549 00:59:10,960 --> 00:59:16,380 medicine is if you come in, let's say it's one drug and you need to be on this drug and there 550 00:59:16,380 --> 00:59:21,560 is a side effect. It may not necessarily be the drug isn't working. It's like, Hey, I've got this 551 00:59:21,560 --> 00:59:27,000 thing. And they're like, Oh, Hey, take this. Oh, well now I've got this other thing. I would take 552 00:59:27,000 --> 00:59:31,260 this. What they're treating is the side effects from the original drug. They're not treating a 553 00:59:31,260 --> 00:59:38,180 medical condition. Right. And, and that to me is, I think that's problematic in general. 554 00:59:38,180 --> 00:59:46,700 so you when when you're taking more than one drug at the same time you are in the world of 555 00:59:46,700 --> 00:59:53,460 polypharmia that's actually a word poly meaning many and pharma meaning drugs so you're taking 556 00:59:53,460 --> 01:00:00,700 multiple drugs the most i've ever seen in my career a guy walked in my office with his drug 557 01:00:00,700 --> 01:00:09,540 list. It was a page and a half, single space typed. And he walked in like a zombie from having 558 01:00:09,540 --> 01:00:17,060 taken all those drugs all the time. I think that the medical doctors need to do a better job 559 01:00:17,060 --> 01:00:23,580 at communicating with other doctors to make sure that they are giving the patient the minimum 560 01:00:23,580 --> 01:00:30,680 number of drugs possible, not just continuously adding to the list. And they need to be 561 01:00:30,680 --> 01:00:40,540 cognizant of the dangers of polypharmia and on the person's well-being. A lot of the side effects 562 01:00:40,540 --> 01:00:47,400 are because of the drugs that the person is taking, and they have to be aware of that. 563 01:00:47,400 --> 01:01:05,520 But there's a cost. Getting back to your point, LX, there's a point of the cost of the drugs and the cost of impaired function. What's the cost of not being able to go on vacation with a family or a loved one anymore? 564 01:01:06,160 --> 01:01:11,800 What's the cost of not being able to do their job anymore and produce for their family? 565 01:01:12,620 --> 01:01:16,860 Or not being able to go to their grandson's baseball game? 566 01:01:17,280 --> 01:01:21,540 Or not being able to go for a ride in the car? 567 01:01:22,140 --> 01:01:28,380 There's a cost associated with a loss of function that they have to be aware of. 568 01:01:29,000 --> 01:01:30,860 It's a very, very real thing. 569 01:01:30,860 --> 01:01:46,220 When I've done lectures on, say, peripheral neuropathy, these people have things like numbness, tingling, burning sensations, loss of balance, cramping, muscle weakness. 570 01:01:46,760 --> 01:01:48,820 Their extremities feel too hot or too cold. 571 01:01:49,680 --> 01:01:55,800 And some of them are because of diabetes, but some of them are because of spinal cord issues. 572 01:01:55,800 --> 01:02:07,020 And trust me, these people are one step away from needing a wheelchair or a nursing home. 573 01:02:07,640 --> 01:02:18,120 And when you go into the nursing home, that's about $10,000 a month forever until there's nothing left, until you're on Medicaid. 574 01:02:18,120 --> 01:02:28,660 So if I priced myself like they do with medicine, it would be $50,000, $60,000. 575 01:02:29,380 --> 01:02:32,180 But fortunately, it's a lot less than that. 576 01:02:32,420 --> 01:02:37,100 I don't have the exact figures because everybody is different. 577 01:02:37,580 --> 01:02:39,240 Everybody needs something different. 578 01:02:39,240 --> 01:02:46,060 but to work with a person's diet and to prescribe supplements, 579 01:02:46,600 --> 01:02:48,320 a hell of a lot cheaper than drugs. 580 01:02:50,280 --> 01:02:50,800 Nice. 581 01:02:51,120 --> 01:02:52,840 I hope I answered your question. 582 01:02:53,420 --> 01:02:55,760 It's kind of a long way to do it, but yeah. 583 01:02:58,800 --> 01:02:59,320 Absolutely. 584 01:03:00,220 --> 01:03:03,780 So where can people find you? 585 01:03:05,380 --> 01:03:07,240 How do they get a hold of you? 586 01:03:07,240 --> 01:03:10,540 Where can they take up your material? 587 01:03:11,440 --> 01:03:24,360 Okay, so the best way to find out a little bit more about me and a little bit more about the conditions that I work with, you can visit my website at metabolicsolutions.net. 588 01:03:25,300 --> 01:03:27,580 Don't go to metabolicsolutions.com. 589 01:03:27,740 --> 01:03:29,200 That's the different site. 590 01:03:29,200 --> 01:03:36,580 But go to metabolicsolutions.net and they can read more about me, about the different conditions. 591 01:03:36,940 --> 01:03:47,720 And then if you want to speak to me or send me a message about what's going on with you, there's a place there that you can send me that message on the contact page. 592 01:03:48,180 --> 01:03:50,280 And I'd be happy to hear from you. 593 01:03:50,440 --> 01:03:54,840 If you want to have a phone conversation or a Zoom call, I can do that. 594 01:03:54,840 --> 01:04:02,420 We can have a free 10 or 15-minute discovery call and find out a little bit more about you and what you're up against. 595 01:04:03,080 --> 01:04:05,120 And I'll give you some advice. 596 01:04:06,660 --> 01:04:06,900 Awesome. 597 01:04:07,420 --> 01:04:07,760 Awesome. 598 01:04:07,840 --> 01:04:08,040 Nice. 599 01:04:08,920 --> 01:04:09,320 All right. 600 01:04:10,340 --> 01:04:15,380 I think, Alex, any other things you wanted to throw out? 601 01:04:16,020 --> 01:04:18,260 Not that I can think of right off the top of my head. 602 01:04:18,380 --> 01:04:18,700 All right. 603 01:04:19,080 --> 01:04:23,660 Well, I think we're at a good point to kind of take us out. 604 01:04:23,660 --> 01:04:33,280 So one question we always like to ask our guests is, you know, throughout our life, people make profound impacts on our lives, right? 605 01:04:33,340 --> 01:04:39,560 Things that maybe could just be a quote from an author, could be a sixth grade science teacher. 606 01:04:40,340 --> 01:04:43,160 It could be mom, could be whoever you want. 607 01:04:43,500 --> 01:04:50,400 But one thing we like to do is give people the opportunity to give a shout out to that influential person that made an impact on your life. 608 01:04:50,400 --> 01:04:53,080 So who would you like to give a shout out to? 609 01:04:53,660 --> 01:04:58,960 So I think that the one person that I'm thinking about right now is my dad. 610 01:04:59,380 --> 01:05:05,740 My dad passed away in 1995, and he was my hero. 611 01:05:06,420 --> 01:05:08,340 He was my best friend. 612 01:05:08,340 --> 01:05:17,560 He taught me a lot about the importance of establishing rapport with people 613 01:05:17,560 --> 01:05:23,600 and getting to know them as a person before you conducted business. 614 01:05:24,500 --> 01:05:28,420 And so that's really what I try to do with people. 615 01:05:28,900 --> 01:05:33,020 Before I can tell people what they need to do, 616 01:05:33,540 --> 01:05:39,340 we need to, you know, come to figure out a little bit more about who they are 617 01:05:39,340 --> 01:05:42,920 and who I am and get to know each other a little bit as a person. 618 01:05:43,700 --> 01:05:48,100 And that's who I wanted to give a shout out to. 619 01:05:49,380 --> 01:05:51,260 That's a pretty good shout out right there. 620 01:05:51,260 --> 01:05:59,320 all right well thank you so much for coming on we really appreciate it it's been a wonderful 621 01:05:59,320 --> 01:06:05,600 conversation uh you know hopefully our listeners will enjoy this and and who knows maybe maybe some 622 01:06:05,600 --> 01:06:12,600 of them pick up the phone or go on your website and check you out i sure hope so um if you are 623 01:06:12,600 --> 01:06:17,540 experiencing issues in your life that are impacting your health or your ability to 624 01:06:17,540 --> 01:06:26,220 do things that you used to be able to do, give Dr. Kevin Smith a shout, right? Look him up on his 625 01:06:26,220 --> 01:06:31,760 website, put in a contact form, schedule an appointment, talk with him, see if you can't 626 01:06:31,760 --> 01:06:37,980 come to an agreement and hopefully get you back on track with your life and back to some, you know, 627 01:06:38,120 --> 01:06:44,040 healthier state than you are now. Well, thank you guys for having me. It was an honor and a pleasure 628 01:06:44,040 --> 01:06:52,440 to be here and uh i had a great time thank you so did i all right thank you once again for joining 629 01:06:52,440 --> 01:06:57,100 us for another episode of the space tomatoes podcast you can find us pretty much anywhere 630 01:06:57,100 --> 01:07:03,680 podcasts play uh including youtube x and you know a few other places everywhere pretty much 631 01:07:03,680 --> 01:07:12,400 uh you know where to find us go look us up we appreciate your time and remember wherever you are 632 01:07:12,400 --> 01:07:14,600 whenever you're watching this, 633 01:07:15,160 --> 01:07:17,020 have an amazing day. 634 01:07:18,540 --> 01:07:19,300 See you, everybody. 635 01:07:19,460 --> 01:07:20,060 See you, Dr. Smith. 636 01:07:20,500 --> 01:07:21,120 See you, guys. 637 01:07:42,400 --> 01:07:43,580 We'll be right back.