Del Bigtree discusses the issues with Vaccine Safety in his interview with Dr. Ben Weitz and why vaccines are not being made as safe as they could. I introduced Del Bigtree as an Award winning producer for the TV show The Doctors and for the controversial documentary, Vaxxed. I asked Del how he came to be so passionate about vaccine safety? Del explained that he is passionate guy and he cares about people. He also said that he is skeptical that when selling drugs that make billions of dollars that the companies will always have the public’s interest number one at the highest decision making level. Money always seems to come first. He investigates with that level of skepticism. Vaccines are a product that are meant to make us healthier and his investigation into them has revealed that safety is really the last consideration rather than the first. And we are talking about a product that is injected into one day old babies. This should require the up most scrutiny into their safety but the opposite seems to be true.
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3:32 We have a product in vaccines that are being mandated across this country and forced, such as in California, where they eliminated the exemptions. This means that the state decides what gets injected into our children and we have no say in the matter, if we want our kids to go to public and most private schools. That is a dangerous step for a democracy. We have to be careful about losing control over our rights. Some people don’t believe in vaccines, for a variety of reasons or just want to spread them out more. And for those who do believe in vaccines, we need to make them as safe as possible. We have to understand that every year kids are injured and some are killed by vaccines. There is a long list of problems and we should try to reduce this list.
5:38 I said that there is something appealing about the concept of vaccines, from a Functional Medicine perspective. We know that infectious diseases have been big killers of people throughout the ages. For bacterial infections, we have antibiotics, but for viruses, we don’t have any effective drugs. The concept of vaccines is appealing because it involves using your body’s own immune system to create antibodies to fight off viruses. It is more natural than using a foreign drug to kill off the infectious disease. Unfortunately, in our capitalist health care system, profit is a big factor. One of the things in our system that forces companies to make safer products is that they can get sued if they make a less safe product. Unfortunately, when it comes to vaccines, that market force has been eliminated by the 1986 National Vaccine Injury Act, that prevent the companies that make the vaccines from being sued. I asked Del to explain this law and why it plays a role in vaccine safety. Del said that he also believes that it is a noble pursuit for science to figure out a way to protect us from infectious diseases and that vaccines are a great idea. But have we have to make them as safe as possible and it is really law suits that forces companies to make safer products. If 2 or 3 air bags fail in your car and you have Toyota is recalling every car on the continent. Two kids die getting their heads caught in cribs and they are recalling every crib. Thus the market incentivizes companies not to put out unsafe products, because it costs them millions of dollars to recall it. But the vaccine industry is one of the only companies that does not have that liability. That is because the vaccine manufacturers were getting so many law suits because of the DTP vaccine, which was a very problematic vaccine that was causing a lot of injury and deaths, and they went to congress and lobbied to get this National Vaccine Injury Act passed, saying that they were going to stop making vaccines without it. This law takes away the incentives for the companies that make the vaccines to do safety studies. In fact, the only exception written into the 1986 law is that the pharmaceutical industry cannot be sued unless they know about an adverse event related to vaccines that they fail to report. Thus, if the pharmaceutical companies don’t do any safety studies and don’t document any adverse events, then they have no liability. Thus they are disincetivized not to perform safety studies. In order to get a vaccine on the market, the criteria is all about its efficacy. All the pharmaceutical company has to prove is does it provide protection against that infectious disease? Does it create antibody titers in your body? Nobody is studying whether all the other ingredients in that vaccine cause cancer or SIDS or neurological disorders like autism, or autoimmune disease over time, nobody is looking at.
11:09 In 1986 we had 11 vaccines and now in 2017 we have 53 vaccines taken in 72 dosages by the time you are 18 years of age. Graph this increase in vaccines against the increase in autoimmune diseases in the US. In 1986 we had 12.8% autoimmune diseases and now we 54% of American children have an autoimmune disease or neurological disorder. Del thinks that our vaccine program has something to do with this. All the medical experts like Dr. Sanjay Gupta keep telling us that vaccines have been extensively studied and that they are perfectly safe and that they do not cause autism and Del says that, as a medical journalist who has read every study related to vaccines, that that is a lie. Vaccines have not been adequately studied for safety.
12:17 I asked what are the approximate number of injuries that have occurred from vaccines?
Del Bigtree is an Emmy award winning TV producer, having produced some episodes of the Doctor’s Show, and produced Vaxxed, a documentary about vaccines. He has a podcast, Highwire, and runs the Informed Consent Action Network http://icandecide.org/
Dr. Ben Weitz is available for nutrition consultations specializing in Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders like IBS/SIBO and Reflux and also specializing in Cardiometabolic Risk Factors like elevated lipids, high blood sugar, and high blood pressure as well as sports chiropractic work by calling his Santa Monica office 310-395-3111.
Preheat the oven to 400°. In a small bowl, whisk the paprika with the turmeric, cumin, ginger, coriander, cinnamon, cayenne, cardamom and 1 teaspoon each of salt and black pepper. In a medium bowl, toss the carrots with the onion and 2 tablespoons of the oil. Add 1 tablespoon of the spice mix and toss to coat. Spread the vegetables on a rimmed baking sheet and roast for 20 to 25 minutes, stirring once or twice, until tender.
Step 2
Meanwhile, spread the walnuts in a pie plate and bake for about 7 minutes, until golden. Let cool, then coarsely chop.
Step 3
In a medium saucepan, combine the quinoa with 2 teaspoons of the spice mix and the water and bring to a boil. Cover and simmer over low heat until the water is absorbed and the quinoa is tender, about 17 minutes. Uncover, fluff with a fork and let cool slightly.
Step 4
In a large bowl, whisk 2 tablespoons of the oil with 1 tablespoon of the lemon juice and season with salt and black pepper. Add the salad greens and toss to coat. Spread the greens on a large platter. In the same bowl, whisk the remaining 3 tablespoons of oil with the remaining 1 tablespoon of lemon juice and the zest, mustard and 1 teaspoon of the spice mix; season with salt. Add the quinoa, walnuts, cranberries, parsley and roasted vegetables and toss well. Spoon the quinoa salad on the greens and serve.
Dr. Rosalba Courtney discusses how dysfunctional breathing can lead to health problems and how breathing assessment and training can improve this with Dr. Ben Weitz. Dr. Courtney happened to be in the US to teach a course on breathing techniques to practitioners.
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2:15 I asked how Dr. Courtney came to be so involved with breathing therapy? Dr. Courtney explained that as an Osteopath and as a Naturapath in Australia she was always looking for natural treatment methods for patients who were not responding with her normal manual therapy methods, including patients with very rigid rib cages and asthma patients who were not responding. She learned a few breathing techniques, both of which came out of Russia–the Alexander technique and the Butyeko technique. The more she used these breathing techniques, esp. in those difficult to treat patients, the better results she got. In 2003 Dr. Courtney got a PhD in breathing and she developed a method and protocol for the assessment and training to improve breathing. Dysfunctional breathing is common and has three main components: 1. Biomechanics of breathing, including whether you breathe through your nose or your mouth, how you use your breathing muscles, and the patterns and rhythms of your breathing whether they are functional or dysfunctional, 2. the Biochemistry of breathing–how breathing is affecting your pH, your body balance, your carbon dioxide and oxygen, 3. the Psychophysiological aspect of breathing–How you are perceiving your breathing? Are you perceiving it accurately? Are you aware of breathing, can you connect with it? Is breathing pleasant or unpleasant? How has fear, anxiety and stress conditioned your breathing? You have to figure out how is this person’s breathing wrong, what’s caused it, and which breathing techniques to use to fix it. There is the Butyeko breathing technique that uses reduced breathing and breath holding. There are other methods of breathing that work more with the nervous system and try to optimize the function of the vagus nerve and create sympathetic/parasympathetic nervous system balance. She also works with intermittent hypoxic training, which is acclimatizing the body to higher altitude conditions to improve the body chemistry.
5:42 I then asked for Dr. Courtney to clarify what dysfunctional breathing is and I mentioned that despite the importance of breathing, most of us don’t really ever think about our breathing. Dr. Courtney explained that breathing functions like a pump to create pressure changes to pump air and fluid through the body. Breathing has biochemical functions, including to regulate oxygen and carbon dioxide and pH. There are secondary functions of breathing where breathing interacts with many systems of the body. Breathing affects speech and oscillations in the body. It is involved in self regulation of the brain and the nervous system. Breathing is also involved in posture and motor control. Functional breathing is breathing that fulfills its functions appropriately and dysfunctional breathing is breathing that does not. Dysfunctional breathing is often linked to symptoms, such as unexplained breathing discomfort. You might be over breathing or using excessive tension. You can end up with chronic neck, shoulder, or back pain. And this pain will not be responsive to normal treatment.
8:07 The normal person breaths 21,000 times per day and if you are over breathing, then this can lead to chronic pain, On the other hand, sometimes manual treatments like chiropractic and massage can help reset breathing.
9:01 I mentioned that most of us think that the purpose of breathing is to bring oxygen to the tissues in the body, but it is equally important that we get the right amount of carbon dioxide as well. Most of us think, oxygen good, carbon dioxide bad, but it’s not that simple. Dr. Courtney explained that the right amount of carbon dioxide is needed to help regulate the body. If there is not enough carbon dixoide, it will make you at first too alkaline, and then too acidic.
10:18 I said that I work with some professional athletes and getting their acid/alkaline balance right seems to be very important and I asked if breathing training could be helpful for them? Dr. Courtney explained that research indicates that 25% of professional athletes have dysfunctional breathing. They tend to breathe through their mouth rather than their nose, which means that their breathing is higher and they will tend to use the wrong muscles than if they breathe through their nose. If they overbreathe through their mouth, it will tend to dry out their airways and cause inflammation. They will have to use excessive respiratory effort, so athletes will tend to run out of puff and they will have a lowering of the anaerobic threshold. They will have a greater tendency for their vocal folds to be stressed, so it is an advantage if you can get them breathing through their nose more of the time. Studies have looked at elite cyclists who were mouth breathing and they went through breathing training and they showed a big improvement in their performance. Athletes will tend to fatigue either because of their muscles giving out or because they run out of breath. Those who learn proper breathing techniques will only fatigue because of their muscles.
13:30 I asked what are some of the health condition that are caused by dysfunctional breathing and can these be prevented or reversed through proper breathing techniques? Asthma is one condition and asthma patients who get breathing training from a Butyeko practitioner or a physical therapist with specialty training, many can reduce their medication. Another condition is those with anxiety and panic disorder that can really benefit from breathing retraining techniques. Some of the research shows that if someone has anxiety/panic disorders and has shallow breathing and has a low CO2 or if they have a lot of anxiety around breathing, they will be much less responsive to psychotherapy. If you work with their breathing, they will respond better to the psychotherapy.
Dr. Rosalba Courtney practices in Avalon and Neutral Bay in Australia and she can be contacted through her web site, https://www.rosalbacourtney.com/
Dr. Ben Weitz is available for nutrition consultations and chiropractic care at 310-395-3111.
Dr. Michael Ruscio speaks with Dr. Ben Weitz about Gastroesophageal Reflux Disorder. Dr. Weitz gave an introduction to the topic, explaining that GERD occurs in up to 20% of Americans and is marked by the contents of the stomach coming up into the esophagus and creating a burning sensation. There could be vomiting, a chronic cough, chronically bad breath, and possibly erosion of the teeth. This can eventually lead to chronic inflammation of the esophagus, esophageal strictures (narrowing of the esophagus), Barrett’s esophagus, which is a pre-cancerous condition, and can even lead to esophageal cancer. It is believed that the cause of GERD is a weakening or dysfunction of the lower esophageal sphincter that normally prevents bile acids, pancreatic enzymes, and stomach acid from travelling up from the stomach into the esophagus, where they can cause a burning and inflammation of the sensitive esophageal tissues. This is why the primary surgical procedure for GERD is the Nissen fundoplication, in which the upper part of the stomach is wrapped around the lower esophageal sphincter to help strengthen it. But from a Functional Medicine perspective, this definition of GERD does not help us very much, because we need to know what the underlying cause and what other factors it is related to. This is why I have asked Dr. Michael Ruscio to help provide some clinically useful information. Dr. Ruscio is a doctor of chiropractic, a Functional Medicine practitioner, a researcher, and an educator, lecturing all around the world on the gut and thyroid.
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3:22 Dr. Ruscio, what are some of the main factors that lead to gastroesophageal reflux? Dr. Ruscio explained that he would like to walk us through a four part intervention hierarchy that will help to codify the different mechanisms and treatments for GERD. We should imagine a pyramid and start with the base and address the least invasive and most common items first, such as diet. At the apex of the pyramid are the most invasive interventions, such as surgical procedures. We’ll start with diet, then we’ll go to dysbiosis, the third will be stomach acid levels, and the fourth will be natural treatments that can help to alleviate some of the symptoms in a pharmaceutical manner, such as lowering stomach acid.
5:21 When we come back to the first level we first have to look at food allergies or sensitivities. This may be approached with a paleo or autoimmune paleo diet or an elimination diet and the foods typically eliminated are wheat, dairy, caffeine, night shades, spicy foods, alcohol, and night shades are some of the most common ones. Food sensitivities can provocate reflux and this is why histamine blocking agents, which are often recommended to treat GERD, may be working by blocking the effects these food sensitivities. Elevated histamine levels can raise hydrochloric acid levels in the stomach and this is why histamine blocking agents can lower stomach acid levels. Dr. Ruscio talked about following either a paleo diet, an autoimmune paleo diet, or an elimination diet and then slowly reintroducing the foods you have eliminated and see what foods work for you and which foods don’t work for you. There are also other dietary approaches that may work including a low FODMAP diet, which eliminates foods that may cause gas and bloating, which may push up against that lower esophageal sphincter and keep it open. At least one systematic review shows that IBS and GERD have quite a bit of overlap.
10:15 I commented that I know that Dr. Ruscio tries to avoid necessary testing, but I have sometimes found it helpful to do food sensitivity testing to find out which foods, esp. if they are not the obvious foods like gluten, dairy, and soy. Dr. Ruscio explained that he’s not against testing but he tries to use testing judiciously in order to avoid having his patients spend more money than necessary and he’s been able to sort out most cases of GERD and IBS without needing to do food sensitivity testing. Dr. Ruscio also mentioned that a low histamine diet should be considered after other dietary approaches have failed. He pointed out that there is not complete agreement about which foods should be excluded on a low histamine diet,
13:06 I said that Dr. Ruscio mentioned that reflux is associated with high stomach acid but many Functional Medicine doctors believe that reflux may be associated with low stomach acid, resulting in poor digestion/breakdown of the food. I mentioned Dr. Jonathan Wright’s famous study that looked at patients who were believed to have elevated stomach acid but who actually had lower hydrochloric acid levels. Dr. Ruscio explained that he fact checked Jonathan Wright’s references from his book and none of his references stood up. Dr. Ruscio pointed out that he has a lot of respect for Dr. Wright but his references were miss-cited and some of the references he cited actually showed the opposite of his position, which is that in studies looking at lower esophageal sphincter tone that gave patients acid lowering medications, they showed a tightening or an improved function of that sphincter. But while this mechanism for reflux that Dr. Wright cited is not accurate. there may still be some efficacy in prescribing Betaine HCl, which facilitates stomach healing. Dr. Ruscio pointed out that in the Functional/Natural Medicine community there is an overuse of hydrochloric acid supplements and this can become problematic, esp. for patients who have gastritis, and taking acid can make gastritis worse. And some of these doctors cannot even conceive of the fact that giving this acid is not the right thing to do.
17:04 I mentioned that a lot of these practitioners are using this regimen of increasing the HCL tablets, adding an additional tablet per day till the patient feels a burning in their stomach and then back off the dosage. Dr. Ruscio said that he also would recommend against this strategy, but he wanted to get back to his hierarchy and talk about the second level of the pyramid. This level would be dysbiosis. For practitioners who are treating patients with GERD who do not have resolution after diet, would be to look at dysbiosis and two of the most salient forms of dysbiosis would be Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth and H. Pylori infection. He explained that he does not consider H. Pylori to be a pathogen because there is not universal data showing that H. Pylori is actually detrimental. Some data shows that early colonization with H. Pylori may actually be protective of the host, at least immunologically. Also, it does not appear that we can fully eradicate H. Pylori. It’s more a matter of creating a balance by trimming the levels back. But H. Pylori has been documented to cause stomach ulcers and it may cause an increase in HCL levels.
19:42 I interrupted and asked what is the best way to test for H. Pylori? Dr. Ruscio said that if it is highly suspected, such as in a patient with GERD or a history of ulcers, he will run a stool antigen profile, a breath sample, and a blood antibody profile. With respect to SIBO, the connection is that SIBO is one of the causes of IBS and IBS is connected with GERD. Part of this may be because SIBO can cause increased gas pressure, which can push on the esophageal sphincter, esp. if SIBO occurs high up int he small intestine, closer to the stomach. Or histamine may be the connection since a low FODMAP diet, which has been shown to help with SIBO, has been shown to cause an 8 fold decrease in histamine levels. Between SIBO and H. Pylori you can get a lot of mileage with treating GERD.
22:19 Then we come to the issue of stomach acid and this would include stomach acid being too high or too low. If patients have high stomach acid, then their risk of gastritis or ulcers or GERD is increased. Some of the symptoms of indigestion can also be caused by low stomach acid. The symptoms of low and high stomach acid have a lot of overlap. There are a few things you can do to try to sort this out and determine which way to go clinically. The things that would make you more at risk of having higher stomach acid are younger age, a gnawing type of stomach pain, if someone reports a negative reaction to taking supplemental stomach acid, and a personal or family history of ulcers or gastritis. Patients who are older or have anemia or autoimmune diseases are at higher risk of having low stomach acid and these patients would be good candidates for a trial of betaine hydrochloric acid. Dr. Ruscio explained that he tells these patients that they will feel better or worse and if they feel worse than this is likely because they have gastritis or an ulcer. And this is sometimes missed and he has seen some patients who had seen other providers who were taking acid and it was making them worse. To put some numbers on this, the number of documented ulcers in the US is 6.5%, while the number of low stomach acid is 2%, though he admitted that we have more research on ulcers than we have on low stomach acid. On the other hand, we see up to 30-40% low stomach acid in those with autoimmunity. Dr. Ruscio emphasized that the biggest take away is that not everyone will benefit from taking acid and sometimes the key to solving the case is to go the opposite direction. He talked about a case of a patient who he helped relieve a lot of his symptoms, including gas, bloating, insomnia, and fatigue with treatment of small intestinal bacterial overgrowth. But he continued to have this gnawing stomach pain, anxiety, and he would get goosebumps and he thought that this was gastritis related, so he put this patient on a protocol to lower stomach acid, and that was the final missing piece that allowed him to heal. Also, we need to recognize that blocking acid may have some benefits and patients who have ulcers who go on an acid blocking medication 80-90% will heal by using acid lowering medications for 4-8 weeks and natural agents can be as effective as prescription medications. Dr. Ruscio mentioned one study that showed that natural agents could be as effective as taking omeprazole, the leading pharmaceutical agent (Prilosec).
27:57 I asked Dr. Ruscio what his favorite natural acid lowering medications are? Dr. Ruscio said that melatonin can be helpful. He mentioned a study that used melatonin, B vitamins, methionine, and betaine. He said that there are two formulas that approximate that. One is Protexid and the other is GI Guard PM from Protocol For Life Balance.
29:12 I asked that since SIBO is often associated with decreased small intestinal motility, and some evidence indicates that decreased esophageal motility may be a causative factor in reflux. Could it be that the decreased motility part of the SIBO be affecting the motility of the esophagus and could this be why treating the SIBO helps with reflux? Dr. Ruscio said that he thought that this could be the case and this is one reason why SIBO may be associated with reflux. Certain pro-kinetic changes, like Iberogast, a natural prokinetic, in several clinical trials has been shown to be helpful with dyspepsia or indigestion, which often times includes GERD or symptoms of GERD. Iberogast was used in one head to head trial against Cisapride, which is a pharmaceutical upper GI pro-kinetic. The Interstitial Cells of Cajal (ICC) run all the way through the entire GI tract. Dr. Ruscio summarized by saying that that gives you a pretty good rundown by starting with diet, then looking at dysbiosis, and if someone is still non-responsive, considering direct acid modulation. There are one or two other things one may want to add in, such as something that facilitates healing in the gastrointestinal tract, gut healing formulas that contain things like aloe, glutamine, zinc, slippery elm. Dr. Ruscio said he likes to use GI Revive but there are many similar formulas. For GERD and indigestion there’s a compound known as FDGard, which can help with dyspepsia or indigestion. It contains peppermint oil and caraway oil. I mentioned that I just read an article by Dr. Hyman who said that magnesium deficiency can be a problem since you need magnesium for the sphincter at the bottom of the stomach to relax to facilitate the movement of the food. Dr. Ruscio also said that if you have a bad case of gastritis or an ulcer, don’t be afraid to use an acid lowering medication for a limited period of time. If you have SIBO and an ulcer, then you will be better off treating both the SIBO with herbs and also treating the ulcer with a PPI. The real miss is when using such medications for the long term. But if you address these other foundational factors, then the need to use these in the long term is non-existent. And patients appreciate you as their practitioner being open to both natural and conventional medicine.
Dr. Michael Ruscio can be reached through his website, https://drruscio.com/ where you can sign up for his newsletter, to see his weekly videos, his weekly podcast, blogs, and for his practitioner training program, the monthly Future of Functional Medicine Review clinical newsletter, which I highly recommend. He is also available for Functional Medicine consultations as well as for speaking events by calling his office 1-800-335-7009 .
Dr. Ben Weitz is also available for nutritional consultations and chiropractic care at 310-395-3111 or through www.drweitz.com.
https://drweitz.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/michaelruscio.jpg350785drweitzhttp://www.drweitz.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/drweitzdsamplelogo-withtext.pngdrweitz2017-11-13 22:25:352019-03-18 16:17:31Gastroesophageal Reflux with Dr. Michael Ruscio: Rational Wellness Podcast 030
Dr. Christine Horner speaks to Dr. Ben Weitz about strategies to deter the aging process using the principles of Ayurveda, diet, exercises and lifestyle. Dr. Horner explained that when she went to medical school, they learned very little about preventing chronic diseases or promoting your health. She explained that most cases of breast cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and other chronic diseases can be prevented. Her breakthrough moment was when she learned how to meditate and about Ayurvedic medicine.
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Dr. Horner can be reached through her website, http://www.drchristinehorner.com/ where you can buy a copy of her book, Radiant Health Ageless Beauty. Dr. Horner is also available for consultations and for public speaking.
Dr. Weitz is also available for nutrition consultations as well as chiropractic work at 310-395-3111.
