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Galectin-3 with Dr. Isaac Eliaz: Rational Wellness Podcast 117

Weitz Sports Chiropractic and Nutrition
Weitz Sports Chiropractic and Nutrition
Galectin-3 with Dr. Isaac Eliaz: Rational Wellness Podcast 117
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Dr. Isaac Eliaz discusses Galectin 3, a crucial Survival Protein, which can be managed with Modified Citrus Pectin, with Dr. Ben Weitz.

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Podcast Highlights

3:09  Galectin-3 is an inflammatory protein that plays a role in many chronic diseases.  It is a carbohydrate binding protein known as a lectin. Many medical researchers and clinicians are not aware of Galectin-3 but there are well over 8.000 published papers on Galectin-3 and more than 50 published papers on PectaSol, the specific form of Modified Citrus Pectin that Dr. Eliaz developed to help lower Galectin-3. Dr. Eliaz explained that Galectin-3 is more an inflammatory instigator than an inflammatory marker.  It’s actually a survival protein, which means that it gives the body a signal that it’s under survival stressInflammation is not a cause of any disease–it’s a response to a survival signal.  This survival drive is what moves us from health to disease. When we address Galectin-3, it is a movement from survival to health.  Once Galectin-3 is turned on, the inflammation keeps going and the end result is fibrosis, degeneration, cancer, more aggressive cancer, more aggressive congestive heart failure, more aggressive liver disease, more aggressive kidney disease.  All of these factors are substantiated in clinical trials.  Galectin-3 has an amino acid part and it binds to a carbohydrate and you will get a different response in the body depending upon which carbohydrate it binds to. You may get angiogenesis, or inflammation, or escape from immune responses that cancer uses or you may get overstimulation of the immune response with the cytokines that cause damage like IL-6, IL-4, IL-8. A small change in the levels of Galectin-3 will lead to dramatic change on levels of other inflammatory compounds downstream, below it, and will lead to severe damage. That’s why addressing it is really one of the most important dietary supplement regimen we have to take, because it’s getting stimulated all the time in an inappropriate way.

9:25  Fasting and intermittent fasting are other ways to stimulate the same survival mechanism that promotes anti-aging.  If we eat too much sugar and carbohydrates we get reduced insulin sensitivity and if we get too much Galectin-3, it will cause inflammation and it will block insulin receptors and it will shut down the AMPK that causes normal sugar metabolism. This will stimulate the MTOR-1 pathway, which will cause the cell to go into crisis and feel like it needs to produce energy very quickly, causing cell death and an environment that’s favorable for cancer growth and proliferation. Cancer cells, bacteria, viruses, and even the Lyme spirochete can isolate themselves using Galectin-3.  This is how Galectin-3 stimulates chronic infections, cancer, and diabetes. If you can reduce the Galectin-3, block MTOR-1, and re-establish AMPK with fasting and taking Modified Citrus Pectin, you have an anti-aging effect.

12:50  Galectin-3 is a lectin, so I asked Dr. Eliaz if eating a low lectin diet would be beneficial, such as Dr. Gundry recommends?  Dr. Eliaz said that a low lectin diet does make sense but he feels that this is casting too wide a net and we need to focus on blocking Galectin-3 in particular.  Modified Citrus Pectin, which can block Galectin-3, if it were a patented pharmaceutical instead of an extract from a citrus fruit, it would be a multi-billion dollar drug.  Dr. Eliaz explained that in his clinic he uses an even more extreme method of blocking Galectin-3. He uses Therapeutic Apheresis, which is similar to dialysis, to remove Galectin-3 directly from the circulation.

20:05  Galectin-3 initiates a number of inflammatory pathways.  It stimulates macrophages to become inflammatory and then they excrete Il-6, Il-8,  and TNF alpha and cause ongoing inflammatory damage. Galectin-3 also stimulates the fibrotic pathway and causes fibroblasts and myofibroblast stimulation and damage to normal functioning tissues.  For example, in congestive heart failure, if your Galectin-3 is at 17.8, 12.5% of the patients will die in one year.  If your Galectin-3 is over 25.6, 37% of the patients will die in one year due to the fibrosis that occurs. With respect to cancer, Galectin-3 will promote cancer and it will stimulate cancer to become more aggressive.  It will cause angiogenesis to facilitate cancer growth.  Galectin-3 also shuts down the immune response, which allows cancer to thrive more easily.  We want to reorganize our system from a survival fight to a harmony of health.  When we are in a state of harmony, there is less inflammation, less fibrosis, less oxidative stress, glucose and insulin are more balanced, and metabolically the immune system is working well.  We are moving into a more parasympathetic harmony state, which is a state that promotes longevity.  When we live in a society that is more compassionate and more supportive of each others, that promotes survival and longevity and our telomeres get longer.

29:50  PectaSol-C is a patented form of Modified Citrus Pectin that is modified to have the ideal molecular weight to get absorbed into the bloodstream and this is the only form of Modified Citrus Pectin to be proven to be absorbed. Dr. Eliaz noted that there are well over 50 published papers using PectaSol-C in the fields of cancer, congestive heart failure, kidney disease, liver disease, lung disease, immunity, and in neuroinflammation.  The plaques in the brain that are seen with patients with Alzheimer’s Disease have 10-20 times more Galectin-3 than normal brain tissue.  High dose PectaSol-C promotes better memory and better mental function. 

32:25  PectaSol-C has been found to be beneficial for patients with prostate cancer by naturally blocking Galectin-3.  PectaSol-C can be used as an adjuvant to surgery, chemo, radiation, and to hormonal therapy.  It has been specifically studies in cases of biochemical relapse where the patient has had their prostate removed through either surgery or radiation.  If the PSA level starts to rise again, then it’s not from the prostate, so it must be from the cancer coming back. There are at least published studies on such patients showing an 80% response rate, with a multi-center trial in Israel currently being conducted.  Once the PSA starts to rise again, usually 80% will be found to have metastatic disease within 6 months, whereas of those taking PectaSol-C, only 25% will have metastatic disease within 6 months.  Dr. Eliaz pointed out that when it comes to treatment for metastatic cancer, a given treatment like hormonal therapy for prostate cancer, is typically only going to work for a certain period of time, so if the Modified Citrus Pectin can stop the PSA from going up or even reverse it, it is potentially having an anti-cancer effect and at least it may delay the time before hormonal therapy needs to be started.  Dr. Eliaz said that on average, we see a slowdown of progression of prostate cancer by at least 18 months, which means giving these men with metastatic prostate cancer at least 18 months of quality, additional life.  He noted that he will be presenting these results at a big oncological conference in November. And this is a treatment with no side effects and in fact it often improves the quality of life, compared to the impotence, the loss of bone density, metabolic syndrome, and the damage to the heart that can occur from hormonal suppression.

38:18  Modified Citrus Pectin has been shown to help bind heavy metals like lead. There are studies showing that Modified Citrus Pectin can reduce lead levels in children with toxic lead levels in China.  Dr. Eliaz has a product that combines the Modified Citrsu Pectin (MCP) with alginate from seaweed specifically for detoxing heavy metals. MCP and alginate together bind to uranium and help to remove it, which was just published a few weeks ago in a peer reviewed journal: Modified citrus pectin/Alginate dietary supplement increased fecal excretion of uranium: a family.  MCP contains contains a side structure called  Rhamnogalacturonan II, which helps to bind to heavy metals and is an important immune enhancer.  Rhamnogalacturonan II is also the active compound in mistletoe, which is used by some Integrative oncologists to treat cancer.

41:39  Modified Citrus Pectin can help with congestive heart failure and it can be used safely with other medications, though it should be taken at a different time of the day. The only exception is if you have extreme kidney failure, such as stage 4B or stage 5, then you may want to take only 5 grams because you have to be careful with your potassium.  Harvard is currently conducting an independent study using PectaSol-C with patients with hypertension and signs of congestive failure to see if it prevents the fibrosis associated with congestive heart failure.  There is as yet no other anti-fibrotic medication for heart disease.  It is also able to reverse aortic stenosis. There are two types of congestive heart failure: 1. there is systolic congestive heart failure, where the heart gets too large and becomes like a rubber band that is not contracting.  Digoxin and better blockers can help these patients live longer. 2. the more deadly form is diastolic congestive failure where the ejection fraction is preserved and the heart becomes stiffer and stiffer and 37% are dead within one year.  This is like having a heart of stone.  This is the type that Modified Citrus Pectin can help with and fortunately it can also help with the kidney and liver problems that are often associated with this type of heart failure.

53:35  Modified Citrus Pectin can also help with neurodegenerative conditions like Alzheimer’s Disease.  One of the factors stimulating brain inflammation are the lipopolysaccharides (LPS) secreted by bacteria and the inflammation leads to damage to the neurons.  Here is a long quote from Dr. Elias that provides some information about Modified Citrus Pectin and neurological diseases and it also shows his incredible sense of humanity and morality that often comes through when he speaks: 

When you give our Modified citrus pectin, you bring it almost totally to normal. It’s crazy, because remember it’s not the injury, it’s the inflammatory response that causes the damage. We know now that even the nervous system can repair itself. Each of our cells in the bodies, individual cells hasn’t been with us, if I’m going to be 60 soon, my cells haven’t been with me for 60 years. They are changing all the time, but they are getting the message from the previous generation, right. Our cells are multi-generational within our body. Our body is multi-generational within everybody that made us in the past.  The past affects the present, and affects the future. And not to get too complicated, the future affects the present, but I don’t want to go into it now. I teach it in meditation retreat, and you experience it. Ourselves are programmed that the hips to cause pain in the joint, right?  When once cell dies then another cell comes up. Well, we can change the programming. Galectin-3 will help into it. That’s truly why mind body medicine is unlimited. That’s one of my favorite sentences is, “Not everybody will be a miracle, but everybody can be a miracle, and this is a choice we have.”  There always is another beautiful sentence in Judaism. How to translate, it says, “Everything is known, expected, but we still have the choice.” The expectation is a genetic movement, the habits, the cells giving messages to each other. The choices, we can take a different highway, and that’s where Galectin-3 is so important to understand it and address it.”

                          



Dr. Isaac Eliaz is an MD and acupuncturist and he has been a pioneer in the field of integrative medicine since the early 1980’s, with a specific focus on cancer, immune health, detoxification, and mind-body medicine. He is the founder and Medical Director of Amitabha Medical Clinic and Healing Center in Santa Rosa, CA.  He is the developer of PectaSol-C, the only researched form of Modified Citrus Pectin and other nutritional supplements which are available through EcoNugenics 

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 and also weight loss, as well as sports chiropractic work by calling his Santa Monica office 310-395-3111 or go to www.drweitz.com.



 

Podcast Transcript

Dr. Weitz:            This is Dr. Ben Weitz with the Rational Wellness Podcast, bringing you the cutting edge information on health and nutrition from the latest scientific research, and by interviewing the top experts in the field. Please subscribe to the Rational Wellness Podcast on iTunes and YouTube, and sign up for my free ebook on my website, by going to drweitz.com. Let’s get started on your road to better health.  Hello, Rational Wellness Podcasters. Thank you so much for joining me again today. For those of you who enjoy listening to the Rational Wellness Podcast, please go to the Apple podcast app on your phone, and give us a ratings and review. That way more people will find out about their Rational Wellness Podcast. Also there is a video version on my YouTube page, my Weitz Chiro YouTube page. If you go to my website, you can find a full transcript and detailed show notes as well.

                                So today I’m very excited to be able to interview Dr. Isaac Eliaz. Who has some very interesting information to bring us about a protein in the body that is an inflammatory marker, that you may not have heard of, that’s involved in quite a number of chronic diseases, including arthritis, heart disease, diabetes, chronic kidney disease, liver fibrosis, and cancer.   This inflammatory marker is Galectin-3. Increased levels of Galectin-3 are associated with fibrotic changes, associated with many of these chronic conditions, including heart failure, aortic aneurism. It’s also associated with increased risk of quite a number of forms of cancer, including bladder cancer, breast, colon and prostate cancer among other forms.

                                Dr. Elias has developed a very special nutritional compound, a particular form of Modified citrus pectin, known as PectaSol-C, that can block and inhibit this inflammatory protein, thus halting the progression, and even reversing these chronic diseases. Dr. Isaac Eliaz is a medical doctor and acupuncturist, and he’s been a pioneer in the field of integrative medicine since the early 1980s. He’s a very respected researcher, formulator, author and clinician. He also has a busy private practice in Sebastopol California, The Amitabha Medical Clinic, with a focus on cancer, lime disease, and other chronic conditions. Dr. Eliaz, thank you for joining me today.

Dr. Eliaz:               Thank you. Thank you Ben for talking to you again. I always enjoy our conversation and our meetings in person.

Dr. Weitz:            Yes, yes, yes. I do as well. Can you tell us about this inflammatory protein in the body that plays a role in the development of so many of the chronic diseases that are the major killers today?

Dr. Eliaz:               Of course, I’d be delighted. I’ve been involved with Galectin-3 research and clinical substantiation for 25 years. Galectin-3 is what we call a carbohydrate binding protein. It’s a lectin, it’s a protein that binds carbohydrates. Although often unknown there are well over 8,000 published papers, there are more than 50 published papers on PectaSol Modified citrus pectin, the specific modified pectin that I developed.  What’s so important about Galectin-3?   It’s really an unending evolving story, especially now that I’m working on a book on Galectin-3 that will be out in a few months. I realized that Galectin-3 is much more than an inflammatory instigator than a marker. Galectin-3 is actually a survival protein, which means it gives the body a signal that it’s under survival stress. Really when we look at health and disease, and it’s a very important concept. We people like you and me who are involved more in the wholistic view of health recognize inflammation as a driving force of almost every chronic disease.

                                It’s interesting, in medical school they still don’t teach inflammation as a culprit. They can check it in certain diseases, it doesn’t fall into the algorithm unfortunately.  Unfortunately, the news that I have to break is that really inflammation is not the cause of any disease, inflammation is a response, it’s a response to a survival signal.  Now, even in my book and when I talk in medical conferences, I don’t address the question, what causes survival drive? Which is so important. That’s why we are here. I teach it more in my meditation, and healing retreat, open heart medicine. The survival mode is part of our so deeply ingrained fixation on things that’s unchangeable, it’s permanent. When things change for us, we feel like we are losing our ground, we are losing our stability, we are losing our survival, because if things change, one day we are not going to survive.  This dialogue, when the survival urge comes on, that’s where our problems start in every single disease. It’s a fundamental drive that moves us from health to disease. So addressing Galectin-3 is a movement from survival to harmony, from survival to health. This kind of survival reaction has many systems in the body that it works in. One thing that we know so well is the sympathetic response. The sympathetic response, the fear, flight, fright is a survival response. It saves all of us.

                                It saved my grandmother the holocaust, that’s why I’m here, but it has a cost, because it puts us into a survival stress mode. All our stress signals, all our repair systems turn on, and our way to repair, our way to respond is through inflammation. If we can make the inflammation be there for a few seconds and stop, that’s great. Unfortunately, once Galectin-3 is turned on, the inflammation keeps going. The end result is the fibrosis, degeneration, cancer, more aggressive cancer, more aggressive congestive heart failure, more aggressive liver disease, more aggressive kidney disease.  All of these are substantiated. In many of these I am the one who is developing the clinical trials. Addressing Galectin-3 is what we call really an upstream molecule. It is called medically alarming. It sounds the alarm, the problem we cannot turn off the alarm. Our job is to turn off the alarm, spiritually, psychologically, emotionally, physically.  All of these highways turn on the same protein. The same protein on the cell membrane, and outside the cell creates biochemical changes, stops normal sugar metabolism, puts that into a stress response intracellularly, that can lead to diabetes, to autoimmune disease, and to cancer.  What’s so beautiful about it and amazing is that Galectin-3, which is a structure that has this kind of, it’s like it’s amino acid part, and I should have a drawing next time, I will, and the part that binds the carbohydrates.

Dr. Weitz:            Right.

Dr. Eliaz:               When different carbohydrates combine Ben it’s amazing, and we call this the sugar coat. Based on which carbohydrates bind you will get a different response. You will get angiogenesis, you will get inflammation, you will get escape from immune responses that cancer uses.  You’ll get overstimulation of the immune response with the cytokines that cause damage like IL-6, IL-4, IL-8. The Galectin-3 is the backbone that allows all the different reactions to happen. A small change in the levels of Galectin-3 will lead to dramatic change on levels of other inflammatory compounds downstream, below it, and will lead to severe damage. That’s why addressing it is really one of the most important if not the most dietary supplement regimen we have to take, because it’s getting stimulated all the time in an inappropriate way.

Dr. Weitz:            It’s interesting, you are talking about cell survival, this primitive mechanism, because there is a lot of talk these days, especially in the Functional Medicine world about anti-aging and using things like fasting, and intermittent fasting, and super low calories, and that’s to stimulate the same survival mechanism, to stimulate some of these anti-aging mechanisms, like clearing out old dead cells et cetera. It’s kind of interesting that that’s-

Dr. Eliaz:               Well, actually it’s a great point. It works in the same mechanism. What happens, when we eat sugars, too many sugars, we get less sensitivity to insulin receptors on the cells, right? Insulin resistance.

Dr. Weitz:            Yes.

Dr. Eliaz:               Galectin-3 in an inflammatory environment, or if there is too much Galectin-3 that causes inflammation, will block insulin receptors. Intracellularly, something called AMPK, adenosine monophosphate kinase, that causes normal sugar metabolism gets shut down. Then we move into the MTOR-1 pathway, it’s the glycolysis, which means, even in the presence of oxygen we can just relax. The cell goes into crisis, and feels like it needs to produce energy very quickly, causing a cytosis, and causing eventually cell death.  If you think about cancer, what is cancer?  Cancer is a cell in the body that decided not to be a part of a community of 50 trillion cells. It got into a survival mode and created its own community.  But it isolated its community. How did it isolate its community? With Galectin-3. It creates a latis formation, the coating, the biofilm, the bacteria use, or the virus, or the Lyme spirochete used to hide from the immune system, it’s all using Galectin-3.  Then what it does, it creates a different biochemical microenvironment, an acidotic, an anaerobic microenvironment, an environment that is good for cancer to grow, for infections to grow, for diabetes to develop, all the same. When you fast, you shut down this mechanism, the cell gets a rest. It’s not fighting anymore. The MTOR-1 gets blocked, this pathway of emergency, because we are getting energy through fats. We reestablish the AMPK, we reestablish the ability of the cell mitochondria function to really do it.  The signal that really starts it very very early on is Galectin-3.  So of course just like we are fasting or doing intermittent fasting, in the same way, when we take Galectin-3, we create these very important responses on an ongoing basis. That’s where you see really addressing Galectin-3 is at the top of anti-aging. I’ve mentioned it already in A4M in 2011, and hopefully in another five years they will invite me again, so I can actually tell them, “Okay guys, let me show you why it’s so important.” It takes 15, 20 years for an idea to … It’s my life story.

Dr. Weitz:            Absolutely. It’s very common. It takes a long time for a new idea to be incorporated into common medical practice. Galectin-3, this is a thought I had is lectin. Right?

Dr. Eliaz:               Right.

Dr. Weitz:            There is a prominent Functional Medicine doctor who has been telling everybody to avoid eating any foods that contain lectins, even things like tomatoes, since lectins are inflammatory and harmful to our health.  Is that intersect with the fact that Galectin-3 is a lectin, and would eating a low lectin diet be helpful to lower Galectin-3 levels, or is that a separate thing?

Dr. Eliaz:               Lectins do fall, they are carbohydrate binding protein, and they support everything that I said that it’s important for people who are inflammatory having a low lectin diet makes sense, if it fits with everything else, what you need, it’s very individualized. It’s a difference between needing to catch one let’s say specific fish in the ocean that really causes the problem, and the throwing the net everywhere, and hoping the right fish falls in.  The real issue is Galectin-3.  What we see when we started this research in 1995, when the first paper in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, the number one free clinical oncology journal from the National Cancer Institute showed that when you give Modified Citrus Pectin to mice that were injected aggressive prostate cancer cells, it prevents metastasis.  This was the first time ever a drug, any compound was shown to do it.  I like to tell the story, if this was a drug, believe me, it would have been a multi-billion dollar drug. It was just a unique modification from the citrus fruits.

                                Since then I made a lot of discoveries, I discovered the role of Modified Citrus Pectin in blocking Galectin-3 and preventing inflammation, and fibrosis, in chelating heavy metals, and enhancing the immune system. And suddenly we realized Galectin-3 is so much bigger than what we thought because of its regulatory effect. Nature has given us such a simple solution with Modified Citrus Pectin. In the clinic I use more extreme measures, I use something, in the Amitabha Clinic in Santa Rosa. I use Therapeutic Apheresis, which is similar to dialysis.  It’s formerly used for LDL apheresis for heart disease, and interesting, now we are getting some interest in chronic kidney disease, which I’ve already been researching for many years. When we pull these inflammatory compounds out, including about 30% of Galectin-3, we see an improvement in all inflammatory conditions, better response to cancer, and improvements across the line in all degenerative diseases. Often, you would say miracles in the medical standards, and they happen very often, if the person has inflammatory compounds, you remove them artificially.  That’s an extreme way of doing it. If we supply the body with a natural safe, uniquely modified fiber, like PectaSol-C, Modified Citrus Pectin,  you will get all the benefits that are associated with blocking Galectin-3. Often, people will ask, “Don’t we need Galectin-3?”

Dr. Weitz:            Right, I mean, isn’t inflammation a beneficial factor for helping repair tissues from injury and also in helping us fight infections?

Dr. Eliaz:              Right. That’s a great question. So Galectin-3 has two different roles. It has the role intracellularly, inside the cell, whereas part of its survival role, what do you want to do inside the cell? You want to make sure the cell develops normally. It helps embryogenesis of the cell. This Galectin-3 inside the cell, inside the nucleus, we don’t get to it. We are interested in the Galectin-3 that is outside the cell. It is on the membrane, it is creating the interaction between the cells in the body, because if we take a deep breath and we look back, each of us is a miracle.  We have 50 trillion cells functioning differently.  All of them started from the same few eight cells of the blastula.  While they have differentiated and taken different roles, they started from the same place.  They communicate with each other.  We know that there is a communication network in the body that tells the cells what to do. This is a harmony.  As long as it’s like this, the cells communicate through the extracellular space.

                             When Galectin-3 isolates a cell for some reason, we get the abnormal response. If you need an inflammatory response locally, the body will still excrete Galectin-3 and create the repair. The problem is that once you’ve had an inflammatory response it stays off.  A great example is sepsis.  Sepsis is an infection in the blood. Sepsis is life threatening, 600,000 people die a year from it. If you don’t die from the infection you die from the inflammatory response.  While in the past we thought that Galectin-3 is a chronic instigator, we are doing some research in animals, we are showing within 20 minutes Galectin-3 spikes in the blood, and starts mobilizing the immune system to the infectious site. Now, it did its job. After some time it starts being used by the infectious agent to escape from the immune system. To cause immune anergy . The body now is, because of the Galectin-3 is an alarming, it creates an extreme inflammatory response that will kill us. If we can shut down the inflammatory response, some of the research I’m doing now with Therapeutic Apheresis, because it has to be in a hospital ICU setting, I think it can save hundreds of thousands of lives.  The beauty of Galectin-3 where it’s needed, it’s still going to be excreted by the macrophage, by the cells, but the Modified Citrus Pectin will prevent its long term damage, because remember it just has to give the signal, and then it has to let the body communicate. That’s what’s so amazing about us. It really causes us to move from harmony to survival with a war. Nobody wins in a war. There is always damage, always collateral damage. Right?

Dr. Weitz:            Yeah.

Dr. Eliaz:              It’s unfortunately a relevant image. If there is harmony, everybody wins.

Dr. Weitz:            Right.  Explain how Galectin-3 creates some of these chronic inflammatory conditions in fibrosis and how does it play a role in cancer as well?

Dr. Eliaz:              I’ll be happy to explain. I can send you some slides if you want to put them on. If you look at one of my favorite slides where Galectin-3 is in the middle, Galectin-3 initiates multiple pathways, it initiates an inflammatory pathway by stimulating macrophage to become inflammatory, and then they excrete IL-6, IL-8, TNF alpha, and cause ongoing inflammatory damage. For example, rheumatoid arthritis. It also stimulates the fibrotic pathway, also through TGF beta, and causes fibroblast, myofibroblast  stimulation and damage to normal functioning tissues, and muscles become hard.  For example in congestive heart failure, if your Galectin-3 is at 17.8, 12.5% of the patients will die in one year. If your Galectin-3 is over 25.6, not such a big difference. Having a fibrotic process, the heart is becoming stiff.  37% of the patients will die in one year. 12.5 compared to 37% in one year. Why?  Because it causes fibrosis.

                                In the cancer environment, it will cause chemotaxis, it will call angiogenesis cells to come and create new blood vessels. It will stimulate the cancer to be more aggressive. Why? With the same discussion, metabolic discussion we discussed that we want to prevent with fasting. It causes an abnormal intracellular metabolism in the cancer cell, the Warburg Effect. The cancer cell becomes more aggressive.  For example the PET scan, the sugar uptake goes higher, and as a result you get more aggressive cancer, both on the primary tumor, and in the metastatic process. For example, in the multi-symptoms trials we are doing on our Modified Citrus Pectin, in biochemical recurrence of prostate cancer. The prostate cancer was removed, there was no PSA. PSA starts coming back, you know it’s cancer.  Often in a PET scan you can see uptake of radioactive glucose in the prostate bed. We can see over time that over 70% of the patients will benefit either by slowing down the process, by stopping it, and for many of them by improving the process. This multi-symptom trials, we have presented some of the data already at ASCO, we are continuing the presentation on 59 patients. We’ll publish the different aspects, including a long term 18 months follow up soon. We are showing, not only clear benefit, but we are showing that the metabolic effect is getting better. That’s amazing over many years, because we are reorganizing the system from a survival fight, to a harmony health.

Dr. Weitz:            Explain what that means exactly.

Dr. Eliaz:             It means that once we are in a state of harmony there is less inflammation. There is less fibrosis, there is less cell tissue, there is better blood suppl, there is better oxygen coming into the tissue. There is less oxidative stress, right?  There is more antioxidants working.  There are no … Glucose is more balanced, insulin doesn’t spike. Metabolically the immune system is working well, Galectin-3 completely shuts down the immune response, completely. That’s why it plays an important role with immunotherapy in cancer.  We are moving into a place where the body is  more in a parasympathetic harmony state, and we know that this is a state that promotes longevity. The survival of the species, we think that Darwin said that the toughest are going to survive, but really what he said. He said, society that are more compassionate, that are more supportive of each others are the ones that are going to survive. Why? We still have a survival urge inside, but now instead of one cell surviving, our whole body as a system survives together. Suddenly we realize, if my neighbors, if my friend, if my enemies are healthier, and we respect each other, and we open our heart to other, all of us are going to do well.  We know, and then what happens? Everybody gets healthier. We know now in double blind clinical trial, that compassion based distant healing, when people don’t know about it, creates a beneficial healthy effect  on the recipients, without them knowing that it’s being done on them. When we take their difficulties, when we take in their negative emotion that will cause a stress response, and we transform and send them love and compassion. Of course, it’s affecting us, there are many studies, because instead of a negative emotion creating a sympathetic survival, Galectin-3 mode, it creates a relaxation, and then our telomeres get longer, everything gets better. This is well established.

                                By reacting with compassion, instead of fighting, not only we affect us, we affect others. Naturally  if each one will do it to each other, we’ll have longevity. This process is built within our body. It’s what our heart does, and it’s what every cell does when they are  in communication. What causes us not to react? We feel unsafe, we feel threatened. When the cell gets a threatening signal, what is threatening? It’s an injury, emotional, psychological, spiritual, physical, we respond, nervous system, sympathetic response. We know it’s a devastating response, blood pressure goes up, vascular damage, endocrine damage.  I mean, this is all news. But we also respond metabolically. When the sympathetic response goes out of control, we can take 10 deep breaths, it gets better. When the metabolic system goes out of response, and we get a chain of events, it’s often irreversible. Think about it, you know from your work with people. Somebody gets an ankle injury, and they just don’t treat it properly. Then the hip goes out, and the lower back goes up, and the knee goes out, and the upper back goes up. Now the sympathetic response, the blood pressure goes up. Suddenly they are going to die in 10 years, instead of 50 years, the whole thing was the ankle. We see this every day, right?

Dr. Weitz:            Absolutely.

Dr. Eliaz:               If we could just heal the ankle, get out of survival mode, and the body would relax. These reactions are happening on a cellular level, on the membrane level all the time, that’s my message, because my passion is really meditation and healing. While my healing open heart medicine is how to use the heart to create harmony, it’s fascinating for me that my research career has discovered the protein that does it.  I’m coming to it from a research now with NIH grant, with double blind clinical trials with Harvard, and I’m coming from it as a well trained Buddhist meditator who teaches meditation, and healing.  It’s all connected.  Our membrane decides, are we going to be in good communication with our neighbor?  What happens is that the extracellular space is less oxidized. There is better nourishment, the tendon of the ankle is going to heal faster. Fascinating.

Dr. Weitz:            That’s great.

Dr. Eliaz:              Galectin-3 is like the message, and that’s what I tell people. You got to use Modified Citrus Pectin, it’s crazy not to use it. I tell this a lot Ben, if you look at my charts 10 years ago, even if it’s my product, I used Modified Citrus Pectin, but not on every patient.  It wasn’t the first supplement I wrote. There were other things we were interested in.  Now that I recognize what Galectin-3 does, and how we got to address it, there is not a person that shouldn’t take Modified Citrus Pectin.  I mean, the PectaSol is a universal supplement, not because it’s mine, because part of my ethics and philosophy, I look at what I do, I recommend to make sure there is no personal interest.  I’m not doing it out of a personal interest, that’s a basic motivation of an open heart.  I realized, nature is giving us something which is not perfect, but it allows us to bring harmony, and that’s why while we were researching cancer with Modified citrus pectin, suddenly we realized, “Wow, blood pressure is going down.  Memory is getting better.  Joint pain is going away. Autoimmune diseases are getting better.” How is it possible?  Now we know, 25 years later, the world is smarter.  I got a little bit lucky, I figured it out a little bit earlier, so I have the discoveries for it, but my role is to share it with others. It’s really a gift from nature.

Dr. Weitz:            Can you explain how your version of Modified Citrus Pectin is different? Because there are other products on the market that are named Modified Citrus Pectin, but yours is designed in a very specific way, correct?

Dr. Eliaz:              Yes. Modified Citrus Pectin is a generic name. Every pectin needs to be modified when it’s taken out of the peel. PectaSol-C is a very specific Modified Citrus Pectin.

Dr. Weitz:            And it’s coming out of the peel of the citrus fruit?

Dr. Eliaz:              Exactly, and of course, we have all the patent and discovery, because we made the discoveries. As it is in a capitalist competitive society it’s called borrowed science. People are cannibalizing my 25 years of work. It’s okay, I just have to do better, and put out the message. It’s built in a very specific structure of molecular weight, size, while preserving its unique structure so it gets absorbed into the bloodstream.  For example, we are the only Modified Citrus Pectin in fact, the only pectin where there is a proof, using special antibodies that our Modified citrus pectin gets absorbed into the bloodstream.  We are the only ones who have proof with antibodies. You can assume others may get absorbed, but we know that we do it. We know the half life, but this Modified Citrus Pectin PectaSol, is now much bigger than my work. It’s being researched by multiple academic and medical institutes all over the world with in average one paper a month being published on it.  We are well over 50 papers by now in the field of cancer, in the field of congestive heart failure, in the field of kidney disease, in the field of liver disease, in the field of lung disease, in the field of immunity, and very important in neuroinflammation.  Neuroinflammation is driven by Galectin-3. Very important for people to understand.  The Alzheimer plaque is 10 to 20 times more Galectin-3 than normal brain tissue. We are seeing the effect with memory, with better mental function when you take high dose Modified Citrus Pectin.  Specifically it’s really PectaSol-C, all these 50 papers are on this one specific Modified Citrus Pectin.

Dr. Weitz:            Let’s start with cancer, prostate cancer in specific, where are we right now in terms of the research, in terms of the potential for Modified Citrus Pectin, PectaSol-C, to prevent prostate cancer and to be a benefit with patients who have prostate cancer including metastatic disease?

Dr. Eliaz:              The mechanism of Galectin-3 affects prostate cancer through different stages. It’s also important to emphasize now that because of its role in modifying Galectin-3, and exposing the cancer cell cell to the immune system, naturally blocking Galectin-3 with Modified Citrus Pectin is a remarkable adjuvant. It can be used with surgery, with chemo, with radiation, with hormonal therapy. We’ve shown a lot of this, in different in vitro animal studies.  Our main study is biochemical relapse, because biochemical relapse is a great model. There is no more prostate, there is no PSA, it was taken out either through surgery or through radiation. Now PSA starts coming back, it’s not from the prostate, there is no prostate, it’s from the cancer. The rate of increase of PSA becomes very indicative of the progression of cancer. We’ve already published two previous studies, a pilot on seven patients, and another study on 10 and 12 patients in a good journal showing 80% response.

                            Now we are doing a multicenter trial in Israel with four or five hospitals participating. There is the remarkable oncologist Dr. Daniel Katzman, who is a urological oncologist in Israel said, WhatsApped me, he said, “You know Isaac,” he he says, “When I started this I was skeptic, now I’m such a believer. I’m so excited about what you guys are doing.” He’s really helping us to study it in different cancers. What we are seeing in this group, once the PSA starts going up, most of them, 80% of them will continue to go up, and eventually will develop metastatic disease. Instead of having in six months 80% of them develop, we have only 25% of them develop.

Dr. Weitz:            What’s the PSA stats? The PSA is indicative of prostate cancer cells being somewhere else in the body, is that correct?

Dr. Eliaz:              Yes, once there is no prostate absolutely, yes.

Dr. Weitz:            If there is any PSA rise it means it’s already coming back?

Dr. Eliaz:              Exactly.

Dr. Weitz:            Okay.

Dr. Eliaz:              You want to time when to start the hormonal therapy, because any therapy you start, it’s like a sync lock, it’s going to work for a certain period of time. With Modified citrus pectin we are seeing in the study it’s delaying the need for us to start conventional treatment with side effects. It’s really interesting to see what can we learn from it, why is it so significant? Because think about it Ben. Here we have … There was cancer in the body, it was treated locally and it started to come back.  The body theoretically can kill the cancer cells, but it’s not able to, right? We are allowing with the use of Modified citrus pectin, we are allowing the body itself to either slow the process, the PSA doubling time slows down, which means it goes up slower. We are allowing the PSA to completely flatten, stop, or we are allowing the PSA to even get better, because we are affecting the primary tumor, which we are also seeing in PET scans, which we will publish later. Interesting, we are seeing this effect on an ongoing basis. We are seeing it after 18 months. We’ll be presenting in November on a big oncological urological conference.

                                We will show a significance slowing down in lack of progression, even after 18 months. If I delayed a treatment that has an x amount of time of effectiveness by 18 months, I have added 18 months of net life, of high quality life. Not only there are no side effects, but when we look at people’s report they say, “By the way my energy is better, my arthritis is better, my memory is better. I feel better.” These are the side effects of Modified citrus pectin compared to impotence, and bone density loss, and metabolic syndrome, and damage to the heart that you are getting with hormonal suppression. It’s kind of a good deal.

Dr. Weitz:            Is there any reason to cycle the Modified citrus pectin instead of taking it continuously for a period of time?

Dr. Eliaz:             That’s a great question, not often asked, and very wise. We cycle often hormonal therapy. The cell doesn’t get resistant to it, but you don’t do it in the case of Modified citrus pectin. Because the Galectin-3 is never useful, it’s like a trigger.  It’s so upstream, but it’s always good to take a break on supplements like a weekend, or a day a month. I often tell people just before the new moon take a day or two off.  Let the body recalibrate, or between seasons, equinox and solstice. Definitely, but with Modified Citrus Pectin, people ask me who need to take it, I say, “Anybody that’s breathing.”  We have studies on Modified citrus pectin significantly reducing lead level, in children with toxic lead levels in China, and increasing urinary secretion, showing it does get absorbed. We are bombarded with heavy metal, we are bombarded with toxins, and Galectin-3 plays a role in allowing these toxins to hide by creating these shelters. Very important for detoxification Modified Citrus Pectin is essential.

Dr. Weitz:            Can Modified citrus pectin actually bind to heavy metals, or is its role in reducing the inflammation and breaking up the biofilms to make it easier for the body to get rid of the heavy metals?

Dr. Eliaz:             Pectin in general, and specifically our specific Modified Citrus Pectin, with its specific structure is one of the most powerful binders of heavy metals, especially lead.  Also, we just published a paper on the ability of our Modified Citrus Pectin together with alginate to bind to uranium. It was just published about two weeks ago in the peer review paper. Why?

Dr. Weitz:            Is there some controversy over its ability to bind heavy metals?

Dr. Eliaz:               No, none, zero, because it’s a group called polyuronides, just like alginate in seaweed. Polyuronides are known to bind heavy metals. It’s well established in the literature. We have now shown it in I think three or four different clinical trials or case reports, in decreasing mercury total body burden, increasing urinary excretion. These are studies we’ve done with the USDA. The USDA helped us to learn the structure, Modified citrus pectin has a side structure called Rhamnogalacturonan II. Rhamnogalacturonan II can get absorbed into the bloodstream, is an important immune enhancer, and can kill eight heavy metals. Rhamnogalacturonan II is the active compound in mistletoe.

Dr. Weitz:            Interesting.

Dr. Eliaz:              10% of our Modified citrus pectin, our specific one, PectaSol-C is Rhamnogalacturonan II, we published it. That’s probably one of the mechanisms for the immune enhancement. We did some studies on immune enhancement, and we tested different medicinal mushrooms. This was in 2006, around the time I think. We also decided to test Modified Citrus Pectin. Sure enough, we published only on our Modified citrus pectin, it was so much more effective. We know the mechanism, it doesn’t stimulate something, it allows the body’s immune system to function better. Again, there is harmony.

Dr. Weitz:            Interesting. For those who are unaware, mistletoe extract is sometimes used by some functional medicine oncologists in combating metastatic cancer.

Dr. Eliaz:              Yeah, Viscum album, it’s very big in Europe for centuries.

Dr. Weitz:            Let’s talk about the use of PectaSol-C in combating heart failure. Now, I saw one paper where it was used compared to the leading medication for heart failure, and I spoke to one cardiologist, an integrative cardiologist who said, “Look, we know that this other medication is beneficial. It would be risky to use Modified Citrus Pectin.” Is that true? Could it be used in combination with the other medications that are used?

Dr. Eliaz:              Modified citrus pectin, the only issue sometimes is Modified Citrus Pectin is buffered with potassium and sodium. It’s a ratio of a four to one, which is what we have been through, for potassium and sodium. If you have extreme kidney failure, if you are pre-dialysis, stage 4B or stage 5, fluid retention, you may want to take only five grams a day, because you have to be careful in your potassium.

Dr. Weitz:            So the dosage is, the PectaSol-C ranges from five to say 20 grams a day, is that right?

Dr. Eliaz:              Mainly five to 15, if the Galectin-3 is very high, above 20, 25, you can go up to 20. We just finished a double blind clinical trial with Harvard in hypertensive patients to see if we can prevent congestive heart failure. 6 months, 30 subjects, a small group, even if it’s beneficial in small groups sometimes they will say statistically it’s not, because it’s a small group, nobody … But the group in Harvard, it’s an independent study. We are not involved we just supplied our product PectaSol-C. They are looking at some fibrotic proteins, they are waiting for the results. One thing we know, there were no side effects. It was well tolerated, both the placebo and the active. So actually-

Dr. Weitz:            Are these patients after a mild cardiac infarction or? 

Dr. Eliaz:              No, they are more patient with hypertension or with signs of congestive heart failure. We know that it can definitely be used in combination with other medication, or other regimens, you just want to take it a little bit away, half an hour away, especially away from statin drugs, which are not a greater supporter of, unless lipoprotein there is very low.  What happens, there is yet no antifibrotic medication for heart disease. I mean, Aldactone, which is an aldosterone blocker indirectly affects Galectin-3. In studies in animals they show that Aldactone, Spironolactone, and our Modified citrus pectin had similar effects on the congestive heart failure, but only Modified citrus pectin was beneficial for the hypertension, and was able to reverse their Aortic stenosis, to reverse the narrowing of the main artery of the body.  There are about 19 or 20 papers now on our Modified citrus pectin in heart disease, in kidney disease, in circulatory diseases. There is all of them showing positive results. There is one paper, where the researchers in Australia used a different Modified citrus pectin for ensuring that it’s the only paper where there were no results. This is what it takes, one drop of lemon to ruin the whole bucket of milk, all your research.  I’m sure the cardiologists will jump on this one paper.  Nobody will pay attention that it’s not the right Modified citrus pectin.  I have to say, I wrote a letter to the editor, and the journal did publish it later.  I’m writing some bigger peer review papers to explain that not all Modified citrus pectins are alike.

Dr. Weitz:            It sounds similarly to the story about Niacin, where somebody, there was a number of studies showing benefits, and somebody did a study using a product that contained Niacin, and also another drug that blocked the effects of the Niacin, where you get … Blocked the flushing effect of the Niacin. Then that study showed that there was a negative benefit. They weren’t using Niacin, they were using this combination drug that had this other effect.

Dr. Eliaz:             It’s common. But it’s an example to show why people should really use the PectaSol-C.  Again, we are very committed, we are doing so much research in it.  In congestive heart failure, what happens is, there are two kinds of congestive failure, there is what you call systolic congestive heart failure, where the heart becomes like a rubber band that doesn’t contract well anymore.  It gets expanded too big, the muscles contract in such a method. So they have to overlap in order to contract.

Dr. Weitz:            Right.

Dr. Eliaz:              When the heart gets too big, the overlap gets smaller, and the heart loses its muscle power. Again, digoxin, you give better blockers, and these people can live for a longer time. What happensis that the percentage of blood that is pumped out goes down, because the rubber band is not contracting. We can have the contraction.  The most deadly congestive heart failure, which is diastolic, is called the ejection fraction preserved congestive heart failure.  What happens? The heart still contracts, but instead of the heart contracting like this, it becomes stiffer, stiffer, stiffer.  And then it’s still contracting at the same percentage, but very little blood comes in, so it becomes like a rock, just like a rock, and that’s the deadliest heart failure, where in three years 100% are dead pretty much. That’s a heart failure when I mentioned that 37% will die in one year.  Modified citrus pectin helps this kind of heart failure.  It’s not the same, a person can have two kinds heart failures at the same time. If we can prevent the fibrosis, we’ll prevent the issue now.  Here is the bad news, the Galectin-3 which is making this worse may be coming from the kidneys, may be coming from the liver, may be coming from arthritis, may be coming from stress.  It’s making the heart worse.

                                The Modified citrus pectin doesn’t say, “Hi, I’m going only to the heart,” like specific medication. It helps all over. The concept of the  heart like stone, it’s a beautiful stone. There was a very famous Israeli poet, after the 67 war, when the wailing war was liberated–I’m staying away from political point of view. She wrote a song, and she said, “The hearts that are like stone. And there are stones like a heart.” Because so many people get emotional no matter what is your religious belief.  This heart of stone, this fibrosis, it’s a profound message, because our heart is built to take difficulties, and pain, clearly by breathing into the universe, and just nourish the body back. We are built to be compassionate, if we become like stones, we are not willing to share, we get ejection preserved congestive heart failure. That’s part of the survival.  It’s profound, it’s not like a new age thing, it’s the basis of the Buddhist approach of not accepting impermanence.  I think that’s the next level of medicine.  Looking at genetics, and pathways, functional medicine, it’s good, but it doesn’t get to the root.  The beauty is we have the biochemistry, we have the pathways, we have the physiology.  Nature at least at some capacity gave us a gift through Modified citrus pectin.

Dr. Weitz:            Fascinating. Arthritis, the potential benefits of Modified citrus pectin in preventing or treating arthritis.

Dr. Eliaz:               It is well established, especially in the more aggressive inflammatory arthritis, like rheumatoid arthritis, SLE. We are just about to start a study on Scleredema. It also has a benefit in osteoarthritis, and we showed a different in a double blind clinical trial, but the groups were very small, only 25. So statistically it wasn’t significant. It was very interesting.  We benefited 80%, but the placebo was 60%. Sometimes the way you put your questionnaire, what happened, there was a clear difference, but not enough to show statistical difference, so we are going to do a bigger study. There is a clear difference. We know the mechanism.

Dr. Weitz:            And osteoarthritis is the most common form of arthritis.

Dr. Eliaz:             People will tell you, I mean, I know from my own experience. I did a certain medical procedure, and I decided to go from five grams to 15 grams. Full dose.  Now I recommend 15 grams for everybody based on this.  What was amazing for me, my memory came back, it was the only thing I changed.  My memory came back like it wasn’t for at least five, seven years.  My back pains were gone, my joint pains got better, and I’m traveling a lot.  I realized that, “Wow, even if my Galectin-3 is lower, because of how I live.”  It went down from 17 when I was high in Tibet treating people, and I was under oxygen deprivation, even if it’s 11 or 12 it’s in a good range. I really never experience the amazing benefits until I went to 15 grams.

Dr. Weitz:            So is that what you recommend for patients with osteoarthritis?

Dr. Eliaz:             Yes, definitely, but I also recommend it … My maintenance dose, I mean, five grams will do something, but if you have any inflammatory complaints, experience a full dose of 15 grams. Seven and a half twice a day, of five grams twice a day, three times a day, and it’s very good to combine it with a probiotic.

Dr. Weitz:          Really? Why?

Dr. Eliaz:            Because it affects the microbiome.

Dr. Weitz:          Is that specifically for arthritis or for any condition?

Dr. Eliaz:            For any condition, because there is a whole role of … There are quite a few papers published about Modified citrus pectin showing its benefit in establishing a healthier biofilm, preventing aggressive bacteria from growing, and helping normal bacteria to acting well in the gut.

Dr. Weitz:          Interesting. What about combining Modified citrus pectin with like a glucosamine for joint problems?

Dr. Eliaz:           I think it’s an excellent idea, definitely.

Dr. Weitz:          I saw you speak recently, and you were highlighting the benefits of Modified citrus pectin for neurodegenerative conditions like Alzheimer’s Disease. Can you talk about that for-

Dr. Eliaz:            No, of course, because one of the stimulants that causes, it’s an inflammatory stimulant, it’s what really is excreted by bacteria, it’s called, different lipo-polysaccharides that’s causing nerve damage, and that really is a byproduct of such is they cause nerve damage. When we test … When they do animal tests that artificially create LPS surges, either by injecting LPS, or by creating an injury to the nervous system. You see an increase in LPS, you see an increase in Interleukin 6, the inflammatory.

                            When you give our Modified citrus pectin, you bring it almost totally to normal. It’s crazy, because remember it’s not the injury, it’s the inflammatory response that causes the damage. We know now that even the nervous system can repair itself. Each of our cells in the bodies, individual cells hasn’t been with us, if I’m going to be 60 soon, my cells haven’t been with me for 60 years. They are changing all the time, but they are getting the message from the previous generation, right. Our cells are multi-generational within our body. Our body is multi-generational within everybody that made us in the past.  The past affects the present, and affects the future. And not to get too complicated, the future affects the present, but I don’t want to go into it now. I teach it in meditation retreat, and you experience it. Ourselves are programmed that the hips to cause pain in the joint, right? When once cell dies then another cell comes up. Well, we can change the programming. Galectin-3 will help into it. That’s truly why mind body medicine is unlimited. That’s one of my favorite sentences is, “Not everybody will be a miracle, but everybody can be a miracle, and this is a choice we have.”  There always is another beautiful sentence in Judaism. How to translate, it says, “Everything is known, expected, but we still have the choice.” The expectation is a genetic movement, the habits, the cells giving messages to each other. The choices, we can take a different highway, and that’s where Galectin-3 is so important to understand it and address it.

Dr. Weitz:            Beautiful. That’s a great way to wrap this conversation. How can listeners and viewers find out more about your products, and find out more about you?

Dr. Eliaz:              They can visit dreliaz.org where there is a lot of valuable information, and health reports. They can also visit amitabhaclinic.com. When they go to my website they can click on Modified citrus pectin and it will give them specific information of course.

Dr. Weitz:            Awesome. Thank you so much for a great interview Dr. Eliaz.

Dr. Eliaz:              I always love talking to you. Once my book on Galectin-3 is out, hopefully in three months, four months, we can do another one, and I can specifically highlight some of these points.

Dr. Weitz:            Awesome, I look forward to that.

Dr. Eliaz:              Thank you so much. Thank you for the opportunity, take care. Hope to see you soon again.

Dr. Weitz:            Sounds good.