Dr. Weitz’s Health Crisis: Rational Wellness Podcast 411

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Dr. Ben Weitz discusses his Personal Health Crisis.

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Podcast Highlights

Dr. Ben Weitz is available for Functional Nutrition consultations specializing in Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders like IBS/SIBO and Reflux and also Cardiometabolic Risk Factors like elevated lipids, high blood sugar, and high blood pressure.  Dr. Weitz has also successfully helped many patients with managing their weight and improving their athletic performance, as well as sports chiropractic work by calling his Santa Monica office 310-395-3111.

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Podcast Transcript

Dr. Weitz:  Hey, this is Dr. Ben Weitz, host of the Rational Wellness Podcast. I talk to the leading health and nutrition experts and researchers in the field to bring you the latest in cutting edge health information. Subscribe to the Rational Wellness Podcast for weekly updates and to learn more, check out my website, drweitz.com.  Thanks for joining me, and let’s jump into the podcast.

Hello, Rational Wellness podcasters. Today I am going to talk about the health crisis that I personally went through a year ago. A lot of my friends in the functional medicine world got into functional medicine partially because they had a health crisis that they had to deal with, and that’s one of the things that led them to seek out alternative care and eventually functional medicine.  But I never had any major health crisis until, a little over a year ago when on, Halloween of 2023, I was handing out Halloween candy at my home and we have hardwood floors, and I had socks on and I had something in my right hand. I had the dog’s leash in my left hand, and the dog pulled my leg slid, and I went down on my right hip and I fractured my femur.

At first, I didn’t realize how bad it was. I looked down at my feet and I noticed that my right foot was flared out, and initially my wife offered to help me help get me up off the floor, and I tried to pick my right foot. To put it in a position equal with my other foot, and I wasn’t able to. And so I quickly realized that I had broken my leg and I asked her to call the paramedics and I ended up going to St. John’s Emergency Room in Santa Monica. And the following day, I ended up having surgery to repair my proximal femur. So I had two steel rods put into my femur.  Unfortunately, after the surgery, and I’m not sure why, if it was a problem with the surgical technique or just the result of the situation,  I do realize it was a complicated fracture, but the two pieces of the femur were not flush up against each other. There was a gap. And that makes it more difficult for a bone to heal, to fill in bone when there’s a gap. But I was confident that I would heal despite being 66 years of age. I’ve always been healthy. I’ve always healed well from other injuries, and I was confident that I would heal.

So each month I went and got another x-ray. And every month for four straight months I found out that there was still a gap that was not filled in by bone. I even had a CT scan and there was some discussion of this being a fibrous union, though there was no bone filling in. And so it was diagnosed as a non-union after four months, and I was told by several different doctors, including two orthopedic surgeons, that I would have to get another surgery in order to get the bones to heal.  That a procedure would have to occur where the bones were pushed against each other. I was told by a prominent surgeon in Santa Monica that they would have to remove the two bones, the two steel rods that were inside of my femur. So I have two steel rods inside my femur. One that goes down this way and one that goes up this way that are connected and fortunately, I cannot feel them because they’re inside of the femur, which is actually a nice way to connect two bones. I was told that we would have to pull those out and then put a steel rod down the side of my leg with a whole bunch of screws all the way down. At the time, I was slowly improving my functional status.

By the way, a week after coming out of the hospital and and the rehab center that I went to initially, I was in Gold’s Gym with my walker working out my upper body. And I resumed training lower body several weeks later doing what I could and I was also working with a physical therapist on physical therapy and it was all proceeding very slowly, largely because of the non-union.  But there was apparently some fibrous union occurring and there seems to be some question among the medical experts, whether having fibrous tissue connect two bones is a good thing or a bad thing?  One argument is that the fibrous tissue gets in the way and prevents bone from forming. The other argument is that fibrous tissue helps create a bridge that would then allow calcium and bone formation afterwards. And I talked to a number of prominent doctors, including one of the top physical therapists at USC and they had different opinions about this.

I was confident that one way or another I could get my body to heal. So I, after initially being out of my practice for several months and paying another chiropractor to take over, I was back using a crutch, hobbling around a bit, and I was slowly regaining. More functional status, though still had this gap on x-rays and was still had some weakness and discomfort and pain, though not the severe pain that I had for the first couple of months.  So what was I going to do? Well, I had already delved into the concept of osteoporosis by talking to some bone health experts in the past on the podcast, including Dr. Lani Simpson and several others. And I knew about a medication called Forteo, which is a anabolic osteoporosis bone drug. So there are basically two types of drugs that are prescribed frequently for patients with weak bones, with osteopenia or osteoporosis.

And those are number one, antiresorptive drugs. So those are drugs like the bisphosphonates, like Fosamax, Actonil, and Boniva. And these drugs block the loss of bone. So bone, like muscle is constantly being built and broken down. So let’s start with muscle. So throughout our lives we are continuously building muscle and breaking it down When we work out, even though most people think of working out as a way to build bone us, exercise weight training is actually a way to break down bone.  So we cause micro damage to bone fibers, uh, to uh, muscle fibers. And then the body rebuilds the muscles this time stronger and potentially bigger. And that’s how we create new muscle formation. So we need to break it down and then rebuild it so we have both things happening at the same time. And in bone we also have, even though we, it’s often thought that you have all the bone you’re going to have by the time you hit 30 and you just lose bone throughout the rest of your life. A similar thought occurs with respect to brain cells, and we know that’s not true with current research, so we’re continuously building bone. We have osteoblast cells that build new bone. We have osteoclast cells that break down bone, and we need both of these. Ideally, we need them to be in balance and at times we need to be building more bone and in other times we may need to break down some bone, but we need both of those to occur.  So the osteoclast cells the cells that break down bone, one of their jobs is they’re similar to the cleanup crew that comes in at night and cleans things up because under normal activities, you’re actually breaking down bone. A certain amount microscopically and the osteoclasts come in, clean up the broken bone, and then the osteoblast cells come in and build new bone.  And this is how we keep our bone strong, resilient, and healthy, and we need both of these to be occurring. The problem with bone loss as we get older is instead of being in balance, the osteoclasts are doing more work than the osteoblasts or doing less. So these antiresorptive drugs are basically lowering the osteoclasts activity.  So they’re stopping or reducing the body from breaking down bone. Now the problem with the these drugs is that you need to clean up crew. You end up with a lot of junky bone, so you end up with more bone. You will see your bone density. The amount of bone will increase over time. It’s not necessarily strong, resilient bone.

So anti-resorptive drugs, in my opinion, are not good drugs to use when you’re trying to heal a fracture that’s having trouble healing. Now normally fractures heal, especially if the two pieces of the bone are flush against each other. Facilitating the collagen and eventual bone formation that leads to healing of fractures.  But I knew I needed to give my body some help to heal, so I looked into Forteo, which is a drug that instead of blocking osteoclast formation, it increases osteoblast formation and. So it is considered a anabolic drug, bone drug rather than an osteoclastic drug, rather than an anti-resorptive drug, it acts on the osteoblasts.  And so this type of medication potentially could be more beneficial for healing a non-union. So I looked up research studies. I told the surgeon who had done my surgery about it, shared a bunch of studies with him ’cause he was unfamiliar with this drug and he agreed to gimme a prescription for it. It required taking a subcutaneous injection every day.

And I did this for five months. I also got a prescription for human growth hormone.  I looked into the research. I spoke to some of the top experts in the field of health and functional medicine and medicine that I know, and a number of them recommended that it would make sense to increase the growth hormone, to put my body in an environment in which it would do more healing, more anabolic activity. So the surgeon did not want to prescribe human growth hormone because there are some restrictions on prescribing it. But a friend of mine who was an integrative doctor was happy to write me a prescription.  I got it from a compounding pharmacy and I started taking an injection of two IUs five days a week for, I did that for five months as well. I also got a bone stimulator. And there are two types of bone stimulators [00:15:00] commonly prescribed for healing of fractures, especially for non-unions. One works with electrical current and the other works through ultrasound.  So the surgeon preferred the one that works through ultrasound, so I got that machine and. Th they recommended doing it once a day. I suggested I could do it three times a day, and they highly recommended I not do it three times a day. That twice a day could provide slightly better benefits than once a day, but three times a day, uh, might, um, be overstimulating the bone and not allowing it to heal.  So I started using this bone stimulator. I put it directly over the area where the non-union was, and I did it twice a day for 20 minutes.

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Of course I’ve always eaten very healthy and I’m, I was making sure I was getting plenty of quality protein, lots of good healthy phytonutrients, fruits and vegetables, nuts and seeds, healthy fats like olive oil and avocados and nuts and seeds.  And I, um, increased supplements related to bone health.  So I’ve always been taking vitamin D and I always take vitamin D with KI monitor my vitamin D levels. I try to keep it around 60, but even taking 5,000 units of vitamin D uh, my vitamin D levels sometimes fall down to the mid forties, and then I take a little bit more and I get ’em back up to sixties and then they fall back again.

So I decided to just double my vitamin D during this period of time to 10,000 a day. The vitamin D I use contains vitamin K1 and also K2, specifically the MK4 version. So there’s a lot of controversy as to what’s the best form of vitamin K to maximize bone healing, as well as to make sure that you decrease the potential that calcium might end up in the arteries.

And it’s very popular these days to recommend the MK7 version. So there’s two versions of vitamin K2. There’s MK4 and there’s MK7. MK7 is very popular these days.  It has a longer half-life, so therefore it’s around longer in the bloodstream. This is often touted as a benefit, though we don’t know that being around longer in the bloodstream is a benefit after all. The key is that the vitamins get absorbed into the tissues, like into the bones and the other organs that are involved in creating bone and not just circulating in the bloodstream.  And the fact that it circulates longer in the bloodstream might reflect that it’s not getting absorbed as well into the tissues. But MK7 has gotten a lot of the headlines, but the research on increasing bone formation, is very strongly in support of the MK4 version of vitamin K. And in fact, in Japan, a much higher dosage is used and is used as a prescription for osteoporosis.

So in the United States, we commonly use 50 or a hundred micrograms of vitamin K two. In Japan, the dosage that’s been shown to be most effective is 45 milligrams, so that would be 45,000 micrograms, a much higher dosage. One of the major supplement companies, offers a vitamin K2, MK4 in 45 milligrams in two capsules, so I switched to that.  I also added calcium, magnesium, 250 milligrams twice a day, which is a modest dosage with meals. I used to take calcium. I stopped taking calcium because like everybody else, we got scared off that somehow calcium might be harmful to the heart. Um, the calcium story is pretty complicated. Look, calcium is an essential mineral.

We all need it, for many, many functions in the body, including bone formation. We know that when you get plaque in your arteries, that plaque can become calcified.  So there’s this thought that if you take calcium, that that will increase the calcification of the plaque in the arteries. That’s going to increase your heart disease.

There’s a number of problems with this. And just giving you a short, overview of the research. Originally there were a number of studies showing that, patients who either took supplements or had increased amounts of calcium in their diet, had a lower risk of heart disease, had a lower risk of hypertension, and that’s why they were doing studies on calcium and heart disease.  And then a few studies showed a slight increase. One of the problems with these studies is that these studies did not also include a reasonable amount of vitamin D, that it didn’t include vitamin D or they included 400 I use of vitamin D, whereas I just told you,  I’ve been taking 10,000.  I use a vitamin D and certainly most people would benefit from at least four or 5,000 IUs.

I use a vitamin D, but like with all vitamins, I highly recommend that you test your levels so you know where you’re at. Everybody absorbs vitamins at a different vitamins and minerals and phytonutrients at a different rate. There’s many factors. There’s genetic factors. There’s our GI tract, there’s absorption levels, et cetera.  So the best way is to measure your levels, supplement appropriately, and measure the levels again, to see if it’s working. Are you getting too much? Are you not getting enough? Maybe you need to take a different form. Maybe you need to take it in a different way so it’s better absorbed. But if you don’t test, you don’t know.  So don’t guess. I recommend testing. Now, look, I understand that testing can be expensive, and if you can’t afford it, I fully understand that, but if you can afford it, it’s better to test. So anyway, so my program,  for helping the my femur to heal included, as I just mentioned, 10,000 IU vitamin D. 45 milligrams, MK4 and even a little more ’cause there was some MK4 and M and there was some MK four, NK one in my, uh, both in my multi and in my vitamin D, and 250 milligrams of calcium with magnesium twice a day.  I also added two milligrams of boron twice per day.  For the first couple of months, I also added strontium citrate, which is controversial. Some people say that it takes the place of calcium. I wanted to make sure that we were creating bone and initially I was okay if it was strontium or calcium or whatever it was that we got some bone formation going.  So I added 500 milligrams of strontium citrate in the evening. It’s important if you use strontium, that you don’t take it with calcium, and once again, I know it’s controversial.  I also take a reasonable amount of magnesium and, and so I continued to take a reasonable amount of magnesium.  I take about five, 600 milligrams of magnesium and I use my bowel consistency as one of the ways to decide how much.  I also use several different forms of magnesium. I like mag citrate for overall absorption. It’s also a stool softener. I like mag. Three and eight for brain function. Mag glycinate’s better absorbed.  Mag taurate is beneficial for cardiovascular health and reducing poten or having a beneficial effect on heart rhythms.  Uh, it’s been recommended for AFIB by an electrophysiologist, integrative electrophysiologist that I interviewed. Okay, so, and, and then on top of that I took all my regular supplements and I made sure I took ’em twice a day. And I can’t really list them all here, but definitely includes Omega-3 fish oil. I take approximately six grams per day.  Each time I take my omega threes I also take 300 micrograms of tocotrienols. Which is a form of vitamin E that helps protect fats from, um, being oxidative damage also has many other benefits. I, I take curcumin as a natural anti-inflammatory. I add additional vitamin C, which also is very important for bone health. I take some specific brain formulas.  I use 20 milligrams of lycopene. I take a thousand milligrams of resveratrol. I use an NR formula. I’m using ULI and a, I am, uh, taking astaxanthin as an antioxidant. And, I’m using Arteriosil. I’m using nitric oxide boosters for cardiovascular health and, to enhance muscle building and growth because I do work out with heavy weights at the gym,  usually four days per week.  And I take branch chain amino acids. I use some creatine, which also has some benefits for brain health. And I’m using a plant peptide known as PeptiStrong to help build muscle.  I also like taking some coq 10 before I go to the gym.  It allows me to have,  stronger heart health. I feel good about my energy levels.

So those are the main supplements I took and after five months, my femur completely healed.  I went in for an x-ray and we now had bony union. It’s now a year and, and five months after the injury, the injury was Halloween, 2023. And, I have to say that I, my hip feels 100% totally strong. I’m able to do everything.  I have no discomfort, and I am, I’m doing squats, I’m doing heavy deadlifts. I’m doing everything I would want to do at the gym and other activity wise.

And so, um, I overcame my health crisis. But it was pretty scary for a while and I had a lot of skeptics, but I was confident that my body had the ability to heal.  And that I simply needed to give it some help to cross that gap. And looking back, I’m very glad that I decided not to have another surgery, not to have the rods pulled outside of my femur and having new hardware put in for one thing, those rods inside my femur. When they would be pulled out, would be leaving a space and there’s no way to fill it in.

You can’t just pour cement. And so likely my femur. So what happens with bones is that there’s the outside of the bone, the cortical bone, and in inside you have these cross hatch, uh, what are known as trabecula. It’s referred to as Trabecula bone, and that gives the bone a [00:31:00] lot of its resilience and strength.  So bone is not simply hollow. You, you might think of it as hollow, but it’s not. So when they put those metal rods in, that’s breaking through a lot of that trabecular bone. As long as they stay in there, they’re adding to the firmness and strength of the bone. But once you’re pulled out, you now have a gap that’s not gonna be filled in.

So that’s one reason I’m glad that I didn’t have the other surgery on top of the fact that it would’ve had to start all over, been back in severe pain, back on the walker, not able to function normally. And I was able to get my body to heal on its own. So I think if you can get your body to heal on its own, for the most part, I think you’re a lot better off.

I understand that surgeries can have remarkable benefits, and I did have surgery.  And I have other patients that get surgery that benefit from it. But [00:32:00] also I’ve seen plenty of patients who got surgeries that never did that much better. And I’m a big believer in allowing your body to heal itself.  Giving it the help it needs. Giving it the nutrients, giving it, a little extra help and then removing the obstacles that would, would make it hard for the body to heal. Make sure you’re getting proper nutrition.  Make sure you’re getting good sleep.  Make sure you’re giving your body the proper stimulus with the right forms of exercise.  Make sure you keep your mind right and. Manage your stress levels and try to keep a positive outlook, a positive mood. And one of the ways I do that is to make sure I am helping other people. That’s one of the things that makes me feel that I’m contributing and um, I always feel good about that. So that’s the major health crisis that I’ve had to overcome in my life, and I’m glad I put it behind me and, it was a challenge, but I did it.

So thank you for listening to my story and, um. Please, uh, subscribe to our YouTube channel and to our podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. And if you enjoyed the podcast, please give me a five star ratings and review on Apple and Spotify and or Spotify. And if you want some help. Um, with bone healing, you’ve been given a diagnosis of osteoporosis or osteopenia, or you have some other health challenge, you’re having some gut issues.  You want to improve your cardiovascular health, and you want to use what’s available in the natural world in terms of modifying your diet, adding the right supplements, getting the right testing, give my Weitz Sports Chiropractic and Nutrition office a call in Santa Monica at (310) 395-3111 and you can visit my website at drweitz.com and I look forward to speaking to everybody next week.

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Thank you for making it all the way through this episode of the Rational Wellness Podcast. For those of you who enjoy listening to the Rational Wellness Podcast, I would very much appreciate it if you could go to Apple Podcast or Spotify and give us a five star readings and review. As you may know. I continue to accept a limited number of new patients per month for functional medicine.  If you would like help overcoming a gut or other chronic health condition and want to prevent chronic problems and want to promote longevity. Please call my Santa Monica Weitz Sports Chiropractic and Nutrition office at 310-395-3111 and we can set you up for a consultation for functional medicine and I will talk to everybody next week.