1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:07,000 Prepare to have your health questions answered here on Safe, Effective, Natural Solutions 2 00:00:07,000 --> 00:00:12,300 with Dr. Todd Binkley, owner of Binkley Healing Center in downtown Ventura. 3 00:00:12,300 --> 00:00:14,680 Now, here's Dr. Todd. 4 00:00:14,680 --> 00:00:15,680 Good afternoon. 5 00:00:15,680 --> 00:00:20,040 I'm Dr. Todd Binkley, board certified doctor of non-force chiropractic and practitioner 6 00:00:20,040 --> 00:00:21,560 of functional medicine. 7 00:00:21,560 --> 00:00:27,600 I identify conditions other doctors miss by doing tests that most doctors do to assess 8 00:00:27,600 --> 00:00:33,080 levels of normal function, where normal function has gone amiss, where you're no longer, organs 9 00:00:33,080 --> 00:00:37,440 and tissues in your body are no longer functioning at their peak, so that we can figure out things 10 00:00:37,440 --> 00:00:42,400 that you can correct with better food, exercise, and supplements. 11 00:00:42,400 --> 00:00:44,200 Thank you for tuning in today. 12 00:00:44,200 --> 00:00:50,960 Last week we talked about dementia and diabetes and cardiovascular disease and how these things 13 00:00:50,960 --> 00:00:53,240 are inextricably linked. 14 00:00:53,240 --> 00:00:55,840 You can't have one without the other. 15 00:00:55,840 --> 00:01:00,920 Well, you can have cardiovascular disease without diabetes and vice versa, but if you 16 00:01:00,920 --> 00:01:07,520 have either diabetes or cardiovascular disease, even in mild forms, you're much more likely 17 00:01:07,520 --> 00:01:14,200 to get dementia because the increased blood sugar from diabetes damages nerves and blood 18 00:01:14,200 --> 00:01:19,000 vessels to your brain and any level and form of cardiovascular disease is going to impair 19 00:01:19,000 --> 00:01:25,800 circulation of nutrients to your brain and cause brain cell decay, the loss of the tissue 20 00:01:25,800 --> 00:01:31,520 of your brain that results in memory loss and other signs of cognitive decline. 21 00:01:31,520 --> 00:01:33,040 So it's really important to understand. 22 00:01:33,040 --> 00:01:37,520 There's more and more research coming out all the time documenting the dramatic effects. 23 00:01:37,520 --> 00:01:43,200 Basically, anything you've ever heard of that can cause risk to your heart health is going 24 00:01:43,200 --> 00:01:45,240 to damage your brain. 25 00:01:45,240 --> 00:01:52,000 And type, Alzheimer's is being called type 3 diabetes because it is often mostly, in 26 00:01:52,000 --> 00:01:57,040 many, many people, it is mostly the result of excess blood sugar damaging the nerves 27 00:01:57,040 --> 00:01:58,880 and blood vessels in the brain. 28 00:01:58,880 --> 00:02:02,800 We're going to talk about an exciting case study about a 67-year-old man who came in 29 00:02:02,800 --> 00:02:07,320 with some memory loss and difficulty focusing and concentration. 30 00:02:07,320 --> 00:02:13,360 His main symptom was brain fog and dramatic improvement that he was able to see. 31 00:02:13,360 --> 00:02:18,480 And there's some general things that anyone can do to improve your brain health, such 32 00:02:18,480 --> 00:02:25,080 as managing stress levels with techniques like meditation and deep breathing or biofeedback, 33 00:02:25,080 --> 00:02:29,240 making sure you're getting adequate sleep, seven to eight hours of sleep per night, and 34 00:02:29,240 --> 00:02:32,480 making sure that you feel rested when you wake up. 35 00:02:32,480 --> 00:02:36,600 And if you don't, consulting someone that can help you figure out how to correct that. 36 00:02:36,600 --> 00:02:40,520 And of course, regular old cardiovascular exercise. 37 00:02:40,520 --> 00:02:42,600 Walking is the ultimate exercise. 38 00:02:42,600 --> 00:02:45,520 You don't need a membership or any special equipment. 39 00:02:45,520 --> 00:02:47,880 Swimming is also great if you have an access to pool. 40 00:02:47,880 --> 00:02:53,800 Basically, the best form of cardiovascular exercise to do is the one that you find enjoyable 41 00:02:53,800 --> 00:02:57,160 so that you will actually do it on a regular basis. 42 00:02:57,160 --> 00:03:01,480 And of course, nutrition is always important, starting with food, eating better food, avoiding 43 00:03:01,480 --> 00:03:09,040 sugar and pro-inflammatory foods like saturated fats, getting plenty of, you know, basically 44 00:03:09,040 --> 00:03:13,280 a Mediterranean diet, I find is what works best for most people. 45 00:03:13,280 --> 00:03:17,240 It's a good idea to consume enough good fats. 46 00:03:17,240 --> 00:03:24,360 Technically called polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats from things like cold water fish, salmon, 47 00:03:24,360 --> 00:03:29,640 sardines, nuts, walnuts, almonds, pistachios, olive oil, and avocados. 48 00:03:29,640 --> 00:03:31,680 These are all great fats. 49 00:03:31,680 --> 00:03:37,440 And choline, as it turns out, is a really important nutrient to get for brain health. 50 00:03:37,440 --> 00:03:42,280 And food sources of that are liver and egg yolks. 51 00:03:42,280 --> 00:03:44,360 So don't be afraid to eat those egg yolks. 52 00:03:44,360 --> 00:03:48,320 A couple of eggs a day is not going to increase your risk of heart disease. 53 00:03:48,320 --> 00:03:50,440 And the choline in egg yolks is good. 54 00:03:50,440 --> 00:03:56,760 You can also get choline for your brain, excellent brain food from eating liver, if you like 55 00:03:56,760 --> 00:03:57,760 that. 56 00:03:57,760 --> 00:04:01,480 In addition to these things that anyone can do, it's important to get tested. 57 00:04:01,480 --> 00:04:07,360 So getting tested for things like the APO gene, APOE gene that I spoke about last week. 58 00:04:07,360 --> 00:04:11,200 There are some cerebrospinal fluid markers that people sometimes get when they go to 59 00:04:11,200 --> 00:04:16,880 a neurologist testing your blood levels of homocysteine can be an indicator of stress 60 00:04:16,880 --> 00:04:20,400 on nutrient deficiencies that can damage the brain and the heart. 61 00:04:20,400 --> 00:04:24,960 And of course, brain imaging can show loss of brain cell tissue. 62 00:04:24,960 --> 00:04:31,000 And increasingly and very excitingly, several new blood tests are in development for evaluating 63 00:04:31,000 --> 00:04:34,840 brain cell health and damage to brain tissues. 64 00:04:34,840 --> 00:04:39,680 The importance of doing these tests and basic blood work to identify general signs of stress 65 00:04:39,680 --> 00:04:44,080 on all of your organs and tissues, many of most of which can affect the health of your 66 00:04:44,080 --> 00:04:47,760 brain is when you see that you've got a problem. 67 00:04:47,760 --> 00:04:51,840 And especially if it's an earlier sign of a problem that maybe doesn't require pharmaceuticals 68 00:04:51,840 --> 00:04:56,200 or medical treatment yet, but is definitely a deviation from normal function. 69 00:04:56,200 --> 00:05:01,120 And if that's a situation where part of your body is struggling and can use some support, 70 00:05:01,120 --> 00:05:07,120 then taking nutrients to support, give your body the river of life that is your bloodstream 71 00:05:07,120 --> 00:05:12,840 to give your body all the...the river of life is the metaphor I like to use for to kind 72 00:05:12,840 --> 00:05:17,040 of understand why it's so important to give your body all the nutrients you need. 73 00:05:17,040 --> 00:05:19,840 Like sometimes I'll have patients that come in and I'll tell them, well, here's what your 74 00:05:19,840 --> 00:05:21,560 tests show and here's what I recommend. 75 00:05:21,560 --> 00:05:26,440 Okay, well, I want to try these things one at a time to see which ones work. 76 00:05:26,440 --> 00:05:29,560 Well, none of them will work. 77 00:05:29,560 --> 00:05:34,880 Drugs work by themselves because they directly alter cell receptors and chemical enzymatic 78 00:05:34,880 --> 00:05:36,640 pathways in the body. 79 00:05:36,640 --> 00:05:39,640 But nutrients work synergistically. 80 00:05:39,640 --> 00:05:41,400 They don't work very well by themselves. 81 00:05:41,400 --> 00:05:46,400 Some of them do, but most of them work...do their best job when you take them in combinations. 82 00:05:46,400 --> 00:05:53,360 So the big picture is to test, identify where things are lacking, and then take everything 83 00:05:53,360 --> 00:05:57,160 that's missing from your river of life because you've got construction crews sitting there 84 00:05:57,160 --> 00:06:02,120 on both banks of the river waiting for the materials they need to do the healing and 85 00:06:02,120 --> 00:06:05,120 repair jobs that are...that are needing to be done. 86 00:06:05,120 --> 00:06:10,040 And if you don't, if those nutrients don't show up, then those crews just sit there and 87 00:06:10,040 --> 00:06:11,360 do nothing all day. 88 00:06:11,360 --> 00:06:16,520 And that's how things break down over time, just for lack of nutrients so that the routine 89 00:06:16,520 --> 00:06:23,000 healing and maintenance that would otherwise occur just gets postponed indefinitely. 90 00:06:23,000 --> 00:06:28,840 So for example, some nutrients that are very useful for healing the brain when even after 91 00:06:28,840 --> 00:06:38,360 some of these signs of damage have shown up are in things like phosphatidylserine, acetyl-L-carnitine, 92 00:06:38,360 --> 00:06:40,440 glycerophosphocholine. 93 00:06:40,440 --> 00:06:45,720 This is a combo product actually that's put out by Designs for Health called Brain Vitali 94 00:06:45,720 --> 00:06:49,140 as those things in it, a little bit of ginkgo biloba. 95 00:06:49,140 --> 00:06:54,360 Sometimes people can't take ginkgo biloba because it can be counteracted with some other...some 96 00:06:54,360 --> 00:06:55,680 medications. 97 00:06:55,680 --> 00:06:58,920 But small amounts of it in this product are safe for most people. 98 00:06:58,920 --> 00:07:05,440 And it's even got a unique coffee fruit extract from the whole coffee cherry, so from the 99 00:07:05,440 --> 00:07:10,240 flesh, not the part that they make coffee out of, not the bean. 100 00:07:10,240 --> 00:07:15,720 And it has some well-studied compounds that are not found in coffee beans or coffee itself. 101 00:07:15,720 --> 00:07:22,280 So that's a product called Brain Vitali that's got some really great research behind it. 102 00:07:22,280 --> 00:07:27,560 And in addition to this, a managing neurotransmitter acetylcholine, which is a really important 103 00:07:27,560 --> 00:07:33,040 part of brain health and nerve transmission and supporting healthy neurons, a product 104 00:07:33,040 --> 00:07:38,520 called Cognaid contains some really unique ingredients that I've not heard of. 105 00:07:38,520 --> 00:07:46,040 This is a new product, Memofenols from Grape and Wild Blueberry Complex and Nuganda, a 106 00:07:46,040 --> 00:07:51,180 high-concentration full-spectrum ashwagandha extract along with huperzine, which has been 107 00:07:51,180 --> 00:07:56,120 around for a while, and ginseng and the Ayurvedic herb, Bacopa. 108 00:07:56,120 --> 00:08:01,800 So that's the ingredients of a product called Cognaid from Designs for Health. 109 00:08:01,800 --> 00:08:06,200 And then much more common than those, so those are sort of the big guns, not everybody needs 110 00:08:06,200 --> 00:08:12,480 those if you've already got some damage, those are some things that can help your body do 111 00:08:12,480 --> 00:08:16,360 the best it can to heal and repair damaged brain tissue. 112 00:08:16,360 --> 00:08:21,800 But even before that, basic nutrition, getting a good multivitamin, adequate fish oil every 113 00:08:21,800 --> 00:08:28,400 day, and very often times magnesium, magnesium deficiency is rampant throughout the country, 114 00:08:28,400 --> 00:08:29,800 throughout the world. 115 00:08:29,800 --> 00:08:32,860 And there's a special form of magnesium a lot of people haven't heard of. 116 00:08:32,860 --> 00:08:37,200 There's at least eight different kinds of magnesium on the market and they are not all 117 00:08:37,200 --> 00:08:38,800 the same. 118 00:08:38,800 --> 00:08:43,720 So magnesium sulfate is Epsom salts, that's a good fertilizer for some plants and it's 119 00:08:43,720 --> 00:08:47,080 fine to soak your feet in. 120 00:08:47,080 --> 00:08:51,140 And some people take it as, you know, for constipation. 121 00:08:51,140 --> 00:08:56,120 But for supporting your nerves and muscles, a much better form is the bisglycinate form 122 00:08:56,120 --> 00:08:57,480 of magnesium. 123 00:08:57,480 --> 00:09:02,600 And then specifically for nerves, for your brain, for repairing even damage to nerves 124 00:09:02,600 --> 00:09:10,520 after chemotherapy, the best form for that is called magnesium threonate. 125 00:09:10,520 --> 00:09:15,520 So magnesium threonate, I've been seeing some amazing results with people with this 126 00:09:15,520 --> 00:09:17,600 form of magnesium. 127 00:09:17,600 --> 00:09:22,160 I'm Dr. Todd Binkley, you're listening to Safe, Effective, Natural Solutions to almost 128 00:09:22,160 --> 00:09:23,620 any health challenge. 129 00:09:23,620 --> 00:09:27,400 If you like what you're hearing here, you can listen to all of the past episodes of 130 00:09:27,400 --> 00:09:33,720 this show, which are available as podcasts on my website, binkleyhealingcenter.com. 131 00:09:33,720 --> 00:09:38,820 They're also on Apple podcasts and Spotify and YouTube. 132 00:09:38,820 --> 00:09:42,840 So if you have any questions about anything we talk about in the show, you can also email 133 00:09:42,840 --> 00:09:43,840 me. 134 00:09:43,840 --> 00:09:45,320 I love answering people's questions. 135 00:09:45,320 --> 00:09:50,120 So we've just talked about some healthy things that anyone can do, good habits to keep your 136 00:09:50,120 --> 00:09:56,120 brain healthy, minimize your risk, reduce your risk of dementia and other neurodegenerative 137 00:09:56,120 --> 00:09:58,920 disorders like Parkinson's. 138 00:09:58,920 --> 00:10:02,520 And that's always the most important thing is just to take better care of your health, 139 00:10:02,520 --> 00:10:08,560 reduce stress, get better sleep, do some form of meditation, prayer, something calming for 140 00:10:08,560 --> 00:10:16,640 your mind on a regular basis, and get adequate cardiovascular exercise, and eat good food, 141 00:10:16,640 --> 00:10:20,720 and then get tested to see if you need some extra nutritional support. 142 00:10:20,720 --> 00:10:26,400 So that's sort of an overview of most of the things that I do to help people with cognitive 143 00:10:26,400 --> 00:10:31,480 complaint, memory, focus, brain fog, et cetera. 144 00:10:31,480 --> 00:10:35,900 But here's some things that everyone should be aware of, some really great research coming 145 00:10:35,900 --> 00:10:39,640 out on things that you should not do or things that you can avoid. 146 00:10:39,640 --> 00:10:42,760 And these are artificial sweeteners. 147 00:10:42,760 --> 00:10:46,220 All artificial sweeteners are bad. 148 00:10:46,220 --> 00:10:48,000 And sometimes people get confused. 149 00:10:48,000 --> 00:10:51,160 Well, what is an artificial sweetener? 150 00:10:51,160 --> 00:10:55,080 So for example, Stevia is not an artificial sweetener. 151 00:10:55,080 --> 00:10:58,200 And there's another sweetener that a lot of people haven't heard of, we're going to come 152 00:10:58,200 --> 00:11:04,080 back to here in a minute, that's called Allulose, which is also a natural, not a artificial 153 00:11:04,080 --> 00:11:05,080 sweetener. 154 00:11:05,080 --> 00:11:13,960 So artificial sweeteners are things like sugar alcohols like xylitol and erythritol and Splenda 155 00:11:13,960 --> 00:11:19,200 and aspartame, the ingredient in NutraSweet and Equal, and of course saccharin, that people 156 00:11:19,200 --> 00:11:22,040 have known is not great for many, many years. 157 00:11:22,040 --> 00:11:27,040 But the exciting paper that just came out, it was published recently in the medical research 158 00:11:27,040 --> 00:11:31,840 on xylitol shows that high levels of this low calorie sweetener that's used in many 159 00:11:31,840 --> 00:11:37,440 reduced sugar foods, as well as gum and toothpaste are linked to an increased risk of heart attacks, 160 00:11:37,440 --> 00:11:42,400 strokes and death, according to a new study published in the European Heart General. 161 00:11:42,400 --> 00:11:47,640 So they studied more than 3000 people in the US and Europe over three years and found that 162 00:11:47,640 --> 00:11:52,400 people with the highest amount of xylitol in their plasma were more likely to have a 163 00:11:52,400 --> 00:11:55,680 problem with their heart or their blood vessels. 164 00:11:55,680 --> 00:12:00,960 So there are tiny amounts found naturally in some fruits and vegetables. 165 00:12:00,960 --> 00:12:05,640 It's been used as a sugar substitute for over a decade in processed foods and toothpaste 166 00:12:05,640 --> 00:12:08,240 and chewing gum and other products. 167 00:12:08,240 --> 00:12:13,240 But consuming products with xylitol can make your platelets and your blood more likely 168 00:12:13,240 --> 00:12:14,900 to clot. 169 00:12:14,900 --> 00:12:20,340 So in studies performed by Dr. Hazen's team, healthy volunteers were given a drink sweetened 170 00:12:20,340 --> 00:12:27,240 with 30 grams of xylitol, which is an amount similar to that found in a single scoop of 171 00:12:27,240 --> 00:12:34,320 quote unquote keto friendly ice cream or several sugar free cookies that are marketed for people 172 00:12:34,320 --> 00:12:35,320 with diabetes. 173 00:12:35,320 --> 00:12:40,120 There are also xylitol is also found in sugar free candies and desserts. 174 00:12:40,120 --> 00:12:44,960 And the study shows the immediate need for investigating sugar alcohols and artificial 175 00:12:44,960 --> 00:12:46,920 sweeteners. 176 00:12:46,920 --> 00:12:51,160 According to Dr. Stanley Hazen, chairman of the Department of Cardiovascular and Metabolic 177 00:12:51,160 --> 00:12:58,080 Sciences at Cleveland Clinic's Lerner Research Institute, he said in a news release. 178 00:12:58,080 --> 00:13:01,600 So it doesn't mean you need to throw out your toothpaste if it has xylitol. 179 00:13:01,600 --> 00:13:06,400 You just don't want to be eating a lot of food that contains xylitol. 180 00:13:06,400 --> 00:13:16,560 So if you see foods that say sugar free, calorie free, keto friendly for diabetes, a lot of 181 00:13:16,560 --> 00:13:22,040 these things and there's things that are super sweet, then they probably have artificial 182 00:13:22,040 --> 00:13:26,200 sweeteners and these things aren't even required to be on the label in some products. 183 00:13:26,200 --> 00:13:33,440 It's a complicated language in the law regarding what has to be put on a food label. 184 00:13:33,440 --> 00:13:37,560 But sugar alcohols and these artificial sweeteners are often in products and they're not even 185 00:13:37,560 --> 00:13:38,680 on the label. 186 00:13:38,680 --> 00:13:45,480 So if a package says says sugar free, then it should include what's making it sugar free. 187 00:13:45,480 --> 00:13:50,880 It's making it sweet without sugar and xylitol is just one sugar alcohol that food companies 188 00:13:50,880 --> 00:13:52,280 use in sugar free foods. 189 00:13:52,280 --> 00:13:57,960 Others include erythritol, which we're also going to talk about, sorbitol, mannitol, malitol, 190 00:13:57,960 --> 00:14:00,680 isomalt, lactitol, there are others. 191 00:14:00,680 --> 00:14:06,840 So even if a food says it contains a sugar alcohol, it might not necessarily state which 192 00:14:06,840 --> 00:14:07,840 one. 193 00:14:07,840 --> 00:14:12,840 Some of them are worse than others, especially xylitol and erythritol. 194 00:14:12,840 --> 00:14:15,400 So all artificial sweeteners are bad. 195 00:14:15,400 --> 00:14:18,680 They all have problems associated with them. 196 00:14:18,680 --> 00:14:24,540 Splenda sucralose is made by the chlorination of sucrose. 197 00:14:24,540 --> 00:14:30,120 So it's basically synthetically replacing three hydrogen oxygen groups on a regular 198 00:14:30,120 --> 00:14:34,440 table sugar molecules with three chlorine atoms. 199 00:14:34,440 --> 00:14:35,440 Yum. 200 00:14:35,440 --> 00:14:40,840 Recent research suggests that this is linked to systemic inflammation, metabolic diseases, 201 00:14:40,840 --> 00:14:48,120 disruptions in gut microbiome, liver damage, and toxic effects at the cellular level. 202 00:14:48,120 --> 00:14:53,520 This study said, quote, it is crucial to highlight the persistence of sucralose in the body, its 203 00:14:53,520 --> 00:14:58,960 ability to cross the placenta, its presence in breast milk, raising concerns about prenatal 204 00:14:58,960 --> 00:15:00,720 and neonatal exposure. 205 00:15:00,720 --> 00:15:06,000 So I discussed that study in detail in the last episode of the show. 206 00:15:06,000 --> 00:15:12,320 So the other really bad sugar alcohol that's been in the news lately is erythritol. 207 00:15:12,320 --> 00:15:21,960 So erythritol is made by Cargill, the multinational food conglomerate that makes a lot of things 208 00:15:21,960 --> 00:15:24,400 that aren't really great for your health. 209 00:15:24,400 --> 00:15:30,320 And this is right, I'm really glad I finally got to covering this because I've been forgetting 210 00:15:30,320 --> 00:15:31,320 to do it. 211 00:15:31,320 --> 00:15:36,920 Erythritol is a heavily marketed, popular alternative sweetener, artificial sweetener, 212 00:15:36,920 --> 00:15:40,080 but it's marketed as natural because it's got stevia in it. 213 00:15:40,080 --> 00:15:45,000 And it drives me crazy because that makes people think either that stevia, that this 214 00:15:45,000 --> 00:15:48,820 product is natural or conversely that stevia isn't natural. 215 00:15:48,820 --> 00:15:54,360 So if you know Truvia is not good for you, some people think that means that stevia isn't. 216 00:15:54,360 --> 00:15:56,160 So we need to break this down. 217 00:15:56,160 --> 00:16:03,240 Truvia is a manufactured product with stevia and erythritol. 218 00:16:03,240 --> 00:16:06,920 Erythritol is an artificial sweetener. 219 00:16:06,920 --> 00:16:07,920 Stevia is a plant. 220 00:16:07,920 --> 00:16:09,680 We're going to come back to that. 221 00:16:09,680 --> 00:16:12,520 But stevia is natural, erythritol is not. 222 00:16:12,520 --> 00:16:15,680 So the combination of the two is not natural. 223 00:16:15,680 --> 00:16:19,160 Truvia is not a natural sweetener. 224 00:16:19,160 --> 00:16:22,200 And here's the recent research that's come out about that. 225 00:16:22,200 --> 00:16:28,560 A national Institute of Health funded research team led by Dr. Stanley Hazen at the Cleveland 226 00:16:28,560 --> 00:16:33,200 Clinic examined the relationship between erythritol and heart attacks and strokes. 227 00:16:33,200 --> 00:16:37,040 This initial study had more than a thousand people and his team looked for things in the 228 00:16:37,040 --> 00:16:40,120 blood whose levels are linked to cardiac risk. 229 00:16:40,120 --> 00:16:44,360 They tracked major adverse cardiovascular events. 230 00:16:44,360 --> 00:16:47,360 That's a common target for research like this. 231 00:16:47,360 --> 00:16:53,600 Major adverse cardiovascular events is just a generic term for heart attacks, strokes, 232 00:16:53,600 --> 00:16:57,280 and deaths from either a heart attack or a stroke. 233 00:16:57,280 --> 00:17:01,440 So the results appeared in Nature Medicine on February 27, 2023. 234 00:17:01,440 --> 00:17:07,280 The people with the highest erythritol levels, the top 25%, were twice as likely to have 235 00:17:07,280 --> 00:17:13,300 cardiovascular events over the three years of follow-up than those with the lowest level 236 00:17:13,300 --> 00:17:15,520 of erythritol. 237 00:17:15,520 --> 00:17:22,160 So erythritol ingestion in healthy volunteers induced a marked and sustained increase in 238 00:17:22,160 --> 00:17:28,560 plasma erythritol levels well above the thresholds associated with increased platelet formation 239 00:17:28,560 --> 00:17:35,200 and reactivity, prothrombosis that's associated with major adverse cardiovascular events like 240 00:17:35,200 --> 00:17:36,840 heart attacks and strokes. 241 00:17:36,840 --> 00:17:42,760 So it fosters enhanced thrombosis, the clotting that can cause a stroke, and it increases 242 00:17:42,760 --> 00:17:46,520 hardening of the arteries causing heart attacks. 243 00:17:46,520 --> 00:17:47,520 Not good. 244 00:17:47,520 --> 00:17:50,120 And there's just no reason to eat that, consume that stuff. 245 00:17:50,120 --> 00:17:53,160 There's so many better alternatives available. 246 00:17:53,160 --> 00:17:58,660 Saccharin, just to be complete here, saccharin makes people fatter. 247 00:17:58,660 --> 00:18:04,120 People have long known, or there used to be back when, I don't know how many decades ago, 248 00:18:04,120 --> 00:18:07,880 when saccharin first came out, there were some mice studies that showed that it increased 249 00:18:07,880 --> 00:18:12,320 your risk of cancer, and those have since been shown to not apply to humans. 250 00:18:12,320 --> 00:18:16,180 Not everything that happens in a mouse applies equally in humans. 251 00:18:16,180 --> 00:18:20,800 So the cancer risk is less concerning than once thought. 252 00:18:20,800 --> 00:18:26,760 But the worst, even worse, is people take this stuff to lose weight, to control diabetes, 253 00:18:26,760 --> 00:18:29,080 and saccharin makes people fatter. 254 00:18:29,080 --> 00:18:33,780 So here's a study, a randomized controlled trial contrasting the effects of four low 255 00:18:33,780 --> 00:18:40,360 calorie sweeteners and regular table sugar on body weight in adults who are overweight 256 00:18:40,360 --> 00:18:46,220 or obese, and it was published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 2019, and it 257 00:18:46,220 --> 00:18:55,160 clearly showed that people who consumed saccharin made them fatter than consuming sugar. 258 00:18:55,160 --> 00:18:56,640 So that kind of defeats the point. 259 00:18:56,640 --> 00:18:58,360 So don't use saccharin. 260 00:18:58,360 --> 00:19:06,160 Aspartame, branded NutraSweet and equal, increases anxiety in rats and in their offspring. 261 00:19:06,160 --> 00:19:13,080 The study was entitled, Transgenerational Transmission of Aspartame-induced Anxiety 262 00:19:13,080 --> 00:19:18,280 and Changes in Glutamate, GABA Signaling, and Gene Expression in the Amygdala. 263 00:19:18,280 --> 00:19:19,480 So let's break that down. 264 00:19:19,480 --> 00:19:25,160 This is basically saying they gave aspartame, NutraSweet or equal, in amounts that humans 265 00:19:25,160 --> 00:19:29,760 often eat, comparable relatively for a rat. 266 00:19:29,760 --> 00:19:34,880 So things that happen in rats don't necessarily directly apply to human beings, but they're 267 00:19:34,880 --> 00:19:37,400 certainly worth following up on. 268 00:19:37,400 --> 00:19:45,680 And the fact that it happened in the rats themselves and two generations, their grandchildren, 269 00:19:45,680 --> 00:19:53,720 were still showing increased anxiety by changes in key pathways in the brain that cause anxiety. 270 00:19:53,720 --> 00:20:03,400 The main targets, this glutamate GABA signaling pathway, are targets for pharmaceuticals for 271 00:20:03,400 --> 00:20:05,880 anxiety and depression, et cetera. 272 00:20:05,880 --> 00:20:12,400 And it altered their gene expression in centers of the brain that also affect mood disorders. 273 00:20:12,400 --> 00:20:16,920 So the fact that it not only happened in the rats, but in their offspring is concerning 274 00:20:16,920 --> 00:20:19,640 enough that it definitely warrants human trials. 275 00:20:19,640 --> 00:20:22,640 And we'll see if those are borne out. 276 00:20:22,640 --> 00:20:28,160 But it's bad enough that in May 2023, shortly after this and several other studies had been 277 00:20:28,160 --> 00:20:32,760 out for a while on this subject, the World Health Organization recommended against the 278 00:20:32,760 --> 00:20:38,920 use of non-sugar sweeteners to control body weight based on a systematic review of the 279 00:20:38,920 --> 00:20:40,000 evidence. 280 00:20:40,000 --> 00:20:45,240 And one of the other reasons is most of these artificial sweeteners are excitotoxins. 281 00:20:45,240 --> 00:20:47,220 They jangle your nerves. 282 00:20:47,220 --> 00:20:52,920 They interfere with your appetite suppressant hormones and then as a result, give you even 283 00:20:52,920 --> 00:20:56,800 stronger cravings for sugar and other stimulants. 284 00:20:56,800 --> 00:21:03,240 So our bodies have really sophisticated mechanisms to control cravings and that drive, that make 285 00:21:03,240 --> 00:21:08,160 it difficult to lose weight, to change our diet, to eat better food because these things 286 00:21:08,160 --> 00:21:13,520 are designed by, these things are studied and designed deliberately by corporate processed 287 00:21:13,520 --> 00:21:18,680 food companies to make things salty and sweet and greasy and push all the buttons in the 288 00:21:18,680 --> 00:21:23,000 brain that make you want more of whatever that thing is over and over and over again. 289 00:21:23,000 --> 00:21:25,000 Bet you can't eat just one. 290 00:21:25,000 --> 00:21:26,000 It's not an accident. 291 00:21:26,000 --> 00:21:31,640 These things are designed by very sophisticated chemists that know the triggers in the brain 292 00:21:31,640 --> 00:21:35,640 and they're specifically designed to make you want more of those things and they're 293 00:21:35,640 --> 00:21:39,200 destroying the health of millions of Americans. 294 00:21:39,200 --> 00:21:42,280 So we're going to come back to that too. 295 00:21:42,280 --> 00:21:44,040 And I think I also talked about that. 296 00:21:44,040 --> 00:21:47,800 There's a lot of research coming out on ultra processed foods. 297 00:21:47,800 --> 00:21:51,320 I've spoken about that in a previous episode and we'll do so again. 298 00:21:51,320 --> 00:21:52,320 So there are better alternatives. 299 00:21:52,320 --> 00:21:54,120 What are the better alternatives? 300 00:21:54,120 --> 00:21:55,120 Stevia. 301 00:21:55,120 --> 00:21:59,200 If you've ever tried stevia in a packet, then you haven't tried stevia because powdered 302 00:21:59,200 --> 00:22:02,400 stevia tastes terrible, but it is not an artificial sweetener. 303 00:22:02,400 --> 00:22:03,400 It's a plant. 304 00:22:03,400 --> 00:22:04,400 I have it in my garden. 305 00:22:04,400 --> 00:22:07,280 You can buy seedlings of it at Green Thumb here in Ventura. 306 00:22:07,280 --> 00:22:09,680 You can grow it yourself and chew the leaves. 307 00:22:09,680 --> 00:22:10,680 They taste great. 308 00:22:10,680 --> 00:22:14,320 But what tastes the best if you want to add something to sweeten something a little bit 309 00:22:14,320 --> 00:22:19,800 is to get the liquid, not the powdered form, but get liquid stevia, my favorite brand and 310 00:22:19,800 --> 00:22:22,820 I've tried many, most of which I thought tasted terrible. 311 00:22:22,820 --> 00:22:24,560 This one tastes really good. 312 00:22:24,560 --> 00:22:27,000 I give samples of it to my patients all the time. 313 00:22:27,000 --> 00:22:30,960 I put it in my water so that my throat doesn't dry out when I'm talking all the time, like 314 00:22:30,960 --> 00:22:31,960 right now. 315 00:22:31,960 --> 00:22:38,120 And I am sipping water with Sweet Leaf brand Sweet Drops Vanilla Flavored Stevia. 316 00:22:38,120 --> 00:22:39,120 I buy it on Amazon. 317 00:22:39,120 --> 00:22:41,520 They have it in some stores as well. 318 00:22:41,520 --> 00:22:44,160 It's a little plastic bottle with a blue label. 319 00:22:44,160 --> 00:22:48,760 Sweet Leaf brand Sweet Drops Vanilla Flavored Liquid Stevia. 320 00:22:48,760 --> 00:22:54,280 Another excellent natural alternative sweetener, not artificial, natural alternative sweetener 321 00:22:54,280 --> 00:22:55,280 is called Allulose. 322 00:22:55,280 --> 00:22:58,760 But I want to get to this case study, so I'll come back to Allulose next week. 323 00:22:58,760 --> 00:23:05,100 This is a 67 year old man who came in complaining of memory loss and ability to focus and concentrate. 324 00:23:05,100 --> 00:23:07,840 His main complaint is that, in his words, was just brain fog. 325 00:23:07,840 --> 00:23:13,120 It's not a very specific term, but people, it resonates with a lot of people. 326 00:23:13,120 --> 00:23:16,640 And I did some blood work on him and found some things that needed some support. 327 00:23:16,640 --> 00:23:22,440 Put him on some basic nutrients, a good multivitamin, some fish oil, vitamin D, and some extra 328 00:23:22,440 --> 00:23:27,440 vitamin B12, which is often deficient in people as they get older, as well as a product called 329 00:23:27,440 --> 00:23:35,140 Cynolytic Synergy from Designs for Health, which has Fissitin and dog rose fruit. 330 00:23:35,140 --> 00:23:38,360 Those were two things I'd never heard of before until this product came out a couple years 331 00:23:38,360 --> 00:23:39,520 ago. 332 00:23:39,520 --> 00:23:45,320 It also has ginseng and some powerful antioxidants, curcumin, quercetin, and red grape powder. 333 00:23:45,320 --> 00:23:51,280 So after about two or three weeks, about three weeks on these, this man, 67 year old man 334 00:23:51,280 --> 00:23:56,160 with memory loss, noticed that he had more energy and increased focus and concentration 335 00:23:56,160 --> 00:23:57,840 after about three weeks. 336 00:23:57,840 --> 00:24:01,920 And then at about three months when he came in to get some things retested, his wife commented 337 00:24:01,920 --> 00:24:07,440 that he was much less forgetful than he had been and his ability to concentrate was dramatically 338 00:24:07,440 --> 00:24:08,440 improved. 339 00:24:08,440 --> 00:24:12,140 And according to him, he no longer had any significant brain fog. 340 00:24:12,140 --> 00:24:16,240 So who do you know who has symptoms like this and has been to several doctors maybe and 341 00:24:16,240 --> 00:24:19,560 no one's been able to help them identify the cause of their problems? 342 00:24:19,560 --> 00:24:23,360 I'd love to do some proper testing to identify that cause and help them. 343 00:24:23,360 --> 00:24:24,360 Thank you for listening. 344 00:24:24,360 --> 00:24:26,080 We'll see you next Friday. 345 00:24:26,080 --> 00:24:28,240 Have a great weekend. 346 00:24:28,240 --> 00:24:33,760 You've been listening to Safe, Effective Natural Solutions with Dr. Todd Binkley. 347 00:24:33,760 --> 00:24:38,060 If you have a health question you want discussed on the show, email your health questions to 348 00:24:38,060 --> 00:24:42,620 drbinkley at binkleyhealingcenter.com. 349 00:24:42,620 --> 00:24:47,320 Take advantage of this opportunity to ask questions for yourself and for your loved 350 00:24:47,320 --> 00:24:50,280 ones because our health matters. 351 00:24:50,280 --> 00:24:58,240 Join him next Friday at 4 p.m. for Safe, Effective Natural Solutions right here on 98.3 The Word, 352 00:24:58,240 --> 00:25:21,680 KDAR.