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 --> 00:00:12,320 with Dr. Todd Binkley, owner of Binkley Healing Center in downtown Ventura. 3 00:00:12,320 --> 00:00:14,920 Now, here's Dr. Todd. 4 00:00:14,920 --> 00:00:15,920 Good afternoon. 5 00:00:15,920 --> 00:00:20,720 I'm Dr. Todd Binkley, board certified doctor of non-force chiropractic and practitioner 6 00:00:20,720 --> 00:00:22,660 of functional medicine. 7 00:00:22,660 --> 00:00:28,720 Functional medicine means using standard diagnostic tests to identify whether or not your body 8 00:00:28,720 --> 00:00:33,920 is functioning normal, identifying places where your liver, your kidneys, your heart, 9 00:00:33,920 --> 00:00:37,660 your immune system, where the function of them is no longer at its peak. 10 00:00:37,660 --> 00:00:39,480 So these are a separate range. 11 00:00:39,480 --> 00:00:44,120 Anytime I do blood tests on a patient, number one, I always order more of them than you 12 00:00:44,120 --> 00:00:49,600 typically get on a standard visit to your general practitioner, your primary care provider. 13 00:00:49,600 --> 00:00:56,500 They're typically going to do a brief chem panel, your lipids, your cholesterol, some 14 00:00:56,500 --> 00:01:01,040 liver enzymes, basic kidney and liver function tests. 15 00:01:01,040 --> 00:01:05,960 If you're lucky, a CBC very infrequently, I often see people that they don't even do 16 00:01:05,960 --> 00:01:06,960 a blood count. 17 00:01:06,960 --> 00:01:13,920 You know, 10 or 15, a dozen tests, I order a 55 point blood panel on most of my patients. 18 00:01:13,920 --> 00:01:18,800 And the reason most doctors don't order this is because it's literally medically unnecessary. 19 00:01:18,800 --> 00:01:21,000 Well, what does that mean? 20 00:01:21,000 --> 00:01:22,000 What is medically unnecessary? 21 00:01:22,000 --> 00:01:25,360 Is it good or not? 22 00:01:25,360 --> 00:01:31,640 Medical necessity is defined by whether or not it is necessary to confirm a diagnosis 23 00:01:31,640 --> 00:01:36,520 of a medical problem, a problem that needs medical intervention. 24 00:01:36,520 --> 00:01:40,480 So insurance companies only pay for things that are medically necessary. 25 00:01:40,480 --> 00:01:45,640 If you have a condition that your physician, after doing a good case history and exam on 26 00:01:45,640 --> 00:01:51,600 you, he suspects you have high blood pressure or type two diabetes or heart disease or, 27 00:01:51,600 --> 00:01:56,280 you know, increased risk of kidney or liver disease and recommends some kind of pharmaceutical 28 00:01:56,280 --> 00:01:58,440 treatment or referral to a specialist. 29 00:01:58,440 --> 00:02:02,800 These are all things that insurance, these are what insurance companies mean by medical 30 00:02:02,800 --> 00:02:03,800 necessity. 31 00:02:03,800 --> 00:02:11,280 A doctor does an initial workup, suspects the disease, confirms it with medically necessary 32 00:02:11,280 --> 00:02:12,280 tests. 33 00:02:12,280 --> 00:02:16,480 Well, my 55 point panel, therefore, by that definition is medically unnecessary because 34 00:02:16,480 --> 00:02:20,080 I'm not looking to confirm a suspected diagnosis of a disease. 35 00:02:20,080 --> 00:02:21,840 I'm doing that. 36 00:02:21,840 --> 00:02:26,600 Oftentimes, I already suspect you have diabetes or cardiovascular disease. 37 00:02:26,600 --> 00:02:28,080 Patients walk in and tell me they already have that. 38 00:02:28,080 --> 00:02:30,680 They're already on medication for some of these things. 39 00:02:30,680 --> 00:02:36,440 But I also want to find out is your liver and your heart and your kidneys and your immune 40 00:02:36,440 --> 00:02:42,120 system, are they working at their peak function or at least as well as they should be for 41 00:02:42,120 --> 00:02:43,120 your age? 42 00:02:43,120 --> 00:02:49,400 Because if not, then you identify those deviations from normal function, places where normal 43 00:02:49,400 --> 00:02:56,560 function has been lost, you can often restore it with better food, exercise and supplements. 44 00:02:56,560 --> 00:03:01,200 So the last couple of episodes last week and the week before, we were talking about how 45 00:03:01,200 --> 00:03:05,540 dementia is inextricably linked to heart disease and diabetes. 46 00:03:05,540 --> 00:03:10,240 If you have diabetes and or if you have heart disease, you're going to have dementia. 47 00:03:10,240 --> 00:03:17,520 Anything that type 3 diabetes is what dementia is being called now because of the devastating 48 00:03:17,520 --> 00:03:22,720 effects of increased blood sugar damaging nerves and blood vessels everywhere in your 49 00:03:22,720 --> 00:03:25,520 body, especially your brain. 50 00:03:25,520 --> 00:03:30,360 And any kind of cardiovascular disease is number one going to be present in the arteries 51 00:03:30,360 --> 00:03:31,360 of your brain. 52 00:03:31,360 --> 00:03:35,680 If you've got hardening of the arteries anywhere, you've got hardening of the arteries everywhere 53 00:03:35,680 --> 00:03:40,400 in your body, including your brain, narrowing blood flow to your brain, impairing your brain's 54 00:03:40,400 --> 00:03:43,680 ability to get the nutrients it needs to heal and repair itself. 55 00:03:43,680 --> 00:03:47,000 And nerve tissue was once thought to not be able to heal at all. 56 00:03:47,000 --> 00:03:50,240 If you lose nerve cells, you can never get them back. 57 00:03:50,240 --> 00:03:52,680 Well, fortunately, we now know that's not true. 58 00:03:52,680 --> 00:03:57,080 You can replace brain cells that have become lost, but it's a very slow process. 59 00:03:57,080 --> 00:04:01,520 And you know, it takes certain things that you have to identify on testing and certain 60 00:04:01,520 --> 00:04:05,680 nutrients, usually just eating better food and exercising alone is not enough, although 61 00:04:05,680 --> 00:04:07,720 that's a key component. 62 00:04:07,720 --> 00:04:13,440 So I finished the last week's episode talking about some things anybody can do to avoid 63 00:04:13,440 --> 00:04:14,560 damaging their brain. 64 00:04:14,560 --> 00:04:18,000 And this is using artificial sweeteners. 65 00:04:18,000 --> 00:04:20,840 All artificial sweeteners are bad. 66 00:04:20,840 --> 00:04:26,240 They are excitotoxins, meaning they jangle your nerves, and they interfere with your 67 00:04:26,240 --> 00:04:27,760 appetite suppressant hormones. 68 00:04:27,760 --> 00:04:30,840 So they basically have been shown to make fat. 69 00:04:30,840 --> 00:04:33,800 Many of them have been shown to make fat people fatter. 70 00:04:33,800 --> 00:04:37,620 They're not a good substitute for sugar. 71 00:04:37,620 --> 00:04:39,080 There are much better substitutes. 72 00:04:39,080 --> 00:04:43,080 If you have a sweet tooth, that tooth is in your gut, not your mouth. 73 00:04:43,080 --> 00:04:47,040 It's your gut that's causing you to crave those things. 74 00:04:47,040 --> 00:04:51,600 And the most important thing, well, I usually don't mention this on the show because it 75 00:04:51,600 --> 00:04:52,600 just overwhelms people. 76 00:04:52,600 --> 00:04:57,160 But there is a way you can eliminate those cravings in four months. 77 00:04:57,160 --> 00:05:00,960 So email me if you want to know how to do that. 78 00:05:00,960 --> 00:05:06,440 But some other things you can do are just avoid taking these horrible artificial sweeteners, 79 00:05:06,440 --> 00:05:11,320 like all the things that come in the packets in restaurants, the yellow packet, the pink 80 00:05:11,320 --> 00:05:15,720 packet, the blue packet, saccharin, sucralose, Splenda, Equal. 81 00:05:15,720 --> 00:05:17,600 All of those things are excitotoxins. 82 00:05:17,600 --> 00:05:21,240 Don't take those kind of artificial sweeteners. 83 00:05:21,240 --> 00:05:23,960 What's the difference between an artificial and a natural sweetener? 84 00:05:23,960 --> 00:05:26,840 Artificial sweeteners are manufactured. 85 00:05:26,840 --> 00:05:35,040 They're made by huge multinational corporations like Cargill and Coca-Cola. 86 00:05:35,040 --> 00:05:42,600 They're designed to make things taste good really cheaply and they ignore the fact that 87 00:05:42,600 --> 00:05:46,120 they screw up your hormones and your nerves. 88 00:05:46,120 --> 00:05:47,800 So better alternatives are Stevia. 89 00:05:47,800 --> 00:05:49,840 I talked a lot about Stevia last time. 90 00:05:49,840 --> 00:05:53,160 Stevia is not an artificial sweetener. 91 00:05:53,160 --> 00:05:54,380 It's a plant. 92 00:05:54,380 --> 00:05:56,760 You can buy it and plant it in your own garden. 93 00:05:56,760 --> 00:05:57,760 I have it in my garden. 94 00:05:57,760 --> 00:06:04,640 You can get Stevia seedlings at Green Thumb in the local nursery here in Ventura. 95 00:06:04,640 --> 00:06:09,320 It's a tiny little shrub with little leaves and you can chew on them and it's amazing. 96 00:06:09,320 --> 00:06:10,320 They're super sweet. 97 00:06:10,320 --> 00:06:12,960 It's kind of nice to throw them in a salad. 98 00:06:12,960 --> 00:06:19,000 But if you've ever had Stevia in packets, you know, powdered Stevia usually tastes terrible. 99 00:06:19,000 --> 00:06:21,680 It has an aftertaste that is not good. 100 00:06:21,680 --> 00:06:27,640 I mean, it's no worse than the aftertaste of the other stuff in the packets, but it's 101 00:06:27,640 --> 00:06:30,000 not great and a lot of people don't like it. 102 00:06:30,000 --> 00:06:34,400 I've asked people all the time, have you ever tried adding a little Stevia to your water 103 00:06:34,400 --> 00:06:36,960 for different issues? 104 00:06:36,960 --> 00:06:41,480 People have sores in their mouth, people have heartburn, people have anything that's irritating 105 00:06:41,480 --> 00:06:47,000 their mouth or their throat, adding a little Stevia to their drinking water is a good thing. 106 00:06:47,000 --> 00:06:52,760 And if they're diabetic or overweight or having brain, heart, cardiovascular issues, any number 107 00:06:52,760 --> 00:06:57,880 of signs of inflammation to their body, and they're using sugar in their tea or their 108 00:06:57,880 --> 00:07:04,400 coffee, then I recommend they switch to a specific brand of liquid Stevia that tastes 109 00:07:04,400 --> 00:07:05,400 really good. 110 00:07:05,400 --> 00:07:11,840 And that brand again, I mentioned it last week, is Sweet Leaf Sweet Drops Vanilla Flavored 111 00:07:11,840 --> 00:07:12,840 Liquid Stevia. 112 00:07:12,840 --> 00:07:16,920 You can get it in some stores, you can get it on Amazon. 113 00:07:16,920 --> 00:07:20,720 Sweet Leaf Sweet Drops Vanilla Flavored Liquid Stevia. 114 00:07:20,720 --> 00:07:21,720 Why vanilla flavored? 115 00:07:21,720 --> 00:07:22,720 They have a bunch of different flavors. 116 00:07:22,720 --> 00:07:24,680 They have a plain one. 117 00:07:24,680 --> 00:07:25,680 Plain one's gross. 118 00:07:25,680 --> 00:07:26,680 It tastes like cotton candy. 119 00:07:26,680 --> 00:07:28,920 It's just blech, streaky. 120 00:07:28,920 --> 00:07:31,220 The middle one tastes the best in my humble opinion. 121 00:07:31,220 --> 00:07:33,240 Try it, try a couple other ones, you know, get what you like. 122 00:07:33,240 --> 00:07:35,160 But it's a really great product to try. 123 00:07:35,160 --> 00:07:38,920 The liquids are so much better than the powdered versions. 124 00:07:38,920 --> 00:07:45,920 The other great natural sweetener is Alulose, spelled all you lose. 125 00:07:45,920 --> 00:07:48,920 A-L-L-U-L-O-S-E. 126 00:07:48,920 --> 00:07:50,680 It is not an artificial sweetener. 127 00:07:50,680 --> 00:07:55,280 It is naturally derived mainly from monk fruit and most of the products that you can buy 128 00:07:55,280 --> 00:07:57,720 to use as an alternative sweetener. 129 00:07:57,720 --> 00:08:03,600 It's in a few other foods and the body produces small amounts of it by naturally breaking 130 00:08:03,600 --> 00:08:06,520 down fructose and fruits and some other foods. 131 00:08:06,520 --> 00:08:10,080 But most people have never heard of it as an alternative sweetener. 132 00:08:10,080 --> 00:08:11,080 And the same thing applies. 133 00:08:11,080 --> 00:08:12,080 You can get it. 134 00:08:12,080 --> 00:08:13,880 It doesn't taste as bad. 135 00:08:13,880 --> 00:08:20,440 Of the powdered alternative natural sweeteners, even compared to the artificial ones, it tastes 136 00:08:20,440 --> 00:08:21,440 much better. 137 00:08:21,440 --> 00:08:23,520 You can use it in baking instead of sugar. 138 00:08:23,520 --> 00:08:27,280 It's about half as sweet as sugar. 139 00:08:27,280 --> 00:08:28,800 So you have to use a lot of it. 140 00:08:28,800 --> 00:08:32,400 It's not one of these ones like, you know, these artificial sweeteners is the reason 141 00:08:32,400 --> 00:08:35,560 people, the other reason people use them is because they're cheap, but they're also hundreds 142 00:08:35,560 --> 00:08:37,440 of times sweeter than sugar. 143 00:08:37,440 --> 00:08:39,960 So you can use tiny amounts of them. 144 00:08:39,960 --> 00:08:42,160 Stevia is also much, much sweeter than regular sugar. 145 00:08:42,160 --> 00:08:45,180 Alulose is less sweet than sugar. 146 00:08:45,180 --> 00:08:50,760 So you have to use more of it than you would, about double the amount that you would compared 147 00:08:50,760 --> 00:08:52,200 to regular sugar. 148 00:08:52,200 --> 00:08:55,600 But it comes in a syrup, which tastes much better than the powder. 149 00:08:55,600 --> 00:08:59,720 You can get an alulose syrup that actually tastes a little bit like honey. 150 00:08:59,720 --> 00:09:05,720 And the brand is My Normal Keto Alulose. 151 00:09:05,720 --> 00:09:08,520 My Normal Keto Alulose. 152 00:09:08,520 --> 00:09:10,240 I just get it on Amazon. 153 00:09:10,240 --> 00:09:11,680 It's probably available in stores. 154 00:09:11,680 --> 00:09:14,800 I haven't really checked, but it tastes really well. 155 00:09:14,800 --> 00:09:15,800 I have it. 156 00:09:15,800 --> 00:09:18,960 I keep it in the office to let people taste it because it's really important to find some 157 00:09:18,960 --> 00:09:24,480 kind of, if you're going to put something sweet in your tea or your coffee or anything 158 00:09:24,480 --> 00:09:29,640 else that you're consuming regularly, it's a really good idea to have options other than 159 00:09:29,640 --> 00:09:31,480 sugar and alulose tastes great. 160 00:09:31,480 --> 00:09:33,440 It has basically no aftertaste. 161 00:09:33,440 --> 00:09:35,360 It tastes almost exactly like sugar. 162 00:09:35,360 --> 00:09:42,080 It is the closest one, closest alternative sweetener to sugar that I have ever found. 163 00:09:42,080 --> 00:09:43,320 I'm Dr. Todd Binkley. 164 00:09:43,320 --> 00:09:47,400 You're listening to Safe, Effective, Natural Solutions to Almost Any Health Challenge. 165 00:09:47,400 --> 00:09:52,440 I'm still talking about the health of your brain and the effect on it of cardiovascular 166 00:09:52,440 --> 00:09:53,960 disease and diabetes. 167 00:09:53,960 --> 00:09:58,200 If you have either diabetes or cardiovascular disease, even in a mild form, then you're 168 00:09:58,200 --> 00:10:02,120 going to start getting mild damage to your brains. 169 00:10:02,120 --> 00:10:08,400 Loss of circulation from cardiovascular disease and efficient distribution and provision of 170 00:10:08,400 --> 00:10:10,520 nutrients that your brain needs. 171 00:10:10,520 --> 00:10:14,520 Brain tissue does heal and repair itself, but very, very slowly. 172 00:10:14,520 --> 00:10:19,960 So even small disruptions in the supply of nutrients to those cells is going to result 173 00:10:19,960 --> 00:10:26,440 in faster breakdown of those cells and the resulting, mainly, dementia is the most common 174 00:10:26,440 --> 00:10:27,520 result of that. 175 00:10:27,520 --> 00:10:31,600 So what else can anybody do to minimize their risk of that? 176 00:10:31,600 --> 00:10:32,600 Well, here's one. 177 00:10:32,600 --> 00:10:34,800 Don't take statin drugs. 178 00:10:34,800 --> 00:10:37,520 Statin drugs are almost like a religion for mainstream medicine. 179 00:10:37,520 --> 00:10:42,560 The pharmaceutical marketing is so prevalent and they've got a couple of weak studies, 180 00:10:42,560 --> 00:10:47,240 most of which have been done by the pharmaceutical companies that make statin drugs, follow the 181 00:10:47,240 --> 00:10:48,240 money. 182 00:10:48,240 --> 00:10:52,600 It's a huge, multi-billion dollar industry, one of the most commonly prescribed class 183 00:10:52,600 --> 00:10:55,080 of medications. 184 00:10:55,080 --> 00:10:56,400 Cholesterol doesn't cause heart disease. 185 00:10:56,400 --> 00:10:58,200 Inflammation causes heart disease. 186 00:10:58,200 --> 00:11:00,740 Cholesterol is a component of the formation of plaque. 187 00:11:00,740 --> 00:11:05,040 So if you have high cholesterol, you have an increased risk of heart disease. 188 00:11:05,040 --> 00:11:10,720 But statins are not the only way, and certainly not the best way, to reduce cholesterol in 189 00:11:10,720 --> 00:11:15,160 your body, and reducing cholesterol isn't the most important way to prevent your risk 190 00:11:15,160 --> 00:11:16,160 of heart disease. 191 00:11:16,160 --> 00:11:21,120 Lots of, half the people, a study of 55,000 hospital admissions for heart attacks and 192 00:11:21,120 --> 00:11:26,600 strokes showed that half of those people who showed up in hospital with a heart attack 193 00:11:26,600 --> 00:11:30,440 or a stroke had normal or low cholesterol. 194 00:11:30,440 --> 00:11:37,680 Well, that's pretty conclusive that cholesterol isn't causing most heart attacks and strokes. 195 00:11:37,680 --> 00:11:41,560 It's associated, it's strongly associated with heart attacks and strokes. 196 00:11:41,560 --> 00:11:46,480 But statin drugs are not the only way to lower your cholesterol, and lowering your cholesterol 197 00:11:46,480 --> 00:11:49,360 by any means is not the only way to reduce your risk of heart disease. 198 00:11:49,360 --> 00:11:50,720 So here's another great study. 199 00:11:50,720 --> 00:11:54,720 I love it when studies like this come out, and a lot of my patients do as well. 200 00:11:54,720 --> 00:11:58,320 I get most of the patients that come to see me, that's one of the main reasons they're 201 00:11:58,320 --> 00:11:59,320 coming. 202 00:11:59,320 --> 00:12:00,320 My doctor said I need to take a statin drug. 203 00:12:00,320 --> 00:12:01,520 I heard that you had another option. 204 00:12:01,520 --> 00:12:02,520 Yes, I do. 205 00:12:02,520 --> 00:12:07,640 There are several other options to reduce your risk of heart disease without taking 206 00:12:07,640 --> 00:12:08,640 statin. 207 00:12:08,640 --> 00:12:15,680 So this study showed that statin agents play a major role in secondary prevention after 208 00:12:15,680 --> 00:12:21,560 you've had heart attack or a stroke, but is not indicated in all patients who've had ischemic 209 00:12:21,560 --> 00:12:25,520 stroke or the most common type of stroke, or even TIAs. 210 00:12:25,520 --> 00:12:32,360 National guidelines recommend statins for patients existing arteriosclerosis, hardening 211 00:12:32,360 --> 00:12:39,040 of the arteries in larger small vessels and existing coronary artery disease, but the 212 00:12:39,040 --> 00:12:44,840 potential effect, the adverse effect, the burden of statin overuse in the remaining 213 00:12:44,840 --> 00:12:52,160 patients who don't have pre-existing documented arteriosclerosis has not been well delineated. 214 00:12:52,160 --> 00:12:55,400 So that's why they did this study, was to evaluate the effects of that. 215 00:12:55,400 --> 00:13:01,960 So the results were, and this is data that was from 63 randomized clinical trials and 216 00:13:01,960 --> 00:13:09,640 enrolling 155,000 patients in statin therapy was associated with increased risk of six 217 00:13:09,640 --> 00:13:10,960 conditions. 218 00:13:10,960 --> 00:13:18,000 Statin therapy in 155,000 patients from 63 randomized controlled trials increased the 219 00:13:18,000 --> 00:13:26,120 occurrence of diabetes, myalgia or muscle pain and weakness, myopathy to damage to muscles, 220 00:13:26,120 --> 00:13:30,680 liver disease, renal insufficiency and eye disease. 221 00:13:30,680 --> 00:13:35,600 That's not good, especially if it's not necessary for you. 222 00:13:35,600 --> 00:13:43,080 Across 55 large series enrolling 53,000 patients, the rate of stroke due to these criteria was 223 00:13:43,080 --> 00:13:45,200 only 45%. 224 00:13:45,200 --> 00:13:50,600 So the remaining 55% of patients didn't need statin drugs and they're at these increased 225 00:13:50,600 --> 00:13:51,600 risk, 65%. 226 00:13:51,600 --> 00:13:55,920 And there was another study that I talked about in a previous episode that was closer 227 00:13:55,920 --> 00:14:02,040 to 70, 75% of patients who are given statin drugs do not have the basic criteria that's 228 00:14:02,040 --> 00:14:04,760 been determined to recommend their use. 229 00:14:04,760 --> 00:14:11,080 In other words, you don't need a statin drug and it's likely to do you more harm than good 230 00:14:11,080 --> 00:14:18,160 and cause increased risk of diabetes, muscle damage or weakness, liver disease, renal insufficiency 231 00:14:18,160 --> 00:14:20,760 and eye disease. 232 00:14:20,760 --> 00:14:24,200 So if you're looking for an alternative to statin drugs to lower your cholesterol, I've 233 00:14:24,200 --> 00:14:28,560 been helping people with that for many, many years and the products that have been out 234 00:14:28,560 --> 00:14:31,080 keep getting better and better. 235 00:14:31,080 --> 00:14:36,200 Things like pantothene, niacin, if you can tolerate it, is the most expensive route and 236 00:14:36,200 --> 00:14:38,460 works the best for some people. 237 00:14:38,460 --> 00:14:44,400 But for most people, the best product I've found is called Bergamot BPF from Orthomolecular 238 00:14:44,400 --> 00:14:45,400 Products. 239 00:14:45,400 --> 00:14:46,400 It's not cheap. 240 00:14:46,400 --> 00:14:50,960 It costs about $80, $90 a month for the dose that you need to start out with and then it 241 00:14:50,960 --> 00:14:53,140 gets a little bit less expensive over time. 242 00:14:53,140 --> 00:14:58,160 But I've had people routinely drop their total cholesterol and their LDL bad cholesterol 243 00:14:58,160 --> 00:15:00,860 by 25, 30 points or more. 244 00:15:00,860 --> 00:15:03,040 Some people 50 points. 245 00:15:03,040 --> 00:15:09,040 One patient in her 70s who dropped her total cholesterol, 70 points on this product and 246 00:15:09,040 --> 00:15:11,560 the basic nutrients that I recommend for everyone. 247 00:15:11,560 --> 00:15:15,160 So there are many, many other options to lower your cholesterol. 248 00:15:15,160 --> 00:15:18,720 And again, I always have to stress, lowering your cholesterol is not the most important 249 00:15:18,720 --> 00:15:21,120 thing to lowering your risk of heart disease. 250 00:15:21,120 --> 00:15:27,400 There are other tests that can evaluate for heart disease risk like erythrocyte sedimentation 251 00:15:27,400 --> 00:15:29,960 rate which measures your blood viscosity, how thick is your blood. 252 00:15:29,960 --> 00:15:35,880 If your blood is thick, it is because it has inflammatory debris, the results of systemic 253 00:15:35,880 --> 00:15:36,880 inflammation. 254 00:15:36,880 --> 00:15:42,400 There are other markers for inflammation like C-reactive protein, sophisticated cardiovascular 255 00:15:42,400 --> 00:15:43,760 panels for a couple hundred bucks. 256 00:15:43,760 --> 00:15:50,480 You can measure a whole host of even more finely detailed for people who need it, risk 257 00:15:50,480 --> 00:15:55,720 factors for heart disease and then use those as benchmarks to flood your body with nutrients 258 00:15:55,720 --> 00:16:00,720 for three to four months usually and then retest and make sure that's working. 259 00:16:00,720 --> 00:16:04,680 This is a way you can document, you can know exactly where you are, what your real risk 260 00:16:04,680 --> 00:16:09,080 is because just you're getting your cholesterol tested tells you nothing. 261 00:16:09,080 --> 00:16:12,280 Identify your real risk with a little more sophisticated testing. 262 00:16:12,280 --> 00:16:16,920 Might cost you a few hundred dollars out of pocket, but then you can take some nutrients 263 00:16:16,920 --> 00:16:22,560 and retest again and confirm that you're on the right track, that these numbers are improving 264 00:16:22,560 --> 00:16:27,560 and that you're doing the best you can to reduce your risk. 265 00:16:27,560 --> 00:16:33,520 That study that I was just reviewing was published in the American Heart Association Journal 266 00:16:33,520 --> 00:16:42,520 Stroke by Elena Mina-Sung MS and Jeffrey Saver MD in June 2024. 267 00:16:42,520 --> 00:16:48,320 I had a really exciting patient who came to me, a stroke victim a few months back, maybe 268 00:16:48,320 --> 00:16:50,520 a little over a year ago, late 50s. 269 00:16:50,520 --> 00:16:52,440 He came to me three weeks after he'd had a stroke. 270 00:16:52,440 --> 00:16:58,080 They put him on statin drugs of course, even though I've just cited a good research that 271 00:16:58,080 --> 00:17:02,320 makes that a bad idea for most people and a couple of other medications which were important 272 00:17:02,320 --> 00:17:06,840 for him to take for a short term to recover from the stroke, but he had loss of about 273 00:17:06,840 --> 00:17:12,080 70% function in his left arm, his left face, side of his face was drooping a bit and he 274 00:17:12,080 --> 00:17:13,400 had a limp in his left leg. 275 00:17:13,400 --> 00:17:15,520 He was really worried about it obviously. 276 00:17:15,520 --> 00:17:18,680 I put him on a, and he wanted to not take any of those medications. 277 00:17:18,680 --> 00:17:21,040 I said, well you actually should take a couple of these. 278 00:17:21,040 --> 00:17:25,480 You want to take your blood pressure medication until your blood pressure returns to normal 279 00:17:25,480 --> 00:17:26,480 without it. 280 00:17:26,480 --> 00:17:30,280 They had him on a special medication for his heart which I felt was important for him to 281 00:17:30,280 --> 00:17:32,080 keep taking. 282 00:17:32,080 --> 00:17:35,640 I told him that I don't, yeah we can definitely give you something better than the statin 283 00:17:35,640 --> 00:17:37,880 drugs but I'm not going to tell you to stop taking that either. 284 00:17:37,880 --> 00:17:41,520 You have to go discuss that with your cardiologist and tell them this is your plan. 285 00:17:41,520 --> 00:17:42,840 You want to do this instead. 286 00:17:42,840 --> 00:17:43,840 That's your choice. 287 00:17:43,840 --> 00:17:45,280 I can't make that for you. 288 00:17:45,280 --> 00:17:47,120 But anyway, that's what he did. 289 00:17:47,120 --> 00:17:53,520 After about three weeks, the function in his hand had improved about 50-60%. 290 00:17:53,520 --> 00:17:57,000 His facial droop was gone and his limp was improving. 291 00:17:57,000 --> 00:18:02,520 After about six weeks, he reported that he felt about 95% improved. 292 00:18:02,520 --> 00:18:06,800 This was all with just basic nutrients, same things I describe over and over again on this 293 00:18:06,800 --> 00:18:11,680 program to reduce inflammation in his cardiovascular system, reduce his cholesterol levels. 294 00:18:11,680 --> 00:18:16,400 Yes, we did that sophisticated cardiovascular profile on him and basically showed that he 295 00:18:16,400 --> 00:18:20,800 had a genetic condition that would have resulted in statin drugs having no benefit for him 296 00:18:20,800 --> 00:18:21,800 anyway. 297 00:18:21,800 --> 00:18:27,280 But we lowered his cholesterol with bergamot and a couple of other things, controlled, 298 00:18:27,280 --> 00:18:31,440 mostly controlled inflammation with a host of nutrients to reduce the inflammation throughout 299 00:18:31,440 --> 00:18:32,440 his body. 300 00:18:32,440 --> 00:18:37,920 That his heart and brain, his blood vessels and brain could heal. 301 00:18:37,920 --> 00:18:42,040 Some important nutrients for brain cell repair. 302 00:18:42,040 --> 00:18:47,720 And he was about 95% better at a few, I think it was about six or eight weeks. 303 00:18:47,720 --> 00:18:49,640 I forget exactly when that was. 304 00:18:49,640 --> 00:18:54,520 And at that point, I told him, you know, there's no guarantee that you're going to get to the 305 00:18:54,520 --> 00:18:57,560 other, you wanted to be 100%, right? 306 00:18:57,560 --> 00:19:00,080 And there's no way to guarantee that it's going to happen. 307 00:19:00,080 --> 00:19:05,000 I recommend that he do something called hyperbaric oxygen therapy. 308 00:19:05,000 --> 00:19:10,560 So hyperbaric oxygen therapy is a way to flood oxygen to every cell in the body, even places 309 00:19:10,560 --> 00:19:14,760 that it can't get to when you've had a blockage from a stroke. 310 00:19:14,760 --> 00:19:19,160 And he did that for a few weeks and got back to 100% recovery. 311 00:19:19,160 --> 00:19:24,560 No effect, no total restoration of his arm function, limp, gone. 312 00:19:24,560 --> 00:19:26,320 And he felt as good as new. 313 00:19:26,320 --> 00:19:31,600 Who do you know that's had a stroke or had a cardiac heart attack or any other cardiovascular 314 00:19:31,600 --> 00:19:37,480 incident, or has been diagnosed with cardiomyopathy or congestive heart failure where your ankles 315 00:19:37,480 --> 00:19:41,560 start swelling up and fluid backs up into your lungs or atrial fibrillation where you 316 00:19:41,560 --> 00:19:44,640 get this flutter that increases your risk of stroke. 317 00:19:44,640 --> 00:19:48,000 Any kind of cardiovascular disease is huge. 318 00:19:48,000 --> 00:19:54,920 There's always a huge opportunity to improve the outcomes in the life span and life enjoyment 319 00:19:54,920 --> 00:20:01,360 of a patient like that with proper diagnosis of things that are very commonly missed and 320 00:20:01,360 --> 00:20:06,960 by eating better food, getting a little bit better exercise, and especially several targeted 321 00:20:06,960 --> 00:20:07,960 supplements. 322 00:20:07,960 --> 00:20:12,920 But what else could you do all by yourself to reduce your risk of getting these things 323 00:20:12,920 --> 00:20:13,920 in the first place? 324 00:20:13,920 --> 00:20:18,120 Well, everyone knows that regular exercise is important for your heart. 325 00:20:18,120 --> 00:20:24,120 Anything that benefits your heart, including and especially cardiovascular exercise, improves 326 00:20:24,120 --> 00:20:26,920 your brain, every aspect of your brain. 327 00:20:26,920 --> 00:20:28,280 It's great for mood disorders. 328 00:20:28,280 --> 00:20:34,000 It reduces anxiety and depression and obsessive compulsive disorder. 329 00:20:34,000 --> 00:20:39,440 It can dramatically reduce your risk of dementia and Parkinson's and other neurodegenerative 330 00:20:39,440 --> 00:20:44,200 diseases that are the result of breakdown of tissue in your brain. 331 00:20:44,200 --> 00:20:47,520 But oh, you know, it's just hard to get out and exercise. 332 00:20:47,520 --> 00:20:48,840 So here's a great study. 333 00:20:48,840 --> 00:20:49,840 I love this. 334 00:20:49,840 --> 00:20:54,040 I'm a cat person myself, but I like other people's dogs. 335 00:20:54,040 --> 00:20:56,480 Here's a great way to get your regular exercise. 336 00:20:56,480 --> 00:20:57,560 You guessed it. 337 00:20:57,560 --> 00:20:58,560 Get a dog. 338 00:20:58,560 --> 00:21:00,000 Well, that seems kind of obvious. 339 00:21:00,000 --> 00:21:01,880 If you get a dog, you've got to walk it. 340 00:21:01,880 --> 00:21:05,200 That's going to force you to get your exercise pretty straightforward. 341 00:21:05,200 --> 00:21:07,440 Lots of people have already made the choice to do that. 342 00:21:07,440 --> 00:21:12,320 But if you're on the fence, if you've ever considered getting a dog and are, you know, 343 00:21:12,320 --> 00:21:16,800 how big of a deal, if this would push you over the edge, obviously having a dog is a 344 00:21:16,800 --> 00:21:22,480 commitment of 10 to 15 years, maybe longer. 345 00:21:22,480 --> 00:21:26,880 But that's part of the benefit because it's going to establish a habit for you to get 346 00:21:26,880 --> 00:21:31,000 into the routine of getting out and getting your exercise along with the dog. 347 00:21:31,000 --> 00:21:32,000 That's obvious. 348 00:21:32,000 --> 00:21:38,800 But in a paper published from Univadis Italy on Medscape, they're actually documenting 349 00:21:38,800 --> 00:21:42,960 some really important benefits that you might not realize. 350 00:21:42,960 --> 00:21:45,600 And I really like this paper because it covers the basics. 351 00:21:45,600 --> 00:21:50,440 Just to review, regular physical exercise is well known to reduce all cause mortality. 352 00:21:50,440 --> 00:21:51,440 Hello. 353 00:21:51,440 --> 00:21:55,520 It can reduce your risk of dying from any cause, as well as from cardiovascular disease 354 00:21:55,520 --> 00:21:56,800 and cancer. 355 00:21:56,800 --> 00:22:00,880 Regular physical exercise is considered an effective treatment for numerous chronic conditions, 356 00:22:00,880 --> 00:22:08,240 including depression, hypertension, cognitive decline, osteoarthritis, and type 2 diabetes. 357 00:22:08,240 --> 00:22:15,400 Physical inactivity is the second most important cardiovascular risk right after lousy diet. 358 00:22:15,400 --> 00:22:21,480 Physical activity is more important than high cholesterol, hyperglycemia from diabetes, 359 00:22:21,480 --> 00:22:28,140 high blood pressure, obesity, thrombosis, smoking, renal dysfunction, and genetic or 360 00:22:28,140 --> 00:22:30,760 familial hypocalesterolemia. 361 00:22:30,760 --> 00:22:32,320 So this is fantastic. 362 00:22:32,320 --> 00:22:36,240 This is just such a great overview, even though it's an article about getting a dog. 363 00:22:36,240 --> 00:22:38,480 I'm going to review that. 364 00:22:38,480 --> 00:22:42,200 The following things are less risk. 365 00:22:42,200 --> 00:22:50,160 Physical not exercising is a bigger risk for cardiovascular disease than high cholesterol, 366 00:22:50,160 --> 00:22:59,880 diabetes, high blood pressure, obesity, smoking, kidney disease, and genetic or familial hypercholesterole. 367 00:22:59,880 --> 00:23:07,760 If you have a family risk of hypercholesterole, all of those things are less risk factors 368 00:23:07,760 --> 00:23:11,440 for cardiovascular disease than physical inactivity. 369 00:23:11,440 --> 00:23:17,100 So exercising a little bit will be more important than all of them at reducing your risk. 370 00:23:17,100 --> 00:23:18,100 And they've studied this. 371 00:23:18,100 --> 00:23:24,340 So people who have a dog have a fourfold greater chance of meeting the physical activity guidelines 372 00:23:24,340 --> 00:23:28,920 to dramatically lower their risk for cardiovascular disease. 373 00:23:28,920 --> 00:23:33,600 Studies show that dog owners have lower average blood pressure. 374 00:23:33,600 --> 00:23:40,180 The stress reduction associated with it is documented to improve mood and their emotional 375 00:23:40,180 --> 00:23:46,080 states that can reduce depression and yield positive effects on well-being, particularly 376 00:23:46,080 --> 00:23:53,400 single people, women, children, and older adults experiencing the loss of a spouse or 377 00:23:53,400 --> 00:23:54,400 a divorce. 378 00:23:54,400 --> 00:23:55,400 Wow. 379 00:23:55,400 --> 00:23:56,660 How huge is that? 380 00:23:56,660 --> 00:24:02,240 For many years, service dogs have been used for treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder 381 00:24:02,240 --> 00:24:05,340 in people with all types of post-traumatic stress disorder events. 382 00:24:05,340 --> 00:24:09,300 But there's a lot of research on that in returning soldiers. 383 00:24:09,300 --> 00:24:13,200 Dogs become a member of your family, and that attachment produces changes in oxytocin and 384 00:24:13,200 --> 00:24:18,640 cortisol levels and creates long-term changes that last. 385 00:24:18,640 --> 00:24:19,640 We're out of time. 386 00:24:19,640 --> 00:24:20,640 Thank you for tuning in. 387 00:24:20,640 --> 00:24:25,040 As always, do something to be healthier this weekend than you were last, including considering 388 00:24:25,040 --> 00:24:26,040 getting a dog. 389 00:24:26,040 --> 00:24:27,520 Have a great weekend. 390 00:24:27,520 --> 00:24:33,040 You've been listening to Safe, Effective Natural Solutions with Dr. Todd Binkley. 391 00:24:33,040 --> 00:24:37,340 If you have a health question you want discussed on the show, email your health questions to 392 00:24:37,340 --> 00:24:41,920 Dr. Binkley at BinkleyHealingCenter.com. 393 00:24:41,920 --> 00:24:46,600 Take advantage of this opportunity to ask questions for yourself and for your loved 394 00:24:46,600 --> 00:24:49,560 ones because our health matters. 395 00:24:49,560 --> 00:24:55,880 Join him next Friday at 4 p.m. for Safe, Effective Natural Solutions right here on 396 00:24:55,880 --> 00:25:12,240 98.3 The Word, KDAR.