Prepare to have your health questions answered
here on Safe, Effective Natural Solutions with
Dr. Todd Binkley, owner of Binkley Healing Center
in downtown Ventura. Now, here's Dr. Todd. Good
afternoon. I'm Dr. Todd Binkley, board -certified
doctor of non -force chiropractic and practitioner
of functional medicine. What is functional medicine?
Functional medicine basically means using the
same diagnostic tests, mostly blood tests, but
some other tests that most doctors use to identify
disease, and instead using those same tests and
often more of them with a different metric, a
way of looking at your health of your body to...
Identify earlier signs of stress on your liver,
on your kidneys, on your cardiovascular system
and your immune system in ways and at times that
enable you to restore normal health, to restore
normal function. So functional medicine means
using standard diagnostic tests to identify earlier
signs of stress on your body so that you can
heal yourself, so that you can reverse disease
and not become dependent on pharmaceuticals or
other invasive medical treatments. for the rest
of your life. Medical care is wonderful. Medical
care is necessary when you need it. But a lot
of people would like to be able to avoid it.
And a lot of people, honestly, more people that
come to me have already been through. They've
already seen several other doctors. They've been
through all of the tests. No one has been able
to help them. They've seen specialists. And it's
really frustrating when you go and over and over
again be told that all of your tests are normal.
and there's nothing wrong with you, or even worse,
it's all in your head. People really love to
get a referral to a psychologist or a psychiatrist
when they know they have a real physical complaint.
No, of course, they don't love that. They're
looking for a solution. So if you know somebody
that has been to several doctors and been told
that there's nothing wrong with them, somebody
you love, maybe yourself, have a condition that
no one else has been able to figure out the actual
cause of and come up with a solution that will
enable your body to heal itself again, then I'd
love the opportunity to help you or them and
using functional medicine to identify earlier
signs of stress on all of your organs. So a lot
of the time, people have one condition that they're
bothered with the most, and it's sometimes difficult
to not kind of sometimes become obsessed, really,
with that one thing. Oh, it's this, you know,
if you can just fix this spot, I'll be happy.
Oh, I have a whole bunch of other things going
on, but I don't want to talk about that. I just
want to focus on this one thing. Well, health
and healing doesn't really work that way. Medicine,
taking medication, one drug for one problem is
sometimes important. But if you want to heal
yourself, if you want to identify areas that
need healing in your body, if you want a natural,
safe, effective, natural solution to a problem
that's been bothering you or someone you love
for a long time that no one else has been able
to help, then that usually will require addressing.
everything in your body all at the same time,
identifying problems with multiple organs and
systems and nutrient deficiencies and maybe a
chronic infection that you don't even know you
have, things that don't necessarily fit what
you might have been told about various conditions.
But it's all about combinations, looking at everything
that's happening in your body all at the same
time. One of my favorite metaphors to help people
understand this is what I call the river of life.
Your bloodstream is kind of like a river filled
with nutrients that all of your cells need to
heal and repair themselves. And there are crews
waiting along the banks of this river that are
anxious to heal and repair some part of your
body, do routine maintenance, fix a problem,
cure a disease. And they require the necessary
materials to do that. And oftentimes, many, many
times, much of the time for so many people, those
basic raw materials needed to heal and repair
your kidneys or your liver or your immune system,
those materials are not available. They're not
in your bloodstream. They're not in your river
of life. So to heal and repair yourself, you
need to identify all of the things that are missing.
from your river of life and replace all of those
things, all of them at the same time until your
body is finished healing itself so that those
construction crews finally get all the raw materials
they need to heal and repair everything at the
same time. And a lot of times people say, oh,
I just want to try one vitamin. If you say this
works, if this one thing works for lowering my
cholesterol or my blood pressure or helping with
my arthritis, let me know. I'm just going to
take that. for a few weeks. And then if it works,
then I'll, I'll try the next one that you recommended.
Well, I'm sorry that that doesn't work when you're
river of life. lacks any of the essential nutrients
that your body requires to properly heal and
repair itself, then that is often what underlies
the condition that no one else has been able
to figure out because you need all of the nutrients.
You need to give your body, you need to flood
your river of life with all of the nutrients
required to heal and repair. And, you know, that
seems it is different than the practice of medicine.
Medicine means identifying a single condition,
usually maybe more than one condition, but usually
at least focus on one condition. and one diagnosis
and treatment with a pharmaceutical or a surgical
procedure or some other invasive. often costly
therapy that has side effects that most of us
would rather avoid. And so the only alternative
is to heal and heal and repair yourself naturally
by giving your body all of the nutrients it needs
to do that. And to be able to give your body
all of the nutrients it needs, you must first
identify the ones that are missing. So that is
what functional testing is for, using standard
diagnostic tests to identify places where normal
function is lacking and giving your body. nutrients
that needs to restore that normal function. So
unfortunately, insurance usually does not pay
for functional medicine. Insurance does not pay
to heal and repair your body. What goes under
the rubric of health insurance, really there's
no such thing as health insurance. What we call
health insurance is not health insurance, it's
medical insurance. Medical insurance pays to
identify medical conditions that require immediate
medical intervention with drugs, surgery, etc.
Not to identify whether or not you're healthy.
So people go to the doctor all the time and they're
told all their tests are normal and they're quote
unquote fine. There's nothing wrong with them.
Well, that's not true. Most medical doctors don't
even look, ever look to see whether or not you're
healthy. They look to see whether or not you
have a disease that requires medical intervention.
medical attention. So that's a big difference.
I'm going to say that again. Most doctors, when
you go to a medical doctor, most of the time
for an annual physical or for a checkup or with
a specific complaint, they're not checking to
see if you're healthy. They're checking to see
if you have a medical condition that requires
medical treatment. And they're looking to see
if you have something that they can bill your
medical insurance for, something that is medically
necessary. Health is not medically necessary.
Medical necessity is based on the identification
of a full -blown disease that you already have
that you can't usually heal yourself from. That's
why you need medical care. And that's what medical
insurance is for. And that's a good thing. Everyone
should have medical insurance. All of us are
at one point or another, hopefully later rather
than earlier. probably going to require at some
point medical care. And here in the United States,
we're blessed with among the most amazing medical
care institutions, hospitals, doctors, specialties,
anywhere in the world. We can get amazing medical
care to save our lives in a crisis when we need
it. But it's also important to recognize that.
Most of the care you get from most doctors is
designed to heal disease, not to identify whether
or not you're healthy and not to restore full,
robust, 100 % healthy function. Functional medicine,
on the other hand, is designed specifically for
that purpose, to identify deviations from normal
health and restore normal health with better
food, eating vegetables instead of junk food.
With exercise, finding some way to move your
body that you enjoy. It doesn't really matter
how you move your body. It just matters that
it's something that you enjoy so that you will
do it. The best form of exercise is always something
that you enjoy so that it's easy to work into
and maintain as part of your normal. daily life.
And when those two things, good food and moving
your body, don't do the job, then oftentimes
supplements. Supplements are often required to
help heal the things that have been put off for
too long, healing projects that have become delayed
for far too many months and years. Sometimes
your body needs a little support and that's what
we can identify on tests that you have a vitamin
D deficiency or an insufficient amount. of healthy
nutrients to keep your heart functioning, like
coenzyme Q10 is a common nutrient lacking to
heal and repair your heart. Interestingly, the
statin drugs that medicine loves to tell everyone
they need to lower their cholesterol deplete
this essential nutrient for your heart. So oftentimes
the medicine that might save your life in a crisis
is also making that part of your same part of
your body struggle more to stay healthy. which
sounds crazy because it is. So identifying nutrients
that are missing from your body, from your river
of life, your bloodstream, and repleting those,
giving your body all of the nutrients it needs
all at the same time. That's what restores health.
That's what you'll see. That's what allows us
to see four months later, six months later, three
months later, when we retest the same blood tests
and then identify the places that your body has
improved in. People wonder, how do you know,
for example, that these supplements work, that
you're recommending, or better food? How do you
know that it really is that important to exercise
or eat vegetables? Well, diagnostic tests. The
only way I know to prove that something is working
for any individual is to do tests, make recommendations
that will address the things that show up on
those tests, and then test again. So when any
time you take someone and do a diagnostic test,
provide some kind of treatment for the things
that show up on those tests, and then test again,
that's a case study. That's a legitimate, accurate
way of measuring whether or not something is
working so that you know sometimes when things
are working, most of the time, when you do something
to make yourself feel better. healthier to restore
and repair the normal function of some part of
your body. You feel that. You feel it immediately
and that's easy to detect and it feels wonderful.
But sometimes when you have especially a really
chronic condition like irritable bowel syndrome
or cancer or something that's been around for
a long time, your tests might start to get better
before you feel anything. Some conditions do
require weeks or months even. until your symptoms
are gone and you feel perfectly healthy again.
So using standard diagnostic tests can let us
know if the treatment is working, sometimes even
before you feel that change. And then, of course,
most of the time you do feel changes quicker
than weeks or months. And the diagnostic tests
help confirm that you are, in fact, on the right
track, that your kidneys and your liver and your
heart and your digestive system and your immune
system are working like they should. That's how
you know if any treatment works. That's the only
way I know to identify whether or not any particular
supplement works. For example, people often ask
me, how do you know this product works and some
other product that I might have gotten from Costco
or some store doesn't work? Well, give it to
a few thousand people and test them before and
after and see if it achieves the desired result
on a standard diagnostic test. That's how you
know if something works or not for sure. I'm
Dr. Todd Binkley. You're listening to Safe, Effective,
Natural Solutions to Almost Any Health Challenge.
We're talking about functional medicine, the
restoration of health, the use of diagnostic
tests to identify earlier signs of stress on
your body. And unfortunately, medical insurance
does not pay for this. Medical insurance pays
for medical care in a crisis. It is not health
insurance. It's medical insurance. It does not
pay for anything that does any of the normal
things. that you normally do to make yourself
healthier there's no insurance that will pay
for your gym membership or buy a new water filter
so that you can drink clean water or buy you
organic food or subsidize you growing your own
healthy food anything that you do to maintain
your own health is something that you have to
take care of yourself. Similarly, I like the
analogy I like to help understand this is like
car insurance. Car insurance doesn't pay to keep
your car healthy. Car insurance doesn't pay to
get your oil changed or put new tires or new
belts or hoses on your car or any of the things
that you do, routine maintenance on your car.
It pays, car insurance pays when you crash your
car. And similarly, What we call health insurance
is actually medical insurance, which pays when
you crash your body and need full -blown medical
care in a crisis. And if you think about it,
this makes sense. The way insurance, any kind
of insurance works is a bunch of us pool our
resources, put them all into one pot so that
when one of us needs help in a crisis, there's
money there ready to take care of us. There's
never going to be a way for you to pay money
to some... middleman to get you all the care
you need to heal and repair yourself. That's
ongoing maintenance. That is the responsibility
of everyone to take care of themselves. So there
is, however, unsurprisingly to some, many ways
of identifying. The causes, the root causes of
whatever is ailing you and coming up with a means
of healing your body and restoring yourself to
full health when you have even severe conditions
like full -blown diabetes. Some of the things
that I see, for example, which are often severe
cases, are people that have had diabetes and
been on medication for diabetes for 10, 20, 30
years. Sometimes, oftentimes, you can still reverse
diabetes, even if you've had it for years, even
if you're on medication for it. If you take better
care of yourself and identify all the things
that are contributing to that, you can reverse
diabetes. People come to me with cancer. I don't
treat cancer. I don't ask people to come to me
to get their cancer treated. But people show
up with diabetes or arthritis or irritable bowel
syndrome or some other condition. And I do a
full case history like I do on everyone. They
revealed that they have cancer. They have breast
cancer. This week, I've had new patients that
are recovering from breast cancer. Another one
who's recovering from prostate cancer. Another
one who's recovering from colon cancer. That's
just in one week. And so I explained to them
that I'm not going to treat their cancer, quote
unquote, air quotes. That's the province of oncologists.
But whatever you show up with, I am going to
identify places where every part of your body
needs a little bit of help and show you how to
give it that help so that you can heal and repair
yourself. And that often results in people getting
better outcomes. If they're going through cancer
treatment now, if they're going through chemo
and radiation, you can do healthy nutrients,
eat better food, exercise a little bit, and take
some nutrients that are lacking that your oncologist
won't check for you. I can identify those things
and show you how to alternate, not the same day.
You don't want to take a lot of supplements when
you're going through chemotherapy, for example,
or sometimes other forms of cancer treatment,
radiotherapy, immunotherapy. But you can still
do both at the same time, meaning in the same
weeks or months period that you're going through,
just by not doing it on the same day. You don't
take all your vitamins when you go in that day
to get chemotherapy. but you're usually getting
that in cycles anyway. So on the days that you're
not taking chemotherapy, after waiting sometimes
a day or two, then you can flood your body with
all the nutrients it needs to recover from the
damaging effects of the chemo and give your body
a better fighting chance to heal and recover
from cancer. So that's not treating cancer, that's
treating a person. and restoring the health of
a person that has cancer. And among other common
people that I see all the time are people, there
are millions, I think the last count I heard
statistics, something like 20 million cancer
survivors in the United States alone. So there
are better treatments. Even the standard medical
treatments get better and better for some cancers
like breast cancer. A few of the other cancers,
the medical treatment is getting better and lots
of people are surviving. And the downside of
that is once you survive cancer from standard
oncology, then you're usually on your own. They
might have you come back in a year for tests
to make sure the cancer is not coming back because
you can identify cancer fighting activity in
your body before it will show up on a scan on
blood tests called tumor markers. In fact, most
oncologists don't. Never use these tumor markers
until after you've been treated for cancer because
they know what kind of cancer you have already,
which has been identified on scans. And they
know that before cancer, if it comes back, before
it will show up on a scan, there are blood tests
that will identify cancer -fighting activity
before it shows up on a scan. So that's why they
use those tests. But you can also, any doctor
can use those tests to identify cancer. fighting
activity in your body that's happening right
now before it's big enough to show up on a scan.
Before you get a diagnosis of cancer, you can
use these same tumor markers to identify cancer
fighting activity. So most doctors don't do this
before you have cancer because there's no treatment.
There's no standard medical treatment for early
signs of cancer developing. They're not going
to give you chemotherapy or radiation if you
have early signs of cancer -fighting activity,
and you can't diagnose cancer with... standard
tumor markers, you have to diagnose cancer by
seeing it on a scan, on an MRI, on a mammogram,
on an ultrasound, on an x -ray, on a CAT scan,
et cetera, PET scan. These are ways that you
diagnose cancer. But you can identify cancer
-fighting activity anytime with tumor markers
and help your body, support your body, give it
the nutrients it needs to heal itself and give
you a better fighting chance to survive a cancer
and prevent its recurrence. Lower your risk,
reduce your risk of that cancer coming back.
I'm Dr. Todd Binkley. You're listening to Safe,
Effective, Natural Solutions to almost any health
challenge. I'll begin getting a lot of new patients
coming in, listeners to this show, with various
conditions, sometimes simple things like just
not being able to lose weight. I have a woman
who came in who knows she needs to lose weight
and has tried. quote -unquote, that you're normally
told to do, and it's just not working. And there
are a lot of reasons for that that can be identified
on testing, such as low thyroid, borderline low
thyroid. You can go get your thyroid tested,
your TSH, by your standard general practitioner
and be told that your thyroid is fine and still
have functioning low thyroid. You can be told
that you don't have anemia and still have functioning.
anemia, iron deficiency, B12 deficiency that
will show up on tests if you know how to read
them for normal health as opposed to just a full
-blown disease that requires medicine. So there
are a number of reasons that people have fatigue
and difficulty shifting weight that fly under
the radar of standard medical treatment but can
be identified on proper functional testing. And
toxins is another huge one. People with rashes
that no one has been able to figure out how to
treat. taking every kind of cream or allergy
medicine or steroid medication, and it just never
goes away. And that's often because of toxins.
We're all exposed to toxic chemicals and pesticides
and fertilizers in the food we eat, in the air
we breathe, in wildfire smoke, which we've talked
about many times before. And there are just a
whole host of things that make it really difficult
for your body to heal and repair itself. And
exposure to heavy metals, mercury, lead, arsenic.
cadmium, uranium. These things are identifiable
on tests. Interestingly, the toxins are not usually
very well identified on blood tests. Blood tests
are the standard test for most things, but not
toxins. Toxins are flushed out of your bloodstream
as quickly as your body can possibly flush them
out. Your kidneys and your colon, your liver
will identify the presence of toxins that you're
exposed to and flush them out as best as it can.
But when you're exposed to heavy metals like
mercury or lead or arsenic or chemicals like
organophosphates, fertilizers, pesticides, Roundup.
One of the most common pesticides used that all
of us are exposed if you're downwind from a farm,
anywhere that's being sprayed with standard chemicals
or just even on your yard. People spray Roundup
on their grass and their yards and then go out
and have their kids roll around in that toxic
soup. I hope you don't do that, but people do.
And these things don't show up on blood tests
unless there's a huge recent exposure. People
that might have been exposed to these things
years ago, decades ago, 10, 20, 30 years ago.
your body is unable to fully excrete from your
bloodstream it will shove into fat cells to get
them out of circulation so if you have you know
if you live in flint michigan and you know you're
exposed to lead in your water and your blood
test comes back negative that doesn't mean that
you weren't exposed like everyone else it just
means that it's not enough of it to show up on
a blood test and the better test to do for heavy
metals is a hair test or a urine test Because
hair test measures chemical toxins and heavy
metal toxins that are excreted through your hair
follicles and your sweat glands and accumulate
in your hair as it grows out. That's why they
use hair to do drug testing. Because things that
are excreted from your skin accumulate in hair
as it grows out and you can test and identify
those things. weather air test and then do an
appropriate treatment and retest again to make
sure that your body burden of those things is
eventually coming down. So we're all exposed
to these things. And if you haven't been tested
for toxins. like these, and you have a condition
that no one else has been able to help, especially
a skin condition, a rash or cancer or anything
wrong with your brain, a mood disorder, anxiety,
depression, or a chronic problem with the brain
like Alzheimer's or Parkinson's disease or neuropathies,
anything that affects your nervous system, your
immune system. These are often conditions that
involve toxins that need to be identified and
eliminated so that you can heal yourself better.
So I love helping people understand this. If
you know someone who's just not getting the treatment
they think they should have, if they don't feel
well and they're told that there's nothing wrong
with them, well, that's not true, of course.
If they were. perfectly healthy, they would feel
good. So if something is wrong with you, you
know it. If somebody tells you there's nothing
wrong with you, then please give me, send them
to my office, give them, give me a call and we'll
figure out what is wrong and identify. Most of
the time we can't identify a safe, effective,
natural solution to almost anything. That ails
you. Thank you so much for tuning in today. I
love answering questions. Text me, email me with
any questions you may have, and we'll bring them
up on the air or privately. I can just respond
to your email directly if you prefer that too.
Thanks again for tuning in. Have a fabulous weekend.
I look forward to speaking with you again right
here next Friday. You've been listening to Safe,
Effective Natural Solutions with Dr. Todd Binkley.
If you have a health question you want discussed
on the show, email your health questions to drbinkley
at binkleyhealingcenter .com. Take advantage
of this opportunity to ask questions for yourself
and for your loved ones because our health matters.
Join him next Friday at 2 p .m. for Safe, Effective
Natural Solutions here on 98. The Word.