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. If you're a first -time
listener just tuning in, thank you. For joining
me today, if someone you love is frustrated with
something they've been suffering with and no
doctor has been able to help them, I hope you'll
find the material I present here each week useful.
My mission each week with this show is to arm
you with reliable information you can use to
fill the gap between standard medicine that most
people get when they show up in most doctors'
offices. The gap between that and maybe why you're
still not getting what you want or what you need
or what you feel like you should have. Results,
feeling better, feeling like yourself again.
Why do you still have unexplained symptoms that
are very real? So here's one of the most important
things anyone can take away from any episode
of this program. And it's a little bit of a challenging
conversation, but it's important. It's just if
you don't, people don't believe this. And so
I hope you will. And it is this. People who feel
fine with no symptoms, healthy as a horse, suddenly
drop dead every day. What? Did he really say
that? He's beginning his show by talking about
people dropping dead. Yes, it's important for
people to understand this. If you're convinced,
if you're still convinced that you're fine because
you feel fine, then I'm really glad you tuned
in because the message is this. The important
thing to understand is how you feel is a very
poor indicator of how healthy you are. most of
the time people go to the doctor when they don't
feel healthy anymore, when they feel sick and
there's nothing wrong with it. That totally makes
sense. That is the practice of medicine. If you
show up to most doctor's offices when you feel
fine, maybe for an annual physical or for whatever
reason, they're going to, you know, see if you
need medical care today, do some basic tests,
make sure your cholesterol is not high enough
to recommend. A statin drug, make sure your blood
pressure is not too high. Make sure you don't
need medical care today. And if you leave and
you don't have any of the things that trigger
some evidence that you need a pharmaceutical,
some kind of a medication, or a follow -up test,
or a referral to a specialist, when you walk
out of that typical annual physical regular doctor's
visit and you don't have any of those things,
you're told you have a clean bill of health.
There's nothing wrong with you. And people assume
that that means you're healthy. It does not.
When you leave a doctor's office without any
recommendation for medical care right now, you
could drop dead next week. It happens all the
time. What I'm trying to say is people assume
that if they've been to a doctor and he knows
what he's doing and he's checked them and done
an annual physical or whatever the standard workup
is that you get when you go to your physician.
If you leave there and you're told you're fine,
that means you're healthy. It does not mean you're
healthy. It just means you don't need medical
care today. You don't need a prescription. You
don't need a referral to a specialist or a CAT
scan or an MRI or an ultrasound. Come back when
you do. The practice of medicine is treating
symptoms that you already have when you have
a full -blown disease like diabetes or high blood
pressure or heart attack or a stroke or hypothyroidism
or liver disease, kidney disease, an immune condition,
an infection that requires antibiotics. When
you have something like that that requires medical
care, then the care you receive is likely to
be excellent. The medical profession in the United
States of America is the best in the world. And
when you're in a crisis, when you need medical
care, you will get excellent medical care. But
what if you've already done that? Or what if
you don't have something that rises to the need
to justify the risks and expense of pharmaceuticals,
surgery, et cetera, but you still don't feel
right? And maybe you've been to several doctors
and you've done various tests and all your tests
are normal. You get CAT scans and MRIs and ultrasounds
and blood tests and, you know, any other test
that seems like should identify what's going
on with you and all the tests are normal. What
about that? How does that happen? Why is it?
It's actually really common to go in and get
a whole battery of tests and be told by your
doctor that there's nothing wrong. All your tests
are normal. and yet still you don't feel right.
There actually is something wrong with you. If
you don't feel right, there is something wrong
with you, or you would feel right. The problem
is the standard practice of medicine is using
these broad ranges to identify conditions that
are bad enough to need medical care. But if you're
just inside that range, that doesn't mean you're
healthy. That doesn't mean there isn't a problem.
That doesn't mean there isn't a solution, a safe.
Maybe just eating better food. Maybe doing a
little bit more exercise. Maybe a different type
of something different. Obviously something that
you haven't been doing already. Otherwise you'd
feel good. There are ways to identify these things.
Functional medicine means using more tests. and
using a different yardstick to measure for earlier
signs of stress on your kidneys, on your liver,
on your heart, on your lungs, on your immune
system. When you identify, and not just one thing,
most people's problems are never one thing. We
want that. Our brains, we have these huge brains
that we're so proud of, and it's always, we think,
I do the same thing. We think, oh, if I feel
this, there must be, if I could just find that
one thing that's causing all of my problems,
my life would be better. Well, most of the time,
if you've had a problem, that's a chronic condition
chronic doesn't mean bad chronic means that you've
had it for a while chronos chronology chronic
doesn't mean really really severe it could be
mild a lot of chronic conditions have are mild
Chronic just means something that you've been
struggling with for a while that nobody's been
able to help you with. So if you have a, especially
if you have a chronic condition, if you have
anything that's been bothering you that's been
going on for a while, for weeks, months, years,
even if nobody's been able to help you with that,
even though you've had all kinds of tests and
you've been to several different doctors and
they all tell you all your tests are normal,
that does not mean... that there's nothing wrong
with you, and it does not mean that there isn't
a potentially really effective, safe, natural
solution to what's ailing you. So when you use
the same test, when I use, when a practitioner
of functional medicine uses the same standard
blood tests, but usually more of them, you know,
why more of them? Functional medicine requires
using more tests than you get when you go to
your standard annual physical. Why is that? Well,
it's really easy to diagnose full -blown kidney
disease. A comprehensive metabolic panel that
most doctors will order on a routine visit includes
three or four basic kidney tests, your liver
enzymes, your protein levels, electrolytes. And,
you know, if you have severe inflammation of
your liver, that's really easy to diagnose. If
your fasting glucose is above 125 on two separate
occasions, you get a diagnosis of diabetes. Easy
peasy. Or if your A1C level is above 5 .6. These
are common tests, really easy things to diagnose.
this, most doctors will test your cholesterol
because everyone needs to be on a statin drug
if your cholesterol is above a certain level.
Put air quotes around that previous statement.
There's lots of ways to lower your cholesterol
without medication. If you're lucky, they'll
also test your thyroid, especially if you're
a woman over 50, because a lot of women have
hypothyroidism. But even then, they usually only
test TSH. thyroid stimulating hormone, which
isn't even a direct thyroid test. It's a pituitary
test. Your pituitary makes thyroid stimulating
hormone to tell your thyroid to make more thyroid
hormone if you need it. And it's a good test.
It's a useful test. It's very accurate, but it
doesn't give you the whole picture. Most doctors
will also do not even, that's not even true.
In my experience, a lot of people don't. I'm
always, I keep thinking that. Most doctors test
this, but in fact, they don't. Sometimes you'll
get a complete blood count, which is really important
to do a CBC, a complete blood count that will
tell you if they suspect an infection, then they
will do that to see if your white cell count
is elevated, to see if your lymphocytes or your
neutrophils or other forms of white blood cells
are out of range, indicating you have a certain
type of infection that may warrant antibiotics,
for example. These are all great tests and they
constitute a good brief overview of whether or
not you need medical care, but they don't tell
you whether or not you're healthy. And that's
why so many people go to the doctor and get the
standard tests and get told there's nothing wrong
with them. Come back later. Let's watch and wait.
Maybe even something's a little bit out of range,
but not bad enough to need drugs. So it's watch
and wait. Well, if you're in that situation,
you've had that experience. There are other ways
to see what's missing. Why didn't, you know,
I don't feel right. If you don't feel right,
something is wrong. So standard practice of functional
medicine always includes more tests. So in addition
to that CBC, for example, which among other things
will also diagnose anemia. Millions of people
have functional anemia, meaning it's not medical
anemia. It's not far enough outside of the range.
Your hemoglobin level isn't low enough that they're
going to recommend medication for it. Maybe even
not low enough that they'll recommend iron for
it, an iron supplement for it. But you're functionally
low, meaning it's outside of the range of what
your hemoglobin was like when you were in your
teens and your 20s. And this is really important.
A slight deficiency. in iron impairing your bone
marrow's ability to make adequate red blood cells
to deliver oxygen to all of your cells if that's
even a little bit low a little bit that's a constant
strain on your heart 24 -7, 365. Your heart has
to pump those deficient red blood cells around
further and further and faster and more frequently
to deliver adequate oxygen to your cells. Your
body has very sensitive feedback mechanisms to
ensure that you get adequate oxygen to all of
your cells. And the carriers for that oxygen
are red blood cells. So if there's any slight
impairment in the ability to maintain all those
guys that are carrying that oxygen around, then
your heart has to take up the slack. by pumping
the deficient red blood cells that you do have
around more, which is going to, what's that going
to do? It's going to increase your blood pressure.
It's going to increase strain on your heart just
a little bit. But all day long, all night long,
that's going to have an impact. So that's one
of the reasons I test a CBC on every single patient
because I often find that people have slight
deficiencies in iron that's impairing their body's
ability to make adequate red blood cells, that's
causing their hemoglobin to be a little low,
not medically low, but still low enough that
it's having an impact, contributing to fatigue.
It's something that just fixing that, just giving
people iron supplements have lowered their blood
pressure. Just giving people iron and sometimes
B12. So the other really common and commonly
overlooked nutrient deficiency that causes slight
anemia is deficiencies of vitamin B12 and folate.
The B vitamins, you almost never want to take
on their own. They work in combinations. So a
good methylcobalamin, the active form of B12
in combination with methylfolate, the active
form of folate, and a sublingual form in a tablet.
that you hold under your tongue can make all
the difference. So that was a lot. What does
all that mean? Well, a lot of people have heard
about or even tried, you know, they have low
energy, they go and get a B12 shot. Oh, I need
to get a B12 shot. Or my friend had B12 shots
and he felt amazing afterwards. Well, you know,
that's not an uncommon experience because a lot
of people are deficient in vitamin B12. And,
you know, when they do those shots, they usually
include folate and sometimes some other things
in with it. But a lot of people are deficient.
And vitamin B12, for several reasons, there's
a genetic snip that about 15 % of the population
has that makes it very difficult for you to absorb
vitamin B12 from food or even from supplements
that you swallow. A lot of people have deficient
hydrochloric acid in their stomach, which is
essential to break down. vitamin B12 in food
and in supplements that you swallow. And then
that broken down, prepared vitamin B12 isn't
absorbed until 20, 30 feet later at the very
end of your intestine. And, you know, that's
a couple of examples. There are several other
reasons that are testable, that come up all the
time. And I don't recommend necessarily testing
your blood levels of vitamin B12. The only really
purpose to do that, the only reason you ever
want to do a serum vitamin B12 or folate test
is if you suspect a liver condition that's impacting
those levels. People are often surprised. They
go to their regular doctor and they come back
and say, oh, I have my vitamin B12 level tested
and it's off the charts. It's really, really
high or my folate is really high. I said, that's
normal. If you take a vitamin B, an effective
vitamin B12 and folate, supplement, then your
blood levels of those vitamins will always be
really, really high because the test is assuming
that you're an average person who does not supplement
those things. So it is totally safe to have a
really high blood level of vitamin B12 and vitamin
folate if you're supplementing. That is the way
it will always be. But you don't need a shot.
Very few people need to get an injection if you
take the active form, the methyl form, methylcobalamin
and methylfolate. and a tablet that dissolves
under your tongue because then it also goes directly
into your bloodstream. Under your tongue, it
gets absorbed directly into your bloodstream.
It's as effective as getting a shot. It's a lower
dose, but for most people, it's as effective
as getting a shot. I'm Dr. Todd Binkley. You're
listening to Safe, Effective, Natural Solutions
to Almost Any Health Challenge. We're talking
today about some of the things that people experience
when they go to a regular doctor's visit. An
annual physical, the routine visit to your gynecologist,
your gastroenterologist, your internist, whoever
your regular doctor is that you check in with
once in a while, or who you go to when you're
just not feeling right. And this frustrating
experience that so many people have where they
come away from that visit to their doctor. And
they're basically told, you're fine. There's
nothing wrong with you. Let's watch and wait.
Come back when you're bad enough to need the
big guns that I offer in the form of drugs and
surgery, etc. That's a slight exaggeration, but
I'm just trying to address this huge gap that
exists between the practice of modern medicine
and the difference between that and a way to
assess whether or not you're truly healthy. And
it lies in doing more tests. to identify earlier
signs of stress on your various organs and tissues,
and then applying years of experience and evidence
-based protocols to help your body heal itself.
So what does your blood test look like when you're
in your teens and 20s and everything's working
perfectly? That's what we call the functional
range. It's roughly the middle third. So if you
look at your regular blood tests and what are
called the normal medical ranges, outside of
which... medical care is indicated. If you look
at the middle third of those ranges, it varies
from test to test, but roughly the middle third
is what most people will find. Most doctors have
found, the research shows, years and years of
experience shows, this is what your blood work
looks like when you're in your teens and 20s
and everything's working perfectly. That's what
we call normal function. So when you use that
metric in addition to the standard medical range
and see if you have areas that different tests
whose numbers are outside of this narrow functional
range. Maybe these are indications that you have
some kind of inflammatory process that needs
support with something like a good form of turmeric.
And I stress a good form because a lot of turmeric
supplements are not very bioavailable. It's notoriously
difficult to absorb, but there are good forms
that can dramatically change inflammatory markers
on your blood tests like C -reactive protein.
sedimentation rate there are specific tests that
measure for inflammation in your body and when
you take something you should see a difference
in those tests that's how we know we're restoring
normal function. Another common thing that comes
up a lot is people are borderline deficient in
thyroid, not necessarily indicating that you
need to be on thyroid medication for the rest
of your life. And even if you're already on thyroid
medication for low thyroid, for hypothyroidism,
if you've only been on it for a few years, sometimes
you can just take some nutrients that improve
your body's ability to make thyroxin and especially,
really importantly, to convert the thyroxin,
the drug that you get if you put on Synthroid
or Levo. So levothyroxine, that is T4 thyroxine.
That is the main hormone produced by your thyroid
gland. But it doesn't do anything in your body.
It's the inactive carrier form to make your thyroid
work normally. Your body has to convert. T4 into
T3. And it has to convert a tiny portion of that
T3 into unbound free T3. So most doctors never
test this. They just test TSH. If you're lucky,
they might test your T4 levels. They very rarely
test T3 and almost never test free T3. And that's
the most important test. That's the active form.
Millions of people take Synthroid or Levothyroxine.
Same thing. brand name, generic name, thyroxine,
medication for low thyroid, and they're not getting
the results they want, that they expect, because
their body's still not converting adequate amounts
of that carrier form into the free unbound form,
T3, which is the form that actually executes
the function of the thyroid gland. This is something
that comes up all the time, especially in women
over 50 who have hypothyroidism, may not even
know it. And there are supplements available
that enhance your body's ability to increase
the production of thyroid where needed, and especially
to convert the T4 into the free T3 active form.
And it makes all the difference. If you know
someone who has unexplained fatigue, difficulty
losing weight, hair loss, cold hands and feet,
puffy face, these are the most common signs of
low thyroid. But low thyroid also increases your
cholesterol levels. If you want to not have to
take statin drugs for the rest of your life to
lower your cholesterol, then it's really important
to check your thyroid and make sure that your
body is able to carry out the functions of the
thyroid hopefully without becoming dependent
on medication for the rest of your life. Well,
it's bad enough to... become dependent on medication.
But even worse is if you go to your doctor and
get told that you need something that you really
do need and you can't get it because your insurance
won't pay for it. Here's a really interesting
piece that came out in the medical press this
year titled, Stuck in Prior Authorization, Some
Patients Run Out of Options. And the subtitle
is, Many Doctors Complain That Insurance Denials
Are Worse Than Ever. Right. Can I hear an amen?
A lot of people are experiencing this. It's always
been a problem. Insurance, you know, they they
do have to obviously put checks on expenditures.
If they just authorized every single thing that
every doctor recommended, then they'd run out
of money pretty quickly. So it's obviously, you
know, they do have to do some kind of evaluation
of whether or not you need. But it's just everyone
you everyone knows this already. All doctors
know it. All patients. Everyone's experienced
this. Their denials are ridiculous. It's just
like pulling teeth to get them to pay. for anything
you've paid in your premiums you've you know
donated your payroll contributions to medicare
and you know paid your premiums on your health
insurance and you go to a doctor who's obviously
done the right tests done a proper diagnosis
and recommended medical care for you and still
your insurance denies it The article highlights
the case of a man named Eric Tennant, who was
diagnosed in 2023 with a rare cancer of the bile
ducts that had spread to his bones. He weighed
97 pounds and wasn't expected to survive a year
because he had stage. Well, he had grueling rounds
of chemotherapy that slowed the cancer's progress,
but it did continue to spread. And so they're
looking for other options. And, you know, the
man's the 58 year old man's wife had recently
had reason to hope that things would improve
because she found learned of a new non -invasive
procedure called histotripsy, which uses targeted
ultrasound waves to destroy tumors in the liver.
The treatment could potentially extend his life
and by him. more downtime between rounds of chemotherapy.
Well, I'm not familiar. I'm not an oncologist.
I'm not familiar with this particular procedure.
But most of the time, when you're using something
that applies ultrasound, that's pretty inexpensive.
form of therapy. It's got to cost less than chemotherapy,
which insurance companies authorize all the time.
But the problem is, even though this man's oncologist
told him he was a good candidate for this procedure
because the largest tumor in his body was in
his liver, and that's what this is documented
to work on, his family had to fight another battle,
an even bigger battle than the cancer itself,
and that is the battle with their health insurance
because they decided the treatment was, quote,
say it with me, not medically necessary. What
does that even mean? Health insurers deny millions
of claims every year, and they're often denied
by consumer service representatives that don't
even have any medical training. Well, that's
a mess, and I don't know how to change that anytime
soon. What I try to do instead is offer you ways
to take better care of your own health so that
you don't end up in that situation. And when
you do, there are often options that you can
do yourself, and I try to make them as affordable
as possible. It often costs much less than you
might imagine to get comprehensive functional
testing that will identify things that you can
do to enable your body to better heal itself,
even when you have severe conditions. I'm Dr.
Todd Bankley talking about safe, effective, natural
alternatives to standard medical care when indicated
based on testing. And I'm looking at the calendar
now and I'm realizing when I started this program
two years ago, I could only imagine the response
I would get. And it has been a profound blessing.
So thank you to all of you who keep tuning in
and keep sending me questions and keep informing
yourselves so that you can take better care of
yourselves. It requires taking responsibility
for your own health. If you don't want to end
up in that morass of insurance denials and waiting
until it's too late and the only thing is modern
medicine, things with lots of side effects and
are not fun, you know, you've got to take responsibility
for your health. So I appreciate you tuning in
and letting me arm you with the things that you
can do to make better. better health choices
and hopefully prevent ending up in a situation
like that. I spend a lot of time each week perusing
and reviewing the medical literature, coming
up with interesting topics to present to you.
People are always telling me I've got a great
voice for radio. That's nice. I love doing it.
I love doing this show. But I also want to announce,
I'm excited to announce, that I also love doing
live presentations. And I have a number of them
already prepared that I've done for years at
Rotary Clubs and at local hospitals and at various
organizations, PowerPoint presentations. and
invite you to join me once a month live in my
office. I'm calling it live at Binkley Healing
Center. I'm going to do a 30 -minute talk with
some light refreshments and a Q &A, answer your
questions afterwards, bring your friends and
family every first Wednesday of the month, the
first Wednesday of the month, every month, live
in my office in downtown Ventura, 961 East Main
Street. You're invited. Please come join me.
Bring your friends and family. There'll be a
different topic each month. October is Breast
Cancer Awareness Month. I don't know about you.
I think it should be Breast Cancer Prevention
Month. So on October 1st, I'm going to be talking
about how to reduce your risk of getting breast
cancer in the first place, how to reduce the
risk of recurrence if you've already had it,
and if you're in recovery, how to reduce the
risk of the debilitating side effects that accompany
standard cancer therapy. So to reserve your spot,
text 805 -612 - 5531. I'd love to see you there
on October 1st. Thank you for listening. Remember,
the condition of your body is always more important
than any condition you've been diagnosed with.
Have a fantastic weekend. 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 .3 FM, The Word.