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. I've got an exciting
show for you today. Among other things, we're
going to talk about how to tell whether or not
your supplements are likely to work. Here's a
hint. Part of the subject is going to be why
no one should take supplement gummies. There'll
be a couple of case studies about a 70 -year
-old woman who went on a trip to Thailand and
came back and had three months of diarrhea. before
she finally came in and we fixed it. And another
man who had hemorrhoids, bloating, and soft stools.
That's not a fun subject to talk about, but it
is really exciting when someone who has, someone
you know, perhaps yourself, who has those symptoms
and identifies a way to make it go away and stay
away. Before we get into that, I've had a couple
of patients recently mention to me how much they
enjoyed listening to podcasts, rebroadcasts of
the episodes of this show that you can listen
to on demand. Anytime you like. So if you know
someone and have people in your life, friends,
family, neighbors, etc., who you think might
enjoy this information, but for whatever reason
can't tune in each Friday at 2 o 'clock on the
radio, then please tell them that all the past
episodes of this show are available anytime on
my website at BinkleyHealingCenter .com. And
they're also available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify,
and YouTube. So, same thing, the same person
who told me that they listened to these past
episodes recently did so on Apple Podcasts because
a friend of hers told her to do so and it was
the sort of, she had never listened to an Apple
Podcast before. So, I have listeners of all ages
to the show and some of them wonder, what is
a podcast? Most people know what a podcast is
by now, but if you don't, it's kind of interesting.
The history of the word podcast is a combination
of iPod and broadcast. Originally, most podcasts
were simply rebroadcasts of recordings from radio
shows and other sources made into MP3 audio files
that could be played on any MP3 player, the most
popular of which was, of course, an iPod. So
nowadays, anyone can make a podcast, and most
of us listen to podcasts on our phones or computers.
But in keeping with the historical origins of
podcasts, many national radio shows, especially
talk radio shows, offer the ability to listen
to any episode that you missed on the radio by
searching for and subscribing to their podcasts.
So if you would like to hear a past episode,
this shows a couple of benefits to it. If you
have an iPad, if you have an iPhone or an iPad
or a Mac computer, I find the easiest way to
do this is with Apple. Podcasts, which is a little
purple app with what looks like a microphone
with a couple of circles around it that's already
installed on every iPhone and iPad. And if you're
tired of finding nothing interesting on television
or want something interesting to listen to while
on a road trip or commuting, finding a podcast
with recurring information or entertainment you're
interested in can be, I think, a wonderful antidote
to boredom and a great way to distract. an overactive
mind, which I find relaxing. I listen to podcasts
all the time, mostly about health -related topics,
but also comedy, history, news. Arts and entertainment.
And one of the best features I love is if you
find that you can't quite hear something properly,
most podcasts have transcription built in. So
if you've ever wanted to be able to read what
I'm saying on this show or anything you hear
on another podcast, if you haven't heard this
already, you can even scroll down to the bottom.
Click on the transcription. You can even copy
and paste a section, a portion of it, and email
it to a friend or even print it. You can find
a full transcription of each episode of this
show at the bottom of every episode in Apple
Podcasts and many other podcast sources. And
while you're at it, if you subscribe to this
show on Apple Podcasts, I'd really appreciate
it if you leave a review. You can scroll to the
bottom, leave a five -star review, and tell others
what you like about it. My mission is to arm
you with reliable information you can use to
fill the gap between standard medicine that most
people get when they go to the regular doctor
and why you or someone you love might still not
be getting the results you deserve. Why you might
still have unexplained symptoms that are very
real. And I'd love to get that information to
you in whatever form you would like, whatever
form works best for you. I also love listening
to the radio, so I'm glad you do too. I've been
doing this show for two years now, and the response
and the feedback have been fantastic. I also
love doing live presentations, so I'm happy to
announce a new monthly series that I'm going
to be hosting in my office in downtown Ventura
at Binkley Healing Center, downtown Ventura,
961 East Main Street. If you enjoy what I talk
about here on the radio show, I try to make the
focus based on published research and evidence
-based natural treatments each week, a different
subject. And so I've scheduled a number of specific
topics for the next few weeks. months, every
first Wednesday of the month, I'm going to be
doing a 30 -minute talk on an important health
condition, and then I'm going to make time afterwards
to meet you in person. I'd love to meet you in
person and answer all of your questions, all
of the questions your friends or family, please
bring friends and family, anyone you might think
might like to hear more about this information.
October is always Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
So Wednesday, October 1st, just a couple of weeks
away now, I'm going to be talking about Breast
Cancer Awareness Month. That's a great thing.
More people should be aware about breast cancer.
Hopefully they'll use that information to prevent
it. I think the focus should be just be directly.
Instead of Breast Cancer Awareness, make it Breast
Cancer Prevention Month. So every October, I
always like to host a talk on how you can reduce
your risk. And this is an important distinction.
There's no way to absolutely prevent getting
breast cancer. There's too many variables, but
there are ways to reduce your risk of getting
breast cancer. And there's 20 ,000 people roughly
every year in America who are dealing with the
aftermath of surviving breast cancer. So standard
medical treatment. oncology for breast cancer
has gotten better and better for many many years
and it's it's great news even if you no one wants
to have to take chemotherapy and undergo radiation
or surgery but the standard medical treatment
for breast cancer in particular is is is better
than ever and most people you know many many
more people than ever before are surviving Breast
cancer. But a lot of those people, women who
have survived, and men, men get breast cancer
too, a very small percentage. But people that
have survived the gauntlet of chemotherapy, radiation,
immunotherapy, other treatments for breast cancer.
often end up still suffering with side effects.
And it's really frustrating. I see these people
all the time. They come to me. Sometimes they,
you know, they don't come. I don't treat breast
cancer. No one comes to me and says, can you
treat? No, I don't treat breast cancer. I do
treat patients for neck pain, back pain, for
autoimmune conditions, for hypothyroidism, all
the things I talk about on this show all the
time, who happen to also have survived. Breast
cancer, and they still have side effects of the
medication that they took, like neuropathies,
pain, burning, numbness, and tingling in their
hands and feet. Brain fog, fatigue. Fatigue is
a huge one. A lot of times digestive issues,
just gas, bloating, cramping. It's different
for everyone, and a lot of times people do just
fine. The frustrating part, from what I'm hearing
from patients that have been through this, and
in the research, it's not an unknown thing. A
lot of people that survive, breast cancer survivors,
don't really get that much support after they
survive the cancer. They're told that these side
effects from the therapy we gave you for cancer
are normal. Well, thanks very much. How does
that help? The implication is... they're expected
and there's nothing you can do about it. That's
the part they don't tell you. If your oncologist
told you that the side effects you're still having
from surviving cancer, that's great. You know,
and it's kind of, I don't know, maybe it's reasonable
if they've saved your life to not want to be
bothered too much about the minor complaints
that you still have because they're busy still
saving the next person's life. But many, many
millions of people who are cancer survivors still
have lingering side effects. like fatigue, like
gut issues, like neuropathies, pain in certain
areas. And many, many of these things can be
helped with functional medicine, with diagnostic
testing to identify places where you still have
inflammation or nutrient deficiencies. weaknesses
in your immune system's ability to maximize maintaining
your health, fighting off chronic infections.
There's a whole host of things that just most
people just never even check. When we identify
those things and replete the nutrients that you
need and give you the support your body needs
to heal itself, then folks you know who are excited
that they survived cancer can also be even more
excited by the fact that the symptoms that they
might still have in the aftermath of cancer treatment
are also now finally gone. I'm Dr. Todd Binkley.
You're listening to Safe, Effective, Natural
Solutions to Almost Any Health Challenge. Today,
I'm going to talk more about how to tell the
difference between good and bad supplements.
What does that mean? Well, basically supplements
that are helpful, that are going to do what you
expect them to do, or maybe not so much. A lot
of supplements are... actually kind of useless,
especially one a day multivitamins. I've talked
about this before. I'm not going to go on about
that today. I'm going to use as an example today
calcium supplements. The huge gap between useful
and nearly useless calcium supplements is huge.
We're going to talk about that today. But I just
want to give kind of a general context. It's
great. I have a lot of patients who come to me
who are smart, like listeners to this show, who
do your own research. You're listening to me
now because you want to take responsibility for
your own health. You want to find a way. to do
something that doesn't cost a mint. And even
if money is not an object, the point is to restore
and maintain natural health without becoming
dependent on drugs. for the rest of your life.
So, you know, you can do your own research. And
I love the, if you, have you ever noticed, raise
your hand, not if you're driving, but if, you
know, have you ever been to your doctor and said,
I did this research online. I read about this
in the medical research every, every week I read.
I don't know, 20, 30 different studies that come
in via email. I used to have to pay monthly for
journals to do that. It's wonderful. So much
information is available now to doctors and to
patients. You can find information. And while
we're on that subject, please don't read WebMD
as a source of useful information because that
is basically just pharmaceutical marketing. There
are numerous other sources of good. online information
like the Mayo Clinic website, the Cleveland Clinic
website, PubMed, and BinkleyHealingCenter .com.
But if you've ever been to a routine visit to
your doctor and found that that practitioner
was frustrated with the fact that you looked
up some things online and they didn't want to
be bothered with your questions, well, that's
a sign that you need a different doctor because
so much information is widely available. Most
doctors now expect their patients, sorry doctors,
expect their patients to arm themselves with
information. If they do that well, then it actually
saves time. If you know what to expect when you
show up to your doctor's office, you've done
your research in advance and you're polite and
present your questions calmly, then that makes
for a better visit, no matter what the situation
is. And of course, I'm talking about most people
who have to rely on the insurance they've paid
for to go to a standard medical doctor to treat.
They're already, you know, their condition's
already bad enough to need medical care. It's
obviously much better to avoid ending up in that
situation in the first place. But if you're there
and you're asking questions that aren't being
answered, send your questions to me. Email your
questions to me. People don't realize this. If
something is not right, if you're wondering about
something, many, many other people are having
the same experience. They want answers to the
same questions. Send those questions to me and
I'll answer them on this show. To be clear, if
you do show up at my office and you need medical
care, I'm going to refer you out to a proper
medical specialist. So just any doctor that does
routine blood work will identify at least a few
times a year someone who has leukemia. I've had
this experience many times. It's never fun for
the person receiving that news, but leukemia
usually shows up on routine blood work in people
who are asymptomatic. I've had patients show
up with symptoms that they had no idea that were
related to cancer and found out they had cancer
and had to refer them to an oncologist. I've
had patients that came in who I x -rayed and
had signs of an aortic aneurysm and needed to
go to the hospital immediately to get that treated.
The point is, if you have someone you love and
they've been to other doctors or they're refusing
to go to a doctor, this is really the big one.
If someone you love is refusing to go to a doctor
because they're afraid of something that, you
know, they don't want, you know, some, this has
happened several times where someone will bring
in a spouse, for example, usually a woman bringing
in their husband or something bringing in their
brother. It's usually a man that doesn't want
to go to get any kind of treatment. their person
and I do the blood work and you know do a consultation
I can usually calm them down my office is a little
bit more inviting warm environment than a hospital
or a you know a sterile doctor's office and I've
had a lot of patients who have been in that situation
where I've been able to calm them down and get
them agree to agree to a few tests where we can
identify what's happening and often identify
a solution that doesn't involve going to the
hospital or getting drug therapy, but also other
times where they really do need to go to the
hospital immediately or I need to refer them
to an oncologist or a hepatologist, a liver specialist,
whatever it is, that will be the outcome. If
you bring anybody in, the outcome will be they'll
get a program of treatment that will help them
or a referral to a specialist if they need that
or sometimes both. For example, here is a 50
-year -old man that came in to me a few months
ago. He just came back for a follow -up. When
he came in, he was complaining mainly just of
brain fog. In fact, I give everyone a seven -page
form with dozens of things to fill out because
everything affects everything else. Most people,
especially men, when they come in, have one complaint.
I just want you to focus on this thing. If you
can fix this thing, I'll be happy. Well, that
works if you want drugs. But if you want to use
healthy measures to restore normal balance in
your body, then everything matters. Everything
affects everything else. But literally, all he
put on his farm was brain fog. Well, brain fog
can be debilitating. It impairs your ability
to drive or show up to work if you're just so...
And, you know, especially it's frustrating. It's
maddening. Brain fog can cause anxiety and depression
because, you know, things aren't working the
way they used to be. And there is apparently
no reason for that. Well, there are reasons for
it. Not always, but usually they can be identified
on testing. So this man's, 50 -year -old man's
main complaint was brain fog. But then when I,
you know, went through his form with him, he
also revealed that he had bloating, gas, soft
stools. Nobody likes to talk about diarrhea,
but that was really one of his major complaints.
Hemorrhoids, also not a fun topic. Some sinus.
uh, symptoms and gastric reflux, you know, heartburn
things, uh, acid floating back up into your esophagus
where it should not be. Your stomach should always
have strong acid. You shouldn't have any acid
leaking up into your esophagus. So he was, he
was sort of blown away when I told him that,
okay, you have symptoms of acid reflux. What
I'm going to recommend you do is take betaine
hydrochloric acid. What? I have acid reflux and
you want me to take more acid? Yes. Why is that?
Because the only reason anyone has gastric esophageal
reflux or heartburn, anything that's the result
of acid in your esophagus, the tube between your
throat and your stomach, is because the sphincter,
the muscle, the valve that closes off. The tube
that goes from your throat to your stomach, the
lower esophageal sphincter, that rely, that valve
is always closed. And when you eat food that...
is going to cause your stomach to produce more
acid, especially meat, but any kind of heavy
protein, fat, anytime you eat any food, your
stomach is going to start to produce hydrochloric
acid to digest that food. But if you have a heavy
protein or fat meal, your stomach will produce
more hydrochloric acid. And if it doesn't produce
enough, then it's going to be very difficult
for you to digest that meal. And in any case,
Whenever, whatever food hits your stomach, the
receptors in your stomach are going to send a
message to your brain to tell your stomach to
produce more hydrochloric acid when needed. The
problem is. If you don't also simultaneously
get a message to strongly contract that sphincter
at the top of your stomach, at the bottom of
your esophagus, where that transition between
when you swallow food, it travels down your throat
and to the stomach, there's a sphincter there.
It's very similar to the valve at the end of
the digestive tract where all of the waste products
of your meals are eliminated. That valve is always
closed, but it's loosely closed. If suddenly
you have a need to strongly contract that muscle
to keep something from coming out, you have the
conscious ability to do that. So similarly, the
lower esophageal sphincter, the valve at the
top of the stomach, at the bottom of the tube
from the throat to your stomach, that valve is
always closed. When a bolus of food that you've
chewed and swallowed hits that valve, The valve
opens, the food goes through, and then it closes
again. But when you eat a big meal with a lot
of protein and fat, your stomach immediately
senses that, sends signals to your brain, which
come back down and cause the production of strong
acid. Everyone hears about, oh, I want my body
to be alkaline. That's true. Most of your body
should be alkaline. But your stomach should be
a boiling cauldron. of strong acid. You need
that acid to break down and digest any protein
that you're eating, magnesium, calcium, iron,
B12, a whole host of other nutrients. If you
take antacids, you're going to be deficient in
all of those things. And that strong stomach
acid is your first line of defense against any
infections and any infectious agents, any bacteria
that might get in and cause an infection in your
gut or your colon. And this man's blood test
clearly showed that he had a deficiency of hydrochloric
acid. The way that shows up on your blood test
is a deficiency of serum protein levels and multiple
other minerals. He took some betaine hydrochloric
acid to improve his absorption of protein and
several other nutrients. And he came back a few
months later and said he had less fatigue, no
hemorrhoids. No bloating, no soft stools anymore
right after a meal like he used to have. No sinus
symptoms. And he was really excited about this.
No reflux. He said it was definitely relieved
by the betaine hydrochloric acid that he was
taking. Even when eating hot salsa, he used to
get really severe reflux symptoms when he'd eat
hot peppers. And when he took extra hydrochloric
acid for his stomach so that it would lock down
that valve between the boiling cauldron of his
stomach to digest those things. and his esophagus,
it worked. I'm Dr. Todd Binkley. You're listening
to Safe, Effective, Natural Solutions to Almost
Any Health Challenge. And a lot of people are
surprised when something simple like just taking
an extra supplement to improve the ability of
your stomach to absorb nutrients and prevent
a lousy loose sphincter from allowing acid from
your stomach to squirt up into your esophagus.
When people have acid reflux, it feels like a
geyser and it's really just a few drops leaking
up. where they shouldn't be. So the main question
is, how do you tell the difference between good
and bad, between supplements that are helpful
or useless? I love it when patients do their
own research. Can your doctor say the same? A
lot of doctors are really irritated when they're
confronted with questions by smart patients who
are doing their own research and saying, what
about if I take CoQ10 or if I take more vitamin
D or if I take this supplement for this condition?
The main reason most doctors don't want to hear
about and entertain questions about various nutrients
is because they're simply not educated about
it. It would be nice if all doctors knew about
functional medicine, about nutritional medicine.
They don't. They're busy treating disease, disease
that people have just waited too long that now
requires medical care. So, you know, give them
a little bit of a break because they really,
their time is filled with treating people just
waited too long. But if you want, to live long
and live well and give your body a good chance
of preventing you from ending up in a situation
like that, then there are options. You can get
tested earlier. You can identify weaknesses in
your immune system, support that your kidneys,
your heart, your liver, your immune system need
to function well all the time. You want your
body to function at 100 % no matter how old you
are. 100 % for you, whatever that is. is you
want to maximize the ability for your immune
system to defend you against anything that you're
confronted with that's why some people in the
same room get their kid comes home from preschool
with a cold or a flu and one of you gets sick
and the other one doesn't what's the difference
well genes have a factor but a lot of it has
to do with how well you're taking care of yourself.
These things can be identified on proper testing,
and then you can be armed with data that you
can use to prioritize commitments of precious
time and money to get the results that you want
for yourself and those you love. Thank you so
much for listening. Tune in next Friday. 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
to For safe, effective natural solutions. Here
on 98 .3 FM, The Word.