WEBVTT 00:00:00.240 --> 00:00:03.100 Prepare to have your health questions answered 00:00:03.100 --> 00:00:07.059 here on Safe, Effective Natural Solutions with 00:00:07.059 --> 00:00:10.439 Dr. Todd Binkley, owner of Binkley Healing Center 00:00:10.439 --> 00:00:15.599 in downtown Ventura. Now, here's Dr. Todd. Good 00:00:15.599 --> 00:00:17.839 afternoon. I'm Dr. Todd Binkley, board -certified 00:00:17.839 --> 00:00:20.320 doctor of non -force chiropractic and practitioner 00:00:20.320 --> 00:00:23.559 of functional medicine. Functional medicine means 00:00:23.559 --> 00:00:26.780 finding conditions other doctors miss by doing 00:00:26.780 --> 00:00:29.980 more comprehensive testing, usually, and always 00:00:29.980 --> 00:00:32.859 doing more progressive analysis of those tests. 00:00:33.560 --> 00:00:35.359 To identify things that otherwise fall under 00:00:35.359 --> 00:00:37.479 the radar, where things that are, for example, 00:00:37.479 --> 00:00:40.100 your liver or your kidneys or your immune system 00:00:40.100 --> 00:00:42.460 need a little extra support. Perhaps you need 00:00:42.460 --> 00:00:44.740 more protein in your diet. Perhaps you need to 00:00:44.740 --> 00:00:47.219 simply get a little bit more exercise. There 00:00:47.219 --> 00:00:49.579 are a whole host of things that just normally 00:00:49.579 --> 00:00:53.119 do not come to the surface when you get a standard 00:00:53.119 --> 00:00:55.219 medical workup. Little things that maybe you've 00:00:55.219 --> 00:00:57.579 heard about before even, but it's never just 00:00:57.579 --> 00:00:59.450 one thing. That's the most important thing. One 00:00:59.450 --> 00:01:01.090 of the most important things to understand is 00:01:01.090 --> 00:01:04.290 if you have a problem that is not being resolved 00:01:04.290 --> 00:01:06.870 to your satisfaction, it's not one thing. It's 00:01:06.870 --> 00:01:08.890 never just one thing that you need to discover 00:01:08.890 --> 00:01:11.290 and fix. It's usually a bunch of little things 00:01:11.290 --> 00:01:15.530 that are usually relatively easy to fix, correct 00:01:15.530 --> 00:01:19.739 with better food exercise. Today we're going 00:01:19.739 --> 00:01:21.540 to talk about true healing. There's some exciting 00:01:21.540 --> 00:01:23.480 things that came out in the medical press written 00:01:23.480 --> 00:01:26.640 by eminent physicians that talk about what's 00:01:26.640 --> 00:01:29.560 missing from modern medicine, true healing. So 00:01:29.560 --> 00:01:31.319 I'm excited to talk about that. We're also going 00:01:31.319 --> 00:01:33.280 to get into some of the latest research on the 00:01:33.280 --> 00:01:36.939 importance of exercise, especially exercise designed 00:01:36.939 --> 00:01:41.019 to build muscle strength. But before we do that, 00:01:41.079 --> 00:01:44.859 here is a quote from ancient Egypt. Did you know 00:01:44.859 --> 00:01:48.459 that in ancient Egypt, for a headache, Doctors 00:01:48.459 --> 00:01:52.299 prescribed goose fat rubbed into the eyes with 00:01:52.299 --> 00:01:55.239 a helping of donkey liver. No, I'm not making 00:01:55.239 --> 00:01:57.680 this up. It comes directly from the Cajun papyrus 00:01:57.680 --> 00:02:01.439 on which was recorded actual medical practice 00:02:01.439 --> 00:02:05.640 in ancient Egypt. Goose fat rubbed into the eyes 00:02:05.640 --> 00:02:07.859 with the helping of donkey liver for headache. 00:02:08.400 --> 00:02:10.680 Well, regardless of whatever your doctor has 00:02:10.680 --> 00:02:12.319 recommended, if you're not happy with the care 00:02:12.319 --> 00:02:15.719 you're getting, there are other options. So this 00:02:15.719 --> 00:02:17.419 is exciting. A prominent medical doctor. Well, 00:02:17.460 --> 00:02:20.860 this headline for this report in MedPage today, 00:02:20.960 --> 00:02:24.060 the headline reads, Spotting Trends in Patients' 00:02:24.080 --> 00:02:26.860 Tests. Well, I've translated that into my own 00:02:26.860 --> 00:02:30.419 headline as follows. Prominent MD discovers what's 00:02:30.419 --> 00:02:32.719 missing from medicine, treating people instead 00:02:32.719 --> 00:02:35.560 of conditions. He goes on to suggest that there, 00:02:35.699 --> 00:02:38.300 well, in the article, he suggests that there 00:02:38.300 --> 00:02:40.259 should be an easy way to monitor relative changes 00:02:40.259 --> 00:02:42.960 over time instead of just waiting until the results 00:02:42.960 --> 00:02:46.819 on one test are outside the standard broad medical 00:02:46.819 --> 00:02:49.360 range, basically until obvious disease that requires 00:02:49.360 --> 00:02:52.939 medical care presents itself. Well, there is 00:02:52.939 --> 00:02:55.240 a name for this. It's called functional medicine. 00:02:55.719 --> 00:02:58.639 I track all of my patients' tests over time, 00:02:58.860 --> 00:03:02.250 many going back 10 years or more. I haven't taken 00:03:02.250 --> 00:03:04.490 a poll, but I imagine most of my functional medicine 00:03:04.490 --> 00:03:07.189 colleagues do the same. So what does this say 00:03:07.189 --> 00:03:09.770 about mainstream medicine? If you're constantly 00:03:09.770 --> 00:03:12.370 being handed off from one physician to another 00:03:12.370 --> 00:03:15.090 when a shift changes at the hospital, or you 00:03:15.090 --> 00:03:17.909 renew your insurance, or you simply get fed up 00:03:17.909 --> 00:03:20.270 yourself and choose to change doctors. I'm sure 00:03:20.270 --> 00:03:22.050 lots of mainstream medical doctors track their 00:03:22.050 --> 00:03:25.229 patients' results over time, but apparently not 00:03:25.229 --> 00:03:28.599 enough. According to Dr. Fred Pelsman, associate 00:03:28.599 --> 00:03:30.939 professor of medicine at Cornell University in 00:03:30.939 --> 00:03:34.080 New York City, now called Weill Cornell, he's 00:03:34.080 --> 00:03:35.879 been a practicing internist for 30 years, and 00:03:35.879 --> 00:03:38.099 he's the medical director of Cornell Internal 00:03:38.099 --> 00:03:41.460 Medicine Associates. So he says, for example, 00:03:41.560 --> 00:03:44.520 if someone's hemoglobin, a standard blood test, 00:03:44.740 --> 00:03:46.740 if someone's hemoglobin can drop from the upper 00:03:46.740 --> 00:03:48.800 limit of normal all the way to the lower limit 00:03:48.800 --> 00:03:51.379 of normal, a really significant span, literally 00:03:51.379 --> 00:03:54.180 representing the loss of about a third of a body's 00:03:54.180 --> 00:03:57.349 total blood volume, without anything being highlighted 00:03:57.349 --> 00:04:01.009 as abnormal. And of course, that's true. That's 00:04:01.009 --> 00:04:03.650 what I mean when I say the broad medical range. 00:04:04.449 --> 00:04:08.129 If you're just outside this range or just inside 00:04:08.129 --> 00:04:10.810 this range, then you're told you're fine. If 00:04:10.810 --> 00:04:13.469 you're just outside, you might have disease next 00:04:13.469 --> 00:04:15.770 week, you might drop dead next week, but you're 00:04:15.770 --> 00:04:17.449 told you're fine if everything is within the 00:04:17.449 --> 00:04:19.329 broad medical ranges. They're designed to... 00:04:20.160 --> 00:04:22.459 diagnose and treat full -blown disease that may 00:04:22.459 --> 00:04:24.319 require pharmaceuticals or some other type of 00:04:24.319 --> 00:04:26.279 medical treatment. So Dr. Pelsman goes on and 00:04:26.279 --> 00:04:28.879 says, what happens when things are slowly changing, 00:04:29.060 --> 00:04:33.019 clinically inching along, moving in small steps 00:04:33.019 --> 00:04:35.620 in the wrong direction? And he goes on to list 00:04:35.620 --> 00:04:38.100 an example. He quoting Dr. Perman here, about 00:04:38.100 --> 00:04:40.100 a year ago, a patient came in with worsening 00:04:40.100 --> 00:04:42.959 renal function, kidney function, and looking 00:04:42.959 --> 00:04:46.620 back over the last year's worth of labs, He saw 00:04:46.620 --> 00:04:50.019 an insidious decline in their estimated glomerular 00:04:50.019 --> 00:04:52.319 filtration rate. This is just a standard kidney 00:04:52.319 --> 00:04:55.300 test measuring the effectiveness of your kidney 00:04:55.300 --> 00:04:58.490 function as a filter, filtering your blood. He 00:04:58.490 --> 00:05:00.670 goes on to note that over a decade ago, this 00:05:00.670 --> 00:05:03.170 patient's creatinine had been on the low side 00:05:03.170 --> 00:05:04.889 of normal. Creatinine is another standard kidney 00:05:04.889 --> 00:05:07.410 test. It's produced by the breakdown of muscle 00:05:07.410 --> 00:05:09.850 tissue. So he says it's over a decade ago. It's 00:05:09.850 --> 00:05:11.329 been on the low side of normal. And every year 00:05:11.329 --> 00:05:13.829 it had been inching up only in teeny increments 00:05:13.829 --> 00:05:16.629 that are hardly noticeable one at a time. But 00:05:16.629 --> 00:05:18.649 when you graph it out over a longer period, you 00:05:18.649 --> 00:05:21.670 could see this. an exorable climb from 0 .4 to 00:05:21.670 --> 00:05:25.589 0 .6, 0 .7, 0 .9, 1 .0, 1 .2, 1 .4. And then 00:05:25.589 --> 00:05:28.670 suddenly it hits 1 .5 and the system flags it 00:05:28.670 --> 00:05:31.529 with a little red arrow. Alarm bells went off 00:05:31.529 --> 00:05:34.509 and people started to panic. And this is, I'm 00:05:34.509 --> 00:05:37.269 still quoting Dr. Pelsman here. He says, it might 00:05:37.269 --> 00:05:38.689 be nice if we could figure out a way to spot 00:05:38.689 --> 00:05:41.449 these trends, catch these changes before they 00:05:41.449 --> 00:05:44.720 lead to irreversible harm. If we can catch these 00:05:44.720 --> 00:05:46.540 trends before they lead to irreparable harm, 00:05:46.660 --> 00:05:48.879 maybe we can interject earlier, stop a medicine 00:05:48.879 --> 00:05:51.560 or over -the -counter treatment that may be harmful, 00:05:51.699 --> 00:05:54.040 or start something that may protect them, protect 00:05:54.040 --> 00:05:56.420 their kidneys, maybe order additional testing 00:05:56.420 --> 00:06:00.790 to make sure nothing truly bad is going on. So, 00:06:00.829 --> 00:06:02.649 of course, what he's describing is what functional 00:06:02.649 --> 00:06:05.170 medicine practitioners do with all of their patients. 00:06:05.230 --> 00:06:07.490 For example, here's a 55 -year -old man that 00:06:07.490 --> 00:06:12.189 came to me with elevated BUN, blood urea nitrogen. 00:06:12.550 --> 00:06:15.230 Nitrogen is produced by the breakdown of protein 00:06:15.230 --> 00:06:17.949 in the body. This is a 55 -year -old man who 00:06:17.949 --> 00:06:20.410 looks totally fit and healthy, and he has no 00:06:20.410 --> 00:06:22.310 symptoms. My favorite kind of patient. He just 00:06:22.310 --> 00:06:24.550 came in. He wanted to check and make sure everything 00:06:24.550 --> 00:06:28.439 was okay. He was interested in prevention. If 00:06:28.439 --> 00:06:30.079 there are any medical doctors listening out there, 00:06:30.139 --> 00:06:32.980 yes, people actually come in with no symptoms 00:06:32.980 --> 00:06:35.920 and pay to make sure that they're as healthy 00:06:35.920 --> 00:06:37.800 on the inside as they look and feel on the outside. 00:06:37.959 --> 00:06:41.139 So this man initially had a number of things. 00:06:41.199 --> 00:06:43.759 A slight iron overload. His ferritin level was 00:06:43.759 --> 00:06:47.980 339. That's a little elevated. He had a low white 00:06:47.980 --> 00:06:50.519 blood cell count and extremely low vitamin D 00:06:50.519 --> 00:06:53.740 in his blood. Interestingly, his serum protein 00:06:53.740 --> 00:06:57.000 was also low. So two years later, his ferritin 00:06:57.000 --> 00:07:00.660 had gone up to 405, which can cause damage to 00:07:00.660 --> 00:07:03.879 the kidneys and the liver. His blood urea nitrogen, 00:07:04.199 --> 00:07:05.699 the kidney test, one of the kidney tests, had 00:07:05.699 --> 00:07:09.180 inched up another notch from 18 to 19. Most doctors 00:07:09.180 --> 00:07:11.319 would ignore this, really, until it gets to 20, 00:07:11.439 --> 00:07:14.560 the blood urea nitrogen. So he came back six 00:07:14.560 --> 00:07:16.600 months later, and his ferritin was now down to 00:07:16.600 --> 00:07:21.019 253, still a little high, but relatively safe 00:07:21.019 --> 00:07:23.550 for his liver. heart and kidneys because he had 00:07:23.550 --> 00:07:25.470 donated a pint of blood. That's what I told him 00:07:25.470 --> 00:07:26.850 to do when he came in the first time. Go donate 00:07:26.850 --> 00:07:29.730 a pint of blood and that will bring your ferritin 00:07:29.730 --> 00:07:31.870 down. Well, even though we reduced that stress 00:07:31.870 --> 00:07:35.009 on his kidneys, his bun was now up to 27. It 00:07:35.009 --> 00:07:37.550 jumped eight points and is seven points outside 00:07:37.550 --> 00:07:39.629 the broad medical range, highlighted in red on 00:07:39.629 --> 00:07:42.279 the report. And I asked him, Are you doing anything 00:07:42.279 --> 00:07:44.639 different? Are you eating a lot of protein, for 00:07:44.639 --> 00:07:47.160 example? Among other things, I asked him a bunch 00:07:47.160 --> 00:07:48.459 of questions about his diet. But basically he 00:07:48.459 --> 00:07:51.000 revealed that he had begun taking a couple of 00:07:51.000 --> 00:07:54.100 protein shakes every day. So in addition to the 00:07:54.100 --> 00:07:57.879 food in his diet, he was taking around 180 grams 00:07:57.879 --> 00:08:01.240 of powdered protein from one of these cheap, 00:08:01.240 --> 00:08:04.100 crappy, muscle -building shakes that you see 00:08:04.100 --> 00:08:08.019 in stores full of sugar, cheap vitamins and stimulants. 00:08:08.990 --> 00:08:11.250 To top it off, his protein level was still low. 00:08:11.350 --> 00:08:13.910 It had gone down from his previous test. His 00:08:13.910 --> 00:08:16.430 previous test was just a little bit higher, still 00:08:16.430 --> 00:08:19.329 low. So he's clearly not absorbing this protein, 00:08:19.430 --> 00:08:21.610 and it was stressing his kidneys for no good 00:08:21.610 --> 00:08:24.269 reason. So I recommended some betaine hydrochloric 00:08:24.269 --> 00:08:26.990 acid. This is a supplement you can take to supplement 00:08:26.990 --> 00:08:29.689 the acid produced in the stomach to help absorb 00:08:29.689 --> 00:08:32.009 the protein that he's eating, mostly chicken 00:08:32.009 --> 00:08:35.960 and fish, some beef. And a year later, retested, 00:08:36.000 --> 00:08:37.960 his kidneys were better. His protein was now 00:08:37.960 --> 00:08:41.259 up to the perfectly healthy range. But his iron 00:08:41.259 --> 00:08:43.580 had started to creep back up again. And his kidney 00:08:43.580 --> 00:08:45.299 tests were about the same as the year before, 00:08:45.360 --> 00:08:47.419 still just a little bit high. And his vitamin 00:08:47.419 --> 00:08:49.580 D was a lot lower. So he'd obviously stopped 00:08:49.580 --> 00:08:52.039 taking the 5 ,000 units of vitamin D I recommend 00:08:52.039 --> 00:08:55.519 every day for most adults. So this time he took 00:08:55.519 --> 00:08:57.879 all of the supplements I recommended and he donated 00:08:57.879 --> 00:08:59.700 a pint of blood to bring the ferritin down. And 00:08:59.700 --> 00:09:02.950 six months later, his... Kidney function is back 00:09:02.950 --> 00:09:05.309 to normal. His protein is good. His vitamin D 00:09:05.309 --> 00:09:08.070 is well into the healthy range. And this whole 00:09:08.070 --> 00:09:10.649 time, he's never had any symptoms at all. He's 00:09:10.649 --> 00:09:13.129 just interested in prevention. So that's one 00:09:13.129 --> 00:09:16.529 of my favorite types of patients. So here's a 00:09:16.529 --> 00:09:18.730 final word from Dr. Pelsman. He says, it's true, 00:09:18.789 --> 00:09:21.110 not everything that's flagged as bad is bad. 00:09:21.470 --> 00:09:23.309 But it's also true that not everything that's 00:09:23.309 --> 00:09:25.429 still in the normal range is as normal as we 00:09:25.429 --> 00:09:27.870 think. So building systems to help us spot and 00:09:27.870 --> 00:09:30.570 keep track of trends will likely help us take 00:09:30.570 --> 00:09:33.750 better care. of patients and the endless noise 00:09:33.750 --> 00:09:36.570 of data we receive from all these tests. I'm 00:09:36.570 --> 00:09:39.070 Dr. Todd Bankley. You're listening to Safe, Effective, 00:09:39.070 --> 00:09:41.850 Natural Solutions to Almost Any Health Challenge. 00:09:42.049 --> 00:09:44.509 Here's another and even more encouraging piece 00:09:44.509 --> 00:09:47.470 in the medical press titled Reclaiming the Healer's 00:09:47.470 --> 00:09:51.309 Art in Medicine. This is written by Thomas McGinn, 00:09:51.470 --> 00:09:53.909 MD, Master of Public Health, Professor of Medicine 00:09:53.909 --> 00:09:56.830 at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. He 00:09:56.830 --> 00:10:01.049 says, Dr. McGinn says to be a healer is not merely 00:10:01.049 --> 00:10:04.649 to deliver care, but to create comfort. Yes, 00:10:04.730 --> 00:10:07.049 science is central, but healing encompasses something 00:10:07.049 --> 00:10:11.230 greater. Wisdom, empathy, curiosity, and the 00:10:11.230 --> 00:10:14.110 ability to sit literally and metaphorically with 00:10:14.110 --> 00:10:17.409 our patients. Healing happens in the relationships. 00:10:18.409 --> 00:10:20.649 Today, the vocation of healer feels endangered. 00:10:21.399 --> 00:10:23.340 administrative pressures, clinical throughput 00:10:23.340 --> 00:10:26.320 demands, getting as many people in as in a small 00:10:26.320 --> 00:10:28.480 amount of time as possible. Technological overload 00:10:28.480 --> 00:10:32.340 are pushing healing to the margins. Physicians 00:10:32.340 --> 00:10:35.000 have become data input machines and begun to 00:10:35.000 --> 00:10:38.179 compartmentalize ourselves, turning on and off, 00:10:38.320 --> 00:10:41.840 losing continuity, not only of care, but of presence. 00:10:42.840 --> 00:10:46.019 This is Dr. McGinn, professor of medicine at 00:10:46.019 --> 00:10:47.740 the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. He 00:10:47.740 --> 00:10:51.460 goes on to say, our task, I believe, is to reclaim 00:10:51.460 --> 00:10:54.820 the space for healing. As leaders, we must relieve 00:10:54.820 --> 00:10:58.600 the burdens that keep clinicians from their calling. 00:10:58.720 --> 00:11:00.779 We must re -engineer the system to make room 00:11:00.779 --> 00:11:02.740 for curiosity, culture, time, and attention. 00:11:03.259 --> 00:11:06.059 Healing cannot be scaled. It must be protected, 00:11:06.299 --> 00:11:09.980 nurtured. This is amazing, right? This is a really 00:11:09.980 --> 00:11:12.320 great, great idea. I hope all doctors are reading 00:11:12.320 --> 00:11:14.759 this. He goes on, as we reimagine that stem, 00:11:14.840 --> 00:11:17.779 we must also recognize that technology, often 00:11:17.779 --> 00:11:20.220 seen as the culprit in depersonalizing care, 00:11:20.460 --> 00:11:23.639 can, if deployed with intention, become part 00:11:23.639 --> 00:11:25.679 of the solution. One example is the emergence 00:11:25.679 --> 00:11:28.960 of ambient artificial intelligence -assisted 00:11:29.309 --> 00:11:31.389 Scribe technology. Well, that's a mouthful, but 00:11:31.389 --> 00:11:33.950 these are tools that are now capable of capturing 00:11:33.950 --> 00:11:36.970 the clinical conversation in real time, allowing 00:11:36.970 --> 00:11:39.610 documentation to fade in the background and enabling 00:11:39.610 --> 00:11:41.830 clinicians to return their full gaze to the patient 00:11:41.830 --> 00:11:43.789 in front of them. Imagine a clinical visit where 00:11:43.789 --> 00:11:46.009 you no longer type or click through screens, 00:11:46.029 --> 00:11:47.990 but instead sit eye to eye with the patient, 00:11:48.049 --> 00:11:51.309 unhurried, as the chart writes itself in the 00:11:51.309 --> 00:11:54.049 background. This isn't science fiction. Science 00:11:54.049 --> 00:11:56.820 fiction, it's happening now. But the impact of 00:11:56.820 --> 00:11:59.039 these tools depends on how we implement them. 00:11:59.139 --> 00:12:01.659 We must ensure that such technology is used to 00:12:01.659 --> 00:12:05.600 augment healing, not just improve time management. 00:12:05.740 --> 00:12:07.860 So technology should serve to enhance the patient 00:12:07.860 --> 00:12:09.399 -physician relationship, not replace it. When 00:12:09.399 --> 00:12:11.340 it does, it can restore one of the most vital 00:12:11.340 --> 00:12:14.019 and currently endangered elements of clinical 00:12:14.019 --> 00:12:18.000 care, human connection. And he closes with this. 00:12:18.100 --> 00:12:20.120 In this moment, when trust in science is under 00:12:20.120 --> 00:12:23.039 attack, we need to recenter the healer, not just 00:12:23.039 --> 00:12:25.919 as a clinician, but as a voice of wisdom. science, 00:12:26.059 --> 00:12:30.100 and hope. Well, here, here, I say kudos to you, 00:12:30.159 --> 00:12:32.039 Dr. Thomas McGinn at Baylor College of Medicine 00:12:32.039 --> 00:12:35.500 in Houston. Healing has always been at the central 00:12:35.500 --> 00:12:37.759 focus of my practice. It's right there in the 00:12:37.759 --> 00:12:41.059 name of my office, Binkley Healing Center. And 00:12:41.059 --> 00:12:43.340 I'm privileged. One of the most consistent remarks 00:12:43.340 --> 00:12:45.960 I get when a new patient comes in is how warm 00:12:45.960 --> 00:12:49.379 and comfortable my office feels. Well, you're 00:12:49.379 --> 00:12:51.639 immediately greeted upon entering by the smiling 00:12:51.639 --> 00:12:55.220 face of my wonderful assistant, Victoria. And 00:12:55.220 --> 00:12:57.700 whenever you choose to consult with me, you will 00:12:57.700 --> 00:13:00.440 receive the wisdom gleaned from my 35 years in 00:13:00.440 --> 00:13:03.980 practice. We will sit together eye to eye. You 00:13:03.980 --> 00:13:07.820 will have my empathy and curiosity and my full 00:13:07.820 --> 00:13:09.279 attention. It costs a lot less than you might 00:13:09.279 --> 00:13:11.259 imagine to take responsibility of your own health 00:13:11.259 --> 00:13:13.139 and get a little help along the way if you're 00:13:13.139 --> 00:13:15.860 not getting the care you need. Shoot me an email 00:13:15.860 --> 00:13:19.720 at drbinkley at binkleyhealingcenter .com. You 00:13:19.720 --> 00:13:25.529 can even text me at 805 -218 -39... If you're 00:13:25.529 --> 00:13:27.149 surprised that I'm giving my cell phone out on 00:13:27.149 --> 00:13:29.090 the air, please note that the ringer on my phone 00:13:29.090 --> 00:13:32.029 is always off. But I will reply if you leave 00:13:32.029 --> 00:13:34.149 a text. I'll even reply to a voicemail. It may 00:13:34.149 --> 00:13:36.529 take a day or two because I often forget to check 00:13:36.529 --> 00:13:38.610 voicemails. But I'd love to hear from you. Send 00:13:38.610 --> 00:13:40.750 me your questions, things that you'd like to 00:13:40.750 --> 00:13:43.090 hear about on this show, for example. Moving 00:13:43.090 --> 00:13:46.870 on to the subject of strength, building and maintaining 00:13:46.870 --> 00:13:49.190 muscle strength. So this is a study titled Hand 00:13:49.190 --> 00:13:52.789 Grip Strength and Trajectories in Preclinical 00:13:52.789 --> 00:13:56.220 Obesity. While I've retitled this, my summary 00:13:56.220 --> 00:13:59.059 of this title is Reduce the Damaging Effects 00:13:59.059 --> 00:14:02.220 of Obesity by Building and Maintaining Muscle 00:14:02.220 --> 00:14:05.000 Mass and Strength. So grip strength is something 00:14:05.000 --> 00:14:06.480 that you can measure with a little tool called 00:14:06.480 --> 00:14:08.460 a dynamometer. It's just a tool that you squeeze 00:14:08.460 --> 00:14:10.539 in your hand and it's got a little dial that 00:14:10.539 --> 00:14:12.700 measures your grip strength. So it's a standard 00:14:12.700 --> 00:14:14.919 tool that's been around for many, many years, 00:14:14.980 --> 00:14:18.600 decades. And grip strength, this article was 00:14:18.600 --> 00:14:20.779 in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and 00:14:20.779 --> 00:14:23.559 Metabolism from October of 2025, just came out. 00:14:24.120 --> 00:14:26.059 Grip strength has been increasingly recognized 00:14:26.059 --> 00:14:30.139 as a predictor of chronic disease risk and mortality. 00:14:30.580 --> 00:14:33.460 So this is based on data from the UK Biobank, 00:14:33.480 --> 00:14:35.379 a nationally representative and continuously 00:14:35.379 --> 00:14:39.179 updated biomedical database in the United Kingdom, 00:14:39.320 --> 00:14:42.279 and comprising over 500 ,000 participants who 00:14:42.279 --> 00:14:45.879 were recruited from 2006 to 2010 in England, 00:14:46.000 --> 00:14:49.899 Scotland, and Wales. Muscle strength more accurately, 00:14:50.059 --> 00:14:52.299 their main conclusion is that muscle strength 00:14:52.299 --> 00:14:54.899 more accurately reflects body composition distribution 00:14:54.899 --> 00:14:58.799 compared to standard measurements like BMI. And 00:14:58.799 --> 00:15:00.899 specifically, the people with more muscle strength 00:15:00.899 --> 00:15:04.659 had much less abdominal obesity. We're going 00:15:04.659 --> 00:15:07.360 to come back to that, but abdominal obesity is 00:15:07.360 --> 00:15:09.820 the main focus. It's the worst kind of obesity 00:15:09.820 --> 00:15:12.100 you can have. It's much more important to not 00:15:12.100 --> 00:15:14.740 have. obesity in your abdomen than any other 00:15:14.740 --> 00:15:16.240 part of your body. So additionally, individuals 00:15:16.240 --> 00:15:18.340 with higher grip strength exhibited significantly 00:15:18.340 --> 00:15:22.039 decreased levels of hemoglobin A1c, which is 00:15:22.039 --> 00:15:23.840 a measure of your blood sugar over three months, 00:15:23.940 --> 00:15:27.059 a standard diagnostic test for diabetes. And 00:15:27.059 --> 00:15:28.600 individuals with higher grip strength also had 00:15:28.600 --> 00:15:31.720 lower triglyceride levels. So triglyceride is 00:15:31.720 --> 00:15:35.480 fat in your bloodstream that creates an inflammatory 00:15:35.480 --> 00:15:39.100 response. So this means that if you have greater 00:15:39.100 --> 00:15:40.820 grip strength, it's going to improve your body's 00:15:40.820 --> 00:15:43.990 ability to handle sugar. and fat, which is going 00:15:43.990 --> 00:15:47.610 to result in less abdominal obesity. Another 00:15:47.610 --> 00:15:49.850 similar study showed that, in fact, reduced grip 00:15:49.850 --> 00:15:51.950 strength is associated with increased risk of 00:15:51.950 --> 00:15:55.389 type 2 diabetes, including elevated hemoglobin 00:15:55.389 --> 00:15:58.129 A1c levels. So the people with the highest grip 00:15:58.129 --> 00:16:00.870 strength unsurprisingly reported greater engagement 00:16:00.870 --> 00:16:03.409 in regular physical activity. Interestingly, 00:16:03.649 --> 00:16:06.509 far fewer of them smoked currently or in the 00:16:06.509 --> 00:16:08.850 past. And other studies have shown that smoking 00:16:08.850 --> 00:16:12.509 is a strong determinant of declining Muscle strength. 00:16:12.990 --> 00:16:14.990 So this strong correlation between grip strength 00:16:14.990 --> 00:16:17.370 and the progression of obesity and mortality, 00:16:17.789 --> 00:16:22.309 disease causing death, may be explained by several 00:16:22.309 --> 00:16:25.509 mechanisms. They go on to say, firstly, obesity 00:16:25.509 --> 00:16:29.389 directly impairs organs and tissues. directly 00:16:29.389 --> 00:16:31.990 impairs organs and tissues. It accumulates around 00:16:31.990 --> 00:16:34.289 your organs and tissues, contributes to limitations 00:16:34.289 --> 00:16:37.409 and activities of daily living, meaning you're 00:16:37.409 --> 00:16:39.730 going to exercise less. Second, the people with 00:16:39.730 --> 00:16:42.389 the most grip strength have significantly lower 00:16:43.220 --> 00:16:46.279 CRP levels. Well, CRP is a standard test that 00:16:46.279 --> 00:16:48.179 I do on all of my patients. It's a well -established 00:16:48.179 --> 00:16:50.960 biomarker for systemic inflammation. Inflammation 00:16:50.960 --> 00:16:53.960 throughout your body has been linked to an increased 00:16:53.960 --> 00:16:56.700 risk of cardiovascular mortality and metabolic 00:16:56.700 --> 00:16:59.919 disorders like diabetes and fatty liver disease. 00:16:59.980 --> 00:17:02.440 So many previous studies have showed that reduce... 00:17:02.649 --> 00:17:05.789 Muscle strength is strongly associated with elevated 00:17:05.789 --> 00:17:09.589 CRP levels, increased inflammation from that 00:17:09.589 --> 00:17:11.650 fat around the belly. It's the fat around the 00:17:11.650 --> 00:17:15.150 belly. Obesity is actually a chronic, low -grade 00:17:15.150 --> 00:17:19.289 inflammatory state. This oversized adipose fat 00:17:19.289 --> 00:17:22.809 tissue attracts immune cells, things called monocytes 00:17:22.809 --> 00:17:25.829 and macrophages, which in turn promote the secretion 00:17:25.829 --> 00:17:29.410 of pro -inflammatory cytokines, such as tumor 00:17:29.410 --> 00:17:31.849 necrosis factor and interleukin -6. These are 00:17:31.849 --> 00:17:33.849 a mouthful, but these are pro -inflammatory. 00:17:33.950 --> 00:17:35.569 When you say what, you know, what people often 00:17:35.569 --> 00:17:37.529 ask me, what is inflammation? Literally, what 00:17:37.529 --> 00:17:40.329 is that? Well, it's a process that's designed 00:17:40.329 --> 00:17:43.750 to heal you in a crisis, but it often gets put 00:17:43.750 --> 00:17:45.289 in overdrive. And if you heard about, if you 00:17:45.289 --> 00:17:48.160 remember people dying from COVID, many of them 00:17:48.160 --> 00:17:52.039 died from a cytokine storm that would just overwhelm 00:17:52.039 --> 00:17:53.980 their lungs and their cardiovascular systems 00:17:53.980 --> 00:17:57.059 and result in their death. So cytokines are a 00:17:57.059 --> 00:18:00.680 type of pro -inflammatory chemical, and they 00:18:00.680 --> 00:18:03.460 lead to local or systemic inflammation everywhere 00:18:03.460 --> 00:18:08.500 in your body, as well as oxidative stress. Thirdly, 00:18:08.920 --> 00:18:11.079 This is the third reason, the third effect connection 00:18:11.079 --> 00:18:13.200 between strength and obesity. Skeletal muscle 00:18:13.200 --> 00:18:15.680 itself, your regular muscles, your biceps and 00:18:15.680 --> 00:18:19.259 your muscles throughout your body, that system 00:18:19.259 --> 00:18:22.019 of muscles is an active endocrine organ that 00:18:22.019 --> 00:18:25.180 secretes chemicals. Your muscles secrete chemicals 00:18:25.180 --> 00:18:27.900 that regulate blood sugar and insulin sensitivity. 00:18:28.380 --> 00:18:32.160 So if you reduce muscle mass or strength, it 00:18:32.160 --> 00:18:36.410 interferes with proper energy metabolism. Reduced 00:18:36.410 --> 00:18:38.170 muscle strength has also been shown to be strongly 00:18:38.170 --> 00:18:41.049 associated with reduced bone density and directly 00:18:41.049 --> 00:18:44.569 with cardiovascular disease. So in summary, reduce 00:18:44.569 --> 00:18:46.630 the damaging effects of obesity by building and 00:18:46.630 --> 00:18:48.490 maintaining muscle mass and strength. How do 00:18:48.490 --> 00:18:51.930 you do that? Lift weights. Do any kind of weight 00:18:51.930 --> 00:18:54.170 -bearing exercise will help build and maintain 00:18:54.170 --> 00:18:57.609 bone density and muscle mass. Something as simple 00:18:57.609 --> 00:18:59.730 as grabbing a hold of a hand rift. This is one 00:18:59.730 --> 00:19:01.650 of the things I teach my elderly patients if 00:19:01.650 --> 00:19:04.329 they're too frail to go to a gym and just want 00:19:04.329 --> 00:19:05.950 something simple they can do at home. The muscles 00:19:05.950 --> 00:19:07.470 in your legs are the biggest muscles in your 00:19:07.470 --> 00:19:09.269 body and doing something as simple as holding 00:19:09.269 --> 00:19:12.480 on. to a handrail or the edge of your kitchen 00:19:12.480 --> 00:19:15.700 sink and slowly bending your legs, squatting 00:19:15.700 --> 00:19:17.839 down. Squatting down and up, not going further 00:19:17.839 --> 00:19:19.859 than 90 degrees for your knees, making sure it 00:19:19.859 --> 00:19:21.619 doesn't hurt your knees, but also holding on 00:19:21.619 --> 00:19:24.279 so there's no risk of falling and going really, 00:19:24.400 --> 00:19:26.920 really slowly. When I show this, people like 00:19:26.920 --> 00:19:28.940 to squat down slow and then they jump back up. 00:19:29.160 --> 00:19:31.579 But if you want a simple exercise to increase 00:19:31.579 --> 00:19:33.819 muscle mass, if you're older, if you want to 00:19:33.819 --> 00:19:35.680 give somebody you love something that they can 00:19:35.680 --> 00:19:38.710 do. Somebody you love who you know would benefit 00:19:38.710 --> 00:19:42.230 from more muscle mass and strength. You can do 00:19:42.230 --> 00:19:44.670 squats at home, holding on to something so they're 00:19:44.670 --> 00:19:46.829 not going to fall back. And also, the most important 00:19:46.829 --> 00:19:49.549 thing is to go down slowly and, most importantly, 00:19:49.730 --> 00:19:52.670 come up really slowly. And that's going to help 00:19:52.670 --> 00:19:54.509 build muscle strength. It also helps with your 00:19:54.509 --> 00:19:56.950 balance. It's going to build muscle mass and 00:19:56.950 --> 00:19:59.430 maintain muscle mass and strength in your legs. 00:19:59.809 --> 00:20:02.970 Here's another study titled Cardiometabolic Outcomes 00:20:02.970 --> 00:20:05.970 Among Adults with Abdominal Obesity and Normal. 00:20:06.480 --> 00:20:08.960 Body Mass Index. The most common test to measure 00:20:08.960 --> 00:20:12.880 body composition is the BMI, Body Mass Index. 00:20:13.559 --> 00:20:15.460 And this is basically just more evidence that 00:20:15.460 --> 00:20:18.819 fat in your gut is the worst kind of fat. And 00:20:18.819 --> 00:20:21.380 how do you reduce it? Well, not with sit -ups, 00:20:21.400 --> 00:20:24.220 not with doing core exercises. Getting rid of 00:20:24.220 --> 00:20:27.380 fat around your belly. To do that, you have to 00:20:27.380 --> 00:20:29.599 get rid of fat everywhere in your body and build 00:20:29.599 --> 00:20:32.980 muscle mass. So think of reduced time -restricted 00:20:32.980 --> 00:20:35.569 eating or intermittent fasting. Think of eating, 00:20:35.750 --> 00:20:40.990 try eating breakfast and lunch and or only a 00:20:40.990 --> 00:20:44.049 lot of people. I only eat breakfast and lunch. 00:20:44.069 --> 00:20:46.289 I always forget. Most people skip breakfast that 00:20:46.289 --> 00:20:48.029 do time restricted eating or intermittent fasting. 00:20:48.130 --> 00:20:50.029 They skip breakfast and only eat lunch and dinner. 00:20:50.109 --> 00:20:52.650 So they're only eating six to eight hours a day. 00:20:52.990 --> 00:20:55.549 10 hours a day and leaving the other 12 to 16 00:20:55.549 --> 00:20:58.730 hours a day for their body to rest and digest. 00:20:59.309 --> 00:21:02.150 So I recommend not eating right before you go 00:21:02.150 --> 00:21:04.029 to bed. You don't need food to sleep. You need 00:21:04.029 --> 00:21:05.849 food in the morning. I eat a hearty breakfast 00:21:05.849 --> 00:21:07.809 in the morning. I recommend it for other people 00:21:07.809 --> 00:21:11.029 as well to eat some hearty, healthy, savory protein 00:21:11.029 --> 00:21:14.150 in the morning and eat a big lunch. But however 00:21:14.150 --> 00:21:15.950 you want to do it, if you just spend less time 00:21:15.950 --> 00:21:18.329 eating and digesting your food every 24 hours, 00:21:18.490 --> 00:21:22.609 then it tends to make it easier to build and 00:21:22.609 --> 00:21:26.849 maintain muscle mass and save less fat. So, yeah, 00:21:26.869 --> 00:21:29.730 you can't spot reduce fat from your belly, but 00:21:29.730 --> 00:21:32.549 just reducing the time that it takes for you 00:21:32.549 --> 00:21:34.750 to digest your food and the calories, fewer junk 00:21:34.750 --> 00:21:37.009 carbs, and then, of course, doing cardiovascular 00:21:37.009 --> 00:21:40.849 exercise and weight training to build and maintain 00:21:40.849 --> 00:21:42.490 muscle mass. So this was a study that came out 00:21:42.490 --> 00:21:44.849 in October of 2025, just came out in Journal 00:21:44.849 --> 00:21:46.390 of the American Medical Association. This was 00:21:46.390 --> 00:21:50.970 a study of 471 ,000 participants around the world. 00:21:51.400 --> 00:21:55.880 22 % had normal weight abdominal obesity. So 00:21:55.880 --> 00:21:57.759 that means they're not overweight at all. They 00:21:57.759 --> 00:22:00.279 have normal weight, but they have a belly. They 00:22:00.279 --> 00:22:04.519 have excess fat around their abdomen and relatively 00:22:04.519 --> 00:22:08.039 probably not as heavy in their arms and legs, 00:22:08.099 --> 00:22:10.519 either part of their body. So normal weight abdominal 00:22:10.519 --> 00:22:14.319 obesity was consistently associated with increased 00:22:14.319 --> 00:22:17.460 hypertension, diabetes, high total cholesterol, 00:22:17.559 --> 00:22:21.630 and elevated triglycerides. All over the world. 00:22:21.710 --> 00:22:23.470 So again, these are people who are not overweight. 00:22:23.809 --> 00:22:26.769 They have a normal weight, a reasonable body 00:22:26.769 --> 00:22:29.190 mass index, a reasonable weight for their height 00:22:29.190 --> 00:22:32.750 and size. But they have more fat around the middle 00:22:32.750 --> 00:22:35.609 of the body. And just that, just that changed. 00:22:35.869 --> 00:22:37.990 22 % of the people around the world that had 00:22:37.990 --> 00:22:41.829 that had dramatically increased risk of high 00:22:41.829 --> 00:22:45.289 blood pressure, diabetes, cholesterol, and triglycerides. 00:22:45.690 --> 00:22:48.190 So this shows basically that abdominal visceral 00:22:48.190 --> 00:22:50.349 fat is a stronger estimate of cardiometabolic 00:22:50.349 --> 00:22:54.190 risk than BMI because of the inflammation, because 00:22:54.190 --> 00:22:56.349 of the inflammation, chronic inflammation, systemic 00:22:56.349 --> 00:22:58.630 inflammation around the body, and the metabolic 00:22:58.630 --> 00:23:02.269 effects, meaning the increased risk of diabetes 00:23:02.269 --> 00:23:05.730 and related disease conditions, the effects of 00:23:05.730 --> 00:23:07.609 diabetes on the liver and the kidneys, for example. 00:23:07.609 --> 00:23:10.430 So normal weight, abdominal obesity is defined 00:23:10.430 --> 00:23:15.319 as a normal body mass index, BMI, of 18 .5. to 00:23:15.319 --> 00:23:18.359 24 .9. And you calculate, you can just Google 00:23:18.359 --> 00:23:20.339 body mass index and punch in your weight and 00:23:20.339 --> 00:23:22.579 your height and it'll calculate it before you. 00:23:22.619 --> 00:23:24.619 But the formula, it'll calculate it for you. 00:23:24.660 --> 00:23:27.319 The formula is your weight in kilograms divided 00:23:27.319 --> 00:23:30.240 by your height in meters squared. So yeah, just 00:23:30.240 --> 00:23:32.740 Google BMI, punch in your weight and your height 00:23:32.740 --> 00:23:34.839 and you'll get your BMI. So these are people 00:23:34.839 --> 00:23:38.299 that have normal BMI between 18 and 25, say, 00:23:38.420 --> 00:23:42.200 but with a waist circumference of greater than 00:23:42.200 --> 00:23:45.710 31 and a half inches for a female. and greater 00:23:45.710 --> 00:23:49.049 than 37 inches for a male. So if you have a normal 00:23:49.049 --> 00:23:52.190 BMI, but a waist bigger than 31 1⁄2 inches for 00:23:52.190 --> 00:23:55.609 a woman or 37 inches for a man, then you have 00:23:55.609 --> 00:23:58.509 abdominal obesity and you have a much increased 00:23:58.509 --> 00:24:00.809 risk, a much higher likelihood to have high blood 00:24:00.809 --> 00:24:03.250 pressure, diabetes, high total cholesterol, and 00:24:03.250 --> 00:24:05.769 triglycerides, and the resultant increased risk 00:24:05.769 --> 00:24:09.140 of cardiovascular disease and death. Well, we 00:24:09.140 --> 00:24:11.259 are once again out of time. I don't know where 00:24:11.259 --> 00:24:13.700 the time goes. As always, thank you for tuning 00:24:13.700 --> 00:24:16.200 in. Come check out my talk on toxins at my office 00:24:16.200 --> 00:24:19.640 this Wednesday at 6 p .m. And remember, the health 00:24:19.640 --> 00:24:22.000 of your body is always more important than any 00:24:22.000 --> 00:24:25.140 disease you've been diagnosed with. Have a fantastic 00:24:25.140 --> 00:24:28.579 weekend. You've been listening to Safe, Effective 00:24:28.579 --> 00:24:31.910 Natural Solutions with Dr. Todd Binkley. If you 00:24:31.910 --> 00:24:33.890 have a health question you want discussed on 00:24:33.890 --> 00:24:37.250 the show, email your health questions to drbinkley 00:24:37.250 --> 00:24:41.250 at binkleyhealingcenter .com. Take advantage 00:24:41.250 --> 00:24:44.069 of this opportunity to ask questions for yourself 00:24:44.069 --> 00:24:47.650 and for your loved ones because our health matters. 00:24:47.869 --> 00:24:52.250 Join him next Friday at 2 p .m. for safe, effective 00:24:52.250 --> 00:24:56.730 natural solutions here on 98 .3 FM, The Word.