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. The focus this week is
on thyroid conditions, most commonly hypothyroidism,
but more specifically this week, hyper. Last
week, I did a really fascinating case study,
a patient of mine who has Graves' disease, hyper
-overactive thyroid, and we ran out of time.
So just to recap, this is a 48 -year -old woman
with hyperthyroidism. She has been diagnosed
with hyperthyroidism, Graves' disease, in her
20s. She had two family members that had also
been diagnosed with Graves' disease. And at the
time, her doctor, 20 years ago, recommended the
complete removal of her thyroid gland. which
is just usually not necessary. And she was going
through med school at the time. And so she saw
some of the horrors of medical care while she
was in school. She didn't want to do that. She
did not do that. She took some medication for
a year and dedicated herself to maintaining her
own health, got it completely into remission
under control. She continued monitoring her blood
tests for years. And only recently, a few months,
a little over a year ago, came back. So most
problems with the thyroid, whether underactive
or overactive, are the results of an autoimmune
condition. So when she came in to me, she already
knew a little bit about this, but I explained.
that most likely we're going to be looking to
deal with, help our body resolve the inflammation
that results from autoimmunity, your body's immune
system overproducing antibodies that attack the
healthy tissue of the thyroid, creating inflammation,
scar tissue, displacing the functional tissue
that is able to normally produce the right amount
of thyroid when you need it. So this now 48 -year
-old woman did complete her medical training
in her 20s in her home country, but never became
licensed to practice medicine here. She's doing
other things, got a fantastic career. Outwardly,
she is in perfect health, but her thyroid ultrasound
showed a 53 % enlargement of the thyroid gland.
And her radio tracer thyroid scan showed that
she definitely had the signs of increased activity
of the thyroid gland consistent with Graves'
disease. Well, when I'm talking about functional
medicine, I often describe it as a means of identifying
earlier signs of stress on your organs and systems
so that you don't need to become dependent on
medical care, drugs, surgery, etc. Well, this
is a full -blown medical condition. And when
I saw her blood tests, I had to tell her that
there was a very good chance she could need to
go back on medication. Her thyroid -stimulating
hormone, the hormone the pituitary uses to tell
the thyroid to make more, was 00. 0 .5, 100 times
lower than the lower limit of normal, basically.
barely detectable. Her free T3, just going to
review a couple of her blood tests, then we'll
get into the results. Her free T3 active form
of thyroid hormone was nearly double the upper
limit of normal. Her TPO antibodies were five
and a half times the upper limit of normal. And
her thyrotrophin receptor antibody, this is another
antibody that's the most important one for evaluating
hyperthyroidism, was 8 .04, also five and a half
times the upper limit of normal. She also had
some elevated liver enzymes, low protein level.
which is really important for healing proteins
essential to heal every tissue in your body her
white blood cell count was also low at only 3
.7 because of the chronic stress on her immune
system And on the plus side, she was otherwise
in great shape. She took great care of herself,
eating a great diet, regularly exercising. Even
though she was thin, she had the musculature
of an athlete. So she's highly motivated and
equipped to take care of this, even though it's
a fairly significant condition. You know, we
had good cause to suggest that it warrant doing
a course of natural therapy. So I said, let's
do this for, let's do an intensive program for
four months and then retest and see how you're
doing. I should mention before we get into the
results that we also did some chemical tests
for chemical toxins that were very, very high,
which I'm convinced were probably one of the
primary drivers of her condition. She also had
some heavy metal exposure that we did a test
for and documented excessive body burden of lead,
mercury, and uranium. Uranium especially is related
to thyroid function. And so we did a four -month
course of treatment. I recommended some basic
nutrients for general health, some prebiotics
and probiotics to support healthy gut, some betaine
hydrochloric acid to help her absorb more of
the protein that she was already eating, and
then some specific things for the heart, L -carnitine
and magnesium. protect the heart, reduce some
nervousness that she was having and insomnia.
So we had all these high results on her toxin
tests, so I recommended some modified citrus
pectin and binding agents to help flush out these
toxins. And I recommended a product called loracetin,
which is one of my favorites for immune system
support, which reliably boosts low white cell
counts. So follow up. Fast forward four months,
we redid her blood work. Her protein levels had
improved measurably from 6 .2 to 6 .8. And most
importantly, the globulin portion of her total
protein, which is essential for making immunoglobulins,
went from 2 .2 to 2 .6. That's good improvement.
The elevated liver enzymes, which are unusual
for hypothyroidism, one of which was twice the
upper limit, were now completely back to normal.
Her TSH, thyroid stimulating hormone, was unchanged
and still nearly undetectable. So as far as her
pituitary was concerned, her thyroid gland was
still making too much, which is not surprising.
But far more importantly, her TPO, her thyroid
peroxidase antibodies, dropped from 183 to 134.
And her thyroglobulin receptor Antibodies, bit
of a mouthful. This is the most important antibody
for hyperthyroidism. It had dropped by more than
half, from 8 .0 to 3 .8. Most importantly of
all, her active thyroid hormone, free T3, had
dropped from 7 .1 to an almost perfectly healthy
4 .0. So this means that in spite of the ongoing
autoimmune condition, which is far from gone
yet, her thyroid is no longer overproducing thyroid
hormone in a way that can damage her heart or
her bones or her eyes and the other common symptoms
and sequelae of having hyperthyroidism. She was
also feeling less anxious and neurotic and sleeping
better and her energy was good. So after only
four months in a 48 -year -old woman who technically
potentially had hyperthyroidism her entire adult
life, these are amazing results. And this patient
is very excited because she does stand a good
chance of being able to put the hypothyroidism
back into remission without ending up dependent
on drugs for the rest of her life. I'm Dr. Todd
Binkley. You're listening to Safe, Effective,
Natural Solutions to Almost Any Health Challenge.
So this was a fun case. I don't get many people
with overactive thyroid. I have, however, had
thousands of women, especially with underactive
hypothyroid. 90 % of the time, perhaps more,
most thyroid conditions that show up are under
active thyroid, especially when you can include
the ones, the millions of people that have undiagnosed
hypothyroidism. Millions of women in particular,
over 50, have cold hands and feet, dry skin,
hair loss, inability to lose weight, high cholesterol,
depression. These are all classic symptoms of
hypothyroidism that can... look normal if you
just do TSH or TSH and T4, the standard medical
tests. Those can be completely normal and you
can still have functional hypothyroidism that
can cause all of these symptoms that are easily,
relatively easy to correct with a few supplements,
sometimes some diet and exercise changes. So
if you're curious about that, if you know someone
who has dry skin, hair loss, cold hands and feet,
inability to lose weight, high cholesterol, depression,
inability to lose weight for no reason after
trying everything else and may have been told
that their thyroid was normal even. I'd love
to give them a proper testing to find out. truly
whether or not they have subclinical functional
hypothyroidism. I see this so many times, thousands
and thousands of times. And I'll be sharing.
If you want some more information about this,
I'd love to have you join me. I'll be sharing
some more case histories of some of these patients
I've seen with hypothyroidism live in my office
in downtown Ventura on Wednesday, December 3rd.
Wednesday at 6 p .m., December 3rd. Mark your
calendar. I'd love to have you join me Wednesday
at 6 p .m. I'll do a 30 -minute keynote presentation.
We'll have some light refreshments, and then
we'll have plenty of time for questions and answers.
We had a good turnout last month for the talk
I did on toxins, everything you need to know
about heavy metal, mold, and chemical toxins
exposure. I think my assistant posted some clips
of that talk video on social media. I don't know
if she's in charge of that. But we had a great
turnout, so I hope you'll join us this month
for hypothyroidism. Seating is limited, so please
RSVP. If you'd like to come and bring friends
and family, the more the merrier. But we do have
limited seating, so please RSVP. Let us know
if you'll be coming by texting my assistant,
Victoria, at 805 -612 - If you'd like to join
us for the talk live in the office on hypothyroidism,
please text an RSVP to 805 -612 -5531. Moving
on to some of the latest good news in the medical
press, here's an article entitled, Walking is
Good for You, Walking Backward Can Add... to
the benefits. So there's lots of ways to exercise.
Some people get tired of hearing about exercise.
Some people are excited to know maybe that it's
easier than you might think. That's what the,
there's some, one of the things that we're going
to cover today is there's several studies showing
that you may be, it's not as hard as you think
to get exercise that can make a profound difference
on your quality of life, your cardiovascular
health, brain health, et cetera. So this is interesting.
Taking a brisk walk. is an exercise rich in simplicity
and can have impressive mental and physical benefits,
stronger bones and muscles, cardiovascular fitness,
and stress relief to name a few. But like any
workout, it may feel repetitive, even boring
after a while. So backward walking, also known
as retro walking or reverse walking, could add
variety and add value to an exercise routine
when done safely. Turning around not only provides
a change of view, but puts different demands
on your body. Janet Dufek, PhD, a biomechanicist
and faculty member at the University of Nevada
in Las Vegas, has researched the mechanics of
both walking and landing from jumps to identify
ways of preventing injuries and improving physical
performance. And as a former college basketball
player and regular exercise, she's done her fair
share of backward walking. Walking backwards
can also increase hamstring flexibility, strengthen
underused muscles, and challenges the mind in
healthy, effective ways as the body adjusts to
new movement and posture. Evan Patterson, a personal
trainer in Nashville, Tennessee, recommends the
treadmill as the safest place to retro walk.
You can adjust it to a low speed or you can even
turn the treadmill off and make it a dead mill
where you propel the belt on your own, which
can take a while to get the treadmill going.
But it's safe. You have to provide the horsepower
and backward walking on the treadmill is especially
great for older clients because they can hold
on. to the handles and reduce the risk of falling.
So Dr. Dufek also recommends working in a one
-minute segment of backward walking into every
10 -minute walk that you do and then adding that
proportion one -tenth of the time in distance
or increasing it as you get comfortable. You
can also do backward walking with a partner.
So one facing each other, perhaps even clasping
hands. One person walks backward and the other
one strolls forward and keeps an eye out and
then switch. You may want to start out slow because
there's a balance that brain retraining that
you need to accommodate. You're learning a new
skill, but that's also what makes it beneficial.
You're using muscles in different ways and exercising
different parts of your brain. And if you really
get excited about it, some people even actually
run entire marathons backwards. So backward walking
is a form of cross -training. You're incorporating
a mix of moves into a fitness program. Doing
a range of exercise on different days can help
prevent overuse injuries. It's much better to
do something different just because it's different
instead of using the same muscles, doing the
same workout over and over again. And for many
people, CrossFit training means different activities
and different types of exercise, running on one
day, swimming the next day, strength training
on a third day. And that's great. But modification
like this just walking backwards kind of works
in the same way but on a more subtle micro level
and small tweaks can make a big difference walking
backward is often used by physical therapists
to help people recover from knee injuries or
from other forms of rehabilitation recovering
from surgery because it's different than forward
walking in a way that you strike your forefoot
first often quite gently and your heel often
doesn't even touch the ground, which can reduce
the range of motion of the knee joint in ways
that allow you to have activity without stressing.
the knee joint if you're recovering from a knee
injury and stretches the hamstrings. And it can
also improve balance and reduce fall risks in
older adults by activating the senses that are
required to do this new activity. There's ongoing
studies on that documenting the effects of that.
So we'll see some more about that later. And
if it still sounds totally crazy to walk backwards,
just remember basketball players do it all the
time. So do soccer players and American football
players, especially defensive backs. walking
and even running backwards continuously. So maybe
you might want to try it too. Elsewhere in recent
medical news, this is an exciting report we often
hear about. You have to take 10 ,000 steps to
be healthy if you're using a Fitbit or an Oura
Ring or a smartwatch to count your steps. Here's
a study published in the British Journal of Sports
Medicine reported by Dr. Ryuta Hamaya of Brigham
and Women's Hospital in Boston and colleagues.
that just taking 4 ,000 steps one to two days
per week is associated with lower risks of death
and heart disease among older women, according
to a large cohort study. So it's a study with
13 ,000 women ages 62 or older in the Women's
Health Study. who walked 4 ,000 steps per day
on just one or two days a week, was linked to
a 20 % lower mortality risk and 27 % lower risk
of cardiovascular disease compared with people
that didn't walk at all. That's pretty amazing.
Just 4 ,000 steps a day a couple of times a week
can have a dramatic result. 25 -27 % reduction
of heart disease and death. is in research terms
a huge, huge result. Those who walked even more
did have better declines in mortality risk. Death
was lower and 33 % lower death rate in those
who took 5 ,000 or more steps one to two days
a week and 46 % less risk of death for those
who took at least 7 ,000 steps. But increasing
the step counts did not. further reduce cardiovascular
disease. So taking 5 ,000 or more steps three
or more days a week was linked to a 31 % reduction
and 7 ,000 steps, a 33 % reduction. So about
the same as just doing 4 ,000 steps a couple
of times a week for its effect on reducing risk
of heart disease. Well, here's another interesting
study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
You often hear, and to a certain extent it's
true, that all steps count. That's why you wear
any of your devices that can track your steps,
because all steps are beneficial for your health.
But this study made a distinction between people
that are basically just doing normal daily activities,
never walking for more than five minutes continuously,
and those that intentionally walked 10 or 15
minutes or more. uh, all at once or, you know,
without stopping. And they found a big distinction.
So those, those people, and these were people
that walked for, I forget how many people, hundreds,
thousands, I can't find how many people. It was
a big study. Uh, however many it was, uh, the
people that walked, no matter how many steps
they took, if they walked for, if they never
walked for more than five minutes, compared to
those who did walks of 15 minutes or longer,
those who did the longer walks had a 60 % reduction
in cardiovascular disease overall and an 80 %
reduction in mortality. So the takeaway from
that is all steps count, but it is important
to walk at least 10 or 15 minutes at a time,
at least one or two days a week, maybe even three
or four or five days a week. Obviously, that's
still going to have some benefits for most people.
But it doesn't mean you have to walk 30 minutes
a day. Even 10 or 15 minutes is enough to dramatically
reduce your risk of cardiovascular disease and
death. Well, what if you're bored of walking
and want to do something different? Here's an
interesting study that came out of Portland.
Table tennis. Emerging as a surprising source
of therapy and community for those with Parkinson's
disease. So playing table tennis, ping pong,
boosts balance, eases tremors, and creates a
meaningful connection among the people that are
playing it. So this is a study that was done
by an international non -profit called Ping Pong
Parkinson's. And it shows that... Playing can
stimulate brain activity, improve motor control,
and sharpen reflexes in people with Parkinson's.
And some other studies show that these benefits
can spill into daily life because you have to
think fast and anything that involves thinking
on your feet is definitely going to improve connections
between the existing nerve cells that you still
have. I like the studies that show that one of
the best things for slowing and reversing early
enough the effects of dementia, for example,
are things like public speaking. or getting into
a bait, or just having an animated conversation
about a contentious subject with a friend or
family member. Anything that requires you to
think on your feet is the best way to exercise
your brain. So ping pong works specifically well
for Parkinson's because of the specific muscular
disabilities that go with Parkinson's disease.
At the Parkinson's Resources of Oregon in Beaverton,
Coach Rob Solomon says, quote, some of these
tremors, people show up with tremors, tremors
that are really bad, and then when they get at
the table, their hand is just solid. And they're
getting the psychological and social benefits
of doing something together with other people
in a similar situation. I'm Dr. Todd Bankley.
You're listening to Safe, Effective, Natural
Solutions to Almost Any Health Challenge. Do
you have a friend or family member who's not
satisfied with the care that they're getting
somewhere in another state? Someone you know
in New York or Massachusetts or Florida? Colorado,
Kansas, Nebraska, Washington, Oregon, Arizona,
New Mexico, Texas. I have patients in all these
states. They mostly come from local patients
with relatives and friends that live elsewhere.
Some people hear the podcast of this show anywhere
in the country and find me that way. A man in
Texas recently searched Apple Podcasts for natural
healing for high blood pressure. And he'd even
been to another nationally recognized functional
medicine doctor, but he wasn't getting the results
that he expected. The other doctor ran an excellent
list of tests, but he didn't really explain very
well what the tests meant, and he didn't give
this patient the instructions he needed to know
what to do next, and he didn't schedule any follow
-up to see whether or not things were working
according to plan. So he had a number of, the
man contacted me, he had a number of other symptoms
in addition to high blood pressure. And after
I consulted with him on the phone, he began doing
some things on his own to improve his health.
And I recommended that we do some more tests,
some toxic, testing for toxic chemicals and heavy
metals because of some very likely exposure that
he was getting from his work. And when his test
came back, I spent over an hour explaining all
the results to him and gave him a detailed list
of recommendations. And we've scheduled a follow
-up in four months. So he's very excited with
the plan I've laid out for him. I will do my
best to report on his results in about four months.
As always, I love receiving any questions you
have about a subject you'd like to see covered
on this show. Sometimes I forget to mention the
questions that I've received. I do use them to
determine what might be the most popular topic
for the next show. And so here's a question for
you. I'm making some notes. There's a bunch of
great research coming out about all the latest
gadgets for monitoring your health. Uber rings,
Apple watches, other smart watches, Fitbits,
etc. So please let me know your experience. Or
your questions, if you're using one of these
devices, please let me know how you're using
it, how you like it, any questions you may have
about that. And if you're not using one but wonder
if you should, let me know that too and what
you're thinking you might want to be using it
for. I may even have, for the first time, a guest
come in. And join me in describing some of the
various benefits of these devices. There's a
physician friend of mine that's kind of a gadget
guru, and he said he wouldn't mind talking about
some of these things. So if I get enough questions
about OOA rings and Apple Watches and other smart
health tracking devices, maybe you won't have
to listen to just me for once, and I'll have
a guest. Everyone's always telling me I should
have a guest on my show, and that would be fun.
We've got just a couple of minutes left here.
So I'll remind you that if you have friends,
family members in any state in the United States,
I can help them. There are LabCorp and Quest
blood draw sites. They can get their blood work
drawn at their local LabCorp draw site. And then
I go over the results with them with FaceTime,
Zoom, or even just the telephone. Get their results
online in a secure website. Go over the results
and give them a plan of action. I do this with
people all over the country. I love doing it.
And as much as I enjoy answering the questions
you send me via email, it's even more rewarding
to answer your questions face -to -face, which
is why I'm doing these live presentations every
month now, live in my office in downtown Ventura
at 6 p .m. the first Wednesday of every month.
In October, I did a PowerPoint presentation about
breast cancer on November 5th. Last month, we
talked about toxins. Had a great turnout. December
3rd, this coming Wednesday, I'm going to talk
about hypothyroidism. Bring your friends and
family. We'll have plenty of time to answer any
questions you may have. Space is limited. Please
RSVP to text my assistant, Victoria, 805 -612
-5531. That's 805 -612 -5531. As always, thank
you for tuning in. And remember, the condition
of your body is always more important than any
condition you've been diagnosed with. Go out
and do something this weekend to be healthier
than you were last week. 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.