Prepare to have your health questions answered
here on Safe, Effective, Natural Solutions with
Dr. Todd Binkley, owner of Binkley Healing Center
in downtown Ventura. Now, here's Dr. Todd. Good
afternoon. I'm Dr. Todd Binkley, board -certified
doctor of non -force chiropractic and practitioner.
of functional medicine. What is that? What is
functional medicine? Well, that usually means
using more tests than most doctors order to identify
where normal function in your body isn't happening
like it should. Instead of just waiting until
you have a full -blown disease, which is really
easy to diagnose with just a very short. panel
of blood tests. That's why most doctors only
order. They're basically just screening to see
if you have full -blown kidney disease or liver
disease or if you're almost ready to have a heart
attack or if you have an acute infection, etc.
So identify all the places where your body actually
needs some support. That if you give it that
support, will help you get rid of the fatigue
and the brain fog and the inability to lose weight
and all the other things that no one else has
been able to identify the specific cause for.
It's never just one thing. It's a whole host
of things that you're doing and not doing that
make it very difficult for your body to heal
itself. And so with a few more tests, we can
identify a whole host of things that need a little
support, that don't need drugs. Don't need surgery.
Don't need any horrible things with side effects
and misery associated with them or risks. Simple,
natural things that you can do to make yourself
healthier all day long, 24 -7, 365. And just
doing that eliminates and reverses, reduces.
attenuates, all kinds of conditions. So we'll
get into some of the specifics. Here's a great
study. Part of this show, as always, is bringing
you excellent research that you can use to bolster,
maybe motivate you, hopefully, to do something.
Some of the things I'm talking about, some of
the things you've maybe already heard about.
So here's a great one. Fish soil cuts the risk
of serious heart events in dialysis patients.
Well, it's always interesting to talk about fish
oil because if you Google fish oil, or especially
if you go to, don't Google fish oil, go to PubMed,
go to the government website that's maintained
by the National Institutes of Health, as long
as they still have some funding, where all of
the basic research that eventually becomes things
that doctors recommend for you. All that's available,
not all of it, most of it, much of it is available
for free on their website. The actual name of
the website is a complicated long name. Everyone
just calls it PubMed. And if you Google PubMed,
you will end up on that site and punch fish oil
in there and you'll see. Hundreds, thousands
of studies about fish oil and its benefits. And
you also see a bunch of them that poo -poo fish
oil, poorly designed studies that don't really,
they're so poorly designed that they're doomed
to fail at the outset. But most doctors, you
know, even regular doctors that don't really
know that much about nutrition will say, oh yeah,
it's good to eat fish, but we're not so sure
about fish oil. Well, the beneficial part of
fish, apart from the protein, is the oil. That's
what the omega -3 fatty acids that are in that
fish. So there are all kinds of things that show.
There have been for years. I don't know. Maybe
not thousands, hundreds at least of studies showing
the major, but I've seen this in thousands of
patients. My colleagues have seen this in tens
of thousands of patients. Benefits for brain
health, benefits for heart health. This is one
of the top three supplements that I recommend.
One of the nutrients that I recommend everyone
actually take a supplement for because no one
gets enough omega -3 fatty acids. and their diet.
Well, I do. I take a fish oil supplement maybe
two or two days a week because five or six days
a week, I eat a can of sardines or a serving
of salmon or some other fish that is full of
omega -3 fatty acids. I always recommend getting
everything you can from food, but a lot of people
don't like to eat fish out of a can and going
to a restaurant or preparing oily fish. You know,
a lot of fish is not. Most fish has some omega
-3 fatty acids, but the ones that are high in
omega -3s are not that many. Sardines, anchovies.
Anchovies and sardines are what most fish oil
supplements are made from. You know, people like
salmon. Salmon's great, but are you going to
eat it every day? Tuna is a great source of omega
-3 fatty acids, but I do not recommend eating
tuna every day because it's full of mercury.
Tuna is a large fish. Salmon is a relatively
small fish. The larger the fish, the more mercury
and other toxins are going to have built up in
that fat over the lifespan of that. Huge fish.
So the simple way is just to take a fish oil
supplement. It costs you about $50 or $60 a month
for a good one. Never buy cheap fish oil supplements.
Don't buy fish oil supplements that are inexpensive
from stores because, oh, it must be the same.
The label says the same words are on the label.
No, they're not. They're not the same. First
of all, you want something that has about roughly
1 ,500 milligrams of combined EPA and DHA. eicosapentaenoic
acid, that's EPA, and docosahexaenoic acid, that's
DHA. These are the active, health -benefiting
omega -3 fatty acids that are in fish oil. Alpha
-linolenic acid, which is in vegetable sources,
so you can only get these things from the ocean.
Alpha -linolenic acid is what is in walnuts and
chia seeds and other vegetable sources. They're
in grass that grass -fed beef gets. It's beneficial
fat. Think of it like olive oil. It's a good
fat to consume in your diet. But when you hear
about all these amazing benefits of getting adequate...
Omega -3s in your diet for heart health, brain
health, reducing inflammation, joint health,
etc. These are from EPA and DHA. And you can't
get those from any plant -based sources in significant
amounts. You need to get it from fish or algae.
I wish. The industry is making algae supplements
now. The algae that grows in the ocean is an
excellent source of EPA and especially DHA. It
has more DHA than most fish. And they make biofuel
out of it. So it ought to be inexpensive to get
all of our fish oil supplements from algae instead
of harvesting live fish, which would obviously
be much better for those fish. The fish are not
fish that are endangered. They're little tiny
fish that have only been alive for a few weeks,
a few days, a few weeks. That's why they're not
full of toxins. And, you know, it is a sustainable
resource. But I'm sure all the vegans, if there
are any vegans out there listening, you'd much
prefer to get. And that's why I have available
a good, high -quality, quote -unquote, fish oil
supplements, omega -3 fatty acid supplements
from the ocean that are harvested from algae.
But they're more expensive. They cost about two
and a half times for the same dose as taking
fish oil. So here's a great study published in
the New England Journal of Medicine in November.
This just came out this month, November 2025.
Those that received fish oil compared to those
that didn't had a 43 % So over three and a half
years, patients randomized to a four gram dose
daily of fish oil, 43 % lower risk for serious
cardiovascular events compared to those that
received a placebo. This was reported by Dr.
Charmaine Locke, University Health Network. Toronto.
So four grams daily of fish oil, that's a high
dose. That's more like five or six gels of fish
oil. The minimum you want to think about just
for general health is usually two, the standard
pretty good sized inch long gels, gel caps of
fish oil. And that's usually going to be about
a gram and a half of combined. the two omega
-3 fatty acids you want, EPA and DHA. So to get
four grams is going to be almost three times
that, probably five or six gels a day. These
are the doses that these people are taking. So,
you know, if you don't want to take that many
gels, there are liquids available. Most of them
taste terrible. There is one that's actually
really good, Nordic Naturals. So I always say
don't buy cheap fish oil. Get a top -shelf brand.
The ones I carry in my office that I recommend
to my patients are Designs for Health and Orthomolecular
Products, Metagenics, and Nordic Naturals. Sometimes
I stock Nordic Naturals. I always order Nordic
Naturals if someone wants a liquid. If they don't
want to take, if they need a high dose for whatever
reason, brain health issue, anxiety, depression.
certain cancers, heart disease, anyone who needs
a high dose of fish oil, doesn't want to eat
a bunch of fish every day and just can't be bothered
with the gels, then a liquid fish oil, there
is one that actually doesn't taste that bad.
I'm not going to say it tastes good because just
the texture of the oil, some people don't mind
it at all. A lot of people don't mind the liquid
fish oils from a whole host of top shelf brands.
I myself find them disgusting, but I've taken
them for long periods of time just to get the
high dose. When testing, you can test your blood
levels with omega -3 fatty acids. So when I was
doing that and found out that mine was lower
than I wanted, and that was before I started
eating the fish every morning, the 10 fish. I
was doing the liquid fish oil. I like to test
products just so I can tell someone, okay, no,
this is disgusting. Don't even bother with that.
But this is pretty good. The Nordic Naturals.
Nordic Naturals is nice because it's a top shelf
brand that is available in many, many stores.
If you want to get a really good top quality
fish oil that is tested, that is from tiny little
fish caught in cold waters off the coast of Norway
and Chile that haven't lived long enough to accumulate
any toxins in them and are tested to make sure.
sure that they're very very low in toxins and
give you the rich benefits of the omega -3s that's
how they make their fish oil and you can get
that in almost any health food store nordic naturals
fish oil and they make a liquid that is lemon
flavored usually some other kind of flavor and
doesn't taste that bad so it's an easy way to
get a higher dose without a bunch of capsules
which may be the best way to achieve this 43
percent lower risk of serious cardiovascular
events that this study is showing four gram dose
a day that's probably two teaspoons. I used the
Nordic Naturals when I was carrying it. I think
it had 2 ,800, so almost three grams in a teaspoon.
So maybe it's just a little over a teaspoon.
You can get that dose if you want a way to get
a relatively high dose without having to take
gel caps. So this study, four grams a day, showed
a 43 % lower risk for all serious cardiovascular
events. Risk of heart attack, 45 % lower. Risk
of peripheral artery disease. This is when people
get Clogged arteries, usually in their legs,
the lower legs, leak, which can sometimes cause
amputations, 43 % lower risk. But here's the
big one. Stroke, 63 % lower risk of stroke just
by taking four grams of fish oil. So that's why
I recommend everyone take fish oil every day.
But even Dr. Locke in this study said people
with previous heart attack or stroke are always
more likely. to have another one. But this study
proved that patients who took fish oil reversed
their risk back to the same as people who never
had a heart attack or a stroke. How phenomenal
is that? This is huge. You don't see studies
like this for natural remedies that often. People
who have had a previous heart attack or stroke
are much, much higher risk to have another heart
attack or another stroke. But if those people
who have had a heart attack or a stroke started
taking a high dose of fish oil, their risk for
having another heart attack or stroke was now
the same as someone who had never had a heart
attack or stroke. So that is huge. That's a really
exciting study about the benefits of fish oil.
And the interesting thing about that is it was
in a study actually looking at ways to help people
that have kidney failure requiring dialysis.
So over 3 .8 million people have kidney failure
requiring dialysis and patients on dialysis have
a hugely increased risk of cardiovascular disease.
Cardiovascular death in patients on dialysis
is 20 times that of the normal population. And
as importantly, the liver and the kidneys are
the main organs of your body that flush out drugs.
Drugs have some beneficial effects or necessary
oftentimes. Best avoid them if you can. But whenever
you're taking them, you have to flush them out
of your body. They're automatically flushed out
of your body, mainly by the liver and the kidneys.
And there's a whole host of drugs that are important
for preventing cardiovascular disease that people
on dialysis can't take because it puts too much
stress on their chronically damaged kidneys.
Kidneys. So this is really exciting. I think
it's exciting. I recommend this to everybody,
but it's especially exciting to know that more
doctors are going to see this study now and start
recommending to all of their patients, especially
patients that already have kidney disease, or
hopefully even those that are at risk of it,
certainly all diabetics, these people should
be taking fish oil. Eicosapentaenoic acid, EPA,
and docosahexaenoic acid, DHA. EPA and DHA are
the active components of omega -3 fatty acids
you can only get from the ocean. And they have
antithrombotic, meaning anti -plaque forming,
anti -inflammatory, and anti -arrhythmic properties,
meaning they reduce your risk of a cardiac arrhythmia,
like atrial fibrillation. And these are all helpful
in the physiology of preventing cardiovascular
disease, especially in patients. on dialysis.
The National Kidney Foundation recommends that
dialysis patients eat fresh fish twice a week.
But beyond that, nothing. They don't say anything
about should you take fish oil supplements or
not. So they're way behind the curve. Hopefully
this study will change. The standard recommendations,
the National Kidney Foundation recommends for
patients on dialysis. But doctors, authors of
this study, Finian McCloslin of Brigham and Women's
Hospital in Boston and David Cheriton, MD of
New York University Grossman School of Medicine,
are saying that physicians really should start
considering recommending fish oil for patients
on dialysis. Well, that sounds like a great idea
to me. I'm Dr. Todd Binkley. You're listening
to Safe, Effective, Natural Solutions to Any
Health Challenge. I've created this show to provide
you with the latest research into ways you can
use natural methods to reduce your risk of a
whole host of diseases to heal yourself using
things like better food, exercise, and supplements.
Well, this requires ordering more tests than
most doctors order. and doing a more progressive
analysis of those tests. This is the definition
of functional medicine, identifying places where
normal function is lost and restoring normal
function with better food, exercise, and supplements.
So in addition to screening for full -blown disease,
we're also looking for places where normal health,
normal physiological function has been lost.
Where do your kidneys and liver and digestive?
and immune systems need a little support. How
do you know? The only way to know is to test.
How is the health of your gut microbiome? If
you have gas, bloating, constipation, diarrhea.
That's probably not great if you have an autoimmune
condition. A lot of people don't realize this.
If you have an autoimmune condition where your
body is overproducing antibodies that are attacking
healthy tissue, there's a good chance that that
has its origins in a lack of healthy bacteria,
healthy balance of bacteria in your gut. Maybe
your hormones are a little bit out of balance
and need some support. Maybe you've been exposed
to mold or chemical or heavy metal toxins that
are putting a constant strain on your nervous
system and your immune system. All these types
of toxins, arsenic, lead, cadmium, uranium, chemical
toxins from pesticides and fertilizers, the toxins
that are produced by mold. The mold itself is
not the problem. We're not talking about a lung
infection or irritated sinuses from breathing
in the mold, but rather... Chronic exposure,
long -term exposure to this, you don't even see
it. When you move out of your apartment or your
house, you find the molds on the wall behind
a stack of boxes or in a north -facing wall in
your closets where there's no air movement, no
light. That mold that you're even breathing in
just tiny amounts of over months and years, they
produce metabolic waste. Basically, the mold
we is a chemical toxin, very similar to the toxins
that are in chemical fertilizers and pesticides.
your body flushes those things out as best it
can but what it can't flush out gets stored in
fat cells and that buildup of toxins can is that
your brain and your nervous system but especially
the brain is the most sensitive organ in the
body to any kind of toxic exposure and these
same toxins also put a constant strain on your
immune system which is why rashes, brain fog,
fatigue, and a whole host of other symptoms that
sometimes, oftentimes, nobody else can figure
out. You've been to several doctors. No one can
figure out what the cause is of your fatigue,
your rash, your brain fog. Similar symptoms like
that are very often the cause of a buildup of
toxins in your body. So we can identify these
things with proper testing and then come up with
a solution that mainly involves better food,
exercise, and evidence -based supplements that
can make all the difference. That can make you
feel like a whole new person again. That will
create such an amazing difference that sometimes
people say, it's a miracle. which just means
something really fantastic has happened. I'm
not sure exactly why. Well, there are ways to
identify why as well, but it's fine. If you think
it's a miracle, that's okay too. Who do you know
who isn't feeling great? Who's been to other
doctors and been told that there's nothing that
can be done? Maybe they've even been told that
there's nothing wrong with them, but still they
don't feel right. And so if you don't feel right,
there is something wrong. You just haven't figured
out what yet. Well, I'm here to help. I'd appreciate
an opportunity to help someone you love who needs
a little support, who is ready to finally find
out what's causing them to not feel the way they
should. It's a great gift, a great Christmas
gift, a consultation to get someone started on
a healthier path. You give this as a Christmas
gift and it'll take them through the new year
on doing things that'll perhaps change their
life forever. I'd love an opportunity to do that
for someone you love. Next up in health -related
news you need to know about, an article titled
AI, Artificial Intelligence, draws even with
clinicians for diabetes prevention intervention.
So this is published in the Journal of the American
Medical Association, an AI, an artificial intelligence
-powered lifestyle intervention program versus
human coaching in a program to help prevent diabetes.
So there are a lot of people out there who are
at risk to develop type 2 diabetes. 460 million
adults worldwide have prediabetes, about 20 to
50 percent of whom are projected to develop full
-blown diabetes within five years. So there's
an effective diabetes prevention program that's
demonstrated a 58 percent risk reduction over
three years in people with prediabetes. But the
CDC has only, it's administered by the CDC in
the U .S., but they only have about one program.
for every 63 ,000 adults with prediabetes. And
only about 35 % of those even referred to this
program ultimately participate. So here's a study
where they randomized 368 participants, it's
a small study, 368 participants to receive either
this standard live human coach -based program
to prevent diabetes and compared that to a referral
to an artificial intelligence program. And the
primary outcome was maintaining a hemoglobin
A1c. That's the blood test that measures your
average glucose over three months versus just
a one day's reading of a reading that's constantly
going up and down. So an A1c less than 6 .5%,
that's the cutoff for the diagnosis of diabetes,
throughout the study an achievement of at least
5 % weight loss or at least 4 % weight loss plus
at least 150 minutes of weekly physical activity.
which they assessed objectively, or an absolute
reduction in the blood test, the hemoglobin A1C,
of at least 0 .2 percentage points. That sounds
a little bit technical, but it's just sort of
three different ways to try and figure out exactly
what's happening. Either directly reducing A1C
below diagnostic level with some weight loss,
or getting someone to feel so good that they
lose 4 % of their body weight and do at least
150 minutes of activity. or just simply reduced
their A1C in a clinically significant way, 0
.2 percentage points over 12 months. So look
at this in two groups over a 12 -month period,
and what they found was that the AI -led intervention
and the human -led intervention were essentially
the same. Well, this is fantastic because people
need this. So many people could benefit from
this, and it's just difficult to get. So the
AI... intervention was a kit with a Bluetooth
scale that told how to register an app and the
app delivered personal notifications pushed to
you about your weight management and physical
activity and nutrition informed by the data it
got from the weight and meals that the patients
logged in, but also where their location was
and how much they're moving. So for example,
you might be walking, one of these patients might
be walking on a sidewalk and get a message that
says, hey, your gym is nearby. and it's been
a few days, 30 minutes is all it takes to boost
your energy and progress. Are you ready to jump
back in? So this is a way that an app like this
could do something similar to what a professional
coach would do. Another example would be another
one says, hi, it's rainy days make it tough,
but 10 minutes of movement still counts. You
have a short break between meetings now because
you've given it your schedule. Let's try some
indoor stretching. So these are just prompts
that motivate you to keep on schedule, set your
goals and maintain them. It is always great to
get a live human coach to do something like this
if you're struggling to motivate yourself to
do it on your own. But this study is showing
that just getting a well -designed app on your
phone, plugging in some data and letting it remind
you to do these things can have tremendous benefits.
And the study also showed that people chose 10
% more people, 94 % versus 84 % chose the app
versus the human coach and got the results they
needed. Well, if someone you love is not going
to do either one of those things, I've helped
thousands of people reverse diabetes by doing
diagnostic tests and explaining to them the way
that pre -diabetes, for example, is affecting
many other parts of their body and showing them
results and motivating them to do something different
and giving them a safe, effective, natural solution
to do that. I'll be talking about that and the
live presentation in my office that I'm doing
the first Wednesday of every month now in downtown
Ventura, 96. 1 East Main Street, 6 p .m. January
7th is going to be on reducing and reversing,
reducing risk and reversing diabetes. How you
can lower blood sugar, reduce your risk of heart
attack, stroke, and get more energy and lose
weight and feel amazing without drugs. I'll be
doing a 30 -minute keynote presentation. We'll
have some light refreshments and plenty of time
after for questions and answers. So I hope you
can join us for that. Space is limited to reserve
your seat. Text an RSVP to 805 -612 -5550. 805
-612 -5531. I'd love to see you there, meet you
in person, answer all of your questions. As always,
thank you for tuning in. 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.