January 16, 2024 • 41 mins
In this episode of Defiant Health, Dr. Tom O’Bryan discusses his unique approach to managing environmental toxins that now flood our lives, toxins that increase our risk for numerous health struggles including cognitive impairment, autoimmune diseases, and cancers. Dr. O’Bryan brings his considerable experience in educating and investigating the effects of such factors as particulate matter in air, glyphosate, abnormal gut permeability, and diet. He has a special interest in reproductive and cognitive health and describes his and his family’s unique approach to minimizing exposures in their home and environment. Among Dr. O’Bryan’s unique abilities is to translate the science into practical, actionable steps that you and your family can adopt.
News for how to join Dr. O'Bryan's upcoming summit, The Inflammation Equation, can be found on his Facebook page.
For more of Dr. O'Bryan's educational materials, go to his website, TheDr.com.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
In this episode of Defiant Health, dr Tom O'Brien
discusses his unique approach tomanaging environmental toxins
that now flood our lives, toxinsthat increase our risk for
numerous health struggles,including cognitive impairment,
autoimmune diseases and cancers.
Dr O'Brien brings hisconsiderable experience in
educating and investigating theeffects of such factors as
(00:29):
particulate matter in air,glyphosate and normal gut
permeability and diet.
He has a special interest inreproductive and cognitive
health and describes his and hisfamily's unique approach to
minimizing exposures in theirhome and environment.
Among Dr O'Brien's uniqueabilities is to translate the
science into practical,actionable steps that you and
(00:51):
your family can take.
I also want you to considersupporting the sponsors of this
Defiant Health podcast PaleoValley and Biodiquest.
Choosing high quality productsto support your health journey
is important.
This is why Paleo Valley is asupporter of my Defiant Health
podcast.
Their grass-fed, pasture-raisedbeef sticks, for instance, are
(01:12):
fermented unlike nearly allother beef sticks.
If you haven't tried theirpasture-raised pork sticks,
you're in for a treat, as theyare irresistibly delicious.
Profession Biodiquest, also asponsor of this podcast,
provides unique probioticproducts that, in my experience
and the experience of thefollowers of my program, are
unlike all other probiotics asthey are crafted using the
(01:34):
scientific insights of academicmicrobiologist Dr Raul Cannell,
an innovator in the concept ofcollaborative effects among
microbes.
Welcome, dr O'Brien.
You and I have talked a numberof times over the years and I've
always been thrilled at havinganother chance to have a
conversation with you because Iknow you bring unique ideas to
(01:55):
the table.
So when your team approached meabout this idea of
environmental toxins, I thoughthow timely and how wonderful.
So tell me how you took yourcareer down this path lately.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Ah well, you know my entire career has been like this
.
I mean, when I was an intern inChicago, my ex and I could not
get pregnant.
So I called the seven mostfamous holistic practitioners
I'd heard of back in 1979, andthey all told me what they'd do
and I put a program together andwe were pregnant in six weeks.
(02:29):
My neighbors in married housinghad been through artificial
insemination, nothing had worked, and asked if I'd work with
them and I said well, you know,I don't think it's going to hurt
you.
Sure, they were pregnant inthree months.
So now we're hot to trot, we'refour months pregnant and
telling our friends and veryexcited.
And they tell their sister inWisconsin who would drive down
(02:51):
to Chicago she'd had threemiscarriages.
Please, please, can you workwith me?
And so I was treating patientsout of my dorm room, but you
know we lived on campus and youknow you're not supposed to do
that, but I did.
But I came out in practice fromday one, understanding there's a
bigger picture and there areemergency breaks.
(03:13):
You know, you back out of adriveway and you say what's
wrong with this car?
It's barely the emergency break.
And you let go of the emergencybreak, right.
There are emergency breaks whenwe're trying to be healthy and
we're not quite getting the jobdone.
There's always emergency breaksand functional medicine is
identifying what those are andget them out of the way.
(03:34):
So your body always wants toheal a more healthy cell than
the cell that's breaking down.
It needs to be generated, andit's the environment.
You know we call it epigeneticswhat happens around the genes?
Well, what's around the genesare volatile organic solvents
and heavy metals and dieselexhaust fumes in your lungs and
(03:59):
what's going up into your brain.
So it's been 40 years oflearning more, all the time, of
where are the emergency breaksthat halt the quality of our
health?
Speaker 1 (04:09):
So something you've gotten quite a bit involved in,
infertility.
Could you tell us morespecifically about the toxins
that pregnant moms, orpotentially pregnant moms, are
exposed to?
Speaker 2 (04:19):
Oh yeah, you know, with my neighbors and married
housing, and shortly after thatI learned that and this is one
of those every and there's notmuch, that's every patient, but
this is an every patient, everypatient that had fertility
complications, whether it waspremature ejaculations or
recurrent miscarriages orinability to get pregnant, every
(04:41):
single one of them as acontributor to what was creating
the obstacles in their health,in their ability to have a
healthy pregnancy and delivery.
One of the contributors theywere eating foods that they did
not know were a problem for thembecause they didn't feel bad
(05:01):
when they ate the food, andwe've grown up believing if you
don't feel bad when you eatsomething, it's good for you,
it's not a big deal.
Well, that's not true.
You know, with celiac disease,the science is very clear for
every one person that has gutsymptoms, there are eight that
don't.
The ratio is eight to one.
So if you think your gut has tohurt when you eat something,
(05:23):
you'll get it right.
One out of eight times Right.
And so foods were a majorcontributor to the amount of
inflammation people have, whichwas contributing to the
emergency breaks holding backthe health results that they
wanted.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
So are you talking about a specific class of
compounds for pregnant orpotentially pregnant moms?
Is it mostly food?
Do you think it's a variety ofthings like hydrocarbons in air?
Is it particulate matter?
Speaker 2 (05:53):
Yes, yes, yes.
Unfortunately, it's yes, yes,yes.
You know that there's such acauldron of components in the
toxic soup of our body.
Now it's really difficult topin one and you can identify,
for example, the category ofphthalates chemicals used to
(06:15):
mold plastics.
Phthalates are notorious.
They inhibit neurogenesis,which means nerve cell growth
and brain cell growth.
So here's an example.
You know a study in 2016 inChicago 346 pregnant women in
the eighth month of pregnancy.
They measured the amount ofphthalates in their urine and
(06:39):
they just looked at five of them.
There are many, but they justlooked at five, including the
one most people have heard ofBPA or Bisphenol A, which is in
water bottles and many othersubstances, and they categorize
the results into fourths thelowest, the next, the third and
the highest.
They then followed theoffspring of those pregnancies.
(07:00):
You know they checked in theeighth month of pregnancy what's
their phthalate levels and theyfollowed the offspring of those
pregnancies and when thechildren turned seven years old,
they did Wexler IQ tests onthem, the official IQ tests.
Every child whose mother was inthe highest category of
phthalates and urine inpregnancy compared to the
children whose mothers were inthe lowest category.
(07:22):
Every child in the highestcategory, their IQ was seven
points lower than the kids inthe lowest category of
phthalates and urine inpregnancy.
And that doesn't mean anythingto anyone until you understand
that a one point difference inIQ was noticeable.
And a seven point difference isa difference between a child
working really hard gettingstraight A's in school and a
(07:45):
child working really hardgetting straight C's in school.
That child doesn't have achance in hell of ever excelling
.
Then just go to Google and typein phthalates and neurogenesis.
Here come the studies.
And so these young girls who,unfortunately, have been
painting their 10 little fingersand 10 little toes since they
(08:06):
were five years old, and thephthalates in the nail polish is
what makes them hard.
The phthalates are in thebloodstream within four to five
minutes of applying it on yournails.
Now it's minute amounts andthere's no evidence that that
amount of phthalates is toxicfor anybody.
There's just no evidence.
You know, but this stuffaccumulates in the body for most
(08:28):
people, and give me 20 years ofdoing that.
Now you've got a measurable,noticeable amount that's in your
system.
And so mom gets pregnant and now, unfortunately, her amniotic
fluid, that baby, is swimming in.
Well, we've all heard thestudies.
If you check the blood, theumbilical cord blood, at birth.
(08:48):
There's 186 chemicals onaverage that are in the
umbilical cord blood that arenot supposed to be there 186.
And some of them impact onbaby's brain development and
baby's growth ability.
So that's why, in my world,it's critically important to get
to the women of childbearingage and educate them on this so
(09:12):
that they can look at it alittle bit and see this is true.
This is not somebody cryingwolf, you know.
This is really true science.
And then they learn that theyhave to detox for six months to
a year before they ever getpregnant.
Get this stuff out of your bodyso you can have the healthiest,
smartest little baby possible.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
You know, before we started recording you and I
talked, I was not aware what aworld traveling you are.
Is it your sense this is worsein the US than other places?
Speaker 2 (09:43):
Well, I thought so at first, but you know, we are in
Costa Rica now and I wasstartled.
You know, I think Costa Rica,oh, the land of fruit and
vegetables and papayas, and allthat.
Costa Rica has eight times theamount of insecticides and
pesticides per agricultural acrecompared to the US.
Eight times more, and the US isloaded.
(10:06):
I mean just, it's poison Nowwhat we're all eating when you
eat conventional fruits andvegetables.
Let me give you an example ofthat.
That really puts it inperspective.
And then what to do about it.
So in 2019, in the Journal ofthe American Medical Association
, a paper came out from Harvardthat the editors of the journal
(10:27):
said this is an elegant studyusing sophisticated biomarkers
to demonstrate their point.
Now, you know really well, drDavis, the editors of the
Journal of the American MedicalAssociation don't say that very
often, right?
So it's got to be a study withsome credibility to it.
And what they did was theylooked at couples going to
(10:48):
assisted fertility centers andthey ruled out all of the known
features that determine successor failure.
They ruled out smoking, theyruled out alcohol consumption,
they ruled out exercise, theyruled out obesity, they ruled
out socioeconomic class, theyruled out race.
They ruled all of that out andnarrowed it down to one thing
(11:11):
the number of servings of fruitsand vegetables the woman was
eating per day.
And once again, an elegantstudy using sophisticated
biomarkers to do this.
And what they found out wasjust startling.
They I was like what.
They put the women in thecategories of numbers of
servings per day the lowestamount, the next, the third and
(11:33):
the highest.
And those in the highestconsumption of fruits and
vegetables had an 18% lesslikelihood of getting pregnant.
The more fruits and vegetablesyou eat, the worse the outcome.
And if you did get pregnant,you had a 26% less likelihood of
(11:54):
a live birth.
You lost the baby, miscarriagesand stillbirths.
The more fruits and vegetablesyou eat, the worse the outcome.
And that was like what?
But when you read the studyclosely, there was a caveat
Conventional fruits andvegetables and they had a
subgroup of people, of women,who were eating organic.
(12:16):
And in that category it was theexact opposite the more organic
fruits and vegetables you eat,the better the outcome.
And here's the take home that'sso important for everyone to
understand.
They were put in the categoryof organic consumption if they
ate three meals a week, notthree meals a day organic three
(12:40):
meals a week.
And the theory is well, ifthey're trying to eat organic,
they're probably using healthierdishwashing soap and healthier
laundry detergent.
They're probably doing someother things also, but they
didn't look at lifestyle, theyjust looked at consumption of
fruits and vegetables.
So the good news is threeservings a week of organic
(13:04):
fruits and vegetables youincrease your likelihood of
success at assisted fertilitycenters.
Now, why is that so jaw dropping?
Well, first, because we thinkfruits and vegetables are really
important, and they are formany, many reasons.
They are.
But now the most sensitivetissue in the human body and
(13:24):
I've never seen a study on this,but this is my assumption as I
think about the science.
I'd welcome your opinion themost sensitive tissue is a
fertilized egg.
It's got no immune system.
It's totally dependent on theenvironment it's in and if mom
is toxic, if mom's got leadtoxicity and mercury toxicity
(13:45):
and vol, organic compounds,phthalates and heavy metals,
then that's what baby's brainand body is developing in and
there's no protection if mom'stissue is saturated with this
stuff.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
So if we've got a pregnant or a woman who wants to
get pregnant and isunsuccessful, is there a
specific set of biomarkers youfavor?
Speaker 2 (14:07):
Oh, you bet.
You bet there are, and that'show we cut our teeth, you know,
and came out into practice somany years ago.
But yeah, the biomarkers.
Well, the first one is to do anaccurate test to see are you
sensitive to the most commonfood that people are sensitive
to, and that is wheat?
(14:28):
It's the most common when youlook at the chemistry, when you
do the right kind of testing andunfortunately, most of our
doctors are doing tests that areonly looking at one or two
markers of wheat and there aremany, many other markers.
There's a laboratory that weencourage all of our docs to
(14:49):
take a look at called VibrantWellness, because their
technology Mayo Clinic calls ita new era in laboratory medicine
that they're much more accurateand much more comprehensive.
So the first test that wealways recommend is a wheat
zoomer and because you zoom inon the problem and the
laboratory, when they came outin 2015, they first came out and
(15:14):
Mayo Clinic's first paper cameout in January of 2016.
That's when I read about it.
But the laboratory brilliantmarketing on their part to
compete with the alreadyestablished labs.
They included the markers, themost comprehensive markers to
measure intestinal permeabilityor the leaky gut.
(15:34):
That's part of the wheat zoomertest, so you get the most
comprehensive test available inthe world I shouldn't say the
world.
I've not taught in the Far East, but I was in Brazil a couple
of months ago and then Rome lastmonth.
I'm going to India next week.
I mean, I travel the worldteaching about this stuff and
(15:54):
I've never seen a laboratorythat has any tests that come
anywhere near the accuracy andthe comprehensiveness of the
zoomers.
So I recommend four zoomers tomost every person that wants to
talk to me.
That includes the wheat zoomer,the neural zoomer plus.
Now they have a neural zoomerthat looks at eight markers of
(16:17):
inflammation in the brain, butthe neural zoomer plus looks at
53 markers of inflammation inthe brain and that is such a big
problem.
You know that it's not ourtopic today, but I'll just throw
this pearl out there.
Blue Cross, blue Shield, cameout with a paper in February of
2020, just before the virus hit,and they said we've got a
(16:40):
problem.
We have a real problem.
There's been a 407% increase inthe last four years.
A 407% increase in thediagnosis of Alzheimer's in 30
to 44 year olds.
107% in four years in 30 to 44year olds, because people are
(17:03):
getting toxic so much earlier inlife, the accumulated amount of
toxins in their body and manyof them go right to the brain.
Our friend, dr Dale Bredesen,who wrote the end of Alzheimer's
.
He says that of the five typesof Alzheimer's inhalation,
alzheimer's is 60 to 65% of allAlzheimer's cases.
(17:23):
That's what you breathe.
That's going right up to thememory center of your brain,
causing the inflammation thatkills off your brain cells and
so very, very common.
So that paper came out inFebruary of 2020 and changed my
understanding.
And so every patient I checkevery patient for a neural
(17:45):
zoomer plus.
And to tell you, dr Davis, I'venever had a normal come back on
a first visit never.
And I've asked my friends,they're the same.
There's two tests we do.
Never have we seen normals.
The first one on a first test,the follow up in six months or a
year.
It better be better or else wearen't doing our job.
So the first one is the neuralzoomer plus that always comes
(18:10):
back positive, and the secondone is called the total tox
burden and it's a urine testthat looks at is your immune
system fighting all these toxinsor do you have the DNA evidence
of these toxins in your bodyLike mold, metabolites of mold,
or are you fighting validorganic compounds?
(18:30):
Do you have heavy metals?
It looks at I think it's about40.
I'm not quite sure of thenumber Different potential
toxins in one simple urine test.
So we recommend the wheatzoomer because it identifies
leaky gut and wheat sensitivity.
The neural zoomer plus thetotal tox burden and the gut
zoomer.
Those four tests give us a nicestarting point from which the
(18:54):
initial recommendations we maketo a patient.
They're going to see reallygood results.
Now, usually it takes six monthsto a couple of years to really
turn a body around.
But you get results quickly.
You start feeling better,losing weight, shedding pounds
pretty quickly.
If you get the big kahoonas outof the way, the big emergency
(19:15):
breaks, get them out of the way,you start responding and
feeling better.
But to get the subtle stuff outof it.
That's why you do those tests.
Now.
You have a baseline.
That's where you start and then, mrs Patient, we'll recheck it
in six months to a year.
If you're really aggressive andyou're following this squeaky
clean, six months will be fine.
If not, if you make a fewmistakes and you cheat or
(19:37):
something, let's wait a year tomake sure that you're getting
the best results you're gonnaget, and then maybe we're gonna
have to talk a little more aboutbeing vigilant about this or
something.
But we don't get normals backon a first visit and these are
highly accurate tests theZoomers because of Silicon chip
(19:57):
technology.
They really tell us a lot.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
I like that approach very interesting.
I'm familiar with a gut Zoomerbut didn't know very much about
the others.
That's very interesting.
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You know you've dived a lotdeeper into the world of
(22:59):
environmental toxins than I everhave, and the thing I encounter
when I've tried to begin to getmy arms around is it's so
overwhelming, it is socomplicated.
So what is the life of Dr TomO'Brien and what does his family
look like in trying to minimizeexposures?
Speaker 2 (23:17):
Well, we don't have any carpet in the house.
You know we've got some rugsthat we clean every once in a
while, but we have tile floorsand wood floors.
You know, being in Costa Rica,humidity is high and so there's
always a danger of mold.
So when we go out for a numberof hours for example every
Sunday we go to a surfer beachor something to see the big
(23:38):
waves things I turn on two ozonemachines in the house and so we
kill any traces of mold thatmight be around and we vacuum
once a week, once or twice aweek, you know, the floors and
the shelves and all that just sothere's no accumulation that
can settle down here.
We are blessed to have a farmerclose by that delivers organic
(24:03):
produce and organic eggs three,four times a week.
He just came a couple hours agowith about a dozen cucumbers
beautiful cucumbers and a coupledozen eggs.
My wife likes her egg yolks inher coffee, raw egg yolks in the
morning.
You know I'm in charge ofcoffee in the morning when we
wake up and her coffee has twoegg yolks, tablespoon of medium
(24:27):
chain triglyceride oils, a bigtablespoon of ghee, a scoop of
collagen protein powder and ahalf a teaspoon of coconut sugar
.
Mine has the coconut sugar,collagen and cinnamon and that's
our morning coffee.
You know, we'll sit outside andlisten to the birds and start
(24:49):
the day, and we've set ourselvesup so that we have access to
organic almost all the time,unless we're going out somewhere
to a restaurant, and then it'smore difficult.
But this is.
It takes years.
So we have an air filtrationsystem that is running in the
living room all day and atnighttime I wheel it into the
bedroom.
Our son sleeps with us in thebedroom and so the air
(25:12):
filtration is going in thebedroom all night.
It's a quiet, running thing.
My wife uses organic nailpolish whenever she does her
nails, which is not too often,but if she's going to, you know,
some special event, our soapsare organic, our shampoos are
organic, you know.
So you just learn.
You know, in my second book,title was you Can Fix your Brain
(25:35):
, and I argued with Rodale Pressfor two weeks about the title.
It's like you, you know, youget an idea in your head.
Nope, this is it.
This is nope, this is it so.
But the subtitle is just onehour a week to the best memory,
productivity and sleep you'veever had, and that's actually
(25:55):
the secret to success that wealways recommend.
And then we have an eventcoming up soon and this is going
to be the implementationrecommendation, which is you
tell your family every Tuesdaynight after dinner or every
Sunday after services, wheneverit is but every week I'm
allocating one hour to learn alittle more about how to be
healthier.
(26:15):
And then you go back to my bookand you see the three URLs.
When you read that you leaveyour leftover food in a plastic
storage container in therefrigerator the next day, the
chicken's got phthalates in it.
From the plastic container orwhatever you put in there, it's
got phthalates in it.
Then you order glass storagecontainers, right?
So you go back in my book andthere's three URLs.
(26:37):
There's Miles Kimball, there'sAmazon and then wherever the
third one was, I don't rememberand you look at the oh, those
are old.
Oh, I like those and you orderthree round ones and two square
ones and one for the pie.
You pay through credit card hitsend.
It took you an hour to do that,but now you're done forever.
You're never going to poisonyour family again with minute
(26:59):
amounts of toxins from leftoverstored in plastic storage
containers.
The next week you go and youlook for the URLs on organic
makeup companies and you look tosee what you like and you order
it.
Maybe you're gonna have to doit again in two months because
you don't like the color on yournails or whatever.
But one thing at a time, justone thing a week, one hour a
(27:22):
week, and in six months you'vechanged your lifestyle
completely.
You take it in bite-sizedpieces, just one hour a week, to
the best memory productivity,sleep, energy, exercise
capabilities, whatever you want.
But one hour a week becauseit's overwhelming to try to do
all of this at one time,completely overwhelming.
(27:44):
Most people freeze.
They don't know where to start.
Speaker 1 (27:48):
I didn't know, you're a recent father, I'm a recent
grandfather and having watchedmy daughter-in-law just
delivered her second babyliterally five days ago.
Speaker 2 (27:56):
Congratulations.
Speaker 1 (27:57):
But you know I was surprised that here is a.
My daughter-in-law comes from awell-to-do family and kind of
gets the red carpet rolled outfor her obstetric care and she
got sadly almost zero usefulinformation, the kinds of things
you and I get concerned aboutDiet exposures, omega-3 fatty
(28:20):
acids.
Did you do anything specificthrough your wife's pregnancy?
Ha ha.
Speaker 2 (28:26):
We had two doulas, two midwives, a nutritionally
oriented counselor forpregnancies, a shaman to deal
with negative energies, a pelvicfloor therapist, so she was
exercising her pelvis throughthe entire pregnancy to make
sure it was pliable andexpansable and all of that.
(28:47):
Yeah, we learned about fats,how important good fats are for
the baby in utero when baby'sdeveloping.
So lots of essential fattyacids.
Most people avoid tuna fish now, which is a smart thing to do,
because most of the tuna isquite toxic, except one.
It's called ventresca with a V.
(29:08):
Ventresca means belly of thebaby and it's baby tuna and the
belly and salmon fishermen, babytuna, get caught in their nets
and they just throw the babytuna back and they're dead.
But they throw it back.
But if they harvest them andthey take the meat, it's
delicious tuna fish and it'smercury free.
(29:31):
You can't say you know there'satomic levels there somewhere so
they had to stop marketing itas mercury free tuna.
But it's very, very low inmercury, hard to identify, hard
to find any, and one can of thattuna fish is 7,000 milligrams
of omega-3s One can built.
So my son gets a can a week.
(29:54):
You know a little bit on hisgluten-free pizza one day, you
know, and a little bit mixed inwith his hamburger meat another
day just to get one can a week,and so I'm sure he's getting his
omegas because he's not takingany pills.
He's three now but he's nottaking any pills.
But we give him probioticsdaily and then a smoothie and
(30:17):
the rest of it's coming from hisfood.
Speaker 1 (30:19):
That's fantastic.
Now I understand you're puttingon a summit coming up sometime
soon.
Speaker 2 (30:24):
We are.
We are Thanks for asking it's.
You know, you and I both havehad many patients over the years
that follow our recommendationsto the T that they get great
results and they're reallysatisfied and grateful.
And then we hear a couple ofyears later they died of
something else.
Every disease is a disease thatbegins with inflammation.
(30:50):
You know, the Center forDisease Control, the CDC, tells
us that 14 of the 15 top causesof death are chronic
inflammatory diseases.
Everything except unintentionalinjuries is a chronic
inflammatory disease.
But nobody talks about this.
You know we wait until peoplehave complaints.
(31:11):
Then if we do somesophisticated tests, we might
identify antibodies to the brainwhich we have to address that
inflammation going into thebrain and then their depression
goes away or their seizures goaway or whatever it should be.
But it's not until they've gonedown the path with so much
tissue damage that now theystart getting symptoms.
(31:32):
We want people to be going backto their doctors and asking do
I have any markers ofinflammation in my body or is my
lifestyle causing inflammation?
That I'm not aware of Because Ifeel fine right now, but I know
that cancer is there for yearsbeforehand.
(31:53):
Cardiovascular disease is therefor years while I feel fine.
Is there anything I can do toidentify that I'm on the path
going that way so I can stop itbefore I get to that path?
I don't want to happen to mewhat happened to my dad.
You know, we hear that and Iwant people asking those
questions of their doctors.
So we're doing an event calledthe inflammation equation,
(32:17):
decoding the path to optimalwell-being.
Because it's so overwhelming totry to figure this out.
We're gonna decode it for you.
I'm interviewing, I interviewedthe world leaders.
I went to Israel and YehudaSeinfeld, the godfather of
autoimmunity, I mean this guy,26 of the MDs who went to get
(32:37):
their PhD in immunology from hisdepartment.
There are many, many more, but26 chair departments of
immunology in medical schoolsand hospitals around the world.
He's the godfather.
We interviewed him.
We interviewed David Furman atthe Buck Institute and Furman's
got the contract with NASA tofigure out why are our
(32:58):
astronauts aging so quickly inspace?
Because most people don't knowthis, but it's impossible for a
human to go to Mars.
I mean, you know the technologywill get to take us there, but
humans will die in space.
They age so quickly.
They'll die before the two anda half years when they get there
, they age so quickly, andFurman's been looking at why is
(33:19):
that happening?
Why do they age so quickly?
It's always inflammation, always, and when I interviewed him
about inflammation, his pearlsof what to do are so remarkable
and easy right.
Jeff Bland, the father offunctional medicine, talks about
inflammation as a dimmer switch, and most of us have it dim
(33:41):
turned up so high that it'scausing tissue damage.
And Isaac Elias, who talksabout what cytokines, what
immune system markers are at thevery top, trickling down,
creating all of the inflammationwe get in our bodies, and so
it's called the inflammationequation.
It'll be for one hour a day fornine days.
(34:03):
It's free, it's gonna be freeto everybody.
And then my partner, tom Malter, and I will have a 15 minute
discussion.
As could you believe what DrDvorak said about how the mind
creates inflammation.
I didn't know that.
Well, you know.
I know if I have an argumentwith my wife, maybe I don't feel
good for the rest of the day.
(34:23):
We talk about this in theeveryday language, so people are
gonna have takeaways every day,and we're encouraging all of
our doctors and our healthcarepractitioners, the health
coaches and nutritionists tosend the announcement out to
your entire tribe of people whofollow you, because every day
we're recommending people goback to their doctor and say ask
(34:47):
your doctor about Galactin III.
It's a $46 test, you know, withLabCorp a very simple test, but
it's at the headway that causesthe trickling down of all the
inflammation we get in ourbodies.
Or have an antibody test doneto see if you have antibodies to
your brain, and when you do,here's what you do about it.
(35:09):
So we're going to introducethis concept of going after the
inflammation to identify it andthen what to do about it years
before it's caused so muchdamage that now you have
symptoms.
I wanna change the discussionbetween patients and doctors.
I want patients demanding moreearlier markers and they're out
(35:32):
there, they're simple, they'renot expensive and earlier
indicators.
Is there something in my lifethat I can change to ensure my
quality of life in my senior?
Speaker 1 (35:44):
All right, I love that Because I agree.
A lot of my mainstream MDpeople are just not involved in
health you as well as I do andso it's the responsibility of
the individual to agitate forthose kinds of things.
Any neat thoughts on yourapproach to heavy metals?
Speaker 2 (36:02):
Oh yes, they're pretty much unavoidable nowadays
.
Unfortunately, these chemtrailsthat people think are harmless.
My friends who have analyzedsome of this say they're very,
very high in aluminum, very highin other things, but we're
exposed to heavy metals everyday.
Unfortunately, if you eat rice,if you go gluten free and
(36:23):
you're eating rice,unfortunately most of the rice
is high in arsenic and it'sbecause rice grows in water and
the water comes from the streamsand the streams are coming from
upstream up river and thefarmers 30 miles upstream have
been spraying their crops withthese arsenic-heavy sprays that
(36:45):
get into the water supply andcome down and the rice sits in
the water and the roots of therice just absorb this stuff and
bring the arsenic up to theheads of rice.
And so when you eat rice, ifit's not organic, and sometimes
even when it is organic, itstill has heavy metals in it.
But those people that eat a lotof rice, you just have to check
yourself do I have arsenicright now?
(37:08):
It's unfortunate, but the worldwe're living in is very toxic
and we have to take an offensiveapproach to play defense.
We have to do some things toprotect ourselves and our family
.
The first is to test to see, doI have high levels of heavy
(37:28):
metals in my body.
Speaker 1 (37:30):
So you're very selective in the fish you choose
.
How do you manage shellfish?
Awkwardly at best.
Speaker 2 (37:37):
Ha, ha, ha, ha ha ha.
I just love shrimp, you know Ido, and so once in a while I
give myself a treat, knowingit's not ideal.
I'm not perfect, you know, noneof us are gonna be perfect but
I really avoid.
And I ask sometimes could youask the chef where his shrimp
comes from?
And they just kind of look atme, you know, but once in a
(38:00):
while the chef in the back isactually the chef and he'll know
where is it Chinese or what isit you know.
And here in Costa Rica we havesome local fish farms and I just
saw one report that showed theywere not toxic with heavy
metals at all, which I wasstartled by, and that report a
doctor commissioned that report,so it wasn't a company that
(38:23):
paid a lab to alter reports.
It seemed to be genuine.
But shellfish is not somethingthat I can easily obtain here
and feel really safe about.
Now in the US there are somestores Whole Foods and others
that will have wild caughtshellfish and especially if you
can get Alaska, you're saferthere than Atlantic.
(38:47):
Atlantic tends to be more farmraised.
Pacific Northwest, there aresome farms in British Columbia,
but if it's wild then it's safer, you're closer, it's more
likely that you'll be saferthere.
Speaker 1 (39:02):
Dr Tom McBride, it's always a pleasure talking to you
and I do appreciate you votingsome of your valuable time.
I will post a link to yourupcoming summit, but if
listeners want to get more of DrTom McBride his wisdom, where
should they go first?
Speaker 2 (39:15):
Oh, thank you.
It's thedrcom, thedrcom Justdon't spell the word doctor out,
thedrcom.
Everything is there Lots ofvideos, lots of downloads.
And let's give you guys a pearlIf you go to thedrcom, forward,
slash plant, download thehandout that NASA published the
(39:36):
studies because their astronautswere going loopy in space.
They don't talk about that withthe press but their brain
function was not quite on parand they realized it was the air
.
It was very toxic air.
So they published the studieson house plants and how two six
inch house plants in a 10 by 10room absorbs over 70% of the
(40:00):
toxins in the air.
And so we've got the handoutfor you from NASA with the
pictures of the plants oh, I'veseen those before.
Oh, I like those.
And you just go out and buy abunch of house plants and put
them in your rooms, all therooms in your house, and they
absorb the toxins that you'renot aware of.
This is all in my book.
You can fix your brain, butit'll also be in our summit.
(40:22):
You know like unless you'resleeping under organic sheets
and organic blankets, you'rebreathing flame retardant
chemicals every night.
Even if you've washed thesheets 20 times, there are still
traces of these chemicals inthere and your blankets and your
comforters.
And these flame retardantchemicals are highly
(40:44):
carcinogenic.
And if the nightstand next toyour bed is not solid wood, it's
press board.
And press board is soaked informaldehyde which outgasses
into the air and you'rebreathing minute amounts of
formaldehyde anytime you're inthe room, can't smell, it, can't
taste, it doesn't affect youright away because they're
(41:04):
minute amounts.
Or your kitchen cabinets, ifthey're not solid wood, they're
press board.
You're breathing formaldehydeand you start learning about all
this and once again, as yousaid at the beginning, it's very
overwhelming.
That's why you do one hour aweek.
But go to the drcomcom anddownload the handout and get
(41:25):
some of those plants and you'regonna reduce the amount of
toxins your family is breathing24 seven.
Speaker 1 (41:32):
Oh, that's such terrific advice.
I love that.
Dr Brian Trilley, thank youvery much.
I hope we can send some peopleover to your summit and to the
drcom.
Speaker 2 (41:41):
Yes, yes, thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (41:43):
Okay, thank you, Dr Brian.
You bet Thanks to everyone ontheações For me by Ms Dong For
China China edition.
In this episode of Defiant Health, dr Tom O'Brien
discusses his unique approach tomanaging environmental toxins
that now flood our lives, toxinsthat increase our risk for
numerous health struggles,including cognitive impairment,
autoimmune diseases and cancers.
Dr O'Brien brings hisconsiderable experience in
educating and investigating theeffects of such factors as
(00:29):
particulate matter in air,glyphosate and normal gut
permeability and diet.
He has a special interest inreproductive and cognitive
health and describes his and hisfamily's unique approach to
minimizing exposures in theirhome and environment.
Among Dr O'Brien's uniqueabilities is to translate the
science into practical,actionable steps that you and
(00:51):
your family can take.
I also want you to considersupporting the sponsors of this
Defiant Health podcast PaleoValley and Biodiquest.
Choosing high quality productsto support your health journey
is important.
This is why Paleo Valley is asupporter of my Defiant Health
podcast.
Their grass-fed, pasture-raisedbeef sticks, for instance, are
(01:12):
fermented unlike nearly allother beef sticks.
If you haven't tried theirpasture-raised pork sticks,
you're in for a treat, as theyare irresistibly delicious.
Profession Biodiquest, also asponsor of this podcast,
provides unique probioticproducts that, in my experience
and the experience of thefollowers of my program, are
unlike all other probiotics asthey are crafted using the
(01:34):
scientific insights of academicmicrobiologist Dr Raul Cannell,
an innovator in the concept ofcollaborative effects among
microbes.
Welcome, dr O'Brien.
You and I have talked a numberof times over the years and I've
always been thrilled at havinganother chance to have a
conversation with you because Iknow you bring unique ideas to
(01:55):
the table.
So when your team approached meabout this idea of
environmental toxins, I thoughthow timely and how wonderful.
So tell me how you took yourcareer down this path lately.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Ah well, you know my entire career has been like this
.
I mean, when I was an intern inChicago, my ex and I could not
get pregnant.
So I called the seven mostfamous holistic practitioners
I'd heard of back in 1979, andthey all told me what they'd do
and I put a program together andwe were pregnant in six weeks.
(02:29):
My neighbors in married housinghad been through artificial
insemination, nothing had worked, and asked if I'd work with
them and I said well, you know,I don't think it's going to hurt
you.
Sure, they were pregnant inthree months.
So now we're hot to trot, we'refour months pregnant and
telling our friends and veryexcited.
And they tell their sister inWisconsin who would drive down
(02:51):
to Chicago she'd had threemiscarriages.
Please, please, can you workwith me?
And so I was treating patientsout of my dorm room, but you
know we lived on campus and youknow you're not supposed to do
that, but I did.
But I came out in practice fromday one, understanding there's a
bigger picture and there areemergency breaks.
(03:13):
You know, you back out of adriveway and you say what's
wrong with this car?
It's barely the emergency break.
And you let go of the emergencybreak, right.
There are emergency breaks whenwe're trying to be healthy and
we're not quite getting the jobdone.
There's always emergency breaksand functional medicine is
identifying what those are andget them out of the way.
(03:34):
So your body always wants toheal a more healthy cell than
the cell that's breaking down.
It needs to be generated, andit's the environment.
You know we call it epigeneticswhat happens around the genes?
Well, what's around the genesare volatile organic solvents
and heavy metals and dieselexhaust fumes in your lungs and
(03:59):
what's going up into your brain.
So it's been 40 years oflearning more, all the time, of
where are the emergency breaksthat halt the quality of our
health?
Speaker 1 (04:09):
So something you've gotten quite a bit involved in,
infertility.
Could you tell us morespecifically about the toxins
that pregnant moms, orpotentially pregnant moms, are
exposed to?
Speaker 2 (04:19):
Oh yeah, you know, with my neighbors and married
housing, and shortly after thatI learned that and this is one
of those every and there's notmuch, that's every patient, but
this is an every patient, everypatient that had fertility
complications, whether it waspremature ejaculations or
recurrent miscarriages orinability to get pregnant, every
(04:41):
single one of them as acontributor to what was creating
the obstacles in their health,in their ability to have a
healthy pregnancy and delivery.
One of the contributors theywere eating foods that they did
not know were a problem for thembecause they didn't feel bad
(05:01):
when they ate the food, andwe've grown up believing if you
don't feel bad when you eatsomething, it's good for you,
it's not a big deal.
Well, that's not true.
You know, with celiac disease,the science is very clear for
every one person that has gutsymptoms, there are eight that
don't.
The ratio is eight to one.
So if you think your gut has tohurt when you eat something,
(05:23):
you'll get it right.
One out of eight times Right.
And so foods were a majorcontributor to the amount of
inflammation people have, whichwas contributing to the
emergency breaks holding backthe health results that they
wanted.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
So are you talking about a specific class of
compounds for pregnant orpotentially pregnant moms?
Is it mostly food?
Do you think it's a variety ofthings like hydrocarbons in air?
Is it particulate matter?
Speaker 2 (05:53):
Yes, yes, yes.
Unfortunately, it's yes, yes,yes.
You know that there's such acauldron of components in the
toxic soup of our body.
Now it's really difficult topin one and you can identify,
for example, the category ofphthalates chemicals used to
(06:15):
mold plastics.
Phthalates are notorious.
They inhibit neurogenesis,which means nerve cell growth
and brain cell growth.
So here's an example.
You know a study in 2016 inChicago 346 pregnant women in
the eighth month of pregnancy.
They measured the amount ofphthalates in their urine and
(06:39):
they just looked at five of them.
There are many, but they justlooked at five, including the
one most people have heard ofBPA or Bisphenol A, which is in
water bottles and many othersubstances, and they categorize
the results into fourths thelowest, the next, the third and
the highest.
They then followed theoffspring of those pregnancies.
(07:00):
You know they checked in theeighth month of pregnancy what's
their phthalate levels and theyfollowed the offspring of those
pregnancies and when thechildren turned seven years old,
they did Wexler IQ tests onthem, the official IQ tests.
Every child whose mother was inthe highest category of
phthalates and urine inpregnancy compared to the
children whose mothers were inthe lowest category.
(07:22):
Every child in the highestcategory, their IQ was seven
points lower than the kids inthe lowest category of
phthalates and urine inpregnancy.
And that doesn't mean anythingto anyone until you understand
that a one point difference inIQ was noticeable.
And a seven point difference isa difference between a child
working really hard gettingstraight A's in school and a
(07:45):
child working really hardgetting straight C's in school.
That child doesn't have achance in hell of ever excelling
.
Then just go to Google and typein phthalates and neurogenesis.
Here come the studies.
And so these young girls who,unfortunately, have been
painting their 10 little fingersand 10 little toes since they
(08:06):
were five years old, and thephthalates in the nail polish is
what makes them hard.
The phthalates are in thebloodstream within four to five
minutes of applying it on yournails.
Now it's minute amounts andthere's no evidence that that
amount of phthalates is toxicfor anybody.
There's just no evidence.
You know, but this stuffaccumulates in the body for most
(08:28):
people, and give me 20 years ofdoing that.
Now you've got a measurable,noticeable amount that's in your
system.
And so mom gets pregnant and now, unfortunately, her amniotic
fluid, that baby, is swimming in.
Well, we've all heard thestudies.
If you check the blood, theumbilical cord blood, at birth.
(08:48):
There's 186 chemicals onaverage that are in the
umbilical cord blood that arenot supposed to be there 186.
And some of them impact onbaby's brain development and
baby's growth ability.
So that's why, in my world,it's critically important to get
to the women of childbearingage and educate them on this so
(09:12):
that they can look at it alittle bit and see this is true.
This is not somebody cryingwolf, you know.
This is really true science.
And then they learn that theyhave to detox for six months to
a year before they ever getpregnant.
Get this stuff out of your bodyso you can have the healthiest,
smartest little baby possible.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
You know, before we started recording you and I
talked, I was not aware what aworld traveling you are.
Is it your sense this is worsein the US than other places?
Speaker 2 (09:43):
Well, I thought so at first, but you know, we are in
Costa Rica now and I wasstartled.
You know, I think Costa Rica,oh, the land of fruit and
vegetables and papayas, and allthat.
Costa Rica has eight times theamount of insecticides and
pesticides per agricultural acrecompared to the US.
Eight times more, and the US isloaded.
(10:06):
I mean just, it's poison Nowwhat we're all eating when you
eat conventional fruits andvegetables.
Let me give you an example ofthat.
That really puts it inperspective.
And then what to do about it.
So in 2019, in the Journal ofthe American Medical Association
, a paper came out from Harvardthat the editors of the journal
(10:27):
said this is an elegant studyusing sophisticated biomarkers
to demonstrate their point.
Now, you know really well, drDavis, the editors of the
Journal of the American MedicalAssociation don't say that very
often, right?
So it's got to be a study withsome credibility to it.
And what they did was theylooked at couples going to
(10:48):
assisted fertility centers andthey ruled out all of the known
features that determine successor failure.
They ruled out smoking, theyruled out alcohol consumption,
they ruled out exercise, theyruled out obesity, they ruled
out socioeconomic class, theyruled out race.
They ruled all of that out andnarrowed it down to one thing
(11:11):
the number of servings of fruitsand vegetables the woman was
eating per day.
And once again, an elegantstudy using sophisticated
biomarkers to do this.
And what they found out wasjust startling.
They I was like what.
They put the women in thecategories of numbers of
servings per day the lowestamount, the next, the third and
(11:33):
the highest.
And those in the highestconsumption of fruits and
vegetables had an 18% lesslikelihood of getting pregnant.
The more fruits and vegetablesyou eat, the worse the outcome.
And if you did get pregnant,you had a 26% less likelihood of
(11:54):
a live birth.
You lost the baby, miscarriagesand stillbirths.
The more fruits and vegetablesyou eat, the worse the outcome.
And that was like what?
But when you read the studyclosely, there was a caveat
Conventional fruits andvegetables and they had a
subgroup of people, of women,who were eating organic.
(12:16):
And in that category it was theexact opposite the more organic
fruits and vegetables you eat,the better the outcome.
And here's the take home that'sso important for everyone to
understand.
They were put in the categoryof organic consumption if they
ate three meals a week, notthree meals a day organic three
(12:40):
meals a week.
And the theory is well, ifthey're trying to eat organic,
they're probably using healthierdishwashing soap and healthier
laundry detergent.
They're probably doing someother things also, but they
didn't look at lifestyle, theyjust looked at consumption of
fruits and vegetables.
So the good news is threeservings a week of organic
(13:04):
fruits and vegetables youincrease your likelihood of
success at assisted fertilitycenters.
Now, why is that so jaw dropping?
Well, first, because we thinkfruits and vegetables are really
important, and they are formany, many reasons.
They are.
But now the most sensitivetissue in the human body and
(13:24):
I've never seen a study on this,but this is my assumption as I
think about the science.
I'd welcome your opinion themost sensitive tissue is a
fertilized egg.
It's got no immune system.
It's totally dependent on theenvironment it's in and if mom
is toxic, if mom's got leadtoxicity and mercury toxicity
(13:45):
and vol, organic compounds,phthalates and heavy metals,
then that's what baby's brainand body is developing in and
there's no protection if mom'stissue is saturated with this
stuff.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
So if we've got a pregnant or a woman who wants to
get pregnant and isunsuccessful, is there a
specific set of biomarkers youfavor?
Speaker 2 (14:07):
Oh, you bet.
You bet there are, and that'show we cut our teeth, you know,
and came out into practice somany years ago.
But yeah, the biomarkers.
Well, the first one is to do anaccurate test to see are you
sensitive to the most commonfood that people are sensitive
to, and that is wheat?
(14:28):
It's the most common when youlook at the chemistry, when you
do the right kind of testing andunfortunately, most of our
doctors are doing tests that areonly looking at one or two
markers of wheat and there aremany, many other markers.
There's a laboratory that weencourage all of our docs to
(14:49):
take a look at called VibrantWellness, because their
technology Mayo Clinic calls ita new era in laboratory medicine
that they're much more accurateand much more comprehensive.
So the first test that wealways recommend is a wheat
zoomer and because you zoom inon the problem and the
laboratory, when they came outin 2015, they first came out and
(15:14):
Mayo Clinic's first paper cameout in January of 2016.
That's when I read about it.
But the laboratory brilliantmarketing on their part to
compete with the alreadyestablished labs.
They included the markers, themost comprehensive markers to
measure intestinal permeabilityor the leaky gut.
(15:34):
That's part of the wheat zoomertest, so you get the most
comprehensive test available inthe world I shouldn't say the
world.
I've not taught in the Far East, but I was in Brazil a couple
of months ago and then Rome lastmonth.
I'm going to India next week.
I mean, I travel the worldteaching about this stuff and
(15:54):
I've never seen a laboratorythat has any tests that come
anywhere near the accuracy andthe comprehensiveness of the
zoomers.
So I recommend four zoomers tomost every person that wants to
talk to me.
That includes the wheat zoomer,the neural zoomer plus.
Now they have a neural zoomerthat looks at eight markers of
(16:17):
inflammation in the brain, butthe neural zoomer plus looks at
53 markers of inflammation inthe brain and that is such a big
problem.
You know that it's not ourtopic today, but I'll just throw
this pearl out there.
Blue Cross, blue Shield, cameout with a paper in February of
2020, just before the virus hit,and they said we've got a
(16:40):
problem.
We have a real problem.
There's been a 407% increase inthe last four years.
A 407% increase in thediagnosis of Alzheimer's in 30
to 44 year olds.
107% in four years in 30 to 44year olds, because people are
(17:03):
getting toxic so much earlier inlife, the accumulated amount of
toxins in their body and manyof them go right to the brain.
Our friend, dr Dale Bredesen,who wrote the end of Alzheimer's
.
He says that of the five typesof Alzheimer's inhalation,
alzheimer's is 60 to 65% of allAlzheimer's cases.
(17:23):
That's what you breathe.
That's going right up to thememory center of your brain,
causing the inflammation thatkills off your brain cells and
so very, very common.
So that paper came out inFebruary of 2020 and changed my
understanding.
And so every patient I checkevery patient for a neural
(17:45):
zoomer plus.
And to tell you, dr Davis, I'venever had a normal come back on
a first visit never.
And I've asked my friends,they're the same.
There's two tests we do.
Never have we seen normals.
The first one on a first test,the follow up in six months or a
year.
It better be better or else wearen't doing our job.
So the first one is the neuralzoomer plus that always comes
(18:10):
back positive, and the secondone is called the total tox
burden and it's a urine testthat looks at is your immune
system fighting all these toxinsor do you have the DNA evidence
of these toxins in your bodyLike mold, metabolites of mold,
or are you fighting validorganic compounds?
(18:30):
Do you have heavy metals?
It looks at I think it's about40.
I'm not quite sure of thenumber Different potential
toxins in one simple urine test.
So we recommend the wheatzoomer because it identifies
leaky gut and wheat sensitivity.
The neural zoomer plus thetotal tox burden and the gut
zoomer.
Those four tests give us a nicestarting point from which the
(18:54):
initial recommendations we maketo a patient.
They're going to see reallygood results.
Now, usually it takes six monthsto a couple of years to really
turn a body around.
But you get results quickly.
You start feeling better,losing weight, shedding pounds
pretty quickly.
If you get the big kahoonas outof the way, the big emergency
(19:15):
breaks, get them out of the way,you start responding and
feeling better.
But to get the subtle stuff outof it.
That's why you do those tests.
Now.
You have a baseline.
That's where you start and then, mrs Patient, we'll recheck it
in six months to a year.
If you're really aggressive andyou're following this squeaky
clean, six months will be fine.
If not, if you make a fewmistakes and you cheat or
(19:37):
something, let's wait a year tomake sure that you're getting
the best results you're gonnaget, and then maybe we're gonna
have to talk a little more aboutbeing vigilant about this or
something.
But we don't get normals backon a first visit and these are
highly accurate tests theZoomers because of Silicon chip
(19:57):
technology.
They really tell us a lot.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
I like that approach very interesting.
I'm familiar with a gut Zoomerbut didn't know very much about
the others.
That's very interesting.
The Divine Health podcast issponsored by Paleo Valley makers
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We're very picky around hereand insist that any product we
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All Paleo Valley productscontain no gluten nor grains.
In fact, I find Paleo Valleyproducts among the cleanest in
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You know you've dived a lotdeeper into the world of
(22:59):
environmental toxins than I everhave, and the thing I encounter
when I've tried to begin to getmy arms around is it's so
overwhelming, it is socomplicated.
So what is the life of Dr TomO'Brien and what does his family
look like in trying to minimizeexposures?
Speaker 2 (23:17):
Well, we don't have any carpet in the house.
You know we've got some rugsthat we clean every once in a
while, but we have tile floorsand wood floors.
You know, being in Costa Rica,humidity is high and so there's
always a danger of mold.
So when we go out for a numberof hours for example every
Sunday we go to a surfer beachor something to see the big
(23:38):
waves things I turn on two ozonemachines in the house and so we
kill any traces of mold thatmight be around and we vacuum
once a week, once or twice aweek, you know, the floors and
the shelves and all that just sothere's no accumulation that
can settle down here.
We are blessed to have a farmerclose by that delivers organic
(24:03):
produce and organic eggs three,four times a week.
He just came a couple hours agowith about a dozen cucumbers
beautiful cucumbers and a coupledozen eggs.
My wife likes her egg yolks inher coffee, raw egg yolks in the
morning.
You know I'm in charge ofcoffee in the morning when we
wake up and her coffee has twoegg yolks, tablespoon of medium
(24:27):
chain triglyceride oils, a bigtablespoon of ghee, a scoop of
collagen protein powder and ahalf a teaspoon of coconut sugar
.
Mine has the coconut sugar,collagen and cinnamon and that's
our morning coffee.
You know, we'll sit outside andlisten to the birds and start
(24:49):
the day, and we've set ourselvesup so that we have access to
organic almost all the time,unless we're going out somewhere
to a restaurant, and then it'smore difficult.
But this is.
It takes years.
So we have an air filtrationsystem that is running in the
living room all day and atnighttime I wheel it into the
bedroom.
Our son sleeps with us in thebedroom and so the air
(25:12):
filtration is going in thebedroom all night.
It's a quiet, running thing.
My wife uses organic nailpolish whenever she does her
nails, which is not too often,but if she's going to, you know,
some special event, our soapsare organic, our shampoos are
organic, you know.
So you just learn.
You know, in my second book,title was you Can Fix your Brain
(25:35):
, and I argued with Rodale Pressfor two weeks about the title.
It's like you, you know, youget an idea in your head.
Nope, this is it.
This is nope, this is it so.
But the subtitle is just onehour a week to the best memory,
productivity and sleep you'veever had, and that's actually
(25:55):
the secret to success that wealways recommend.
And then we have an eventcoming up soon and this is going
to be the implementationrecommendation, which is you
tell your family every Tuesdaynight after dinner or every
Sunday after services, wheneverit is but every week I'm
allocating one hour to learn alittle more about how to be
healthier.
(26:15):
And then you go back to my bookand you see the three URLs.
When you read that you leaveyour leftover food in a plastic
storage container in therefrigerator the next day, the
chicken's got phthalates in it.
From the plastic container orwhatever you put in there, it's
got phthalates in it.
Then you order glass storagecontainers, right?
So you go back in my book andthere's three URLs.
(26:37):
There's Miles Kimball, there'sAmazon and then wherever the
third one was, I don't rememberand you look at the oh, those
are old.
Oh, I like those and you orderthree round ones and two square
ones and one for the pie.
You pay through credit card hitsend.
It took you an hour to do that,but now you're done forever.
You're never going to poisonyour family again with minute
(26:59):
amounts of toxins from leftoverstored in plastic storage
containers.
The next week you go and youlook for the URLs on organic
makeup companies and you look tosee what you like and you order
it.
Maybe you're gonna have to doit again in two months because
you don't like the color on yournails or whatever.
But one thing at a time, justone thing a week, one hour a
(27:22):
week, and in six months you'vechanged your lifestyle
completely.
You take it in bite-sizedpieces, just one hour a week, to
the best memory productivity,sleep, energy, exercise
capabilities, whatever you want.
But one hour a week becauseit's overwhelming to try to do
all of this at one time,completely overwhelming.
(27:44):
Most people freeze.
They don't know where to start.
Speaker 1 (27:48):
I didn't know, you're a recent father, I'm a recent
grandfather and having watchedmy daughter-in-law just
delivered her second babyliterally five days ago.
Speaker 2 (27:56):
Congratulations.
Speaker 1 (27:57):
But you know I was surprised that here is a.
My daughter-in-law comes from awell-to-do family and kind of
gets the red carpet rolled outfor her obstetric care and she
got sadly almost zero usefulinformation, the kinds of things
you and I get concerned aboutDiet exposures, omega-3 fatty
(28:20):
acids.
Did you do anything specificthrough your wife's pregnancy?
Ha ha.
Speaker 2 (28:26):
We had two doulas, two midwives, a nutritionally
oriented counselor forpregnancies, a shaman to deal
with negative energies, a pelvicfloor therapist, so she was
exercising her pelvis throughthe entire pregnancy to make
sure it was pliable andexpansable and all of that.
(28:47):
Yeah, we learned about fats,how important good fats are for
the baby in utero when baby'sdeveloping.
So lots of essential fattyacids.
Most people avoid tuna fish now, which is a smart thing to do,
because most of the tuna isquite toxic, except one.
It's called ventresca with a V.
(29:08):
Ventresca means belly of thebaby and it's baby tuna and the
belly and salmon fishermen, babytuna, get caught in their nets
and they just throw the babytuna back and they're dead.
But they throw it back.
But if they harvest them andthey take the meat, it's
delicious tuna fish and it'smercury free.
(29:31):
You can't say you know there'satomic levels there somewhere so
they had to stop marketing itas mercury free tuna.
But it's very, very low inmercury, hard to identify, hard
to find any, and one can of thattuna fish is 7,000 milligrams
of omega-3s One can built.
So my son gets a can a week.
(29:54):
You know a little bit on hisgluten-free pizza one day, you
know, and a little bit mixed inwith his hamburger meat another
day just to get one can a week,and so I'm sure he's getting his
omegas because he's not takingany pills.
He's three now but he's nottaking any pills.
But we give him probioticsdaily and then a smoothie and
(30:17):
the rest of it's coming from hisfood.
Speaker 1 (30:19):
That's fantastic.
Now I understand you're puttingon a summit coming up sometime
soon.
Speaker 2 (30:24):
We are.
We are Thanks for asking it's.
You know, you and I both havehad many patients over the years
that follow our recommendationsto the T that they get great
results and they're reallysatisfied and grateful.
And then we hear a couple ofyears later they died of
something else.
Every disease is a disease thatbegins with inflammation.
(30:50):
You know, the Center forDisease Control, the CDC, tells
us that 14 of the 15 top causesof death are chronic
inflammatory diseases.
Everything except unintentionalinjuries is a chronic
inflammatory disease.
But nobody talks about this.
You know we wait until peoplehave complaints.
(31:11):
Then if we do somesophisticated tests, we might
identify antibodies to the brainwhich we have to address that
inflammation going into thebrain and then their depression
goes away or their seizures goaway or whatever it should be.
But it's not until they've gonedown the path with so much
tissue damage that now theystart getting symptoms.
(31:32):
We want people to be going backto their doctors and asking do
I have any markers ofinflammation in my body or is my
lifestyle causing inflammation?
That I'm not aware of Because Ifeel fine right now, but I know
that cancer is there for yearsbeforehand.
(31:53):
Cardiovascular disease is therefor years while I feel fine.
Is there anything I can do toidentify that I'm on the path
going that way so I can stop itbefore I get to that path?
I don't want to happen to mewhat happened to my dad.
You know, we hear that and Iwant people asking those
questions of their doctors.
So we're doing an event calledthe inflammation equation,
(32:17):
decoding the path to optimalwell-being.
Because it's so overwhelming totry to figure this out.
We're gonna decode it for you.
I'm interviewing, I interviewedthe world leaders.
I went to Israel and YehudaSeinfeld, the godfather of
autoimmunity, I mean this guy,26 of the MDs who went to get
(32:37):
their PhD in immunology from hisdepartment.
There are many, many more, but26 chair departments of
immunology in medical schoolsand hospitals around the world.
He's the godfather.
We interviewed him.
We interviewed David Furman atthe Buck Institute and Furman's
got the contract with NASA tofigure out why are our
(32:58):
astronauts aging so quickly inspace?
Because most people don't knowthis, but it's impossible for a
human to go to Mars.
I mean, you know the technologywill get to take us there, but
humans will die in space.
They age so quickly.
They'll die before the two anda half years when they get there
, they age so quickly, andFurman's been looking at why is
(33:19):
that happening?
Why do they age so quickly?
It's always inflammation, always, and when I interviewed him
about inflammation, his pearlsof what to do are so remarkable
and easy right.
Jeff Bland, the father offunctional medicine, talks about
inflammation as a dimmer switch, and most of us have it dim
(33:41):
turned up so high that it'scausing tissue damage.
And Isaac Elias, who talksabout what cytokines, what
immune system markers are at thevery top, trickling down,
creating all of the inflammationwe get in our bodies, and so
it's called the inflammationequation.
It'll be for one hour a day fornine days.
(34:03):
It's free, it's gonna be freeto everybody.
And then my partner, tom Malter, and I will have a 15 minute
discussion.
As could you believe what DrDvorak said about how the mind
creates inflammation.
I didn't know that.
Well, you know.
I know if I have an argumentwith my wife, maybe I don't feel
good for the rest of the day.
(34:23):
We talk about this in theeveryday language, so people are
gonna have takeaways every day,and we're encouraging all of
our doctors and our healthcarepractitioners, the health
coaches and nutritionists tosend the announcement out to
your entire tribe of people whofollow you, because every day
we're recommending people goback to their doctor and say ask
(34:47):
your doctor about Galactin III.
It's a $46 test, you know, withLabCorp a very simple test, but
it's at the headway that causesthe trickling down of all the
inflammation we get in ourbodies.
Or have an antibody test doneto see if you have antibodies to
your brain, and when you do,here's what you do about it.
(35:09):
So we're going to introducethis concept of going after the
inflammation to identify it andthen what to do about it years
before it's caused so muchdamage that now you have
symptoms.
I wanna change the discussionbetween patients and doctors.
I want patients demanding moreearlier markers and they're out
(35:32):
there, they're simple, they'renot expensive and earlier
indicators.
Is there something in my lifethat I can change to ensure my
quality of life in my senior?
Speaker 1 (35:44):
All right, I love that Because I agree.
A lot of my mainstream MDpeople are just not involved in
health you as well as I do andso it's the responsibility of
the individual to agitate forthose kinds of things.
Any neat thoughts on yourapproach to heavy metals?
Speaker 2 (36:02):
Oh yes, they're pretty much unavoidable nowadays
.
Unfortunately, these chemtrailsthat people think are harmless.
My friends who have analyzedsome of this say they're very,
very high in aluminum, very highin other things, but we're
exposed to heavy metals everyday.
Unfortunately, if you eat rice,if you go gluten free and
(36:23):
you're eating rice,unfortunately most of the rice
is high in arsenic and it'sbecause rice grows in water and
the water comes from the streamsand the streams are coming from
upstream up river and thefarmers 30 miles upstream have
been spraying their crops withthese arsenic-heavy sprays that
(36:45):
get into the water supply andcome down and the rice sits in
the water and the roots of therice just absorb this stuff and
bring the arsenic up to theheads of rice.
And so when you eat rice, ifit's not organic, and sometimes
even when it is organic, itstill has heavy metals in it.
But those people that eat a lotof rice, you just have to check
yourself do I have arsenicright now?
(37:08):
It's unfortunate, but the worldwe're living in is very toxic
and we have to take an offensiveapproach to play defense.
We have to do some things toprotect ourselves and our family
.
The first is to test to see, doI have high levels of heavy
(37:28):
metals in my body.
Speaker 1 (37:30):
So you're very selective in the fish you choose
.
How do you manage shellfish?
Awkwardly at best.
Speaker 2 (37:37):
Ha, ha, ha, ha ha ha.
I just love shrimp, you know Ido, and so once in a while I
give myself a treat, knowingit's not ideal.
I'm not perfect, you know, noneof us are gonna be perfect but
I really avoid.
And I ask sometimes could youask the chef where his shrimp
comes from?
And they just kind of look atme, you know, but once in a
(38:00):
while the chef in the back isactually the chef and he'll know
where is it Chinese or what isit you know.
And here in Costa Rica we havesome local fish farms and I just
saw one report that showed theywere not toxic with heavy
metals at all, which I wasstartled by, and that report a
doctor commissioned that report,so it wasn't a company that
(38:23):
paid a lab to alter reports.
It seemed to be genuine.
But shellfish is not somethingthat I can easily obtain here
and feel really safe about.
Now in the US there are somestores Whole Foods and others
that will have wild caughtshellfish and especially if you
can get Alaska, you're saferthere than Atlantic.
(38:47):
Atlantic tends to be more farmraised.
Pacific Northwest, there aresome farms in British Columbia,
but if it's wild then it's safer, you're closer, it's more
likely that you'll be saferthere.
Speaker 1 (39:02):
Dr Tom McBride, it's always a pleasure talking to you
and I do appreciate you votingsome of your valuable time.
I will post a link to yourupcoming summit, but if
listeners want to get more of DrTom McBride his wisdom, where
should they go first?
Speaker 2 (39:15):
Oh, thank you.
It's thedrcom, thedrcom Justdon't spell the word doctor out,
thedrcom.
Everything is there Lots ofvideos, lots of downloads.
And let's give you guys a pearlIf you go to thedrcom, forward,
slash plant, download thehandout that NASA published the
(39:36):
studies because their astronautswere going loopy in space.
They don't talk about that withthe press but their brain
function was not quite on parand they realized it was the air
.
It was very toxic air.
So they published the studieson house plants and how two six
inch house plants in a 10 by 10room absorbs over 70% of the
(40:00):
toxins in the air.
And so we've got the handoutfor you from NASA with the
pictures of the plants oh, I'veseen those before.
Oh, I like those.
And you just go out and buy abunch of house plants and put
them in your rooms, all therooms in your house, and they
absorb the toxins that you'renot aware of.
This is all in my book.
You can fix your brain, butit'll also be in our summit.
(40:22):
You know like unless you'resleeping under organic sheets
and organic blankets, you'rebreathing flame retardant
chemicals every night.
Even if you've washed thesheets 20 times, there are still
traces of these chemicals inthere and your blankets and your
comforters.
And these flame retardantchemicals are highly
(40:44):
carcinogenic.
And if the nightstand next toyour bed is not solid wood, it's
press board.
And press board is soaked informaldehyde which outgasses
into the air and you'rebreathing minute amounts of
formaldehyde anytime you're inthe room, can't smell, it, can't
taste, it doesn't affect youright away because they're
(41:04):
minute amounts.
Or your kitchen cabinets, ifthey're not solid wood, they're
press board.
You're breathing formaldehydeand you start learning about all
this and once again, as yousaid at the beginning, it's very
overwhelming.
That's why you do one hour aweek.
But go to the drcomcom anddownload the handout and get
(41:25):
some of those plants and you'regonna reduce the amount of
toxins your family is breathing24 seven.
Speaker 1 (41:32):
Oh, that's such terrific advice.
I love that.
Dr Brian Trilley, thank youvery much.
I hope we can send some peopleover to your summit and to the
drcom.
Speaker 2 (41:41):
Yes, yes, thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (41:43):
Okay, thank you, Dr Brian.
You bet Thanks to everyone ontheações For me by Ms Dong For
China China edition.
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