#81 – Should everyone be gluten free, how to cure Chronic Illnesses, types of milk safe for humans to drink, and is Brain Fog a normal part of aging? With Dr. Tom O’Bryan!
Audio Version: https://chantelray.podbean.com/e/wa81/
Video Version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DI9eI-SlFtU&feature=youtu.be
Dr. Tom O’Bryan’s website: https://thedr.com/
Speaker 1: Hi, guys! Welcome to this week’s episode and I’m so excited about today’s guest. I’m a huge fan of his, and I’ve been dying to get him on the podcast to share with you his wealth of knowledge, is beyond beyond.
He’s the author of several books, including The Autoimmune Fix, which won a national book award. You’ve written another book that you’ve got. You’re main thing is talking about chronic disease, autoimmune disease. I’m so honored to welcome Dr. Tom O’Bryan. Welcome.
Dr. Tom: Thank you so much. It’s a pleasure to be with you.
Speaker 1: I’m excited about your new book that’s called, You Can Fix Your Brain, which is talking about brain fog and mental clarity. Talk to us about that.
Dr. Tom: Right, right.
The subtitle is, Just One Hour a Week To the Best Memory, Productivity, and Sleep You’ve Ever Had. It’s not a cutesy title. It’s actually the formula for success. There are so many opportunities to download information for people today. We’re all in an information overwhelm state, that we become helpless.
Speaker 1: Yes.
Dr. Tom: We try something for a day or two, and if it doesn’t work, we throw it out and read on to the next thing.
The way you succeed, any chronic disease, as far as I know, any and every chronic disease is a result of lifestyle. Whether it’s what you eat, or the air you’re breathing, or the toxins in your environment, the toxins in your food, food sensitivities, bacterial infections, viral infections, it’s a result of lifestyle.
The analogy that I give is, if you go see the doctor because your history is recurrent miscarriages, or it’s migraines, or it’s seizures, or your child with attention deficit or autism. Or, you’ve got rheumatoid arthritis type pain, joint pains, or MS. It doesn’t matter. You go see the doctor with a chronic condition. It’s like you’ve fallen over a waterfall and you’ve crashed into the pond below. You swim up to the surface. Thank God, I’m alive. And, you’re trying to stay afloat in the pond of recurrent miscarriages, or in the pond of diabetes.
It’s really hard to stay afloat because the water is so turbulent. The waterfall keeps falling into the pond, so the water’s really turbulent. You’re bouncing around, it’s splashing you, and it’s hard to stay afloat. You’re still living the lifestyle that caused the problem. We’re in this pond of symptoms, of diabetes, but I’m living the lifestyle that caused the diabetes.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Dr. Tom: And, continue living the lifestyle. We’re all looking for a life jacket to stay afloat in the pond of how we live our lives. We’re all looking for the life jacket. Pharmaceuticals are important. They’re critically important, sometimes. If you need the medications, you take the drugs. Don’t be silly. You have high blood pressure, at risk of a stroke, you take the drugs.
You don’t stay in the pond. You swim over to the side of the pond, get out of the water. Walk up the hill, and walk back up the river to figure out fell in the river that carried you downstream, and eventually you fell into the pond of diabetes.
Speaker 1: Right.
Dr. Tom: Or, high blood pressure, or recurrent miscarriages. Right? I call it life jacket medicine, that we all live with life jacket medicine, and we think we’re fine. We stay in the pond. Well, the only way that I know of to consistently and successfully arrest and reverse degenerative diseases, is to get out of the pond. Get out of the pond, right?
Speaker 1: I like that analogy. A lot of people just assume that as they get older, they’re going to lose their mental sharpness, or their memory, and they just accept it. You know, my grandmother’s 97 years old. She lives by herself, takes care of herself, and is just as sharp as she can be. But, a lot of people are attributing their foggy brain to aging, which is really not the case. It could be their autoimmune issues, or food, that’s causing it.
How can we tell the difference of, is it autoimmune issues? What is it?
Dr. Tom: Yeah, but … right. We have a lot of people that come and say, “I’m getting older. I’ve got brain fog. My brain’s not working the way it used to. I know I’m just getting older.”
But, you know. I said, “Well, how old are you?”
“Well, I’m 38.”
No, that’s not normal. That’s not supposed to happen at 38. It’s not supposed to happen at 58. It’s not … you should be able to learn new languages in your 80s. There’s no reason why not, unless you’ve been slowly killing off your brain cells. Slowly killing them off because of inflammation in the brain.
I’ll give you an example. I did 316 consecutive patients with a very comprehensive blood test. This was in 1997. I did a blood test that, on myself, it was experimental only, to look and see did I have any antibodies to my own tissue? Were there any autoimmune mechanisms going on in my body? The test came back and said that I had antibodies to myelin basic protein. That’s the Saran wrap around your nerves, that’s what causes MS, when you destroy the myelin. I had elevated antibodies to cerebellum, which is the part of the brain that controls muscle movement in your body. I had elevated antibodies to gangliosides. When you’re killing off gangliosides, elevated antibodies, that eventually is non-Alzheimer’s dementia. Your brain keeps shrinking, and shrinking, and shrinking.
I was 44, scoring in the top 10% of 30 to 35 year old males in triathlons. I was walking tall. Yeah, I’m a healthy guy. I’m sticking up with the young guys. But, I had these test results.
Speaker 1: Where did you … let’s talk about that for a second. Where did you get these … where did you even go to get these tests done? Did you do them yourself, or did you go somewhere?
Dr. Tom: That was research only back then, but the tests are available now. The lab is called Cyrex Labs. C-Y-R-E-X.
I called the lab. I said, “What is this? This is a mistake.”
They said, “No, it’s not.”
I said, “I’m healthy. Do it again.”
They said, “We did. We know it’s you. We did it again. Sorry. It’s accurate.”
That’s when I learned that it doesn’t matter how you feel. I was doing triathlons, strong, healthy, vibrant, 44 years old in the prime of my life. It doesn’t matter how you feel. When you have autoimmune mechanisms going on, you’re killing off your own tissue in your body. You just don’t know it, because you can’t feel when you’ve got elevated antibodies to your thyroid, or you have elevated antibodies to myelin basic protein. You can’t feel any of that. There’s no sensory fibers that identify when antibodies are attacking your own tissue when there’s an autoimmune mechanism going on.
That is why I wrote this book, The Autoimmune Fix. That’s why it won the National Book Award, is because it’s really good. The information is so critically important for people to know, that these mechanisms that cause disease go on for years before you ever feel anything. You don’t feel it. You don’t feel when you’ve got antibodies killing off your tissue that eventually causes Lupus, or eventually causes rheumatoid arthritis.
We all have to learn that these degenerative diseases are going on for years. You don’t wake up one morning, all of a sudden, you’ve got diabetes. That doesn’t happen. You’re killing off insulin. You’re killing off the cells that make insulin. You’re killing off insulin receptors. You’re killing off your blood sugar regulating mechanism, for years, before you ever have a symptom.
That’s why the subtitle of the new book, Just One Hour A Week To The Best Memory and Productivity and Sleep You’ve Ever Had, is because you’ve got to do a deep dive and understand the mechanisms that are going on. I’ll give you an example. Researchers collected urine in the 8th month of pregnancy of 340 … I think it was 346 women. They measured the urine samples for five different phthalates. Phthalates are the chemicals that mold plastic. One that most people have heard of is called BPA.
Speaker 1: Hmmm.
Dr. Tom: That’s a phthalate.
They’ve measured the phthalate levels of five phthalates. We’re exposed to hundreds, but they measured five of them, and they categorized them by quartiles. The first quartile, the next quartile, the third quartile, and the highest quartile. They’ve followed the offspring of these pregnancies for seven years afterwards. Then, they measured the IQ of the kids seven years after birth.
The children, from the mothers in the highest quartile of phthalates during pregnancy, on average, every one of these children in the highest quartile, on average were seven points lower IQ than the children in the lowest quartile of the moms and their phthalate levels. Seven points is huge. One point in your IQ makes a noticeable difference in test scores and things like that. Seven points is a difference between an A minus, B plus person, and a C minus person.
Every one of these children in the highest quartile of mom’s phthalate levels in urine had seven point lower IQ’s. Every one of them. What does that mean? It means the toxic chemicals that mom is exposed to during her pregnancy have an affect on how baby’s brain develops in utero.
Why do I tell you that? When you read that in the book, when you read it in there, you go, oh my God. I have to get … and then, you read that when you use Saran wrap, when you use plastic storage containers for your food. You put the chicken in the Tupperware container overnight, the leftover chicken, the next day, there’s phthalates in the chicken. And then, you give it to your kids, a chicken salad sandwich or something for lunch. You give it to your kids, it’s loaded with phthalates, and the phthalates accumulate in the body.
What do you do? Well, every Tuesday night after dinner, every Sunday morning before church or after church, it doesn’t matter when, but every week, you allocate one hour. In that one hour, you take an action step for the health of your family. This week, all right, I’m going to websites that Dr. O’Bryan talks about in the book. Okay, mileskimball.com, or amazon.com, and you’re looking at their glass storage containers.
Oh, I like the way those look. All right. Let’s see, I need four round ones, three square ones. I need a big one for when I’ve got a pie or something. You know, whatever. And then, you order them, and it took you an hour. That’s your one hour a week. Then, you get rid of all the Tupperware containers. You give them to your husband to store nails out in the garage, but they never touch food again.
Speaker 1: Oh, I love that.
Dr. Tom: You spend one hour. One hour a week. In six months-
Speaker 1: So, everyone needs to go home and clean out all their … get rid of their Saran wrap. Get rid of their plastic containers, and they need to get all glass containers. Correct?
Dr. Tom: Right. But see, my point is, you’re going to read so many things in the book that everyone’s got to do, and it just makes sense. Stop using aluminum foil. Never use aluminum pots or pans. When you read it, you’ll go oh my God, oh my God, oh my God. It’s going to be OMG again, and again, and again.
Speaker 1: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Dr. Tom: It’s overwhelming.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so you’re saying just do … pick one thing, either a day or one thing a week that you can start-
Dr. Tom: One hour a week. That’s all.
Speaker 1: One hour a week.
Dr. Tom: Just one hour a week. That way, in six months, you’ve got this. You’ve got this down, and for the rest of your life.
Speaker 1: Now, you talk about the autoimmune disease being a spectrum of how people fall on different places within that spectrum. Talk about that for just a second.
Dr. Tom: Dr. Melissa Arbuckle is a MD PhD. I believe she’s at Johns Hopkins. I believe she was, at the time. In 2003, she published this article. She went to the VA and she looked for people with Lupus in the VA.
If you’re in the VA healthcare system, you’re a veteran. If you’re a veteran, you were in the armed forces. If you were in the armed forces, you had your blood drawn many times over the years while you were in the armed forces. Well, not many people know that the government has been saving and freezing almost all of their blood since 1978. They’ve got tens of millions of samples of our service peoples’ blood, frozen.
Dr. Arbuckle knew this. She asked for permission to look at the stored blood, frozen blood, of people currently diagnosed with Lupus when they were healthy in the Air Force, or in the Army, or in the Navy, whatever branch of the armed forces they were in. She received permission, she got their blood. What did she find? Every single one of the people currently diagnosed with Lupus, every one of them, had elevated antibodies that are killing off tissue, years before they ever had a symptom. Years.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Dr. Tom: It was nine years of elevated antibodies killing off your tissue, killing off your tissue, killing off your tissue. Then one day, you’ve killed off so much tissue, now you start getting symptoms. When you start getting symptoms, you try to put up with it, and then eventually you go to a doctor. The average, it takes three and a half years after you’re suffering so much that you go to a doctor, and five different doctors before you get the diagnosis of Lupus.
Then, you’re put on steroids. For some people, for the rest of their life, or other medications to try and shut down the immune system. The immune system has now gone crazy and needs to be shut down. That’s the way, historically, our doctors thought. Our immunologists, our rheumatologists, they now know that the immune system is activated, trying to protect you.
Your immune system’s the armed forces in your body. It’s the Army, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard, Navy, IGA, IGG, IGE, IGM. Different branches of the armed forces. So, what happens, the armed forces gets activated for some reason, starts killing off tissue, killing off tissue, killing off tissue. Eventually, you get diagnosed with the autoimmune disease Lupus, or MS, or rheumatoid, or alopecia, losing your hair. Or, vitiligo, getting these white spots on your skin, losing the coloration in your skin.
It doesn’t happen overnight. Arbuckle showed that it takes years killing off tissue before there’s enough tissue killed off, that you start getting symptoms. As a result of that, immunologists of that study in 2003, immunologists all over the world said, “That’s brilliant. Let’s go back to the blood banks of people currently diagnosed with MS and see what we find. Or, currently diagnosed with rheumatoid, or currently diagnosed with anti-phospholipid syndrome, or Hashimoto’s thyroid, or Celiac disease.”
They found every single autoimmune disease had elevated antibodies years before they ever had a symptom. That’s the experimental blood test I did in 1997 that showed I had three antibodies elevated to my brain. When I was in the peak of my physical health. I said, “This is a mistake.”
“No, it’s not.”
“Do it again.”
“We did. We know it’s you, we did it again. There’s no mistake.”
That’s when I learned, and I started doing a deep dive into what is autoimmune diseases? That was the basis of this book, that has changed the awareness of thousands of people now. They now understand.
Speaker 1: Your website is amazing, by the way. It’s called thedr.com. It’s a great site. You got really lucky on that. It’s just the D-R. It’s actually the D-R- dot com, for those listening.
I know that you guys offer lab tests, so we’ve got a lot of listeners from all over the country. Actually, California is our number one state that listens to this podcast. I guess maybe people in California are just more passionate about their health than other places. But, our number one listenership comes from California.
Where are you located at?
Dr. Tom: I’ve been based out of Encinitas, in Southern California for the last eight years. I spent 30 years in Chicago before that. Currently, I’m in Northern Italy.
Speaker 1: Okay. I’m in Virginia Beach, Virginia, and we’ve got lots of listeners actually in the south, as well. In Texas, and Florida, and stuff like that.
So, how does it work? If someone says, look … you said you partner with Cyrex Laboratories, right?
Dr. Tom: Well, there are a number of labs that we use. Cyrex is a really good lab. It was the pioneer lab that introduced the entire concept about how to test for wheat sensitivities, much more comprehensive, and they’ve got … how to test for autoimmune diseases. There are now other labs that are also offering services similar, and even more expanded.
Speaker 1: Let’s talk about that, because one of the things that’s really interesting that you talk about in the book is the difference in Celiac Disease and gluten sensitivity, which we really need to chime in. There is a big difference between the two. Can you expand on that?
Dr. Tom: Sure.
I just got back here last night after a whirlwind six weeks. We hosted … I was the chairman of the international symposium on wheat related disorders, beyond Celiac, beyond the gut. This was hosted by the Celiac Society of India. We were in New Delhi and we rocked the world. We did a great thing. We broadcasted live stream, and it’s available at … let’s see. I think it’s the dr.com/india.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Dr. Tom: The whole conference is there. Then, I went to Australia, and I was teaching in Australia about autoimmune disease, and I just got back here yesterday. In India, they’re just rocked by this concept. They didn’t know. You know, Mrs-
Speaker 1: I just went there. That’s not the link. You said thedr.com/india?
Dr. Tom: Please find the link for India. We’ll find it. Okay, I’m not good at that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that’s fine.
Dr. Tom: I talked about this in India a lot. Mrs. Patient, when you eat protein. Let’s say wheat. When you eat wheat, the proteins in wheat are like a pearl necklace. Hydrochloric acid made in your stomach undone the clasp of the pearl necklace. Now, you have a string of pearls. Your digestive enzymes act like scissors, to cut that pearl necklace smaller, and smaller, and smaller, and smaller. Smaller clumps of the pearl necklace, smaller clumps, smaller clumps, until you cut it into each pearl of the pearl necklace. That’s called an amino acid.
The amino acids go right through the walls of the intestines into the blood stream. Then, the body uses those amino acids as building blocks to make new bone cells, and brain cells, and heart cells. Amino acids are the building blocks to rebuild our bodies. You have an entire new body every seven years. Every cell in your body regenerates. Every cell, some are very quick, like the inside of the gut, 33 days. Some are very slow, like bone cells. But, ever cell regenerates. It’s the amino acids that are the building blocks for that.
The problem with wheat, and there are a number of studies on this. No human … for those of you that are listening that are human, this relates to you. No human has the enzymes to break down wheat into the individual amino acids. The best we can do is break it into clumps of amino acids, called peptides. Those clumps of amino acids, when they get in the gut, they’re inflammatory. They cause inflammation in the gut, and they cause the microbiome to develop, that is an inflammatory microbiome in your gut. What happens then? You get tears to the lining of your intestines, and we call that intestinal permeability, or leaky gut.
The fastest growing cells in the body are the inside lining of the gut. You eat a sandwich for lunch, you tear the lining of the gut, but it heals. You eat pasta for dinner, you tear the lining of the gut, but it heals. You have toast for breakfast, or a bagel, you tear the lining of the gut, but it heals. Croutons on your salad, tear the lining of the gut, but it heals. Day, after week, after month, after year, after year, after year, until one day, you cross a line. You don’t heal anymore. Now you’ve got intestinal permeability called leaky gut. That’s the gateway in the development of autoimmune diseases.
Speaker 1: Okay. I like that analogy. That’s a good one.
Dr. Tom: Yeah, thanks. It’s not that every person has to stop eating wheat. That is not true. You sound like a nut case if you say that. We know every person has that reaction going on, but when you cross the line, and you don’t heal anymore, now you start making antibodies, now you’ve got a problem with wheat. There are so many different peptides of poorly digested wheat that get into the bloodstream. One study said 62 different peptides of poorly digested wheat that are immunogenic, stimulate an immune response. 62.
Every laboratory in the world tests one. It’s called alpha-gliadin. It’s 33 amino acids long. It’s important to test, but why are the labs only testing one when there are 62 that might trigger the immune response?
Speaker 1: Would your suggestion, from what I’m hearing you say is, okay, let’s go ahead and get your lab work done, and let’s see, do you have Celiac Disease? Do you have gluten sensitivity? Then, you can make that decision of whether you should eat wheat or not.
But, I do want to ask you, because I know that you are passionate about the Paleo diet for healing. I always ask every guest, walk us through the day in the life of Dr. Tom. What do you personally eat each day? What does your day look like? And, be honest. Be honest.
Dr. Tom: Sure. Happy to.
I will say, there also are some dangers to the Paleo diet, and there are some dangers to a Keto diet. You have to check and see if it’s safe for you to do a Paleo diet or a Keto diet. I’d like to take a moment to talk about why that is.
Speaker 1: Sure.
Dr. Tom: The way that we absorb our fats in the food we eat … we need a high fat diet, you’re eating more fats, and so more fats are being absorbed. Fat molecules get escorted right through the walls of the cells in the intestine, into the bloodstream. The technical term, the geek term’s called transcytosis, meaning right through the cell. Not in between the cells, which is called paracellular. Rather, through the cells, transcellular.
The problem is that we’ve got this stuff in our gut called lipopolysaccharides, LPS. It’s the exhaust of gram negative bacteria. LPS, these exhaust molecules, jump on the back of fat molecules. It’s called lipid raft transcytosis. Lipid, meaning fats. Raft, like a boat. Transcytosis, through the cell.
These LPS molecules can jump on the back of a fat molecule in your high fat diet, and go right through the cells into the bloodstream. Then, your immune system has to fight that LPS. Technically, that’s called endotoxins in your bloodstream. Those endotoxins, they’re poisons to you. They get in your brain, and they’ve identified that as one of the components in the development of Alzheimer’s. They get into your joints, you get arthritis. You develop rheumatoid arthritis from it. They get into your skin, they get into your kidneys, into your lungs, they can go … wherever the blood goes, if LPS is in the bloodstream, then that’s where it’s going to go.
This is the reason why people die in hospitals of sepsis. Sepsis is high accumulations of LPS that’s been building up for years. Every person that wants to do a Paleo diet or a Keto diet, which can be very healthy for you, it can be really great. It can be really great, but you have to do the blood test to see, is my body fighting LPS. Do I have antibodies to LPS? If you do, you can’t do high fat diets right now until you clean that stuff up. It’s a strong contributing factor to many different degenerative diseases. That’s a critically important take away for your tribe, if they’re eating Paleo, which is a great diet. I’m not against Paleo, but you just have to check and see is it for my body or not.
Speaker 1: Gotcha.
Okay, this question is from Heather in Lubbock, Texas. A few months back, I tested with my doctor and found out that I am gluten intolerant, so I’ve been really careful to eat gluten free. I had my husband and son tested, as well, and they don’t appear to be intolerant. I didn’t want to make any changes to their diet, but now I’m starting to wonder. Should I be limiting their gluten, as well?
I have some friends that are gluten free, but they’re not gluten intolerant. Should we all be avoiding gluten like the plague? I get such mixed messages. Heather, in Lubbock, Texas.
Dr. Tom: That’s a really good question, Heather. The answer is, no, we should not all be avoiding gluten. Now, it does cause transient permeability in everyone, so you know, it makes that it’s best to keep it to low doses. The question is, is my immune system saying I’ve got a problem with it? Is my armed forces activated?
The problem for Heather, is that her doctor checked one peptide of wheat, alpha-gliadin. He checked that for her husband and her son, they didn’t have that one elevated. They may have any of the other 62 elevated. They may have a problem with wheat, and the test came back negative, that’s called a false negative when that happens. That’s really common. It’s that the lab tests are old, and the new lab tests are much more comprehensive, like Cyrex or Vibrant, and they’re on my website. You see these tests on the website. You go, wow. Then, you go to your doctor-
Speaker 1: Let me ask you this. With those tests that you’re talking about that you do, are you 99.999% confident that when someone does that test with you, that is … if they say you’re not gluten intolerant, you don’t have Celiac, that you’re confident that they really don’t?
Dr. Tom: That’s a really good question. The answer is, with one of them, yes. With the other one, no.
Speaker 1: Which is the one that you’re confident with?
Dr. Tom: The one called Wheat Zoomer. This is why. Do you have your cellphone there with you?
Speaker 1: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Dr. Tom: Can you just hold it up for a minute?
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Dr. Tom: Just hold it up. That cell phone carries the computing power of a 30 x 30 room, at MIT, 30 years ago. That’s why it’s 30, 30 concept. 30 years ago, a 30 x 30 room, floor to ceiling computers, produces enough computing power as that cell phone that you’re holding in your hand.
Speaker 1: Right.
Dr. Tom: Technology has just gone through the roof. The same is true in laboratory medicine. The labs are offering tests to the doctors that are 15, 20, 25 years old. They’re good tests, but they’re not as comprehensive. The only test that’s comprehensive right now, and Mayo Clinic published on this. They said a new era in laboratory medicine is the test called the Wheat Zoomer. You’ll see it on my website, the Wheat Zoomer. That test is 97 to 99% sensitive, and 98 to 100% specific, which means every time. Every time, on the money. There’s never been tests like that.
The answer to your question is yes, with the Wheat Zoomer. That’s how you find out, do I or my family have a sensitivity to wheat?
Speaker 1: Okay. Got it. That’s great.
Okay, let’s jump right into our next question here. This is about breastfeeding. This is from Jamie in Knoxville. I stopped breastfeeding around 11 months old, and she is now four. She drinks organic whole milk, about twice a day, and loves it. She asks for it if I forget to give it to her, but now I’m reading that kids shouldn’t drink milk past a certain age. I know so many people are concerned about dairy, and I personally drink almond milk, but my daughter wants the real thing. What is your opinion on cow’s milk for children and for me? Is there an age where we should stop serving it to them? Jamie, in Knoxville.
Dr. Tom: Do you have any foods personally that you crave and you want every day?
Speaker 1: Me?
Dr. Tom: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I try to stay away from dairy but I love dairy. If I could, I would eat cheese every day. I would definitely love that. I love Ezekiel bread, but I don’t feel good when I have gluten, so I stay away from it. I feel like because I don’t allow myself to, but if you put a slice of Ezekiel bread, or if you put cheese … like, brie. I love brie cheese. Or, I love a crème brulee. You know what I mean?
Those are things I absolutely love, but I’ve just-
Dr. Tom: And it puts a smile on your face.
Speaker 1: Yes, it does.
Dr. Tom: As you talk about it, and yet, you know it’s not good for you.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Dr. Tom: So, what does that mean? It means it’s stimulating your opiate receptors in your body. They’re called opioreceptors, because that’s where morphine works, is on those … you just feel good when you have a little of it.
Speaker 1: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Dr. Tom: That’s true with wheat, that’s true with dairy. With dairy, the opiates are called casomorphins. That’s the technical term for them. There are a number of studies published on casomorphins, and sudden infant death syndrome. The casomorphins cause what’s called a breach of the blood brain barrier, a leaky brain. There’s a Saran wrap around your brain, inside, that protects it. It’s called the blood brain barrier. Only certain molecules can get through, but when you eat dairy, or drink dairy, and the casomorphins in dairy will cause a tear in the blood brain barrier.
Then, you get inflammation in your brain. The theory is, that triggers the inflammation that shuts down the breathing centers for infants. They published a number of papers on that. This concept of dairy, cow’s milk is meant for a cow. The protein is eight times the size of human breast milk protein molecules. Eight times the size. For sure, we know, the only one that’s pretty commonly accepted, the only concept about dairy and avoiding dairy that’s pretty commonly accepted is with infants, where there’s a family history of diabetes.
There’s something called molecular mimicry. What that means, if you make antibodies going after dairy, then those antibodies may attack the beta cells of your pancreas, where you make insulin. There’s a long reason why. It doesn’t matter right now. If you make antibodies to dairy, you can attack your pancreas, and then you don’t make enough insulin. Eventually, you get diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes. It’s a molecular mimicry action against dairy. That was the trigger that sets it off.
The idea of cow’s milk- thank you. The idea of cow’s milk is that it’s meant for a cow. The three types of milk that are similar to human milk, that are safe for most people, are reindeer, camel, and donkey milk.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh.
Dr. Tom: Those three are, for most people, they’re safe. That’s called homologous. They’re closer to human breast milk, and they don’t trigger an immune response. I was startled. They sent me a sample of camel’s milk, hoping that I’d say nice things about it. It was in the refrigerator and I just couldn’t wrap my head around the milk of a camel. Really? A camel?
I saw the owner of the company a couple months, said, “Doc, how was that milk?”
I said, “I’m sorry. I travel so much, it expired.”
“We’ll send you some more. We’ll send you some more.”
They did, and they sent me some more. I tried it one day with some granola, and I was startled. It was really good.
Speaker 1: Really?
Dr. Tom: Yeah, it was really good. You think about cow. I mean, we’ve just seen thousands and thousands of cows. If you look at a cow, it stands in its own poop. All kinds of … camels are really clean animals. Camels’ milk is, for the most part, safe for people. Camel, donkey, and reindeer. Not cow’s milk.
Speaker 1: Wow.
All right, this next one’s from Helen in Fairfax. I’ve read a lot about the benefits of sauna for arthritis. I’ve been going to the sauna at my gym every day after my workout. Now, everyone’s talking about infrared saunas. What’s the difference between the benefits of a traditional sauna like I have at my gym, and an infrared sauna? Do I need to track one down at … track down an infrared, or will the standard sauna at my gym do the trick? Helen, in Fairfax.
Dr. Tom: Really good question. Any sauna is good for almost all people. The idea of sweating is one of the components of detoxing. Major concern in our world today, is the amount of toxins that we’re exposed to. Every newborn baby in America has, on average, 180 toxic chemicals in their bloodstream at birth that aren’t supposed to be there. 180. Many of them are brain or neural toxins.
As we age, more and more of this toxic stuff accumulates. In our India event, Dr. Natasha Campbell McBride from England was there, and she was talking about how a woman is having her first baby at older ages now, maybe around 30, 35. Women, traditionally, would have babies at 20 to 25, traditionally. Well, the older you are with a first baby, that’s another decade that you’ve been using hair coloring, and nail polish, and cosmetics. All this stuff gets in your body. They’re toxic chemicals that is one of the contributors, why the instance of autism is going up so high in our world today.
Speaker 1: Right.
Dr. Tom: That’s all in the book, You Can Fix Your Brain. You’ll read it all in there.
The idea of detoxing is critically important for most of us, almost all of us. Any sauna is good for you, in general. There’s studies that show lowering blood pressure, lowering cholesterol. Reducing inflammation throughout the body. It’s really great for you.
The difference between an infrared and the standard Swedish type sauna, is that infrared doesn’t go as hot, which is good. It goes hot enough to make you sweat. The infrared rays penetrate about four millimeters inside deeper than the traditional hot saunas do, the Swedish saunas. The deeper penetration opens up the blood vessels deeper, so you flush out more mercury in your sweat. More lead in your sweat, more BPA in your sweat. All this toxic crud that’s in our bodies that’s making us sick, triggering the increase incidences of autoimmune diseases, because of all the toxins we’ve got in our body. You’re sweating out more of this stuff all the time.
Saunas are a great component to a detox protocol, whether they’re Swedish or infrared.
Speaker 1: Awesome.
Okay, this is from Amy, in St. Pete. What is your opinion on autoimmune disease and working out? I’m diagnosed with Lupus, and my doctor’s always telling me things that I should be listening to my body, and taking it easy when I flare up. I notice that when I work out, I feel … even when I’m feeling awful, I do feel a little bit better overall afterwards. The only problem is, after I work out, I puff up like a blowfish. Why is my body puffing up after I work out? Does this mean I should be taking it easy? I don’t want to stop because I don’t feel well. Amy, in St. Pete.
Dr. Tom: Amy, that’s a really good question, and your analogy of a blowfish is so appropriate. You know, in Japan, they serve blowfish. The danger is if the sushi chef nicks the liver when he’s fileting the blowfish, it’ll kill you. It’s really dangerous. Autoimmune diseases, they shorten our lifespan, right? You’ve got to be careful when you’re dealing with an autoimmune disease.
How do you exercise in a safe, healthy way? The first thing you do, you wear a pulse monitor. You wear a pulse monitor, and you stay in your ideal aerobic range. You do not go anaerobic, meaning higher. When you’re in your aerobic range, the formula is 180 minus your age, plus or minus five. If you’re 40 years old, 180 minus 40 would be 140, plus or mins five, is 135 to 145. In general for people, that’s the range that you exercise in. Your pulse monitor, you set it for 135 to 145. You do about five minutes of warm up, then you turn the thing on, and then if it’s going beep, beep, beep, it means you’re below your pulse range, pick up your pace a little bit.
If it’s going, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, it means you’re above your pulse range. Slow down. Slow down. You’ll be surprised at how slow you have to go. People with autoimmune diseases do not to do very much to be in their pulse range. When you go above your pulse range, your anaerobic, which makes you sicker, and you blow up like a blowfish.
The reason you blow up like a blowfish is that your lymphatics and some of your blood vessels are very weak, and they’re almost like a sieve, and they’re perforated. You leak all this edema out into your legs and your arms. You’ve got to be really gentle with yourself, and stay in your pulse range, and you use a pulse monitor as your coach. The rule is, you never argue with your coach. Never. Your coach is going to say, “Slow down, slow down.”
It’s going to go, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep. You’re going to say, “That’s ridiculous. I’m hardly exercising here.”
That’s too much. Slow down. Get on the treadmill. Slow down. You’ll find it won’t take very much at all. But months down the road, when you’re staying in your pulse range, the target is to be 15 to 30 minutes, three or four days a week, eventually. You may only be able to do five minutes to start with. That’s fine. Next week, you’re doing 10 minutes. Next week, 15. Just slowly build up. Be patient and you can build it up.
Now, on the formula, there’s one caveat. If you’re diagnosed with an autoimmune disease already, you go 180 minus your age. If you’re 40, it’s 180 minus your age. That’s 140. Now, you subtract five, because you’re diagnosed with an autoimmune disease. Now, it’s 135. That is plus or minus five, so that’s 130 to 140. That’s your pulse range, and that’s where you stay after five minutes of warm up, for 15 to 30 minutes, three to four times a week.
You’ll find that you don’t have to do very much to be in that range, and when you’re aerobic, you’re burning fat and you feel better when you’re burning fat. You just have to go with the intensity that your body is capable of doing right now, without over stressing. That’s what your pulse monitor gives you.
Speaker 1: All right. This is our last question. This is from Dawn, in Kansas City. She says, I always wear toenail polish and get regular pedicures. I took the polish off myself a few weeks ago, and noticed my nails were extremely yellow and overall unhealthy looking. I decided to leave the polish off for a few weeks and to let them breathe, and they haven’t improved. A lot of things that I read online point to autoimmune issues, and some scary things like liver problems.
I also know that it could be some simple sort of deficiency. Is this something I should be concerned with and what can I do to improve my nail health, and to consider the root cause? We’ve got some other questions about, are there any organic nail polishes or organic hair colors that they could use? Dawn, in Kansas City.
Dr. Tom: Really good question. Really good question.
It’s like, should I be concerned that my body is decaying? That’s the question, and the answer is yes. Yes. Body language doesn’t lie. What you’re noticing is that, wait a minute, I never noticed my nails before because I always have them covered with nail polish. I’m looking at them, they don’t look good at all, It’s not a simple nutrient deficiency, most likely. Yes, you should be concerned.
In this situation, I would recommend two tests be done. One is called the Wheat Zoomer, and the other is Cyrex Array Number Five. With Cyrex Array Number Five, you look at 24 different tissues to see is my body attacking itself? Do I have an autoimmune mechanism going on? That’s explained in great detail in the book, The Autoimmune Fix. That whole concept’s explained. That’s what I did back in 1997 and found three antibodies to my brain.
When I cleaned all that stuff up, I went back eight months later and redid the blood test, it was all normal. I do that blood test every couple of years now, to make sure that everything’s okay. The answer is yes, you should be concerned. Absolutely.
Speaker 1: Awesome.
If you would have to say, here’s the five things that you personally did, yourself, to heal yourself of this autoimmune, what would be your top five tips?
Dr. Tom: First is, learn. One hour a week. Do a deep dive, so that you aren’t just trying to get rid of some symptoms, but you’re understanding how your body works. You don’t have to be a doctor, you don’t have to be a health care practitioner to understand some basic concepts. Read the books. Read both of these books, and it will give you a comprehensive overview. That’s the first thing.
The second thing is, one half ounce of water per pound body weight, every day. Every day. What does that mean? If you weigh 130 pounds, that’s 65 ounces of water a day. Oh my God, I’ll peeing all day. That’s the idea. It’s because the body is so toxic right now, from all these toxic chemicals we’re exposed to all the time, we have to have the transport mechanism to get rid of all these toxins that contribute to the development of the autoimmune diseases.
Third, do the Wheat Zoomer to see. That’s the most comprehensive test, right on the money, every time to see, do I have intestinal permeability, the leaky gut, and does my immune system say, I’ve got a problem with wheat right now. Whether, or not you feel it when you eat it, it doesn’t matter at all.
Fourth, eat a ton of vegetables every day. One root vegetable every day. Go shopping and buy organic. Get rutabagas, turnips, parsnips, sweet potatoes, kohlrabi, get all the root vegetables they have and every day, you have one root vegetable. Those root vegetables feed the good bacteria in your gut, so you build a stronger microbiome.
Fifth, Mrs. Patient, take four or five apples, wash them. Get organic, of course. Chop them up, throw the seeds out, and then cut them into bite sized pieces, throw them in a pot, add water about two thirds above. The apples are about one third the height of the water. Throw in some cinnamon, turn it on high, boil it, check it out in 8 to 11 minutes or so. When you see a shine on the apples, turn it off, you’re done. You’ve got applesauce. A shine on the apples, you’ve released the pectin from the fruit. The pectin is now easily accessible to the lining of the gut. The pectin is a food source to make something called intestinal alkaline phosphatase. IAP. There are many, many benefits to intestinal alkaline phosphatase. All the good things that it does for you, there are many benefits to it.
Have two tablespoons of applesauce, twice a day, every day. That’s all, just a couple of tablespoons. Eat your root vegetables. Do those basic tests. Drink water. And, I … I don’t remember. I don’t remember the first one was I said. You said five. I mean, I can give you 10. But, these are the top five.
Speaker 1: That’s awesome. Well, I’m so excited because you’ve got a couple of giveaways for us, for all of the listeners, which is so generous and kind of you. If you go to … we’re going to actually set up on our site, the giveaways. If you go to chantelrayway.com/drtom, we will have that link available and you can access his anti-inflammatory and brain boosting pantry staples, and his list of the best and worst foods.
Did you want to do a book giveaway, Dr. Tom?
Dr. Tom: That would be fine, yes. Yeah, sure.
Speaker 1: All right. What we’ll do is, we will give one lucky winner a free book if you go to our Facebook page. You can go on there, and we will make sure that link is there, and you can share and like it, and comment, and get a copy of your amazing book. You’ve just been so amazing.
Dr. Tom: I’ve got the link now. I’ve the link for the India event.
Speaker 1: Okay, great.
Dr. Tom: It’s YouTube, at Functional Forum. If you to the Functional Forum on YouTube, and there’s a bunch of them, but the one that occurred just two nights ago, on Functional Forum, was a summary of the entire conference in India, with clips from five or six of the speakers. It’s just fabulous to see.
Speaker 1: You know what, if you’ll do this for me, Dr. Tom. If you’ll send me the link, I’ll put it in today’s show notes, so that way they can just literally click on the show notes, and click … and email that to me, and I’ll get it over to everyone.
Dr. Tom: I’ll send it over.
Speaker 1: You’ve been an absolute joy. Thank you so much. You’re just a wealth of knowledge. It’s unbelievable how smart you are. Thank you for sharing that wealth of knowledge with all of our listeners. We really, really appreciate you.
Dr. Tom: Thank you so much. It’s a pleasure to be with you.
Speaker 1: Awesome.
If you have a question that you want answered, go to questions@chantelrayway.com. We’ll see you next time. Bye-bye.