Feed Your Brain with These Videos

Yes, I practice a different type of medicine. I have heard other people and doctors refer to me as a functional doctor but I reject that term. Wouldn’t that make all the other doctors dysfunctional? I consider myself an Integrative physician. Trying to bring the latest understanding to what’s causing all our chronic illnesses. I am looking for root causes of disease rather than just covering up the symptoms. I believe we have to focus on inflammation to improve and maintain your health. That means focusing on the six big causes of inflammation. Poor sleep, stress, smoking, and being sedentary are all important but they are not present all the time and are either hard to measure or hard to affect. Two causes of inflammation are there 100% of the time and are easy to measure and easy to influence. They are Omega 3/6 ratio and fasting insulin.

So, in my attempts to stay current in both the molecular level of your health and to keep abreast of traditional medicine I have to read a lot and check out a lot of videos and podcasts. Although there is always something in the medical news, there are not a lot of breakthroughs to report on that affect the general population. There is always some new supplement to research but just reporting on the latest supplement gets tedious. I tend to focus on checking things out that can be measured. You can measure your fasting insulin, you can measure your oxidized LDL, you can measure your NAD levels, your plasmalogen levels etc. Does hydrogen water really help at the cellular level? You can make an excellent scientific argument for it but I can’t measure it so I remain cautious in recommending it. On the other hand, most of these supplements aren’t particularly harmful and if people want to give something a try and see how they feel I am okay with that. Since the placebo effect is quite powerful I recommend they try something and see how they feel, then stop the supplement and see if they feel differently and then resume the supplement and see if again they feel differently. On the other hand, you can take an important supplement like vitamin D and not feel differently even though the evidence clearly shows the benefit of having a higher vitamin D level (which can, in fact, be measured).

When patients join my practice they get educational materials. First, everyone gets a book. It’s usually one of Dr. Gundry’s because it was his books that fundamentally changed my practice. The books focus on your diet as a main cause of inflammation in your life. As an aside, he does thousands of dollars of blood tests on his patients which are not covered by insurance to measure this inflammation. Measuring the fasting insulin and the Omega 3/6 ratio are the two main inflammatory markers so I make due with them. Of course, wheat, dairy, corn etc. are inflammatory and are not measured by these markers but that’s another lecture entirely.

Second, every patient gets a list of recommended supplements. Yes, some of the experts I follow take up to 200 supplements a day! No wonder they can skip meals! I focus on what I think are the absolute basics which include the fish oil, vitamin D plus K2, the methylated B vitamins, and Vitamin C. I can measure most of these so it’s easy to see if patients are following my recommendations.

Lastly, every patient gets a list of videos to reference. I try to recommend short videos because I know people have limited time but some of them are longer and I hope they are worth watching. I am going to share just three of the videos today with you. I used to entitle the list of videos “life changing” because I think they will, in fact, change your life but I don’t want to be over dramatic. You can watch all these videos by going to Youtube and typing in the titles below.

Video #1. NEVER, EVER GIVE UP. ARTHUR’S INSPIRATIONAL TRANSFORMATION!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qX9FSZJu448

If this video doesn’t give you chills there is something wrong with you. It’s about a guy who doctors said would always be a cripple and never walk unassisted again. He proves them very wrong without surgery, and without medications. It’s about doing the work and doing the work daily. I like to start with the inspirational. If this guy could do it, why not you? What excuses have you piled up?

Video #2 DR. GREGER BENEFIT OF LIFESTYLE VERSUS MEDS
https://nutritionfacts.org/video/The-Actual-Benefit-of-Diet-vs-Drugs/

Dr. Greger is a physician who gave up practice to teach about how to restore and maintain health via diet not via medications. He is a hard core vegetarian but I don’t hold that against him. In this 4 minute video he shows the very limited benefit of drugs versus changing the diet. He relates the studies that show dietary changes are 20 times more effective than the best medications at preventing heart disease. You and your doctor are fooling themselves when they think they are making a big difference in your health with the medications. As he puts it at 2:12 in the video “Doctors who are NOT prescribing lifestyle changes are practicing deceptive medicine.” And I am not talking about your doctor mumbling something about diet and exercise as he hands you another prescription. I am talking about your doctor asking you what you had for dinner, what you are doing for exercise etc. That should be the focus of your visits!

Video #3 DR. NADIR ALI DO STATINS PREVENT OR CAUSE HEART DISEASE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_QdNX9etCg

If you take a statin this video will rock your world. This 31 minute video eviscerates the old notion that “cholesterol BAD! statins GOOD!” I have yet to find a cardiologist who will watch the video which my patients have suggested to them. The usual responses are “I don’t have time for that.” Are you really saying you don’t have time to watch a short video that challenges your dogma? This is your profession and you have no interest? Or “Where did you get your medical degree from Google?” This is insulting. Patients now have access to the same data, the same literature, the same studies that the cardiologists do so they should be prepared for patients with probing questions not just accept “Your cholesterol number on a piece of paper is high…take this pill for the rest of your life and don’t ask about side effects.” When they say, “I am a specialist, a cardiologist; I have more training than your primary care doctor or some granola eating quack so don’t bother me with your video.” My response is, “Dr. Nadir Ali IS a cardiologist, an american cardiologist, a board certified cardiologist so he does have standing in your specialty. It’s not a simple video, but he explains complicated issues in a straightforward manner and it will open your eyes to an entirely different view of cholesterol and its role in heart disease as well as the true benefits and risks of statins.

I will make sure the other videos I like are posted on my website. It’s all about educating yourself on the root causes of your illness and working on that aspect of your health. If you leave it to the medical profession we will easily and happily manage your illness. You must manage your wellness. These videos will help.

Until next time…get well and stay well.

J T BARRY MD

Dr. Barry