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Why Functional Medicine Changes Everything · White Coat Black Sheep

• 0:00
  All right. This is White Coat Black Sheep, where science gets
• 0:04
  curious and dogma gets uncomfortable.
• 0:11
  I'm Dr. Valerie Sivelia. We talk physiology, evidence, and
• 0:15
  real-world medicine, plus the questions that you're not supposed to ask but
• 0:19
  probably should. If you care about health and think there's a better way,
• 0:23
  welcome to our show.
• 0:25
  I have with me today, and I'm so honored, this is Dr. Hugh Beatty.
• 0:29
  How are you?
• 0:30
  I'm doing fantastic. Thanks for having me on today, Val.
• 0:33
  Absolutely. I'm just so glad that our timing worked out.
• 0:38
  I know you're very busy. You
• 0:41
  have a lot-- I don't even know all the things.
• 0:43
  I think I'm scratching the surface of what you do or what you have done.
• 0:47
  You have a really thriving practice.
• 0:50
  You started in anesthesiology, and then now
• 0:54
  you are functional medicine.
• 0:56
  Yes.
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  And
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  I would love to know more.
• 0:59
  Yeah. Well, board certified in anesthesiology, and
• 1:03
  I also have an emphasis in pain management.
• 1:05
  So I did that probably a good 25 years, and then I started really
• 1:09
  focusing mostly on the last 12 years on
• 1:13
  functional medicine, since 2013. So almost 13 years now.
• 1:16
  Wow.
• 1:17
  Yeah.
• 1:17
  Was there anything that happened, like a moment in time where you're like, "After
• 1:21
  this happened, then I just am questioning
• 1:25
  everything, and I need to change, and I'm changing."
• 1:27
  Mm-hmm.
• 1:28
  I think-
• 1:28
  I've always questioned everything.
• 1:30
  I always-- No, I think what happened is just kind of, I think it's just all really
• 1:34
  God-led because if you were to ask me when I
• 1:37
  was 30 years old what I would be doing at this age, I wouldn't have told you
• 1:42
  I'm doing this. I had no idea. I had no desire to be in a private
• 1:46
  practice. And
• 1:48
  I got to a point when I was doing anesthesiology in the '90s, I got burned
• 1:52
  out.
• 1:52
  Mm-hmm.
• 1:52
  And I just said, "Nah, I don't think this is a long-term future for me."
• 1:56
  And so I took some time off, and when I came back, I started doing hospital-- I
• 2:00
  mean, office-based stuff, not hospital-based-
• 2:02
  Yeah
• 2:02
  ... office-based. So that's what happened.
• 2:04
  Man, oh man. What did burnout really feel like
• 2:08
  to you and look like to you? Because okay, I'm a baby
• 2:12
  doctor compared to you.
• 2:13
  Mm-hmm.
• 2:13
  I graduated 2023. I practiced for one year, and I
• 2:17
  was exhausted. I felt myself
• 2:21
  irritated.
• 2:22
  Yeah.
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  And there was no joy about doing the thing that I gave up
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  everything-
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  Mm
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  ... to do.
• 2:30
  Yeah. That's what probably my burnout was like, too.
• 2:32
  I got to a point, I'll never forget, I got to a point one day, I
• 2:36
  just said, "I need to take a break." And I did.
• 2:39
  I told the group I was working with, I was doing anesthesia then, it was like nine
• 2:43
  members in the group. And I said, "I need to take a month off." And they said, "Ah,
• 2:46
  you'll be back before then." And then it became two months, and I said, "Look, I'm
• 2:50
  not coming back." And at that time, I took some time off,
• 2:54
  and I
• 2:55
  think it was probably the best two years of my life.
• 2:57
  I tried to do other things during that time because I was really at the point of
• 3:01
  thinking that I didn't want to go back to medicine at all.
• 3:03
  Oh.
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  But it gave me a good reflection, a good time to reconnect
• 3:09
  with God, and-
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  Mm-hmm
• 3:10
  ... and when I came back, I said, "Okay.
• 3:12
  I definitely want to practice medicine."
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  Mm-hmm.
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  "I don't want to do it the way I had been doing it." And so I started doing
• 3:17
  office-based things.
• 3:18
  Mm-hmm.
• 3:18
  And that was a great decision because now I still love it.
• 3:21
  But I wouldn't say traditional practice I love.
• 3:24
  Right.
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  I love functional medicine.
• 3:25
  I love functional medicine.
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  I could do this till the day I die.
• 3:27
  I get it.
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  Because patients get better.
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  We see outcomes.
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  Yes.
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  That is like a little reward that just is like, "Yes."
• 3:34
  Yes.
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  "We did this." And it's just a lot of behavioral changes, nutrition.
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  I mean, just the classic things, and science that we now have,
• 3:42
  and biomarkers that we can check, and-
• 3:44
  Yes
• 3:44
  ... you can prove that you're actually doing stuff, not just clinically,
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  subjectively, but also in the data that we can collect now.
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  Yes.
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  So it's just amazing.
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  So for regular medicine, I hate to even frame it that way, but-
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  That's why I say traditional medicine
• 3:58
  ... traditional. That's a better way to frame it.
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  Yes.
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  So, we know the regular practice. We both know the
• 4:05
  guidelines and why or where they came from.
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  There's a lot of good, more good than bad, but there's also spaces that
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  we've all identified that, "I can't help you.
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  I'm at the end of what the algorithm is.
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  I can't help you, and I just will pray for
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  you."
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  Yes. But I think it's less in functional medicine, you say that.
• 4:28
  Right.
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  I think you clearly said traditional medicine.
• 4:31
  Yes. I'm describing traditional medicine.
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  And-
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  And it's sad.
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  Yeah. In fact, I like the patients that come to me after they exhausted everything
• 4:37
  in traditional medicine.
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  Same.
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  Because now I got their attention.
• 4:40
  Yes.
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  You see what I'm saying? When they-
• 4:41
  You've seen UCLA.
• 4:42
  Yeah.
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  You've seen Cedars.
• 4:44
  Yes. You've had all these diagnostic tests, because I find in traditional-
• 4:48
  Yes, and for-
• 4:48
  ... medicine, a lot of workup is done.
• 4:49
  Yep.
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  But what therapy follows, you see?
• 4:52
  And so by the time they come to a functional medicine doctor, yes, we also
• 4:56
  test.
• 4:56
  Mm-hmm.
• 4:57
  But we spend less time trying to figure out the next step, because-
• 5:01
  Mm
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  ... we want to say, "Okay, why are you like this?"
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  Mm-hmm.
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  And we start dealing with the why. So patients come to us-
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  The cause
• 5:05
  ... they might have a diagnosis of what's wrong, but they don't have a diagnosis of
• 5:09
  why it's wrong.
• 5:10
  Yeah.
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  And then that's where we get started.
• 5:11
  Yeah. There's a car commercial, or it's actually for car
• 5:15
  insurance. It's like you don't want to just have the car insurance.
• 5:18
  It's like, "Oh, let's just look at it."
• 5:20
  Yeah.
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  And then they show, like, a doctor, and they show an X-ray, and they're like, "Yep.
• 5:24
  There it is." "That's the heart attack right there."
• 5:27
  Yeah.
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  So we're not just looking at it.
• 5:30
  No.
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  We have great tests to look at things, but also to treat and
• 5:34
  to fix.
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  Yes.
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  And
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  that's just-
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  But there's no better joy than in functional medicine, because when the patients
• 5:42
  get better, it's exciting.
• 5:43
  Right. Totally.
• 5:43
  You're like, "Wow." And the patients are amazed by it, but I'm just as amazed.
• 5:47
  Yeah.
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  Because when I say, okay, I'm not doing anything unique, I'm just saying,
• 5:51
  "Okay, this is what the body needs."
• 5:53
  Yes.
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  "Let's give them this-
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  Yes
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  ... and see what happens."
• 5:56
  Yes.
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  Because I don't make them well.
• 5:58
  Right.
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  God makes them well. But what happens is that we give them what
• 6:02
  God has designed the body to respond to.
• 6:05
  Yes.
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  And so when they respond-
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  It's so cool
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  ... it's amazing.
• 6:08
  Yes.Yeah. And it's interesting because, I don't know
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  about you, but I definitely started from a place of
• 6:15
  opposite of this. I did not believe that flowers
• 6:19
  would fix anything. I was like: "Take a lily.
• 6:23
  Sure, you could do..." I just didn't give it any merits.
• 6:26
  Yeah.
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  But now that I'm here and I've done all the training and the boards and it's just
• 6:30
  like there's so much. Everything that we have,
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  the ancient medicine and the traditional, all of that came from the
• 6:38
  Earth.
• 6:39
  Yes.
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  All of it came from plants and animals.
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  Yes.
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  And so why certain things work, I think
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  that's where we're in the space of figuring out science-wise to catch
• 6:49
  up to the fact that we know things work.
• 6:51
  Yes, and there's so much to learn. I'm frustrated at times
• 6:55
  when even the functional medicine tools are limited.
• 6:58
  Yes.
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  And in fact, I have a patient right now,
• 7:03
  that he has optic neuropathy going on with his eye,
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  and it came out of nowhere. And
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  we sent him down to Jules Stein. He's going to be seeing the
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  neuro-ophthalmologist soon.
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  Mm-hmm.
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  He's gone through the ER there. But,
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  as I do research and I look up things, there's not much, and I don't know what the
• 7:24
  neuro-ophthalmologist is going to do.
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  I told him possible about monoclonal antibodies type things they might try.
• 7:29
  Yeah.
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  But really, it's not a neuritis, it's a neuropathy.
• 7:32
  Mm-hmm.
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  There's a big difference.
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  Mm-hmm.
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  Neuropathy, they'll go ahead and put him on megadose steroids.
• 7:37
  Yep.
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  But neuropathy, the nerve is damaged.
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  Mm-hmm.
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  The nerve is dying.
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  Mm-hmm.
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  And so there are things we try to do in functional medicine for neuropathy.
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  Mm-hmm.
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  I do a lot of ozone, I do PRP-
• 7:49
  Mm-hmm
• 7:49
  ... we do NAD.
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  Mm-hmm.
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  So all those things you try to do that they help him out, but the
• 7:55
  traditional medicine tools are limited when it comes to that.
• 7:57
  Yeah.
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  They don't even have that. And then when they ask the traditional doctors about
• 8:01
  these things, they're not really well-versed.
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  They don't have any comments to really make.
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  And that's where the frustration part comes in-
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  Yeah
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  ... for the patients, so.
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  And they also don't have the time. They're like, "Sorry, it's called a nerve
• 8:13
  problem." Respectfully.
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  They definitely don't have the time.
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  Right.
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  In fact, today I had a patient come, she said, "Doc, the GI doctor you
• 8:21
  sent me to, is there another one you got?" And I said, "No."
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  She said, "Well, I think he got mad because
• 8:28
  I asked him a question and he didn't have time, so he got angry with me." And I
• 8:32
  said, "Well, I don't know what to tell you." I said, "The specialists are backed
• 8:36
  up." There's so many patients-
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  There's no options
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  ... for the amount of specialists that are here.
• 8:40
  Yeah. I mean, we are in a unique area.
• 8:44
  Bakersfield is between two mountain ranges, for those of you who are watching that
• 8:48
  are not from here. I think it's enough of a barrier to
• 8:52
  where LA's over here, San Francisco's over here, so you've got
• 8:55
  really high level care and centers and specialists.
• 8:59
  But here in the Valley, people don't cross the mountain range.
• 9:02
  No.
• 9:02
  It's scary. There's rock slides, there's
• 9:06
  closures, it's windy enough. It scares me a little bit.
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  I will drive it, don't love it.
• 9:12
  Mm-hmm.
• 9:12
  I might sweat a little bit with the drive.
• 9:14
  But it's enough of a barrier to where if you're here,
• 9:19
  you get what you get.
• 9:20
  Yes. And I think that people don't come up for care in Bakersfield
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  because there's a lot of healthcare center, medical care centers down in Los
• 9:27
  Angeles.
• 9:29
  And our patients tend to go over the Grapevine.
• 9:32
  Exactly.
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  But they don't tend to come our way.
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  Yeah.
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  But in functional medicine, I have patients come to see me.
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  I love that.
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  They'll come from San Diego, San Francisco, Los Angeles.
• 9:41
  Yeah.
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  Because I think what happens when they get to a situation where
• 9:45
  they need help-
• 9:46
  Mm-hmm
• 9:47
  ... and the ones that come to me are familiar with me-
• 9:49
  Yes
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  ... because a family member has seen me.
• 9:51
  Yeah.
• 9:51
  And they say, "You should go see Dr. Bailey.
• 9:53
  Maybe he can help you." So those are the ones I'm talking about.
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  So they will make the drive-
• 9:57
  Yes
• 9:57
  ... when they get desperate enough, so.
• 9:59
  Yeah.
• 10:00
  Do you find that there was any
• 10:03
  space in medicine, traditional into functional, because
• 10:07
  it is heavily misunderstood. We're not holistic doctors.
• 10:10
  Yeah.
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  We're not like, oh... So I did mention flowers, but it does not
• 10:14
  mean, and I don't want it confused with, that we think that
• 10:18
  regular medicine should be canned. You should still see your cardiologist.
• 10:21
  You should still take your cardiac meds.
• 10:25
  But why is your heart having issues?
• 10:27
  Why are you having atrial fib? Has a proper workup been
• 10:31
  done, right? I'm sure you see that-
• 10:34
  Oh, you're totally right
• 10:35
  ... all the time.
• 10:36
  You're totally right. And that's what I tell patients all the time.
• 10:37
  I said, "Okay, they told you what's wrong."
• 10:39
  Yeah.
• 10:39
  "But let's deal with why it's going on." And in fact, sometimes they don't even
• 10:43
  tell patients what's wrong. That's the frustrating thing.
• 10:46
  I'm reading a book right now, the title is, "Don't Let Your Doctor Kill You."
• 10:50
  And what is talked about in it is that so many times the patients don't even know
• 10:53
  what the diagnosis is.
• 10:54
  Yeah.
• 10:55
  And things are being done to the patient, and they're just left as
• 10:59
  basically receiving the care, but not involved with the care.
• 11:04
  So what you're just talking about was an integrated approach-
• 11:06
  Yeah
• 11:06
  ... where I do still send patients to specialists all the time-
• 11:09
  Mm-hmm
• 11:10
  ... because they'll do certain diagnostic tests that I don't know how to do-
• 11:13
  Yeah
• 11:13
  ... and I can't do, I'm not trained to do.
• 11:14
  Yeah.
• 11:15
  And so I still need their diagnostic workup.
• 11:17
  Mm-hmm.
• 11:17
  But once we get the information and the patient is just left with taking these
• 11:21
  meds for the rest of their life-
• 11:22
  Mm-hmm
• 11:22
  ... and then I'm thinking, well, the heart is inflamed.
• 11:24
  Yeah.
• 11:24
  Let's at least calm the inflammation down.
• 11:27
  It's the clearest, easiest-
• 11:28
  Yeah
• 11:28
  ... simplest, lowest hanging fruit.
• 11:30
  Yes. And so I agree with what you're talking about, is that we do work
• 11:34
  very well with specialists.
• 11:36
  Yeah.
• 11:36
  And we're not trying to be lone rangers.
• 11:38
  No.
• 11:38
  I have never met a functional medicine doctor that's a lone ranger.
• 11:41
  You're absolutely right.
• 11:42
  They're definitely not.
• 11:43
  I hope our doctor
• 11:45
  viewers do hear that because I don't want to be perceived
• 11:49
  as anti-medicine or
• 11:52
  anything like a lone ranger.
• 11:54
  No.
• 11:55
  We're very collaborative.
• 11:56
  No, we're not. And then actually, some of the best care I've given patients
• 11:59
  because I was able to use other doctors I'm thinking about one patient I had in
• 12:03
  particular. I could not have done with her what
• 12:07
  I ended up doing without the specialist.
• 12:09
  Mm-hmm.
• 12:10
  This particular patient came to me in her 70s, and she had terrible
• 12:14
  hips. And she had a walker, and she was stooped over
• 12:17
  at about maybe a 70-degree angle. And when she came to see me,
• 12:21
  that was her state. She was on all these meds, nine or 10 meds.
• 12:25
  Today she's 82, no longer walker. She walks straight up, no
• 12:29
  meds.
• 12:30
  Oh, wow.
• 12:30
  And she's doing fantastic.
• 12:32
  Yeah.
• 12:33
  But she needed bilateral hip replacement surgery. I can't do that.
• 12:37
  She'd need the workups from the cardiologist and things.
• 12:39
  Yeah.
• 12:39
  So we've done all that. But because she's very compliant with what I
• 12:43
  was recommending-
• 12:44
  Yeah
• 12:45
  ... and she had never had that direction of care, she actually did
• 12:49
  very well.
• 12:49
  Yeah.
• 12:49
  And she says to me, said, "Doc, I don't have any other doctors but you." She said,
• 12:53
  "But I don't think I need them. I don't have those problems I had before."
• 12:56
  Oh.
• 12:56
  I said, "Well, if you get to a point where you need one of those other doctors,
• 12:59
  I'll send you to one."
• 13:02
  That's really cute.
• 13:04
  Yeah.
• 13:04
  Oh, there was a local hospital that I worked at for a bit,
• 13:08
  and I had a patient, he had leukemia.
• 13:11
  Mm.
• 13:11
  And he was scheduled with a specialist over
• 13:15
  the grapevine in LA with-- I don't know which place,
• 13:18
  but he was scheduled to get his
• 13:22
  autologous stem cell
• 13:24
  transplant. So where they would just take the cells out of his
• 13:28
  bone marrow and then put it back in. I know you know that.
• 13:31
  That's just explaining in case anybody else listening does not know.
• 13:35
  So from his standpoint, I
• 13:39
  know he's a specialist, he probably has his protocol.
• 13:41
  And as I do with any patient and for any person that's in the
• 13:45
  hospital, if I know that they're established with a specialist, especially at a
• 13:49
  higher level of care, I just pick up the phone and call them.
• 13:52
  Yes.
• 13:52
  "Hey, your patient's here. This is what I'm doing.
• 13:55
  Is there anything additional that you want?"
• 13:56
  Yes.
• 13:57
  And it's funny to see the response.
• 14:01
  I was shocked. I realized I am different
• 14:04
  because
• 14:07
  it was really truly with this patient and in this moment where I'm like--
• 14:11
  He said, "Well, why are you calling me?
• 14:14
  You don't know how and when to give..." Because the guy's
• 14:17
  hemoglobin was borderline, but it was above seven, so I knew it was fine.
• 14:21
  He doesn't need blood. I'm not asking you
• 14:24
  for anything. I'm just informing you in case you want to add anything.
• 14:27
  It's called communicating.
• 14:29
  Right.
• 14:30
  So I was communicating and-
• 14:32
  It's a lost art.
• 14:35
  It's a lost art. He was like... But you know what's funniest?
• 14:37
  By the end of the conversation, he's like, "Oh,
• 14:42
  you're just
• 14:43
  telling me so that I could..." I was like, "Yeah.
• 14:46
  I just want you to know who I am in case you need something, you can text
• 14:50
  me."
• 14:51
  Right. It's called collaborating, Doctor.
• 14:54
  Okay? And see, I'm old enough to remember when doctors worked better together.
• 14:58
  Yeah.
• 14:59
  Because we used to give consultations to one another.
• 15:02
  That's true.
• 15:02
  Now, the patients come to me, and they say, "Well, I went to go see the
• 15:05
  specialist." I said, "You get his paperwork?
• 15:07
  He said he's going to send it to you?" "No, I don't have it yet." But before, the
• 15:11
  doctors had no problem in picking up the phone and talking to one another.
• 15:14
  Well, I guess time got in the way.
• 15:15
  They would write letters of introduction.
• 15:18
  If I was going to send a patient to you, I would write a letter of introduction
• 15:21
  about the patient I'm referring to you.
• 15:23
  It feels proper.
• 15:24
  Okay. Yeah.
• 15:25
  Which it's not.
• 15:26
  That stopped probably late '80s.
• 15:28
  Yeah.
• 15:29
  You probably was in high school. I'm sorry. I couldn't resist.
• 15:31
  Well, I was born in 1983.
• 15:33
  Oh, so you weren't even in high school. That's funny.
• 15:36
  No comment.
• 15:38
  Okay. Well, that's good.
• 15:39
  But anyways-
• 15:39
  I'm glad we got great doctors coming up
• 15:41
  ... I have to keep going.
• 15:41
  Yeah. You sure do. Because I'm going to need somebody to take care of me in a--
• 15:46
  I will call your specialist-
• 15:47
  There you go
• 15:47
  ... if you have any. You'll probably be perfect in 180, but we'll-
• 15:51
  Yeah. Well, I don't know. I hope so.
• 15:52
  Because patients ask me all the time, "Doc, who's going to replace you?
• 15:55
  Who's going to be there?" I say, "Look, God always provides.
• 15:57
  There will be people there."
• 15:58
  There will be people.
• 15:59
  And I found somebody, Valerie.
• 16:03
  I can't wait to check out your practice, by the way.
• 16:05
  Yes, definitely. You're welcome anytime.
• 16:07
  Oh. Well, yeah. So just the end of that story basically was like,
• 16:10
  a light bulb. I could just see the light bulb.
• 16:13
  And he's like: "I really appreciate that.
• 16:15
  I really value that."
• 16:16
  Yeah.
• 16:16
  And I'm like, boom.
• 16:18
  So yeah, I think communication, because when you're referring a
• 16:21
  patient, there's a question in your head.
• 16:24
  Yes.
• 16:24
  "How in the world will that person know?" They're just going to do a general
• 16:28
  workup, and maybe it catches something, maybe it doesn't.
• 16:32
  But if there's a rare thing or you're not in that general population,
• 16:36
  it will be missed.
• 16:37
  Yeah, I agree. What I like to do when I refer to patients, I remember a urologist
• 16:40
  told me this years ago. He says, "I'm getting so many referrals
• 16:44
  or consultations requests where the basic
• 16:48
  primary care workup wasn't done." Okay?
• 16:52
  And I like to think I hand gift the problem to the
• 16:55
  specialist. Like I've done everything I can do, and that-
• 16:58
  Like they'd be proud of you.
• 16:59
  Yeah. Like I've already did the full workup.
• 17:02
  You've done the work.
• 17:02
  And I narrowed it down. You clearly need the urologist.
• 17:06
  You clearly need the gastroenterologist.
• 17:07
  Yeah.
• 17:07
  And so in fact, I have a patient-
• 17:09
  I love that
• 17:09
  ... right now I'm thinking about who has
• 17:13
  been seen by the rheumatologist, hasn't seen the endocrinologist yet.
• 17:17
  Primary care hasn't done much. And this lady has severe osteoporosis.
• 17:21
  I mean, like plus three. And the thing is
• 17:24
  that her osteoporosis is so severe
• 17:28
  that I'm
• 17:31
  really concerned about her having a fracture.
• 17:34
  Mm.
• 17:34
  Okay? Hip fracture or something like that.
• 17:36
  So what happened was that she was still kind of bouncing off
• 17:40
  her primary care doctor and seeing me-
• 17:42
  Mm
• 17:42
  ... because I'm doing functional medicine with her. And so she went.
• 17:44
  So I had told her that, "I'm really concerned about your osteoporosis."
• 17:48
  I did some scans. Her calcium level was very low in the tissue, not in the blood-
• 17:52
  Mm
• 17:53
  ... not in the urine. Blood, it was normal.
• 17:55
  Mm-hmm.
• 17:55
  Okay? And so I checked the urine. So her primary said, "Stop the calcium."
• 17:59
  And so I said, "Well, look, if she's concerned that it's high in the blood, let
• 18:03
  me at least do a urine calcium." I did.
• 18:05
  She's spilling a lot of calciumSo at that point, I said, "Wait, this doesn't make
• 18:08
  sense. You're low on the tissue, you're spilling calcium, your blood is normal." I
• 18:12
  said-
• 18:12
  Low on the calcium
• 18:12
  ..."Look, the rheumatologist is not doing their job, so I'm going to send you over
• 18:16
  to the endocrinologist and see what's going on if it's something hormonal."
• 18:20
  But she thanked me that she said, "You know, I don't have doctors ever do this kind
• 18:23
  of stuff. They never try to figure out why."
• 18:26
  That's shocking.
• 18:26
  I said, "I can't get you better until I figure out what's why." And that's so
• 18:30
  typical, though. And so what happens-
• 18:32
  Crazy
• 18:32
  ...when I referred to the endocrinologist, I wrote a little note saying
• 18:36
  why I'm sending this patient. Because what most patients do?
• 18:38
  "I don't know why I'm here." They go to the
• 18:41
  specialist and they'll say they don't know why they're there.
• 18:45
  So I try to help her out a little bit.
• 18:47
  I sent my boyfriend to a sleep study
• 18:51
  person-
• 18:51
  Yeah
• 18:52
  ...a specialist. And he actually said...
• 18:54
  I'm sorry, I've said this twice, this story, but this is just for you.
• 18:57
  That's okay.
• 18:57
  Yeah. So-
• 18:59
  I've been there.
• 19:00
  Right. The
• 19:02
  doctor was like, "Okay, so why are you here?" He's like, "Well, my girlfriend's a
• 19:05
  doctor, says that I snore and I'm ruining her life."
• 19:09
  That's a good reason to go.
• 19:10
  That's exactly what I said. He quotes me.
• 19:12
  Yeah.
• 19:12
  Ruining my life. I was like, "Yep."
• 19:15
  Yeah.
• 19:15
  "I said that."
• 19:16
  Yeah.
• 19:16
  "You were."
• 19:19
  Yeah. But that's critical because you know that not only
• 19:22
  snoring but sleep apnea can be signs of some other things going on.
• 19:25
  And it can-
• 19:26
  Yeah
• 19:26
  ...worsen his health.
• 19:27
  Yeah.
• 19:28
  And so.
• 19:28
  Why do you think structurally, I know there's weight gain, and then say
• 19:32
  you lose the weight, but the structure, the jaw falls
• 19:36
  inward.
• 19:36
  Oh, yeah.
• 19:37
  Is it bone loss? Why is this... Oh, I just-
• 19:39
  Well, it's more common in men than women
• 19:41
  ...feel like I need to learn more about.
• 19:41
  As you know, it's more common in men than women, but I think it's a lot of the
• 19:45
  anatomy.
• 19:46
  Mm-hmm.
• 19:46
  And also the thickness of the neck.
• 19:48
  Yep.
• 19:49
  And the muscles in the neck.
• 19:51
  Mm-hmm.
• 19:52
  I used to snore pretty bad. I don't anymore.
• 19:54
  You don't anymore?
• 19:55
  I don't anymore. Well, one, I started doing functional medicine.
• 19:59
  Oh, nice. Hey.
• 19:59
  So I do. Whatever I recommend to my patients, I do.
• 20:02
  So I had a neck size of like 18 and a half. Now it's 17.
• 20:05
  Oh my gosh.
• 20:06
  So I think that had a lot to do with it.
• 20:07
  Did you have a belly?
• 20:07
  But I'm not even inflamed. Yeah, I still got a little belly, but not as much.
• 20:10
  I don't think so.
• 20:11
  Yeah, I got a little belly. For 67- ...I feel pretty good.
• 20:14
  But, no, I was definitely more inflamed.
• 20:17
  And one day, I'll show you a picture how I-
• 20:18
  So the inflammation
• 20:19
  ...a few years ago. And I'm looking at it saying, "I just think that
• 20:23
  overall, I just got healthier."
• 20:25
  Yeah.
• 20:26
  And it's not unusual for a man to
• 20:29
  be able to snore and stop.
• 20:31
  Mm-hmm.
• 20:31
  I didn't have any surgery or nothing like that to stop it.
• 20:33
  Mm-hmm.
• 20:34
  And I'm amazed. Of course, I snore a little bit, but I remember years ago, I chased
• 20:38
  a friend of mine out of the room. We went out of town, I think we
• 20:42
  went to South Carolina, and they had to sleep on the other side of the house, I
• 20:44
  snored so loud. But I don't have that problem anymore.
• 20:46
  Yeah.
• 20:47
  So I'm thankful for that.
• 20:48
  Oh my gosh. Some people shake the house.
• 20:50
  I believe that.
• 20:51
  It's just profound.
• 20:53
  So there's hope for you guys-
• 20:54
  Yeah
• 20:55
  ...who snore. But until you get that fixed, you need to really be checked.
• 20:58
  Make sure you have sleep apnea.
• 21:00
  Yeah.
• 21:00
  That's definitely important.
• 21:00
  It's worth treating. It's worth undergoing the diagnosis.
• 21:05
  Yeah. So I think we have this
• 21:09
  upcoming symposium, so I'm looking forward to that.
• 21:12
  I know we're going to be talking about hormones and-
• 21:15
  Well, you're going to kill it.
• 21:16
  Why?
• 21:17
  I think you're going to make it happen.
• 21:19
  I just want people to know about it.
• 21:19
  You bring fire. No.
• 21:21
  I want to tell them-
• 21:22
  Every time-
• 21:23
  ...with enthusiasm
• 21:24
  ...Every time we have a get-together meeting, you're ready.
• 21:29
  I feel like I should dial it down.
• 21:30
  And I said, "Let me go ahead and do a podcast with her real quick, get her
• 21:34
  vibe."
• 21:35
  Why does it light me up-
• 21:36
  I want to-
• 21:37
  ...so much?
• 21:37
  I want to match that energy, so I had to find out today.
• 21:40
  My whole...
• 21:41
  But that's good, though. I love the energy.
• 21:42
  Yeah. And I don't even know why. I just get-
• 21:45
  You're healthy.
• 21:46
  Yes.
• 21:46
  If you weren't healthy, would you have energy?
• 21:48
  No.
• 21:49
  No.
• 21:49
  And I've been that person before. Maybe that's part of it, too.
• 21:52
  That's a good sign.
• 21:53
  Right?
• 21:53
  That's a good thing, to be healthy.
• 21:54
  I felt horrible in my 20s.
• 21:56
  Yeah. You didn't know functional medicine.
• 21:57
  I didn't.
• 21:58
  Yeah.
• 21:58
  Yeah. And then 30s, I was doing residency and working
• 22:02
  on my doctorate and all that stuff. Miserable.
• 22:05
  Yeah.
• 22:05
  I was doing Red Bulls and like-
• 22:07
  So think about all the people you can help in residency right now. But guess what?
• 22:11
  Those women would not be listening to you, because guess what?
• 22:14
  They're learning the traditional way of taking care of patients.
• 22:17
  Yep.
• 22:18
  Go back and try to help them right now.
• 22:20
  They-
• 22:20
  Pull aside a 27-year-old resident-
• 22:22
  Gosh
• 22:23
  ...female and tell her.
• 22:24
  It's laughable. It's like, "Okay, sure. I'll sleep.
• 22:28
  Sure."
• 22:29
  Yeah.
• 22:29
  You're wearing three pagers on your pants that are so
• 22:33
  wrinkled.
• 22:33
  Or if you just tell them to start taking vitamins and minerals, what they might say
• 22:36
  to you.
• 22:37
  I couldn't do this anymore. Yeah, exactly.
• 22:38
  If I would've taken vitamins, just that alone would've helped me.
• 22:42
  Yes. I agree.
• 22:43
  I feel like just taking protein shakes was already changing my life in my third
• 22:47
  year of residency.
• 22:48
  Yeah.
• 22:48
  So I was like, "Why didn't you tell me?"
• 22:48
  Well, I think just being able to work out.
• 22:50
  They can't really work out because I don't think the typical patient
• 22:54
  understands how grueling residency is.
• 22:57
  Yeah.
• 22:57
  It's just life altering.
• 23:00
  You think they'll change that?
• 23:02
  Probably not.
• 23:02
  It's disgusting.
• 23:03
  It is.
• 23:04
  Why?
• 23:04
  Well, I
• 23:06
  don't know about you guys, but I remember when I was hearing
• 23:10
  about this probably early '90s-
• 23:13
  Mm-hmm
• 23:13
  ...where they were saying they were going to restrict the call schedule for
• 23:16
  residents to no more than 24 hours. Did they end up doing that?
• 23:19
  Okay, so here's what I want to say. I'm sure
• 23:23
  your generation had it worse.
• 23:26
  We had it real bad.
• 23:27
  But it's still pretty bad, guys.
• 23:27
  36 hours straight up.
• 23:29
  Okay.
• 23:29
  But did you guys get restricted on your hours?
• 23:32
  There was something weird like, okay, so you can't work
• 23:36
  more than that many hours in a row
• 23:40
  over the course of four weeks.
• 23:42
  Right? Make it make sense.
• 23:44
  That only makes sense.
• 23:44
  It doesn't even make sense. So that's how it's written.
• 23:46
  Yeah, because if you work 48 hours-
• 23:48
  Something's delayed
• 23:48
  ...you could die straight, if you up 48 hours straight.
• 23:50
  Right? So you can't just do that in a row.
• 23:52
  So if it happens that you're doing 36 hours over the course of
• 23:56
  four weeks, then I think it was fine. All I know is I lived at the hospital.
• 24:00
  Yeah.
• 24:01
  And it was also COVID, so there was hardly anybody showing up.
• 24:04
  Yeah, that's why it's called resident.
• 24:06
  Yeah. It's like-
• 24:07
  Resident at the hospital.
• 24:09
  ...awful. I just had to-
• 24:10
  So it really didn't change
• 24:12
  I don't think it's changed. But I still think maybe yours is worse, but it's hard
• 24:16
  to say
• 24:17
  Well, they really pimped us and punked us, if
• 24:21
  people say those terms.
• 24:22
  Oh, I got punked. I got thrown in garbage cans.
• 24:24
  Yeah. Resident training was tough.
• 24:27
  It's awful.
• 24:27
  But it makes you strong, though.
• 24:29
  It does.
• 24:30
  I mean, because you're not so easily intimidated or pushed
• 24:34
  aside.
• 24:34
  Or offended.
• 24:35
  Or offended.
• 24:36
  Yeah.
• 24:36
  Because I think you got it tough because the faces that offend you.
• 24:41
  So you have to be-
• 24:42
  Patients are brutal
• 24:44
  They are.
• 24:44
  They're brutal.
• 24:45
  I'm sorry, patients, but yeah.
• 24:46
  What the hell kind of doctor are you? Why would you say that?
• 24:51
  I know.
• 24:51
  I'm so... I mean.
• 24:53
  Oh, boy.
• 24:54
  I just ask-
• 24:54
  We should do a podcast on that.
• 24:57
  Oh, gosh
• 24:57
  ... even just asking, "How are you?" I feel like, "Well, how do you think I am?"
• 25:01
  Yeah.
• 25:01
  I'm like, "I don't know. How are you?"
• 25:03
  But just don't say this. Okay? What's the thing they always
• 25:07
  say? "What now?" Don't say that.
• 25:09
  Oh, I won't.
• 25:09
  And don't say, "Now what?"
• 25:11
  Oh.
• 25:13
  I won't.
• 25:14
  Okay. Yeah. I don't think the patients necessarily like that.
• 25:17
  Oh, my gosh. I mean, for the elderly care that I see especially,
• 25:22
  it's entertaining to me. They're cute. It's funny.
• 25:25
  But just the fact that there's just such a response
• 25:29
  with, "Hey, how are you doing? I'm Dr. Civelli.
• 25:32
  How are you feeling?" Oh, it stirs up a hornet's nest.
• 25:36
  It does.
• 25:36
  "What do you mean? How am I?"
• 25:37
  When they grab out their list. Yeah, they bring out their list.
• 25:39
  But one thing I will say is that some of my greatest, I guess,
• 25:43
  results have come from older patients because they have more pathology.
• 25:47
  Yes.
• 25:48
  And they have also had, I hate to use this term, but the care
• 25:52
  has been neglected longer, meaning that they've been on their meds longer.
• 25:56
  Yes.
• 25:56
  Nobody has made an effort to try to say-
• 25:59
  Yeah
• 25:59
  ..."Let me take a look at that." I had a guy, he comes to see me.
• 26:01
  He's an African American male, 70 years old.
• 26:04
  He came in my office, and he had a cane.
• 26:08
  I didn't want to deal with that right then because he had other issues.
• 26:11
  Mm-hmm.
• 26:12
  By this fourth visit, he left my office without the cane.
• 26:16
  And the last two visits, he doesn't have the cane anymore.
• 26:18
  Oh my gosh.
• 26:18
  And it was something very simple, but it was my pain management background.
• 26:22
  Wow.
• 26:22
  So one day when I finally had kind of dialed him in and we
• 26:26
  did all the testing, so now he's on hormone therapies, minerals are right-
• 26:29
  Right
• 26:29
  ... vitamins are right, things like that.
• 26:31
  I'm trying to encourage him to start doing some resistance training.
• 26:34
  Mm-hmm.
• 26:34
  And he said, "Well, Doc, you know my back bothers me." I said, "Okay." I said,
• 26:38
  "Take one finger," and I do this all the time, I said, because patients will
• 26:41
  quickly say, "I hurt everywhere."
• 26:43
  Yes.
• 26:44
  Okay? And I said, "No, no, take one finger and point to right where it
• 26:47
  hurts the most."
• 26:48
  Yes.
• 26:48
  And he went right to his SI joint.
• 26:50
  Okay.
• 26:50
  And I said, "Is that what's causing the-"
• 26:52
  I was thinking you were going to say QL back here.
• 26:54
  No. No.
• 26:54
  But close.
• 26:55
  Yeah, it's close. And I said, "How long has that been bothering you?" He
• 26:58
  said, "I don't know, four or five years." "Did you injure yourself?" "No, just one
• 27:02
  day it started hurting, and that's why I use this cane." I said, "Look, this is
• 27:06
  what I recommend." So I did a SI joint injection on him, and he
• 27:10
  left that day from the office and not in pain.
• 27:13
  With prednisone and steroids in there?
• 27:14
  He had a little steroid in there. It was a methylprednisolone.
• 27:17
  Okay.
• 27:17
  And he left the office, and he's still not in pain. That was two months ago.
• 27:21
  Wow.
• 27:21
  And he's come back twice. I said, "Where's your cane?" So I'm trying to encourage
• 27:25
  him now to do physical therapy because he has a shuffle gait.
• 27:27
  He's not moving-
• 27:28
  Okay
• 27:28
  ... like he's supposed to be moving because he's not exercising.
• 27:30
  Yep.
• 27:30
  The lower extremities, once they go, that's not good.
• 27:33
  Yes. I do believe you can heal, though, especially with the peripheral nervous
• 27:37
  system. We have proof of it.
• 27:39
  Right.
• 27:39
  It doesn't mean that everybody will or that it's fast or that they're...
• 27:44
  If you're giving the right nutrients and the right stimulus-
• 27:46
  Oh, definitely. I agree with that
• 27:47
  ... you can do that.
• 27:47
  I thought you said, "I could heal." No, I can't heal nobody.
• 27:49
  You can totally heal them if they-
• 27:51
  No, but I can put people in a position to get
• 27:54
  healed.
• 27:55
  Yeah. Yeah.
• 27:55
  Yeah. So that's why I looked at you funny at the end.
• 27:56
  Yeah.
• 27:57
  Okay. No, but I've seen patients with neuropathies get
• 28:01
  better. I had a patient who had Bell's palsy, and so, like 90% improvement with
• 28:05
  ozone.
• 28:05
  Do you think it was steroid or what do you think?
• 28:07
  It was ozone. I did.
• 28:08
  Oh, amazing.
• 28:09
  She had had it for four years. I said, "Hey," I didn't charge her for it because I
• 28:13
  said, "I want to just see-"
• 28:14
  I love that
• 28:14
  ... she responded.
• 28:15
  Wow.
• 28:16
  And so I've seen different. I had a patient come to me.
• 28:19
  I don't know if she had partial foot drop or something.
• 28:22
  Something was wrong with her ankle and foot.
• 28:24
  Mm-hmm.
• 28:24
  And so when she came in, I just did ozone injection around her ankle and foot,
• 28:28
  and she walked out of there that day and hasn't worn that...
• 28:31
  She had like a metal boot on, and her husband said, "Hey,
• 28:35
  she's still walking fine."
• 28:36
  Oh my gosh.
• 28:37
  But what can reverse neuropathy? Is what? Oxygen.
• 28:41
  Oxygen.
• 28:41
  The tissue needs oxygen.
• 28:42
  Do you think a hyperbaric chamber-
• 28:43
  I learned that in anesthesia.
• 28:45
  Okay, so do you think there's an equivalency with the
• 28:48
  hyperbaric chamber and the ozone, or one's superior than the other? Or together?
• 28:52
  Well, I prefer ozone for two reasons over hyperbaric oxygen.
• 28:57
  One, hyperbaric oxygen is a lot more expensive.
• 28:59
  Mm-hmm.
• 29:00
  A lot more cumbersome.
• 29:01
  Mm-hmm.
• 29:01
  Especially when you have to get into deeper pressures.
• 29:03
  Yes.
• 29:04
  And then it causes free radical, oxygen free radicals.
• 29:07
  I want to talk about that.
• 29:08
  Ozone does the opposite.
• 29:09
  Yeah.
• 29:09
  It gets rid of oxygen free radicals.
• 29:12
  It makes a carbonated type of antioxidant-
• 29:17
  Wow
• 29:17
  ... that ozone does.
• 29:17
  Safer option.
• 29:18
  And it's cheaper, and it's quicker.
• 29:21
  Mm-hmm.
• 29:21
  Okay? And I had one particular patient that came to me, and
• 29:25
  I want to tell the story because I think the listeners will like this story.
• 29:28
  He had prostate cancer.
• 29:29
  Mm-hmm.
• 29:30
  And so he had a radical prostatectomy, but the surgeon
• 29:34
  wanted to do radiation therapy.
• 29:37
  Mm-hmm.
• 29:37
  And I always tell patients, "You don't want to radiate."
• 29:40
  Like, just to be safe. Just to be sure.
• 29:40
  Just to be... Let's make sure we got everything, right?
• 29:42
  Yeah. Don't leave bridges.
• 29:43
  So his bladder, he ended up getting terrible bladder cystitis,
• 29:46
  inflammation of the bladder.
• 29:47
  Mm-hmm.
• 29:48
  To the point where he was bleeding clots.
• 29:50
  Oh.
• 29:50
  Okay?
• 29:51
  Gosh.
• 29:51
  And so the surgeon sent him, the urologist sent him for hyperbaric
• 29:55
  chamber therapy. And he did it, I think, up to like 20
• 29:58
  treatments, and the pressure was getting pretty high.
• 30:00
  He started having eye changes, and they had to stop it.
• 30:04
  Wow.
• 30:04
  And
• 30:05
  it didn't clear him up. Okay? He still was having clots and inflammation of the
• 30:09
  bladder when the urologist was look.
• 30:11
  And so someone knew me and said, "Hey, maybe you should let Dr.
• 30:14
  B take a look." So he came to me, and I said, "Well, look, the only thing I have
• 30:18
  for you is IV ozone. It's really good for inflammation." So I did
• 30:22
  thatAnd probably about 15 treatments in,
• 30:26
  he decided to follow up with his urologist and the urologist put the scope in the
• 30:29
  bladder, through the urethra and said "Wow, this
• 30:33
  is clear. Wow, what are you doing?" He said, "I'm coming out.
• 30:37
  I don't want to do any damage here." And he didn't have any
• 30:41
  more problems until about six months later, he decided to back
• 30:45
  off the ozone, and he had one episode, he had a little bit of blood in his
• 30:49
  urine, and it bothered him, so he came back in.
• 30:52
  So now he's on a protocol like once every three weeks.
• 30:55
  Wow.
• 30:55
  But his urologist did a scope again and said it still is clear.
• 30:59
  Now, what was he facing? He was facing possibly what?
• 31:03
  A bag outside his body.
• 31:05
  Yep.
• 31:05
  Okay. Some kind of urostomy-type tubing or whatever.
• 31:08
  Awful.
• 31:09
  And the thing is though is that he avoided that, so he's very
• 31:13
  thankful. But I see him now, he only comes to me for that.
• 31:16
  Wow.
• 31:16
  And guess what? He looks so healthy because the ozone is getting rid of his
• 31:20
  inflammation. He's lost weight, his skin looks better,
• 31:24
  and I'm looking at him, I said-- And he doesn't appreciate that because I'm not his
• 31:27
  primary.
• 31:27
  Mm-hmm.
• 31:27
  And I'm telling him, I said, "Hey, it's doing other things
• 31:30
  than healing that bladder." So, that's what I love about functional medicine.
• 31:34
  But he's looking good, too.
• 31:34
  Oh, he's looking great.
• 31:35
  I love that.
• 31:37
  Man. Do you think that his bladder was thickened?
• 31:41
  Do you happen to know the thickness of the bladder wall?
• 31:44
  No, I don't know any of those measurements.
• 31:46
  I wonder, and I'm just thinking, so we're adding oxygen to
• 31:50
  the tissue, and that's keeping it alive.
• 31:52
  It's helping it to turn over and do what it's supposed to do.
• 31:55
  But is the missing element then the
• 31:58
  angiogenesis?
• 32:00
  Yeah. It was part of that, but also just the
• 32:04
  tissue needed to be healed.
• 32:05
  Yeah.
• 32:06
  You heard of Otto Warburg, right?
• 32:08
  No.
• 32:08
  He won a Nobel Prize, and he was pretty much put into obscurity
• 32:13
  because he won a Nobel Prize as a cure for cancer.
• 32:16
  So you should look him up, okay?
• 32:18
  Did he get murdered?
• 32:19
  No, I don't know what happened.
• 32:20
  Sorry, asking for a friend.
• 32:21
  But
• 32:24
  it's an interesting story. So that's where I get my views on
• 32:27
  melatonin from, from him.
• 32:29
  Oh.
• 32:29
  Okay?
• 32:30
  Okay.
• 32:30
  But anyway, so Otto Warburg, it's interesting, he said, "All tissue
• 32:34
  heals with oxygen."
• 32:35
  Mm-hmm. Yeah.
• 32:36
  He says, "When the tissue gets deprived of oxygen, that's where you get
• 32:39
  inflammation. That's where you get the disease."
• 32:41
  Fermentation-
• 32:41
  "That's where you get cancer"
• 32:42
  ... lacking oxygen. Yeah.
• 32:43
  So he's saying cancer doesn't like oxygen for a reason.
• 32:45
  Mm-hmm.
• 32:46
  You see? And so-
• 32:47
  Right
• 32:47
  ... that's why I'm a big proponent of ozone because it's that extra
• 32:51
  oxygen.
• 32:51
  Mm-hmm.
• 32:52
  Instead of being O2, it's O3. And people freak out, "Oh, ozone.
• 32:55
  Oh, it might hurt me," and no it doesn't.
• 32:57
  There is medical indication where ozone-
• 32:59
  Mm-hmm
• 32:59
  ... not any of them have been FDA approved.
• 33:01
  Mm-hmm.
• 33:02
  But unfortunately, a lot of the stuff we do in medicine is not FDA approved, I
• 33:05
  mean, in functional medicine.
• 33:07
  Yeah.
• 33:07
  But it's not illegal.
• 33:08
  Right.
• 33:08
  It's just that who's taking it through the FDA process?
• 33:11
  Right.
• 33:11
  And people are doing, what do you call it?
• 33:13
  Millions and millions.
• 33:14
  MAH IV ozone all over this country.
• 33:16
  What does the MAH stand for?
• 33:18
  It stands for major autohemotherapy.
• 33:20
  Okay.
• 33:20
  So, it's actually ozone, the oxygen goes right into the blood.
• 33:24
  Okay.
• 33:24
  So what I do when I do it, I start an IV at the patient, and then
• 33:29
  after we hydrate them up a little bit.
• 33:30
  Only reason why we hydrate them up, because we need the empty bag.
• 33:33
  Right.
• 33:33
  Okay?
• 33:34
  Okay.
• 33:34
  I don't throw the fluid away. And so we hydrate a little bit.
• 33:37
  People are so dehydrated.
• 33:38
  Yeah. Yeah, a lot of patients are dehydrated anyway.
• 33:40
  Yeah, it's pretty amazing.
• 33:40
  So we'll hydrate them, and then we drop the bag, 5cc bag.
• 33:44
  Blood goes into the bag, get about 2 or 300cc of blood, and then we
• 33:47
  enrich it with ozone.
• 33:49
  Okay.
• 33:49
  So, the way you kill a patient with ozone is actually
• 33:53
  inject directly into the vein. That's called an air embolus.
• 33:57
  Okay? So you don't do that.
• 33:58
  Oh my God.
• 33:59
  So patients freak out, "Ah, fatal embolism" because they read this stuff about it
• 34:03
  on Google and online-
• 34:04
  Yeah
• 34:04
  ... and stuff. No, that's not how you do it.
• 34:06
  You inject, insufflate the ozone directly into the bag of blood.
• 34:10
  Okay.
• 34:10
  And then the blood gets very rich. It looks like arterial blood.
• 34:13
  So this venous blood gets very red, almost as red as your jacket.
• 34:17
  It's a good red.
• 34:17
  And
• 34:20
  so you just give it back to the patient.
• 34:22
  Wow.
• 34:22
  It's amazing how the patients do.
• 34:26
  So what about for dementia? Do you have any dementia patients?
• 34:29
  Are you seeing any results?
• 34:31
  Not really. Because I don't see Medicare patients.
• 34:34
  Mm-hmm.
• 34:35
  A lot of those Medicare patients are, of course, over 65.
• 34:38
  Those are more at risk of dementia.
• 34:39
  Mm-hmm.
• 34:40
  I'm not saying younger people can't, but-
• 34:41
  Mm-hmm
• 34:42
  ... it's more often in people over 80.
• 34:44
  Mm-hmm.
• 34:44
  So I don't see a lot. I do have a couple of patients that are dealing with early
• 34:48
  dementia.
• 34:48
  Mm-hmm.
• 34:49
  But it's been amazing some of the things I've done to slow it down.
• 34:52
  The NAD, the IV ozone, the hormone therapy,
• 34:55
  and some of them have gone to Amen Clinic. I know you know about the Amen Clinic.
• 34:59
  Mm-hmm.
• 35:00
  And, I've had people, the reports come back from
• 35:04
  the Amen Clinic, "Yes, what Dr. Bay's doing, keep that up.
• 35:06
  Keep doing that."
• 35:07
  I love it.
• 35:07
  You see. But no, the cognition, we follow the Mini-Mental, and-
• 35:11
  Mm-hmm
• 35:11
  ... they're not falling off very much.
• 35:13
  And-
• 35:13
  Yeah
• 35:13
  ... they've clearly been diagnosed by the neurologist of having-
• 35:16
  Yeah
• 35:16
  ... Alzheimer's. It's not me saying they don't have it.
• 35:18
  Right.
• 35:19
  It's me saying, "Okay, this is what you have."
• 35:21
  Right.
• 35:21
  "Let's try to optimize your health-
• 35:23
  Yes
• 35:23
  ... as much as we can."
• 35:25
  I follow that as well. So I'm not making those diagnoses.
• 35:28
  Mm-hmm.
• 35:28
  It's a specialist, and then patients come back.
• 35:31
  They get their imaging, they get a full workup-
• 35:33
  Yes
• 35:33
  ... with a specialist neurologist,
• 35:35
  neurosurgery, whatever is the case.
• 35:37
  Mm-hmm.
• 35:37
  And then they arrive back.
• 35:39
  Yes.
• 35:39
  And then from there, we collaborate.
• 35:42
  The premise of mitochondria being
• 35:47
  a mitochondrial-centric life-
• 35:50
  Mm-hmm. Yeah
• 35:51
  ... I kind of fall into that.
• 35:52
  Powerhouse of the cell.
• 35:52
  It just makes the most sense.
• 35:53
  It does.
• 35:54
  The point of life or the energy of life comes from
• 35:59
  what, right? So if something is allowing life to
• 36:03
  happen, so there is NAD coming out of it, right?
• 36:07
  Mm-hmm.
• 36:07
  That's like the money of the cell.
• 36:09
  Mm-hmm.
• 36:09
  And then where does that come from?
• 36:12
  Well, that comes from a very healthy mitochondria, which is an organelle,
• 36:16
  and I know you know this-
• 36:17
  Yes
• 36:17
  ... inside of a cell. So it takes a lot of
• 36:20
  enzymes for this small structure
• 36:24
  to work.
• 36:25
  Yes.
• 36:26
  And it's profound, the shape changes if you have
• 36:30
  even a plant in the room or no plants.
• 36:32
  Yes.
• 36:32
  Or exercise, no exercise. Stress, no stress.
• 36:36
  Like-age or a youthful one. So the
• 36:39
  amount of like actual money coming out like an ATM
• 36:42
  Yes.
• 36:44
  It also, in this context, NAD is so much
• 36:47
  less.
• 36:48
  Yes. The mitochondria is critical.
• 36:50
  In fact, that's what I'm focusing on on my next book I plan to write.
• 36:53
  Yes.
• 36:55
  Because if you think about it, people are fatigued.
• 36:58
  The average person is-
• 36:59
  They're so tired
• 36:59
  ... fatigued. And the more inflamed we are, the more fatigue they have.
• 37:02
  Yes.
• 37:03
  And as you're dealing with inflammation, the fatigue goes
• 37:07
  away.
• 37:07
  Yes.
• 37:07
  And so I love it, and I know you've experienced this too.
• 37:11
  Patients come in with a list of issues, right?
• 37:14
  And in your mind, you're saying, "They're all inflammatory." They're all
• 37:16
  inflammatory.
• 37:17
  Same. Yes.
• 37:17
  And so you say, "Okay, I know you've had that for a long time.
• 37:20
  I know you're dealing with that."
• 37:21
  Yeah.
• 37:21
  "I know you take these meds, but what we're going to focus on is this."
• 37:24
  Yes.
• 37:24
  And it takes a few visits for them to understand, but really they-
• 37:28
  Yeah
• 37:28
  ... they dial into it when they start feeling better.
• 37:32
  Yes.
• 37:33
  When they start getting off meds.
• 37:35
  Yes.
• 37:35
  When they start looking better. In fact, one of my staff, she's probably going to
• 37:38
  kill me for telling her story, but she went out-
• 37:40
  So then you should say it
• 37:40
  ... with a girlfriend of hers. Yeah. Yeah, definitely say it.
• 37:43
  But this is good on her part. She went out with one of her girlfriends.
• 37:45
  She's 30 and her friend is 31. And
• 37:49
  someone said, "Is that your mom?" That's my
• 37:53
  employee was the lady she with her mom.
• 37:55
  She said, "No," because that's how much healthy she looks
• 37:59
  because she's been at my office about eight months.
• 38:01
  She's listening to everything I'm saying.
• 38:03
  Mm-hmm.
• 38:03
  And she needed some... Well, I don't want to violate HIPAA, but she needed
• 38:07
  different things.
• 38:07
  Mm-hmm.
• 38:08
  And she's done those things.
• 38:09
  Yeah.
• 38:10
  And she's just, her hair is growing, she's fabulous and looking so much
• 38:13
  better, and it's because of the proper nutrition and the
• 38:17
  sleep and the minerals and the vitamins that she's doing.
• 38:20
  Yes.
• 38:21
  And then they happen to go out to, I think she said they went to some
• 38:24
  restaurant, and they ordered a drink, and they carded her.
• 38:28
  So you can imagine how she felt.
• 38:30
  That's so cute.
• 38:31
  And you with your girlfriend.
• 38:32
  I wish she posted that moment.
• 38:33
  Yeah. And so she really had a practical experience of
• 38:37
  what it means to practice functional medicine.
• 38:40
  Mm-hmm.
• 38:40
  Because what functional medicine really mean, I tell patients, say, "What's that?"
• 38:43
  It's just meaning returning the body to its normal function.
• 38:46
  Yes.
• 38:47
  And what is illness and disease? Dysfunction.
• 38:49
  Dysfunction.
• 38:50
  So we want to be functional doctors, not dysfunctional doctors.
• 38:53
  I don't want to be a dysfunctional doctor.
• 38:55
  And really, we're just zooming in to different mechanisms.
• 38:59
  And they'll start calling those other doctors dysfunctional doctors.
• 39:01
  You guys are dysfunctional.
• 39:03
  Dysfunctional doctors.
• 39:04
  You're dysfunctional.
• 39:06
  I used to be dysfunctional.
• 39:08
  Now you're functional. Okay.
• 39:10
  No, that's just clickbait now.
• 39:11
  Yes, it is.
• 39:14
  We should do a video like that, Dysfunctional Doctors.
• 39:16
  Yes.
• 39:18
  Oh, yeah. So
• 39:20
  I forgot what I was saying.
• 39:21
  It's okay.
• 39:21
  I was just so excited about how functional
• 39:25
  medicine really... Okay, so it's just really about taking what we learned in, say,
• 39:28
  biochemistry, and we're like, hey-
• 39:30
  Yes. Oh, yes
• 39:31
  ... when you
• 39:33
  eat something, your body needs to have the right pH to
• 39:37
  break it down-
• 39:38
  Yeah
• 39:38
  ... to use it. What are the knives of the food?
• 39:41
  Well, pepsin.
• 39:42
  Mm.
• 39:42
  You need all the lipase, lactase.
• 39:45
  Yes.
• 39:45
  You need all the ases.
• 39:46
  Yes.
• 39:46
  And if you don't have the ases, A-S-E, the enzymes-
• 39:50
  Yeah
• 39:50
  ... then you are not going to cut food up.
• 39:53
  Yeah.
• 39:53
  You can't absorb it. It's too big.
• 39:55
  Yes.
• 39:55
  So that's so simple.
• 39:56
  Yes.
• 39:56
  Right?
• 39:57
  I was a chemistry major in college, and now that I'm doing functional medicine,
• 40:01
  guess what I wish I would've done? Biochemistry.
• 40:03
  Isn't that so funny?
• 40:03
  Because really it's at the core-
• 40:06
  I love biochemistry. Yeah
• 40:06
  ... of all this. And I enjoyed biochemistry, but I enjoyed-
• 40:09
  Yeah
• 40:09
  ... chemistry, too.
• 40:10
  Yeah.
• 40:10
  I went to college to be a chemist, okay?
• 40:14
  And so-
• 40:15
  Wow
• 40:15
  ... in the middle of my...
• 40:18
  When I was going to college, I worked at Dow Chemical in that
• 40:21
  summer, and I said, "No." I was at a lab all the time.
• 40:24
  It was boring, all them toxic fumes.
• 40:27
  I said, "No." So I went back and I decided- ... to go to med school.
• 40:30
  It was the hood for you, right?
• 40:32
  The hood.
• 40:33
  It was the hood for me.
• 40:33
  Left the hood and got into another hood.
• 40:38
  That's the chemical space that you work in, and it's like, it's just
• 40:41
  fumes. You're just breathing fumes.
• 40:43
  Fumes. Benzene and stuff.
• 40:44
  Smells horrible.
• 40:45
  And what do you know as a sophomore going to your junior year in college
• 40:49
  about the harmfulness of those chemicals? You don't.
• 40:51
  Yeah.
• 40:52
  They don't tell you in chemistry, this benzene is going to damage your liver.
• 40:57
  Or nonpaline. Oh, my gosh.
• 40:59
  Yeah.
• 40:59
  There's so much with that.
• 41:01
  Yeah.
• 41:01
  That's mothballs.
• 41:01
  And so I'm thinking about it now, like, I'm so glad I stopped doing chemistry.
• 41:05
  But anyway, so I had to take biochemistry to get into med school.
• 41:08
  It was one of the prerequisites.
• 41:10
  Yeah.
• 41:10
  And I just loved it that year, and I said, "Boy, this would've been an easier major
• 41:13
  than the chemistry stuff." Physical chemistry and P
• 41:16
  chem-
• 41:17
  Less smelly
• 41:17
  ... and all this other stuff.
• 41:20
  Oh, boy.
• 41:21
  Man. It's funny, I think back to all of the
• 41:25
  pre-med, all of those prerequisites, where like organic chemistry,
• 41:29
  bio,
• 41:31
  zoology, all of these things, O chem, organic, and I'm just like,
• 41:35
  why? Then I was mad. I'm like, "Why do I need this
• 41:39
  so I can be a well-rounded human?"
• 41:40
  Mm.
• 41:40
  I just want to be a doctor and actually just take care of patients.
• 41:43
  Do I need to know how to make a salt? Or if I put a salt
• 41:46
  into something, this pH, like this happens.
• 41:49
  Or
• 41:50
  how you break up different molecules, or what's the end cap so that you can't break
• 41:54
  something down.
• 41:55
  Mm-hmm.
• 41:55
  But now that I'm here-
• 41:57
  Mm
• 41:57
  ... it all comes together.
• 41:58
  It comes together. But a lot of it was hazing, though.
• 42:02
  Okay. No, that's really true. No.
• 42:03
  They were trying to weed people out.
• 42:06
  That's still true. No, that's very true.
• 42:06
  Because where I went to college, I went to Occidental College.
• 42:10
  Still true.
• 42:11
  And
• 42:12
  I would say probably 70% of the student body came in, the freshmen came
• 42:16
  in wanting to go to medical school. They were pre-med.
• 42:19
  And by the end of the first year, they got weeded out-
• 42:21
  They're like, "Forget it"
• 42:22
  ... with all that zoology and biology and chemistry, and I think a
• 42:26
  lot-
• 42:26
  Medicine
• 42:26
  ... has to do with that. And the other day I was looking.
• 42:29
  I happened, for some reason, looking at some numbers, they say
• 42:32
  750,000 people apply to medical school every year in the United States,
• 42:36
  and only 20,000 get in.So I did the numbers. That's 2.6%.
• 42:40
  Oh my gosh.
• 42:41
  So you're part of that 2.6%.
• 42:42
  Oh my God. Hey, you know what, though?
• 42:44
  You actually got in.
• 42:45
  So I'll tell you, my path was very
• 42:48
  tortuous.
• 42:50
  Mm.
• 42:51
  I
• 42:53
  was married when I was 23. I started as an MRI tech, and
• 42:57
  I did a two-year program in radiology.
• 42:59
  So I did two years. So at age 21, I
• 43:03
  had a full-time job, and I was a professional in the workforce
• 43:07
  doing and existing, and I was like, "Okay, I'm too young to peak."
• 43:13
  And I love the medical field.
• 43:16
  Yes.
• 43:16
  It was very much inspired by the people that I worked with, just in
• 43:20
  radiology alone.
• 43:22
  Yeah.
• 43:22
  And by age 23, I was an MRI tech. I was an MRI
• 43:26
  tech as soon as I started post-X-ray, which is
• 43:28
  abnormal. But I did that, and then I
• 43:33
  had about six to seven, no, probably 10 years of MRI
• 43:37
  tech. But halfway through that,
• 43:39
  that's the point that I chose to become a doctor.
• 43:42
  And there were enough experiences where I'm like-
• 43:44
  So what age did you go to med school?
• 43:45
  Ah, gosh. I was probably-
• 43:47
  20? 26
• 43:49
  ... 26.
• 43:49
  26.
• 43:49
  Yes. But I had a five-
• 43:50
  That wasn't too delayed. I went at 22. So you're only four years behind me.
• 43:54
  Well, okay. The long part, though, I think, is I had a gap.
• 43:57
  So after I graduated med school-
• 43:59
  Mm
• 43:59
  ... which is 2015, then I applied to
• 44:03
  residency. And I went to a Caribbean school.
• 44:07
  I'm mediocre in my scores. Nobody's impressed.
• 44:10
  It's not what, like, it's going to-
• 44:11
  You're doing the best right now, functional medicine.
• 44:14
  You could be a top of the class, straight A student from Harvard.
• 44:17
  If you don't know functional medicine, it's a big difference.
• 44:21
  I-
• 44:21
  And I know you know that now
• 44:22
  ... right.
• 44:22
  Yeah.
• 44:23
  And it's so
• 44:25
  crazy to think because I knew I was smart-
• 44:26
  Yeah
• 44:26
  ... but I was just like, "I'm not trained to take tests like this."
• 44:30
  It's just a different just tidal.
• 44:31
  Those type A's questions are tough.
• 44:34
  They're weird.
• 44:34
  Yeah, they are. Is it A and C? Is it A, B, and C?
• 44:38
  They're all right.
• 44:38
  Is it D, or is it all of them?
• 44:40
  You think what I'm thinking.
• 44:42
  You think what I-
• 44:42
  Go ahead.
• 44:42
  And then you got to do that for what, two hours of all those
• 44:46
  questions? Your brain is fried.
• 44:48
  Depends on which test you're thinking of. Now it's two days long.
• 44:52
  And C almost is right.
• 44:53
  Oh my God. Awful.
• 44:55
  Aren't you glad you passed all that?
• 44:56
  Oh my God.
• 44:58
  So you
• 45:00
  go through all that. So residency, just that whole leap
• 45:04
  from post-graduate into it, it's just insane.
• 45:07
  And it's wildly expensive now.
• 45:09
  Oh, yes.
• 45:09
  I-
• 45:10
  Oh, it is?
• 45:10
  It's wildly expensive.
• 45:11
  To become a... In residency it is? Or you-
• 45:14
  So-
• 45:14
  ... talking about med school
• 45:15
  ... so you have to apply, I don't know if it was this way for you, but you have to
• 45:17
  apply through a central application-
• 45:21
  Yes
• 45:21
  ... database. I think it's called AMCAS.
• 45:23
  Yeah.
• 45:23
  And so you put into that. And so for family medicine, you
• 45:28
  spray and pray if you're a Caribbean grad.
• 45:30
  Yeah.
• 45:30
  So I applied to hundreds of programs, and
• 45:35
  that's very expensive. And then I put in a few for internal
• 45:39
  medicine, too. So there was one year, it was probably $30,000 for that application.
• 45:42
  So this is against residency, to match.
• 45:44
  Yes, for the match.
• 45:46
  Oh. I don't even want to tell you how I matched. The system was totally different.
• 45:50
  One, there was more residencies training spots than
• 45:53
  applicants.
• 45:54
  Wow.
• 45:55
  That's the first thing. Okay?
• 45:57
  Wow. That's crazy.
• 45:57
  And for me, I never even really went through the match.
• 46:00
  That's crazy to-
• 46:01
  What happened for me-
• 46:03
  ... not struggle
• 46:04
  ... I went, I did an internship. I did
• 46:06
  an elective rotation at Howard University in
• 46:10
  DC.
• 46:11
  Mm-hmm.
• 46:11
  And when I was there-
• 46:13
  Go Howard.
• 46:14
  When I was there, there was a couple doctors liked me, and so they said,
• 46:18
  "Hey, you want to come here and do your internship?" I said, "Yeah." And so they
• 46:22
  accepted me, and so that how that worked out.
• 46:25
  And then in residency, I did a anesthesia rotation at
• 46:28
  Harbor-UCLA.
• 46:29
  Mm-hmm.
• 46:29
  And I guess I impressed some of the professors there.
• 46:32
  And so I told them I wanted to come there, and so I didn't even really go through
• 46:35
  the match.
• 46:36
  Oh.
• 46:37
  So I knew where I was going.
• 46:39
  The level of
• 46:41
  just emotional highs and lows that you-
• 46:43
  Oh, yeah
• 46:44
  ... I-
• 46:44
  No, I've seen this much worse, though. I see people don't get residency spots.
• 46:48
  Yeah.
• 46:48
  So what happens there?
• 46:49
  That was me.
• 46:50
  Oh, ooh. That's tough.
• 46:52
  So, I applied three years total. The third time I applied,
• 46:56
  I got it, but really I would've applied five years in a row, but it was so
• 47:00
  expensive, I couldn't afford it. So I applied, and this is meaning I
• 47:04
  maxed out my credit cards. When I say I tried, my family
• 47:08
  couldn't help me. Anybody I knew and loved, they're like,
• 47:12
  "We believe in you."
• 47:13
  So you have a passion. I see why you're so passionate about medicine.
• 47:16
  I struggled.
• 47:16
  Because you really worked hard to get in there.
• 47:19
  I struggled. I was like, "I'm too far deep to go that way."
• 47:22
  Yeah. I understand it.
• 47:24
  There's no exit.
• 47:26
  Because I did not want my story to be,
• 47:29
  no matter what age in the future,
• 47:33
  "Oh, I would've been a doctor, but..."
• 47:36
  But after all that, you still look young. Baby, I'm getting so old.
• 47:39
  You're like 32 years old.
• 47:41
  I'm taking it backwards.
• 47:41
  So here I am sitting you. You're talking about you went through all that, and I
• 47:45
  can only say, "Wow, how'd she do all that and she only is 32?"
• 47:48
  I feel like an 80-year-old man sometimes in wisdom.
• 47:53
  You might
• 47:54
  think like an 80-year-old, but you don't feel like one.
• 47:57
  Okay.
• 47:58
  Because functional medicine, I think you probably, just like me, you probably do a
• 48:01
  lot of stuff for yourself, don't you?
• 48:03
  I-
• 48:03
  You can't help it
• 48:04
  ... a lot.
• 48:04
  And in fact, it's easier to promote it to patients when you're doing it.
• 48:08
  Yes.
• 48:08
  Like I say, "Hey, I've been doing this, and this is why."
• 48:10
  Yes.
• 48:10
  And then I show them why they need to do it themselves.
• 48:13
  Yes.
• 48:13
  And
• 48:15
  because I think it's a lot more credibility.
• 48:16
  In fact, when we go to conferences, what they're always saying, the functional
• 48:19
  medicine doctors, "Hey, I've been doing this.
• 48:21
  This is why I'm doing it."
• 48:21
  We all look good.
• 48:22
  Yes.
• 48:23
  And it's not-
• 48:24
  Oh yeah, they do
• 48:24
  ... not just filler. It's not just synthetic. That's the funnest.
• 48:27
  Yeah.
• 48:27
  That's the most fun part of the whole thing.
• 48:29
  Yeah. I went to a conference down in Pasadena this past weekend.
• 48:33
  Uh-huh.
• 48:33
  It was a wellness conference, functional medicine, and everybody looked healthy.
• 48:37
  It's just amazing. Where do all these people come from?
• 48:38
  Glowy skin.
• 48:39
  It's like models in here and stuff like that.
• 48:40
  Yeah.
• 48:41
  But it's because the same thing at A4M as you know.
• 48:44
  Yeah.
• 48:44
  You see a lot of healthy looking people, so.It's almost embarrassing if you
• 48:48
  say you're a functional medicine doctor and you don't look the part.
• 48:51
  I know.
• 48:51
  You look sick and old and tired.
• 48:53
  Did you just start?
• 48:54
  Did you just start? Yeah, because when I just started-
• 48:56
  I feel like that's insulting
• 48:56
  ... I was in flame.
• 48:58
  Me too. I did not start like this peppy.
• 49:01
  Yeah. The skin glowing, the hair's shiny.
• 49:06
  You're right. I never thought about that.
• 49:07
  Because I walk around, Apron, sometimes I say, "Well, boy, he needs to
• 49:11
  work on himself." Maybe just start me.
• 49:13
  Yeah.
• 49:13
  I never thought that.
• 49:15
  I'm going to ask somebody that. Did you just start?
• 49:18
  What, what-
• 49:19
  Oh, boy. That's funny.
• 49:20
  Yeah. How many years?
• 49:22
  Have you done any fellowship training courses yet?
• 49:24
  Yeah.
• 49:25
  Yeah.
• 49:25
  It's just crazy the difference. And like performance too,
• 49:29
  like how long you can last with something.
• 49:31
  Oh, yeah.
• 49:31
  Do you wake up feeling good?
• 49:34
  Are you able to keep your cognitive focus for a prolonged amount of time
• 49:38
  or are you hitting crashes?
• 49:40
  Yes.
• 49:41
  Yeah.
• 49:41
  And I'm working out with a trainer now, and he's now getting me to do certain
• 49:45
  things that I didn't know I couldn't do.
• 49:48
  Oh, okay.
• 49:48
  He's trying to get me to do certain stretches or certain things, and I'm getting
• 49:52
  better at it. And one thing I do know for certain, when you get to a certain age,
• 49:55
  your legs go.
• 49:57
  Yeah.
• 49:57
  They get weak. And so he's really working on that.
• 49:59
  And I got compliments here and there of people saying, "Oh, I can see it.
• 50:03
  You're starting to... You look better across the chest and arms."
• 50:05
  You were just hiding your arm. I was like- ...
• 50:07
  "Okay."
• 50:09
  And I was like, "Okay."
• 50:10
  And I never had any definition all those years.
• 50:13
  You looked hung.
• 50:14
  And so it's good. So even at 67, you can still get better in
• 50:18
  functional medicine.
• 50:19
  Totally.
• 50:19
  Which is great.
• 50:20
  Yeah.
• 50:21
  Totally.
• 50:21
  Age is literally just a number. There's so much, and when it
• 50:25
  comes to proving on the inside that you're making change-
• 50:29
  Totally
• 50:29
  ... and using those biomarkers,
• 50:31
  I think unless you do those tests, it's hard to really even
• 50:36
  picture what it is. It sounds a little like foo-foo.
• 50:38
  Mm-hmm.
• 50:38
  But I mean, Harvard made it, so laugh at Harvard, don't laugh at me.
• 50:41
  I didn't make it up.
• 50:43
  Yeah. I have a scan that I use on patients.
• 50:45
  They said, "How does this work?" I said, "I'm not a bioengineer." I said, "But it's
• 50:49
  like, how did the blood pressure machine work?"
• 50:50
  The gods of medicine.
• 50:51
  How did the anesthesia machine work? I don't know.
• 50:54
  All I know is that I know how to use it.
• 50:56
  Yeah.
• 50:57
  I don't even know how my car works, okay? It starts when I drive.
• 51:00
  Totally agree.
• 51:01
  But
• 51:02
  can you actually use it to help people to get well?
• 51:06
  Yes.
• 51:06
  That's the important thing.
• 51:07
  Yeah.
• 51:07
  And all the equipment I have in my office is all used for the
• 51:11
  betterment of patients.
• 51:12
  Yep.
• 51:12
  And so that's what I focus on. And one of the things that I find is real
• 51:15
  interesting is that I always tell patients that we need to get baseline
• 51:19
  testing done.
• 51:20
  Yes.
• 51:21
  And I had one patient, it was probably, I should say a couple of years ago, because
• 51:24
  I don't want the person to figure out who it is, but she came to me, and
• 51:28
  she wanted emergency wellness. There's no such thing.
• 51:32
  She couldn't sleep.
• 51:33
  Emergency wellness?
• 51:34
  Yeah, she couldn't sleep. She was sleeping two hours a night.
• 51:37
  Oh, my gosh.
• 51:37
  And she had been to her traditional doctors, actually, a couple of doctors.
• 51:41
  They had her on all these different meds.
• 51:43
  Mm.
• 51:43
  Trazodone, Ambien. She said, "Give me something." I said, "You're already on all
• 51:47
  this stuff.
• 51:48
  One more drug might kill you."
• 51:50
  Send an elf.
• 51:50
  Yeah. And so I told her, I said, "Look, we're going to have to go through
• 51:54
  the process. Continue to see your doctors." I said, "The main thing,
• 51:58
  you don't have sleep apnea, right?" So we went through a couple of things.
• 52:01
  Mm-hmm.
• 52:03
  But anyway, so by the time I worked her up and finally was able to do what I had to
• 52:06
  do and got her hormones balanced, she's sleeping like a baby now.
• 52:10
  She said, "Ah."
• 52:10
  Amazing.
• 52:11
  And her sister's come to me because she's sleeping.
• 52:14
  Yeah.
• 52:14
  And that's the thing. When patients get well, it's a great marketing tool.
• 52:17
  Oh, the whole family?
• 52:18
  It's an advertisement.
• 52:19
  Yes.
• 52:19
  Okay.
• 52:20
  Yes. I don't do any marketing, do you?
• 52:24
  Not really.
• 52:24
  It's okay if so. You can.
• 52:24
  It's probably-
• 52:25
  I just assumed you didn't
• 52:26
  ... social media, if you can call that.
• 52:27
  But no, I don't-
• 52:28
  Okay. I assumed you didn't
• 52:28
  ... advertise other than that. No.
• 52:29
  Yeah.
• 52:30
  I tried a couple of times. I tried when I first did shockwave therapy.
• 52:34
  You know shockwave therapy?
• 52:35
  I do.
• 52:35
  The GainsWave.
• 52:36
  Uh-huh.
• 52:38
  But
• 52:39
  the commercial was very good. It was on TV and the radio.
• 52:43
  And it was doing really well until the pandemic hit.
• 52:46
  Oh.
• 52:46
  Then no one would come to the office.
• 52:49
  Wear your mask. Here are your shock waves.
• 52:52
  Finally getting great results, and then all of a sudden, COVID wiped that
• 52:55
  out.
• 52:56
  No.
• 52:56
  And I was getting up to, yeah, I was probably seeing, because my office is a small
• 53:00
  practice, I was probably doing about 15, 20 of them a month.
• 53:04
  Wow.
• 53:04
  From before advertising, maybe six or seven a month.
• 53:08
  And it was gaining traction.
• 53:09
  Wow.
• 53:10
  And we did the commercial about six weeks, and after that, the patients went, "Oh,
• 53:14
  Doc, I don't want to come in, COVID," and this and that.
• 53:16
  And I just said, "Okay, well." I never went back to advertising again.
• 53:20
  Do you still have the machine and everything?
• 53:22
  Yeah, but only about one or two of them.
• 53:23
  Can I borrow?
• 53:24
  Yeah.
• 53:24
  Can I borrow your shock wave?
• 53:26
  You can come get it.
• 53:27
  I'm not using it. I'll just-
• 53:30
  The thing is, though, is that I think it became more of a commodity.
• 53:33
  So many things, equipment that we have, become commoditized.
• 53:37
  Mm-hmm.
• 53:37
  Because what happens then, the public gets it.
• 53:39
  Now they start selling shockwave you can buy on Amazon.
• 53:42
  Mm-hmm.
• 53:42
  You can, all this other stuff. So
• 53:45
  I think part of that, that's what happened, and you started getting competitors
• 53:49
  to it. Because the name of the machine was GainsWave.
• 53:51
  Mm.
• 53:52
  And I can't call it GainsWave anymore, that I do GainsWave because I'm
• 53:56
  not part of their network.
• 53:57
  Right.
• 53:57
  When I was part of the network, I could say GainsWave-
• 53:59
  Yeah
• 53:59
  ... in my office advertisement.
• 54:01
  Sleep wave.
• 54:01
  But now I can say shockwave. Yeah, there you go. But shockwave works really well.
• 54:04
  Yeah.
• 54:04
  Even on
• 54:06
  tired, fatigued muscles that are spasm.
• 54:09
  I had one of my staff do the shockwave therapy on my lower back, and it felt
• 54:12
  great. It really works.
• 54:14
  What depth do you think it can be effective at?
• 54:17
  I probably can penetrate maybe two or three inches.
• 54:20
  Okay.
• 54:20
  I mean, with red light therapy, they say it can go down at two or three inches
• 54:24
  deep. I use red light therapy for my eyes and skin.
• 54:27
  That's a good idea.
• 54:28
  Yeah.
• 54:29
  I currently do, I don't know if you've heard of Recovery, but it's like you have
• 54:32
  light therapy-
• 54:33
  Okay
• 54:33
  ... the sauna, lymphatic massage, and then the cold
• 54:37
  plunge.
• 54:38
  Oh, okay.
• 54:38
  So I'm a newbie with the cold plunge.
• 54:41
  Oh, yeah.
• 54:41
  So I'm still-
• 54:41
  How'd it work?
• 54:42
  It is amazing.
• 54:43
  So why does it work, though?
• 54:45
  It surges-
• 54:46
  Blood flow
• 54:46
  Yeah
• 54:47
  It's all about blood flow.
• 54:48
  Blood flow.
• 54:48
  If you don't have blood, you're dead.
• 54:50
  I tell people all the time, "It's this healing power in the blood."
• 54:54
  It, yeah.
• 54:54
  So whether you heat it up first or you freeze it down, as long as you get the
• 54:58
  blood flow. What is the importance of ozone?
• 55:00
  Ozone is enriching the blood with oxygen.
• 55:04
  Mm-hmm.
• 55:04
  But again, it's blood flow. When we do PRP, well, it's based on blood
• 55:08
  flow.
• 55:09
  Mm-hmm.
• 55:09
  You see? And so
• 55:11
  that's what I tell people it heals, that that blood is very precious, so...
• 55:15
  Whenever you have extreme cold or extreme hot or heat-
• 55:19
  Mm-hmm. Yes
• 55:19
  ... and really it takes a lot less heat exposure as opposed
• 55:22
  to cold exposure, but you still get those heat
• 55:26
  shock proteins.
• 55:27
  Mm-hmm. Oh, yeah.
• 55:28
  And those are such weird things to read about.
• 55:32
  Mm-hmm.
• 55:33
  I feel like I learned just enough to know I have 100 more
• 55:36
  questions with it.
• 55:37
  Mm-hmm.
• 55:38
  So I'm like, okay, well, they're just weird, kind of like stem cells.
• 55:40
  Mm-hmm.
• 55:41
  What exactly
• 55:43
  is the point of them? But it does, I think the endpoint is that it's
• 55:47
  angiogenesis, so increased blood flow.
• 55:49
  Mm-hmm. Yes.
• 55:50
  Is there anything more to it than that or you think that's like-
• 55:53
  No, I mean, there's-
• 55:53
  ... bottom line?
• 55:54
  The thing that's so amazing about the body is that the more I learn, the more
• 55:58
  I realize what not only I don't know, but
• 56:02
  we as a society don't know.
• 56:04
  Yeah.
• 56:04
  Because we get patients where we can't help them. It's sad.
• 56:07
  It's so sad.
• 56:08
  Think about the people that you tried all the tools you have, and they
• 56:12
  still aren't helped.
• 56:13
  Right.
• 56:14
  But I think that most common issues that
• 56:17
  patients have, we do real well with.
• 56:19
  Yes.
• 56:20
  Like the diabetics, the hypertensives, the heart disease patients-
• 56:22
  Yes
• 56:22
  ... the patients with kidney problems, things like that.
• 56:25
  But when it comes to some of those end-stage things-
• 56:28
  Mm-hmm
• 56:28
  ... or if the patient's waited too long to come to us, that's where-
• 56:31
  Yes
• 56:31
  ... it gets really frustrating.
• 56:33
  Yeah. I totally agree.
• 56:35
  Yeah.
• 56:35
  Well, I don't want to take too much of your time.
• 56:38
  Is there anything else that you would like to share before we wrap up for
• 56:42
  today?
• 56:43
  No, not necessarily anything in particular, but just be easy on me at that panel
• 56:47
  discussion.
• 56:48
  Oh my gosh, you think I'm going to shred?
• 56:50
  I think you'll do great.
• 56:50
  I am so positive and supportive.
• 56:52
  No, you are. No, you are. That's why I wanted to do a little test run on this
• 56:55
  podcast.
• 56:56
  I would piggyback off anything that you said-
• 56:58
  No
• 56:58
  ... in a very supportive way.
• 57:00
  No, I think you're going to do great.
• 57:01
  I think we're both going to do great, and I'm actually looking forward to it.
• 57:04
  Okay.
• 57:04
  I'm actually glad this year that they're going to add on
• 57:08
  a functional medicine panel.
• 57:10
  Me too.
• 57:11
  They call it the hormone panel-
• 57:12
  Yeah
• 57:12
  ... but I look at it as the functional medicine panel.
• 57:14
  They don't even know.
• 57:15
  Yeah, they don't even know.
• 57:19
  And that's why I kind of said-
• 57:20
  That's the best part
• 57:20
  ... that's what I kind of said. I said, "Well, if someone makes a comment, can we
• 57:23
  make a comment?"
• 57:24
  Yeah.
• 57:24
  And they're kind of like, "Well, no, that's going to be their comment." It's like,
• 57:28
  I might want to-
• 57:29
  You know what?
• 57:29
  ... piggyback on something.
• 57:30
  You're even nicer than me because I wouldn't even ask.
• 57:33
  I would just grab the mic, "Okay, so
• 57:36
  my comment is..."
• 57:39
  And I really think it really should be longer than an hour.
• 57:42
  And-
• 57:43
  I think it will be longer than an hour
• 57:44
  ... yeah. And I think that one of the things is that I think is
• 57:48
  interesting is that it doesn't take away from traditional medicine.
• 57:52
  What we do in functional-
• 57:53
  Yep
• 57:53
  ... we don't take away from it because we still need those doctors.
• 57:57
  Mm-hmm.
• 57:57
  And the vast majority of people will not pursue or seek out functional
• 58:01
  medicine.
• 58:02
  Yeah.
• 58:02
  So it's those patients who want to be well seek us out.
• 58:06
  Yes.
• 58:06
  And everybody doesn't either understand what wellness is or
• 58:10
  functional medicine-
• 58:11
  Right
• 58:11
  ... or they don't know it exists.
• 58:13
  Yes.
• 58:14
  And so those who find us, it's frustrating.
• 58:16
  I've had patients over the years, I know we're trying to wrap this up, but I will
• 58:19
  end with this.
• 58:19
  Oh, you're fine.
• 58:21
  That I've had patients for many years say, "Where have you been?
• 58:25
  I've been looking for a doctor like you for 20 years, 30 years."
• 58:27
  I know.
• 58:28
  And so you say, "Well, I'm here now." Because you really can't say anything.
• 58:32
  And some of the things they've been dealing with, you now have answers for.
• 58:35
  Yes.
• 58:36
  And they say, "I've been asking people this." I had a patient not
• 58:40
  too long ago say that
• 58:42
  he had been suffering with his lungs and couldn't breathe and using his inhalers,
• 58:46
  and I told him it's his sinuses. His pulmonologist had been seeing him for 20
• 58:48
  years, never even mentioned that to him.
• 58:50
  He went and had nasal balloon sinuplasty, and guess what
• 58:54
  happened? He's breathing. He don't even need that.
• 58:56
  Oh, wow.
• 58:56
  He said, "I want to go back and punch that doctor."
• 59:00
  And I said, "Man."
• 59:01
  It's not his fault. He just doesn't know.
• 59:03
  He just doesn't know.
• 59:04
  It's not normal to know these things.
• 59:06
  And it's amazing. But if you just say, "Why is this guy can't breathe?"
• 59:10
  Yeah.
• 59:10
  There's a differential diagnosis.
• 59:12
  You think structurally that would... Did anybody look in there?
• 59:16
  Probably not.
• 59:20
  You're like-
• 59:21
  For me, it's detectable. I love functional medicine because-
• 59:24
  I do too
• 59:24
  ... you have a chance to like-
• 59:25
  Love it
• 59:26
  ... try to figure, and especially if they've been suffering for years with this,
• 59:30
  you say, "I can't do any worse." I can't do any
• 59:33
  worse. I mean, either I'm going to help them or I won't.
• 59:36
  Yeah.
• 59:36
  Nobody's helping.
• 59:37
  The bar is already low.
• 59:39
  It's f*****g low.
• 59:39
  Everyone has failed you. Everyone.
• 59:40
  Everybody's failed you.
• 59:41
  Everybody.
• 59:42
  So if I can help you a little bit, I've succeeded, so-
• 59:44
  Yeah
• 59:45
  ... and a lot of time you do a lot. But anyway, I know you want to wrap it up, Doc.
• 59:48
  I really appreciate you interviewing me today.
• 59:50
  No, thank you so much. And this is not going to feel-
• 59:52
  Was it an interview or was it a collaboration?
• 59:54
  I think it was more of a collaboration.
• 59:55
  No, collaboration. I'm definitely not interviewing you.
• 59:59
  Yeah. Yeah.
• 59:59
  Thank you so much, and thank you guys for joining us.
• 1:00:01
  Yes.
• 1:00:01
  Until next time.