YouTube Livestream Q&A Transcript, April 14, 2026

Question
“Can taking soy isoflavones cause weight gain?”  [0:02:17]

Answer
Soy isoflavones: can they cause weight gain? Well, the answer is a simple yes, but now the question is why, and that's where all the difficulty comes in. Soy is being marketed as an industrialized plant crop. Mega farms are making it. It is very much genetically modified. It's exposed to not only genetic modification but also to weed killers, glyphosate, and being harvested with a spray of glyphosate. So, it could say that it's organic, but it doesn't have to disclose to you that it used glyphosate as a drying agent right before harvest. So, it's a very deceitful crop in the United States. These toxins are poison to the human body, these genetic modifiers, and they will mess with our own biochemical functions, and that will create irritation. Any type of toxin to the human body will generate an inflammatory injury response that is associated with weight gain because we tend to put toxins into fat, or we put our stressor products into fat in our tissue to try to minimize their impact on our lives. 

There's another explanation. Soy has plant oils in it, omega-3, omega-6, and it's so processed that it hydrogenates the oil in the omega-6, turning the essential fatty acid linoleic acid into an oxidized linoleic acid, hydrogenated, which is a toxin. So, the processed linoleic acid in soy is another reason why they think that this is associated with gaining weight. But you know they hydrogenate all the linoleic acid that's in most of the plant foods because we have to have linoleic acid, it's essential to our health. So, all this processed food oxidizes the linoleic acid double bonds, and it makes it inflammatory, which makes all the fast food also inflammatory. So, yes, that's the answer to that question, so I don't recommend soy. Usually, women will take it, especially if they're perimenopausal or menopausal and they don't want to be on bioidentical human estradiol, or they have a history of breast cancer, and their doctor told them not to use estradiol. Isoflavones have an estrogen-mimicking type of mediator to our estrogen receptors and quiet down some of our hot flashes and night sweats, and these menopausal symptoms. So, women have used soy for many, many years, and black cohosh for that very reason. But in general, it's been so marketed and industrialized, it's more damaging than the original natural sources that used to be so maybe 40 to 50 years ago. It's really an overprocess; it's not soy anymore, you know, after they process it and genetically modify it, and they dump chemical weed pesticides on it like glyphosate. So, I wouldn't use it. 

Question
“There are no functional medicine doctors in my area. I'm looking for guidance with hormone replacement therapy. My PCP and OB/GYN both refuse to prescribe it due to my advanced age and history of congestive heart failure.”  [0:06:27]

Answer
Well, that's too bad. I disagree that they would not give it to you. I have women who are triple figures past their 100th birthday still using their natural hormone replacement therapy. And I don't know how to help you. I don't know where you live. If you go to a website called ACAM, www.ACAM.org, that's the American College for the Advancement of Medicine. These are doctors who go for additional functional medicine studies, and there they try to learn about chat therapy and many other natural things. It was the original main and very first doctor assembly to study biochemistry and natural functional medicines. So, they go to ACAM, and they get this training, and they tend to be also very much involved in even natural hormones or other natural therapies. So, that's what we go towards. 

I have Dr. Esther Lamb, our physician assistant, here in just a moment. She's going to join me, but she's not going to come behind the screen. Okay. All right. So, the question was this poor lady has an older age, and her primary doctor and her OB/GYN refused to give her natural hormones, and she is asking what she can do due to her advanced age, and she does have congestive heart failure. 

Well, I mean, there are many issues that we would want to talk about with heart failure. You know, testosterone hormone replacement therapy is very beneficial for heart failure. Your heart is a muscle, so that's one of the very first natural hormones that I would consider. The other thing is, what is the cause? Most heart failure is idiopathic in the United States, and we would look at things that would aggravate the heart's pumping action. We would want to know your hydration, what kind of water you're drinking, how much sugar or high fructose corn syrup, starch, fruit sugars are in your diet, what exercise are you doing, what's your home life situation, what kind of support do you have, is there someone that could take you to physical therapy and work on your muscle mass and do some stationary work on you. I mean, we would want to do all those things. Maybe give you testosterone, give you Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), which is your precursor to your testosterone, and that tends to help cardiac contractility. In the hands of an experienced chelating physician, depending on how “significant” the congestive heart failure is. By giving you EDTA chelation with the methylated B, the multiminerals, and the vitamin C, we can find an anti-inflammatory effect, reduced inflammation, and better flow dynamics. In fact, it acts as a bit of an anti-coagulant with the dilation component of EDTA chelation. So, chelation therapy might be a choice to give. We can give low-dose amounts tailored to you if you have heart failure. 

Estradiol is an inotrope. It brings vitality. It brings an even psycho-emotional sense of well-being. It's an immune enhancer. It's a bone builder. It helps you have nice, deep sleep as well. So, there are many reasons to look at natural hormones. I would ask you to buy the book Estrogen Matters by Dr. Bluming. There's also a YouTube, and the YouTube you could go to is ‘FDA Expert Panel on Menopause,’ and that was done in August of 2025, and there you're going to get the input of more open-minded doctors. Now, I listened to the whole thing¸ it's about two hours long, and some of them are acting kind of wishy-washy, saying, you know, I don't know if I would give hormones to anyone, you know, let's say older than 65 or 70. They're not clear as to why, but I'm going to tell you why. They don't have experience. I have tons of experience with it. And since we're all going to die someday, the higher likelihood of the older you are, and then you start hormone replacement therapy, is your family going to say, "Oh, you know, grandma died at 81 because she started hormone replacement therapy at 79," you know, and argue a foolish case. So, a lot of doctors just wash their hands of it and don't give you the benefits that could be helpful. I started my mother on hormone replacement therapy after she had her stroke. I think she was 80 or 81 years old, and she woke up quite a bit and got more functional and involved. I was able to go out with her. She used to be a pianist, and we were able to go to the Newport Beach or South Coast Plaza performance arts building, where she could listen to the orchestras. It was a real blessing to give at least a year or two of my mother having some of this mental calmness, awareness, and vitality. 

So, I think that's the reason why, and they're worried about, as you get older, does estrogen thicken your blood or promote the risk for blood clots? You know what? Not drinking enough water promotes blood clots, and not all older people drink enough water. Being inactive and sitting around too long promotes blood clots, and many older people don't exercise enough, which promotes them. Not all older people don't eat enough steak and vegetables. They eat easy-to-digest puddings and yogurt and mashed potatoes and things like that, and that high sugar content promotes sticky blood and blood clots. So, don't give me this soft reason to say, "No, you don't use hormones because you're older." Just be a good doctor, talk to the family, and say, "If I give you these hormones, you have to get her up and walk every day. You have to give her water to drink. You have to give her systemic enzymes on an empty stomach to decrease inflammation in the body. You have to give her a low-carb diet rich in protein. If you do those things, then we start hormone replacement therapy." So, that's my answer to that. Check out ACAM. Maybe tell me what city or town you live in, and if by chance I know someone in the area who would be supportive of you. But I think www.ACAM.org is a good starting point. 

Question
“Dr. Rita, a friend in her early 50s, wanted to ask you how to reduce inflammation naturally.”  [0:14:50] 

Answer
Well, do the things I just mentioned. It's a lifestyle. Drink enough water every day. So, everyone who's my patient sees my bottles and my water, my water bottles behind me. You have to drink enough water. And the solution to pollution is dilution. You know, that's an old, old adage, 40 to 50 years ago, that I got as a young, young, young doctor in the 70s. The second thing, you’ve got to move. Inactivity makes the lymph and body stagnant. Plus, the muscles need to work through contraction, and the lymph nodes need to work through contraction. So, you have to exercise your body, and you have to have a routine. So, weightlifting is critical; it's the most critical. Then, secondarily, aerobic exercise on your off days from weight training. So, if you do weight training one day and you're off the next, do aerobics on that day and weight training the next day, so you have a good 24 hours of healing on your workout muscle days. Then, the third thing would be to take systemic enzymes. God gave us natural enzymes when we're young and little children. If you bruise yourself, that little bruise goes away. If you're 2 to 6 years old, it goes away in three to five days because you have such an active metabolism and so many enzymes. From around ages 6 to 10, it might take 7 to 8 or 10 days to go away. By the time you're a teenager, it might take 10 to 12 days, but in your 20s, it'll take two weeks. In your 30s, and on, it just gets longer and longer until you're 70 years old with bruises on you, and you see it on grandma and grandpa's forearms, and they just stay there forever. And that's because they're getting dried out, the circulation is going down. Their enzymes have diminished. The little Pac-Man enzymes that normally clean up sinus congestion, joint pain, bruises, anything, have been so diminished in production because their proteins, because they don't eat as much protein as they get older. The lining of their intestine doesn't work as well as when they were young to absorb the eaten protein. They make fewer digestive enzymes. So, when they're eating their meat, even when they're older, they can't chop it up well to absorb it. So, it's a pathway to our death. 

So, inflammation is what you want to fight, and you want to eat a low-carb diet because sticky sugars are inflammatory to the endothelial lining of every blood vessel. They make little microclots. They have fructose in it, and fructose really has a very hard time being metabolized. Some would argue that fructose is more like alcohol in its metabolism and is a toxin. So, a low-carb diet, drink enough water, exercise, take systemic enzymes on an empty stomach, and use digestive enzymes when you eat your food. So, there are two kinds of enzymes. And then you have to have a routine bedtime hygiene and morning hygiene. So, you have to have a bedtime, and you have to have an eating time, eating window, and you have to have a morning awakening routine. So, you need to get sunshine in your eyeballs without your glasses on outside the bright lumen. You know, it's like 100,000 lumens when you're outside compared to the couple thousand that are in the lights indoors. So, from 100,000 to 1,000 or 2,000 indoors, you can see the great stimulation of outdoor light in your eyeballs without your glasses on. And you have to get that every morning. So, those of you who walk your dog in the morning, good. Take your glasses off and go outside, even if it's overcast, because that light will get into your eyeballs better without your glasses on, and that'll benefit you. Have that routine every day of your life. If you don't get out with dog walking, get your own body out there and stand in the wet grass for five minutes and ground yourself, and let that light circadian talk through your optic receptors for light and get your circadian rhythm healthy, and that will help you to get a nighttime bedtime around 9 o’clock, so that you can go to sleep better. That will help your morning cortisol work more as a spike to wake you up rather than a slow burpee, with a longer impact throughout your morning. And what you want is the spike cortisol to wake you up, you don't want this long, prolonged cortisol. You want to stop eating. Especially if you're getting close to 60 years old, you want to stop eating mid-afternoon. You really should not eat past 3 or 4 o'clock in the afternoon at the latest because that will diminish your stomach emptying. If you eat at 5, 6, or 7 o'clock, it's not going to be empty. You're not going to have an empty stomach. And when the sun goes down, your stomach needs to be empty so your body can release repair factors. 

So, if you want to have inflammation, you have to have a morning hygiene, and you have to have an evening plan. You have to have enzymes, both digestive and systemic. You have to have an exercise program. You have to get sunshine in the morning. You have to eat a low-carb diet. You have to try to eat a higher-protein diet. And then there's the whole topic of other nutraceuticals. But that is how I would begin answering that question. 

Question
“What are the best tests you recommend to confirm cardiovascular health or disease?”  [0:21:25]

Answer
Seeing your doctor who knows you, seeing your doctor who looks at your lab and can ask you the question, are you exercising and how much? And you report, you know, I'm doing weightlifting three times a week, and I feel good doing it, and I can lift decent poundage on the machines, and I do well, and then I do my mile or two walk, and if there's a hill or an incline, I don't get short of breath. And you report to your doctor you're not eating late, you're drinking your water, you're taking your enzymes. And then they look at your lab, and they order a highly sensitive C reactive protein and you're under 3, or even best 1 or less, or you do the sedimentation rate in addition and you're under 10, and you have a normal blood count, and your chemistry panel shows a healthy kidney liver with a blood sugar of 85 or less. Your lipid panel shows a triglyceride level that is equal to or lower than your high-density lipoprotein. So, let's say your triglyceride level is 75 or 50, your exercise HDL cholesterol should be 75 or 50 also. And I don't really care what your total cholesterol or LDL is. And then if your blood pressure is good, your O2 saturation on the vitals is good, if your weight is decent, and you're reporting that you feel well even with exercise. Those are the things that I think are probably the most critical. 

Now, do you need to do a coronary artery calcium score CT of the chest? Do you need a stress test echocardiogram of your heart? Well, these are nice adjuncts. Do you have to have them? I think if you live with a doctor who knows you and you've always had a – I didn't mention your insulin. Your insulin has to be 4 or less fasting, and your hemoglobin A1C should be 5.2 or less. And if all those things are like that, I don't know if you need these higher test formats as well. But that's the most important thing. Having a doctor who knows you, who can ask you these healthy questions, they know you're working out, and whose labs reflect your healthy lifestyle. That is what is important to confirm cardiovascular health. 

Question
“What’s the ideal type of cookware to use? Would cast iron add too much iron to the diet? Thanks!”  [0:24:23]

Answer
Well, I have some cast iron that I do use on and off. I'm not afraid of cast iron. The best is, I think, either you get the Le Creuset, which is the heavy iron, you know, like a Dutch oven, and then I have the pan with it that has the enamel covering over it. It's the iron that has the enamel over it, stainless steel, or all stainless steel clad, I think, that are the best out there. Now, I don't know enough about titanium. I know there's new titanium panware out there that seems to also be very good. But please stay away from these Teflon-coated, fluorinated types of coverings that are non-stick. Those fluoride molecules are toxic, very toxic. So, that's the best I can offer you on that cookware. 

Question
“What are your thoughts on starting DHEA 20 mg cream before starting bioidentical hormone replacement therapy? I’m a 58-year-old woman.”  [0:25:48]

Answer
Well, I'm not against DHEA 20-mg cream, but I really have never used it because I never found it in the cream form in my 45 years of experience, 40 years of experience, to be absorbed well. Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) is a rather large molecule as opposed to estradiol or progesterone alone or testosterone. Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) is a bit bigger molecule. And so, for it to pass through the skin is a larger challenge, and then the carrier of the cream, I just don't necessarily think that's the best methodology. I think you can get a very good safe oral 20 mg, 10 mg, 25 mg, 50 mg DHEA, and I've always used it orally here with my patients for decades. So, I'm all in favor of Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) because it is the precursor for your testosterone, and with testosterone, you can have better muscle workouts with your weight training, which you must do. You have to do weight training to preserve your muscle mass as you age. And if you want to start DHEA before bioidentical hormone replacement, I don't know why you wouldn't use it altogether because you're losing it all at the same time. Why wouldn't you reintroduce it all at the same time? So, Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) starts falling off even before your progesterone ovulation falls off because it falls off with stress. It is also a precursor for your cortisol. So, I often see 20-year-olds with very low DHEA levels. So, no, I would take it in addition to your estradiol, your progesterone, and so forth. Yeah. So, I wouldn't say you have to use it before, but you could. 

Question
“A relative with scleroderma, who is a nurse, was told by her rheumatologist at UCLA to pray because there’s no cure. She did pray to Mary and went into remission. No diet/lifestyle changes.”  [0:28:14]

Answer
Scleroderma is really an autoimmune disease that makes the tissues tight, and it gives you a tight, you know, around the mouth and the skin and the fingers can get more pinpoint, and it is a slow, chronic autoimmune skin disease. That's why they call it scarring of the skin, scleroderma.

So I'm going to say, I've been treating scleroderma all my life, and we treat it with all the things I've just told you, but especially gut health protocol and EDTA chelation therapy to improve microcirculation to get to the tips of the fingers where it shows up and the skin area, and I've never not had a patient do well and really doesn't progress. So, with working on gut health, we would do a complete digestive stool analysis, and we would find out your blood type. We would look at your routine for your eating, your hygiene for morning activity, bedtime activity, your exercise, and your water consumption. We would look at getting your carbs down and making sure you're getting healthy proteins and enzymes in your body. Then we would layer on top of that if you're a blood type A, because this tends to happen more in blood type A than any other blood type, because A's don't digest well, and they get gut-related autoimmune diseases before anyone else. Then the next would be the O type bloods because they are very sensitive to the grains and the marketing of wheat-based crackers, cereals, you know, buns and bagels, and all these pastas with genetically modified foods, which can inflame the gut in the O type people. And so, we would look and find their blood type. We look at the inflammatory markers in their gut. We would look at giving them probiotics, digestive enzymes, and systemic enzymes. Then we would improve the microcirculation and get the B vitamins, vitamin C, and minerals in there. And then we would give them a rule to eat by a window, a certain amount of exercise, and then we would give them chelation therapy, you know, checkups to look for inflammatory markers, and I just never see them progress. That's how I would do it. But we give praise to God Almighty, who is the chief physician, our creator. And yes, He has every right to heal someone and answer their prayer, so I don't doubt that she is healed by our mighty God. 

Question
“Hi, Dr. E.! Is there a blood test to diagnose cellulitis?”  [0:32:01]

Answer
Well, not in particular. It's really when you look at the area on the body, and it'll look red-rufous in color. It'll feel hot and inflamed. And if you push it like this, it'll blanch. It'll have a white area in that, you know, where you push the blood out, and it'll be painful. So, heat, pain, color, and blanching are typical physical diagnostics of tissues that have irritation from some source, whether it's just you burnt it with your finger and no bacterial infection, you know, you get a burn. Like when I'm cooking, I'll get a line because I'm getting it out of the oven, and I'll get a zit there, and it'll be nice and red, that's called cellulitis localized from a second-degree burn. And if I put my finger on it for a split second, I'll go, ouch, and then it'll pale, and then the blood will flood right back in. Or if it's an infection, it'll develop over time, and you probably need antibiotics. Now, if you did a lab, you would see an elevated sedimentation rate. That's an inflammation marker because all the ‘itises’ mean inflammation, and sedimentation is an ‘it is’ or inflammation marker lab. So, sedimentation rate is what you would do. The other one is highly sensitive C-reactive protein. Then there are other esoteric ones like NF factor, as well as IL-1, IL-2, these interleukins, that can be done. But basically it's hs-CRP and sedimentation rates. So those are the things I would look at. And your lifestyle, if you take enzymes, water, exercise, good night's sleep, don't eat lake, low carb diet, rich in protein, you'll heal because you have to repair cell membranes with fat and protein, not fruits and vegetables. 

Question
“Besides the IV drip form of EDTA, do you recommend the Detoxamin suppositories? I found them online. Is it okay to purchase them? If so, what dosage?”  [0:34:21]

Answer
I used to work with the original makers of Detoxamin, and then I found out, apparently, that they were selling it online and people were getting it. And this is a drug. Detoxamin is an EDTA, a prescription medication licensed only to be dispensed by qualified licensed healthcare providers. So, when the FDA found out, the FBI came by, and I was a spokesperson for my research and use of Detoxamin, but I never sold it over-the-counter; it was only by my recommendation by prescription. And yes, I did have it here. So, the long and the short of it is, it apparently went overseas, and some other pharmacy person is making it. And yes, I suppose you could get it shipped internationally to you, but can I state that I know the quality of it anymore? If they're sneaking around those rules, what other rules are they sneaking around to make it? So, unfortunately, I don't endorse Detoxamin because I can't validate the sourcing anymore as I used to, and we had it made right here in this area, and I worked with my pharmacist to make it. 

The other thing is you could have your doctor order EDTA in a suppository, and usually they put it in cocoa butter or something like that. Now, that's not the best medium to put it in. What made Detoxamin special was that we were the original deliverers, I don't know, 30 years ago, 35 years ago. We came up with this liposomal transference so that when you put this up your butt, the rectum absorbs water. Well, if you had phospholipids, they are amphipathic, which means they love water and fat. And so, it would carry the EDTA through. And our suppositories in our pharmacokinetic studies showed it was the best delivery methodology ever devised in transrectal administration of any medication. And of course, I'm sure it upset the powers that be at the FDA and pharmaceuticals, so they sicced the FDA on us. And they did find someone selling it over the internet to someone somewhere, it certainly wasn't me, and they shut the whole thing down. And yet, it was the best delivery of EDTA. I worked on this because I didn't want to have people pay for an IV. Although IV is the best, it's the gold standard. But next to the gold standard was the transrectal unique carrier mechanism of the phospholipid matrix that we put the EDTA into, which created the greatest transrectal delivery of any prescribed medication ever discovered in medicine, and that was us, and I got that published. But of course, anything good, they have to eat up and destroy people and terrorize them. I was terrorized. You know, here I am working my butt off, and oh, oh, oh, you know, the FDA is coming, oh, you know. And I said, I'm just trying to help my people. Anyway, thank God I wasn't doing anything wrong. I was prescribing it as licensed. But you know, I don't know what to say. I can't endorse something I don't know about anymore. So, you have to make your own decision on that, okay. But yeah, that's the product I used, Detoxamin. I hope it's as good, but I don't know. 

Question
“Is it normal for women in menopause to very occasionally feel slight pain like menstrual cramps?”  [0:38:29]

Answer
Yeah. Yeah, I would say so. And I'm going to be 73 this summer. And so, I have a cycle every month, and yeah, I'll get a little cramp or PMS once in a while. So yeah, as long as it goes away, as long as you're seeing your doctor, as long as you can talk individually. Now, again, I am not practicing medicine over the internet. I don't know who you are, but I'm saying, in general, yes, this can be a normal thing. But no, I don't know you. So, if you are having issues or you do cycle post-menopausally like me, because I'm on progesterone only two weeks of every month, but I'm on my estradiol all the time. So, after I'm on my progesterone from the 1st through the 15th, I will always start having a little bit of a cycle, and then it should stop after I withdraw the progesterone and come to an end. If it doesn't, then that's abnormal, and I should see a doctor myself. So, you have to see your doctor, but in general, that can be well experienced like a little bit of menstrual cramps, yes, because you have a normal uterus. And what does a normal uterus do? It cramps to expel any little bit of lining that builds up that your estradiol gives you. And progesterone helps clean that out, and when you withdraw it, it makes it go away. 

Question
“Please tell us about parasites and how to get rid of them.”  [0:40:13]

Answer
I would say stop watching a lot of healthcare Instagram and TikTok statements about the terror of parasites being the cause of cancer and everything. It's just ridiculous. I have been practicing functional alternative complementary medicine for decades and decades and decades, and I have been part of the most detailed, complete stool analysis ever developed and available with complex analyses of the stool, and I've done it for so many decades on countless thousands of Americans, and it is rare, rare to find. Even Blastocystis hominis is very common to find in the human population, and I only see that maybe three times a year, and I do dozens and dozens of these complete stool analyses. Rarely, once every couple of three years, I'll get an Entamoeba histolytica, which is a type of parasite. No, we just don't see it, and it is extremely sensitive, and even polymerized chain PCR testing for it. We have to get off this kick that we're blaming cancer as a – Hulda Clark wrote the book back in the 70s about cancer as a parasitic disease. I did a doctorate in integrative medicine, and I was taught Enderlein’s theory of disease that organisms are pleomorphic, meaning they can show up in a spore form, or they can show up in a parasite form, or they can show up in a bacterial form, many different forms for an invasive-type pathogen. And I just don't see enough data ever, ever in all these decades. And you talk about someone who's been open-minded for decades and decades and decades, it is me. I'm the one who did another doctorate in integrative medicine, and I just haven't seen it. So, if you think you have parasites, you ask for a complete digestive stool analysis, and we'll do one, okay? And we'll calm you down and put you at rest on that, and then we'll know. But it is so so rare. Please get over this. Let's put the blame where it really is. You're eating too much sugar, starch, carb, fruit sugars, eating too late, inactive, not using enzymes, not drinking enough water, not getting enough sunshine, these kinds of things, okay, but let's not talk about that because that's too easy to fix, you know? So, that's how I feel about that. 

Question
“Hi Dr E, I'm 60, very active, Ketovore for 2 years, on bioidentical HRT, NP Thyroid. Overall, all the labs are awesome. I've had chronically low ferritin levels all my life - under 20. Experienced over the years with hair loss and low energy, feeling like not enough air when on my runs. Symptoms are better since carnivore, but what would you suggest to raise it?”  [0:43:20]

Answer
Well, I would need to know your blood type. I would need to know how old you are, if you're still menstruating, because the more you have iron loss with your menstrual cycles, are they heavy, are they light, are you still having them, how much red meat is in your diet, or are you mostly a fish and chicken-type eating keto person? Red meat would be important. How old are you? Because if you're a blood type A, A's as a class, even as a young person and teenager, 20s, 30s, 40s, and older, you don't digest as well, and you can't absorb your minerals even if you do eat the meat. So, I would want to know that. And even if you are not a blood type A and you're already 50, then your digestion becomes more impaired, like A's generally are from birth, and so, you're not absorbing the minerals as well. Do you have ulcers? Have you had a stool test to prove that there isn't any inflammation in your chronic stool? We could do inflammatory markers there and look for blood in your stool. Do you have autoimmune diseases? All these kinds of factors have to go into that question about iron: get your iron levels, check how much iron transfer you have and percent saturation, and look at all of those. Are you on antacids all the time? Are you a blood type O that makes excess acid, and then you're taking acid blockers that then generally inhibit your absorption and metabolism of iron? I mean, there are so many things your doctor has to think about with low ferritin levels. So, yeah, those are some of the areas that I would think about on that, and that's what I would do to suggest raising it. See a good functional doctor who'll spend some time with you and really look at these things one at a time, and there are other things that I would look at as well. 

Question
“Hi, Dr. E! My mom has interstitial cystitis and overactive bladder spasms. She’s taken Gemtesa, has 2 treatment options: Botox into the bladder every 6 to 9 months or implant a stimulator. Thanks for any feedback. She’s also been diagnosed with Hashimoto’s.”  [0:46:11]

Answer
The bladder is an organ that has a huge surface membrane, and the urine is a dumpsite of waste material. The poor bladder membrane, the cell membrane, is being damaged every day by acidic urine. I would want to know your mother's blood type. I would want to know her blood urea nitrogen level and her protein level. I would want to know her nutrient fatty acid vitamins. Does she have enough vitamin D and K? Does she have enough vitamin A? And because that helps to repair the bladder. I would put her on a keto diet or a carnivore diet. So, it's rich in meat to help provide the phospholipids to repair all her cell membranes. There is an organization called Womanology. Womanology is physical therapy for the woman's and men's bladder pelvic sling. And sometimes they can work almost like pressure or acupressure with a pelvic exam and stretch and pull on some of these areas. So, I would go to Womanology. I'd become a carnivore. I'd find out her blood type. I would put her on systemic enzymes, high dose, like 4 twice a day on an empty stomach. And if she's your mother and you're calling, she's probably older than 50, so I'd probably put her on digestive enzymes when she eats. I would probably ask you to bring her in to see a good functional do doctor to put the whole thing together – her blood type, her age, her background history, and what type of thyroid antibody levels. If they're very high, then she is inflamed in general. We can usually get all that turned around with a carnivore diet in three months. We can really bring that down. You know, I'm not a specialist, I'm a general practitioner. If her doctor wants to do the Botox, you know, I'm not there seeing it, but I would always do those as a last resort, and they're never always, I mean, you have to repeat Botox injections, so it's kind of like a dead-end street after a while. So, I would work very hard to bring her inflammation down with lifestyle change, nutraceutical support, and high-dose nutrient vitamin C drips that are tremendously anti-inflammatory. You know, there are certain waters that you can drink, filtered water, light water, deuterium-depleted water, all these kinds of things tend to help. That's the direction I would go with her. 

Question
“I intermittently fast but need to eat breakfast because of migraines. So, don’t eat at night. What’s best to eat for breakfast?”  [0:50:15]

Answer
Well, that's great. Dinner. In other words, we've all been propagandized, or marketed to, to behave and purchase in a certain way. So, when you hear the word ‘breakfast,’ I tell you what pops in my mind are pancakes, Danishes, bacon and eggs, cereals, and oatmeal. I have these images that come from marketing at me, and the only good ones I mentioned were the eggs and bacon. But you could say break your fast by eating a steak with broccoli, and that's what I recommend. Okay. Your highest, most complex meal should be in the morning. Most people should eat roughly between 6 and 7 AM, and 2 to 3 PM, and you should eat in a time-restricted window and never go outside that window. Your body likes routines. It does not like to have its circadian rhythm messed up. So, I'm glad you're intermittent fasting, but I would eat, make the intermittent fasting, give up your dinners. That's marketing too. Dinner and a movie, dinner and a party, dinner and eating snacks at night, and having, you know, purchase market consumer, and you harm yourself. 

Question
“Is lactase dehydrogenase LDH a good marker for cancer? What are other markers? What are some of the recent blood tests that claim to detect trace levels?”  [0:52:22]

Answer
I'm going to say not necessarily. I mean, if you had a glass of alcohol or two and you did your LDH liver enzyme, it's going to maybe be slightly elevated if you drew it, you know, within six hours of having that drink. But if you had cancer with metastatic disease to your liver, then that enzyme could be elevated. So, it is not a good marker for screening for cancer, per se. 

All right. Well, I'm all for progress, and I'm all for God's wonderful creation, and that the human being, God created us, in my worldview. I'm a Christian. And so, we were made in the image of God, and we're to be like our Father, the creator, and thinking of things and how to help and how to prosper and build and support our family, our community, our neighbors. Even our enemies, we are to love and be good to. So, all this stuff about tumor markers, new studies, the field is exploding. So, I'm not going to claim that there isn't some breakthrough that I don't know about because I don't know everything. But I’ve got to tell you, over the past 45 years, there used to be an AMAS test, and now there's polymerized chain PCR reaction testing looking at DNA signatures. There are other fragments that they're looking for. Like on the Cologuard, you get that stool test mailed to your home. They're going to do PCR testing on the stool samples to look for fragments that they might tend to see in cancerous cells' broken-down membranes. 

So, yeah, they're expanding the field. No, there's nothing out there of reliability that's in common usage. Once you have a cancer, then we can look at a CA-125, typically for ovarian, a CA 15-3, or a CA 27.29 for the breasts. There's the alpha-fetoprotein for liver cancers, and the carcinoembryonic antigen for gut tumors. And so, there are these various things that we have seen, and we track with established cancers. But as far as screening, I'm not going to say there's anything that you should go and say, "Hey doc, screen me every six months for a tumor marker." Instead, I would say, live a healthy lifestyle, ladies and gentlemen. Have a good bedtime routine. Have a good morning routine. Get sunshine. Get grounded for a few minutes every day. Let the sun get in your eyes every day. Let your water be filtered, and get enough water in. Get your enzymes that are anti-inflammatory, little Pac-Man cleaners. Make sure you're having bowel movements and a doctor who knows you, that you can discuss your lifestyle with, who can follow you up year after year, decade after decade, they're dedicated to their group of patients that they watch over like family, and you can talk with them about your lifestyle, your family risk factors, your stress factors, your cortisol stress factors, your sleep quality, and they can struggle with you as doctors to try and help find mechanisms to help your emotional status, your social status, your support status in life. Because people who are married, who attend a religious service regularly, who have family, who stay working as opposed to retiring too early, these are lifestyle and service social constructs that help people who will have less stress, less cortisol, and they live longer. So, lifestyle matters. So, eating a low-carb diet matters. Eating enough protein and healthy fats matters. Having a doctor who knows something about nutrition and can sample certain things about you matters. Getting a baseline colonoscopy in your life, getting a bone density in your life, getting a prostate exam, getting a breast exam. These are things that you work out, and your doctor gets to know you and tells you the truth. Have them do your insulin multiplied by your glucose divided by 405, your HOMA-IR number, which is your insulin resistance. That's one of the biggest indicators. And you can start seeing that in adolescence today. We can see teenagers and pre-teens are getting high insulin and high blood sugar testing. Not enough to say you're a diabetic. Maybe their blood sugar is 99 or 103, with an insulin of 5, and now you're already insulin resistant at 12 years old. And that's a precursor for metabolic syndrome and disease, ladies and gentlemen, of the heart, diabetes, cancer, Alzheimer's, and on and on. So, if you want to prevent cancer, this is where you spend your study, and this is the kind of doctor you need to find, not a doctor who cares only about money. 

Question
“An MRI shows I have calcific tendonitis in my shoulder, about a 3-ml ball of calcium. What would cause this? Anything I can do to prevent it from getting worse? And is there a way to reabsorb the calcium? I don’t want surgery, if at all possible. Thank you!”  [0:58:41]

Answer
What is your blood type? Because I usually see calcific tendonitis and O-type blood people. And why is that? O's tend to react strongly to genetically modified gluten, wheat, grain, barley, oats, rye, millet, and all the marketed food in America, from your pizza crust to your breads, to your Kentucky Fried dipped crusty chickens. They all have this icky genetically modified, glyphosated grain flour material, and that inflames the lining of the gut at a low, low-grade chronic level. And that inflammation has molecular mimicry and attaches to your tissues, your cartilage, your joint material. And if you don't stop it, you're going to get the inflammation response. If not resolved, then the body will send calcium to just cement the sucker down because you can't stop inflaming it with your dietary lifestyle, and it'll force you to stop it through cementing it down with calcium. 

Now, can you resolve this? I have seen tremendous calcifications on soft tissues improve with vitamin D with K2, EDTA chelation therapy, a low-carb diet, and a really carnivore diet 100% for three months, and we see great relief with systemic enzymes. So, find a good doctor who will do that.

Question
“Hi, my dad was diagnosed with Parkinson’s by his primary doctor. Now he has a hernia and is waiting for surgery to be scheduled. I want to give him Methylene Blue, also Ivermectin, and help him get on a workout plan. What are your thoughts? We hope to see you soon.”  [1:00:48]

Answer
Methylene blue is an antioxidant. It's been around 100 plus years. There was a flare of it back in the 80s. I lived through that flare, and I'm living through this flare right now. I don't know that that's anything necessarily helpful. Everything I've mentioned on all the other questions regarding the low carb, carnivore, exercise, well hydrated, systemic enzymes, EDTA chelation, in particular, because the Substantia Nigra in your midbrain that has that extra dark tissue, the melatonin in the base thereof, the stem of the brain, gets oxidized. And so, the most healing thing is to be on a quiet, simple menu diet of carnivore, good filtered water, exercise, good night hygiene and morning hygiene, grounding, systemic enzyme, EDTA chelation therapy with vitamin C and vitamin D at the higher doses to get up to around 100. Do a complete digestive stool analysis study so we can look at inflammation factors that are typically in the gut. Find out your father's blood type. He probably needs digestive enzymes to eat his food, especially if he goes carnivore to break down the meat, fish, chicken, pork, and stuff that he eats. I mean, get him to a good functional doctor to start working on those things. 

Question
“Hi Dr E, what is your opinion on using peptides like BPC-157, KPV, TB-500 for healing?”  [1:02:58]

Answer
You know what, our body makes hundreds of thousands of peptides. Insulin is a peptide. Growth hormone is a peptide. All your serotonin, your acetylcholine, all these are peptides. So, why should you spend so much money buying these things when you should do a lifestyle change, eat a much higher protein level, start taking digestive enzymes to help you absorb the amino acids, and so your body can construct them better, and have these good cycles in your life? So yeah, let the research be done. I think most of this is really right now marketing, and it's not ready for primetime. And some people are just making a lot of money. And I tell you, I would love to say, everybody who's gotten an injection of a certain peptide for a joint stem cell, they've all had miraculous recoveries. But for everyone who said it really helped me, I'm going to say I've had 10 patients who said, "Cost me a lot of money. Didn't make a difference." Well, was it because the doctor also didn't say how much water you're drinking? What's your fasting blood sugar? What's your fasting insulin? What time do you go to bed? Do you get grounded? Are you up in the morning with the sunshine? Are you eating enough protein and healthy fats naturally occurring with your digestive enzymes and taking systemic enzymes? Because nothing is an isolated healing, okay? Nothing. So, I don't think peptides are ready for primetime use. I think they're making doctors a lot of money. I think there's the episodic person who is very much involved in micromanaging every detail of their life and every bowel movement and how it looks and how many minutes they sleep and what their little watch says about their sleeping, and they take a peptide. You sort out and find out, with all those confounding factors, was it the peptide or was it the sleep? You see, it's too hard, it's too early to give you an answer. So, I'm not going to say no, but I'm going to say, I wouldn't do these things until you're doing other foundational things first.