YouTube Livestream Q&A Transcript, August 11, 2026

Question 
“I pack supplements for the week in sorter packs. The ProvenMD Methyl B Complex supplements turn brown if I keep them in my purse for more than a week. Do these supplements lose effectiveness when they are brown? Should I throw them out?”  [0:02:12]

Answer
In general, this is just combining with water and oxygen. Oxygen tends to be more potentially harmful. Mixing with water or absorbing water biochemically with the B complex will give it a darker color. I don't think you should waste them. I mean, if they're over a few weeks old, yeah, throw them away. But if it's within a week, I would still take it, but it's not going to harm you; that's for sure. So, I would try and make sure that they're sealed. We typically, and when we moved from our place to here, we took all our vitamins as a single shipment, and we moved it on the trip here in the cool of the morning, and we got them off the truck and into the air-conditioned stock room so that they weren't left on a pallet; they weren't getting heated up. The recommendation is that these vitamins should be kept at a temperature of ideally 75 degrees, in a dark and dry, cool environment, 75 degrees. So, our purses certainly can get hot in the car or when we're out and about. That will accelerate bonds with oxygen and water, and that will change the color, but I think you're safe to still take it even if it looks a little darker. I have, anyway, over the many, many years. 

Question
“Would I be able to open up the 4 capsules of Energy Core and put them in a daily smoothie instead of swallowing the capsules? Can all vits/enzymes be taken this way? I have an issue with swallowing large caps. I typically prefer a liquid, powder, or gummy. Thanks!”  [0:04:20]

Answer
Yes. Of course, if you drink it in a quick fashion, the longer it sits in a smoothie, the longer it's exposed to oxygen and moisture, and these possible exposures can, in fact, possibly limit some of its potency. So, please don't let that smoothie sit for an hour or two with you sipping on it. Try to drink it down within minutes. But yes, it’s very reasonable to take the Energy Core and open them up and use it that way. I tell some people to just mix it in some unsweetened applesauce or in a dollop of yogurt and then take it that way as well. 

Question
“Hi Dr. Rita, what are your thoughts about fillers and Botox? Would there be anything that you would suggest to help this 57-year-old woman with the natural aging process? Thank you so much!”  [0:05:19]

Answer
I am not in favor of Botox and fillers. Botox is essentially paralyzing the nerves, the membranes along the nerves there, so that the muscles can't contract and amplify the grooves of the smile wrinkle or the frowning wrinkle areas on your face. But fillers actually volumetrically put foreign material. They try to make it as inert as possible in these grooves and wrinkles so that the groove of the wrinkle is not as noticeable. But these aren't really trying to talk about what causes the wrinkle and how to resist the cause from developing. So, the cause of the wrinkle is very often overlooked. We don't eat enough protein; we haven't as a country for decades and decades. They've made us afraid of eating meat, made us afraid of eating eggs, made us glorify, you know, a vegetarian vegan lifestyle to the detriment of people who are omnivore, eating both vegetables and animal foods, and this kind of social pressure has impacted us, because we're constructed of collagen/elastin in our tissues that surround our nerves, our vessels, our vasculature, the construction of our bones that our minerals hang upon. We have to have all this protein and fat in the cell membranes. And so, we're all eating way too little of it over the many, many decades of our life. Complicating that, some of us are Blood type A, which is hard to digest. Complicating that is getting older. The older we all get, no matter what your blood type is, it gets harder to digest. So A's have a disadvantage if they don't have a doctor who tries to help them all their life to use a digestive enzyme in their youth all the way through and up to their senior years. I started using it in my 50s. I knew I wasn't digesting as well, and I'm B-type blood. And now, my husband, who is an O type blood, who is O-type blood, is usually the best digester. Even he, at 78, needs to use digestive enzymes. So, if you're not eating enough protein and fat, you're going to have less rebar, so to speak, like we put into cement to reinforce the material of the cement, the rebar and the structural strength of the concrete structures. Same for your skin. If you don't eat enough meat, fish, turkey, chicken, beef, eggs, these kinds of things, as well as digest them, you could put them on your plate, but if you don't digest them well, like A-type blood has a problem with. So, that's going to help with the construction of what's holding up the skin from not, you know, turning into big jowls hanging down. I already have a little bit of a jowl hanging here under my neck. So, that is the collagen and elastin that, in fact, I'm eating. 

Now, what helps the construction of the elastin and collagen is estradiol, our hormone. So, the muscle tissues in our face and our tendons and our skin cells and the fibrous membranes are all directed by growth-promoting signals, and estradiol is well-known to help with elastin and collagen to hold your face up and hold your eyelids up, so they don't get droopy, and the lower lids fall out and away from your eyes. So, I rub my estradiol all over my face, my one little click a day. I do that every day of my life. Yes, I wind up having, even though I'm 73, a small menstrual cycle every month. It's certainly worth it, I think, for the health and the strength in my bones, my memory, my cardiovascular system, my immune system. All these things benefit, as well as my tissue, skin health, and collagen/elastin formation. That is what needs to be emphasized. So, rather than making money off of patients trying to put in fillers and numb up their capacity to frown or wrinkle, they should be teaching the patient how much protein is in their diet, looking at their blood urea nitrogen, total protein levels, looking at their insulin levels, looking at their inflammatory markers, because inflammation will inhibit the growth and repair systems of our body. Staying up too late at night every night will stop our growth and repair for our wrinkles as well as every other part of our body. Not using natural hormones will inhibit growth or repair. Not checking the testosterone level in women. Finding out what the healthy levels are, because the ranges on these stupid labs are so low. I feel embarrassed for my colleagues in health care. They don't know what a healthy real testosterone level is. They can't look at these ranges with discernment and figure out in their own brain how contradictory it is to say that, for a 57-year-old woman, the testosterone range is 2 to 47. So, if you divide 2 into 47, that goes to 23 point something. So, 23 orders of magnitude is the difference between the 2 ranges, and now tell me: is the two the healthy end or the 47 the healthy end for muscles and strength and all the stimulation we get from just exercise to stimulate our growth hormone and our repair signals through our body? So, these doctors don't want to waste time. They just want to make money, and I would rather take far less income, live a low middle-income lifestyle, and really help my patients to live far longer. So, I am not in favor of fillers or Botox. I'm in favor of teaching the patient how to heal themselves. 

Question
“Do household mold spores colonize the GI tract and sinus cavities? If so, do you treat this infection with pharma antifungals like Posaconazole or itraconazole, and for how long? Thanks.”  [0:12:36]

Answer
Well, there are these prescription medicines that are antifungal, but I never use them because we weren't designed to really need them. It isn't a lack of these medicines. There's going to be spores with us all throughout eternity. Okay? And God has designed us to be able to blow our nose, drain our sinuses, move our bowels, clean out these areas in our lungs with ciliary action, with good hydration, with exercise. Increased circulation. It's our lack of exercise, our lack of drinking enough water every day, our losing our enzyme production with age, that we start to seeing a slowing down of the expectoration from our lungs and our sinuses of these things and eating a very high sticky sugary, fruity sugary-type diet that is immunosuppressive, that allows problems to develop in our sinuses, our lungs, and our gut. So, I'm going to say, no, we don't need these medications. Instead, what I would do is all the things I said. Eat a low-carb diet; stop eating, if you're over 60, by around 3:00 or 3:30 in the afternoon; eat a high-protein diet, so you're satiated; get outside in the sunlight, ground yourself, take systemic enzymes to clean out inflammation throughout the whole body. 

Getting back to the fungal spores, I use Argentyn silver nasal spray and rinse. So, it is an antifungal, antiviral, and antibacterial. It's silver. It's been known for thousands of years. You can inhale it nasally. You can take it orally, swish and gargle, and swallow. It can go into the gut in that fashion. But you have to be low-carb; you have to take your enzymes for anti-inflammatory action. You have to move your body with exercise, get a good night's sleep and not eat late, so you get growth hormone released, because if your stomach is full of the undigested liquid even at 8:00, 9:00, 10 o’clock when you're laying there in bed, and digestion slows with age, it moves out slower, if your vagus nerve from the base of your brain to your stomach senses food and what we call chyme in the stomach, it's not going to release all these precious growth hormone and repair items. So, that's why we say don't eat late, especially if you're over 60. 

Question
“Then why are the Hindus so strong?”  [0:16:24]

Answer
You talk about the fact that they are avoiding animal proteins and they are so strong. I'm not going to get into politics or religion here; I'm just going to say that it is well-established that there are several nutritional deficiencies in a pure 100% vegan diet. They have to be taking supplements for animal products, like obtaining B12 only through animal sources. So, I'm sure you can find extraordinary, wonderful people in every color, race, creed, and location on the earth, but the general trend is that meat, fish, turkey, pork, and eggs- these animal products are so nutrient-dense compared to any fruit, vegetable, nut, or seed. It is so well-established that it is very conducive to immunologically building up the person, musculoskeletal doing a better job, and having less immune suppression from the higher starch and fruit sugars that they have. 

Question
“What do you think about DMSO in vitamin drips?”  [0:17:58]

Answer
I had that back about 35-40 years ago. We used to put DMSO in EDTA chelation and vitamin C drips when I was working with Julian Whitaker at Whitaker Wellness Institute in Newport Beach off of Burch Street. It's been closed down for about 10 years now. The DMSO, dimethyl sulfoxide, smells so much like garlic. It was actually somewhat nauseating to be in the whole building because that smell is a little bit like sulfur, a rotten-egg smell. So, eventually they took it out. It is a solvent. It was generated in the late 1800s, I think, in the printing industry originally, but it is an excellent bipolar solvent. And that then has the ability to carry two different polar and non-polar-type objects across the membrane surface. So, when you put this into things, you might be pulling in materials from the IV plastics. If you put it on your skin topically, you might be pulling in the dirt or contaminants that you might have touched something. So, we don't like to use DMSO. Unless it's under very strict conditions. So, that's my thought about that, but thank you for asking. 

Question
“Shortly after a miscarriage, a family member then had a molar pregnancy/DNC (Dilation and Curettage) last February. Her number declined quickly, then stuck at 16, 13, 11 over the last few months. They've considered another DNC or chemo, though ultrasound and X-Ray look clear. Any recommendations to help? (She's going to make an appointment to TLC.”  [0:19:46]

Answer
I would go on and find out her blood type. She's young enough to have a pregnancy, so she should possibly be healthy enough to do a 48-hour water fast, taking systemic enzymes. This would be something that I would recommend using Vitalzym. Vitalzym is a composition of proteolytic enzymes and serrapeptase in a high-quality dose that will be enteric-coated so it can pass all the way into the intestines, where it can be dissolved there. And that's absorbed, and it works like a little Pac-Man to chew up these deposits of abnormal protein, misfolded proteins, partially damaged cell membranes, tissues that have been harmed or hurt. Like if you sprain your ankle, your enzymes chew up the injured tissue; it's reprocessed or absorbed and taken out of that area and gotten rid of or reformulated into other parts. So, a high-dose systemic enzyme with Vitalzym would be taking something like 5 of them first thing in the morning on an empty stomach, two hours before you eat anything, and last thing at bedtime, as long as it's been about 5 hours since you ate anything- 5 to 6 hours. So, if you took it at like 9:00 or 10:00 and you stopped eating around 4:00 in the afternoon, and you take it first thing in the morning, 6:00 or so, and you don't eat until 8:00 or 9:00, that would be how we would recommend it. So, these anti-inflammatory enzymes chew up abnormal tissue debris collections. Protein material. 

The other thing we do is we give high-dose progesterone. We would use that and find out when the last menstrual cycle was, and we use it normally days 15 through 25 of the cycle to enhance the uterine maturing and shedding the lining. So, with those two things, we’re usually successful with our ladies. Now, I am not a gynecologist; I'm not a fertility specialist. I am not against doing another dilation and curettage. It's more serious to take chemotherapy. I think the last time I heard of it being used was when they used Methotrexate. I've seen a lot of people use Methotrexate and still wind up having normal pregnancies once they're off of it, but these can be associated with folic acid neural tube problems. So, long and short of it is a fast, a very low-carb diet, not eating late, using systemic enzymes morning and evening, and drinking adequate water. So, whatever her weight is, let's say she's 140 pounds, she needs at least 70 ounces of water twice a day to help those systemic enzymes get around. We would also make available a high-dose vitamin C drip with EDTA chelation to improve the tiny microcirculation to reach deeper and all other parts of her body. That would be how we would begin looking at this and work in conjunction with her specialist/gynecologist. Hopefully that helps her. 

Question
“My Dad tested positive for hepatitis C. The doctor ordered Epclusa. Insurance won’t cover it. They offered a generic brand, Mavyret. I am concerned about this brand; it could cause liver damage, as my dad had high liver enzymes. We are waiting for treatment. What can my dad do in the meantime to keep well?”  [0:25:28]

Answer
Epclusa, that's an antiviral medication. Mavyret, that's the generic for a combination of two medications. They're both antiviral; they're proteolytic enzymes, and they're working at two different areas on the hepatitis C viral replication methodology, so to speak. So, these two areas inhibit hepatitis C, so that the hepatitis C viral count drops, and that allows the immune system to build up your own natural T-cells, killer cells. Now, how do you build up your own T-cell natural killer cells? With a very low-carbohydrate diet, a rich protein diet, not eating late, doing intermittent fasting, and doing some prolonged fasting, such as a one-day fast every three days or a two-day fast twice a month. Exercise stimulates the T-cell killer cell function, the lymphocytes, the T-cells. The low-carb diet stimulates the immune system. A high-dose vitamin C is very antiviral and, in and of itself, an excellent choice to help fight any hepatitis patient. Before they had these antivirals 30, 40 years ago, when I was doing this kind of medicine even way back then, we used high-dose vitamin C 50 grams, 75 grams, 100 grams- and we were able to get our patients' viral PCR counts down to zero just using high-dose vitamin C. So, that's just the fact of it. We would also give them the systemic enzyme, same thing, because that's debris that has to get cleaned out of the body, and exercise them. 

Now, she says her dad is waiting for treatment, but she's concerned that this brand could cause liver damage, as her father had had high liver enzymes. “What can my dad do in the meantime to keep well?” Well, try to find a place that does high-dose vitamin C drips. Do them twice a week, at least 25 grams, if not 50 grams. He would have to get a G6PD test. Most Americans (96.7%) have enough G6PD. We just do it because we give out so much high-dose vitamin C here in our IV drips; we don't want to miss that rare 1.5% that has limited amounts of that enzyme because it's a little more difficult for them to process such rich vitamin C antioxidant action, and we've never had a problem. I've never seen a problem in all my 40 years of doing this. The other thing is, I would give your dad lipoic acid. We have alpha lipoic acid here. I would give him at least 500 mg a day, and that's how I would do it. There are also IVs of alpha lipoic acid, but I think the oral is just fine. So, you can take vitamin C and alpha lipoic acid. I would be on a very low-carb diet. I would take systemic enzymes, your minerals, and your Methyl B Complex. So, that's what I would do. Hopefully your father, we pray, will handle the medication very well. Of all my experience with antiviral hepatitis B and hepatitis C chronic viral infections, I've only seen people do extremely well, especially if they're working with a doctor, such as myself, a functional medicine doctor who does high-dose vitamin C and does the nutritional support that we would give with these enzymes, with alpha lipoic acid, and that. I've always seen a very good result, and I've never seen harm from those medications when we work together integratively. 

Question
“Is lithium citrate neuroprotective?”  [0:30:46]

Answer
Lithium orotate seems to have protective effects. I am not familiar with lithium citrate offering neuroprotective research. We have a lot of human data, animal data, and just science on lithium orotate. This was used to stabilize neuronal waves in the brain usually associated with excitability, bipolar disorder, and depression, and we saw a reduction in suicide with this. So, low dose: 2.5 mg, 5 mg lithium orotate. I don't think any more than 10 mg was ever used that I'm aware of in the research, but yeah, it does have neuroprotective activity. Remember, lithium is kind of like a sodium ion pump, magnesium pump, calcium channel pump, and all this action is the electrical potential of the membrane, whether it's your heart contraction, whether it's your muscle contraction, whether it's your brain thinking. We are electrochemical beings. We need the infrared light from the sun. We need daylight exposure every day. We need to get our feet on the earth and ground and get our charge balanced, our circadian rhythm going, so that we function electrochemically much better. So, yeah, that's what I think of lithium citrate. 

Question
“Can a functional doctor help with bunions or other foot problems, or is that something mainly left to a mainstream podiatrist?”  [0:32:44]

Answer
If the bunion is so bad or the valgus position of the great toe is shifted so severely, you're going to have to have surgical corrective procedures done. Otherwise, if you just have no significant joint deviation, what we can do is work with enzymes, hydration, magnesium, and calcium supplementation. You do Pilates, stretching, and strength training, adequate hydration, if I didn't mention it, and then that's how we would help in that area there. 

Question
“Hi Dr Rita. What can be some reasons for sharp pains in the abdomen from gas? Is it IBS? Thank you.”  [0:33:48]

Answer
Well, it depends on whether we're talking about a child, a teenager, a female versus a male with active menstrual cycles. Are we talking about what blood type? Because O-type blood tends to make more stomach acid, which can be associated with more episodes of pain that are sharp, usually associated with extra acidity. The A-type blood person, over a period of time, has slow gastric emptying, so their stomach is more fluid-filled, and when they bend over to tie their shoes or pick something up, they can literally burp up a little bit of liquid chyme from the stomach into the esophagus, which can be perceived as a generalized sharp stabbing pain. If we're talking about an elder person, the lower floating ribs become calcified also with age, so that even just bending over and tying a shoe, you can get a little tiny crack or crinkle in a calcified floating rib, which can generate some sharp pains, making sure there's no stool that looks bloody or it looks like it's black tar coming out because that is usually digested upper GI tract blood, if it looks like coffee grounds. So, black, tarry bowel movements are digested blood also. So, there are many, many, many things that this could be. Irritable bowel usually has gas. We're usually getting an imbalance of bacterial colonies that are feeding off of too much sugar and starch and fruit sugars, and these bad bacteria will generate, with the metabolism of eating so much starch and fruit sugar, more gas, methane gas, and that expands the confines of the tube of your stomach, and that could generate sharp pains as well. I mean, there are many, many, many things. So, I would suggest, you know, you need to be seen if this is a problem. 

And again, everything I'm saying here is not meant to be personal treatment. It's rather to say this is what I'm thinking. This is what goes through the mind of a functional integrative standard American allopathically trained medical doctor in America, thinking this and many other things. So, that's why we need to have you see your doctor.

Question
“Sorry, I didn't elaborate. It's from me, 42 years old. It's from food, but I'm not sure why I get sharp pains for a few minutes, then they go away.”  [0:36:52] 

Answer
Well, again, it could just be methane gas. It could be the amount of sugars in your diet. Is your stool loose afterwards? Do you get constipated with it? So many things would need to be asked, and what is your blood type? At 42, all of us are starting to slow down with our digestive abilities. If you're an A, you certainly need help with that. So, I would ask that you be seen by a functional doctor. And normally, these intermittent sharp episodes could even be things like menstrual cramps, or it could be Mittelschmerz, which is the ovulatory pain of an egg coming out of the oviduct. It could be the motion of your gallbladder contracting sharply. So, there are so many things. You really have to be by your doctor so we can get a feel for it. Normally, we would do a complete digestive stool analysis where I could look at your predominant bacterial colonies, ruling out fungi, ruling out worms and parasites and cysts and all these kinds of things, looking at inflammatory markers, looking at digestive markers, whether you're digesting your fats well or your vegetables, if there are partial meat fibers, things like this left over. So, a complete digestive stool analysis is what really needs to be done with a physical exam, a blood count to look at your blood and white blood cell count, a chemistry to look at your bile production and your liver enzymes. All these things need to be done. Okay? So, do see your doctor about that. 

Question
“Hi Dr. Rita, I got sick when I came back from my vacation in Europe. I am stuck with a dry cough, no fever, no runny nose. Any tips on how to get over that? Mornings and right before bed are the worst.”  [0:39:05]

Answer
Well, I think I know who you are. My suggestion would be a 48-hour fast. Whenever you're questioning what's going on, and you're otherwise healthy, just stop your immune system and let it all calm down. Let it, you know, all just rest. And drink chicken broth or beef broth, and you could have some ginger ale with the real sugar in it, mixed with water 50/50, just to get your gut totally cleared out because very often when you're on vacation, you wind up getting exposed to newer and strange things you eat or haven't eaten in years and years, and your immune system is triggered. So, a 48-hour fast is always a very healing, immune-relaxing, and calming gesture to do. And seeing as it allows you to get a little glucose through the ginger ale- real ginger ale with sugar in it- and the ginger is calming, and you get your salts from the broth, it's just clear broth of chicken or clear broth of beef. And just drink plenty of water; see if that helps you. And then use the Argentyn silver to spray your nose two, three, four times a day, especially before bedtime and right after you get up in the morning. And then I would probably take some extra virgin olive oil, and I would have a teaspoon or tablespoon of that in the morning, evening, and midday, which will coat the area along here in your throat area. So, that's what I would do. And if that doesn't help you and you're still having this dry cough, you have to be seen by your local doctor and evaluated. All right. 

Question
“Is there some sort of blood or skin test to determine the exact bacteria or virus causing cellulitis? Do you have suggestions for targeting the exact cause of the infection for cellulitis?”  [0:41:40]

Answer
In general, there is none because our skin is exposed to all the bacteria- every handshake, every floating viral particle, bacteria, fungi, spores. So, no, we don't have that. Instead, the same thing, you have an amazing immune system. If you also went carnivore and just ate a pure carnivore diet for two weeks, even a month. Okay? It takes about four months for a whole new layer of skin to rise up and replace injured, damaged skin because cellulitis is usually these smoldering, chronic little patches of irritated skin; it's irreplaceable. They have to flake off and grow away, and flake off with new dermal skin growing under it. I would never put anything on it other than that same Argentyn Silver, and we have it as a spray, and I would spray it two to three times a day to keep overgrowth of other bacteria from getting into it. If you can find a functional doctor where you can get a high-dose vitamin C drip, that would be helpful. If you could take vitamin D 50,000 IU one a day for just 5 days and then just stay on 10,000 thereafter, have your local doctor then check your CBC, your white count, look at the site, and see if taking all the sugars out of your diet, allowing your immune system to rev up the vitamin C, helping as a generalized antitoxin of antiviral, antibacterial, antifungal and spraying it with Argentyn and the vitamin D, all this helps you to have a better immune system. That's the direction I would go.

Question
“Hi Dr. E, I recently got bitten by ants. What is a good way to stop the itchiness and inflammation? I found that spraying silver on it helps. Thank you.”  [0:44:15]

Answer
Well, that helps prevent secondary infection. The thing that I find most helpful is putting on an anti-bite, the Clinician's Preference Oil, which is, we have a liquid little 6 oz, 4 oz bottle, or we have the capsules where you could take a capsule and break it open and just rub the fluid of a capsule of the Clinician's Preference Oil over the area. It helps with the healing of the skin and the inflammation because it acts like, you know, all the essential oils and omegas that are needed for skin healing and reduces inflammation. That would be my suggestion. Of course, if it looks angry and red, you have to see your local doctor.

Question
“How much magnesium daily? I eat meats, fish, turkey, chicken. I take magnesium breakthrough, which is two magnesiums and sometimes the evening magnesium.”  [0:45:31]

Answer
I believe I know who this is, but the older you get, the harder it is to digest and extract minerals out of your food. But I do think she's taking digestive enzymes with her proteins. 

In general, the recommended daily intake of magnesium for a man or adult is 400 mg a day and about 320 mg for a woman. The older we get, the harder it is for our capillaries to deliver magnesium to the cell membranes throughout our whole body. So that's why we put minerals into our chelation and IV vitamin C's and all of our immune drips. I would encourage you to take the Multi-Mineral, TLC Multi-Mineral. There are three to give a full delivery of the magnesium, the potassium, the calcium, with the molybdenum, the manganese, boron, all the wonderful main minerals. And I would use three twice a day until you're feeling better for whatever illness or need you have. The only limiting thing would be that if you're taking too much, you might get some looser stools, and you might feel kind of tired; when you take too much magnesium, it is so relaxing, so it could make you overtired. So, in general, 320 mg is the recommended daily allowance for a female. We would recommend, with all the meat I know you're eating, that you take the digestive enzymes and take anywhere from 3 TLC Multi-Mineral to 6 a day, split into two doses. That would be my suggestion.

Question
“Can menopause (or pre-menopause since I still get random menstrual periods) and estrogen fluctuations cause blurred vision and loss of vision? If so, what do you recommend to help prevent or reverse it?”  [0:48:14]

Answer
Now, when you write something such as blurred vision and loss of vision, that can be anything from, as we lose our hormone estradiol, we make less tears, and our eyes become dry. It's well known that you get dry eyes post-menopausally. That dryness can make vision more difficult and blurry. So, if that's what you mean by a loss of vision, that's a clinically accepted phenomenon of menopause and aging. But if you have sudden vision loss, half your vision or the side of your vision is lost, that's a medical emergency that you need to go to the ER for, or any severe eye pain or eye discharge and redness as well. Now, I'm assuming then that this is probably just talking about the common post-menopausal visual changes, you know, that you need to get glasses with aging, because even the little ciliary muscles that are in each eye that help the lens to expand or shrink for focusing, those little muscles are so tiny and they shrink too with age. So, it's harder and harder to change from close visual needs to distant visual needs. The same thing is with light and dark. Your vitamin A content, a fat-soluble vitamin, diminishes because we lose enzymes with age. So, we who try and do functional medicine are trying to help all our patients mitigate all these age-related things that limit our functionality. 

So, what do we say to menopausal women? What do we recommend to help prevent and/or reverse it? Well, I think women should go on natural progesterone because we're in such a stressful world, and that stress creates cortisol; cortisol creates a follicle-stimulating hormone interruption and blocks ovulation. And then no ovulation means no progesterone, and no progesterone means you're estrogen-dominant, and that leads to more polyps and fibroids and endometriosis, especially in an American high-carb, insulin-secreting hormone-type lifestyle. So, we tell people to be low-carb and drink half their weight in pounds. So, if you're 150 pounds, half of that is 75, then you need 75 ounces of water a day. We tell you to start taking systemic enzymes to help remove aging cell debris. We ask you to exercise to improve your circulation, your muscle tone, strength, and repair. And then we start natural hormones. Even the first hormone we start with young women is natural progesterone on days 15 through 25 of their menstrual cycle, and I even start in high school because there's so much stress today with young teenagers. Then by the time they get to their 30s, late 30s, and early 40s, we can start seeing the beginning of perimenopausal symptoms such as we're describing here, and we will gently give them, especially if they start having poorer sleep, restless sleep, feeling of warmth or feeling of sweatiness, low libido, dry eyes, less vaginal moisture response to arousal. We start giving them a very low dose of estradiol cream topically as well, but we use it every day because a woman has estradiol production every day of her life. It has some fluctuations, yes, but in general, we'll just stay on a steady-state supportive dose of all-bioidentical natural estradiol every day. And I usually put it on my face, and that's how I started out and have stayed all these decades. And I still use my progesterone, although I don't have a menstrual cycle that I generate every month. Instead, I now just use my progesterone days 1 through 15 of every month following the calendar, and that itself generates a tiny little once-a-month spotting for a cycle at the end of my progesterone every month. So, I don't worry about having post-menopausal bleeding because I know I'm on hormones and it always shows up on time, and it always has the same amount and features, and we check the levels here. 

So, what I would say is, can menopause or pre-menopause estrogen fluctuations cause blurred vision and loss of vision? If it's the estrogen effect, which is the loss of it that causes the drying out of all this, yeah, and we can get you back on this hormone. And see a good integrative functional doctor who will help you with this. 

Question
“Can using nicotine lozenges help with focus and mental clarity in someone with Asperger’s syndrome, especially when panic and anxiety occur during an exam? And if so, can it be used as needed or does it need to be used regularly?”  [0:53:58]

Answer
The answer is yes, it can help anyone. Nicotine- that's why so many people smoke cigarettes. I used to do that because everyone smoked back in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s when I was in high school, college, medical school, and post-medical school. So, yeah, nicotine is well-known to help with focus. And this is available over the counter. It is a gum. It usually is something like 4 mg per little stick of gum. And it comes as little tablets. Each tablet usually is – the Walgreens brand is 4 mg per tablet. And then there are patches, of which there are 7-, 14-, and 21-mg patches. Most people seem to get the benefit of it, especially if you're a non-smoker, with as little as 4 to 6 mg a day. And so, the answer to you, Victoria, would be, yes, it will help you and anyone else with focus. And no, you don't have to take it chronically; you can use it episodically. But it is a stimulant. It can also increase your heart rate and breathing rate, but it will enhance your mental acuity and focus as well.

Question
“I am a 62-year-old grandma who had chickenpox as a child and has not been vaccinated against shingles. Would being around a grandchild with chickenpox make me susceptible to shingles?”  [0:55:327]

Answer
No, it shouldn't. It depends on how healthy you are. Of course, I've been around; I had chickenpox as a child. There were chickenpox parties; there were measles parties when I was a young kid, and I'm 73 now. And the healthier you are as an adult, the better your immune system and memory should be. It is the breakdown of your immune system. So, if you're a diabetic, if you're feeble, if you can't exercise, go to the gym, lift weights, if you're not taking your vitamin D, if you're not taking a good vitamin C, Multi-Mineral, B vitamin, if you're not drinking enough water, if you eat a high carb diet, then your whole immune system and your whole body is at risk for any of many several chronic diseases, not just a viral illness. But the general rule is, if you eat a low carb diet always, if you don't eat late, if you exercise, if you drink your water, if you're taking vitamin D at least 5,000 IU, and if you have any concern about being around viral illness exposure, take 25 to 50,000 IU of vitamin D the day before you go see the child, the day of, and the day after, and you'll just get a good vitamin D antiviral. You can spray your eyes and your mouth with Argentyn silver; you can take extra vitamin C, but I would not expect you to have shingles. No. And I'm not recommending the shingles vaccine either.