YouTube Livestream Q&A Transcript, February 10, 2026

Question
“Good evening, Dr. E. Can you speak on high cholesterol in patients on a keto diet? What levels should be, and whether the keto diet should be modified? Thank you.”  [0:04:31]

Answer
Yes, it depends. You have to have a clinician who is working with you who is following various types of people on a very low-carb diet, ketogenic diet, to the point where, you know, you have athletes who are trying to do high performance. These tend to be lean mass hyper-responders. So that if they go keto and they're still doing their athletic performance demands on their body, which is much higher than the average exercising adult, you'll find that they tend to have a percentage of them with what we call a significantly elevated LDL cholesterol and total cholesterol, but significantly higher LDLs. The understanding of that has now been watched through the very athletes and researchers who have discovered it have done a follow-up study on a hundred or more patients who fit that criteria, looking at coronary artery calcium scans and other cardiac risk factors. Over the course of at least a year I think they're doing an even longer period of tracking on that, and they found that they are at no increased risk, that in fact this is a unique feature of human physiology that's not often seen because most people are stuck eating the cheap high-processed carbs and very rarely do we now see as training in medicine and healthcare, healthy people who would be called lean mass hyper-responders. So, they're healthy people, they don't have a lot of fat, they don't have visceral fat, they're doing high-performance demand workout, and they're low carb. So their body metabolism of the transport of cholesterol in the lipoprotein packages has a more rapid demand and usage, and so they'll see more trucks on the highway, so to speak. So, you can't look at it, and it has now been well established in the literature that LDL cholesterol is not a decent, not a good predictor of cardiovascular risk at all. Those who point to now some more esoteric features, such as lipoprotein (a), that's one risk factor I've had all my life, they don't look into nutraceutical solutions, and the clear nutraceutical solution to that is to understand human beings and guinea pigs don't make vitamin C. And so, vitamin C, healthy consumption of somewhere around 2 grams a day, can actually greatly reduce your lipoprotein (a) risk factor, even if it is somewhat of a risk factor, and I just don't see lipoprotein (a) as any significant risk factor in all my 45 years of general practice, but vitamin C regular routine usage in the realm of 2 grams lowers that. 

What are healthy ranges then for cholesterol? We find, when I was a young doctor, just to give you my reference, I was starting to practice in the 1970s, the later 1970s, and I was on active duty. So, I would see military personnel who are allegedly screened to be our healthiest people. And I would say, of all the men back in the 1970s, a lot of them from Vietnam and the Korean Wars, and some World War II vets, we would see on our rotations cholesterol levels of 430, 380 320s all the time for total cholesterol. And it was never ever a major concern that I had ever been trained in until much later in my practice, when I was off of active duty, the emphasis of the statins, now the number one seller in the world, was not really emphasized back then in the 1970s or later 70s. So, I fortunately had a father in food research who was somewhat involved with helping to develop the TV dinners through hydrogenating the fats so that they wouldn't combine with oxygen, and storage life would be extended for the TV dinners. That was with Armour Food, Swanson TV dinners. And he hydrogenated the fat. So, look at me, I'm hearing from my own father in the 1950s how he is actually not doing something to the food to make the food healthier, but to have a cosmetic and taste and a shelf life, and the ability to sell more product. It's all about selling a product. And then when the cholesterol issue came up in Congress with Senator McGovern (0:10:23) in the 1970s, late 1970s. This fight over cholesterol, saturated fat being a risk for heart disease, was rammed through, and they blocked valuable research papers because my father knew of some of the colleagues in food research and chemistry who were saying that cholesterol is not the problem. One of the doctors was Dr. Enig, I think she was in Princeton. She worked later on over the decades with Dr. Weston Price, and they made a study, a YouTube documentary called ‘The Oiling Of America’ which documents this deceitful hiding of the literature of the value of cholesterol to all life, and that it is not causative. It's an interesting documentary. It's called ‘The Oiling of America’. And I think the woman's name is on the cover, who does the reading of it, because Dr. Enig had an emergency or something, is Sally Fallon. Yeah, Sally Fallon did the lecture for Dr. Enig, who was the PhD on this. So, I never, in my 45 years of practice, have ever worried about total cholesterol on anyone ever. I've never seen one. And if there is a rare hyperlipidemia, familial lipidemia, high cholesterol, and all the lipids, it's so rare I've never seen one. And those who have come to me with very high lipids, in particular triglycerides, who say nothing other doctor has done has helped them, and they give them fat-binding medicines. We have actually been able to, with dietary advice, to get them into healthy and normal triglycerides, where their other doctors just gave up. 

So, I don't look at cholesterol as anything that I really ever am concerned about because the cell membrane of every cell in your body, so you have 40 trillion cell membranes. Those cell membranes are at least made of half as fat, and a large portion of that fat is cholesterol, not to mention the larger portion in your brain, which is even maybe 75% fat in composition. So, there is a lack of training requirement for people to become doctors to understand biochemistry, organic chemistry, enough physiology to understand fat metabolism, and even understand and be very capable of discussing fatty acids, their double bonds, and their reactivity with free radical oxygen species. Oxygen will oxidize the fat. It'll make it rancid. It'll make the fish oil, the omega-3s, DHA, and EPA combine very easily because those two have 5 and 6 double bonds in those fish oils, respectively, and they so easily combine with oxygen that it becomes stinky and rancid just at room temperature. So, we don't have enough well-trained doctors in this whole area. They are just trying to get you to specialize and become a specialist with much more limited capacity in one venue, rather than to have a very good understanding of organic chemistry, physiology, and all human physiology, so that you can keep them from succumbing to a disease pattern. 

And so, with our exercise, with our lower-carb diet, avoiding processed foods, encouraging whole food meals, I have really not had the heart attacks, the strokes, the hypertension in 45 years of practice. I just don't see it really emerging at all in my practice. practice. Rather, what comes to me are people who have had the diagnosis and already been placed on high blood pressures who then come hopefully and get off and lower their doses or they already had their heart attack and they want to improve their circulation and their exercise performance and we improve them, and that they don't go on to a second heart attack or premature death. So, it is possible as a physician to talk about such a successful practice that actually helps to restore health or prevent disease. So, when you ask me about high cholesterol on the keto diet and what the level should be, I like cholesterol. What I don't want to see is high triglycerides. Triglycerides are the simplest form of fat formation, a little glycerol molecule with three fatty acid chains on it, and those are then rapidly made with a high carbohydrate, processed refined carbs, alcohol, inactivity, stress, and that will build up and fill all your fat cells until your fat expands. That is showing an inactive, refined carb-excess eating person who is at risk. So, we're trying to reverse that into an active person who is eating a much lower carbohydrate consumption, staying away from processed foods, and eating whole, natural foods. And then we do, of course, well, I've been testing insulin for 30 plus years, and I've been testing the hs-CRP along with that, homocysteine, many, many decades ago, long before it became a conversation point on YouTube, long before YouTube. So, don't worry about it. Get a good functional doctor who will focus on your triglyceride, your insulin level, your fasting blood sugar, and your hemoglobin A1c. All right. 

Question
“I want to get off thyroid meds, especially since there is talk of discontinuing my particular kind. Natural, of course. Can I just substitute iodine when that time comes?”  [0:17:15]

Answer
Not really. Iodine is the salt, whereas the actual hormone that has the ability to dock and speak to all your cell metabolism is what you'll need. And so, you can't just say I want to get off a hormone. You can't think of it that way. Iodine is deficient in the United States in our corrupt food and medical industry; we have the lowest levels, and it is associated with lowering the IQ, mental fogginess, slower metabolism, inactivity, fatigue, hair loss, constipation, and all these kinds of things. So, iodine sufficiency is the salt that we need, like our minerals and salts, electrolytes, and then you actually need the proteins and fats to make the hormones. So, I don't think you're going to “get off” thyroid necessarily. You can work with a doctor to try and optimize your health and your iodine levels, and maybe see if there is a what is a – what is the name of that natural product – There are some low-dose glandular thyroid. Thyrotain, I think, is the name of it. There are some very low-dose thyroid natural over-the-counter things, but I don't think you can just say replace thyroid hormone with iodine. Find a good functional doctor with some experience and work with them. Get a 24-hour urine iodine test. Read the book Iodine by Dr. David Brownstein. He has YouTubes. If you do David Brownstein iodine, you'll see him discuss all of this, and I think you'll be very happy with it. 

Now, of course, Labcorp and Quest Labs have come up with a junk iodine test. And of course, everyone's normal on it. When you go to your mainstream monopoly labs and the influence of the medical industry that is a business, everything's fine. You give a little sample because all the ranges are so low that you fit in the low chronic deficient ranges. When you do a physiological test, as Dr. Brownstein has done for 30 years, you'll see that you are suboptimal, and it's a functional test; it's like a stress test. So, it'd be looking at you, for instance, to make an analogy. Let's say you go and want to make sure your heart's working well. So you're sitting there in the chair, and they put an EKG lead on your chest, and they can see your heart's beating, very nicely, and they say, "You're good. You're fine. We don't see anything to be worried about." But then another good doctor would say, "All right, well, let's get you walking on the treadmill and we'll watch that lead on your chest, but when we see you start walking harder and with more endurance, that we start seeing some of the EKG changes showing stress, then he'll say, "Oh, there seems to be with functional demand on the heart that you're having trouble.” So, the stress test that we, so to speak, give for iodine is a challenge where you'll take 50 milligrams of the salt iodine, and then we collect a 24-hour urine sample. And if your body needs iodine, it will hold on to it. So, you'll only pee out maybe 60% or 70% of it, and then we know that we're deficient. So, that's a stress test, a functional test. But these other labs are just doing really spot checking and say, " Hey, you're good to go. You fit in with everyone else who's the sickest population of metabolically deficient Americans. 93% of people are metabolically deficient in this nation. And you're proud of your doctor? I'm not proud of doctors. I'm not proud of my profession. How dare we have allowed that? Now, fortunately, I thank Almighty God; I give him all the credit to keep me open and listening, because I'm going to say, the vast majority of my patients are in that top 7%. I just saw a 90-year-old woman this morning, one of my patients, and her lab looked like that of a 50-year-old woman. So, give me a break. I just give God all the glory. You give good advice. Grandma was right, Dad was right to tell you to exercise and get up out of bed and get going, and Mom was right to tell you, and Grandma was right to drink your water, wash your hands, and eat good food. So, we are amazingly made machines. 

Question
“Hi, Dr. Rita. What is your best advice for improving kidney health after antibiotics? Thank you.”  [0:22:56]

Answer
I don't know that you should necessarily assume that you have a problem with your kidneys after a round of antibiotics. The fluoroquinolones, which are fluorinated antibiotics, like Levaquin or ciprofloxacin, are fluoride-based and have great potential to have side effects, especially with connective tissue. But as a general rule, it's safe. I try to never prescribe ciprofloxacin or levofloxacin. Normally, sulfur antibiotics, Septra, Bactrim, the cephalosporins, the amoxicillin, Augmentin, the Nitrofurantoin Macrobid, and these various other kinds of antibiotics, I have really very rarely seen a problem. So, when you're saying what to do for your health, stay hydrated. All my life here, and every single person who's been a patient of mine here the last 25 years, I've always said, how much water do you drink, every time you come and see me. Every time I say, how many ounces of water do you think you get down a day, a close estimate. And that's where we get the instruction: drink half your weight in pounds as ounces of water a day. So, if you're a 200-pound man, you need about 100 ounces of water a day, approximately. And we are woefully under that because we're entertained all the time through marketing to get us to drink other things. And so, amidst all the other things, how can you have time or space or even have a desire for water? So, my suggestion is that we are made of water. I ask all my patients to understand the electrical structure of water. For the past many years, I've been telling my patients this, about how that water is structured around every cell membrane, and it is part of the energy delivery system to your cell, in addition to your mitochondria. So, we need water for doing this, and the kidney is only going to be improved with good hydration to prevent hyper-concentrated serum, which will increase the potential for inflammation and damage to the lining of the capillaries. So, I would say, my advice, drink half your weight in pounds as ounces of water every day. The other thing I would say is eat real food, don't eat processed food, which would mean you would eat real meat, fish, chicken, turkey, beef, eggs, primarily raw dairy, hard cheeses, and cooked vegetables. I'm not much at all for a lot of raw food because of the anti-nutrients/lectins that are in these foods, and we're all already so damaged from the impact of the marketing world – high -fructose corn syrup, genetic modification, glyphosate. It's not a small thing to try and say it's important to cook your food, which helps to neutralize, very often, these lectins or glyphosates that are in there. So, that's what I would say about helping your kidneys. 

Question
“Foods with the highest omega-3 fatty acids? Methylated B6, B9 and B12? Necessary to supplement these?”  [0:27:00]

Answer
Well, fish probably have the highest omega-3 fatty acids. But we need omega-6, not hydrogenated omega-6, which they have done to the entire entertainment, refined processed food industry. Every potato chip, every popcorn, seed oil, every fried food, cracker, and cookie packaged, all these things, plus so much more junk food, have hydrogenated omega-6 in them, which are bad for you. That's what my father did since the 1950s. And he predicted all these diseases and damage to the cell membrane, and people succumbing earlier and earlier to chronic metabolic diseases. And everything my father said was right, and food research was right. So, he was right in guiding me into focusing on biochemistry and chemistry to understand this. So, I would say I would eat fish. I would eat - the highest dense source of mineral nutrients is meat, organ food, eggs, crustaceans, and pork and chicken with the skin on it roasted, nothing deep fried. So, that would be your best source for all your vitamin B's, B9, B12, because you can't get B12 in a vegan diet. And so, yeah, it's in fish and meat and chicken and pork and the meat sources. So, that's what I would do. 

Question
“Dr. Rita, my eye doctor recommends cataract surgery in one eye due to lazy eye. Is this a safe surgery? What are the risks?”  [0:29:11]

Answer
Yes, it is. In general, it's gone very, very well. I can say, in all my 45 years of practice, I might know two people who had subsequent problems with the surgery and healing, and that is tremendous because I work every day of my life, I don't take vacations. I've been doing this for 45 years. And so, if I were going to see someone with post-cataract surgery, I would have come across it because it's a very common post-operative finding with my patients. You know, oh, by the way, I had both my cataracts removed. Yeah. So, it's, in general, a safe surgery. 

What are the risks? Well, I'm not a specialist. You know, infection is always number one. There can be some tears or fluid loss, the vitreous loss, detachment, retinal detachment, various chronic problems like that. I've really never seen it. So, I'm going to say, it tends to be a very, very safe surgery, and follow with your specialist, maybe get a second opinion. And tell your regular doctor, your eye doctor who's proposing the surgery, you know, I think I would like to get a second opinion because I value your opinion, but I only have this one body, and I want to get two people and two viewpoints. And that, honestly, I think it's very healthy. for a doctor to see that the patient is self-actuating, has self-accountability for their medical choices for their body. And I'll tell you, I think they do a better job when they see a humble patient saying, I respect you, I'm going to think on this, and I think I will get a second opinion, so that I feel very confident with the doctor I choose to do the surgery. So, don't be afraid. You're not going to offend anyone. And if they are offended, then bad on them because I've spent my whole life offering other alternatives, and I've had so many patients saying, well I don't know, I think I'm going to go with a specialist and not your recommendation. And maybe that is the best decision because I'm not a specialist. So, you have to have thick skin and be teachable. So, everyone should look for the best for their patient’s outcome and not be offended. So, do that. Hopefully, that works well for you. 

Question
“What do you know about Polycythemia Vera, and what is the best way to treat it? My niece has been diagnosed. She hasn’t eaten meat in 4 years. Can this cause this disease?”  [0:32:09]

Answer
I don't think that's causative, no. Polycythemia Vera is characterized by too many red blood cells in general. So, in the bone marrow, the bone marrow is making too many red blood cells, and the hematocrit and the hemoglobin are too high. Instead of having low blood, you're having too thick blood, and that thickness can generate blood clots, strokes, and issues such as that. The cause, I don't know. There is a gene they're looking at, the JAK2 gene, which is a kinase-type gene involved in turning on the action to make the red blood cell, and they have made a blocking agent to this, Ruxolitinib (0:33:25). I'm not sure the name of it, but it's a JAK2 inhibitor, a kinase inhibitor. And phlebotomy is the first course where you just drain yourself, donate your blood, a pint, 250 ml, a cup of blood, and you do that once a month, depending on how bad your situation is. But it doesn't ask the question,  why did it start, and why did it start late in life? So, they don't know what triggers some damage to a gene. So, I don't think this is caused by a gene. I think this is damaged environmentally, so to say epigenetically. The area around the genome, like that JAK2 gene for the kinase that turns the stimulation on to produce the red blood cells, is injured from some environmental toxin/stress. There are so many toxins in the environment. So, I've had people with Polycythemia Vera under my care, with a hematologist. Of course, if there's something like this showing up, we send them for referral, because, again, I don't know everything. I know a lot about a lot of things, but I don't know a specialty amount. So, we'll get a consultation to follow up. But this patient has done so well over many decades as my patient, and she just didn't progress. 

Now, there's some research. I was just listening to an article on astaxanthin, and astaxanthin is an algae in the sea and the waters. It's what makes salmon pink. It makes their skin pink naturally. It's a powerful antioxidant. It's in flamingos; it's what makes their feathers pink. And there's never any cancer in salmon, flamingos, or sharks. I think there are two other animal kingdom things that don't get cancer. But this astaxanthin was given to a scientist, and he built a whole company on this. His name is Samuel Shepherd, and he is on YouTube discussing his work on astaxanthin, and he developed enough of it to treat his own Polycythemia Vera. He was doing blood donations monthly for years. And then he started taking astaxanthin, and that was because it is a type of pre-cancer or myelodysplasia, which is a term for abnormal cell production in the bone marrow, which is like a cancer. That's why hematologist-oncologists follow this. And he gave himself and grew his own red algae, then he became a producer for it for research on it. 

So there is one other man, I forget his name, but I can remember his product was used by the NIH in the research, and that is AX3.life. There is a YouTuber researcher called Rimon, and he is interviewing the man who got the request from the NIH to supply astaxanthin for the research on all the cancers. And I can't remember that guy's name, but if you put Rimon and you put in astaxanthin next to his name, then you'll see these two men on the image screen discussing health life extension with astaxanthin, and he's the producer of it, and he has the AX3.life. So, this is what the man took, and he got rid of his Polycythemia Vera. So, it's a natural extract. I think it's very safe. He used how much? 24 mg up to 100 mg. So, the scientist himself took the self “risk,” and he went up to 100 mg. He noticed his poop became pinkish red, like when you eat beets all the time. If you eat beets, your stool will turn reddish. So, astaxanthin will make your poop look spread, and that's what happened to the scientist, but then, as Polycythemia Vera went away. And how long ago was that? That was about 20 years ago. So, there's a lot of research on that for Polycythemia Vera. And just let your doctor know what you're doing and go from there. And look up some of those sites, inform yourself, and have a discussion with your doctor and decide if you're going to try it, because the NIH has many studies on this. So, it's really quite safe. 

Question
“Do you recommend infrared saunas? And who should not use them?”  [0:40:33]

Answer
Yes. I have one in my bedroom, it's called a SaunaSpace, and it's a tent. It's like I have a little tent in my bedroom, and it's got a little bamboo round chair in there, and it's got four big lights. I turn them on, and it heats up in that tent there in about 10 minutes to about 130 degrees, 120 degrees. Then I sit in there, and I just turn and make circles on it while I'm listening to my Bible tapes or my science tapes or my political science tapes, and suddenly 40 minutes go by. And then I take my temperature when I come out immediately with an oral temp, and I'm always about 101 degrees. So, I get all that wonderful circulatory benefit and the heat shock protein. So yeah, I use it. 

Question
“I found weekly infrared sauna very helpful to relieve fibromyalgia pain and improve energy and well-being.”  [0:42:20]

Answer
Yeah, that's largely because it's a transfer of energy well into the body, and this is talking about that water, called structured water, and that energy is getting electron transport, enhancing the energy potential, membrane potential for your whole body if you drink enough water. And that's why I, of course, have the wand, I have this Analemma wand, and all the water I drink now is structured water. I think I've shown you all this before, but I drink my spinning water here, which is the old-fashioned way of structuring it. But yeah, sauna will help you with that. And then you make heat shock proteins, and it helps to reduce inflammation, plus a lot more heat shock proteins are just a whole other area. That's why God gives us a fever. That's why I don't recommend treating fevers unless it's about 103 or higher, because that interferon production, that cytokine, beginning of the storm that gives you the achiness and everything, is working to alert the immune system and to get your soldiers and your white blood cell count ready to fight the fight they need to fight against a bacteria, a fungus, or a virus, or something. And you don't want to suppress that and handicap your immune system. So, I never treat a fever. I treat a fever with rest and plenty of fluids. Now, if you're not drinking well or you're getting dehydrated and delirious, then of course you have to bring the fever right down. But most people can handle rest and enough water, the fevers, up to around 103, before they're going to have a lot of dehydration and not keep up with their fluid requirements. And then I salt the water as well. 

Question
“Dr. Rita, is hydroxychloroquine a possibility to use in place of prednisone?”  [0:44:46]

Answer
Hydroxychloroquine is used in rheumatoid arthritis and some inflammatory diseases. And so, you could make an argument that, in that anti-inflammatory action, prednisone is an anti-inflammatory medication. So, you could make that argument. But for whatever you're being addressed, whatever specialist you're seeing, ask your specialist about the hydroxychloroquine versus prednisone. Prednisone is typically a burst, short-term, and tapered unless you have some long-term chronic disease like rheumatoid or some other autoimmune phenomenon. And hydroxychloroquine is meant to be a continued chronic usage over the long term. So, prednisone – short. hydroxychloroquine  - long-term. So, see your doctor about that. Or if you're the Deanne that I think you are, talk about it with me and make a personal call, which reminds me, I forgot to say, this is all for educational purposes. I'm not trying to tell anyone through YouTube how to manage their personal concerns or medical issues. You have to discuss that with your doctor. And if I happen to be your doctor, then please make a separate phone call or text the office, so I can see what your question is or what your name is, because some of these handles that you have, I can't connect with who you are as a patient here. But Deanne, if that's you, give me a call separately so I can find out what's going on. 

Question
“I was under the impression that blood donation can relieve high hemoglobin and hematocrit, but that low-carb diets can influence the blood cells to 'live' longer than normal.”  [0:46:37]

Answer
Correct. That's correct also. So, two things can be correct at the same time. And the person who is on a low-carb diet has a healthier, less-inflamed body, and their red blood cells tend to live longer. And those are the paradoxical reasons why even if you're keto or carnivore and your hemoglobin A1c starts to rise modestly, not continuously rise, we might see a hemoglobin A1c of 5.6, 5.5, even I think the highest I ever saw or heard of was a hemoglobin of 6.0, in these very healthy athletes who are eating carnivore or very low carb, and they make healthier robust cholesterol rich, very soft pliable cell membranes, and the cell lives longer. That means the cell will live long enough to bump into more potential glucose molecules and then that stickiness will be sensed in the lab, but not because of the routine population, whose red blood cells last only 90 to 120 days. Maybe an athlete or a healthy carnivore, keto carnivore, is going to have cells that last, you know, 180 days or so. And so, that's the explanation for that.

Question
“Also, HRT testosterone can also have this effect on blood cells. My primary care physician was concerned with my CBC, and so, I donated blood, and 2 weeks later, repeated labs and back to normal values.”  [0:48:32]

Answer
Yes. So, if you have thicker blood, the number one cause is that you don't drink enough water. Secondarily, it is anabolic steroids or testosterone that can cause it to be elevated. Other things then can be the abnormalities of the JAK2 gene for Polycythemia Vera. So yeah, that's why you have to see a doctor, and that's why you probably should get a consult with a hematologist. 

“My primary care physician was concerned with my CBC, and so, I donated blood, and 2 weeks later, repeated labs and back to normal values.” – Yes, so it's good for you to work with your doctor, and maybe a repeat is very valuable. Make some immediate adjustments. And I want to tell you folks, most primary care doctors, internal medicine, family doctors, and pediatricians, most of the time that patients are ill in January, February, and March because of the damaging, filthy marketing of junk food garbage that is consumed from October to November to December into January. And so, we're always addressing those, well, it was the holidays, and I stopped exercising. Well, it was the holidays, and I drank more alcohol. Well, it was the holidays, and I ate more candy at aunt, so and so, and grandmas and uncles, and everywhere I went, there was junk food at work and at church. Everywhere there's junk food. And ha-ha-ha, isn't this cute? Isn't this funny? Well, you know, I am sick of it. And I was seeing my pastor's wife here, and I told her, I am sick of seeing the donuts at church. I've had it. I'm done seeing enough injury from this. And we poo-poo drinking alcohol, but I see those filthy donuts there every Sunday. It makes me sick. So, I told her. I hope that went over well. So, what we have to do is let our doctors check our blood. Think about what you've been doing the past month or two or a few weeks. Did you have the flu the week or two before, and you were vomiting with diarrhea or a fever, and you got dehydrated? Do they ask how much water you drink every time? I don't know. These have to be addressed. 

Question
“I tried lithium orotate 5 mg for 2 days and noticed I bruised easily, had a big black and blue mark on my arm. It could be a coincidence, but I felt off cognitively also. Why would I have such side effects?”  [0:51:30]

Answer
I don't know that that's related. I don't think I've ever seen that. I put 5 mg in my TLC Energy Core, so I get 5 mg every day of my life. I don't think it's related. In fact, lithium orotate at such a low dose is associated with improved mood. There have actually been clinical human trials showing lithium orotate at low doses, 2.55 mg, is associated with clear benefits, statistically significantly fewer suicide attempts in veterans. And so, we know that this has been well studied in a large swath of the population. So, since I've never seen that, and I've been on this and my patients for decades, I'm going to say this is likely more a coincidence. 

Question
“Long-term use of hydroxychloroquine, you have to have your eyesight checked yearly because peripheral vision can be affected. Could I try cutting the lithium in half, its capsule?”  [0:52:46]

Answer
I'm not a rheumatologist who prescribes hydroxychloroquine often. But you know, I am so proud of my EDTA chelation vitamin C and minerals and methylated B vitamins, that my macular degeneration and my glaucoma patients get such tremendous circulation improvement in their eyesight. I'm so thankful to the Lord that at 72, I really don't have any eye diminishment or disease that my optometrist picks up. Praise God. And so, I would say, one of the first things you should do is do EDTA chelation with vitamin C to work on helping your vision stay well. 

So she asked, “Could I try cutting the lithium in half, its capsule?” Yeah, I think you could easily do that. And lithium is a salt, so yeah, I don't see any side effects from that. 

Question
“Hi, Dr. Rita, my mom is 74. Overall healthy. Her blood type is A+. She has recurring UTIs. What can she do to heal naturally? She has to go to the bathroom frequently.”  [0:54:17]

Answer
Well, number one, she needs to work with her primary care doctor. Get a pelvic exam and see if she has vaginal atrophy, post-menopausal atrophic vaginitis. And all the tissues are thinning out, and her doctor could give her some natural hormones, (estradiol) Estrace vaginally, and that can be put intravaginally every day for a week and then twice a week thereafter. That will help thicken up the tissues there, which will help the patulous (0:55:07) urethra that is kind of hanging out and without good tissue support. Taking DHEA will help the immune system and testosterone to help the constriction of the urethra, thereby stopping leakage. Of course, don't drink a lot of fluid right before bed, and then it might be a help. 

Question
“Hi, Dr. Rita, my daughter’s boyfriend sweats all the time. His hands are constantly sweating. How can he eliminate this?”  [0:55:33]

Answer
That's called hyperhidrosis, excessive sweating. There's primary, and then there's like a secondary cause from diseases. The primary cause is usually familial, and it's just an overactive sympathetic system. He might work on breathing techniques and increase his parasympathetic tone. One of the best sympathetic tone exercises I've really seen in practice really helps anybody is, if you feel nervous, you take a deep breath, and then, huh, take a second breath on top of your full breath. Just try and really, huh, suck, you know, take a second breath on top of a full breath. So, normally, they'll say take a deep breath and then let it out slowly, and do that about five cycles. Then on the sixth breath, you take that deep breath, and then take another, huh, if you can go. And what that does is it stimulates the vagus nerve, which relaxes you, and that balance of the sympathetic tone is very helpful. That's the direction I would go with him, working on that, and have him see his primary care. There are many other ways they deal with it. I don't like any of the drug therapies. The drug therapies, like the topicals, typically have aluminum in them, which is toxic, and other topicals that are trying to alter the nerves of the sweat glands there, so I think that's inappropriate to do. But if you have a serious issue, things like diabetes or hyperthyroidism can do this. But primary hyperhidrosis is usually facial sweating, hands, palms, and under the arms, which is never associated with any diabetes, hyperthyroidism, or other medical disorder. So, there are Botox injections, and there's surgery, ultimately with severe hyperhidrosis. They just cut the sympathetic nerves. So, there are many things to do, but have him see his primary doctor. 

Question
“Are there specific foods you suggest for a toddler with severe eczema, or any foods we should avoid to help reduce flare-ups?”  [0:58:07]

Answer
I'm going to say, the entire food industry for children, including baby food and infant formula, is, in my opinion, garbage. Breast milk is the number one thing of all, if the baby can do it. If they're a toddler and they're beyond breastfeeding, then I would find out their blood type, and I would keep them totally off of all dairy because it's been homogenized, pasteurized, and destroyed. I would keep them off of all grains, breads, and cereals, crackers, Goldfish cookies, all of that, and I would have the child just on fish and meat and chicken and pork, and have them have just a few vegetables that are pleasant, like maybe toddlers would chew on a little carrot or celery or cucumbers, and that's it. And I would give the child Clinicians Reference Oil, a half teaspoon a day. It's going to take about four weeks for you to see all the skin start to quiet down and improve, but you have to do this for at least four months. Find a good functional doctor who can do a complete digestive stool analysis, an immune food study, and know the blood type. Those are the areas I would go in. If the blood type is A, they're going to have to start taking digestive enzymes, but those are the steps I would start to take with that.