YouTube Livestream Q&A Transcript, July 28, 2026

Question
“Hi doctor, my last DHEA-S test results were 29.7. I’m a 58-year-old woman. Can you recommend a brand and dosage of this hormone supplement? Thanks!”  [0:13:27]

Answer
Well, it's a pre-hormone, and yes, I would certainly recommend Ortho Molecular or Douglas Labs. Their DHEA 25 mg is usually where I start. You can get a lower dose, 10 mg. I think they make a 5 mg, and I know they make a 50 mg and some make even a 100 mg. So, you can see how tiny 5 mg would be. But I take 50 mg, and I'm a bigger woman and older. And most often, but not always, DHEA will be converted in the human body into testosterone, both in men, especially, and women. And for us, women, it is one of our largest sources of testosterone, so that we can have muscle strength as we get into our older ages for staying active and independent and having enough good muscle mass, so we don't develop diabetes or become insulin-resistant. Doing muscle exercise and resistance work is the primary foundation of living a long life, not to the exclusion of cardio. Cardio is very helpful, but it is not foundational to a long life. Without a decent amount of muscle mass, you will not live a long time. So, we use testosterone to help build muscle. We must eat a high-protein diet, especially as we get older, because the capacity of older people to take the same grams of protein total and get that converted into signaling for muscle building depends on the consistency of eating 30 grams or 40 grams at a meal. If you're only eating one meal a day, I would say that it'd be very hard to achieve eating 120 grams to 150 grams of protein. So, I usually try to eat between roughly 11:00 and 3:30 every day and get 50 grams to 60 grams of protein in as I eat. So, I'll eat meat, I'll eat aged hard cheeses, I'll eat yogurt, I'll eat cottage cheese, and the same when I get home at night or in the midafternoon so I can keep my protein levels up. 

The other thing is DHEA; if it doesn't convert to testosterone, we can give the woman a testosterone topical cream to put on her wrist, on the inside of her wrist, and just rub it in. I have that and have used it myself, but I found that I myself convert my DHEA 50 mg into plenty of testosterone in my own lab. My levels stay around 150. Men should be, you know, 800 or around that area. Unfortunately, today's young men are usually grossly depleted down in the 185- 250 range. Men have a biannual rise, whereas women have a monthly cycle of their hormones. So, men have lower testosterone in the winter and spring, and as the summer starts to the fall, men will get higher testosterone. So, they have a biannual level. So, I like to have my testosterone at least in the 75 to 150 range. So when you get your DHEA, have it tested and take your DHEA and see if the next testosterone level doubles you from 29, call it 30, to at least 60. If it doesn't budge at all, then you are probably not someone who has the enzymes to convert it easily into testosterone. Therefore, I would encourage you to use the topical testosterone, then check your testosterone level once again, maybe three months later, two months later, and see if you can get your testosterone somewhere around 75, and that should be good. 

Now, you've got to be doing weightlifting three times a week, especially if you're older than 60 years old, at least twice a week prior to that. So, if you're younger than 60, twice a week on the machines is what I recommend versus free weights. So, that's kind of my thoughts on the DHEA. Hopefully that's helpful to you.

Question
“You have beautiful skin, a testament to your health and food plan.”  [0:19:09]

Answer
Well, thank you. Thank you very much. Yeah, I have always eaten a largely carnivorous diet because my father got meat from Armour Food Research. It's a meat processing packing facility. So, we always had steaks, Armour hot dogs; we had it all from them. So, I'm largely beef is what I am. And you know, I did grow up on a farm without a toilet or my own bedroom. It was essentially a one-room home because my father was the very first hippie in America. And can you imagine trying to grow up in a one-room home with four daughters, your mother, and all trying to use the sink at the same time? It's crazy. So, I learned not to shower or bathe, but to sponge bathe. And so, all my life I have stayed out of water, keeping my skin oils from being washed away with too hot of water and soap. And I've always learned and always done sponge bathing every day. So, I do believe that, as you get older and you put a lot of soap and hot water on your body, you accelerate the wastage of your own healthy body oils that help your cell membranes create kind of like a sealant over your skin and the thickness of your skin. Of course, a high protein diet, as I've always had, did help me with my collagen and my amino acids and all my minerals because probably the most dense nutritive food in the world is organ meat. And we did have liver; I do like liver. I grew up to like it. So, organ meat, beef, grass-fed. Most of the beef when I grew up, because I'll be 73 this August, was grass-fed, with very little involvement with vaccinations, antibiotics, and hormones. Unfortunately, when they started doing that, my father in food research became very suspicious and had long directed my mother and us girls, as we grew and left the home, to seek out grass-fed and grass-finished foods. 

So, my entire life has been a blessing; I give thanks to my God for that, that I really stayed away from processed food all my life. And I like to laugh a little bit and think about my dear husband. When he first was dating me, it was around 1970 – 71, somewhere right around there; he was eating the large Hershey's chocolate bar. I mean, that's where you break off bars. It was a huge, thick chunk. That to him was a candy bar. And he would bring an RC Cola as his own personal drink to my house when he was coming over to date me or court me. And I saw that, and I said to John, "You can't do that in my house. My father will not think well of you, John, if he sees an RC Cola and a big chocolate bar like that.” And John never forgot that. And so, of course, all our lives, I've been trying to help my husband to do the right thing with food, avoid the processed food. And I can proudly brag on him today that when we were moving last weekend, our son Talon, who runs the place, has a pull-up bar right down the office areas behind here under one of the skylights. So, when my son has time, he'll just hang on the bar and do some pull-ups. And he and his father always used to work out; my sons both. And when my grandsons, who are teenagers, were here and they saw that, they started goofing around on a lull and doing pull-ups, and they were only doing like five or four. One of them only did one or two. And then my son Talon hopped up, and he knocked out several more than the young boys, and he's like 42 or 43, or maybe he's going to be 44 this year. Anyway. And we were bragging on, and one of my grandsons was bragging on their grandpa who's 78 years old now, almost 80. He goes to the gym, and he hops up in his tank top, and he starts knocking out 15 pull-ups. My husband does that. And I do; I see the young men looking at him and marveling. The front office young men are always so respectful to my husband. They see him there faithfully three or four times a week because I know he goes more often than just with me three times a week. And he has tied weights around his hips to do his pull-ups with weights as well. I told him not to do that, I forbade my husband from doing that, because, yes, he is 78 and going to be 79, and he needs to plan for the long run into his 100th birthday and just do the pull-ups with his body weight at this point I think because you can over-exercise and you don't get enough recovery time when you're over 70 - 75. So, I am trying to help watch him now to take it a little easier, be consistent, but to be more user-friendly on his muscle groups. But that's a lot to say there about, you know, testosterone and health and planning and skin health and where this comes from. But we thank the Lord. Thank you for that kind statement. 

Question
“Do you recommend adaptogenic mushroom coffee for gut health, energy, focus and immune health? If so, have you heard of the brand "RYZE"? Also, would mushroom coffee be okay for fasting?”  [0:26:33]

Answer
RYZE is a mushroom concentrate. I think they have shiitake and reishi mushrooms in there, a blend of a few different types of mushrooms. Mushrooms contain an immune-enhancing component in their protein structure, which helps our CD8 and CD4 lymphocytes, our killer cells for fighting cancer, our T-cells, and this group is noted to be supported. There are some other categories, such as beta-glucans in these mushrooms; all are very supportive of our immune system. I also think there's probably some inositol 6-phosphate in them as well. So, yes, I think they're supportive. It's nice in a warm drink. I do so much talking every day of my life for 45 years. I'm just using this dear throat, which has lasted all these years without a break. I never stop talking. And so, my poor staff, sometimes I'm just so quiet and dull when a patient leaves the room. I just shut down for even two to three minutes, so I don't have to talk so much. But that's why I drink either hot water with a little electrolytes, a pinch of my Himalayan salt in there, or I have my coffee, but the mushroom RYZE is the newest and most flavored or marketed blend lately. But these proteins cannot be called non-caloric, non-food items. They would not be considered in a fast. They would be considered a breaking of your fast. 

Now, if that's the only thing you did, I would say it's very nominal, and it's largely protein. But I don't know how much sugar is in that mushroom contraption, RYZE. So, I'm going to say no on the fasting, but probably not really a problem; technically it shouldn't be used on a fast. And yes, I'm familiar with it, and it is gut health because it is part of our protein, and it's also helping with your immune function in your gut. Remember, you have trillions of cells, many, many different families or groups of microbiome in your gut, and they are helping make your vitamins; they are helping make immune-supportive elements and being protective in the lining of the gut. So, indeed, yes, it would be good for gut health, although I have gone all these years without needing to use mushroom support. By God's grace, we have been so many decades ahead of the flare of research and publicity on YouTube and podcasts. We have been using phospholipids; we never supported cholesterol-lowering drugs, unless there are very specific tiny parameters for their use. And all these antioxidants, polyphenols, we have published, and we have done this ourselves decades and decades and decades ago. All glory to God. 

And I also think that is a part of why we have, or I have, good skin, good health. I have been using these antioxidants. I use it in the form of Juice Plus. But if you're going to take, like, AG1 greens, I think is the name of it, there are other fruit, vegetable, and berry blend capsules; they don't have the other research that Juice Plus has done. But I would say, I hope, my prayer would be that there would be some research. I don't think they could ever catch up with Juice Plus. We have 44 or 45 very good published research studies. And I know there are some peripheral studies on it, like one of mine that was published in 2000. They don't list that as a publication, but they're very well aware of the work that I did in 2000, 26 years ago. 

Question 
“I am a 60-year-old A+ blood type woman on Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT). My estradiol blood level is 79. Just diagnosed with benign uterine polyps. Gyno says estrogen is the contributing factor to their growth. What should I do? Concerned about them turning cancerous.”  [0:32:36]

Answer
That's a good level. As long as you're not hot flashing, night sweating, as long as your memory is staying intact, as long as your emotions, your emotional stability is stable, as long as you're getting decent sleep with your hormones, as long as your bone density is reflecting repair and rebuilding, I think if 79 is giving you those benefits, then that's a good level. 

She was just diagnosed with benign uterine polyps. Her gynecologist says the estrogen is the contributing factor to their growth – And I would agree with that. She says, "What should I do? Concerned about them turning into cancer. “ Well, then you have to ask the question of why cancer is exploding outside of breast cancer and prostate cancer. We have an explosion in gut cancers, colon cancers, lung cancers, brain cancers, blood cancers, skin cancers, and my statement there is, I'm pleased that the gynecologist said a contributing factor. So, that gynecologist is probably, hopefully, thinking some of the real causes are the environmental lifestyle behaviors that we have been duped into through marketing of eating out too late, eating a processed diet, eating fats, hydrogenated vegetable oils. They demonized meats and eggs. They put high fructose corn syrup in everything. They made most of the animals forced to eat grains and oats before slaughter for fattening them off to make more money. They put glyphosate, pesticide, herbicide, and fungicide on these cereals and these breads and these crust and carbohydrate products. They put genetic modification into these things to increase the poundage per acre produced. And it goes on and on, not to even mention the heavy metals and all the other pesticides, volatile organic acids, benzene rings, and topical lotions and polyester, synthetic clothes, all this junk we're using, tattoos, hair dyes, everything. 

And if you take a biopsy of a woman or a man with breast cancer, uterine cancer, ovarian cancer, prostate cancer. - So, we'll take the largely hormonally concerning cancers - breast, uterine, ovarian, prostate- and you look at the cell, and they test it for estrogen receptor positive, progesterone receptor positive, HER2 positive or negative, and other cell membrane identifying receptors, you'll never ever see them report insulin receptor positivity. And yet, of all the receptors on cancerous cells of any cancer, the insulin receptor count is orders of hundreds of magnitudes higher than estradiol or testosterone or other hormones. And since 93% of all Americans are essentially having some form of metabolic carbohydrate metabolism problems- metabolic syndrome, borderline pre-diabetes, elevated blood pressures, high triglycerides, large hip-to-waist circumference, over body mass index (BMI), percent body fat percentages- 93% of Americans have one or several of these. We are getting an explosion of diabetes, heart disease, dementia, and cancer. So, do you think it's the recent explosion of making hormones? Oh. Isn't it actually the fact that testosterone is crumbling and crashing in our men today, yet prostate cancer is the number one killer? So, you’ve got to use your- you go to a doctor to have them think outside the box. What was it said? Intelligent people can solve problems, Einstein said, but it takes a genius to prevent them from happening in the first place. You want to go to a medical school that trains your physicians to see you as an ecosystem. I'm so proud of the medical profession now starting to look at the biofilm in our gut, the microbiome. For 30, 40 years, we've been trying to get them to look at this. I'm so proud of the medical profession. Gastroenterologists, I think, really started first. Now, rheumatologists and gynecologists are jumping on. I'm seeing more and more natural hormone support, testosterone support. You know, the US Military recently, in the past week or two, just announced they're going to provide testosterone support therapies for the men in the military. 

So, do hormones cause cancer? I'm going to say they could be a contributing factor, but I have a large population of women who, through informed consent, have made their own personal quality of life decisions. And having consulted with their oncologist for their prior breast cancer or endometrial cancer or ovarian cancer history, whatever it may be, they have chosen to go on natural hormones. And I don't believe I've had one go back to a recurrence of their original breast, ovarian, or uterine cancer. Instead, they changed their lifestyles, where they are having a low-carb diet, not eating late, doing their weightlifting, taking certain known nutraceuticals. A recent retrospective meta-analysis on vitamin D levels, and the onset occurrence for breast cancer and prostate cancer was dropped 80%, not by getting your mammogram, not by doing that, not by getting a PSA, but by taking vitamin D. Vitamin D, at levels held above 60 on the American lab testing, that's why I always say make it 80, 80 to 120, you have an 80% reduction in these cancers. So, why deny yourself the health, the reconstruction, the health of the skin, the health of your brain, the health of your sleep for repair at night, that your memory, your bone density, your immune system, your cardiovascular system, why deny yourself any of these things in light of the fact that the contributing natural physiologic role of estradiol has many roles in the body, and yes, one of them is to develop the lining of the uterine wall in case of a pregnancy, so it will thicken it a bit. But if you use natural progesterone and you do these many other natural, well-known anti-cancer benefits, and you stack them, be on a very good and monitored vitamin D level to remain around 80. Don't eat late. Make sure your insulin is around 4 or less. Make sure your fasting blood sugar is around 85 or less. Make sure your triglycerides are around 55 or 75 or less. Make sure you're working out three times a week on weight training. Make sure you're getting a good night's sleep. Make sure you're taking selenium and a good multimineral, which of course we have been doing with our patients with our TLC Multi Min or our Energy Core. Make sure you're taking systemic enzymes to reduce inflammation. Make sure you are taking vitamin C, either as our IV infusions cyclically here or removing your heavy metals with the EDTA chelation with it to reduce oxidative stress. Make sure you're on the beautiful swath of polyphenol antioxidants from resveratrol, luteolin, astaxanthin, you know, all these polyphenols which are in the Juice Plus, and then take Berberine in the form of, we have it as TLC Metabolic Formula, to prevent the insulin resistance and insulin promoting growth of tumors through its sugar metabolism support. So, I have been taking Berberine for, I don't know, 30 years, at least 25. And you take that. I take quercetin with it, which also helps block certain pathways for tumor growth and progression. Quercetin is a natural antihistamine. It's a mast cell stabilizer. So, you stack these things up. You stack low carb, low insulin, vitamin D, quercetin, a good night's sleep or melatonin, selenium, and the polyphenols, the wonderful antioxidants, adequate hydration, natural progesterone, monitoring healthy levels for your hormones, both male and female, and a joyous spirit. You know, laughter does the heart good like a medicine. So, yes, it has a potential contributing thing, but I don't think that's of concern. And just go to a functional doctor that will monitor it. Hopefully, your gynecologist will grow in her knowledge, experience, and wisdom regarding these many things. 

Question
“When standing in the early-morning grass barefoot, do you ever get ant bites, as I do?”  [0:45:29]

Answer
Yes. The answer is yes. And when I started to see that happen, there are a couple of things you can do. One is take a sprinkle, like a sprinkler. They used to have the vinegar and oil, and the vinegar would have little holes like a garden hose where the top would have holes in it, and you would sprinkle vinegar on your salad. You could use white vinegar and sprinkle it when you step in that grassy area all the time, and that's a nice repellent for chiggers and ants and that kind of stuff. Some people put baking soda in with the vinegar. You know, watch out for fizziness and stuff. So, you can have a bottle for going outside or any area where you sit outside, sprinkle that around, and that tends to do good. Baking soda tends to help. You could sprinkle the area with baking soda. What else… Ginger and peppermint, mint, lavender. I did my second doctorate in Integrative Medicine, and these essential oils are very helpful as well. So hopefully that helps. Let us know next time. Tell us if the white vinegar helped. Okay. 

Question
“What is your understanding of lichen sclerosus and your thoughts on whether it is curable or just managed?”  [0:47:01]

Answer
Lichen sclerosus is usually seen in women post-menopausally, but it can occur pre-menopausally in some. This is the lining of the vaginal canal, and you'll start getting skin in that canal area that is thickened cells, and it looks like white plaques. It looks like little plaques or a marble kind of form of whiteness there. Then it gets dried up and thickened and itchy; it can crack, and it can lead to fissures. It can occur in the anal area around the anus and perineum. So, women are always wet, moist there. We lose our hormones, we dry up, and our skin production and the thickness of our skin diminish. The corneas of our eyes become dry, and we get itchy and scratchy all over. But those of us who use natural hormone replacement therapy help mitigate all of this. We keep our hormone levels and check them once or twice a year to make sure they're running in therapeutic ranges, which I think is somewhere between 75 and 150 estradiol, progesterone 4 to 40 on the range of progesterone, and testosterone somewhere between 75 and 150, DHEA somewhere between 150 and 450. And then, if you eat a low carb diet and you're not bathing all the time and you're not using douches and you're not using tampons that are scratching and accelerating the drying out of the vaginal secretions, that's why I tell all the young ladies that I know, do not use that terrible product called a tampon, ever, ever, never, never, never. I will not use vaginal applicators for anything. I tell my patients, if anything, if they're going to use a vaginal cream, to just put the pea-sized amount on their finger and to put that in themselves with their washed hands. I don't want trauma to the vaginal lining. So, keeping objects out, and tampons like that and applicators, is just not healthy for the lining there. 

I have seen the lichen sclerosus improve. When you do all these lifestyle things like this, and you eat a low-carb diet, do you know that you can increase your natural growth hormone? Women can, if you use these lifestyles and you stop eating earlier, you know, like mid-afternoon, and you wake up. And let's say you stop around 3:00 or 4:00, by the time you eat something, 7:00 or 8:00 a.m., you'll have had 16, 18, 20 hours of fasting. And so, if you wake up and you don't have coffee and make your cortisol stressed that way, and you get the light in your eyes and your circadian rhythm and your cell membrane energy enhanced, standing grounded on the ground on your bare feet for a few minutes every morning or most mornings, you're going to then hopefully take a brisk walk in the morning, or do something like that, that will raise your growth hormone levels 1300%. And you don't have to buy peptides or expensive shots to achieve this. A man who does this can easily go up 2,000% in the production of his human growth hormone and repair. So then your skin will be thicker, and your hair will be thicker and fall out less, and your nails will be healthier. Everything will be healthier. And then when you eat, you eat it, breaking it with a very rich protein, real food, not smoothie shakes, but real eggs or real sausage and bacon, real steak, real pieces of chicken, real pieces of meat, and then that will be the phospholipid bilipid membrane that we've been talking about for at least 40 years, at least 40 years, ever since I got off of active duty in the late 1980s, 1989 -90. So, yes, lichen sclerosus can heal, and yes, we've seen it that way, and the itching will improve. 

Question
“Dear Dr Rita, it would seem that the FDA may be pulling the plug on compounded porcine thyroid. Do you have any ideas on a viable alternative? What recourse might a person have who has been dependent on this? Thank you.”  [0:52:21]

Answer
Well, it looks like it's headed that way because I did check into the whole glandular thyroid replacement. Remember, whole glandular is rich in both T3, the active thyroid molecule, and T4, which is Synthroid. Levothyroxine is another name for it. Tirosint is another name. Levoxyl is another name. They're all precursors of T4, and they have to be converted by your body into T3, the active hormone. And some people don't do this. And in study after study, it really has always shown that those people taking natural glandular thyroid, whole glandular thyroid, feel better, perform better, have better cholesterol levels, triglyceride levels with the glandular over just T4. Furthermore, there was a legal battle right around 19, I don't know, 1992, between the manufacturers of, I think, Armour Thyroid and the company that markets Synthroid, and their argument they brought forth is the one they're doing again now, resurrecting the same corrupt lie, that glandular thyroid has variable amounts of T1, T2, T3 and T4, variable amounts, so that you can't have healthy control, predictive control of thyroid when you prescribe it; Whereas, T4 is stable in its dosing. So, when it was put to the test, and they studied it, they found that literally there was more variability in Synthroid than there was in God's naturally created glandular, whole glandular thyroid replacement. So, they're resurrecting the same corrupt lie again, much like I see methylene blue is resurrected again. Peptide human growth hormone mimickers are being resurrected again. And it appears that they're going to try and do this again. 

So, do I have a secret source? No, I don't. What will I have to do? I will probably have to then always prescribe double the cost to the patient T4, T3 for the thyroid replacement therapies. Unfortunately, you get government involved, and you wind up getting corruption, and you knock out companies and competition, and you get monopoly crony capitalism. It's the empire. It's the corrupt empire striking. And so, you know, we've been using natural glandular thyroid since the 1920s at least, more than 100 years. Show me the great damage. It isn't there. All right. So, I don't have an answer for you. I'll try and look into this because, having this question, I have to make more time to find out where the FDA is, and I need to call (202) 224-3121 and get a hold of the HHS FDA and figure out what they're going to do. 

Question
“Dr. Ellithorpe, my brother has a large oval-shaped area of basal cell carcinoma on his back (3x2 in.) His choices for treatment are 3 months of Odomzo orally, radiation, or surgery. If they cut it out, they won’t be able to close all the way due to the size. What do you think is the best option? The Odomzo orally concerns me. Thank you.”  [0:56:50]

Answer
Odomzo orally, that is a type of chemotherapy that blocks cell signaling for growth. So, it blocks signaling messages on the cell membrane surface. So, that's what that is. Yes, it has many side effects. But I am not an oncologist, and I'm not a dermatologist. I would say, all the healthy lifestyle, anti-cancer therapies, high dose vitamin C, vitamin D levels, not eating late at night, exercising, getting your selenium at least 200 mcg a day if you've already been diagnosed with a cancer, taking quercetin, maybe melatonin, doing these sorts of things, all the polyphenols in Juice Plus, checking your insulin, your fasting blood sugar, your triglyceride level, your hemoglobin A1C, doing all these things is what you'll have to do anyway not to grow more cancers on your body. So, start now. So, I'm not going to advise you on which is the best to do. You have to use their advice. We have many people who have gone through tremendous chemotherapies, radiation, surgeries, and they have come out better alongside marrying up our immune building, our detoxing, and our nutrient supportive therapies alongside the oncologist recommendations. So, I wouldn't say which to do. Follow up with them, please, but we can certainly stack the cards in your brother's favor with all these other wonderful therapies. And if they can find a good functional medicine doctor, that would be my best suggestion as well.