YouTube Livestream Q&A Transcript, March 17, 2026

Question
“Hi Dr. E., I have been diagnosed with MCAS, Mast Cell Activation Syndrome, and was wondering what advice you have about this and what I can do. I’m taking antihistamines daily. I can’t find a doctor that specializes in this. Any suggestions? Thanks!”  [0:02:22]

Answer
In general, Mast Cell Activation Syndrome is the overactivation of mast cells, and their function is to release granules out of them when they get activated to stimulate local reactions, for instance, to irritations, like allergies often have mast cell activation, injuries have it, and other situations can generate it. This then creates a broad range of functional symptoms in the human body. They're annoying, and this irritation/inflammation can become problematic. Typically, we have pathways in our biochemistry that help to deactivate histamine, which is released with mast cell degranulation. And this histaminic response, if the histamine is broken down rapidly, then it limits your symptoms, and you do well. The problem comes when you can't break down histamine. There are enzymes that are involved in the breakdown of histamine. There are nutrients that are needed in the breakdown of histamine. 

One of the very important ones in the pathways enzymatically to break it down is some of the B vitamins. In particular, one of the pathways is pyridoxine 5’-phosphate, which is vitamin B5, and very often Americans are really low in their B vitamins. And so, these mast cells and their degranulation products and buildup of histamine can then generate these irritating bodily symptoms. You might find it helpful to just get isolated pyridoxine 5’-phosphate, P5P. It's in good B complex supplements. I have it in mine here in my TLC Methylated B Complex, and I have a very good dose of it, somewhere in the realm of 25 to 50 mg typically. It’s helpful in one of the enzymatic pathways. Another pathway is also using u supplements like magnesium, B6, and I think zinc. And these tend to be low. Americans, in my general practice studying and doing labs on vitamins in the human body, I'm always weekly screening various patients, and I'm getting back low B vitamins, low minerals, low zinc, low B5 pyridoxine phosphate, low thiamine, low riboflavin, low B6, nicotinamide-based B vitamins, and on and on, low inositol, low B12 most famously. And so, it might be wise to take a very good amino acid chelated multimineral. Ours is called TLC MultiMin. We combine these nutrient minerals, rich in zinc and magnesium and so forth, with amino acids that are beneficial in the body for a multitude of purposes. It's better absorbed. And then we methylate all our B vitamins. I find most people respond well to this. And then there's diamine oxide (DAO). This is something you can get as a supplement. Diamine oxide (DAO) is a supplement that helps to break down histamine so that there isn't as much stress on other pathways, like the monoamine oxidase pathways for all of our neurotransmitters. 

So, those are things that you can do. Before you do that, there are foods that are very high-histamine-provoking. And you can easily go on the computer and Google or search what high-histaminic foods to avoid. Or another title to look up is ‘what is an anti-histamine diet’. And so, if you eliminated these foods, there are many of them, and some very popular, these are so common in the diet, if you eliminate them, that might help your symptoms. Now, in general, everything that is valuable for functional good health and medicine is to do adequate water consumption, drink structured water, better cell membrane protection, so it's less likely to be irritated by cytokines, such as histamine and other molecular fragment structures that create inflammation, to exercise regularly, and to stop eating late. If you're under 60 years old, try to stop eating at 5:00. If you're over 60, as a general line to draw, I would stop eating mid-afternoon. Eventually, we all need to give up dinner. So, I had to rush home from work to try and get a healthy protein-rich meal in before I came here to work for this video every Tuesday night. I make it happen because I want it to happen, because I want to stay healthy and stay young as long as I can to serve God. So, these various things, taking systemic enzymes on an empty stomach, help remove inflammatory markers, and then getting a good night's sleep on an empty stomach. Grounding yourself in the morning helps with getting in the sunshine, standing on the wet grass or the shoreline in the wet sand, and then you'll let the infrared light help with strengthening your cell repair and cell transmembrane energy. Eating a protein-rich diet is important because we're all typically eating refined junk food and processed foods. We even now have an explosion of packaged foods that are sold as health foods. It’s just mindboggling how we are sold a bill of goods under the label of this as health food. So anyway, those are the beginning statements I would make. Work with a good functional doctor. Take time to address this. Work with your local doctor and start with those suggestions. It will most certainly be a benefit for you. 

Question
“Hi Dr. E! Our family has shifted to a more carnivore diet, and I'm curious about advice for to-go/school lunches. I know lunch meats are processed and have high sodium, and I'm wondering if that's really as bad as I think it is. I appreciate any advice on an encore-focused diet for a family. Thanks so much!”  [0:10:58]

Answer
Well, I'm going to say, we need to teach our children not to be suckers for marketing and tempted by our neighbor’s food smells or presentation. This hole here is to be used to bring in foods that will help repair the body for the service, from my worldview of being a Christian, to serve the body of Christ and the kingdom. of God today. And that means taking entertainment marketing out of food. So, if you had roast beef last night, guess what will show up for breakfast and for their lunches? Roast beef. And this concept of variety, variety, change, change, change, this is all more of a marketing thing to get you to spend dollars chasing down pre-planned mental images of what is entertaining, what is exciting to the taste buds. And you can't live your life like that. That will harm you ultimately. What you want to do is teach your family how important we are made of protein and healthy fats. This stuff between my cheeks here, my fingers, is really mostly fat and protein. It's not fruits and vegetables that create the structure of the tissue in my cheek. 

Now, there are minerals and nutrients in the vitamins, in fruits and vegetables, but structurally, we're not really composed of that. We're made of protein, fats, and minerals. So, you want to teach that to your children, that this is what we need to foundationally build off of. So, I would put whatever protein you made in non-plastic containers and try to get away from plastic so much, and you know, cut it up, pre-cut it up, so they can use a toothpick, you know, to take bite-sized elements. And put in some nuts and seeds, and maybe if you have some fruit, you can pre-cut them up and put a squirt of lemon or lime on them so it doesn't brown and oxidize. But you can teach it's fun in teaching when you take an apple, and you let it sit out, but you take another apple, and you cut it, and you put some lemon juice or lime juice on it. And if you wait the same amount of time, you'll see that the one that had the antioxidant vitamin C in the lime or lemon juice, that apple will not break down or age as fast. That's the principle of why we're taking antioxidants as well. 

So, my advice is don't be marketed to. Make your own life. Live your life in the service of the principles and goals that your family esteems. And I would suggest as a doctor that we have been marketed into eating for entertainment and keeping up with the Joneses’ image and self-gratification, and that's not the thing we want to teach our children. So, that's my humble suggestion right there. 

Question
“’ I’m a 58-year-old woman interested in natural hormone replacement therapy. Just had bloodwork done. Previous bloodwork showed low hormone levels. Any recommendations on where to start? What creams do you suggest? Combo hormone creams?”  [0:15:13]

Answer
I like to follow a simplistic ‘less is more’ approach. I want to glorify God's creation more than my finesse and managing any medical issue. And so, instead of trying to dazzle you with the idea that there's a Tri-Est cream and Bi-Est cream and all forms of approach, transdermal, pellet insertion, oral patches, sublingual drops, you know, high dose, low dose. There's a Wiley Protocol out there for years and years, since the 1990s. I try to tell the patient that hormone therapy is unique to you. So, when we start, we like to start with the simplest and take what's missing. If your estradiol is low, that is what we give alone. Estradiol. We put it in the most simplistic base topical cream. I use Eucerin here. I make my own. And I put a modest dose in it, so that we usually start somewhere between 1 mg dosing a day to 1.5 mg dosing a day, and I usually have the ladies put it on their face so that their skin, their collagen elastin, they don't wrinkle as much their the health and natural growth repair support of estradiol helps everything, from your cartilage to your hair to your sleep to your bones to your heart health, but it's nice to put it on the face because it helps you wrinkle less. And I start through the face, and I say all over my eyelids and around the T-zone here and everything, and what's left, I fan it out up in this fashion. If I have anything left of my one little dose, I'll put it on the back and rub my wrist together, so that the back of my hands don't look like old skin, 73-year-old thinning skin. And I just use estradiol, and then I recheck just estradiol. I have never seen, in the approximately 40 years practicing with natural hormone replacement therapy, any benefit to the jazzed up varieties of hormone replacement therapy, mixing estriol (E3) with estrone (E1). I just use – yes, these are natural hormones that you can find in a woman, but functionally and managerially, and to stay focused on results and a good economy. I just use estradiol. 

Then I add in the natural progesterone, and there are no varieties of progesterone. In fact, I've known since 2002, in the studies and the retrospective analysis done on the woman's study of 2002, where they scared everyone about hormone replacement therapy. Actually the synthetic primer was really not so problematic, but it was the Provera synthetic progestins, which are synthetic copies off of God's beautiful natural progesterone that are now even linked with and have been known since back then with breast cancer incidents increasing and there have been more studies since discussing this incidence associated with the use of Provera progestins, which unfortunately are in all the birth control pills, which unfortunately the vast majority of women use and I cannot help but think that that's linked with the great additional risk problematic lifestyle exposure, in addition to all the sugar, and electromagnetic energy, and heavy metals, and stuff that these poor girls are being exposed to like little experimental rats. So, I would start by finding a doctor who will give you natural estradiol. And then they must recheck your hormones to see what that one dose for the absorption through your skin serves. Did it help you with vaginal lubrication? Did it help you with your sleep? Did it help you with your joint pain? Did it help you with your hot flashes? Did it help you with your night sweats? And on and on. And then, that's how I would start. And then add in the progesterone after you've been on the estradiol for a few weeks. 

And that recreates the process in which a young little girl develops into womanhood. The first hormone that really shows up is the estradiol, and then later on, her progesterone. First ovulation occurs, and progesterone is the second. So we reproduce that cycling, starting with the estradiol first, one click a day to the face typically, or sometimes I put it on the inner wrists. And then about two weeks later, I'll start rolling in the progesterone and go from there. But that's how to begin, and that's how I would suggest starting with all human bioidentical natural hormone replacement. And recheck the levels within two to three months and have the doctor ask how you're feeling on all these planes and adjust it up or down or what. The other caveat I want to say is that I try never ever to start natural hormones without giving systemic enzymes. If young girls are full of enzymes and they heal their cuts and bruises quickly, then older women who are trying to re-enhance themselves with natural hormones need to put those enzymes back in them, because if there's any concern for blood clotting with the increased hormone levels, more indicative of their youth, then you should reproduce the enzymes as well. I take five Vitalzym systemic enzymes every morning on an empty stomach. And if I ache or hurt anywhere or feel congested nasally, to bring down inflammation, or if I feel ill, I'll double that five twice a day on an empty stomach. Drink lots of water because dehydration accelerates aging and poor hormone distribution in your body. So, drink more water if you're going to go on hormones. And please, for God's sake, don't eat late. If you're old enough for hormones, you're probably needing to not eat so late and be on a lower sugar carbohydrate, fruit sugar diet. So, that would be my suggestion. 

Question
“I have osteoporosis, so I seemingly need a certain amount of protective estradiol. But I also have prostate cancer and low testosterone, so I need to keep the estradiol level lower. So, considering my osteoporosis, should I be taking anastrozole to lower my high-normal estradiol level? It sounds like a challenging balance.”  [0:23:14]

Answer
Well, what is a normal estradiol level in a man? I think that's a problematic question that the vast majority of practicing physicians are just not aware of, even though it's so foundational. I have seen men get more and more prostate cancer for many reasons. I do not believe it's testosterone. I think they lower it to try and use it as a handle in management, but it is really not curative necessarily, or necessarily the causative agent. It is a growth hormone in both the male and female bodies. So, diminishing it is a mechanism that does provide some help. Estradiol is a growth-promoting hormone and repair hormone, and we want these things in our bodies to help us repair and not age as quickly. But once we already have an abnormal family of cells in our body that are at risk for growing out of control with normal sequence control of our immune system and hormone changes, then we've got a problem. Most men, their labs will say, it's normal to have an estradiol level as high as 56; I've seen 64 on some labs. But I'm going to tell you, menopausal women, if I can get their estradiol level up to 56-64, most of their hormone symptoms, hot flashes, night sweats, and sleep quality and mental focus seem to improve. So, that's what I would therefore say is a rather hefty dose of estradiol. Therefore, I don't think it's normal for a man to go up to the range of 56 or higher. Instead, I found in the years of practicing, if I kept men somewhere at 25 on the estradiol, and that is the symptomatic real/symptomatic range for women when it's really not being perceived as significant volume in the body. That's what I've chosen for my male population. This is my clinical experience. 

So, yes, I think estradiol is important. In your scenario, since you are on anti-testosterone therapy and you are limiting the amount of estradiol in your body, remember, alcohol will promote the estradiol level in men and women. So the men who have beer bellies prove this, as you see their breasts get bigger because it promotes gynecomastia. The alcohol-estrogen association is associated with alcohol. But you, you don't have your doctors reminding all their women not to drink alcohol so they don't get imbalanced hormones, estrogen dominance, and breast cancer. I don't think they're paid enough to take time to help their dear patients. But we do it here, and we accept what God gives us as income.

Question
“Hi Dr Rita, since I have changed my diet to a meat-based one, I have increased my electrolytes. Is there such a thing as drinking too many electrolytes in a day?”  [0:27:24]

Answer
Well, yes, of course there is. But the electrolytes in meat and chicken, and the skin with the chicken roasted with fish, with pork, with sausage, with lobster, crab, crustacean, all these kinds of things are usually a very supportive amount of electrolytes/minerals. But we have come through a very corrupted medical management scenario in this country, and the frightening advice of ‘we all have too much salt’ is used over and over. And I would indeed say, in those people who unfortunately don't hear the truth, and they eat lousy food, and that potato chips and their Doritos and their Cheetos and their salty food, cheap foods, they are creating problems and secondary medical issues in combination with the high-carb nature of the foods. But to salt to taste is something that I think is very safe. Salt in my meat when I eat it, my chicken, my salmon, my eggs, maybe lobster sometimes. I think salt to taste is something, but to try to take these new marketed products, like LMNT, again. Why can't we just eat a normal diet? Everything's got to be marketed. You're fearfully and wonderfully made. And I think if you take salt to taste on any particular meat, chicken, fish, pork, whatever you're going to eat, your eggs, and you do that routinely. 

Now, if you're doing practices, such as hot yoga four times a week and sweating profusely, or you're in the sauna, you know, four or five times a week sweating profusely, or you're an athlete with a very aggressive protocol for your workout schedule, then yeah, you're going to have to take additional salt, electrolytes, maybe one drink per day. But if you're doing that, you should have a doctor following you anyway to do oversight chemistry panels and electrolytes on you. But we're made fearfully and wonderfully, and we're designed for the most part to do this without YouTube advisors and stars on YouTube and doctors acting as, you know, YouTube fame advisors on everything. We're made to do very well. So, salt to taste there, and you should do quite well. I just want to say, the salt I buy, I buy the Himalayan pink salt. I buy the Celtic salt, so I'm not dedicated to any one particular brand. I like the variety, so that I'm getting various mining minerals from different places rather than just trying to get Wharton's u salt at the store. Wharton's iodinated salt. So, that's another thing. 

Question
“Give me more information about oral estradiol, the pros and cons.”  [0:31:45]

Answer
I have practiced for 45 years now, and I've been giving estrogen therapy throughout all these years, even while I was on active duty and there were no patches back then. So, we have given oral estrogen products, although Premarin was really the only resource we had back then in the 1970s. Late 70s, when I started practicing, and all the way up till really they started getting a little more finessed in the 80s, late 80s, early 90s, and we started having options outside of Premarin. Premarin was the equine horse female hormone concentrate. It was very unnatural, but that's the one they used in the women's health study of 2002. And it generally was associated with favorable outcomes, even beneficial outcomes, and even colon cancer was found in the group that used it. So, I would say there's a long history, even if you were using the equine horse Premarin products orally, you did well, no matter what. What makes something problematic is when the doctor is just throwing a pill at you and not talking about the enzymes needed, not talking about the exercise needed, not talking about the low-carb and lifestyle fried foods, and the hydrational state, and the need for a routine time for going to bed and getting up and getting some morning sunshine, grounding yourself. These lifestyle things are just now becoming popular; we here have been doing it for decades and decades, and I am so blessed to have a wonderful, long lineage of patients who are healthy 70-year-olds, 80-year-olds, 90-year-olds, and those who are now cresting past their 100th birthday. So, yeah, I would not worry about it. Unfortunately, there are people who want to make you think they know everything. I would say the idea that the oral usage of estradiol and then its first pass through the liver is not showing any issue with the metabolism through the liver, and so forth. I think it's fine. I think it's safe. I've seen it for 45 years, half a century. So, no, I don't see a problem with oral. Just measure your levels, and do it at least twice a year, and watch how that is. I do as it is balanced with progesterone. I don't like estrogen dominance. So, that's how I would approach that. 

Question
“As a postmenopausal woman, what would be the optimum number range for estradiol, progesterone, and testosterone?”  [0:34:59]

Answer
Well, everyone's unique, but the majority, the majority of an average menopausal woman, I would say, if her estradiol level and nanograms per deciliter, that's the standard unit, I would say, somewhere between 75 and 150. And progesterone is in picograms per deciliter, that's somewhere in the realm of at least 4 to anywhere upwards of 40, 4 to 40, because when you ovulate, you explode with your progesterone way up into the 40-50 range and then down. So, yeah, I would say 4 to 40. Now, progesterone can make you feel tired. It helps sleep; it's a hypnagogue. So, you can start out with doses that are lower, you know, a 100 mg capsule, a cream of 100 mg, and that would be a way that you have to measure with a serum hormone level for progesterone and estradiol. So, we've done those two. Estrogen 75 to 150, progesterone 4 to 40. And then testosterone. The ranges are disgustingly low. I keep my testosterone about 150, and I think women feel best at 75 to 150, much like estradiol. You have to remember, the ranges that are populated on the labs are just averages for that laboratory's reference ranges. There is some oversight, but most of the, or I won't say most. Let's say too much of the assumptions in medicine is that the reference ranges refer to someone who is healthy. And now that everyone in this country 93% have some metabolic syndrome component in their being, either their blood sugar, their insulin, their triglycerides, their blood pressure, their weight, or their hip-to-waist ratio, you have any of these that are elevated. 93% of Americans are in this pre-metabolic syndrome state. 

So, why would you think that the reference ranges based on these sick Americans, 93% of us, are giving you the right answer? It's not. Therefore, much of what I see, or a good deal of it, is inappropriately high or low. I saw, for instance, a C-reactive protein just recently in the past month or two. I have patients from out of state coming by, they fly out here to see me international occasionally and what happens is they'll bring their lab in, like when it comes from Japan or Spanish countries, and you see these ranges, and then I see maybe in Louisiana or South Carolina or Washington State, some of these C-reactive proteins are allowed to be up to 10 10 and I would think it'd be generous if you would say the inflammation marker of C-reactive protein up to a 3 would be tolerable. Okay, that's pretty average. But the ideal, and don't you want your doctor to know what ideal is, well, if you really want to live long and see your grandchildren grow and maybe even a great-grandchild born, you want optimal. And so 1.0 or less is the optimal. So, on these hormone ranges, I could cry that I see so many of these hormone levels are dismally low because most women are not being managed optimally. And every time I get lab back on my patients, I have to cross off the red marks: high estradiol, high progesterone, high testosterone, high B12.p And then insulin, it's ridiculous how insulin, they, in some labs, let it go up to as high as 25, is called a normal fasting insulin. That's, in my opinion, a death sentence, and many of them are allowing 18, 18.9 as their upper limits. That's what I think is a death sentence. I honestly think an optimal fasting insulin needs to be 5.5 or less; better, it would be if it's 4 or less. 

So, you see, I have a problem with the practice of clinical medicine, in that I don't think there's enough curiosity for that doctor to go home and look and see what is healthy and work with each patient as an individual, not a group, and try a little more estradiol. How do you feel? Come back in a month or two, three at the most. Try a little more testosterone. See how you feel. Come back in a month or two or three. See how you feel. Check that bone density. See how it's responding to your hormones. Add in your inflammatory markers. Add in your insulin levels, various things, to just see how you're doing. That's what a clinician is. But if you're just a protocol doctor following protocols, I mean, of course, AI will take your job eventually. Okay? But we have to think, we have to solve a problem, and listen. And so, we try to get as much done at any one visit here. But if you think the insurance pays for a routine visit here covers costs, that's a laughing, rolling on the floor, laughing joke by the time that comes through. It's really sad. And I understand why doctors won't work for a pittance as we do here. 

Question
“How do you know your hormone levels? Only a Dutch test can tell.”  [0:41:56]

Answer
No, that's not true. Any test that is reproducible and manageable, has input and result, and maintains that with a sustained following over months and years, that's a reproducible test, and it's valid. Yeah, the Dutch test is out there; there are all kinds of things, I'm all for research and so forth, but I have never seen the Dutch test used as economically and valuably as normal serum levels of your hormones. Very often, salivary samples will get contaminated. In an older woman's mouth, she has more periodontal disease, and when she makes the saliva, she'll get a red blood cell or two, and that'll reflect a serum input, and that'll throw off the Dutch test results. So, that's my thought on that. 

Question
“Mine originally was 40 estradiol 5 years ago with the same small dose, and just got labs, and it is <30 for estradiol.” [0:43:04]

Answer
Yeah, there you go. So you have to talk with your doctor. And if there's no contraindication, which we have quite a few women post breast cancer who are on natural hormone replacement therapy, but they live a healthy lifestyle and do the other detoxing enzyme and therapies following their oncologist management, and they do very well. Those are ridiculously low levels, and it will maybe be at risk for osteoporosis, memory issues, lack of sleep, less healing at night, those kinds of things. So, we like to ideally keep them in – you know, girls’ hormones for estradiol can go as low as 25-ish at the follicular phase starting, and then they can go up and peak maybe as high as 400, 500. So, to get at 75 to 150 is not something colossal or high, but having less than 30, you're really just spitting in the wind basically. 

Question
“Other than keeping your immunity up in the first place, what would you recommend at the first sign of strep throat? There seems to be a lot going around right now, and my daughter ended up in the ER last night with what seemed to be a large abscess. She was trying to fight it off naturally with garlic drops, etc.”  [0:44:35]

Answer
Yeah. Mary, a tonsillar abscess can turn out to be a medical emergency. So, we don't want to fool around. There is a place and appropriate time for antibiotics for surgical drainage of a tonsillar abscess or immediate referral, if clinically deemed safe, to see an Ear, Nose, and Throat specialist for possible incision and drainage or watchful waiting. So, you have to be careful. Yeah. And you have to keep your immune system up. I would say tonsillar abscesses are rare. Now, I'm not a specialist, so I'm not getting tonsillar abscesses coming to me. But I can tell you, in the 25 years I've been here at this location in Tustin, I have so oh rarely seen a strep throat that needed referral for any emergent issues, and the rare case of strep positive quick test here and then culture later. We give them the appropriate antibiotic, but it's rare. So, it's true, keeping your immune system up with a low-carb diet, going to bed on time, taking good oral hygiene, and taking your vitamin D, your zinc, things like this are very valuable. Watching that sugar in your diet, keeping that down, so you don't ruin your immune system, keeping a multi-mineral for your zinc levels up, and so forth. That's the ideal. 

Now, Argentyn silver gargle and swallow is helpful with oral hygiene. Using a toothpaste that has xylitol and hydroxyapatite is more helpful and less harmful than Listerine-type products, antiseptic mouthwashes that kill all these bacteria. You want good, beneficial bacteria on your tongue to help your body make nitric oxide. You want to have good probiotics in your system as well. So, the toothpaste I use is Radius Immunity. I get it at Sprouts. And it's got the xylitol and the hydroxyapatite in it for good oral health, and that’s what I would recommend. But if your daughter is having that, yeah, go to the ER. And if there's an abscess, follow the instructions there because you're now in the zone where you need standard medical management. 

Question
“Hello, Dr. E! I want to seriously apply your request for me to "increase protein intake" to my diet. At about 130 lbs., doing strength workouts 2 to 3 times a week and walking once a week, how many grams of protein per day would you recommend? Do you recommend the "Chomps" meat sticks? Or any other non-animal proteins that are easy to grab and go?”  [0:47:55]

Answer
Well, those are my recommendations in general. I don't know who you are in particular. This is not meant to be over-the-counter management through YouTube medical advice. You could see your doctor. The general rule is at least 1 mg per pound. Okay. So, 130 grams of protein a day. 

“Do you recommend the 'Chomps' meat sticks?” – I don't know that brand, Chomps. Yeah, I don't go into this world of easy and grab and go. I'm sorry. I wake up early and eat what I prepared late at night. I usually do food preparation in the evening, so that it's ready in the morning. I put a roast on, slow-cook. I'll get up at 4:35, 5:30 the latest, and I'll be doing all my morning duties and getting my protein in if I'm going to do it. So, no, I don't know Chomps ticks. I wouldn't recommend anything over the counter. I have a protein stick that I have used. I don't know the name of it. It's got like a Chipotle flavor in it. So I'm not a prude, in that I wouldn't try something like that, but my general rule is, I've got eggs in my refrigerator here in my office, I've got walnuts, I have cottage cheese and yogurt, and a can of tuna. Yeah. So, that's what I do. 

Question
“Blessings, Dr. Rita. I want to install a water structure system for my whole house. Who do you recommend? And do you need to add a softener? Have you heard of a system that you can add vitamin C?”  [0:50:12]

Answer
No, I've never heard of that. But if you go to www.analemma-water.com, their website has even a whole house for the structured water, and you don't necessarily need to install a water softener with it. You can add it in line with your water softener, but I'm not an expert on that. I have a water softener. I don't think it's working because nobody ever puts salt in the container, let alone me. And so, I don't even know if my water softener system works in my house. I don't have the Analemma house system; I really can't afford it. But I do have the Analemma wand, and I do have a Berkey water filter. So, you just improvise. I don't have the answer for you. Sorry. 

Question
“Can a person with Type 2 diabetes, who is overweight, get better on a strict diet and get off meds? Friend 76 woman.”  [0:51:36]

Answer
Most of the ones I've walked through this, the answer is yes. Yes, I think you can get over diabetes, and, on a strict diet, get off meds, but you have to exercise. So, that's very important, and you get certain nutrients. Find a good functional doctor and try to work that through and tell them what your goals are. And yes, my experience is, in general, yes. 

Question
“What helps the most when you’re starting to lose your memory? What is your recommendation?”  [0:52:16]

Answer
Well, are you on hormones? How high is your sugar, starch, and fruit sugar in your diet? Are you drinking alcohol? What time do you go to bed? Do you get up in the morning and get some morning sunshine with the infrared first flood at sunrise? Do you ground and put your feet on the ground, so you get the energy that way? And do you hydrate your water, so that your cell transmembrane potential from the water lining, every cell in your body, and every nerve gets more energy that way? And do you exercise, both weightlifting and aerobic? And are you eating enough protein and healthy fats? Are you on hormones? Are you on systemic enzymes? Are you taking creatine? That helps. So, those are all the various things I would work through with my patient, plus other minor ones.

Question
“What are your thoughts on hydrogen water and hydrogen tablets for water? Do you think they’re beneficial?”  [0:53:27]

Answer
I'm going to say, hydrogen, that's, you know, the smallest element. It's a proton. It works in helping with the electrical nature of our body chemistry. I'm not going to say it alkalinizes you, but I am going to say that part of structured water around every cell membrane is associated with generating a free-floating proton, just like taking hydrogen tablets or hydrogen water. So there is a rationale for that. There is a biochemical understanding of its benefit. I'm going to say, life is not any one thing. It is a complexity of being, I think, grateful, at peace, thankful for being forgiven, and then adding in your lifestyle, your routine, your dietary humble menu. Rather than using your mouth as an entertainment hole, you're trying to live a lifestyle where you're here for a reason, a purpose, and you matter. There are those around you who depend, care, love, or need you in some manner, shape, or form. We have to have these happy thoughts because our thoughts are going to generate our actions. You know, Philippians 4:8, whatever is lovely, beautiful, of good rapport, think on these things. So, even if there's someone irritating you, you have to shove away the irritation about them, and you have to think, what can I think lovely about that person, what can I think beautiful about that person, or of good rapport, and then focus on that because, you know, I'm no perfect person. My poor family has to put aside some of the detractions they know about me so well and intimately, and think of the good things. So, everything we do will help our memory. Everything we do will help us lose weight. Every supplement that we take will have more impact, including hydrogen. 

Question
“My whole adult life (currently 69), my triglycerides have been low. They have been in the 30 range and down to even single digits. I understand this is supposed to be good. Can you review triglycerides and how to have enough of them, and not just that low is good?”  [0:56:08]

Answer
Really, I have never seen in 45 years a human being with a triglyceride level that is single digit. I just haven't. I have seen people with a triglyceride level in the teens, the upper teens. I have never seen anything negative about low triglycerides, ever in my practice of 45 years. So, I think that's a good sign for longevity. Triglycerides are a very simple fatty acid chain that is made mostly as a storage vehicle. When you're eating so many carbs, starches, and sugars, your body will convert that into a triglyceride that's put into a fat cell, typically, if it isn't burnt up immediately. I'd be interested in knowing your weight, your dimensions, and other vital lab results about you. But in general, nobody has low triglycerides without living a healthier lifestyle. And it predicts a long life. It predicts a long life. 

Question
“What are your thoughts on fasting? 3-day water fast or any kind of fasting to assist healing.”  [0:57:44]

Answer
The older you get, the more dangerous prolonged fasts can become. I used to do a 5-day fast twice a year. I'm down to a 3-day fast because I have to fight to keep my muscle mass in my 70s now, my early 70s. So, I think a 3-day fast is sufficient for any kind of mitophagy or autophagy or human growth hormone stimulation for cellular repair and so forth. How often would I do that? Maybe quarterly. Instead, I would say exercise, see your doctor, get your triglycerides checked, your fasting insulin, get your hemoglobin A1C, and your fasting blood sugar. Check these things and live with intermittent fasting, so that you're always living in a world of doing something like 16 hours fasting and an 8-hour window of eating per day, or even less, maybe 18 or 20 hours fasting and a 4-hour window of eating. That's preferable, and just have that followed. 

Question
“If a 65-year-old man needs 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight, how do you meet that goal? Or do you recommend supplementing with protein?”  [0:59:13]

Answer
I have chosen some supplements. I use the Perfect Aminos. It's a well-studied, clinical, doctor-designed amino acid tablet. It does come as a powder, but I can't stand the taste of it. So, I swallow the tablets. Five tablets are roughly equivalent to 15 grams of protein. So, I take 5 or 10 per day, which gives me roughly 15 to 30 grams right there. And if I'm eating, another 150 grams of protein a day. That'll cover for my 1 gram per pound roughly, and that's how I do it.