YouTube Livestream Q&A Transcript, November 11, 2025

Question
“What do you consider high doses of vitamin C? Also, more importantly, I’m wondering, what can someone with MCTD do to help with lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, systemic sclerosis, and fibromyalgia?”  [0:03:34]

Answer
Okay. So I don't know if I know what you're referring to by the anachronism MCTD. So, if you could type out what that means, I'll address that as well, but that's not ringing a bell for me. But in general, there really is no high-dose vitamin C. If you take it, what happens is – oh, mixed connective tissue disorder. Okay. Yeah, that's what I thought. All right. So, the gut will get diarrhea. You'll get loose stools if you take oral doses of vitamin C much above 1,000 mg, 2,000 mg, or 2 grams. And Linus Pauling used to take 6 grams a day. There are people who can develop bowel tolerance by taking increasing doses over time and get up to 10, and even as much as I've heard 20 grams of vitamin C a day. There is a thing called liposomal vitamin C by the company that Dr. Thomas Levy, who is both an Esquire lawyer and a medical doctor, is associated with. So, Thomas Levy, MD Esquire, if you type that in on YouTube, you can see all his lectures on vitamin C. He's written a wonderful book on the antioxidant powers of vitamin C in recycling glutathione and other antioxidants in our body. Vitamin E as well is recycled with the help of vitamin C. So, you can get this liposomal vitamin C. Dr. Levy is a consultant to a company called LivON, and it's the name of a company that produces the actual quality liposomal vitamin C, and that's where a little phospholipid sphere encapsulates the water-soluble vitamin C molecule ascorbic acid so that it can pass through fatty membranes even into the brain. So, those liposomal packets, when taken, have even approached the powerful levels of vitamin C that we use intravenously, at least at the 25-gram IV, which is a highly powerful vitamin C dose. Yes, you can go up to 50, 75, 100 grams of vitamin C intravenously, and that is very, very powerful in its anti-cancer pro-oxidative state. See, when you have such high doses of vitamin C, it overwhelms a cancer cell, and many microbes, such as viruses, bacteria, and fungi, cannot handle and process vitamin C. Healthy cells are full of catalase, which is an enzyme that helps process vitamin C in a very healthy, safe way. Cancer cells cannot, and that's why it's a nice way to kill them off. 

Now, I say all that to say that the liposomal form you could probably take, I don't know how, I think there's 1000 mg per packet. And if you took 10, that would cost you a pretty dime because that's somewhat expensive, and you wouldn't wind up having as much gut intolerance, and you could get pretty high levels of vitamin C. Another thing is that you have to have an enzyme also called glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD), and that is part of the process that handles the enzyme catalase. So, if you have, and most people do, 97.3% of all people have plenty of G6PD, glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase. And most everyone can handle 25 grams, even if they're a low enzyme G6PD. I have used this for 40 plus years and have never seen any problem really with anyone getting that, even if they had a low end for G6PD. But if you go up higher to the 50, 75, and 100, you do need to have a doctor check that. Okay. So, I don't think there's any upper limit unless you don't have G6PD. 

More importantly, she was wondering, how do we approach someone with all these self-attacking immune problems and what causes them, the scleroderma, lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, and mixed connective tissue disorder? We feel that these high pollution, the electromagnetic radiation, the poor sleep, the bad lights, the blue light, the artificial lighting, the stress, the heavy metal toxins, chemtrails, the high fructose corn syrup sweeteners, the synthetic sweeteners, the high carbohydrate diet, the lack of exercise, the multiple medications we're on, the time zone travels we go through, the emotional stresses we go through, all these things are creating chronic problems with nighttime healing. We're not as relaxed. We're having all these light problems. We're not with our feet in the grass and grounding and gaining electrons from the earth. We're not getting infrared light from the sun early in the morning. And we're eating all these genetically modified plant lectins. People are eating such a wide variety of spices and food plant lectins. Animals are being fed the grains to fatten them up. We are getting all this even if you're eating this stockyard beef and farmed fish with antibiotics and so forth. So, we are more polluted today than ever before. There is so much damage to the delicate single membrane lining of the gut that is scratching and irritating this in our bodies, and it wastes our immune system because, remember, about 80% of the immune system lines from the adenoids all the way down to your anus, this gut lymphoid tissue. And instead, it should be protecting us or helping identify and tag foreign objects or cancer-circulating tumor cells, which we believe that we generate all the time periodically and more as we age. At night, we should go to bed on time, and that's our healing time, and that is literally at 9 o’clock to get somatostatin release. But eating late at night, because it's so easy to get DoorDash or junk food drive-thru, gasoline station drive-thru, pizza deliveries, that food inhibits healing at night. And the long and short of it is that it creates inflammation, multiple cell membrane damages throughout the body, beyond which you cannot repair. And then you have the corrupt influences of the healthcare system for the past 70 80 years, where they're attacking eating natural grass-fed beef and wild-caught fish and organic fruits and vegetables and prairie-raised chicken and pigs and stuff like that, saying that it's fearful to get the saturated fats from these sources. So, the poor patient is left out there in a real conundrum. 

Well, I'll tell you, the cell membrane needs all of the phospholipids that are in the egg yolks and in the skin of the chicken and the meat of the chicken and the meat of the animal, and we get so much dense nutrition to repair at night and have our protein absorb and grow our nails and repair our body tissues and our skin and our healing is very dependent on that, where plant proteins are very limited in their ability to try and supply all the needs a human being has for the essential amino acids. Therefore, we have tiny, injured cell membranes, inflammation, and we have all kinds of names and labels. So, the labels we give are rheumatoid arthritis. That's literally your body cross-reacting with some mimicry to your cartilaginous structures. You get multiple sclerosis, and that's your cross-reaction of gut injuries and your immune system misreading the myelin sheath of nerve endings and attacking it. You get rheumatoid arthritis. You get soft tissue connective disorders. And what we're telling people to do is understand, if you work over the course with your functional doctor and go on, for instance, let's say the probably the number one detoxing lifestyle would be a carnivore diet with organic prairie-raised, 100% grass-fed and finished beef, chicken, fish, wild prairie-raised chicken, and things like that, and didn't let any plant come into your body. Do that for about three to four months, and we usually see the thyroid antibodies, the rheumatoid factors, the anti-nuclear antibodies, all these specialty autoimmune phenomenon screens just drop dramatically, along with other help from your functional doctor, and we see relief from a lot of this. 

In particular, with scleroderma, the microcirculation to help the tissue get deep penetration of those tiny, tiny capillaries will open the microcirculation, and you'll remove that oxidative stress from all those heavy metal toxins from the chemtrails and so forth. The vitamins and minerals we can give directly. We don't have to depend on this gut being healthy, and we can bypass that. So we can give you the minerals and the methylated B vitamins and the vitamin C directly, and we do all that, along with adequate hydration, natural hormones, good sleep circadian rhythm cycles, getting grounded, and we see people's lives turn around. So, that's what I would say is how we would do it. And it's the same for everyone with certain modifications. We could throw in various tests, like looking at how well you digest, your blood type, your age, and the impact of your hormone levels. We could check your iodine status. We could do many other things alongside your primary or your consultant’s work, and usually that is a good way to help. Hopefully, that helps you. Okay. 

Question 
“Ivermectin and fenben, what is it good for?"  [0:16:17]

Answer
Well, these are really FDA-approved medications that have lost their patentability. Anyhow, they were anti-parasitic medications used widely in the veterinary kingdom. And these are very powerful in intercepting you with, say, the repair growth building process of rapidly growing worms or parasites. So they have to create their eco-skeleton, like the structure of a baby has to grow its bones and everything. If you had something that could mess up the skeletal structure, you would not have a surviving pregnancy. So, fenbendazole and ivermectin have anywhere from, I've seen now nine different biochemical pathways in which ivermectin, and I think fenbendazole is very similar, in disrupting the birth of a cell and its structure, the microtubules, and the energy metabolism of rapidly dividing cells, and it seems to be very successful in preventing cancers in that way on an anecdotal basis. We're getting so many, many case studies in all kinds and types of cancers with these things. So that is what it looks like to be good for. 

Question 
“A relative has a mass between his bladder and his right kidney. They have blood in the urine, are having surgery, and they are placing a stent in and then removing it later. Taking a biopsy. What can it possibly be?”  [0:17:59]

Answer
Well, the most concerning thing is that I did a lot of emergency room training, and a lot of my personal training as a clinician is always to think of the first and then work back from it. Once you've eliminated the concept of it being a malignant lesion, then you would go into maybe some cystic. It could be a cyst full of parasites, or it could be a teratoma, some kind of unusual benign, you know, you'll see teeth growing in the cysts or mass, unusual products like that. But that is the direction that they have to go. They're doing the right thing by biopsying it and checking it out. But there seems to be so much potential in looking at stopping the rapid growth of anything in our body by being on a carnivore diet, an extremely low-carb, starch, fruit sugar diet, and a very low keto or a carnivore diet, because sugar is mostly the powerhouse of fast-growing cancer cells of any kind. Glutamine is an amino acid that has also been identified as a feed for actively growing cancers. So, we have so much hope in working with our oncologists and working with your functional doctors to help with the nutrition, the immune support, and detoxing in people. It's just such a wonderful time now, these days, we're opening up our eyes, and I think we're having a big influence now. I'm so glad to see many doctors are trying their hand at getting involved in self-study and application of natural FDA-approved medicines that are now typically most of them or often they are off of their patent and a doctor has the license to use off-label prescribing of these medications and here, the parasite medicine, fenbendazole and ivermectin, are being employed in this wise way and may have tremendous help alongside many other modalities.

Question 
“You often speak of digestive enzymes for those around 60 years old, but what are your thoughts about betaine HCL with or without pepsin? I know I am in need of digestive help. What is a good choice?”  [0:20:51]

Answer
Well, I am seeing a world of problems with everybody and their brother selling a vitamin today. And so, the pendulum is swinging, and you poor people are out there with artificial intelligence, and you're seeing these lovely generated images of people who don't exist with warm voices saying things to you about the fantastic value of intervention with some nutrient or shake protein, whatever it's going to be. And there are so many corrupt money salesmen out there, who put inferior or partially active, or what we would call racemic mixtures, in a nutrient in a product that really just nullifies its effect. And that's biochemistry, I don't want to waste your time on it. But if you have a racemic mixture and your body can only use one type of chemical structure that rotates light in the “levo” or leftward direction, for instance, with amino acid supplementation, our body can only take levo-rotating structured amino acids. If you put it in a hodgepodge of 50/50 dextro-rotating right-handed with the left-handed, you're going to have pretty much no absorption of that amino acid. So, there you are. You're stuck out there with no doctors who don't have enough chemistry, biochemistry, and math training, and they're all trying to scramble to learn and to sell you something, sell a vitamin. And maybe their intentions are good, but it's going to be very hard for them. We really should have remedial biochemistry training, remedial organic reminders, and analytical chemistry training, so that they can look at labels of supplements and assays, which I have done with my son. We have flown out to places to check the manufacturing and the analytical laboratory. You know, when you see a USP for a product or a drug, there are certain standards that if they don't meet them, you can hold them liable and sue them for a bad product. 

So, getting back to the betaine hydrochloric acid, God only knows what's in your product. Also, we're seeing a lot of these products bought out by larger companies. You know, before the fake Affordable Care Act that Obama's administration pushed on us, which is neither affordable nor caring, there used to be dozens and dozens of competing insurance companies competing for better service, lower prices to the person who is looking for healthcare insurance. After the Affordable Care Act and its favoritism in subsidies, you wound up with roughly four or five big main carriers. Well, they just blew up the cost of everything and had their little dinners with the four or five of them, and they run us with, you know, they pulled us to their prices. Hopefully, this administration is going to expose that. That's called monopoly and deceit. So, it's not affordable, it isn't fair, and it was always planned to be like that. I say that because we have to get the government out of managing healthcare, and we have to have individual private doctors with their own shingle on the door, and we have to go and learn as doctors, because apparently, most don't have this training on how to look at quality resources. So, I have gone with my son, as I said, and we fly out to various ones. I use a handful of them that I can personally hold accountable. 

I, also being a chemist and analytical chemist in my training, have my own lab and am the lab director here, and I rule over this every day, looking at my lab and looking at the standard population ranges, which are of a sick American population that don't reflect healthy numbers anymore. And I am now having to correct so many frightened patients who have healthier numbers, but they're out of range. It's getting stressful because doctors today don't have a memory or are taught and the ranges are destroyed through our lousy diet that has been co-opted by, for money, the lobbyist with the food industry sitting on government recommendation boards for saying what is the diet that's going to be for our US military or our schools or our hospitals or our nursing homes or anything like that, and the people who are on these boards are on the food industry getting consulting fees, and they're compromised and conflicted. So, it is a mess, and we have to break it down, and we have to have individual doctors caring for their community of people and be held accountable, and go from there. 

So betaine hydrochloric acid is well established and tested clinically here in a product called Ortho Digestzyme. So when I say digestive enzyme, I'm speaking about the one I've researched because I've had to create my own little well-studied, decades worth of nutrients and a relationship with the owners of these companies and seeing their chemists and PhDs, looking at their lab assays to make sure I'm getting what I want because I'm using nutrition and diet and lifestyle to heal my patients. I very rarely use my prescription pad for medicines. I'm usually only using natural hormones, natural thyroid, things like that. So, our digestive enzyme is betaine hydrochloric acid, along with the digestive enzymes, lipases, and amylases in Ortho Digestzyme. I've private-labeled it as Digestive Enzymes to get a lower price for my patients. Okay. So yeah, I'm very much in favor of betaine hydrochloric acid. That's critically needed. 

Question
“I’ve been listening to various podcasts saying a lot of autoimmune diseases are really Lyme disease. Also, every person with MS has EBV.”  [0:28:34]

Answer
Well, that's the chatter, and that is not necessarily so. It's convenient to try to say everything is an infection. But I think we have a dirty room, so to speak, the room is dirty, the fish tank is dirty. Some of it, you have such a poor immune system from eating so many carbohydrates and fructose fruit sugars that you've depressed your white blood cell immune function. You have so many varieties of food because we're so wealthy, we have scratched and presented our body with such a plethora of spices and foods that our immune system is exhausted, so that when a virus, call it Epstein-Barr, cytomegalovirus, or a tick bite from the Bordetella species, you get a little infection, your immune system may have handled that in the past 50, 80 years ago. But today, with all the dirty tank toxins of multiple sources, we're succumbing to it, and added stressors just flare it up and flare it up, and our immune system is going haywire with being overtasked with so much. That's why I try to keep things simple. I try to teach my patients to eat a more humble home-cooked meal, a roasted beef, or a roasted whole chicken, or a roasted pork tenderloin, or a grilled salmon, or prairie-raised eggs, with a cooked vegetable and butter, salt, and pepper, maybe a little garlic and onions. We are overwhelming ourselves, and we have lost the definition of what a holiday or a special day is because we've made every day affordable as a self-indulgent excess day, and we're harming our gut and our immune system. So, although there are parts of that that have Lyme and Epstein-Barr, cytomegalo and other things, we have to understand the broad – I have been following this for almost 50 years, and Enderlein’s theory, when I did the doctorate in integrative medicine in the late 90s into early 2000, we had a pleomorphic argument that fungi can turn into viruses and viruses can turn into bacteria and have different morphologies. I mean, everyone was claiming everything. So, I'm a woman doctor and I keep things simple. We get the foundation right first, and then we can start looking for esoteria and go from there. 

Question 
“Hi, lots of pain in joints, as well as cracking and stiffness. All blood work is normal. Started after COVID infection.”  [0:31:58]

Answer
Again, if you've been listening, the tank, yeah, we are in such a polluted environment, that with our eating habits, our indulgences, our me, me, me, I deserve a break today lifestyle, our lousy light, our chemtrails, all these things, your fish tank is dirty. So, small things are amplifying and triggering our immune system, creating molecular mimicry and attacking healthy tissues. The best way to approach all this is to clean the house by disciplining yourself to a menu regimen. The easiest is to start a carnivore diet. If you're over 60, please take a digestive enzyme to help you digest more proteins; it's from raw, prairie, wild-caught sources. And to stop eating in the mid-afternoon. Drink your water as half your weight in pounds as ounces every day. Get your feet in the grass for two to three minutes and ground and gain some electron energy from the earth every day. Get out in the sunshine, even if it's a cloudy day like it's been here lately, and let the long infrared light go through your skull and your clothes, and be out there for 20, 30 minutes on a walk. Move. Please do weight resistance training three times a week. And then if you're stiff, take systemic enzymes on an empty stomach. Whereas the digestive enzyme with betaine hydrochloric acid and the other enzymes are taken when you eat the food to break the food down, systemic enzymes are taken on an empty stomach to be absorbed and get to all your joints and everything. So, if you improve your diet, simplify it, don't eat late, drink water, get to bed, rise with the sunshine, get your feet and toes in the ocean or on wet grass, grounding yourself outside in the light for half an hour, and exercise, you're going to feel better. Period. 

Question
“Hi, Dr Rita. I've been eating mostly meat. If I eat/ drink the wrong thing, I get bloating in my left lower intestine. Is that the diverticula? Even veggies bloat me. How much fat should a woman eat per day?”  [0:35:46]

Answer
It could be. It could be. And remember, I say this all the time, we are made of protein and fat, and it's collagen and elastin, these protein strands have to get connected, they have to get connected, and God uses zinc and vitamin C as co-factors to help create that wonderful trigger there. So in your bowel, if you don't want to blow out a diverticula, you need enough vitamin C and enough minerals. And the older we get, the poorer we digest, the less we extract the protein, the less we eat, the less minerals we get, and zinc to have these templates for us to repair our bowel and every part of our bodily tissue. So, yeah, I think that could be it. Do see your doctor. Make sure you are up-to-date or looking at a colonoscopy to see how that's going. 

"Even veggies bloat me." – Yeah, that's because the older we get, the harder it is for us to digest, and that food becomes more and more a food for the gas-producing bacteria, and it makes us bloat. So, yeah, it's a complex thing. 

How much fat should a woman eat per day? I don't think there's any limit. Fat doesn't make you fat. Sugar and insulin are what make you fat, because when you eat starch, sugar, carbs, fruit sugar, that stimulates insulin release, and insulin, when it's elevated, will not allow fat to be broken up to be used for energy because there's enough sugar quicker, faster available. I like to give this image to my patients. If you had heated your house with sawdust, let's say you had a fireplace, my dad was trying to build our house, we lived in a one-room home all my life until I met my husband here, John, and he married me at 17. But we were in this one-room house, and my dad was a scientist, not a carpenter, but he was a wonderful man and thought he could do everything. But anyway, we wound up living in a one-room house, and there was so much sawdust that Dad would use it as kindling. And he was always teaching me all the time, and he would say, “If I throw in the sawdust and I light it, it'll poof up and a big burst of fire and that pulse of heat will come through.” And then you put a nice log on it, and the log will catch fire and then slowly burn and emit heat uniformly consistently for hours. But if you don't have the log, you're stuck scooping in every three minutes, a scoop of sawdust. So, he said, “Don't eat the sugar and carbs because that's like a poof of energy and then you get the crash.” So, the log is fat and protein. 

Question
“Do you think its joints and pain, muscle, and bone are reversible? Again, there’s nothing on the blood test or X-rays. Would you recommend an MRI if the problem is all over the body? Thank you so much.”  [0:39:23]

Answer
Absolutely. I don't know that the MRI is going to make a big difference. Everyone is individual. Was there trauma? Is it an old football injury? Is it an old car accident? Whiplash? You know, all kinds of things like that. I want to tell you another thing. Sulfur is a critical aspect of protein, hydrogen sulfate bonds, and MSM. Epsom salt baths will help you absorb sulfur, also in making some of those protein bonds. So, what is rich in our food? If you eat meat, it has a hefty amount of sulfur because it's full of protein. If you eat eggs, you'll see that and get that sulfur smell that's rich in sulfur. So, we need the sulfur for our healthy body and joints. How much sulfur, then, you ask? Well, I would take it up I know people who have taken as much as, you know, 20 grams a day. Certainly, it's often sold in 250 and 500 mg capsules. And so, yeah, you need the sulfur too for joint pain, as well as enzymes. 

Question
“For the mixed connective tissue disease, you suggested carnivore and no plants. Just to clarify, does this mean no fruits as well?”  [0:40:52]

Answer
Absolutely. Nothing from the plant kingdom whatsoever. And not forever. I mean, if you have a good functional doctor working with you or a rheumatologist or whoever you're working with, just tell them you're going to try a carnivore diet to detox because you're going to emphasize what we're made of, which is protein and fat, and you're going to take all potential lectins//plant irritants that would scratch your gut. And I would do this for about four months, and you're going to see probably the biggest breakthrough at the 4-week part. And don't be surprised if you get very constipated, in the sense that when your body needs a bunch of repair to all these cell membranes of proteins and fat to make up the cell membrane, you're going to absorb most of the meat you eat and the eggs you eat and the sausage or bacon or pork or chicken, and you won't have much to poop out because the fiber, although there will be some in the collagen itself, you won't poop out as much. So, very often, people who become carnivores will not have a bowel movement for many, many days. 

Now, I watch my patients, I know my patients, and they can get a hold of me if they have any questions. But in general, if you're healthy and you're eating carnivore and you're passing gas every day and you're feeling fine, that is not a problem to go many days. And then eventually you'll start having bowel movements when your body has really had enough time to say thank you for all the delivery. And then you're eating steaks and the chicken and the bacon and the beef jerky, then the excess will start coming through very nicely, and it'll start to more easily come out of you. 

Question
“I am currently using Glutagenics from Metagenics in the morning on an empty stomach. I see that Ortho Molecular also makes one called GlutaShield - they seem to be the same ingredients. Do you know anything about using one over the other?”  [0:42:52]

Answer
Yes, I would use GlutaShield because I know the company and the owner, and the owners of Metagenics sold out. They sold out, and it's run by the deep state now, and things are getting poorer and poorer, I think, in that company's products. 

Question
“Are you familiar with BFR training, like the Kaatsu bands? What do you think about this, along with weight resistance training and wearing these for healing and hormone health?”  [0:43:38]

Answer
Yes. Well, this is restricting the blood flow in a limb or a part of your body, your leg, and that lack of blood flow for a time sequence is kind of like if you work a muscle to exhaustion, you're using up the blood flow, and lactic acid is produced. Similarly, if you put a compression over a band and it doesn't get the blood, then it'll turn into lactic acid production, and that does generate a tremendous amount of healing and stimulation for regrowth when you rotate the bands. And it seems to have a good history. I have some patients who do this, and they swear by it, all the way up into their late 80s, and they're doing this. So, I'm in favor of it. I haven't applied it, I haven't personally prescribed it, but I have many patients who say that they have benefited from it. 

Question
“A friend was concerned about the safety of Iodoral as she felt iodine supplements could cause damage to other organs, possibly the liver or pancreas. I cannot remember which organ she was concerned about being exposed to too much iodine. I would like your perspective on this. Many thanks.”  [0:44:52]

Answer
Iodoral, that's an iodine tablet put out by David Brownstein, a medical doctor in family practice in Michigan. I've used this, and I know David Brownstein up in Michigan, and I've read his book, and I've looked at his work, and I would say for 30-40 years, at least 35 years, I've been using his Iodoral product. I've taken it myself. I've used it for 30 years. I do attribute it to a part of my good health, my good metabolism, thyroid function, my mental acuity, my better immune system, helping to prevent breast cancer, uterine cancer, ovarian cancer, prostate cancer, any glandular cancer, and I have never ever seen this be associated with any one organ harm. So, I think you're hearing myths. 

Question
“I am 73, live in Texas, and was a previous patient of yours in 2003. Are GLP-1 options for weight loss of about 25 lbs. a safe option or beneficial for one dealing with heart issues? And what is your opinion in general of this current trend?”  [0:46:17]

Answer
No. Now, I don't recall your exact issues and so forth. But if you have such a weight problem, that you're in heart failure and you cannot exercise, or you're so morbidly obese that you cannot exercise, I think low-dose titration of GLP-1 agonist can be helpful in suppressing the appetite under a limited amount of time to achieve dropping the weight and blood sugar control to take the stress off the heart. Now, that's extremely rare, extremely rare. I'm talking one or two. In a busy family practice, general internal medicine practice, I'm talking, this would be a very rare occurrence. So, we know, you know, I have the Christian world point of view. I pray, I read my Bible every day, and I ask God for patience, wisdom, and self-discipline. I'm not perfect, no one is, but I have gradually improved parts of my life, my lifestyle, even now into my 70s. Okay. Long ago, I used to be a smoker. Finally, I quit smoking. Then I went into vaping. Finally, I have quit vaping. I hated exercise from the hard farm work and log splitting I did as a kid, and my military time. Finally, I bowed the knee to the Lord, and I started doing my exercise and weight resistance training three times a week for 45 minutes, and on and on with water discipline, and on and on with setting a time limit. I won't eat past a certain time in the day. Step by step, bit by bit, we started growing into healthier people, helping our neighbors, our family to do what's best. So, that's the best thing, to do a carnivore diet for four months, and I'm sure you'll probably lose 25 pounds. 

Question
“Heavy metals? Hi doctor, could symptoms of eczema, alopecia areata, and fatigue in a young adult be linked to heavy metals? If so, what tests do you recommend taking to detect heavy metals in the body? Thank you.”  [0:48:49]

Answer
Yes. I would go to a doctor, who is a functional medicine doctor, who was trained at the American Academy for the Advancement of Medicine, ACAM.org, and there I was part of the board and then training, teaching team to teach doctors how to do EDTA chelation for heavy metals, and we give anywhere from 25 to 50 mg/kg of ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid in an IV over the course of from one and a half to three hours. And we give the DMSA, dimercaptosuccinic acid, which is specifically designed to attract mercury 250 to 500 mg as a single test dose, the IV and the oral DMSA, and then we have them sit for an hour and a half to three hours. We collect six hours of urine, and we have all this lead, aluminum, cadmium, mercury, arsenic, many, we test for 21 metals, and it's called the challenge. That's the best way to do it. 

Question
“Is surgery necessary for an umbilical hernia in a 45-year-old woman, or can it heal naturally? Thank you so much for all your wisdom, Dr. Ellithorpe!”  [0:50:23]

Answer
It depends on her weight and her general health. I also think blood type A's would have a harder time healing because they don't digest as well if they don't get digestive enzymes and all that better protein counseling. But in general, umbilical hernias don't hurt. You have the risk of a loop of your intestine kind of poking through with abdominal strain, and then that twisting and getting pinched off, and then dying, which could kill you. So, the same for an inguinal hernia, ventral hernia. And in general, you should see a general surgeon and have them assess the size, your personal life's unique situation, how much intra-abdominal pressure you have, whether you have constipation, whether you are straining hard, or did this happen during carrying the pregnancy and create a tear, various things like that. 

Question
“Can an ultrasound show torn ligaments, tendons, and muscles VS an MRI or CT scan?”  [0:51:37]

Answer
If it's a large tear, and then sometimes you could just see a snapped Achilles or a snapped bicep tendon, and you don't have to have any exam. You can see the entire bunched-up thing if you know your anatomy and you have a good doctor. But in general, all the other sprains and strains are not well-served by doing it with an ultrasound, and MRI is probably a better thing with contrast. 

Question
“Would appreciate your thoughts regarding unexplained mild macrocytosis without anemia in postmenopausal women following TLC lifestyle and nutrition (no alcohol) with slightly elevated MCV/MCH. Blood smear, MMA, homocysteine, and all labs are normal. Curious if iron supplementation for low-normal ferritin could be causative even while taking B12 and folate. Thank you!”  [0:52:16]

Answer
Macrocytosis is when red blood cells get bigger. As we all age, as we all get older, our bone marrow that makes the red blood cells does a less efficient job at producing red blood cells, and very often they start getting bigger and bigger and bigger. When they get to a certain big size, they can't pass through the capillary anymore to give oxygen and take on carbon dioxide. So then we would call that pernicious anemia, not that you don't have enough red cells, it's just that it can't get through the passages in the capillaries anymore because the cell is so big, and that would be a size of a mean corpuscular volume of say 114 or higher. And usually that is associated classically with a vitamin B12 malabsorption and utilization that's typically in blood type A people mostly, but it happens to all of us over time. Also, it is an association we believe with a lack of digestive enzyme betaine hydrochloric acid because if you don't have enough enzyme acid, you don't make the intrinsic factor, and you don't get the B vitamin production that you need. So, that's what we see. 

She said everything was normal on her labs and homocysteine. Curious if iron supplementation for low-normal ferritin could be positive even while taking B12 and folate. Thank you.” I know of no relationship, but I do know everything is connected biochemically in the human body. Iron in itself is a risk for retention and aging, oxidative damage. So, it's just like you could have too much oxygen, like we made all the babies blind in the 1950s because we put 100% oxygen in the baby incubators for pre-term, and there was so much oxygen, it oxidized the eyes, and the babies were made blind. So, we have learned that you can’t have too much of a good thing. So, I'd be careful about that, and I would have to study, and I will for you. I will look up iron and MCV. Okay. I'll look up to that and ask you next week. I should have time to study it in a week. 

Question
“My daughter is 36 years old, 5'7, 120 lbs. Very active. She was diagnosed with Hashimoto’s and insulin resistance after her 3rd child. She has improved all numbers by greatly reducing sugar/carbs and by intermittent fasting. Her CRP is 0.57, Insulin 3.8, but her TPO is still very high, 357. She is on 60 mg of NP Thyroid, but her TSH is 2.5, Free T3 3.7, and T4 1.4. Thoughts?”  [0:55:06]

Answer
Hashimoto's, that's the autoimmune thyroiditis that she's making. Typically, this comes from leaky gut autoimmune phenomena triggered by gut problems. That's fine. So, everything is good. It's just that the source that started the whole problem is her gut. And you need to find out her blood type. Find a good doctor who can get a stool study and look at inflammation in her gut. And I would go on a carnivore diet if you don't have the time to see a doctor or have the money to pay for these studies, because it's not covered by insurance usually. And I would go carnivore completely with digestive enzymes for four months. And just to reassure her that this is helping if she does absolute pure carnivore with wild caught, prairie-raised sources, because you could have grass-fed, but they send them to the stockyard for two weeks, and they beef them up with stupid glyphosated genetic grain, and the industry still allows you to say grass-fed. So, you look for 100% grass-fed and finished, and then that can create the autoimmune because it'll get into the cow meat or the pig or whatever it is. But if she's pure 100% that she can do her thyroid peroxidase, thyroglobulin antibodies, 100% carnivore, and a month later, you'll see you're better. I've always seen it better. Always, that'll do it. That will bring it down. But you tell her I'm proud of her for the low carb. 

Question
“What is the difference between structured water and hydrogen water bottles that make hydrogen in the water? I also tried to buy the structured water device that you recommended, but it seems to be a company that is produced outside the country. The hydrogen water bottle is sold on Amazon. Is it worth getting?”  [0:57;28]

Answer
It's the hydrogen ions that are produced. Whenever water structures itself by a cell membrane, it spits off one of the hydrogen ions from the H2O, and these hydrogen ions create this differential in electrical transmembrane potential. Essentially, if you're drinking hydrogen-generated water, you're helping with that, but it's not the exact same thing, and it's not as stable as the wand to make this water. 

Question
“What are optimal hormone levels for a 72-year-old dealing with osteoporosis? I've been on low-dose HRT for vaginal health for years, but need adjustment for bone health.”  [0:58:19]

Answer
Well, it's an individual thing. But general ranges I've learned over 35, 40 years of doing this is I want an estradiol level between 75 and 150, and I want progesterone levels well above 4, say 6 to 16. 

Question
“Could high Creatinine (1.06) and low eGFR (56) be a result of high protein intake and exercise regimen that I'm doing for bone health?”  [0:58:51]

Answer
News flash, that's not high, and you're being misled by your doctor and the reference ranges. So, it's not high. Estimated GFR 56 – that’s not low, and I don't ever go by guesses and estimates, not from this corrupt medical system. You're fine. You're being made to worry about something that's good. Eating the protein is fine. I have never seen anyone overeat protein who is an otherwise healthy person. Even people on dialysis, I've never seen overeat protein. 

Question
“I have been doing MRI with contrast every year for 10 years as a post-kidney cancer follow-up. How bad is the contrast material? Should I stop the surveillance now? My daughter's core said we could do a breast MRI, also requiring contrast, to be safe after my mammogram. Also considering if I should.”  [0:59:42]

Answer
When is your doctor going to ever stop trusting imaging and dyes and the known toxicity and cancer triggers of gadolinium dyes? When are they ever going to learn? It makes me mad. You know, somebody could do an MRI without contrast, they could do an ultrasound. I mean, if you're this far along and doing that well, somebody needs to explain to you the risk of all these tests and the heavy metal toxic dyes. So, go find yourself a good functional doctor who will do the heavy metal challenge, ACAM-trained, ACAM.org. Get the challenge. See what your gadolinium level is. Start chelating on a routine basis. And if your doctor insists on these dyes, then at least you'll have a way to remove them. 

Question 
“I've been having lower right abdominal pain, but I've also been very gassy with a lot of burping and bowel movements. Could this be appendicitis?”  [01:01:35]

Answer
Yes, it could be, and you have to have a doctor look at you; you can't use this as a management tool here. But if you can jump up and down with abdominal pain focused on that area, that's a good sign. But have that checked out by your doctor, get a white blood cell count, and get a blood chemistry. And if it's persistent or increasing, go to the emergency room.