YouTube Livestream Q&A Transcript, September 29, 2026

Question
“If I heard it correctly, some inflammation is necessary to slow infection in the body. If so, then can inflammation levels be too low?”  [0:04:25]

Answer
[Dr. Alt]
I think inflammation itself is a natural process. We have to remember that acute pain, an acute cut, or an infection requires our body to produce an inflammatory reaction to help send the immune cells to that site, send our clotting factors and our healing factors to that site. So, inflammation on an acute level is normal, and it's healthy. What we deal with here is chronic inflammation that has taken place over years that can have more of a negative effect on the body. So, kind of to answer your question, I guess it can be too low at times, but a good amount of inflammation in an acute reaction is healthy for the body. 

[Dr. Ellithorpe]
I think people are trying to lower their inflammation, and you hear lecture after lecture about lower the inflammation, lower the inflammation, and that's because the lifestyle, such as a high carbohydrate diet, the blizzard storm of eating carbs sends so much sugar quickly through your contained cardiovascular system, it scratches on the lining of the walls of the endothelium and creates micro-damages of this high carbohydrate spikes in our daily life multiple times every time we eat multiple times a day, week after week, month after month, year after year. These spikes of sugar, particularly from sweetened drinks usually, are the most commonly attributed to this sugar trend, creating micro-damages. So, you're going to have those acute little damages, like a cut or a wound, and the inflammation will be called to these sites because you keep on damaging them. You just keep on damaging it with your lifestyle choices. And so, we're always telling people to lower their carbs, to drink their water, to take systemic enzymes, to not eat late at night, to get a good night's sleep, to get the sunlight, to get to bed on time, to do some motion and exercise, get some grounding in, take some vitamin C, take some vitamin D. All these things are to try and stop this inflammation factor. In fact, some of the doctors in the 1990s, Dr. Fleming, McCullough, who was so favorable during the COVID time talking about the cardiovascular impact of those spike proteins damaging the endothelium, all these guys are saying, really, cardiovascular disease is from inflammation. And so, lowering it really means stopping the lifestyle behavior that causes it, not going to a doctor and saying, what can you do, doctor, to solve my problem because I can't stop injuring myself with my lifestyle. Right? And I think doctors have to just be honest, loving, understanding, but they have to say, " You, your part in this is to stop eating late. Your part is to drink water. Your part is to change your lifestyle. Then the inflammation will go down. And I don't think you could take so many systemic enzymes or aspirin. I mean, you're taking a baby aspirin to prevent the cascade of inflammatory actions that promotes clotting. And I think what this patient is asking here: could it be too low, could you overdo your aspirin, could you overdo your enzymes, could you overdo your water? Theoretically, yes. But I would say that's such a theoretical improbability. I've never seen too low an inflammatory response. 

[Dr. Alt]
Yeah. And just to add on to that too, I feel like a lot of it, in terms of that chronic inflammation and the sugar, as Americans, we have to almost really wake up and fight the day-to-day things that we see. When we're driving, we see fast food places. Our grocery store foods are full of sugar. We really have to wake up to that, and I think the only way to do it is to take accountability for yourself as the patient and say, look, this is my life. I can't give in to these big corporations that have pumped these foods, you know, full of toxins and things that are not good for my body, and really just waking yourself up to that reality. And that can help you make smarter choices, I think down the line, is just realizing that sometimes this broader system of our food in America is working against you in a way.

[Dr. Ellithorpe]
It isn't even a guess that it really is designed/manufactured for the holy dollar gain for the stockholders of the food industry to make you addicted and to repurchase their food over against some other fast food. And so, they spend billions on advertisement, billions on taste testing and molecules that will create bigger and bigger dopamine responses to the taste, the smell, the visual. It's an entire science to trick you, to habituate you into needing a larger and larger amount of a food to addict you to it, so that they make money. And now, they're going to market drugs from Novartis and EIi Lily, so you're going to buy these to inject yourself with to turn your appetite down. It's just foolishness, folks. We are adults. Let us behave and take responsibility for ourselves and not let the marketing system play us like that. So, it's up to us. 

Question
“What do you suggest?”  [0:11:43]

Answer
[Dr. Ellithorpe]
In order to manage inflammation? Is that your question? I guess, if I'm understanding your question, I suggest you get with a doctor that you're comfortable with who is not after making millions of dollars as a doctor but making a decent lifestyle income, and who knows you, the patient, understanding your stressors. None of us is perfect. I'm not perfect. And when you have a relationship with a doctor that you can work with, they'll get your hemoglobin A1C, they'll get your fasting insulin, they'll get your fasting glucose, they'll get your triglycerides, and they'll set up a program and say, now, you do the best you can trying not to eat late. Move away from refined foods and start an exercise program. You work on these three goals in the next three months and recheck the insulin, the hemoglobin A1C, the triglycerides, and the fasting blood sugar. And then you'll get feedback. And we will have a track for you, and we'll set up another three months, and you'll be motivated. So you have a working partner with you to help you design a healthcare program so that you're successful. And again, we're coming up to this time of the year where we're going to be buying foolish candies for foolish reasons and giving them out at the door to kids. I really, really have trouble with this time of the year. And then everyone's going to be having snacks and office Thanksgiving time and parties and leftovers, and then they're going to have Christmas and parties and parties everywhere. It's just out of control. And so, I want you to take note of this. And when you were working as an employee, what was your thought of what Dr. Ellithorpe felt about bringing junk food to the office? What was the chit-chat?

[Dr. Alt]
Yeah. Don't bring it. Yeah, we don't; we try not to. Don't bring it. We don't want it. We don’t want to be tempted or anything like that. 

[Dr. Ellithorpe]
And if I walked in the office there and you guys had some junk food at your work site, you knew you'd be in trouble, didn't you? Yeah. I needed to be held to that. So, we’ve got to start doing things like that. And then it was kind of fun. You know, we're all helping each other here to be the best we can. 

Question
“I’m having a problem with DHEA. I’ve been taking two a day, and I started to develop cystic acne. I stopped taking it for now. I can try one, but I have scars from previous acne and don’t want that.”  [0:14:42]

Answer
[Dr. Alt]
Yeah, my thoughts would be I don't think DHEA would be causing cystic acne, but…

[Dr. Ellithopre]
Well, there is a potential for the testosterone response if it's a woman. I don't know if that's a male or a female on that moniker there or that handle. And so, women can respond by making too much testosterone, which can stimulate acne in a woman; at least I'm aware of that. And my thought would be, but where's your starting point? If you're taking DHEA and your insulin is 8, 15, or 10, anywhere there, and your fasting blood sugar is 90, and your triglycerides are 120, and your hemoglobin A1C is 5.6, you're at the ceiling. You're already floating near the top of this sugar world that's promoting fat and sebum and clogged capillaries and inflammation that would so easily tip you over to make a pimple. Do you see what I'm saying? So, you could back down to one, or take just one every other day, and get your next lab and see where the sugars are in relationship to the testosterone, in relationship to the DHEA, and what is your body mass and what's your exercise level, and we'll just keep on working with you on that. You could get Argentyn spray; you could spray your face and reduce the bacteria, fungal, and viral particles that get into your pores and are fed by a higher blood sugar and a higher insulin level, and it makes these little cystic areas get inflamed and clogged up with the sebum and bacteria. So, it's a process of doing all that. So, Argentyn silver,  low carbs, plenty of water, reduce the DHEA, get your follow-up appointment, and that's how we would manage it. 

Question
“Hormone therapy?”  [0:17:28]

Answer
[Dr. Ellithorpe]
What do you mean? I need more of a question. Was that in relation to inflammation, hormone therapy? Hormones are a reconstruction as well. I mean, they're general contractors for muscle building. But hormones are not, like you would say, estradiol, testosterone, progesterone, DHEA. These are not the inflammatory response. They are making the tissue signals, helping to stimulate growth factors like IGF-1 for fibroblasts and production of the collagen and things like this, osteoblasts for bone, and so forth. Things like inflammation are not those kinds of hormones. We're talking about tiny, microscopic molecules. But you can't separate anything either. In biochemistry, you can make a pathway ultimately to any reaction in the human body. It's all interrelated. That's why it may sound redundant if we come on these videos and say, well, what's your blood sugar? Well, how much sleep are you getting? Well, how much sugar are you eating and starch and fruit sugar, because everything is related. And so, yeah, inflammation, hormone therapy, and what your lifestyle is like is going to impact all of that. So, hopefully that answers your question. 

Question
“A mass near my husband's bladder was discovered today following a CT scan. What can he anticipate for next steps?”  [0:19:22]

Answer
[Dr. Alt]
I would have to see who ordered the CT scan, what the results specifically from the CT scan said, and if they're being followed by an oncologist, which I'm assuming they would be. So, that's kind of, yeah, I don't have a direct answer for that. 

[Dr. Ellithorpe]
What was the reason for getting the CT scan? Was this to check the prostate in your husband? That's one of the common reasons to get a CT scan in a man in that region of the body. Typically, an MRI is done more often for the prostate itself. But whatever the reason for the CT scan, a mass in and of itself isn't a direct diagnosis of cancer. So, the person who ordered the CT scan has to make a decision about whether to refer it for closer evaluation. Maybe it's a biopsy. Maybe it's a blood test for a tumor marker screening, but these are the things. So, whoever ordered it needs to do a follow-up. Most likely it's going to involve a biopsy or another scanning methodology in the short while, with a consult to a specialist in the area for whatever complaint that caused the original reason for the CAT scan, or if it was just an incidental finding. He'll have to see a urologist if this was in his bladder area. It's a little too vague. You've got to have that ordering physician follow up and get a biopsy or another imaging to better assess what they're talking about, but that's where you're going to go.

Question
“My 47-year-old son has skin cancer. He mentioned DMSO and vitamin C. What do you think?”  [0:22:16]

Answer
[Dr. Ellithorpe]
DMSO, Dimethyl Sulfoxide, is a solvent. And if you take it with vitamin C, it's going to draw that vitamin C deeper into the tissues. But that has no long history. I've been doing this for 45 years. I don't have any background where it's going to say I've talked to the people over decades when I was with Whitaker, Alan Sasson (0:22:58), Dr. Wilson on the East Coast, where it was a common thing to mix a solvent of DMSO with vitamin C and apply topically. Yes, that's what will happen. It'll penetrate deeper, but no, I've never heard of that being successful, no. If he has skin cancer, if it's a squamous cell, that is more concerning in general than a basal cell. Basal cell carcinomas typically are not associated with metastasis and mortality; Whereas, squamous has the potential to change. So, all the things we would say to do for lifestyle, such as what?

[Dr. Alt]
Yeah, eat a diet low in sugar, take your systemic enzymes depending on your blood type, maybe take a digestive enzyme as well, come in and get your vitamin C drips and things like that to help boost your immune system.

[Dr. Ellithorpe]
And vitamin D level. And why are you wanting the sugars low if they're concerned about cancer? 

[Dr. Alt]
Because cancer cells feed off sugar. So, this is really important. If you have cancer or you’re worried about cancer, we have to have a diet that's really low in that sugar because that's what the cancer cells are going to feed off- this is that sugar, those molecules. 

[Dr. Ellithorpe]
So, in biochemistry, if a healthy cell that's functioning normally for its energy produces 34 to 36 ATP per glucose molecule, how much does a cancer cell make for one glucose molecule? 

[Dr. Alt]
There would be a lot more ATP. 

[Dr. Ellithorpe]
ATP. It'll make 34 for the healthy cell with oxygen and very good production. With cancer cells, it's very inefficient. They only make 2. So, what happens is the cancer has to have huge amounts of sugar, and that sugar is giving very little energy output. So if anything, that cancer is going to develop more receptors for insulin to receive and bring in sugar more easily. So, when you get tumor markers, like breast cancer and they say estrogen- or progesterone-positive, HER2-positive or negative, you know, why don't they do insulin receptors? Because insulin is at least a hundred to maybe a thousand times upregulated on the cell membranes of cancerous cells because they're hurting for energy because they have such a poor metabolism. 

So, that's why we say, if your son is concerned about skin cancer, you know, follow up with his dermatologist and get whatever procedures they're saying and do what Dr. Alt is saying about the low sugar, get high-dose IV for the whole body to stimulate the whole immune system, because what ultimately – I mean, this isn't proven, but what ultimately do we think is protecting us from cancer anyway any day of our lives? What do you think it is? 

[Dr. Alt]
Our immune system. 

[Dr. Ellithorpe]
Exactly. There are T cells, NK cells, non-killer cells, CD4, CD8 ratios, CD56. These are types of lymphocytes that have special missions to do surveillance, to look for abnormal cells, foreign cells, and kill them off before they become problematic. So, the vitamin C you're recommending, if that were put throughout the body, not just locally on with DMSO to one side, what about if cancer started here? Why isn't it starting here or here or here or here? So, this is why you have to tell people lifestyle is what makes the difference in a good immune system. Hopefully, that helps you. 

Question
“Dr Rita, I went yesterday to a doctor because Saturday night my right ear was bothering me. The doctor gave me some ear drops, the antibiotic ofloxacin, and the doctor I went to today told me that it’s a fungal infection and gave me a cream, ketoconazole. I’m confused now, and I’m flying tomorrow. Do you recommend anything? Thank you.”  [0:27:51]

Answer
[Dr. Ellithorpe]
I can't speak to what I can't see. Ofloxacin is a fluoroquinolone antibiotic. Its broad spectrum is a reasonable choice. The other one is clearly an antifungal, ketoconazole. You could use both at the same time; there's nothing wrong, in my understanding, with both of them, but I can't speak to it because I didn't see it. I don't know what we're talking about. Is it just the canal? Is the eardrum intact, or was it breached, and is it the middle ear now? What I recommend is that you keep your ear dry. Don't let it get wet with hair washing or anything like that. You have to keep that ear dry. All the things: a low-carb diet to help your immune system, vitamin C. You could take five days of the high dose 50,000 vitamin C, and you can do Argentyn nasal spray up your nose, which, through the eustachian tube here, works as an antifungal, antiviral, and antibacterial. And drink lots of water and take extra vitamin C orally in capsules. And then I would not eat on the airplane; I would take a lot of systemic enzymes like Vitalzym, Vascuzyme to reduce that inflammation, to promote drainage down the eustachian tube and clearing up of the debris of the injured cells. 

[Dr. Alt]
So you would not want to put Argentyn spray in the ear? 

[Dr. Ellithorpe]
I wouldn't because I wouldn't want it to get wet. I would just do it through the nose so that this area stays clean. So, you're doing everything around it that you possibly can to keep the bacterial advantageous bugs under control. The D will fight it. The oral vitamin C will fight it. The very low carb diet will fight it. The systemic enzymes will act like little janitors, Pac-Man, to chew up debris. But that's all theory. I haven't seen it. And so, I would follow the instructions of the doctor who saw you last. 

Question
“If someone had an early injury at 12 years old, where they fell on their face, and they are now at 27 experiencing vertigo, could they be related at this time in his life? The entire upper jaw was compromised, smashed.”  [0:31:23]

Answer
[Dr. Ellithorpe]
Yeah, absolutely, in my opinion. Head trauma, closed head injuries. You know, if you become a patient here, we go all the way back to your birth. Were you born through the birth canal or cut out through C-section, were you breastfed or not, did you have any injuries as a kid, any closed head injuries, knockouts, broken arms, bones, emotional trauma? I mean, we want to get the whole you in that picture. Closed head injuries, even at 12, have the potential to create microtraumas that, let's say your lifestyle is pretty bad, you're eating junk food as a kid, pizza, soda pop, French fries, Dorito chips, eating late, and that inflames your body. So, what might have been a tiny little ding when you were 12, now you're doing 10 years of lousy, inflammatory, high-carb eating, and that little ding or midget becomes a site or focal point of chronic irritation and now can be associated with some kind of vertigo.

[Dr. Alt] 
And they said they also just noted the entire upper jaw was compromised, smashed as part of that injury when they were 12. 

[Dr. Ellithorpe]
Right. Yeah. So, indeed, the answer is yes. Yes, it can be. And that's why you want time with your doctor. One of the things I've said to people, and you tell me what you think of how they react to it, once in a while I say to them, I want to be the doctor who delivered you and knew your parents. I want to be your pediatrician who saw your childhood boo-boos and things. I want to be your childhood, I mean your teenage, adolescent, and college-year doctor. I want to know everything about you so that it makes sense to who you are today.  And how do they respond to that? 

[Dr. Alt]
They like that. I think a lot of patients appreciate that. I think that's something that's unique in terms of taking a history. You're not just taking a history on, okay, how are you doing today, what symptoms you have. You're really going back into the patient's past and getting to know them on a personal level. And I think that really helps in treating them because as you see them progressively and they come back for each follow-up visit, you already feel like you've known them for years. 

[Dr. Ellithorpe]
And that'll certainly help you with their diagnosis and predictive value for their, you know, how well and how long they would likely live. So, you have to address that and get that vertigo under control with a healthy lifestyle and whatever else the ENT doctor or whoever you're seeing plans for you. Again, this is not personal advice one, two, three over the internet. This is a general approach to how we look at problems/situations like this. Whether it's your ear before your flight or whether your vertigo is from your fall from your 12-year-old, like the other patient, this is you getting to hear what Dr. Alt and I think as functional doctors trying to do the most benign, safe interventional steps first before you have to get surgeries or specialists involved. But, like the person with the skin cancer, you know, I don't know what type it is. You've got to follow up with your doctor. We're not giving you personal advice. 

Question
“A relative in Cape Cod passed 3 months after discovery of esophageal cancer in their mid-60s; otherwise good health. What are your best guesses of cause for esophageal cancer?”  [0:36:04]

Answer
[Dr. Ellithorpe]
Lifestyle, blood type. You'll find that there is a thing called Barrett's esophagus. And at the junction of your esophagus to the tube of the stomach bag, that junction there, the gastroesophageal junction, you get a reflux of the high acidity of the stomach into the esophagus, and it gets irritated, inflamed, even tiny mini ulcers there, and it's erosive, erosive over time, like rusting away. And when the body is trying to re-heal itself and fix up from the last splash of acid, it never gets fixed. Sometimes the cell response goes wild, trying to repair itself into a fast-growing lesion, a cancer. So, you could say chronic inflammation is the cause of cancer, in the same sense you think of a smoker. A smoker is bringing in all these bad particulate tars and materials, volatile organic molecules, into the lungs, creating tiny chemical micro-burns on the lung, and the lung is always trying to clean itself off, make mucus, cough up lung junk from the smoking. And eventually, 10, 20, 30 years later or more, one of those efforts to try and heal from the chronic poking at it, whether it's stomach acid in the esophagus, smoking particles and tars in the lung, that injury site over and over stimulates or exhausts the immune protection, and then the cell goes wild trying to heal itself. 

Now, what promotes that growth is a high-carb diet. What promotes it is a low, low vitamin D level, lack of vitamin C, lack of selenium, lack of zinc, and stress will promote it; poor sleep will promote it; inactivity will promote cancers. So, what do I think is the likely cause? It would be interesting if your relative was known to have blood type A. Type A blood has low stomach acid production, and very often food stays longer in a blood type A stomach, because if this acid doesn't drop low enough, the lower sphincter at the duodenum, which is the gastroduodenal junction of the sac, won't open to empty the stomach unless the acid gets low enough, which is a feedback mechanism to make sure that enough acid was there to kill off any bacteria, viruses, or fungi. But if you don't make enough stomach acid, as blood type A typically has that tendency, then that fluid stays there longer, and they get more burping up over the years of their life, even childhood, every time they bend over to tie their shoe, and they get this reflux, silent reflux, chronic irritation, and we often will see that in a blood type A chronic inflammation and that picture of an esophageal cancer. That's my experience. So, hopefully that helps you. That's why everyone should know their blood type. Everyone should know that digestion fails with age. So, if you don't digest well, you can't get good nutrition. If you don't have good nutrition, how can you have a good immune system? If you don't have a good immune system, you're likely going to succumb to cancer, pneumonia, or some illness. 

Question
“My ENT told me it’s ok to take a hair dryer on low and gently dry out your ear after showering or swimming. I’ve had many ear infections.”  [0:40:50]

Answer
[Dr. Ellithorpe]
Well, good. Good, as long as it's on low. And I've had some ENT doctors in the 45 years and experience that I've had, they would use a drop of alcohol which acts as a drying agent that will dry – or some people have toe fungus and they take a shower and the podiatrist would always say, put a drop of alcohol, isopropyl alcohol, rubbing alcohol, because it'll push the water away and dry out fast and evaporate. So, yeah, there are all kinds of tricks to that. Keep the ear dry, keep the water out of it, that's true. 

Question
“Follow-up from the relative in Cape Cod. They never smoked. Turbo cancer? Or COVID mRNA vaccine?’  [0:41:54]

Answer
[Dr. Ellithorpe]
So, he thinks he had cancer as a result of having the COVID mRNA vax, or potentially that was a triggering factor. That's a possibility there, as a body of evidence is emerging now, looking at the increased cancer rates that we're finding when the immune system has been challenged with that post-mRNA injection. Yeah, and that's possible.