Inflammation: The Root Mechanism of Disease | Dr. Tom O’Bryan

[00:00:00] Dr. Tom O’Bryan: It’s so unacceptable that the number one cause of death in the world is cardiovascular disease has been for 50 years, and we’re not making any headway following the usual and customary.

[00:00:16] But there’s one root mechanism to cardiovascular disease. No one can argue with this. I invite, you know, on stage often I say, if you disagree, I’d love to hear from you. Here’s my email address. I’d love to hear from you. You know, no one can disagree.

[00:00:36] The root mechanism of cardiovascular disease is inflammation. It’s always inflammation without exception.

[00:00:45] Now, correct that, there are some genetic things. You know, an infant born with heart valves that aren’t functioning properly or didn’t develop properly, of course, and rheumatic fever from a bacterial infection, of course, well, that, that’s inflammation also.

[00:01:02] But for the vast majority of cardiovascular disease, it’s a lifetime of inflammation, known or unknown by the patient. They don’t know that they’re inflamed ’cause they feel fine. That is causing the plugging up of the pipes.

[00:01:23] 

[00:01:24] Dr. Z new: Hey friends, this is Dr. Eric Zielinski. Most people just call me Dr. Z. Welcome to the Natural Living Family Podcast. 

[00:01:30] Together we’ll uncover biblical wisdom and practical tools to help you and your family escape the confusion of this toxic world and walk in the abundant life God has promised. This isn’t about chasing trends or doing it all. It’s about renewing your mind, rejecting broken systems, and embracing God’s design for healing and wholeness.

[00:01:51] The truth is God has a beautiful plan for your life, and yes, your health matters to Him. Are you ready to get started? Awesome. Let’s dive in. .

[00:02:04] Dr. Z: All right, Dr. Tom, thank you so much for being here. I really appreciate it, my friend. 

[00:02:13] Dr. Tom O’Bryan: Thank you so much, Dr. Eric. It’s a pleasure. It’s always great to hang out with you. You know, usually in person, but on Zoom is great ’cause we bounce off each other so well. 

[00:02:23] Dr. Z: Well, I’m coming here as a student.

[00:02:25] Every time we do these interviews, whether you’re on that side of the microphone or this side of the microphone, I always learn something or two. So folks really encourage you just to take a minute clear away some distractions that you might have and get ready to take some notes and to take this seriously, because out of everyone in the world, Dr. Tom is the foremost expert in this subject and he has devoted his very life to it.

[00:02:50] And so I wanted to segue into just thank you for your contribution, doc. You’ve done a lot from your groundbreaking gluten summit back in what, 2013, 2014?

[00:03:01] Dr. Tom O’Bryan: Correct. 2013. Right.

[00:03:03] Dr. Z: One of the first docuseries of its time, Betrayal, to now a recent project and like we were just talking about before we began, offline.

[00:03:13] I’m just curious, like given your age, given your experience, given your tenure in this industry, why would you go back to school again and create a whole nother project and be a student? So tell us about this new project that you just launched and what you’ve learned from it. And let’s just dive.

[00:03:29] Dr. Tom O’Bryan: Oh, yes. Thank you. Thank you so much.

[00:03:31] Well, I will, you know, I read science and I just love to read science. And when I see something that really captures me, if it gives me a, “What?” kind of response i’ll take that study and I’ll tape the front page of it or a graph that’s inside the study to the ceiling of my bedroom.

[00:03:50] And you know, I go to bed at night and Oh yeah, oh yeah. And then sometimes when I’m sleeping, I’ll wake up with an idea in the middle of the night and I’ve learned, I’ve got this little pad of three by five cards and there’s a pen. You pull the pen out and a really soft little light comes down on the three by five card.

[00:04:10] Because the room’s dark, you know?

[00:04:11] Dr. Z: Mm-hmm.

[00:04:11] Dr. Tom O’Bryan: But just enough light to see the card and not so bright to wake me up complete and I write down a couple of thoughts. And in the morning, you know, when I get up, I say, “Oh yeah, that’s right. I did talk about that.”

[00:04:23] And I reference that on stage a lot for our doctors that, you know, you have to give yourself permission to think outside the box. If you don’t give yourself permission, it doesn’t happen very often.

[00:04:36] Because we’re so busy with everything we’re doing on a daily basis, trying to be the best practitioner, the best clinician, the best father, you know that we can be, that we don’t have that daydream time to think outside the box. So I suggest that people tape a study on the door of their refrigerator or a picture of a graph, you know, and you’ll see it like once or twice a day, every day for a few weeks. Then you’ll be driving down the road and all of a sudden an idea comes to you about this patient with that topic from that study.

[00:05:14] And so I’ve done that for many years. And a paper came out by Dr. David Furman, who’s at the Buck Institute of Aging and Stanford. And Furman and his team have the contracts with NASA to figure out why are the astronauts aging so quickly in space.

[00:05:36] And they figured it out and he put a graph in there that was just jaw droppingly, simple and intricate. You know, my first mentor, Dr. George Goodhart, would often say that the body is simply intricate and intricately simple.

[00:05:56] Just meaning there’s some basic, simple concepts, and if you understand these concepts, you’ve got a good working understanding of what to do to help that patient function better.

[00:06:09] And this drawing that David Furman did was three gears interacting, connecting. So that when the first gear moves, it turns the second gear and the second gear turns the third gear.

[00:06:24] And on the left side, at the spike of the gears was all of the things that we know of in life that are not great for us. Like the wrong foods, too much of the wrong bacteria in our gut, emotional stress, too many stress hormones. Toxic chemicals and heavy metals accumulating in your body. He had a list going around the wheel on the left.

[00:06:49] And when that wheel turns, it turns the wheel in the middle, which is your immune system. Activating your immune system, producing all of the markers of inflammation to deal with this bug or this virus or this bad food. Whatever it is that we’ve been exposed to, or the excess stress hormones that activate the immune system, creating the inflammation.

[00:07:18] And so this inflammation is the center wheel, and when that center wheel turns the wheel on the right is; diabetes, autoimmune diseases, cancer, cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, dementia, osteoporosis, immunosenescence. And it was such a beautiful drawing to show that “Wow, wait, wait. So what I do over here in my life, in my lifestyle, that is actually what activates my immune system to produce the inflammation?” Yes.

[00:07:58] And then the excess inflammation is going to manifest on any of these diseases? Yes.

[00:08:06] Determined by my genetics and how I live my life. It’s called antecedents. You eat tuna, fish three times a week, you’ll likely have mercury toxicity. That’s an antecedent, that’s a lifestyle thing.

[00:08:19] So it’s genetics and antecedents that determine what I refer to as the weak link in your chain. You pull in a chain, it always breaks at the weakest link is at one end, the middle, the other end. It’s your heart, your brain, your liver, your blood sugar, your lungs, wherever the weak link is, and that’s determined by your genetics and how you live your life.

[00:08:41] So wait a minute, wait. So what I do on a daily basis activates my immune system trying to protect me, which then activates pulling on the chain. Inflammation is the pull on the chain, and it pulls on the chain and the chain breaks at the weakest link, and here comes diabetes, or here comes cancer. It was a beautifully elegant, simply elegant drawing.

[00:09:10] That is PhD level stuff, you know?

[00:09:14] Dr. Z: Mm-hmm. It’s, mm-hmm.

[00:09:14] Dr. Tom O’Bryan: It’s very, very complicated, but that’s the basics. And so when I saw that. I mean, I just, like you. You know, you see something that really grabs you just start drooling unknowingly, but I, it’s like, wow, I really need to carry this message out to people. And so I’ve been teaching about this.

[00:09:33] And I went out and I interviewed 64 of the world leaders, the true leaders in inflammation and triggers of inflammation. And I traveled to seven countries and in every country to find these teachers, you know, I had to hire a film crew and bring them in, and all the microphones and the lights and all of that.

[00:09:57] And we put this thing together in a nine part series, that’s about 45 minutes a day called the Inflammation Equation, And it’s at the inflammationequation.com. It’s all free. You watch this and you go, wow, that just makes sense. 

[00:10:17] And so when you go to that site, there’s a six minute introductory video that gives you a taste of all this and say, wow, this is really interesting. I think I’d like to listen to more of this.

[00:10:28] Dr. Z: Mm-hmm.

[00:10:29] Dr. Tom O’Bryan: Or not. But you know when I go to India and teach in India, the one city in the world that I will never drive in is New Delhi.

[00:10:46] Never. I mean, I’m from Detroit and I grew up with muscle cars. 

[00:10:50] Dr. Z: Mm-hmm. 

[00:10:50] Dr. Tom O’Bryan: Also, I’m a good driver, but I won’t drive in Delhi because on a three lane road there’ll be five lanes of cars. They’re cutting and turning. I just won’t do it. If you need to get around Delhi, you might look at the map of the trains, the train stations in Delhi and you can make your way around pretty well with that map.

[00:11:14] But if you go to New York, the map of Delhi is wasted on you. I mean, it’s got no use whatsoever. You need a map of New York. 

[00:11:24] Dr. Z: Mm-hmm. 

[00:11:25] Dr. Tom O’Bryan: And so people with whatever, we’re all so unique, with whatever your physical or emotional concerns are, you need a map of the highway to better health. And it’s specific for you. There’s no shotgun approach that’s gonna work for everyone.

[00:11:48] And the way you find the map to the highway to better health, is by asking the question. It’s the bottom line question. 

[00:11:58] Dr. Z: Mm-hmm. 

[00:11:59] Dr. Tom O’Bryan: And it’s the big takeaway from the Inflammation Equation.

[00:12:04] The big takeaway is, okay, I’ve got symptoms, I’ve got pain. Okay, and oh, by the way, 14 of the 15 top causes of death according to the CDC are chronic inflammatory diseases. It’s always inflammation.

[00:12:21] The only one that’s not is unintentional injuries. Accidents. Everything else from suicide to Alzheimer’s, to autoimmune diseases, to lung disease, they’re all inflammation. They’re inflammatory.

[00:12:38] And when you understand that and you understand that middle wheel is going to turn the wheel on the right, that’s pulling on the chain, determined by your genetics and your lifestyle where the weak link is. When you understand that, then the obvious question, the obvious question, “How am I fueling the inflammation in my body?”

[00:13:06] What is it that I’m exposed to that’s fueling, that’s causing this fire, this inflammation? ‘Cause your immune system is just the armed forces in your body. You know it’s there to protect you.

[00:13:20] There’s an Army, a Navy, and Air Force and Marines, a Coast Guard. We call ’em IGA, IgG IgE, IGM, Cytokines. They’re just different branches of the armed forces and when they get activated, when you’ve got inflammation, it’s an automatic effort to save your life.

[00:13:40] Automatic. Non-negotiable. You’re under threat. Your body is under threat. When you eat a ding-dong, your body is under threat.

[00:13:53] There’s these toxic chemicals coming in that will create an inflammatory response, and so you have to identify the obvious, the obvious approach that needs to be included.

[00:14:06] The first thing, and most important for patients is wanting to feel better. They go see a doctor because they want to feel better. That’s very, very important.

[00:14:15] But that doesn’t get you well. That just calms down your symptoms. You have to ask. “Where is the inflammation coming from that produced these symptoms?” And from that perspective, from that question, you get very different answers.

[00:14:34] And you realize, wow, okay, so I need to check my food selections. I need to look at my environment. We know indoor air pollution is usually more toxic than outdoor air pollution. Because the flame retardant chemicals in your bedsheets and your blankets don’t wash out after 50 washes, they’re still there. And you go to bed every night and you lay down and go to sleep and you’re wrapped up in these sheets and blankets that are outgassing minute amounts of these chemicals.

[00:15:11] Well, I can’t, that, that’s not… No, everyone has this. But there is no evidence in the world, nothing I’ve ever seen, that the amount of chemicals that you are inhaling when you sleep are toxic. There is no evidence anywhere, but they are cumulative in your body. And over the years they accumulate.

[00:15:38] Along with the formaldehyde in the ceiling tiles, along with the stain resistant chemicals in your sofa. And you know, the Scotch Guard on your chairs. I mean, all of this that we’re exposed to.

[00:15:54] Well, there’s no evidence that the amount of Scotch Guard that you’re exposed to by sitting on the chairs in your dining room is toxic to humans. And that’s how they get away with this.

[00:16:04] Dr. Z: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

[00:16:05] Dr. Tom O’Bryan: They got away with it because they paid off the senators and they paid off the representatives to pass the legislation called the Toxic Substance Control Act. Which has no teeth whatsoever.

[00:16:19] And as an example, in Europe, there are over 10,000 chemicals that are not allowed in Europe. Over 10,000. In the US there are 12. Because the Toxic Substance Control Act has, you have to prove that it’s toxic.

[00:16:39] And the industry says, well, there’s no evidence that the amount of chemical you’re exposed to is toxic to humans. It’s not. It’s not. Now that Toxic Substance Control Act has been in effect because the chemical industry, the lobbyists, are paying literally millions of dollars every year. Don’t touch that Toxic Substance Control Act.

[00:17:01] When was it passed? 1976. That is a legislation at the federal level that controls the introduction of chemicals into our environment. So we’re exposed to all this stuff that when it accumulates, depending on your genetics, pulls on the chain, that eventually manifests as infertility or recurrent miscarriages or cardiovascular disease.

[00:17:31] It doesn’t matter what the symptoms are. 14 of the 15 top causes of death are chronic inflammatory diseases. So that’s the big picture concept. 

[00:17:45] Dr. Z: The Toxic Substances Control Act is really insidious because a way around putting a stamp of danger on a toxin is deferred to other agencies, right? And, and essentially what what they’ve done is if there is pesticides, and I’ll show it y’all. Like, you need to see what Dr. Tom’s talking about here.

[00:18:08] Look, this is harvard Toxic Substances Control Act, and right here is the big thing. These are the substances not regulated; any pesticides, radioactive materials, tobacco, and this is the big one. Anything in food, food additives, drugs.

[00:18:25] You know that castor oil is considered a drug because it could be used as a laxative? So that’s under the guidance of the FDA and the widespread reach of the FDA on virtually all products.

[00:18:38] So essentially this TCA Act, this toxic control Act is saying, look, we’re gonna defer to these other agencies that we know there’s problems with and they are not on the side of natural health. And this is not, I don’t wanna go down that route too much, doc, because there’s a point where I wanna leave everyone with this.

[00:19:05] If I could summarize what Dr. Tom’s saying, there’s a leading question after this, but you just can’t leave your health to the government, to your doctor, to the pharmacy, to the manufacturer, and we need to be good stewards. We are in control of our health and we need to constantly be testing things.

[00:19:22] There’s a Bible verse that says, “test all things. Hold fast to what’s good.” Yeah, we need to double check, triple check, quadruple check. Just because it’s on your shelves. Just because it’s recommended. Just because it’s there.

[00:19:34] And I recently saw a comparison between McDonald’s french fries in America, the ingredient list and the ingredient list, and when just went viral. For those of you who are part of this world, you see this and the ingredient list of McDonald’s french fries in the UK and there’s only four ingredients in the UK.

[00:19:49] And it’s not a health food, but you know what? It won’t kill you. But the 1520 ingredients in America, like why would America allow? And Dr. Tom eloquently explained it’s lobbying.

[00:20:00] Dr. Tom O’Bryan: Exactly.

[00:20:01] Dr. Z: But Doc, you mentioned something and I think it’s important to relate to we’re talking about heart health, we’re talking about heart attack and stroke. You corrected me a couple years ago during an interview and I really appreciate it. ’cause it really, it struck home.

[00:20:16] I misused the phrase ‘root cause’ in relation to inflammation. And you corrected me and you said, no, inflammation isn’t the root cause. It’s the root mechanism.

[00:20:28] The root cause is, and then you list, we can list 1500 things. It causes inflammation. So in that context, root cause, root mechanism. How does this, how does this cascade affect someone’s risk for heart attack and stroke and heart disease as a whole?

[00:20:45] Dr. Z new: Hey, friend, real quick, if you’ve been listening and thinking, I wanna live this way, but I need help, well, that’s exactly why we created the Bible Health Academy. It’s our monthly mentorship and training hub packed with Bible health solutions, non-toxic living strategies, and the like-minded community.

[00:21:01] You need to walk in the abundant life God designed for you. Whether you’re brand new to natural living or ready to go deeper, this is where transformation happens from the inside out. Visit biblehealthacademy.com to learn more. We hope you’ll join us.

[00:21:17] Dr. Tom O’Bryan: Really good question. Really good. Thank you. It’s so unacceptable that the number one cause of death in the world is cardiovascular disease has been for 50 years, and we’re not making any headway following the usual and customary. 

[00:21:37] But there’s one root mechanism to cardiovascular disease. No one can argue with this. I invite, you know, on stage often I say, if you disagree, I’d love to hear from you. Here’s my email address. I’d love to hear from you. You know, no one can disagree.

[00:21:57] The root mechanism of cardiovascular disease is inflammation. It’s always inflammation without exception.

[00:22:07] Now, correct that, there are some genetic things. You know, an infant born with heart valves that aren’t functioning properly or didn’t develop properly, of course, and rheumatic fever from a bacterial infection, of course, well, that, that’s inflammation also.

[00:22:23] But for the vast majority of cardiovascular disease, it’s a lifetime of inflammation, known or unknown by the patient. They don’t know that they’re inflamed ’cause they feel fine. That is causing the plugging up of the pipes.

[00:22:44] And the number one trigger for that inflammation turns out to be something called lipopolysaccharides. And the science is really clear on this, that… now lipopolysaccharides.

[00:23:01] We have two different categories of bacteria in our body. Well, first about bacteria, let’s just take a step back …

[00:23:08] mm-hmm. 

[00:23:08] Dr. Tom O’Bryan: And talk about bacteria, and you’ll love this. Dr. Eric.

[00:23:11] Professor Yehuda Schonfeld, the godfather of autoimmunity. We shared the stage in Rome recently. And he started off by saying, we are born 99% human.

[00:23:28] Meaning a newborn baby coming out of Mom’s Canal has about 1% of their cells are bacteria in the gut. It’s not sterile. That mom has been inoculating baby to some degree over time. We are born 99% human and we die 90% microbial. I mean that, that’s just brilliant, isn’t it?

[00:23:58] Dr. Z: Wow.

[00:23:59] Dr. Tom O’Bryan: Because you know, many of us have heard a number of times that there’s 10 times more cells of bacteria in our body than there are human cells. If you add up all of the bone cells, the muscle cells, the organ cells, the skin cells add ’em all up, there’s 10 times more cells of bacteria in our body than human cells. So that means there’s 90% more of them than us.

[00:24:30] Who do you think is running the show? Right. Which, which is why we always say if there’s only one thing you’re going to do to be healthier, only one, irrespective of what the complaints are, it’s build a healthy gut microbiome. That is a primary. With cardiovascular disease, it’s a primary.

[00:24:51] But the microbiome, the bacteria in the gut, there is two categories of bacteria; gram-negative and gram-positive. And the bacteria, the majority of the not so great bacteria is called gram-negative bacteria. They’ve got a coat of armor, and if you think of the knights from the Middle Ages, and they get on these horses and they’re, they long spears, they’re gonna ride toward each other and you know, but they’ve got all this armor on.

[00:25:22] Lipopolysaccharide is the armor around gram-negative bacteria to protect it. And our bodies have developed the skill to recognize lipopolysaccharides. Because our ancestors before agriculture, 10,000 years ago, our ancestors were nomads.

[00:25:48] They followed the herbs, so there was always a source of food. And they’re walking, they’re looking, they find food, they grab something, first, they smell it, then they nibble at it, and then they eat it. And if there was bad bacteria on that food that you didn’t identify with smell, or nibbling by taste, that bad bacteria gets down into your intestines.

[00:26:15] As soon as the food comes into the intestines we have sentries standing guard right there. And they’re just, I think of the soldiers at Buckingham Palace with those big hats. They’re as stiff as can be. They’re dormant. They don’t do anything. But don’t mess with those guys. Do not.

[00:26:37] That is toll-like receptors in your gut. Toll-like receptors are dormant but they’re watching, constantly watching everything you eat. And if there is the protein structure of a bad bug, lipopolysaccharide, in that food mass that’s coming down, two things happen immediately within five minutes.

[00:27:01] One, you get leaky gut. Why? Well, leaky gut, when the cells open a little bit, water leaks into the intestines from the body to wash out the bug with the poop. You know, it’s a, it’s a safety mechanism. That’s one thing. And the second it activates NF kappa B, the major amplifier of inflammation.

[00:27:25] So you get all of this inflammation in your gut to protect you from the bad bug that just came into the environment of the intestines because your ancestor couldn’t identify by smell or by taste, that I shouldn’t eat this one. Okay, that’s great.

[00:27:45] Well, those that didn’t have good functioning toll-like receptors, they died. They did not reproduce. Those that had good protective function, they survived and they passed on that protection in their genes to their offspring. So today, every single one of us has this protective mechanism in our gut that’s designed to save your life.

[00:28:15] That’s it’s design. To protect you, to save your life. And it looks for that suit of armor on the bacteria. That’s the protein that it’s looking for, is that suit of armor.

[00:28:29] Now, a little segue, not really today’s talk, but a little segue is there’s one food and one food only that gets misinterpreted because it has that protein structure of the suit of armor, of the bad bug. And that one food is gluten.

[00:28:47] That’s why gluten is such a problem, is because it’s misinterpreted by your protective soldiers in your gut as a harmful component of a microorganism. And this is straight from Harvard. Study after study after study on this.

[00:29:04] So when we eat a food that’s got some bad bacteria on it, we will, our protection will fight this thing right away, LPS. Now, because of the great American diet that we’ve all grown up with, we’ve got lots of inflammation in our gut. Lots of leaky gut. Because we’re always eating these foods that are misinterpreted as a threat.

[00:29:37] Now, whether it’s gluten or it’s red dye number 42, or it’s, chlorine it doesn’t matter what the substance is. If it’s toxic, your immune system recognizes it’s gonna fight it. The most powerful of all of them triggering the immune response is the original threat to humans. That’s lipopolysaccharides the coat of armor of the bacteria. 

[00:30:04] So this is a paper from one of the greats in the field, Dr. Kilmer McCulley. Dr. McCulley is the godfather of homocysteine research. And he tells us it’s not widely known that lipoproteins, now that’s H-D-L, L-D-L, V-L-D-L, those are lipoproteins. This is cholesterol he’s talking about. Are able to bind and inactivate microbes and their toxins, which is the coat of armor, effectively, by complex formation.

[00:30:38] Meaning the cholesterol grabs it. Holds onto it. Now it’s complex, and it holds onto it, it won’t let go and now toll-like receptor doesn’t get activated. Because the cholesterol is covering it up and saying like, “I got this man. It’s okay. I got it.”

[00:30:58] And the cholesterol escorts the LPS all the way through the gut and out with the poop so as to avoid over activating your immune system. Creating too much inflammation.

[00:31:14] From McCulley, Dr. McCulley,

[00:31:16] “Complex formation” -meaning the cholesterol molecule grabs onto the coat of armor -“between all lipoprotein classes” HDL, LDL, VLDL, oxidized, LDL, “and both bacteria and viruses has been demonstrated by many different laboratory tools”, equipment that they can use. “High cholesterol and or high LDL is protective against infection and atherosclerosis.”

[00:31:47] And I’ve got many, many studies on this, but that kind of sums up that high cholesterol is sometimes there to save your life.

[00:31:58] Dr. Z: Mm-hmm.

[00:31:59] Dr. Tom O’Bryan: That’s its purpose. It’s not bad for you. It is protecting you.

[00:32:06] So, not always, but it turns out that this is the most powerful threat causing inflammation in the human body. And the journals of neurogenesis, neuroinflammation, they say LPS is the most powerful trigger activating the formation and deposit of beta amyloid in the brain. The mechanism of Alzheimer’s.

[00:32:33] It’s the most powerful of them all. 

[00:32:37] Dr. Z: Yeah. And, and we’ve, The Great Cholesterol Con, I think is a required reading for anyone who’s interested in, what’s happened and why, and why the numbers have changed, why, and that’s arbitrary, even diabetes.

[00:32:50] What truly is diabetic? What’s not diabetic? What is high, what is low? Why are the numbers? And it seems like every time the numbers change, doc, more people are recommended to be on statins. There was this big push.

[00:33:02] Dr. Tom O’Bryan: Imagine that.

[00:33:03] Dr. Z: Right? Every time, like millions of people now. Oh, the numbers have changed yet, you mentioned something.

[00:33:10] No one’s mentioned this yet, that I’ve interviewed, and I think it’s important the body produces cholesterol. Cholesterol is necessary for proper cell membrane function. 

[00:33:23] Dr. Tom O’Bryan: Oh my goodness. You know, cholesterol is the raw material that all your hormones come from. Estrogen, testosterone, melatonin, serotonin, they’re made of cholesterol.

[00:33:35] So one of the things you have to look at when a person has high cholesterol. Are they producing excessive stress hormones right now?

[00:33:43] Dr. Z: Mmmmmm

[00:33:43] Dr. Tom O’Bryan: Is their life, is there a lot of stress in their life? That’s just one on the checklist. You know, that you have to see. Are they in a toxic relationship? A toxic relationship can cause high cholesterol, because your liver is making more stress hormones. For some people, you know, that’s what it is.

[00:34:04] Cholesterol is the raw material that your immune system uses to fight the threats that you’re under. So we just have to look and see where, why is this happening? That’s the million dollar question. Why?

[00:34:23] High cholesterol is not necessarily a threat to you. Could be.

[00:34:27] Dr. Z: No. No, no, no. Folks, this is really important. I mean, this is a asterisk takeaway. You need to talk to your doctor.

[00:34:35] My father, unfortunately, was recommended low dose statins as prevention against high cholesterol. That’s what they’re doing.

[00:34:44] Baby aspirin for protection against blood pressure. Which we ended up finding out overuse of aspirin actually causes the damage to your blood vessels, which triggers plaque buildup, which then can cause heart disease. Like what in the world are we doing here?

[00:34:58] So folks, this is a really big takeaway. What we’re talking about, and this, there’s only so much we could do in this discussion and why it’s vital.

[00:35:06] And I think a big takeaway is to find a practitioner who understands this. Who understands functional medicine. Who isn’t gonna see one number on a lab and then prescribe you something. Even if it’s a nutraceutical. Someone who prescribes you a nutraceutical of supplement or an essential oil because of high cholesterol, that person shouldn’t have the right to do that.

[00:35:28] You need to do what Dr. Tom just said. How’s your love life? How’s your relationship life? Are you going through any undue stress or anxiety? I don’t know anyone whose answer would be no at this point. Let’s unpack that a little bit. Why are these numbers so high? And once you unpack that box and start peeling off the onion layer by layer, you might find that simple lifestyle shifts.

[00:35:51] So can we, can you give some simple, effective lifestyle shifts, that you know people can do, that can make a difference in this context. Something that maybe people might be surprised 

[00:36:04] Dr. Tom O’Bryan: I would. Yes, I’d be happy to. And I’m going to give you a study that was published in 2019 in the Journal of the American Medical Association from Harvard. And the editors of the journal made a comment about this study. They said,

[00:36:20] “This is an elegant study using sophisticated biomarkers to demonstrate their point.”

[00:36:25] Now, Dr. Eric, as you know, the editors of the Journal of the AMA do not say that very often.

[00:36:31] Dr. Z: Mm-hmm.

[00:36:31] Dr. Tom O’Bryan: They don’t give a stamp of approval, but they did for this one. And what these researchers did was they looked at couples going to assisted fertility centers.

[00:36:42] Dr. Z: Oh.

[00:36:44] Dr. Tom O’Bryan: And they ruled out all of the known threats to success or failure with implantation: alcohol consumption, cigarette smoking, exercise, no exercise, socioeconomic class, race. They ruled all of that out and they looked at one thing and one thing only.

[00:37:06] They did it in an elegant way that apparently, you know, I’m no statistician, but apparently you can’t argue with how they did this. Which is why the editors gave the stamp of approval.

[00:37:16] They looked at one thing. How many servings of fruits and vegetables is the woman eating a day, when she’s going through the implantation procedures?

[00:37:26] And as most people know, they’re spending tens of thousands of dollars to try to have a family, a beautiful thing, but very stressful. And they divided the women into four categories: the highest number of fruits and vegetables per day, the next, the next, and the lowest. The results were shocking.

[00:37:48] Those in the highest category of fruit and vegetable consumption per day, compared to those in the lowest category of fruit and vegetable consumptions per day. Those in the highest category had an 18% less likelihood of successful implantation. The more fruits and vegetables you eat, the worse the outcome.

[00:38:12] No, wait, wait. What? And they had a 26% less likelihood of a live birth. They had miscarriages and stillbirths 26% more often than the women who weren’t eating much fruits and vegetables. It’s like, wait, what?

[00:38:36] But here’s the hidden little pearl in there. There was a group of women eating organic. And in that category, those in the highest category of consumption, the exact opposite.

[00:38:51] Dr. Z: Wow. Wow.

[00:38:53] Dr. Tom O’Bryan: And here’s the takeaway, that’s such good news for people. The takeaway is women qualified to be in the highest category of consumption and get much better results, if they were having three servings per week of organic. Not three a day, three a week.

[00:39:21] And the researchers didn’t comment on that at all. But I think is because, you know, if you’re eating organic whenever you can, you probably got organic shampoo in your bathroom and organic soaps and

[00:39:34] Dr. Z: mm-hmm.

[00:39:34] Dr. Tom O’Bryan: Organic laundry detergents that you’re trying. You’re trying, when you can. And you eat organic couple, three times a week, you know. But they got much, much, much better results.

[00:39:46] It’s the insecticides, and pesticides, and fungicides, rodenticides, glyphosates, heavy metals that are on the conventional fruits and vegetables in your supermarket that accumulate in your body.

[00:40:02] And for those women who already were having health problems, so they’re highly inflamed. They eat more vegetables, but that’s more chemicals, and it’s like throwing gasoline on a fire instead of charcoal lighter fluid.

[00:40:19] Dr. Z: Wow.

[00:40:19] Dr. Tom O’Bryan: I mean, it’s a jaw dropping study, but it fits right in, Dr. Eric. It fits right in with the takeaway message for today from me. Yeah. And the takeaway message was the subtitle of my most recent book, which is, You Can Fix Your Brain. That’s the name of the book. Mm-hmm. And you’ll laugh that I had a two week argument with Rodale Press on the title.

[00:40:48] Dr. Z: Oh yeah. Oh yeah. They, I can,

[00:40:51] Dr. Tom O’Bryan: they really wanted some other title. Nope. This is the title. You Can Fix Your Brain.

[00:40:57] The subtitle though is “just one hour a week to the best memory, productivity, and sleep you’ve ever had.” And that’s the key to success. Because you’re gonna hear so many good things from so many experts that Dr. Eric is bringing, you’re not gonna know what to do. There’s so much.

[00:41:16] You take one hour a week. You tell your family every Tuesday night after dinner, or every Sunday after services, don’t bother me. I’m gonna spend an hour to learn how we can be healthier. And then you’re gonna go back and find that interview that Dr. Eric did with the guy that talked about phthalates in plastic containers. And you’re gonna go look for the URLs for glass storage containers. My book, there’s three URLs; Miles Kimball, Amazon, and I don’t remember the third one.

[00:41:51] And you go online and you look for glass storage containers, say, oh, those, oh, I like those. And you order three round ones and two square ones, and one for the pie. And you pay with your credit card and hit send. It took an hour, but you’re done for the week.

[00:42:07] Never again will you poison your family. Because when you put leftover foods in a plastic storage container, the next day that the food has phthalates, the chemicals used to mold plastic, in the food that leached out of the container into the food.

[00:42:24] Dr. Z: Mm-hmm.

[00:42:25] Dr. Tom O’Bryan: And phalates fuel inflammation, which fuels arterial sclerosis, which fuels cardiovascular disease. So you now have glass storage containers. And you know, some people write to me and say, but I can’t find any without plastic lids. And my response is, don’t turn the thing upside down. 

[00:42:47] Dr. Z: Mm-hmm. 

[00:42:47] Dr. Tom O’Bryan: You know?

[00:42:48] Dr. Z: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

[00:42:49] Dr. Tom O’Bryan: It’s okay. As long as the food’s not touching the lid, you’re okay. Yeah. You don’t have to get, you know, fanatical about this.

[00:42:56] When you get glass and you give your husband the Tupperware containers to store nails out in the garage. That’s what they’re good for. Mm-hmm. Right. My father used to do that. He would take a Tupperware, he’d take the lid and he’d nail it to the underside of a shelf. Yep. And then he would just clip the Tupperware onto the nailed lid and it would hold it up under the shelf. Right.

[00:43:22] So that’s just one. But next week, now, you look at foods that help to clean your pipes, and you’re going to look for recipes of how to, how to work with beets.

[00:43:35] How to increase your nitric oxide levels. Now when you listen to it, it’s one hour a week, so you, you’re gonna listen to the interview, the guy on nitric oxide. Well, I don’t remember his name, but I remember it was about nitric oxide, because health goes where blood flows.

[00:43:50] And nitric oxide opens your blood vessels. So blood flow is better. And so you’ll go back and listen to that interview, and then you’ll order the beets or beet root powder. I just put beet root powder in my smoothie every morning. So it’s an easy way to get it.

[00:44:08] And then you’re done for the week, and then next week you’re gonna learn another one, and then next week you learn another one.

[00:44:15] And in six months you’ve got this down and you go to church and you see someone that you haven’t seen and they say, whoa, what happened to you? Look at you. You look great.

[00:44:25] Well, I lost four or five pounds, but I’ve really lost a lot of fat and I’ve just changed my diet. You know, I’m eating organic now. Much more often. We have organic. Dishwashing detergents and on organic laundry detergent. And I’ve got plants in every room of the house because they absorb the toxins in the air. And my daughter’s asthma’s gone now. You start talking about all this and your friend just looks at you and their jaw drops. It’s like, wow, that’s too overwhelming. I can’t even concept how to do that. But it’s one hour a week.

[00:44:56] Transitioning your family’s health in the direction you want it to go. 

[00:44:59] Dr. Z: I love that. I just went through the Compound Effect by Darren Hardy, for those of you’re interested in a self-improvement book that focuses on business. But it focuses a lot on life and he shares the very same thing.

[00:45:12] He actually had a story of three different people all in the same socioeconomic background. Three friends. All of them are similar in so many ways. One friend decided to not do anything different with his life, and another friend decided to do literally what we just said, just one hour. Just one hour here, one hour there, just a little bit, just simple little changes.

[00:45:35] And another friend actually made changes that were detrimental. A little extra alcohol, a little extra Netflix.

[00:45:41] But the guy who decided, I’m gonna read more self-help. I’m gonna focus a little bit more on my exercise and diet. In six months, this is the compound effect. Same thing with your investments of your money. Same thing with your relationships.

[00:45:55] The compound effect had dramatic results where one guy, he lost 30 pounds in six months ’cause he needed it. The other guy gained 30 pounds. So now there’s a delta of 60 pound difference. And the, and the guy who did nothing, he was pretty much the same, but he was a little more bitter.

[00:46:11] Dr. Tom O’Bryan: Mm-hmm.

[00:46:11] Dr. Z: And I’ll leave you with that. He was a little more bitter. Because, his situation was about the same, but he was six months older and he was six months away from not anything different in his life. And we don’t want you to experience that.

[00:46:26] And I love that, Dr. Tom. There’s so many ways we could go here and so many ways we can end this, but I just wanna thank you so much. That was beautiful, and I’m grateful.

[00:46:35] Because it’s the little things that we do. It’s the tortoise versus the hare parable that we’ve heard since we were children. And it does take time. And the thing is that we’re not presenting to you a microwave American solution. America has it wrong when it comes to this.

[00:46:53] Dr. Tom O’Bryan: Mm-hmm.

[00:46:53] Dr. Z: And other countries have it Right. That do it right. And it’s a slower process. It’s life. Allow your body to do what it needs to do over time and give yourself patience.

[00:47:05] Be… give yourself grace. Just give yourself a little grace.

[00:47:12] Dr. Tom O’Bryan: Well, that’s nice.

[00:47:12] Dr. Z: And that’s what I get from you, Dr. Tom. I’ve never felt judged. Oftentimes convicted, which is good.

[00:47:18] I hope your conviction meter has been tweaked a little bit. I hope you feel, wow, I need to do something. But you shouldn’t feel judged or condemned. It’s just that little bit. So how would you like to, how would you like to say goodbye?

[00:47:31] ’cause that I don’t know any other better way than to share some love and encouragement as you always have. I really appreciate this talk. I’ve learned so much. I’m so inspired. 

[00:47:40] Dr. Tom O’Bryan: Well, thank you so much. Thank you so much. First I would recommend that everyone check out The Inflammation Equation.

[00:47:47] Dr. Z: Mm-hmm.

[00:47:47] Dr. Tom O’Bryan: When, when you can. It helps to give you the roadmap of how to do this at one hour a week, you know?

[00:47:54] And the other is, there is a poem by George Bernard Shaw that I had in every treatment room in my office for 25 years. And patients would often just be standing there reading it when, you know, I’d come in the room ’cause it’s so beautiful.

[00:48:18] And if you just type in the first sentence and  George Bernard Shaw , it’ll pop right up online so that you can read it. And it’s very empowering.

[00:48:32] This is the true joy in life; the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one, the being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances, complaining the world will not devote itself to making you happy.

[00:48:53] I am of the opinion my life belongs to the whole, and it’s my privilege to do for it whatever I can. Life is no brief candle to me. It’s sort of a splendid torch I have a hold of at the moment and want to make burn as brightly as possible before passing on to future generations.

[00:49:20] Dr. Z: Thank you again, my friend. I’m blessed. I’m honored. And on behalf of everyone that you’ve touched, all the doctors, all the patients you’ve educated, the millions upon millions of people, we you know, enjoy the season of your life where you could be considering an icon ’cause you’ve earned it. And let people like me call you that.

[00:49:35] I know you would never, but you truly are. Some people call you an OG, the original gangster, whatever you wanna say. Just thank you my friend.

[00:49:43] And folks, thanks so much for tuning in. All of our love and appreciation to you and as always this is Dr. Eric Zielinski. Our hope and prayer’s that you and your family truly experience an abundant life.

[00:49:52] And you gotta listen to this interview again ’cause you’re gonna get some great tips on how to do that. Talk soon. Bye-bye.

[00:49:59] Thanks for listening to the Natural Living Family Podcast. Hope today’s conversation encouraged and challenged you to live a healthier, more abundant life. Tune in next week for another life transforming discussion. 

[00:50:09] If today’s episode blessed you, please share it with a friend and leave a review. This helps more families discover the hope and healing found in God’s word. For show notes, transcripts and resources from today’s episode, visit natural living family podcast.com. And as always, this is Dr. Z. My hope and prayer is that you and your family truly experience the abundant life.

[00:50:30] God bless. Talk to you soon.