In this interview with Natural Medicine Journal's publisher, Deborah Yurgelun-Todd, PhD, and Perry Renshaw, MD, PhD, MBA, discuss the research they are conducting at The University of Utah in the Neuroscience Department. They specifically describe research associated with the safety and efficacy of supplemental citicoline, as well as evaluate emerging research in this area.

Approximate listening time: 30 minutes

About the Experts

Deborah Yurgelun-Todd, PhD, is director of the Neuroscience Initiative and a USTAR Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Utah School of Medicine. Her research focus is on identifying the neuropsychological and neurobiological bases of human behavior. Yurgelun-Todd is an expert in the application of structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging, the administration and analysis of neurocognitive tests, and the integration of the results obtained by these multiple modalities. She has examined the etiologic bases of neural models of dysfunction in psychiatric disorders including depression, bipolar illness, substance misuse, and schizophrenia. She is also recognized for applying imaging techniques to study cortical changes during development in healthy children and adolescents, and during treatment intervention in adult patients.

Perry Renshaw, MD, PhD, MBA, is a USTAR Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Utah School of Medicine and a Medical Director of the VISN 19 Mental Illness Research, Education and Clinical Center (MIRECC) at the Salt Lake City Veterans Affairs Medical Center. His training as a biophysicist and psychiatrist has led to a primary research interest in the use of multinuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) neuroimaging to identify changes in brain chemistry associated with psychiatric disorders and substance abuse. Current clinical trials are focused on the use of citicoline as a treatment for methamphetamine dependence, creatine as a treatment for depression, and uridine as a treatment for bipolar disorder. Renshaw’s recent work focuses on brain chemistry changes that may increase depression and suicide for people living at high altitudes.

Transcript 

Karolyn Gazella: Hello, I'm Karolyn Gazella, the publisher of the Natural Medicine Journal. Today, I'm thrilled to be joined by two highly respected brain researchers from them University of Utah Neuroscience Department, Dr. Deborah Yurgelun-Todd and Dr. Perry Renshaw. Now, before we begin and dig into today's topic, I'd like to have each of you describe the focus of your research. So let's start with you, Dr. Yurgelun-Todd.

Deborah Yurgelun-Todd: Yeah. Well, my research is initially started to focus on cognitive function and the neuropsychological, or brain, pathways that mediate how we think and how we feel. And then I became very interested in the application of brain-imaging to help us understand exactly how those pathways worked and give us some insights into how the brain does things well, and how it does things less well.

Gazella: Perfect. Now, Dr. Renshaw, how about you? Can you please describe your research focus?

Renshaw: Well, sure. Well, I'm sort of confused soul. I'm a psychiatrist/biophysicist, and the way in which I merged these techniques together is to do brain-imaging studies that focus on, how is brain chemistry altered in, particularly, diseased states that psychiatrists might be interested in. And based on identifying unusual patterns in brain chemistry, my research group likes to focus on identification and development of novel treatment strategies. One of which is a molecule, I guess we'll be talking about today, CDP-choline or Cognizin.

Gazella: Perfect. And you're absolutely correct, I'd like to talk about citicoline in a lot more detail. Now, Dr. Yurgelun-Todd, why did you become interested in citicoline for the brain, and why did it catch your attention?

Yurgelun-Todd: Well, they've done some work looking at why the brain was not working very well in mood disorders, and why attention, in particular, was a problem in individuals who had depression and other mood disorders. And when citicoline was brought to my attention, there seemed to be interesting potential for that to alter attentional systems. So I became very excited at the possibility of that becoming a treatment for individuals who may not have optimal brain functioning.

Gazella: Perfect. I love the fact that attention actually is what caught your attention, so that's brilliant. That's brilliant. Now, Dr. Renshaw, what does the scientific literature tell us about the safety of citicoline, and are there any contrary indications or risks associated with its use orally?

Renshaw: You know, that's a great question because we have a really well established answer that citicoline has been used millions of times around the world. In some countries, particularly where they use it as an intravenous administration as a drug. In other countries like the US and Canada, it's a nutritional supplement.

We've done studies, or rather, Dr. Yurgelun-Todd has done studies looking at the effects of citicoline on adolescents and she can describe what she saw. But, by and large, you have to take a whole lot of citicoline before you notice anything adverse. And in the few instances where we've seen that, it's been people feeling like they've had too much Starbucks coffee and that goes away over about a half an hour.

Gazella: Yeah, and I would like to hear about the studies on children, Dr. Yurgelun-Todd. What does your research tell you about safety, especially in that population?

Yurgelun-Todd: It's very interesting because we, as I mentioned, I was interested in potential ways to improve thinking and so we decided we would look at the developing brain in individuals who were adolescent. And we found that when we supplemented with citicoline, they actually improved their attentional span and could do—and had some improvement in their psychomotor function as well. So this was in healthy adolescence, rather than anyone who actually had a documented impairment. The fact that you could see improvement in cognitive functioning and psychomotor functioning in healthy individuals without a documented impairment was actually quite remarkable.

The other thing that was remarkable was that the dosing was very low, and in fact, this was a new area to explore. How low could we dose and still see an effect on the brain? So we were quite enthusiastic about those finding and think they have important implications. With regard to safety, we also were very rigorous in the documenting potential side effects associated with the administration of citicoline and we really saw essentially no side effects in the side effects profile that we did document. Looked very similar to the placebo, in fact, was not statistically different between placebo and the treatment arm. So we were really reassured that even with the rigorous assessment for side effects, there was nothing that was documented in this trial.

What's really compelling, however, is that most treatments for cognitive changes or for any neurologic disorder, neuropsychiatric disorder do end up having side affect issues, some of them being more visceral, like stomach or headache or things like that, but also some of them actually diminishing your cognitive functioning. So this was rather remarkable that we could enhance cognitive functioning with no side effects.

Gazella: Yeah. I mean, it's good to hear that the safety profile is good. And I may want to come back on that topic of children, but Dr. Yurgelun-Todd, I'm going to stick with you here. There's a wide variety of brain functions and cognitive issues that have been researched associated with the use of citicoline, like focus, attention, dementia, and other issues. Which area, presently, has the strongest, and most compelling research?

Yurgelun-Todd: Well, that's a very interesting question because there's a biased based on what science you happen to love. I think some of the most compelling research has been associated with the fact that there's a repair mechanism associated with the administration of citicoline, that is, cellular biochemistry is actually altered and phospholipid synthesis is improved when you have an administration of citicoline, therefore, individuals who have neurological insults, such as strokes or mild traumatic brain injury, things like that can see rapid repair in their cells with citicoline administration. That is the area that's more involved in the patient or the real neurological insult area.

Within the healthy individual, I think the most compelling research really falls on two ends of the lifespan, that is the elderly or middle-age and above, and also then some of the work we talked about in adolescence, where both when your brain is growing rapidly and also when your brain is aging, it seems as if the supplement with Citicoline can make a substantial difference.

Gazella: Yeah, that's interesting. Now, Dr. Renshaw, there's preliminary research demonstrating that citicoline may be able to help with cocaine dependence and addictions. I find that pretty fascinating. How promising is that research, and do you see that as a viable application in the future?

Renshaw: Yeah. No, that's a great question. Citicoline, broadly speaking, has 2 effects. One that Dr. Yurgelun-Todd just touched on. Brain repairs is probably more well established and been investigated for probably 30 or 40 years. Our work, to a first approximation, looks at the effects of citicoline in terms of increasing the levels, brain levels, of neurotransmitters, particularly dopamine and norepinephrine in the brain.

When someone is using cocaine or methamphetamine, they often have a depletion of dopamine within their brain, as well as, in the case of methamphetamine, some damage related to decreases in blood flow. From that perspective, citicoline is almost a perfect fit in terms of what it can do an active user, increasing the level of dopamine in the brain, makes them feel, I think, more intact and, perhaps, less inclined to continue using drugs. And the brain repair mechanism because the mechanism on which stimulants cause brain damage is often related to ischemia. It's just a really good fit.

Where we're going now in this research, is that we've broadened our scope from cocaine to methamphetamine to stimulants that are used to treat ADHD. In fact, we are in the middle of finding a study supported by the National Institutes on Drug Abuse, we're working with in Salt Lake City and Seoul, South Korea. And what we're looking at is adolescents who are using stimulants, not necessarily as a drug of abuse, as a way to approve their attention, focus, and do better on very rigorous South Korean college entrance exams. Some estimates suggest that close to a quarter of all high school students in South Korea are taking stimulants, which is probably not good or the long-term outcome of which is not good. We think citicoline may be a way to help people feel better and get off the use of stimulants. Which is better avoided, unless you have a really good reason for continuing treatment with that class of medication.

Gazella: Yeah. That's actually one of the questions I was going to ask. When you're talking about using citicoline in healthy children, I was curious ... and Dr. Renshaw, I'll stick with you on this one ... I was curious, I have not read any studies using citicoline for children with ADHD, but I think what you're saying is you're evaluating whether or not this could be a viable alternative to the pharmaceuticals that are being used for ADHD. Is that what I'm hearing?

Renshaw: There's a real divide, at least in the United States, between things that are approved as natural products, nutritional supplements, and pharmaceutical agents. The natural product industry lives in fear of having their products considered to be drugs because the amount of testing, and safety monitoring, and efficacy, and evaluation that goes into getting something onto the market as a drug is really very expensive and onerous.

So for us, any research that we do, we have to have it paid for itself. It's been a lot easier to look at the use of citicoline in healthy populations, and certainly the sponsors of the work that we've done, which have been certain large natural product companies, who are much, much happier without us in approach. That's said, if I take off my sort of business man's hat and put on the scientific garb, what we believe is that, in fact, citicoline would likely have good effects for treating ADHD.

In Europe, it's been used as a drug to treat Parkinson's disease with good outcomes, and Parkinson's disease is, as you may know, is also a disorder associated with decreased dopamine in the brain. The ability to increase focus and attention is generally quite good. The difference between citicoline and the stimulant per se, is the effect of citicoline is to increase the brain's concentration of dopamine, that you're encouraging the brain to make dopamine when it otherwise might not do so. Stimulants just release dopamine from the brain and tend to deplete it, so they are very different mechanisms, and there's every reason to think that they'd both be affective. They probably have different safety profiles.

Gazella: That's fascinating. And Dr. Renshaw, I'm going to stay with you one more time. What about autism, autism spectrum? There's numerous conditions that are in that category. Any preliminary research in that or are we pretty much leaving that alone for now?

Renshaw: We haven't been involved in that research. There was a company we did some research with in the Boston area, that was very interested in a related compound from the treatment of autism. They got involved in a big patent dispute with the University of California in San Diego that was resolved in UCSD's favor. So I don't think there's ever been a trial. But, there certainly is a suggestion in the autism literature to treat with pyrimidines, as the effect of either cytidine or uridine on the brain might help some individuals with autism spectrum disorders, but I think in fairness, it's really quite preliminary and that we'd have to do studies to understand what the effects were likely to really be to a population.

Gazella: Yeah. That makes a lot of sense. Now, Dr. Yurgelun-Todd, I'd like to stay on this topic of exciting new research in the area of citicoline use. Another area of research that's pretty interesting, and could be significant, is the use of citicoline for appetite control. I mean, obviously we have an issue with obesity in this country. Is it too early to tell is this may be a promising application of citicoline in the future?

Yurgelun-Todd: You know, I don't think it is. We've noticed some years ago that in looking at the response to food cues, individuals who had received the supplementation of citicoline actually showed significant decreases in appetite and that this was related to dose of citicoline that they'd received. And the thing that was interesting about that data, was it wasn't just that the individual said, "Oh, I feel like I have a reduced appetite." They actually showed differences in the way their brain responded to the cues, such as food items, ice cream, donuts, things like that when they viewed them in the magnet.

So we had documentation that neural activation was altered in food-processing related areas of the brain, as well as having a decrease in appetite, which really suggests that there is some mediation of brain responses to appetitive cues, which is really one of the problems with obesity. And within weight control, that's just sort of having an over-reaction to these kinds of cues.

And thinking about it further, it didn't really surprise us because it goes back to what Dr. Renshaw just mentioned about the dopamine system, the dopamine system in addiction are part of the reward system in the brain and the ... although we initially focused on the impact of citicoline on cellular function and phospholipid metabolism, we recognized as we thought about it further, that the concentration of dopamine is being changed with the supplementation of citicoline as well. So we're changing neurotransmitter balance in the brain and that had a really positive affect in terms of response to food items. I don't know if Dr. Renshaw wants to comment.

Renshaw: No, I think that's right. When stimulants have been used for this purpose, in fact, that's why many of them were developed initially, but they sort of force the brain to release all the dopamine that it's already made. What we really like about citicoline or pyrimidines as a strategy for increasing brain dopamine is that A, it's really encouraging the brain to speed up synthesis, which is sort of what you'd like to do, and again from a safety perspective the latter approach should be much safer for individuals taking a supplement or another medication over time.

Yurgelun-Todd: To go back to your question on is it too soon. I don't think so because I think most studies that we hear about are really just using self-report and don't have the documentation of a brain response. You couldn't really fake a brain response in terms of metabolic activations, so that is a really, I think, robust piece of research that will support this as an appetite moderator.

Gazella: That's fascinating. Now, I want to stick with you, Dr. Yurgelun-Todd because I do want to go into dosage. But specific to appetite control, what was the dosage used?

Yurgelun-Todd: 2,000 milligrams in the study that we did. Although, we did not ... we've not had the opportunity to see how low we can go to have this effect. And this was in middle-aged individuals. So we were looking at people, 40 to 60 years old, and they were looking at the extent to which having a 6-week supplementation could impact the brain. And that's what we saw.

Gazella: And 2,000 milligrams, is that divided doses?

Yurgelun-Todd: Yes, it was. It was morning and evening.

Gazella: Okay, perfect. Now, Dr. Renshaw, I want to dig a little bit deeper into this issue of dose. Now, does the dose of citicoline vary depending on the application or is there a consistent dosage range that is affective across most conditions?

Renshaw: That's a great question, and citicoline has a funny history that was used most extensively first in Europe. And there, after an injection of citicoline, they had a lot of trouble showing that there was any citicoline or cytidine in the bloodstream. When they went to oral ingestion, that became an even bigger problem. And it turns out, that the stomach plays tricks with citicoline, it turns the cytidine, that's part of it, into a molecule called uridine, which is the predominate pyrimidine in the human central nervous system. Because of that, it's been a wide spectrum on the views on how bioavailable, that is how much citicoline gets used by the body. It turns out that if you measure uridine, essentially all the citicoline is absorbed and gets distributed across the body, but it took a long time to figure that out. This was sorted out by a scientist at MIT, Richard Berkman, who's also studied citicoline extensively.

If you look at the clinical indications, a lot of the ones we look at, mood disorders, attention-deficit disorder, probably require lower doses. In the United States, the most recent trials have really looked at serious brain injury conditions, like stroke, and so there have been trials that are conducted with oral administration of citicoline to treat stroke. The problem there is that in the context of someone who's found out a real metabolic stress affecting the brain and the body, it just sort of absorbs things effectively from your stomach, plus you've got a problem with the area you want to impact has got decreased blood supply due to the stroke. And doses went up to something like four grams a day in those instances.

We've been ... most of our indications using somewhere between 500 and 2,000 milligrams of citicoline. The effects of citicoline last for about two, or three, or four hours just depending on the individual. So taking it twice a day works reasonably well. There is, for many normal people, a self-correcting mechanism, which if you're taking more than your body needs, you will feel anxious and jittery. That's relatively uncommon. Anyone taking less than 2,000 milligrams a day is unlikely to have side effects. This is obviously important in figuring out what to do. Studies in children, for example, as Dr. Yurgelun-Todd has done. Children come in a variety of shapes, sizes, and weights. It's probably going to be important to adjust the dose to reflect the weight of the child.

Gazella: Yeah. I think one of the fascinating things for me with citicoline, is that it does, in fact, have efficacy at what could be considered a fairly low dose, even as low as 250 milligrams. But even at 500 milligrams, that's a pretty low dose, and it's still showing affect, correct?

Renshaw: That's right. From that perspective, it's really important to recognize that one of the most established effects of citicoline is to speed up membrane synthesis, and this is true in every cell in the body, and we all travel around with CDP-choline in our cells. For that reason, because it's highly important in controlling this fundamental process, the body tends to keep the concentration of CDP-choline low. So that relatively low doses, especially for natural product, work much more effectively than is true of almost any other type of natural product. And again, we think that that has a lot to do with the fact that it's a really important regulatory control molecule within the body.

Gazella: Right. Now, Dr. Yurgelun-Todd, we've talked about a lot of different conditions, and application, and some pretty exciting emerging research associated with the oral use of citicoline. Out of all of that, what do you feel shows the most promise?

Yurgelun-Todd: I think I'm going to relate that to where I think there's a great deal of need. And that is in our children, and our adolescents, and young adults. And specifically, I think the fact that we can provide a very safe, minimally, essentially no side effect treatment to improve attention, and you touched on this earlier, I think is very significant. We've not done studies in ADHD or populations, such as a diagnosed ADHD population, but I'm quite sure that this would be a supplement that would make a significant difference for many of those and not have any long-term or short-term side effects. So I think that's a very important point.

The other thing that hasn't been as well explored, but I think is important, is the area of concussion or sports injury. Where, I believe, because of the data that we've seen in stroke, and in other neurologic disorders there's every reason to believe that citicoline could actually provide a preventative capacity, like in a sports drink or a bar, something to that effect, prior to concussion. And then also supplementation during the season could be very helpful. So I think that ... well, that hasn't been an area that we've focused on so much. I think given the attention now in the sports of our children and college students, that this would be an area that could be really important.

And then, of course, my original reason for wanting to get into this work, which is mood disorders. I think that we hadn't really capitalized on the impact of Cognizin on improving mood disorders. And I think there are many individual, particularly, in the perimenopausal age group who have found that this has been a very important supplement in their life and has helped them significantly in feeling that they can think more clearly and feel better overall. So those are my favorite areas to think about.

Gazella: Yeah. That concussion, that is really fascinating and it would be great if there could be some studies done there. Dr Renshaw, do you agree? Anything to add to that list?

Renshaw: Yeah. There's a substance abuse investigator at the University of Texas Southwestern in Dallas, Sherwood Brown, who did a study of the individuals who had both, cocaine dependence and bipolar disorder. And what he found was citicoline was actually much more effective in treating the bipolar disorder than the cocaine dependence in the patients that he was working with.

We have a colleague here in Utah, Doug Hondo, who looked at that and said, "Why would something like citicoline be effective in treating bipolar disorder?" And he's developed a theory that suggests that citicoline may have a really potent antisuicidal effect. And it shares, to an unbelievable degree, many of the same effects on the human brain that both lithium, which is known to antisuicidal and ketamine, which is the antidepressant for those of us in psychiatry. So he's about to begin a study looking at whether or not, and this has been funded by the Veterans Administration, Citicoline reduces suicidality with treatment for only the first week. This is very exciting, and is something that will get underway, it's a 4-year study, in a couple of weeks. And if that's really true, and you could get the same protective effect without having to take Lithium or Ketamine, both of which have pretty significant side effects, that would be a real advance. The compound that Doug will be using in the study is uridine, which is the major metabolite that citicoline provides through the body in [inaudible 00:25:19].

Gazella: Dr. Yurgelun-Todd, because we're talking about bi-polar mood disorders, a lot of these folks are on some heavy duty medications as Dr. Renshaw just mentioned. Do we know anything about interactions? I don't know that there's been any studies, but if somebody is on a Prozac, or an antidepressant, or some of these other, Lithium and whatnot, can citicoline be taken with that or is that a no-no?

Yurgelun-Todd: Thus far, I don't know of a clinical trial that examined that specific question, however, everything that we know about citicoline would suggest that because this is found in normal diets and is a part of the human body, that it would not have any interaction effect with the treatments that have been provided. So it should be perfectly safe.

Gazella: Yeah. That makes some logical sense.

Yurgelun-Todd: But with the caveat that we don't have that empirical data.

Gazella: Right. You're basing that on logic and mechanisms of action and ...

Yurgelun-Todd: Exactly.

Gazella: Now, Dr. Renshaw, I'm going to put you on the spot here, but this is your area of expertise, your background is with addiction. I would love to hear your thoughts on our present opioid epidemic. I realize that this is a huge topic. This might be an unfair question, but can you give us a snapshot from your perspective as a researcher with this type of expertise, what needs to happen to get this issue, this opioid epidemic under control?

Renshaw: Boy, if I knew the answer to that question, I'd have a really high profile job. We're very interested in addiction as you know, we live in the Rocky Mountain states, and so one of the things we study is, what happens when someone moves from a lower altitude to higher altitude, and what we find is that people often get more depressed and more anxious and, curiously, use more different kinds of drugs of abuse. So I guess you could say, flatten out the Rocky Mountains states, but that's not actually our strategy. We're looking for molecules like citicoline that may have an effect in changing brain chemistry in ways that are effective in treating some of these high altitude related conditions.

The fact that this is something you can do that changes the use of drugs across a broad variety of categories suggests that these may be molecules that are really valuable in treating a range of different addictive disorders, but clearly you've figured out by now, that I'm sort of waving my hands because I think there are a lot of very smart people who are struggling with the question of how do you prove the problems of opiate dependence in this country. And it's really shocking how we have a problem that's occurred over a short period of time.

Gazella: Right. We've covered it in the Natural Medicine Journal, so it's definitely in our radar as well. Now, I think we covered everything, but Dr. Yurgelun-Todd, is there any final thoughts that you'd like to add on this subject?

Yurgelun-Todd: Yeah, just one final thought, which is that I think that the impact of citicoline and particularly Cognizin citicoline has not been fully appreciated yet. It's come a long way since we began working with it and I think we've appreciated that it has multiple types of impact on the human brain and body, but I think we have even more potential to see it improve the quality of our lives. So I'm excited to continue working with it.

Gazella: Yeah. That's kind of why I wanted to focus on the emerging research because I think that that's very exciting, and I think that this can be a really positive clinical tool for healthcare practitioners. Dr. Renshaw, anything else to add to that?

Renshaw: Just one comment and then a tantalizing tidbit if you will, we can edit this out, I guess. But one of the things that we think is going be an important trend, is the combination of citicoline with other natural products as a way to boost its efficacy. And that's something that hasn't happened yet, but we have some combinations that we're exploring now. One of the things that Dr. Yurgelun-Todd didn't share with you, is she has, across 3 different studies, evidence that citicoline also improves complexion. It has effects on skin tone, which makes some sense when you think that both the brain and the skin are rapidly turning over cells. So that's an area that's a little bit outside our area of clinical expertise that merits investigation as well.

Gazella: Wow. Yeah, that is pretty interesting because that could then ... it could be a topical ingredient.

Yurgelun-Todd: Right. Exactly.

Renshaw: Exactly.

Gazella: Yeah. Wow. That's pretty interesting. Well, I want to thank you both for joining me. This has been fascinating and information-packed. I'm so pleased that you took time out of your schedule to join me today. And I hope you have an awesome day.

Yurgelun-Todd: Well, thank you so much. We were delighted to join you.

Renshaw: Yeah, you too, Karolyn.

In this podcast episode, we talk about cardiovascular labs with naturopathic cardiology expert, Daniel Chong, ND. Chong discusses the use of cholesterol panels and other tests he uses in practice. He dispels some common myths about how to interpret different lab results.

About the Expert

Daniel Chong, ND, has been a licensed naturopathic physician, practicing in Portland, Oregon, since 2000 and focusing on risk assessment, prevention, and drug-free treatment strategies for cardiovascular disease and diabetes, as well as general healthy aging, and acute and chronic musculoskeletal injuries. Chong has also completed certificate training in cardio-metabolic medicine from the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine and is an active member of the Society for Heart Attack Prevention and Eradication (SHAPE). In addition to his clinical work, Chong serves as a clinical consultant for Boston Heart Diagnostics Lab.

Tina Kaczor, ND, FABNO: Hello I'm Tina Kaczor editor-in-chief at the Natural Medicine Journal. I'm speaking today with my friend and colleague Dr. Daniel Chong a naturopathic physician and specialist in cardiology specifically. Dr. Chong is a founder and lead consultant at healthyheartacademy.com as well as a consultant for the cardiology industry. Dan, thanks for joining me today.

Daniel Chong, ND: Hello Dr. Kaczor, it's nice to be here.

Kaczor: We have talked informally, and I thought this would be a great opportunity to talk specifically for our audience, about the use of cholesterol panels, and we'll go into specifically some breakdown of the usefulness of common cholesterol panels, and then break that out into more particular cardiology panels. There's a lot out there right now about whether cholesterol is or isn't even linked to heart disease, so let's just start at the beginning. Can you give us a little bit about the roots of the cholesterol theory? We'll branch off from there.

Chong: I can try. It definitely is a relatively long-standing theory now. As I understand it, the first thoughts as to whether or not cholesterol had anything to do with cardiovascular disease came in the early 1900s on animal research with rabbits, but at that point it was dismissed because people were still not clear whether or not you could make any correlations between findings in rabbits and extrapolate out to humans.

The major real focus on the connection between cholesterol and heart disease started more in the mid-1900s almost simultaneously in a way with Ancel Keys and the Framingham study, so they started around the same time. Ancel Keys was one of the first people to really make a point of saying, "We should really research this because we repeatedly are seeing this potential connection," and so he was one of the first people to really start trying to splice it out. Then, the Framingham study started simultaneously. They don't come out with any of their more definitive conclusions until a little later than him with that. That's where it all began as far as I understand it.

Kaczor: In the Framingham study specifically I know that there has been ... The broad interpretation in the professional world has been high cholesterol equals risk of heart disease, LDL being the "bad cholesterol," in general. Is there particular subpopulations that this is more true for? In other words, can we say if you are a 40 or 50 something-year-old male this is more true than if you're a 80-year-old male, or a female? Is there any way to delineate that with just looking at broad generic cholesterol levels, nothing too specific yet?

Chong: Hopefully, it will be answering your question by saying this, but to me one of the most fascinating pieces of information I heard come out of the Framingham study in particular is that over the course of however many years ... this was a statistic we heard about maybe five or so years ago. The Framingham study had been active for well over 50 years and they had well over 50 years of data on how many thousands of people, and the statement was made by the former director of the Framingham study, so it was certainly legitimate. Essentially what they said was, one of the key pieces of information that they saw in terms of the relationship between at least total cholesterol and cardiovascular disease was that it appeared as though if a person's total cholesterol was at or below 150 naturally, so throughout their lives without necessarily an intervention with a drug or whatever, just the people in the study who had naturally low cholesterol did not get heart disease period.

Of course, you can't then take that and make any truly definitive statements, but there is, in terms of a general viewpoint that was one of the things that came out. In other words, nobody with cholesterol under 150 naturally got a heart attack in their study. Again, there would still need to be more done to splice that out and figure out what exactly is going on there and why that is, but there's definitely something to be said. You can see the same exact type of finding if you look at epidemiological research on different cultures of people in history who did not get heart disease or got very little heart disease, all of those people regardless of where they were on the planet, what types of specific foods they were eating, even to some extent what their lifestyle was some of these people smoked, et cetera, the cultures of people who were known and found not to get cardiovascular disease all had cholesterol at or below 150.

Kaczor: You're talking about total cholesterol?

Chong: Correct.

Kaczor: Let's move over to talking about the bad cholesterol. LDL-

Chong: Can I pause you for one quick second?

Kaczor: Yeah.

Chong: Just to say one other thing about that. There's a lot of questions that would be immediately raised from those statements that I just made. One other way that I look at things is, and I know we'll get into it more, but cholesterol in of itself, I will say right from the beginning, has to be involved. It is not a worthless thing to measure, it is not something to just disregard and only focus on information. Time and again it has to be involved, technically it has to be involved. You can't make plaque without it, but it's just an important way to think about it. It's just whether or not it's the primary causative factor and we'll get into that.

Kaczor: Yeah, that's an important point. I don't see many people with total cholesterol below 150, but we'll put that aside. It's pretty uncommon. I don't know about other people. Let's break it down-

Chong: In modern times it absolutely it is.

Kaczor: Let's talk about LDL specifically and just start out with there's a lot of more specific labs that are looking at LDL particle size rather than total LDL. Just a brief primer, if you would, on the difference between LDL-

Chong: I like your emphasis on brief.

Kaczor: Yeah.

Chong: Sorry, go ahead.

Kaczor: On LDL calculated as it is in a common cholesterol panel and the particle size as it is measured by several different labs now.

Chong: I'll do two separate simple ways that I look at it. One is technically LDLC or "LDL cholesterol" measurements that are most commonly done in the average physicians' offices et cetera is technically measuring the mass or total amount of cholesterol being carried around on LDL molecules. Just as a reminder to people, these LDL molecules are protein-based particles that are essentially like cargo ships carrying around different substances, one of the main ones being cholesterol.

When you are getting an LDLC you are getting an estimate of the mass of the total amount of cholesterol being a carried around by all of the LDL particles in the system whereas, an LDLP is specifically getting a count of the LDL particles floating around in any one measurement of blood. From an analogy perspective it's like you're counting either the cargo that's being ... The Pacific Ocean has a certain amount of cargo ships out in it carrying cargo and LDLC is like, "Okay, what's the estimate of total cargo being carried around by all of those ships?" Whereas an LDLP would be like, "Okay, we're going to go into the ocean, we're going to count each one of those ships and see how many there are."

Depending on some different factors this is why you could theoretically ... Let's say a cargo ship could technically carry 100 pounds of cargo, you could technically have two ships carrying 200 total pounds of cargo or you could have 20 ships carrying 10 pounds of cargo each. In both cases the LDLC would be the same and yet one, there's 20 ships and the other there's two ships, if that makes sense. The reason why that's so important to make the distinction is that what we know now is that risk specifically goes up with ship count or particle count—not necessarily total mass or total cargo. If you have a way of identifying, "Aha, there is actually only two ships in this ocean versus 20," that can significantly impact risk level.

Kaczor: Looking at the LDLC, which is the calculated one, it may or may not correlate with cardiovascular disease is what I'm hearing you say, and LDLP we can use as a more specific correlation with cardiovascular disease.

Chong: Right, that is correct. In the grand scheme of things when we're also potentially considering other factors like inflammation, and oxidative stress, et cetera, it's still relative ... we're just talking about cholesterol-related markers and their impact on risk, so there are obviously ... I don't want to discount the fact there are other factors involved here, but when we're just talking about the cholesterol and its impact on future risk or not the particle count is what trumps everything. Again, just in the realm of the cholesterol markers.

Just for an example, there's a research study I've seen where they looked at 16-year survival, from year 0 to 16 and measured LDLP and LDLC in each person. This is a very large study, and what they saw is a distinct difference between particle count and future event risk for cardiovascular disease. In other words, you had a distinct increase or higher rate of survival in people who have low particle counts regardless of what their LDLC or mass was. Whereas the people with worse outcomes all had high particles even though some of them technically had low LDLCs or low amount of total mass or cargo.

Kaczor: It's been-

Chong: It's been clearly seen that there's a distinct difference. It's also important to mention here, it is unfortunately true that there are some people out there who are still saying, "If I have large puffy LDL (i.e., my LDL particles are loaded with a lot of cargo per particle) and yet not necessarily ..." If you have a high LDLC, but all of your LDLs are large and puffy, and you also have a high LDL particle count you will still have an increased risk. There are some people out there who are under the misconception that if LDL particles are large and fluffy or large and puffy enough they can't cause problems, that's totally inaccurate. Bottom line, when we're talking about LDL, particle count trumps everything.

Kaczor: Let's move on to HDL. That's really good points on the LDL because I do know that the size and the type, the fluffy or the dense, that idea is very much part of the verbiage that patients use when they come through the door-

Chong: I'm sorry, I will say one other thing quickly about that. I don't mean to say that it's worthless to check LDL particle size because it's still true that LDL particle size, the smaller the particles the higher the potential is for future risk, but it's not just because of the mechanism itself. It's like just because there is a strong relation between what causes LDL particle sizes small and what causes cardiovascular disease. As an example, typically people with poor insulin sensitivity, or insulin resistance, diabetes, et cetera tend to have smaller particles, so it's still important to look at particle size because it does add to the predictive value of the test you're running. I don't mean to say that it's worthless or anything like that, you just can't say, "If my particles are large and puffy, I don't care how many there are."

Kaczor: Got you. Okay. Let's go back and just come back to HDL, the high density lipoproteins. This we don't harp on as much, the drugs aren't targeted towards it as much. We tend to know that higher is better. How do you use HDL in your interpretations?

Chong: One of the reasons why the drugs aren't targeted as much is because they keep trying and failing. Pretty much every study that's ever been done on a drug that it raises HDL shows that they clearly work and then oftentimes the people die sooner, so they have to stop. The bottom line is it's not a cut and dry direct simple relationship where the higher the HDL the better necessarily. Especially if you make a change in somebody, so like diet, lifestyle, et cetera, and their HDL goes up it is absolutely not a guarantee that they are getting better or that they are more cardio protected than they were beforehand. It might be the case, but it's not a certainty.

From that perspective, at least personally, when I'm looking at HDL I'm always looking at the whole picture. If I see a relatively low HDL and yet this person might happen to be one of these lifelong naturally low in total cholesterol, naturally low in LDL people I'm not as concerned about that low HDL as I am in somebody who has really high LDL, really high total cholesterol, insulin resistance, et cetera, and they have low HDL. There's a definite difference.

Those two people might both have the same HDL number, but one is way more concerning than the other one, and it just has to do with the role of these particles, these molecules, and what are they doing for us? If you really simplify it down HDL does a lot of complicated things, we still don't even know everything that it does, but definitely one of its main job is reverse cholesterol transport where it's helping to remove excessive cholesterol deposited in the periphery so to speak. I like to look at it as a garbage truck or a garbage collector. It is very true that if you do have a lot of "garbage" in the system, you have a high total cholesterol, a high LDL there's lots of cargo, or garbage, or whatever you want to call it being shipped outward you would hope to see the body responding to that by increasing garbage truck count to pick up the extras.

You commonly see that on people who go onto low-carbohydrate, high-fat diets. Oftentimes you will see, hopefully, an elevation in HDL as the body is literally just adapting to the additional load on the system that you're putting on it. It does not, however ... Unfortunately, you can't take that response and then conclude that the low-carbohydrate diets are cardioprotective because they cause HDL to go up. It's not that cut and dry, it's more just that the body is responding and having to increase its HDL to adapt and make up for the extra amount of cholesterol in the system, if that makes sense.

It's quite complicated. You do see HDL go up for that reason. The other thing is sometimes you'll see high HDL in somebody who's got disease, especially if they're inflamed or they have chronic inflammation. In those situations, in all likelihood, what's going on is that inflammation is known to hinder HDL function. The body always trying to adapt, always doing the best that it can to deal with the cards it's being dealt, if it has poorly functioning HDL it's going to spit out more of them in an effort to continue doing the job that needs to be done. If the HDL are dysfunctional as a result of oxidative stress, inflammation, et cetera in the system if the person has the capability you may sometimes see HDL production go up or HDL number go up on the person's lab because each one is not working as well as it should.

Kaczor: That's an interesting idea, that it's a reaction.

Chong: Absolutely. It's a fluid, functional system. Again, people just think, "Oh, HDL went up, that's good," or whatever. It's not like that. You have to think about why is the body doing that? What is the response going on? The body's always trying to maintain homeostasis, which would include not having cholesterol collect in the walls of the arteries.

Kaczor: That's awesome. I appreciate that perspective. I think it's really helpful for us because we want the quickest most linear path to a conclusion, so it's good to remember to step back once in a while.

Chong: For sure.

Kaczor: We don't have time to go into labs, other labs in great detail, but what other laboratory parameters would you consider must haves? I'm going to give you a typical case, a patient comes to your office, they themselves have no history of cardiovascular disease. They have both sides lots of cardiovascular risk, so they believe that maybe there might be something going on there. What's your bare minimum of labs? What would you do?

Chong: Especially in today's world where we're not necessarily billing insurance or whatever personally, for me, if I'm trying to get the most bang for my patient's buck in the realm of cholesterol I'm going to measure an apo A1, or apolipoprotein A1, I'm going to measure an apolipoprotein B, which for those people that aren't fully aware it's essentially like getting more precise HDL and LDL. Apo A1 is like getting a bit more precise HDL count and apo B is like getting a more precise particle count. Again, that's the name of the game, especially looking at the ratio between those two.

I'm also going to measure a lipoprotein a, which has its own independent impact on things and is not necessarily going to be responsive to medications or dietary changes that do impact these other markers. It's a very important marker to assess and you can never really predict whether or not somebody's going to have high levels of that or not, but definitely the potential goes up with a strong family history.

Then, beyond that in the realm of inflammation I'm at least going to want to see an HSCRP, I'm at least going to want to do some fundamental blood sugar metabolism related markers. I personally like to check a fasting insulin, and then potentially a hemoglobin A1c as well, although that sometimes has some questionable value depending on each patient. Beyond that, it starts getting a little bit more spliced out and potentially, depending on each patient, what you might go from there. I do check vitamin Ds pretty often, I check ferritin, and iron binding capacity pretty often at least screening that once to make sure there's no hemochromatosis going on. Those are probably the main ones I'm going to want to see. I will definitely do a CBC as well.

Kaczor: The one I didn't hear you say, and I'm curious if you do, is homocysteine.

Chong: Sorry, thank you Dr. Kaczor. Yes, absolutely homocysteine as well. Again, whenever I have the opportunity especially if there is a strong history and there's good reason to want to delve more deeply than average there are definitely some other markers I would typically run with people, but those would be a great starting point.

I don't know if we're going to talk later about going outside of blood tests, but just long story short I don't consider an assessment truly complete without some type of imaging at least on the high risk population.

Kaczor: By that, you mean?

Chong: Sorry, carotid ultrasound, IMT, or a coronary calcium score.

Kaczor: I can vouch for that. I've had several patients with cholesterols that didn't look too impressive, but their coronary calcium scores came back very, very good, and so they didn't have any [inaudible 00:24:42].

Chong: I will say one pearl type of information about that, the value of coronary calcium scores specifically goes up with age. The value of risk assessment using that test goes up with age. In other words, occasionally if a person is still relatively young, typically under about 55, you may have a situation where that person has a decent amount of soft plaque that has not been calcified yet and it will make their calcium score looks pretty good, but then if you check a carotid ultrasound it doesn't look so good. I have seen some mismatches in that regard with some of the slightly younger people, so my tendency is to measure carotid ultrasound, IMT tests with the understanding, obviously, that you're not checking the coronary arteries, but there's an over 90% correlation between the two. To me, a carotid ultrasound is a little pickier, a little more fine-tuned than the other one, but absolutely the high calcium score is a very powerful risk predictor. It's just whether or not you're going to catch everybody that way.

Kaczor: Great. Dr. Chong, thank you so much for joining me today, I appreciate your expertise, taking the time. I think this is a to be continued type of thing because we didn't talk about what to do.

Chong: I would love to keep talking, yes because I feel like we just started scratching the surface. Happy to delve more into some of these other details because there's a lot of other things to consider.

Kaczor: We'll talk about treatments and we can talk a little bit more about imaging techniques next time. Thanks again.

Chong: Super, yeah. Thank you.

In this interview, nutrition expert Jolie Root describes the health benefits of the Mediterranean diet and how practitioners can enhance compliance with their patients. Listeners will learn how to effectively utilize this diet in clinical practice.

Approximate listening time: 32 minutes

About the Expert

Jolie Root, LPN, LNC, is a nutritionist, health educator, nurse, medical journalist and well-known radio personality. She travels North America attending medical conferences and educating the public about the roles of nutrition in integrative medicine. She also spreads the word through informational articles published in magazines and newsletters across the country, including Alternative Medicine, Whole Foods, Taste for Life, and Senior Living. In addition, she hosts a weekly talk show called “Food for Thought,” which can be heard Fridays at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time on AM 1160 WVNJ.

About the Sponsor

Since 1965, Carlson has produced pure, quality, award-winning vitamins, minerals, omega-3s, and other nutritional supplements. Carlson began with a single vitamin E product, helped launch the omega-3 market in North America in the early 1980s, and now offers a product line with more than 200 nutritional supplements. Carlson is most renowned for the high quality of their award-winning omega-3s, and now they’re available in a premium olive oil. Olive Your Heart® blends cold-pressed Greek Terra Creta extra virgin olive oil with premium Norwegian marine oil sourced from deep, cold-water fish and is available in basil, lemon, garlic, and natural flavor. Each serving provides 1,480 mg of omega-3s, including EPA and DHA. Olive Your Heart® is mild and smooth, and makes it easy and delicious to add heart healthy nutrients into your diet.

Transcript

Karolyn Gazella: Hello. I'm Karolyn Gazella, the publisher of the Natural Medicine Journal. Today, we are going to explore the efficacy of key components of the Mediterranean Diet. We'll also be talking about enhancing patient compliance to this diet. Before we begin, I'd like to thank the sponsor of this topic, who is Carlson Laboratories. My guest is nutritionist Jolie Root. Jolie, thank you for joining me.

Jolie Root, LPN, LNC: Oh. It's a pleasure to be with you, Karolyn. Thanks for the opportunity.

Gazella: Well, this is a great topic. We've actually written about this topic a lot in our journal, and I am a big fan of the Mediterranean Diet. I think most practitioners know what makes up the Mediterranean Diet, but can you remind us what the key components of the diet are that contribute most to its health promoting aspects?

Root: Yes. It is a diet that is high in plant foods, so that means fruits, and vegetables, and whole grains, and whole grain breads, legumes, and nuts, and seeds. They also use hefty amounts of extra virgin olive oil, and it may or may not include moderate amounts of red wine, and also fish, and poultry, dairy, and eggs are featured, and red meat is minimized. It's only very occasionally that there will be red meat in this diet. It's a plant-based diet with a variety of fruits and vegetables, fresh foods, and whole grains, legumes, nuts, and seeds, and olive oil.

Gazella: Now, let's talk about the olive oil, because it seems like the healthy fats are a big component of this diet. What are some examples of the healthy fats in the diet, and why are these fats better for patients?

Root: Well, I think that you could say that part of the overarching benefit of walking away from unhealthier fats and towards healthy fats in the diet has to do with inflammation. We know in Western culture that we have an imbalance of fats that promote inflammation relative to an inadequate intake of fats that help to balance inflammation, so specifically I'm saying that one of the really I think imminent qualities of the Mediterranean Diet is that it relies on olive oil and then omega-3s from nuts and from fish, and it's low in omega-6s. That's the problem when you contrast that to the Western pattern diet, which is much higher than it should be in omega-6 relative to omega-3, and in the US, in North America, people rarely use olive oil as their main cooking oil.

Here in the West we eat a diet that promotes inflammation, and it's not just inflammation. It also promotes an unhealthy level of clotting in the blood and constricted blood vessels, so the result of that is high blood pressure and arterial stiffness. The Mediterranean approach, using olive oil and omega-3s from nuts and from fish oil, relaxes the blood vessels, helps to govern excess inflammation, and promotes health in areas from heart disease all the way to cognitive function.

Gazella: Now, I'd like to continue to deconstruct the diet a bit more, but let's stick with the conditions that you just mentioned, and I'd like to talk about first prevention and then treatment. Let's talk first about prevention. Purely from a preventative standpoint, which conditions benefit most from the Mediterranean Diet? You mentioned heart conditions, but can you expand on that a little bit more?

Root: Well, cardiovascular disease, so disease of the heart and the blood vessels, so that would mean not just heart disease with its inherent health risks, but cardiovascular death as an endpoint is something that has seen reduction in the double-blind, randomized, controlled studies and even in single-blind, controlled studies with the Mediterranean Diet, so the Lyon Heart Diet Study and the PREDIMED Study are studies that practitioners can look up and read. They saw a reduction in heart disease and a reduction in heart disease deaths as an endpoint, but along with that we also see blood vessel issues, so hypertension and endothelial function as components of heart disease, are improved on the Mediterranean Diet, because some of the elements in the Mediterranean Diet relax the blood vessels, and that allows for supporting blood pressure in a normal range.

The other thing is when you look at the heart, before we have heart disease, we may have diabetes or metabolic syndrome, conditions leading up to sometimes an increased likelihood of an endpoint of heart disease. The Mediterranean Diet helps with blood sugar stability and some of the issues that contribute to the metabolic syndrome, such as derangement of lipids, so cholesterol numbers that are not where we want them, triglycerides that are elevated, and that blood sugar control, and higher than what would be optimal inflammatory markers, and then that's metabolic syndrome, which also sometimes we might call pre-diabetes, but also diabetes itself is something that we have seen benefit in reducing risk of with Mediterranean Diets.

That's kind of in the cardiovascular realm, but if you want to go to the cognitive realm, we have seen improvement in cognition in elderly people who followed a Mediterranean Diet with either additional nuts or additional olive oil, and we have even seen some changes in some of the suspected markers of Alzheimer's risk, things like amyloid deposits and amyloid protein. So, earlier in life we're concerned about heart disease. We're concerned about metabolic syndrome, diabetes. Later in life we start thinking about dementia and ultimately with the worst endpoint there, which would be Alzheimer's.

Gazella: Yeah. I mean, that's a pretty broad range of conditions. I'm curious. When we switch over to treatment intervention, can the diet be used as a treatment intervention for many of these same conditions?

Root: Well, I wouldn't go so far as to say that it would be a treatment for Alzheimer's. We don't generally find that treating Alzheimer's works particularly well once that disease itself has set in, although I would urge practitioners to look up Dale Bredesen and the work that he's doing. However, the cardiovascular disease? Yes. I would recommend the Mediterranean Diet as a treatment if someone were to come to me and ask for a recommendation, because of the ability to change the inflammatory markers, the lipid balances back to a more favorable profile.

There is, for example, one of the elements ... I know we're going to talk about this in more depth as we go forward, but think about resveratrol, which is known to enhance nitric oxide production, and that means relaxing blood vessels and promoting endothelial health. In those cases, people that are in pre-diabetes, metabolic syndrome, or actually know that they have cardiovascular disease are looking to improve these factors, and Mediterranean Diet has shown to do exactly that.

Gazella: Before I leave this subject, are there any studies on obesity? It seems like obesity can increase the risk of so many things, not only heart disease, but also some cancers, and of course diabetes, and metabolic syndrome, and some of the other things that you've mentioned. Are there any studies showing that the Mediterranean Diet will help people lose weight?

Root: Yes. They weren't looking at that as an endpoint, so I'm not aware of studies, Karolyn, where they were specifically looking for weight loss as an endpoint in the study, but they have seen, as an aside, the additional benefit in some of the big studies of Mediterranean Diet of weight loss, although that wasn't really what they were after or what their intent was. People do seem to lose weight when they follow, when they adhere to a Mediterranean Diet. There's the key.

Gazella: Right.

Root: You know, that's the key in everything that we do, either successfully or not, when we talk about integrative health. But the weight loss factor seems to be more pronounced than in people who follow something like a low fat diet. I think that it's a happy additional benefit of following a Mediterranean Diet.

Gazella: Well, that's good. Now, is there anybody who should not be on the Mediterranean Diet? Are there any contraindications or safety issues?

Root: I can't think of any. I thought about that. I expected you to ask me that question, and I thought about that. I can't think of any, because the factors in Mediterranean cooking and following that approach are varied enough that if you had ... Let's say, okay, one caution is always what if you have a really strong food sensitivity or food intolerance, so a gluten issue, or what if you have a real sensitivity to nightshades? You could avoid those foods and still follow a Mediterranean approach, so there's enough variety I think in the foods in a Mediterranean lifestyle, a Mediterranean Diet, that I can't think of anyone that really would be a problem.

If you choose to be a vegetarian, omit the fish and include more olive oil and nuts for healthy fats. If you are avoiding gluten, then don't eat the gluten containing foods that are part of the diet. There's no hard and fast rule that says that you absolutely must include every element of the diet. If you have an issue with alcohol, you do not have to have the red wine. But as far as just a strict avoidance, I can't think of anyone.

Gazella: You know, I would agree. I have not seen anything ... I mean the diet is so fluid and so varied, so I think that that's definitely one of the benefits. I'd like to continue to kind of deconstruct this diet a bit more. You know, you mentioned healthy fats. You mentioned resveratrol. This diet includes a lot of key nutrients. It comes from the spices and the other foods that are featured in the diet. Can you give us some more examples of the specific polyphenols and other compounds that we can find when we break down this diet?

Root: Definitely. Let's say tomatoes, which are certainly something that people in Italy, and people in Spain, and France, and most of the Mediterranean countries enjoy, so with tomatoes we have lycopene, and lycopene is one of the dominant antioxidants in the bloodstream when people do eat a Mediterranean Diet. Lycopene itself has been associated with protecting the prostate health in men, reducing certain aspects of risk factors for health disease. So, lycopene from tomatoes is an example.

If you look at the leafy greens that are in the diet, then we can talk about lutein and zeaxanthin, and we'd also have to talk about the magnesium that is a very strong element benefit of leafy greens, and the carotenoids, the betacarotene, but lutein has been shown to be very beneficial for the retina. You know, dating back to the 90s, more lutein, even a single serving of spinach a day, reduced macular degeneration by more than 40% in men who were eating a healthy diet including spinach on a daily basis. Lutein is there in the leafy greens.

Think about garlic. You've got allicin, and you've got a lot of phenolic compounds in the garlic. Garlic is a benefit for being, first of all, an antioxidant, but also an antifungal. It's just a very healthy food. It also helps to normalize lipids. It helps with blood vessel expansion, so garlic is another element. I mentioned the resveratrol in the red wine. You wouldn't need to do red wine. You could get resveratrol from the purple grapes and from other red foods that are in the diet. If you eat blueberries, you could get pterostilbene, which is another very potent blood vessel health supporting antioxidant.

Let's not even get started on the dark chocolate, which is one of the elements, and we love that part, in moderation, meaning about an ounce a day of a good dark chocolate, full of flavonoids, beneficial for the blood vessels. Turmeric, so in the spice cabinet we have the turmeric, which provides us with the curcumin, which is an antioxidant, protects the lining of the blood vessels, associated with benefits in the brain, associated with a reduction in the amyloid deposits. You know, those are just some that come to mind.

Then the olive oil, which is certainly a big part of this. There's the oleuropein. There's the oleocanthal. These are antiinflammatory. When you get a good olive oil, you get a little sting in your throat if it's a really good one. Antioxidant, antiinflammatory. We're always a little reluctant to talk about cancer, but anti-proliferation. There are some studies that have shown the biological activity of oleuropein too, and that's an olive oil compound, antimicrobial, antiviral. So, you could apply that to heart disease, absolutely, diabetes, but also neurological diseases. There are just so many mechanisms from the specific compounds that would benefit almost the entire lifespan. I can't think of ... Even children would benefit from having these very nutritionally potent foods as the centerpiece of their diet, rather than pop tarts.

Gazella: Yeah. Exactly. It is a long list. I have to say that I've only heard one complaint about the Mediterranean Diet from a clinical perspective, and that is that sometimes practitioners feel like it's not specific enough. You know, the DASH Diet and some of the other diets, they have very specific directions on how to follow the diet, X number of this and X number of this. Now, how do you describe the Mediterranean Diet in very specific terms to ensure proper adherence to the diet?

Root: Well, I try to describe the things to include and the things to avoid in order to hopefully be following it quite well. So, we don't include added sugar, for example. I say get rid of that. I talk about limiting and hearty limits on red meats, and instead fish, and also feel free to have days where you don't have an animal protein or the animal protein might be cheese or eggs, but that we keep eggs even limited somewhat. What we're doing is changing out saturated fats for unsaturated fat. I'm not one of these that thinks that saturated fats are all bad, but this is a diet that emphasizes olive oil, rather than butter.

When we start to make these changes and we begin to develop a taste for these more natural and less processed foods, your taste buds change, and you begin to find it easier to embrace this more ... It's a simpler approach to cooking, so very few things from boxes, for example, in the Mediterranean Diet. People always say, "But what about pasta?" I say, "Well, what about whole grains? What about exploring using bulgur wheat? If you're going to do a pasta, do something like a couscous. You know?" Fewer things from boxes, fewer things from cans, although tomatoes from cans I think are okay. More fresh herbs, less salt, and more fresh herbs and seasoning as spices.

As far as adherence goes, I recommend cookbooks, Karolyn. I think that it's easier to take a kitchen table approach to this. I find a lot of times when diets are specified very strictly, people get very frustrated and overwhelmed with the weights and measures of it all. How do we actually keep ourselves to 200 milligrams of cholesterol in a day, for example? How many milligrams of cholesterol are in an egg? I take a different approach as far as specificity and try to encourage a variety of colors of fruits and vegetables, less canned and boxed and more fresh.

Shop more often, not less often, so that you're going and you're getting some fresh produce, and you're going home and having it in the next couple of days. Several meals a week that don't feature meat. At least two or three meals a week that do feature fish, so that you're getting those omega-3s. If you're going to do the eggs, get the omega-3 eggs, because those are full of a very absorbable form of DHA, and also lutein, and other nutrients, the choline that your brain needs.

I take more of a Food Network approach to it than I do an American Medical Association approach to it, and I recommend cookbooks. I have a favorite cookbook. It's the Complete Mediterranean Cookbook, and it's done by the people that do Cooks Illustrated Magazine, so it's America's Test Kitchen. I got it from Amazon. It's got 500 recipes in it. I haven't found one that I haven't liked.

Gazella: I love that kitchen table approach. You bring up so many good things. When you're describing it to patients, you're talking about ... Just by telling them what to avoid, it's going to automatically be including healthier options in their diets, you know, like swapping out butter for olive oil and shopping more often. That's a great piece of advice as it relates to a Mediterranean Diet. I think those are some great tips. Now, in addition to describing the diet in those specific terms, is there anything else that healthcare professionals can do to improve compliance?

Root: I think there is. I think it brings up a piece of the Mediterranean Diet that we don't talk about enough, and that is imagine yourself in the South of France. Imagine yourself on the Island of Crete. Think about the way that they approach their day, their meals, their habits. These are people that are moving at a slower pace than we do here, so it's not as much about convenience as it is about community. The meals are a point of shared experience for the family, the extended family, your neighbors, people that you ... Even when you're doing business with people, you bring them to your table, and you break bread, and you have a glass of wine. It's a much more relaxed, chill approach to things than in our zooming from point A to point B, and running into the deli, and grabbing something, and running back out kind of approach to life.

You saunter through the market with a basket over your arm and pick up some fresh veggies, and some fresh fruit, and maybe a nice piece of fish, and maybe they've just baked some crusty bread, and you're going to take that home and break the bread, and dip it in some of that olive oil, which you've ground some seasoning and some spices in, maybe a little balsamic vinegar. You take a very slow approach to that meal. Maybe you're all cooking it together and having it a little bit at a time, but there's this sort of attitude, and this piece of mind, and this slow approach that they take. I think that that is as important to adopt that mindset as it is to be aware of the nuts, and the bolts, and the mechanics, and the ingredients of the diet.

Gazella: I am so glad that you brought that up, because you're right. A big part of the Mediterranean eating is social and communal. Honestly, I don't hear a lot of doctors talking about that benefit. I would agree with you. I think that does add to the health promoting aspects of the diet. Yeah. I think that's a great thing to emphasize to patients. Now, for those people who are having difficulty consistently following the Mediterranean Diet, do you recommend dietary supplements. If you do, take us through some of ... I know this might be kind of an unfair question, because it's not a one size fits all, but are there maybe your top three recommendations that would probably be good for 90% of the people?

Root: Well, of course, you know, I have my favorites, but fish oils, so a good, high quality omega-3 supplement. Obviously you want a trusted company, because you want it purified. These days, with the omega-3s we are taking the approach of reaching an optimal intake, and that's measurable now. There's actually a little finger stick blood test that we can do now to see where you stand as your omega-3 score is concerned. For most adults we actually need a little more than what had been the recommendation. High quality fish oil that provides somewhere around 1,500 milligrams of the active components, the EPA and the DHA, is one thing, fish oil and with olive oil as your main cooking oil.

There's even a functional food supplement now that is even a combination of the two that you don't actually heat up to cook with, but you could use it for salad dressing, or you could use it to do that dip the bread in thing that I described, which is the first course of so many Mediterranean meals. So, that's a place to start is a good, high quality omega-3 or a combination omega-3/olive oil supplement.

Then I think something that not enough people are taking that more people probably would benefit from is a good curcumin supplement. It's made from turmeric. The curcumin itself is not really well absorbed, so you want to take it at mealtime. Get one that is CurcuWIN or one of the trademarked turmeric supplements, because the manufacturers have helped with the absorption. Always in a meal with fat is the best way to take either a fish oil supplement or the curcumin supplement. Those are the first two things that come to mind.

Then if I were going to pick a third thing for Mediterranean Diet, it would probably be a resveratrol or a pterostilbene. Those are things that maybe people aren't getting enough of in their diet, and especially teetotalers. If you're not drinking red wine, then you may not be getting much resveratrol, and there really does seem to be some longevity associated with that.

Gazella: Yeah. I was going to ask you about resveratrol, because even if you are drinking maybe a glass or two, I think that enhancing the resveratrol amount in the diet is probably a good idea. It's such a powerful nutrient.

Root: Me too. There are a lot of people that a glass or two is absolutely as much as they ought to do, women. Really you've got to keep alcohol at a small to moderate level, because extra is so bad. So, we've just seen a look at early onset dementia with chronic, heavy drinking, and it was much worse in men, but that's because men are more likely to be the chronic, heavy drinker, but it was scary when I was reading about it, because these men that it's four to five drinks a day ... So, this is a see something, say something for family members. If you know somebody that's drinking that much, it's intervention time. It takes 20 years off of their life. With the resveratrol a little bit of red wine, great, but I wouldn't do more red wine in order to meet my resveratrol goal. I would take a resveratrol supplement.

Gazella: Yeah. That's such a great point. Well, before we wrap up, Jolie, I'm wondering if there's anything else that you'd like to share to our listeners about the Mediterranean Diet and how they could or should be using it in their clinical practice.

Root: I would encourage physicians to use any kind of teaching tool that they can. There is now the ... I'm drawing a blank on this. The Department of Agriculture makes dietary recommendations, and they actually have one now that talks about Mediterranean Diet, and they help people follow it, a Mediterranean style diet, but there is a wealth of information on the internet from trusted sources that can help with sort of the guidelines for the Mediterranean Diet.

I think Oldways has a Mediterranean Diet pyramid. Maybe even keep some good cookbooks in the office, and hold them up, and say, "Here is a great way to get started," and they can order them, or you can give them a gift or something. People need practical advice, and remind them of the community benefit, the gathering the family around the table, because that's not just about the Mediterranean Diet. That's something that really is missing in our busy culture, and everyone I think would be healthier if they were able to do more sharing over meals.

Gazella: Yeah. I would agree. I think the Mediterranean Diet is such a powerful clinical tool that practitioners can use. Well, once again, I'd like to thank today's sponsor of this topic, Carlson Laboratories, and I'd like to thank you, Jolie, for joining me today and sharing this information with us.

Root: It was a treat, Karolyn. It was so nice to talk to you.

Gazella: Yeah. Well, great. You have a great day.

Root: You too.

Skin conditions are common in many clinical practices. In this interview, dermatologist and researcher Raja Sivamani, MD, describes how an integrative approach can help improve outcomes, especially with difficult to treat dermatological conditions.

About the Expert

Raja Sivamani, MD, CAT, is a board-certified dermatologist and an associate professor of clinical dermatology at the University of California, Davis, and director of clinical research and the Clinical Trials unit. He is also an adjunct sssistant professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at the California State University, Sacramento. He engages in clinical practice as well as both clinical and translational research that integrates bioengineering, nutrition, cosmetics, and skin biology. With training in both allopathic and Ayurvedic medicine, he takes an integrative approach to his patients and in his research, with a focus on the gut and skin microbiome and lipidome. He has published over 80 peer-reviewed research manuscripts, 10 textbook chapters, and a textbook titled Cosmeceuticals and Active Cosmetics, 3rd Edition. He has a passion for expanding the evidence and boundaries of integrative medicine for skin care.

About the Sponsor

Dermveda is an integrative skin care, beauty, and wellness site dedicated to inspiring and empowering people to develop a healthier, more holistic relationship with their skin. We provide skin education tools and personalized, science-reviewed health content for both consumers and practitioners. Membership is free at Dermveda.com.

Dermveda's continuing medical education site, LearnSkin, was developed by leading dermatologists and integrative medicine practitioners to support integrative dermatological education throughout the healthcare community. The goal is to share the latest in scientific research and treatment options in dermatology for both Western and Eastern medicine. We aim to meet the growing demand for high-quality, evidence-based education that bridges conventional and alternative medical approaches. The first eczema series will begin in March at LearnSkin.com.

Later this year, Dermveda will be hosting the first annual Integrative Dermatology Symposium in Sacramento, CA, from October 19-21, 2018. Experts from around the world in the practices of Western, Naturopathic, Ayurvedic, and Traditional Chinese Medicine will come together for this special event. The Symposium will feature educational sessions, clinical content, targeted industry trends, practical takeaways, and best practices related to all aspects of skin care. Registration opens in March at IntegrativeSkinSymposium.com.

Transcript

Karolyn Gazella: Hello. My name is Karolyn Gazella and I am the publisher of the Natural Medicine Journal. Today our topic is integrative dermatology and my guest is Dr Raja Sivamani, an integrative skin care expert.

Before we begin, I'd like to thank the sponsor of this topic who is Dermveda.

Dr Sivamani, thank you for joining me today.

Raja Sivamani: Thank you so much for having me. It's a pleasure to be here.

Gazella: Well this is an interesting topic and I have to say that we have not covered this a lot in our journal so I'm super excited to talk to you today.

So, let's start with a very basic question. How do you define or describe integrative medicine specifically as it relates to dermatology?

Sivamani: Karolyn, I agree with you, this is actually a really exciting area when we think about integrative dermatology.

So, to answer the question that you're asking, you know, how does integrative medicine specifically relate. Dermatology really has many facets to it and by in large, many times when you go to see a dermatologist the appointment can be a little rushed and typically you're in there for about 15 minutes or so and many times the conversations will be focused on things like the diagnosis, which is super important and then some basic treatment plans and maybe a surgical treatment plan.

When we start thinking about integrative approaches, really then you start to take into all the other aspects of dermatology that are so vital to providing good care when it comes to anything skin related. So things like psychology, preventative approaches, diet, what you're putting on your skin, daily habits. All these things comes together and so, when I think about integrative approaches to dermatology it really is about a team approach and some of that team can be deployed by the practitioner but many times I also think about this expanded team that's working together in a way that, you know, maybe one practitioner's able to provide certain aspects and then another practitioner is able to provide other aspects of care and then them working together. So, that's how I view integrative.

And integrative, just as an add-on but I do want to talk about is, is not to say its separated from conventional medicine. I think bringing in conventional medicine, making that just as an equal part of the conversation, I think is really important.

Gazella: I would agree and that fits perfectly with the focus of our journal so this is great now.

So, what are some of the more common skin conditions that practitioners are faced with in clinical practice?

Sivamani: It turns out dermatology is so common. A lot of people see people with skin conditions. They did a study at the male clinic where they looked at how often and what kind of skin conditions, sorry, what kind of general conditions come in and skin conditions were really high.

The ones that are common and they tend to be pretty prevalent in the general population are things like acne, of course, these all depend on different age groups as well but, acne is very, very common. When we talk about eczema specifically, atopic dermatitis, that's another one that's common but there's also other conditions that may not be as common as those two but are still pretty common. Things like psoriasis and there's also seborrheic dermatitis, rosacea so, there's quite a few things that come up over and over again.

And, another sub-set of eczema, not atopic dermatitis, which is more dealing with pediatric population, and that does extend into an adult population but then there's also just common irritations that come up on the skin on a day-to-day basis that anyone can get. Things that mean to us as contact dermatitis either from irritation or an allergy.

Gazella: Now out of all of the skin conditions that are out there and, there are a lot of them, what are some of the more difficult to treat skin conditions that practitioners are faced with and, why are they so difficult to treat?

Sivamani: Karolyn, this is such a great question. I really like this question for a couple of reasons. When we talk about difficulty I really break that up into two modes, two facets to what makes a skin condition difficult to treat.

Firstly, a skin condition can be difficult to treat just because it's a rare condition and it will require some treatments that sometimes aren't always well studied because it's rare. And so, you can have conditions that just don't happen that often and when they do often and sometimes you know this condition can be auto-immune or other facets to them that really make it more difficult.

I think there's a second facet, though, that really is a challenge as well. And that's conditions that are chronic and that require constant management. We really have to integrate in lifestyle and other approaches and symptom management isn't enough. So, you have conditions like acne that, you know, they just won't cure on their own, you need to have some sort of active management to that in a very, what I believe, holistic conversation and things like eczema require so much activity from, you know, if you're a patient and you're taking care of eczema that's one thing but, if you're a baby, then you're really dependent on caregivers and so then it becomes a conversation with the caregivers and managing how they are approaching the treatment.

And so, I think that that second group where you have chronic conditions that don't necessarily have a cure but, if you can get really good management then it can make a huge difference. I think that is also a pretty big difficulty because it requires constant conversation and a lot of education. I think education is key in those kinds of situations.

Gazella: Yeah, that would make a lot of sense.

Now, I find it interesting that you have training in both allopathic and Ayurvedic medicine. I'd like to focus a bit on Ayurvedic medicine. So, for our listeners, what is Ayurvedic medicine?

Sivamani: Yeah, so, Ayurvedic medicine is, it was born from a tradition that's very rich in India. It's over 5,000 years old and their approach is really looking at homeostasis, meaning when you're in balance. Just to simplify it, is when are we in balance and when are we in a state of imbalance? And so Ayurvedic medicine has some tendance in how it measures what it means to be imbalanced, what is your imbalance state and I'll just use a couple of cavular terms. One is, prakriti which is your state of balance or what they say your original constitution but then you also have this notion of what's known as Vikrity which is your imbalance state and they use the three doshas which are known as vata, pitta, and kapha in a very broad manner to identify what those imbalances are and, a lot of approaches including lifestyle approaches, dietary approaches, what you put on your skin, believe it or not, you can even describe western medicine from an Ayurvedic perspective and the idea is, can you take this imbalance and move it back towards balance?

What I really like about Ayurvedic medicine is that it can really go well in an integrative approach. So, you clearly have conventional approaches that tend to be focused much more on symptom management and then Ayurvedic medicine gives you tools, and I think that's really important, just having this ability to have this conversation to what it means to be in balance so you have these tools to talk about what are different lifestyle changes you can make or what would be an appropriate dietary change that you could make.

If I may add, one of the fun things I think about Ayurvedic medicine is that it gives you the opportunity to personalize and in conventional medicine they're really good about research studies that will study a large group of people and then in many ways you get kind of an average outcome and then you can apply that to each patient.

So, if you bring the two together you have this really powerful system where Ayurvedic medicine allows you to personalize a little bit more on top of what you're going to do and then conventional medicine gives you the ability to have broad-stroke approaches that might give you a good starting point, especially for symptom management.

But, Ayurvedic medicine is really rich on the personalization aspect.

Gazella: I think that's important. That really has become a big emphasis, it's no longer one size fits all. I would assume, especially in the area of dermatology and these difficult to treat skin conditions.

Can you give us a few examples of how you apply Ayurvedic medicine to dermatology in clinical practice?

Sivamani: Sure, you know, that is one of the funnest parts and really interesting parts of my practice. I feel like I get to know my patients better. If I may say, from one of the really key aspects of Ayurvedic medicine is, I have to get to know the patients habits much more and understand what kind of things are they doing in their daily life. That in and of itself gives me a greater connection.

So, for example, if I have a patient coming in with eczema and Atopic dermatitis, we're talking about different management approaches. One of the things that can sometimes come up is if we're just taking a pharmacological approach and we're talking about steroids, a lot of people want to know, am I going to be doing these steroids for the rest of my life, is there any sort of way that I could do management that doesn't require the steroids to be used?

So then you have this rich knowledge in Ayurvedic medicine about all these different oils and how oils are used on the skin and, there's a rich, rich literature, rich history on different oil therapies and what they call oliation and what's known as abhyanga, so self massage or massage with oils. And it really opens up a conversation because you can start talking about moisturization but bringing in the science of natural oils and, this is an area that's started to really grow in dermatology, what's the role of coconut oil, what's the role of olive oil, what's the role of sunflower, safflower oil, this has now started to hit the medical literature.

What Ayurvedic medicine does is it goes one step further and you can do herbal infused oils and I have these conversations with my patients. I tell them, you know, why don't we talk about maybe some simple ways to make a herbally infused oil where you can have a moisturizer that is really based on an oil therapy.

And what starts happening is, people start to become very engaged with themselves. Their skin becomes a part of them that they're not afraid of anymore and they're used to touching themselves in a way that's actually very therapeutic and then, you know, funny thing is, when I have these conversations then they realize that there's a holistic approach and then they're okay with using the steroids and they understand why we're using steroids and then it's part of a bigger picture approach to managing their symptoms.

So that's one example that comes up very frequently in my practice.

Gazella: And now give us an example of a herbal infused oil. Like which herb would you put with the oil for which condition? Is it that simple?

Sivamani: It's a little bit more nuanced.

Gazella: Okay.

Sivamani: What you have is you have different dosha imbalances and different oils, there can be, some oils that are warming in tendency or they can be cooling, I mean, you have to balance that with the doshas but, I'll give you one example, which I think is a pretty good one.

Coconut oil is widely used now as a moisturizer and sometimes what we can do is we can infuse, there's a herb called neem. Neem has both anti-bacterial and anti-fungal properties and we've been studying it. Actually, I have a basic science laboratory as well and we've been looking at neem specifically. But, one thing you can do is you can create an infused oil that has coconut oil as the base with a neem infusion and what that does is it gives you this oil that's not only going to be helpful for bolstering the skin barrier and nourishing the skin and, from that aspect but you also get that extra little antibacterial effect.

Now, I don't want to claim that it's an antibacterial like something that's been studied through the FDA but that being said, in eczema, sometimes, its smaller shifts in the microbiome and one of the things that we try to do is think about, from a practical perspective, can be infusing oil that might be able to touch upon those kind of aspects and then eventually it would be nice if we could start studying them in controlled studies and really looking at how, what is it doing to, for example, the microbiome?

But that's one of the examples of an infused oil that we might use.

Gazella: Yeah, that's a great example.

Now what advice do you have to healthcare professionals who may be struggling to treat some of these difficult to treat skin conditions in their clinical practice?

Sivamani: This is such a fantastic topic to talk about.

When it comes to treating conditions that are a little bit more difficult, I think it's important to realize that there's a team available and there's also the patient perspective. But I think the team approach is really important.

You're not alone and, what I mean is that, if you have someone that has a really bad itch, for example, we can do our best as a, myself, as a dermatologist, I can talk to them about what are some of the things they can do to help their skin not be as dry or are there some treatment options to help reduce the itch even from a pharmacological perspective. But then, I think it's really helpful to start thinking about the psychology of itch. What are the other approaches that we can take so then, if we can get them to one of my colleagues in, for example, traditional Chinese medicine and they can take an approach where maybe they look at acupuncture, and that can channel in on a different aspect to itch and, you know, focusing a little bit more on some of the other approaches, I think that's where it really becomes important.

When you're struggling to treat a more difficult condition that may even be chronic, it's to start thinking about a team approach and I feel like that's the essence of integrative approaches anyway and so if we can start developing teams and developing good partnerships with other healthcare professionals then as a healthcare professional we won't feel alone and as a patient, the patient won't feel alone either and they see that there's a team working for them.

Gazella: Yeah, absolutely, and that definitely is in line with the integrative approach that you described in the very beginning.

Now, you are an advisor to the company Dermveda. Why did you want to work with Dermveda and how is it different from other skincare companies?

Sivamani: What I really like about Dermveda is it's focused on education and, if you look at the founding team, the founding team consisted of people that are really dedicated to dermatology, they're very good teachers and lecturers and, also they have a good education background and, I like education first approaches because I think if you can teach people to start thinking more deeply about their condition, and when I say deeply, not just about maybe the molecular mechanisms or some sort of cellular pathway but really understanding that that's important but, it's also important to think about things that may be affecting you emotionally or psychologically and allowing people the space to see that these are also important and by opening them up to have better conversations with themselves and their practitioners.

That's why I'm so passionate about this company. I'd personally really dedicated to education, I like education in all of its aspects and I think its really important to empower patients and practitioners and so, because of that approach, I really am drawn to the Dermveda's approach and also, the holistic and the integrative approach allowing us to learn about, not just conventional medicine but also thinking about Ayurvedic medicine, traditional Chinese medicine. Our naturopathic colleagues have such great insight into the botanicals and into plant based approaches but I think that, giving a platform for this open discourse that's honest and credible is super important so that's why I'm so interested in this whole approach.

Gazella: Yes, I was thrilled to see that Michael, Dr Michael Traub is on your team. He is a friend of the Natural Medicine Journal and on our editorial board. A very top-notch doctor so, that was exciting for us to see that as well. And now, Dermveda is also hosting an integrative dermatology symposium this October in Sacramento, California. Can you tell us a little bit more about that symposium and why you feel it may be important for practitioners to attend.

Sivamani: We are so excited about the symposium, the integrative dermatology symposium is going to be the first time where we're going to get all the different perspectives into the same room and have a good open discourse and really start talking to each other ina way that we can start building relationships.

This symposium is going to really feature a wide variety of things. You mentioned Dr Traub, he's going to be one of the speakers there.

I still remember one of the first lectures that I saw with him and I was really impressed by, not only was he able to talk about the pharmacological approaches but it was so nice that he put in things about, and this was with eczema, we were talking about treating eczema, he had a lecture on that and, he put in things about a humor and what does that do for a child at the end of the night when they're about to go to bed, if you can have some way of getting them to laugh, does that make a difference?

I think its important to talk about these aspects and what we'd like to do in the symposium is really put that into a situation with all come together in a focused way where we have this combined goal of just making it better for each other to treat our patients and leaning what's new and what's coming out that's in the new literature and realize that any one perspective isn't the full approach.

And, if you can start taking a different perspectives it really makes a difference and, I'll give you an example. So one of the things that we're going to be talking about is like one of the lectures is going to talk about emerging approaches to eczema and there'll be conversations about all these new medications that are now coming out but then there's also going to be conversations about what is the latest science on the oils that are being used for eczema. Which oils seem to be the best, which one's may not be the best.

And then from there, they'll also swing into a conversation about diet and so, I think one of the things that sometimes we miss out on in just the medical education that we might go through is that you might get pieces and bits but when we start thinking about continuing education, you want to start really have good, honest discourse about all the aspects because that's really what the patient really wants. They want to have a good, holistic conversation about everything. They want to know what can I do with diet or, what can I do with my lifestyle approaches.

So, this is going to give practitioners, that attend, the chance to be empowered to understand what is the latest in that but not only that, I think the most exciting part about it is, we're going to get everybody in the same room and you just never know what's going to develop in those kind of situations. What kind of partnership and friendships are going to come out of that and I think that's the way to really push the boundaries of medicine so that when we talk about integrative medicine it really just becomes medicine and it's just the approach that we all would want to take with any patient that comes in.

Gazella: Yeah, that's a very good point and it sounds very comprehensive and we have a link to the conference. So, for our listeners who want to learn about more information about the integrative dermatology symposium, you can just click on that link and then you'll be able to find out more information.

Well, once again, Dr Sivamani, thank you so much for joining me and I would also like to once again thank our sponsor, Dermveda.

Sivamani: Thank you so much and it's been a pleasure to be here with you.

Gazella: Great. Have a great day.

In this video interview, Christopher Shade, PhD, describes the diverse clinical applications of cannabidiol (CBD) oil. Also included is information about safety, dosage, and other issues associated with this somewhat controversial natural substance.

About the Expert

Christopher W. Shade, PhD, founder and CEO of Quicksilver Scientific, specializes in the biological, environmental, and analytical chemistry of mercury in all its forms and their interactions with sulfur compounds, particularly glutathione and its enzyme system. He has patented analytical systems for mercury speciation (separation of different forms of mercury), founded the only clinical lab in the world offering mercury speciation in human samples, and has designed cutting edge systems of nutraceuticals for detoxification and antioxidant protection, including advanced phospholipid delivery systems for both water- and fat-soluble compounds. Quicksilver Scientific is recognized globally for innovating on behalf of the pharmaceutical and nutraceutical industries. Dr. Shade is regularly sought out to speak as an educator on the topics of mercury, environmental toxicities, neuroinflammation, immune dysregulation, and the human detoxification system for practitioners and patients in the United States and internationally.

About the Sponsor

Quicksilver Scientific is a leading manufacturer of advanced nutritional systems with a focus on detoxification. We specialize in superior liposomal delivery systems and heavy metal testing to support optimal health. Our advanced liposomal supplements are highly absorbable, and support the body in the elimination of ubiquitous toxins, enabling you to achieve your genetic potential. At Quicksilver Scientific, we are passionate about health and well-being, and are committed to improving the lives of everyone we touch.

To purchase Quicksilver Colorado Hemp Oil as a Practitioner, please access www.THRTech.com. Consumers, please access www.VitaExpress.com.

Transcript

Karolyn Gazella: Hello. I'm Karolyn Gazella, the publisher of the Natural Medicine Journal. Today we have a fascinating and somewhat controversial topic to talk about. We're going to be talking about the therapeutic effects of CBD oil from cannabis. Before we begin, I'd like to thank the sponsor of this podcast, who is Quicksilver Scientific. My guest today is Dr. Christopher Shade. Dr. Shade, it's always a pleasure.

Christopher Shade, PhD: Always a pleasure.

Gazella: And I have to ask you first of all, is there a reason that CBD oil would be controversial? Am I right in that?

Shade: Much ado about nothing.

Gazella: Maybe.

Shade: You know, is there a reason for controversy? Controversy's built out of us evolving as a society in which we had instituted cannabis prohibition, and we all had this reefer madness fear around the THC side of cannabis, the psychoactive high-inducing side. But CBD is coming from industrial hemp, which is the THC is bred out of it, and you're left with another component that is big in the resins of cannabis, and it's called cannabidiol. It's chemically different than THC, and its physiological effects are vastly different, and they seem almost magical when you look at so many ... At the variety of things that they do for you, but they don't get you high. They have an effect of balancing and calming the mind, but they have so many different therapeutic benefits, and it's really just getting people out of the fear of the evil weed, into this wonderful, medicinal plant and all the uses it has.

Gazella: I want to get into the mechanisms of action and all the science associated, but first, and I know that you're not a legal expert, but is it available freely? Is CBD oil available for purchase, or are there limitations because cannabis is not legal in many states?

Shade: Yeah. The entrance of CBD into use in the US was made possible by the 2014 Farm Bill, which was allowing the use of industrial hemp for various uses in trade in the US. In those uses came the use of the extracts. Now, by some interpretations, well, that's still cannabis, and that's still scheduled as a drug. Certain parts of the government are saying, "Hey." Like the DEA. "Hey, that should still be scheduled. We didn't say that's okay." Whereas other parts of the government are saying, "Hey, that's all right. That comes underneath the Farm Bill." Most of the states have rolled with this being under the Farm Bill, and being an allowed substance. It's gained so much widespread use, and a lot of that use is from very impaired people that rely on it heavily for their health.

Most places are reluctant to step in and go against the Farm Bill. Certain states, however, Indiana notably, recently the Attorney General said, "No. We're not doing this, except for under certain exemptions. If you have a certain type of a ..." It was probably a seizure disorder, "Then you can get a permit to use this." Missouri, I don't know the extent of their laws, but they're kind of difficult. Most people don't sell it in Missouri. Then other states are taking a tack of trying to adopt it into a state cannabis law. Making it like THC, where it's regulated by the state, just like Colorado regulates THC. It does not regulate CBD independently, but for instance, the State of Florida is trying to bring CBD into their medical marijuana world. We'll see how it rolls in Florida, but right now the places to stay out of are Indiana and Missouri. This is such a moving target that this might change in a month.

Gazella: Right. Now, just to clarify, though, CBD oil or hemp oil does not have THC in it.

Dr. Shade: No. In most of the extracts of industrial hemp ... Industrial hemp is defined in the Farm Bill as a plant that, on a whole plant basis, has less than 0.3% THC. When the Colorado Department of Agriculture goes and certifies a crop here for being harvested and processed, it will take representative plants and analyze them for this threshold of THC. Now, these plants usually have, oh, 7% to 9% to 10%, upwards to peak around 15% CBD as well. There's some residual THC along with the CBD. One of the concerns originally was, "Well, when we concentrate that up, will there be enough THC for people to get high?"

Now, processors who are trying to stay very clean with the law will use extraction technologies and post-extraction purification technologies that minimize the THC. For instance, in our CBD oil, there's virtually indetectable THC. Whereas some oils will have a 20-to-1 CBD to THC ratio, ours is around 500-to-1. It's super clean, and that's nice because a lot of people that want to use the oil have THC testing programs that they're in, if they're firefighters, or policemen, or airline pilots. A lot of the commercial extracts have enough THC that if you're using large amounts to be really therapeutic against something like pain, you will probably have enough THC to tip the scales on some of the analytical techniques looking for THC.

Gazella: Got it. Thanks for that clarification. Now, let's get into the science, which is your area of expertise. What's going on from a mechanism of action standpoint? How does CBD oil work inside the human body?

Dr. Shade: Well, it works on a number of different levels, and when we were describing this, we used to chase after one thing or another. We'd say, "Oh, it's antiinflammatory." Or, "Oh, it helps GABA-glutamate balance." As we go forward, we look at it more and more in this symphony, and this symphony, I call neuro-endo-immune poise, or balance. Neuro means neurotransmitters. Endo is endocrine or hormone, and immune is obvious. It's the immune system. Neurologically is how we used it the most, for damping neuro-inflammation. When I lecture to doctors, I say, "This is the most exciting supplement for us in the last 30 years in functional and integrative medicine."

Because we're treating a lot of people with [mole 00:07:45] toxicity, Lyme disease, mercury toxicity, and all these have as part of their symptomology neuro-inflammation, where you become ... Your autonomic nervous system becomes sympathetically dominant, you've got overactivity of glutamate receptors, there's activation of the immune system in the brain called the microglia, and they're sort of at war with the glutamate receptors. That's causing anxiety first, then brain fog, then a disruption with the autonomic nervous system. You're moving resources and blood in wrong ways throughout the body, and this acts to just stabilize all of that. It will block the excitation of the microglia. It will stabilize the glutamate receptor. That will result in a neuro-stabilization. Your neurotransmitter balance between glutamate and GABA gets balanced. Your autonomic nervous system balance between parasympathetic and sympathetic gets balanced.

But that starts cascading down even farther into the body, and we start to look at really what homeostasis or balance of the biology is, and it's a set of reactions that all have these yin-yang poles, which you want to sit in the middle of and take forays in the yin or yang as needed to handle different perturbations, but you always want to come back to the poise of the center, and CBD is always bringing that back to the middle. In hormones, in women, the organ with the greatest amount of cannabinoid receptors? The uterus. I always pair CBD with bitters, and guess what's in the ovaries, but bitter receptors. We find such a stabilization of the female cycle by taking those things together. Then the immune system. You want inflammation when you need to kill things, but then when it gets stuck on, and it won't turn off, you get things like development of chronic inflammatory states. These can be cardiovascular complications. These can lead to cancer. These are problems, so where's the switch to bring it back? The CB-2 receptor, the cannabinoid number two receptor, and where's that located through the body but on the peripheral immune cells of the body.

CBD lubricates your endo-cannabinoid system. Why would you have cannabinoid receptors if you didn't make cannabinoids. The two main cannabinoids you make are 2-Arachidonoylglycerol and anandamide, and the reason you make them is to zip together the neural system, the endocrine system, and the immune system have that neuro-endo-immune poise, and CBD helps you build more of those endo-cannabinoids and helps potentiate those CB-2 receptors. At the same time, it's up-regulating chemo-protective and antiinflammatory genes and down-regulating pro-inflammatory genes. There's really no one thing that helps you create that poise, that essential homeostasis. Nothing does it like CBD oil does, and that's why it seems like a panacea, because it helps so many things.

Gazella: That was actually my next question, because when I was researching for this interview, I found such a diverse amount of conditions that it was being effective for, so because it works on these multiple pathways, that's why you're saying it works for such a variety of conditions. Do you give practitioners who say, "Wait a minute. That's a little bit too good to be true. How can it be that good for that many things?"

Dr. Shade: Well, then I give them the neuro-endo-immune poise story.

Gazella: Exactly.

Dr. Shade: And as soon as you said neuro-endo-immune poise, they go, "Wow."

Gazella: That's right.

Shade: Because what are the disorders? There's some part of you in that yin-yang balance that's stuck over here, or stuck over there. Anything that helps you zip together so many fundamental processes, everything just starts to come back together again. I mean, it runs through all of our different protocols, because it's that X-factor for zipping it all up again.

Gazella: Right. Now, there's got to be some conditions that bubble to the top, and that was the other thing that I was so impressed with, with the research, is the amount of research associated with CBD oil has grown dramatically. But what conditions? As you're looking through the research and you're kind of identifying the strength of the research, what conditions are bubbling to the top, to say, "Yup, that's really what it's going to work for"?

Shade: Right. In our world, we deal with detoxification, and so we're dealing with people who have various problems that are associated with toxins. Autism is a really big one. That's always ... Unless they're just totally exhausted, autistics, always bringing CBD into that, because of that neurological stabilization. Then we're dealing with various mole toxicity, Lyme disease, and the neuro-inflammation that comes from that, the different metal toxins. All of our detoxification protocols, especially when they're neuro-detoxification protocols, involve the use of CBD. Then in distinct disease states, the big ones, MS, Parkinson's, any kind of tremor. Of course, everybody knows seizure disorders. Those are all crying out for some application of CBD.

But then since I understood the endocrine side of it, women who are having endocrine destabilization or hormone imbalance, we're always recommending CBD along with the bitter herbs to them, and we get great ... You might not think, "Premenstrual syndrome: CBD." But it's fantastic for that. Those are the main ones that we use. Oh, any chronic inflammatory pain. That's a really big one. Cardiovascular complications. That's really big, too. We've seen some great data emerging on the use of CBD, including some doctors who have used ours to get preliminary data, on the health of the inside of the vascular system, and you'll see those cells on the inside of the vascular system all getting less stress, increased poise, and so we recommend it in those cases as well.

Gazella: Now, what about mental health? You've now just listed some conditions that are related to our physical health, but what about some conditions associated with mental health?

Shade: Anxiety's just hands down the biggest one, because anxiety results from over-excitation of the glutamate receptors, and boom. CBD stabilizes that immediately. It's very, very fast around that. Now, it's interesting, for much more complicated problems, like schizophrenia, here you've got one plant, two chemicals, THC, CBD. THC is like putting the fast forward button on schizophrenia. It's really bad for a schizophrenic, where CBD has fantastic data around stabilizing schizophrenics, so there it's useful as well.

Even in depression. Depression, you think, "Okay, well anxiety, you're really stimulated, and that calms you down." But depression is also often cycling with anxiety, and so depressive disorders, there's been a lot of data around use of CBD too, and most of my favorite integrative psychiatrists like Kelly Brogan, they've showed very clearly that depression is a neuro-inflammatory disorder, and so you've got different reactions to antigens in your food, in your environment. You're having these constant allergic states and cytokines, these pro-inflammatory states that are contributing to depression, and CBD is working against all that, creating that balance again so it can be used in anxiety and depression.

Gazella: Yeah. It's fascinating.

Shade: Yeah.

Gazella: I'd like to talk about safety, because I have to tell you that I've read some conflicting statements associated with safety. Based on your interpretation of the scientific literature, is it safe? Are there any interactions, contraindications that we need to be worried about?

Shade: On its own, without you having to stick something else into your body like a heart pressure medication, CBD is inherently incredibly safe. We've found a couple of people here and there that seem to have an allergy to the plant, and they just feel unhappy on it, but the issue around CBD and safety is that it interacts with some of the cytochrome P450 system, which are metabolizing drugs. If you're taking a drug for blood pressure, CBD may either lower its breakdown, so increase its circulating levels, or increase its breakdown, and thereby decrease their circulating levels. If you're on a lot of pharmaceuticals, you usually have to do a little bit of research and see if there's some interaction between the CBD and the pharmaceutical that you're on. There's starting to be good lists online of the potential interactions. They've got to get a little bit better at where these are really relevant interactions, and where they're not relevant interactions. But this will be one of the things that we come up with in the future, is nice, clear guidelines on whether something's going to positively reinforce a drug, or work against the activity of the drug.

Gazella: I mean, the case that I read was specific to antidepressants, and that's where it was very conflicting. Some reports were, "Yes, it will react," as you describe, and some were, "It will not."

Shade: Because it's not antidepressants. It's, "This list of chemicals."

Gazella: Exactly. Yeah.

Shade: They just happen to be antidepressants to your body that get metabolized down different pathways according to their chemical nature. Your breakdown doesn't care whether it's an antidepressant or whether it's testosterone. It's got a chemical nature, and it's got to fit into the cytochrone that breaks it down. You get a list of antidepressants, they have different chemical natures, and they go into different cytochrome P450 enzymes to break down, and CBD interacts with two or three of those enzymes. If the antidepressant interacts with the same enzyme CBD does, then there could be an interaction, and if it doesn't, then there's no interaction. It's not about antidepressants.

Gazella: Yes, and nothing is ever clearly black and white when we're talking about this type of chemistry.

Shade: No.

Gazella: I'd like to talk a little bit about the product that you specifically formulated, Colorado Hemp Oil. What makes your product unique or special compared to other CBD oil products that are on the market?

Shade: Quicksilver Scientific specializes in delivery systems, ways to get the compounds into little, lipid-based carrier spheres that are so small that they passively diffuse through mucosal membranes, like your oral mucosa, the sublingual space, as you're swallowing, through the stomach, the upper GI. It's the rapid and complete absorption of these little nano-spheres which is what we do, and when we stick CBD in there, there's a very fast uptake, there's a high total uptake, and it's a very rapid uptake. One of the things that's a problem with CBD is there's only net about 10% uptake of all the CBD you swallow. That's a very expensive molecule, as you know, and so you're throwing away a lot of that and not getting a lot. The stuff you do absorb is absorbed over the whole transit time of the GI, so if we look at uptake versus time, you have a very gradual, slow movement into the blood. The blood levels, the peak blood levels never get very, very high.

Now, a lot of what CBD does, it does through interacting with receptors, and gene triggers, like nuclear transcription factors, like NRF-2, which turns up all your glutathione genes. Now, the receptors and those transcription factors react to peak doses. Level versus time, here's a regular CBD oil. Here's ours. You get a very high transient peak dose. You saturate the system. You're able to work very well on the brain. You're able to hit all of those transcription factors. You're able to interact with all of those membranes, and everything happens very quickly, and you get a very strong effect.

The total absorption is anywhere from four to sixfold higher than a regular pill, but even if you took four to six times as much, you don't get as much of an action, because you don't have that peak dose to really induce everything, ring the bell of those receptors. What happens when you hit receptors, you trigger a whole cascade of different proteins to be made, which is affecting the metabolism of the body. That transient peak dose really creates the effect that you're looking for.

Gazella: Now, your label says that the patient needs to hold it in their mouth for 30 seconds. How important is that, and is that all a part of the enhanced absorption of the product?

Shade: It is, because this is a nice space in the oral cavity. Interacting with the oral musoca is a space where your spheres that you've made have not had to interact with stomach acids or bile, so there's nothing modulating them or modifying them, changing their shape, their size. It's a nice, pure space where all the capillaries are very close to the surface, and you can get a whole bunch in. Now, that being said, for some of our products that are water-core, that are liposomes, those are a little bit more sensitive to the GI conditions, and a little bit more important that you do that oral holding. The nano-emulsion that we make, like the CBD, you have an oil core with a membrane around it. These are more resistant against change in the GI tract, and they will make it through, and you'll get the absorption anyways, but it'll be a little bit slower, and a little bit less efficient.

The more you can do the oral hold, the better, but it is not a game-breaker. That's important for a lot of the people that are very taste-sensitive, or if you're working with autistic children, and they won't do that, or you're giving it to your dog or something, goes right down.

Gazella: I don't know. My dog is pretty smart.

Shade: Yeah. You just say, "30 seconds."

Gazella: That's right.

Shade: "No. Five seconds more."

Gazella: It's interesting. I would like to stay on dosing. Is it complicated to dose from a practitioner's standpoint? Because you do have such a diverse offering of conditions that it can help. Is the dosing-

Shade: Yeah. It's really titration dosing. You start at a low amount. One of the doctors in town here, Joe Cohen, goes with two pumps three times a day as a sort of basis dosing for an adult, and then they'll add more as they need it. If you're not getting the effects, how about three pumps three times a day? Then four pumps three times a day? Titrate up until you get the required effect. You can even start down at one a day, like if you're dealing with kids and you want to start low and slow, but just keep titrating up until you get the effect you want, and often once you induce the effect and start training the body into the healthier state, you can bring the doses back down. Just start low and work up until you get what you need.

Gazella: Great. Now, before I talk about the future, because you know I like to talk about the future, I'd like to have you predict the future, is there anything else that practitioners need to know about CBD oil when it comes to using it in their clinical practice?

Shade: No. Don't be afraid to use it for a wide variety of conditions. Work your dosages up until you get the effects that you want. Let people know, especially if they've never had anything like this, the feeling that they have in the first couple of days may be more intense than it will be later, but it's not ... Most of the other supplements, there's more tricks around it and things to watch out for. Not so much with this.

One thing, though, you will, if you're using it alone, you will start to generate detoxification reactions through two mechanisms. One is NRF-2 up-regulation, that nuclear transcription factor that's turning up the glutathione system, and the other is the autonomic balance, bringing yourself over to a parasympathetic state, and detoxification doesn't happen in sympathetic states, because it's a luxury, and you're trying to survive when you're in sympathetic autonomic dominance. This will bring you over to parasympathetic. It'll help turn up these genes, so some people will start to have detoxification reactions. If they start getting headachey, or a little lower back stress, or rashes, give them good quality bitters, like the BitterX that we make, and maybe a little bit of GI binder, like our ultra-binder, or charcoal clay capsules, and that will help them detoxify.

Gazella: Oh, good. That's good to know. Now, the future.

Shade: The future.

Gazella: What excites you the most when it comes to CBD oil research?

Shade: Yeah. It's CBD not being just a standalone, but being an integrated ingredient in formulas, where it's doing this part of it, maybe the autonomic balancing, or the brain balancing, where the other things are doing other parts, and finding which things are synergistic together, which things are antithetical together. We'll find out how to blend it with other things, and really make it work better. Even if we're just working within the cannabis plant itself, there's the essential oils of the plant called the terpenes, very strongly affect the modulation of how CBD and THC work within the body. The science on the terpenes will be worked out, then the science on other nutriceuticals playing in with those will be worked out, and we'll start to see some really beautiful formulas come.

Gazella: What about when we began, we talked about the availability. Do you see things loosening up a little bit?

Shade: That part of the future. It's funny. There seems to be two forces at work within the United States around CBD. There's a liberalization movement that is not necessarily ... It's not coming out of Boulder County in California. It's coming from within the government, where they want to focus on real issues, like narcotics use, prescription pain med addiction, real drugs, heroin, cocaine, and they want to get away from talking about this. On the other side, there's other people who are just ... Some part of them are just working out what's already been started, where they're just really going to want to try to enforce this. We're starting to hear much more sophisticated language from the state departments of health about CBD, and that's towards a contractive thing. And who knows where that's really coming from? I mean, you have pharmaceutical companies getting into this now, and that may be the long, dark arm of the pharmaceutical companies.

There's two things now, contraction and expansion, happening at the same time. Hopefully the light wins and we expand out, and we're able to use this in a broad scale, and do all the research that's really necessary to put this to the best use.

Gazella: I would agree. I think that the therapeutic efficacy of CBD oil is really ... We're shining a light on it in the scientific literature. Even though it seems that it's preliminary, uncertain cases, it just seems like it's growing more [inaudible 00:28:22], it really should be something that we look harder at.

Shade: Oh, it absolutely is, and I can always gauge it by when I'm on a plane, when little old ladies start talking to me about it, or my aunt came over from Florida, and she had a bottle of it, and it's made its way out to the masses. They need it. They want it. We hope it's here to stay.

Gazella: I do too, and you know, we haven't even touched on the pain aspects, because right now we are in the midst of an opioid crisis in this country.

Shade: Oh, yeah.

Gazella: Is there an application for [crosstalk 00:28:57]?

Shade: Oh, absolutely. Maybe little smidges of opioids along with CBD. CBD, and what we'll find is what we can blend with it nutriceutically to increase its effect at stopping pain, but it's got all the right aspects for that, and for some pains, it's magic. For other ones, it doesn't work as well. Well, maybe we'll find certain blends, but it will always, if you're taking it with opioids, it will always lower how much you need of the opioids, and that's one of the most beautiful things to come out of the legalization of medical marijuana in various states. They've seen a lowering of opioid use.

Gazella: Right. It sure seems like CBD oil, hemp oil, is a valuable tool that clinicians can use in their clinical practice.

Shade: Absolutely.

Gazella: Great. Well, Dr. Shade, as per usual, this has been very interesting. Thank you so much for joining me today, and I would also like to thank the sponsor of this interview, who is Quicksilver Scientific. Thank you everybody for joining us. Have a great day.

There is growing interest among integrative practitioners about the use of intravenous therapies in their practice. In this interview Paul Anderson, NMD, describes the types of therapies being used in oncology and also discusses treatment considerations, contraindications, and research associated with this area of medicine.

If you work with patients with small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO), Crohn's disease, colitis, or food intolerances, you've probably heard about the elemental diet. But there's a lot of confusion about what the diet is, when it's appropriate, and how it can be used most effectively. In this interview, digestive health expert Lela Altman, ND, LAc, explains how the elemental diet allows the gut to rest and repair. She offers practical information for patients and practitioners about how to choose an elemental diet or how to make your own. In addition, she outlines the steps she takes to reduce the risk of relapse after coming off the diet. And she reveals the one question every practitioner needs to ask to identify a major red flag that would contraindicate the elemental diet.

About the Expert

Lela Altman, ND, LAc, began working in the medical field in 1998, first as a nursing assistant, then as a medical assistant. This experience inspired her to pursue an education in the natural health sciences. Altman earned her bachelor of science degree from The Evergreen State College where she focused on ethnobotany, biology, and chemistry. She then earned her doctorate in naturopathic medicine and masters of science in acupuncture at Bastyr University in 2011. She went on to complete a 3-year residency at the Bastyr Center for Natural Health. While working as a chief resident, she completed additional training in evidence-based medicine and carried out diabetes research. She recently created the Digestive Wellness clinic at the Bastyr Center for Natural Health, which she currently supervises. Additionally, she teaches full time at Bastyr University and has a private practice.

About the Sponsor

Integrative Therapeutics is focused on helping integrative medicine professionals cultivate healthy practices—from the development of science-based nutritional supplements to innovative, actionable resources and professional insights that have the power to inspire and enrich you, your patients, and your practice.

We take pride in our evidence-based approach and meticulous process, and we focus on investing time and resources into developing formulations that have the support of today's scientific community—not the latest 'nutritional craze.' This process includes months of research, rigorous ingredient testing, and quality assurance testing before a product is ready to be released.

Other resources include ElementalDiets.com.

Transcript

Tina Kaczor: Hello, I'm Tina Kaczor with the Natural Medicine Journal. Before we begin, I'd like to thank the sponsor of this podcast, Integrative Therapeutics. Today we're talking about the elemental diet, which is a specialized diet sometimes used in patients with inflammatory bowel disease or small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, better known as SIBO. My guest today is naturopathic doctor Lela Altman, from Bastyr University. She's a specialist in gastrointestinal medicine and has used the elemental diet to improve her own health. Dr Altman, thank you so much for joining me.

Lela Altman: Thank you so much for having me.

Kaczor: So, let's jump right in. I'd like you to start us out with a definition. In doing a little research for this interview, I noticed that the elemental diet or, the words "elemental diet" have been around for decades. So maybe you can just start us out with just a simple definition of what is an elemental diet and what does that term exactly mean?

Altman: Sure, so a true elemental diet is a formula, it can be used in place of meals, and it proves all the nutrition that you need in its most basic, easily absorbed form. And that allows the gut to rest and repair. So, for example, instead of having proteins you would have individual amino acids, which are the building blocks of proteins. Instead of having fibers or starches it would contain simple sugars, which can be easily absorbed. And it also the essential vitamins, minerals, nutrients you need to survive. Fiber isn't typically included in an elemental formula because it can feed gut bacteria so that's something that we wanna look at and make sure it doesn't contain. There are a lot of formulas on the market that kind of market themselves as elemental diets that do have full proteins in them. And so it's not that those are bad formulas, but they're not necessarily totally an elemental formula. So it is important to know what you're looking for when you're evaluating formulas to determine whether or not they're elemental.

Kaczor: Okay, so we'll get into the diet specifics but it sounds fairly regimented in that, when I looked online I saw that there were a lot of various forms. There were homemade recipes and then there were products for sale, like you mentioned. And I guess ... the patient experience, can you tell me a little bit about the patient experience? I mean, is there a breadth of options for the patient where if they wanted to use their own kitchen they could do this diet themselves at home all the way to here's the pre-packaged thing? So what should a patient expect when they're put on this?

Altman: Yeah, absolutely. So you can make your own. Dr. Allison Siebecker has a great website, siboinfo.com, that has a recipe for a homemade version and there are also various other forms. So there are supplement companies that make them, there's, I mean, pharmaceutical-type versions of them. So there's a lot of range of what you can purchase and there's a lot variation in price based on that range. So it really depends on whether the patient wants to make their own and save a little bit of money or finds the convenience more important and maybe the taste more important and is willing to buy prepackaged option. Not all of the prepackaged options taste good but there are some that taste better than others.

Kaczor: So in, I guess ... Well it may depend on condition but is this something that people typically do for days, weeks, months, how long are we talking for patients?

Altman: It does really depend on the condition. So for SIBO it's typically done for 2 to 3 weeks. And an elemental diet, again, it's used in place of food. So you're not typically eating food with the elemental diet, you're only doing the formula. So for SIBO, that would be the formula only for 2 to 3 weeks. It can be used really anywhere from a few days for a few months depending on what you're not using it for. Or, sorry, not a few months, a month. So, if you wanna do a little bit of bowel rest you maybe would be on a elemental for 3 to 5 days. If you have maybe Crohn's disease and are using the elemental diet for treatment of an acute, really severe flare of Crohn's disease then you might be on that for up to 4 weeks. Also, sometimes I'll use the elemental formula for people who have a lot of food intolerance or allergies and are unable to maintain their weight, as a way to provide antiallergenic calories. And in that case they are eating food in additional to the elemental formula and so they may be on the formula for months while they're recovering their weight.

Kaczor: And in that, just to clarify, in that scenario they're doing it as an add-on to an otherwise tailored diet for them.

Altman: Right. Typically, if the elemental diet is being given completely alone without any other food it doesn't exceed more than 4 weeks.

Kaczor: Okay, and so what conditions exactly ... I know you mentioned food intolerances so just so are we are complete, what other conditions do you use the elemental diet for?

Altman: The big three that I use the elemental diet for is for treatment of SIBO, also for, again, as I mentioned, addition of calories in people who are underweight and have a lot of food intolerances. And then also just for a short term bowel rest, which might be needed in a Crohn's or colitis flare. There is some research on multiple other conditions though that elemental diets or sub-semi elemental diets have been used to treat. So eosinophilic esophagitis is one, cystic fibrosis, AIDS-related diseases, acute pancreatitis, sometimes rheumatological diseases. So there's a number of different conditions that we are looking at elemental diets to treat. My focus is mostly on the gastrointestinal diseases.

Kaczor: Okay, and so because it's void of fiber completely I'm guessing that the microbiota of the gut changes dramatically without those fibers. So how do people come off of this diet? In other words, how do they step off it without having a massive reaction to fiber from foods?

Altman: Yeah, so, I mean, the first part of that question really is kind of addressing the lack of fiber issue. These diets are not health long term. The elemental diet wouldn't be health long term, nor would necessarily the low-FODMAP diet or something like that. So when I take people off of the elemental diet, I usually have them start with homemade low-FODMAP broth. And if they are tolerating those well on the first day then I'll have them add some well-cooked, low-FODMAP veggies and they can even puree that into a soup to help break it down a little bit more. And if all is going well, the next day I will have them eat lightly cooked low-FODMAP veggies like steamed or lightly sauteed. And they can add some grains if they tolerate grains, though not everybody does. Meat, eggs, those things need to be well tolerated and fairly easy to digest after the elemental diet. And then on phase 3, I kind of transition back to a low-FODMAP diet, that's the diet I'm typically using. Some people are on a SCD [specific-carbohydrate diet] or SIBO-specific diet. I kind of transition them back to whatever diet they were on before that was working for them.

And then when their gut stabilizes, then we start to challenge food. So, for example, we would start challenging low-FODMAP foods to see what they can tolerate and what they can't. The idea is once the SIBO is cleared they shouldn't have to stay strictly adherent to one of those diets.

Kaczor: Okay, so that brings up a question because it seems like there's a lot of relapse in SIBO that a lot of ... there's a lot of talk in the chat groups about what does one do after they feel like they've exhausted many protocols. Do you find in your practice that there is a lot of relapse and a lot of people end up with a recurrence of it?

Altman: Yeah, definitely, so there's one study that shows the recurring aftertreatment with Rifaximin that's about 50% at 6 months. We don't have specific studies looking at different types of treatment and whether the recurrence rate changes, say, for somebody treated with Rifaximin versus somebody treated with an elemental diet. This is why, in my practice, I implement a lot of other things to help prevent recurrence like maybe long-term antimicrobial herbs, prokinetics, maybe a modified diet or a low-FODMAP diet. So, unfortunately, we don't have studies showing what if we do all of these other things too then what is the recurrence rate? But in my practice I think it's lower when we add in those things. And unfortunately, for years SIBO's just been treated with Rifaximin and follow-up testing wasn't even necessarily done and then that's it. And so the studies that we have are based on that type of treatment.

Kaczor: Okay, so, yeah, that answered one of my questions. I didn't know if this was a diet people had to go on intermittently but it sounds like if one can get to the root cause of what's going on and kind of get the gut into a healthier place and perhaps do a few things like longer-term antimicrobial herbs or prokinetics ... And just out of curiosity, prokinetics, when you say that in the naturopathic realm, what are you talking about exactly?

Altman: So, prokinetics can be in various forms. They can be pharmaceutical and they can be herbal and I use both, sort of depends on the person and what they respond to and sort of what level of prokinetics they need. So a prokinetic is essentially something that makes the gut move, it increases motility of the small intestine, which can be a really big problem, particularly in the autoimmune type of SIBO. And so naturopathically I'm generally starting with herbal options, which may include things like ginger and 5-HTP, bitter herbs, things like that.

Kaczor: Yeah and that brings up another question I have and that is with that idea of the lack of peristalsis within the small intestine that seems to be implicated in SIBO and those prokinetics working for those people, it seems to me, and correct me if I'm wrong, that stress has a lot to do with this. That people who maybe have more anxiety or anxiousness and we say they hold it in their gut kind of thing. Is that true in your experience? Do you notice stress having any effect on SIBO or on their GI symptoms?

Altman: I would definitely say so. I have a few patients whose only known risk factor for getting SIBO has been going through a very stressful event. And actually it's those people are the ones that tend to have fewer recurrences or not have recurrence at all because there's not an anatomical or motility issue that you have to deal with. Essentially once you clear the SIBO it's more stress management that helps keep it away. So yeah, that is definitely true. Also, if we think about the sympathetic versus parasympathetic nervous systems, so in the sympathetic nervous system is the fight or flight. And in the fight or flight nervous system, we shunt blood away from our digestive system to our limbs so that we can run. In a parasympathetic nervous system, that's the rest and digest, and so we're shunting blood to the digestive system to help break down food. And so if you're stressed you're kind of constantly in this sympathetic, fight or flight state and you are not shunting blood toward your digestive system to function properly. So that's a really concrete example of why stress would make this worse.

Kaczor: Yeah, yeah, that makes perfect sense. And then, I guess, kinda sticking to the mind-body idea and how the physiology is functioning, I guess, one question I had for you as a practitioner. Do you find that sometimes doing dietary restrictions like an elemental diet, especially when there is a lot of concentration, a lot of time and effort on eating the right things and making sure that the wrong things don't go down, and all of that, have you ever found that there's some trigger for relapse in those who have a prior eating disorder? Especially people, young women, and they might be in high school or college, they had bulimia or anorexia and here they are in their 50s and maybe they have to go through either an elemental diet or more likely the other diets you were talking like the FODMAP diets or the specific carbohydrate diets, very restrictive diets. And they get into kind of a neuroses about food is basically what I'm asking. Have you found that to be true at all?

Altman: Yep, unfortunately I have found that people having eating disorders by trigger them through giving them an elemental diet. So no, it wasn't in the history I was aware of and then they went on the elemental diet and then suddenly this history of an eating disorder became an issue because the elemental diet did trigger that. And that's also true for, I think, any restrictive diet. So a history of or current eating disorder for me is a relatively strong contraindication to an elemental diet or any other type of restrictive diet. I think, I agree with you, I think it's a fine line between treating SIBO and having disordered eating. So when you feel poorly every time you eat and every time you eat you get more bloated, it created a negative feedback pattern associated with food and over time that can cause bigger problems like fear of eating almost anything. You know that anything you eat is gonna make you feel poorly and I think that's something to be really careful of if you have SIBO or if you are treating a lot of SIBO.

Kaczor: Yeah, and thanks for saying it because I think that's a big heads up for everyone who is looking at using this diet. Especially practitioners, that's a very simple thing to have on an intake form so it doesn't have to be too deep of a probe with the patient. It can be very simply asked. So on that note, are there any other contraindications, any other patient populations that we should be aware of that we should be especially careful with this diet?

Altman: Well, you need to think about it, I think, really on a case by case basis. Anybody could have something that could be a contraindication. One of the biggest concerns people have is about weight loss or low BMI. I find that's a relative contraindication. A lot of people think of the elemental diet as a fast, which it's really not. You have all of the calories and nutrition you need and you can increase the amount of formula somebody's taking as needed to meet their caloric requirements. So I've actually had several patients who are really malnourished, had a lot of difficulty maintaining weight, actually gain weight on the elemental formula because it was providing nutrition for them in a way that they could actually absorb and utilize in their bodies. So, I mean, that's something to think about. Diabetes for me is some concern, especially with the insulin needs and blood sugar dysregulation. The elemental diet, as I mentioned in the beginning, the carbohydrates come in the form of sugar and so it does have some potential for blood sugar dysregulation if you're drinking it really quickly. You can really mitigate not a lot by drinking it slowly over time but that would be another concern.

Fungal overgrowth can definitely be exacerbated by an elemental diet, again, because of the sugar content. I initially, when I started using it, thought that maybe kidney disease would be a concern. But I looked it, wasn't really able to find anything that verified that there was any issue with giving an elemental diet in somebody with kidney disease. And actually there was one study I found that showed improvement in kidney function in people with chronic kidney disease on an elemental diet. You might wanna be a little bit more careful in somebody with compromised liver function because amino acid metabolism can lead to ammonia production and build up in their liver and so that might raise liver enzymes. But again, if you're only doing this for 2 weeks or so that really shouldn't make a big difference. And then, as I already mentioned, really that history of the eating disorder is a big red flag for me and then contraindication.

Kaczor: Well that's ... I know this has been incredibly helpful from a practical perspective. I think that in less than 20 minutes we've touched on a few things that are definitely what I would consider clinical pearls for our listeners. So I really appreciate you taking the time of your schedule and offering up your expertise for our listeners. So thanks for being here with me.

Altman: Oh, it's been a pleasure. Thank you.

Kaczor: And once again, this is Tina Kaczor with the Natural Medicine Journal. And I'd like to thank the sponsor of this podcast, Integrative Therapeutics.

In over half of all cases of hospitalization for a cardiovascular event, the first symptom is the event itself. So anything we can do to get any early indicator that something is going wrong in the cardiovascular system can have a huge impact. Erectile dysfunction is one such early signal. According to cardiovascular health expert Daniel Chong, ND, identifying sexual dysfunction is essential for improving cardiovascular outcomes. 

Approximate listening time: 30 minutes

About the Interview

It may seem counterintuitive to interview a cardiologist, and not a urologist, on the topic of erectile dysfunction (ED). But we now know that ED is a result of endothelial cell dysfunction and ED can be an early warning sign of systemic atherosclerosis. Looking at ED from a cardiovascular perspective is essential.

That’s why we invited cardiovascular expert Daniel Chong, ND, to talk to us about ED’s connection to heart health. In this interview, Natural Medicine Journal’s editor-in-chief, Tina Kaczor, ND, FABNO, asks Chong about the complex interplay between vascular function and sexual function.

According to Chong, cardiovascular disease always has some degree of contribution—potentially a major one—in ED. That’s in part because blood flow is the key facet to obtaining a full erection. Cardiovascular dysfunction, including plaque in the arteries that regulate that blood flow, can therefore have an impact on ED. Even before plaque development becomes a problem, endothelial dysfunction in the inside walls of the arteries can play a role in erectile function.

In this enlightening interview, Chong explains the different issues that can contribute to ED, including anatomical, physiological, and psychological problems. It’s an important listen for any practitioner who sees men, since beyond being a problem in and of itself ED can be an early signal of other serious health concerns.

About the Expert

Daniel Chong, ND, has been a licensed naturopathic physician, practicing in Portland, Oregon, since 2000 and focusing on risk assessment, prevention, and drug-free treatment strategies for cardiovascular disease and diabetes, as well as general healthy aging, and acute and chronic musculoskeletal injuries. Chong has also completed certificate training in cardio-metabolic medicine from the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine and is an active member of the Society for Heart Attack Prevention and Eradication (SHAPE). In addition to his clinical work, Chong serves as a clinical consultant for Boston Heart Diagnostics Lab.

Transcript

Tina Kaczor, ND, FABNO: Hello. I’m Tina Kaczor for the Natural Medicine Journal. Today, we’re going to be talking about erectile dysfunction and cardiovascular disease with Dr Daniel Chong. Dr Chong is a naturopathic physician with a private practice in Portland, Oregon for the past 17 years. He specializes in what he likes to call "vascular wellness optimization." He’s also the founder of the web-based consulting company, the Healthy Heart Project which offers a number of educational and direct consulting options for both the general public as well as healthcare practitioners on how best to assess and reduce risk for cardiovascular disease. Dr Chong also lectures and serves as a clinical consultant for Boston Heart Diagnostics Lab.

Thanks so much for joining me today, Dr Chong.

Daniel Chong, ND: You're welcome, Tina. Good to be here.

Kaczor: As I mentioned, our topic today is erectile dysfunction. At first, it may seem odd to our listeners that I’m talking to a cardiology expert and not a urologist or men’s health expert but we now know that erectile dysfunction is a result of dysfunction of endothelial cells and in fact, this can be an early warning sign of systemic atherosclerosis. Dr Chong, can you start us out with a brief overview of how erectile dysfunction and cardiovascular disease are related?

Chong: Sure. I can do my best there. There’s definitely going to be different circumstances that can contribute to erectile dysfunction. Some of which may not be actually anatomical, so to speak, or physiological from the cardiovascular perspective but I would say the majority is at least indirectly affected because even if we’re talking, for example, about a psychological contributor which we may touch on later, if somebody has dysfunctional arteries down there in the penis, they’re going to be more vulnerable to effects from psychological aspects than they would be otherwise. In other words, a young teenager may get stressed out in an early sexual experience but that’s not going to affect function as much as it could a 50-year-old man.

Anyways, in general, we could just say that cardiovascular disease is going to have some degree of contribution and potentially major. Obviously, blood flow is the key facet to obtaining a full erection and certain arteries are going to be more vulnerable to impacts from the development of cardiovascular disease but even so, the arteries in the penis may or may not actually have plaque in them but they can still dysfunction. Typically, we know, and we’re going to talk about this later, in cardiovascular disease, the preceding step prior to actual anatomical change or plaque development is endothelial dysfunction or dysfunction in the inside wall of the arteries and even that going on without any actual plaque having developed yet can affect erectile function and not to be noticeable by the person.

All in all, I guess you could say they’re intimately intertwined because you have to have good blood flow. It may or may not have plaque. Plaque may or may not be actually playing a role yet but it will in some cases and cause really significant dysfunction, but even minor dysfunction is going to be at least the partial result of the arteries starting to misbehave for various reasons that hopefully we’ll touch on.

Kaczor: Yeah. I actually came across some mention of erectile dysfunction in that whole idea of plaque formation. One author said that it could signify in some patients, or at least it should be followed up to see if it signifies subclinical atherosclerosis.

Chong: Correct.

Kaczor: Yeah. Atherosclerosis being pretty much asymptomatic in people until there’s larger consequences. On that note-

Chong: Right. Yeah. Sorry to cut you off. Sadly, it’s been shown that in over 50% of cases of hospitalization for a cardiovascular event, the first symptom is the event and that’s over half of all of them, so anything we can do to get any early indicator of something in this, so to speak, before, for example, erectile dysfunction, is hugely important for us because we are not doing a very good job at least conventionally in identifying early on what’s going on with people.

Kaczor: Yeah. I look forward later in this discussion to talk to you about how to assess it, to find early markers besides just the symptom of erectile dysfunction but let’s start with the larger picture in conventionally recognized erectile dysfunction and cardiovascular disease risk factors. Can you talk a little bit about like when we’re, as clinicians, who walk into our office, who we should suspect it in or at least engage in the conversation because many patients won’t bring it up themselves unless they're directly asked?

Dr Chong: Yeah, absolutely, so, certainly age. The older a man gets, the more potential there's going to be for all kinds of different changes going on physiologically. Some people are well aware of testosterone production, how crucial that is and that certainly begins to change as a man ages. But certainly, very standard, interestingly enough, it’s the same standard risk factors you might consider for cardiovascular disease in general in terms of high blood pressure, diabetes, certainly, smoking.

Conventionally, you're going to see high cholesterol as a stated contributor but we can certainly talk in more detail about that because I know that some people out there in the functional medicine world, naturopathic world, et cetera, consider high cholesterol as a past tense risk factor for cardiovascular disease which it really is and it’s just more complicated than that. Obesity, lifestyle factors in terms of exercise and then certainly, psychological factors, depression and anxiety, et cetera are all going to be key things.

I also want to make a just brief mention even though this is kind of a topic in and of itself, when we talk about erectile dysfunction, obviously, we’re talking about men but it should be very clearly stated that the same potential processes are going on in women as they age. Women with difficulty with sexual activity or orgasm, et cetera, may in fact be having their own version of “erectile dysfunction” with the clitoris as essentially an analogous structure in a woman and all of these blood flow issues can occur in women as well. It’s important to really kind of make mention to that. I say men, I keep saying men, as men age, blah, blah, blah, but it really should be looked at as both sides of the coin, so to speak.

Kaczor: That’s actually an important point. Thank you for mentioning that.

Chong: Sure.

Kaczor: I want to do a follow-up on that cholesterol thing that you just mentioned because I think that that’s kind of top of mind. I think it’s important to give voice to any new data on looking at cholesterol because I'm with you on it being much more complex and it’s more complex than I understand. I'm happy for you to kind of flesh it out for us.

Chong: Yeah. I mean, I guess anybody that says that cholesterol has nothing to do with cardiovascular disease is not really thinking about the fine details of the situation. You can't have a plaque form without cholesterol and lipoprotein particles being involved because they are what are the sort of primary components to the development of the plaque.

What I don’t agree with conventionally is the idea that high cholesterol, in and of itself, is just going to definitively contribute to cardiovascular disease because obviously, there are many people out there who have relatively “high cholesterol” who don’t get cardiovascular disease. There's certainly something else going on that’s playing a role as to whether or not high cholesterol is going to lead to that issue in some people versus others.

Long story short, I consider cholesterol and related markers to be secondary factors. They are absolutely involved but they are not … There's going to be other things that help sort of determine the likelihood or lack thereof of the high cholesterol sort of turning into cardiovascular disease. That’s a really fun discussion in and of itself. It could be another hour or so by itself but hopefully, that kind of answers your question, at least preliminarily.

Kaczor: Well, it brings up another question which is-

Chong: Certainly, keep going with that. Yeah.

Kaczor: Yeah. If cholesterol is considered a secondary factor, and I see what you're saying, cholesterol is not … needs to be present but can't be causative because there's not a cause and effect 100% of the time.

Chong: Correct.

Kaczor: If it’s secondary, what are you looking at as primary?

Chong: Well, to me, the absolute most important thing that’s going to contribute to the potential or lack thereof of eventual cardiovascular disease development or i.e. plaque, development is the health and vitality of the walls of the artery and how well they're functioning. In other words, the healthier, more nutritionally replete the walls of the arteries are themselves and the better they're being sort of manufactured in the first place by the body, are going to be the primary factor that leads to vulnerability or not.

If you imagine like … I would like to use analogies. On a coastline, you may have, let’s say, in Hawaii versus somewhere else on the mainland. Hawaii is made up of volcanic rock which is, tends to be a little bit more brittle and it can sort of erode more easily. If you have waves crashing into the wall, into a wall of rock in Hawaii, it may erode more quickly. Then, an analogous wall somewhere else in the world that’s made up of a different, harder, more resilient material, the waves are still crashing into them with the same potential force but one’s going to erode more quickly than another.

If we then relate that to the vascular system, somebody who has poor nutrition and tons of inflammation, oxidative stress, et cetera, and especially long-term poor nutrition, they're not going to be able … especially if we’re talking about collagen production, they're not going to be able to manufacture the sort of strong, resilient vascular walls that they should which will inevitably be, if they are stronger, will inevitably be more resistant and resilient to the impact of the turbulence of the flow of blood.

There are certainly other things that are going to impact that as well especially the turbulence itself and the viscosity of the blood. That’s going to make for essentially like stronger waves crashing in which obviously, the stronger the waves is crashing into the area, the more potential there is for erosion as well. To me, long story short, the primary situation that’s going to lead to the potential development of plaque is a combination of two primary factors. That’s the vulnerability of the wall of the artery and the stress that is being placed on the wall of artery.

Kaczor: By-

Chong: If you look at every single risk factor we know of, they are impacting one or both of those factors.

Kaczor: Okay. When you say stress, you mean mechanical forces, as well as chemical?

Chong: Chemical. Absolutely.

Kaczor: As in oxidative stress?

Chong: Correct. That would be one of them. I mean, even environmental toxins, different types of infectious organisms and certainly mechanical stress as well or what we call blood viscosity which is impacted by a variety of factors. Primarily, probably the main ones for blood viscosity would be hydration and like even iron levels or high sort of … basically, concentrated solid substances in the blood and then also, cloudiness of the blood, how high is fibrinogen levels and things like that are going to impact the viscosity of the blood. Then, the classic risk factor of high blood pressure is going to be too, more or less, stress on the wall of artery.

Kaczor: Let’s-

Chong: Sorry. One other thing. I mean, one of the ways that high cholesterol may be contributing to things is it’s known that the higher the cholesterol is, the stronger the impact on the vascular wall is. It actually causes … High cholesterol itself can contribute to endothelial dysfunction or stress on the function of the wall of the artery.

Kaczor: Doing mechanical forces, you're saying, to the viscosity of the blood.

Chong: Right, and more technical reasons, like it literally messes with certain aspects of how the wall, the endothelium is supposed to be functioning. It’s not just that it gets into and becomes part of the plaque. The higher your cholesterol goes, the potentially worse the endothelial function initially.

Kaczor: Okay. Let’s switch gears a little bit. If we’re talking about endothelial dysfunction as the commonality between erectile dysfunction, atherosclerosis, cardiovascular disease, it’s all about a healthy endothelium.

Chong: Right.

Kaczor: It’s interesting, in that same paper I mentioned before, I came across a term that I had not seen before. It was the endothelium as a single organ which I thought was a really interesting concept like, “Oh,” thinking, “I'm sure it’s different, in different tissues,” but just the idea of overall health of it being a singular thing was interesting to me.

Chong: Right. People look at the blood vessel as like these tubes that are just allowing for the passage of blood flow. There's so much going on at the wall of the artery physiologically. It is absolutely an entire organ.

Kaczor: Let me ask you this. As far, for us as clinicians, what are either biomarkers or assessment tools, how do we gauge endothelial function in a patient?

Chong: Well, technically, when we’re specifically talking about endothelial function, there's only a few ways to directly assess that. Clinically, they're going to involve some way, shape, or form of actually testing, in-office, the function of the arteries themselves. There's a general … There's a few … There's basically two main machines that I'm aware of. One is called an EndoPAT and one is called the EndoTherm that are designed to directly assess endothelial function.

The way they basically work is they … You have your fingers in some type of device that’s monitoring either blood flow or temperature at the fingertips. Then, you basically occlude the artery and the arm like you would with the blood pressure cuff. You have to do that for about 5 minutes which is not enjoyable for the patient because, as you can imagine, it isn’t feel very good to have your blood occluded for 5 minutes. Then, prior to doing that though, you're doing a general assessment on blood flow and temperature of the fingers. Then, you occlude the blood flow and then you let it out all at once.

When the blood comes, as you might imagine, rushing back into the extremities in the fingers, you should get some degree of expansion of the arteries. Normal function would lead to the arteries, as the blood really rushes in there, would lead to the arteries expanding to a certain extent. People that have endothelial dysfunction, their blood vessels will not expand appropriately. The machines are designed to sort of read that, sort of the tip, where your tips of your fingers are sitting, the machines is detecting, is there a significant enough change in temperature and or blood flow.

There's also something called arterial pulse velocity which basically, there's a smaller device called an iHeart like an iPod but it’s iHeart. I'm not connected to any of these companies or anything like that but that is a newer device that’s being developed that checks sort of indirectly the same thing. It looks kind of like a pulse oximeter but it’s actually detecting arterial pulse wave velocity and literally how quickly a pulse rate is moving down the arterial tree.

If you might imagine, the sort of left compliant and arterial, an artery is, the quicker the pulse rate is going to move down it. That’s generated by heart, a heartbeat. Those are the only ways that I'm aware that are … Those are the only things that I'm aware that are being used in-office to directly assess endothelial function. There is a lab test that can be measured with people called ADMA. It stands for asymmetric dimethylarginine. That is considered a surrogate or indirect assessment of endothelial function. The higher the ADMA is, the higher the potential for endothelial dysfunction because it’s a direct sort of inhibitor of nitric oxide production.

Kaczor: All right. Well, that leads us into our next little piece, doesn’t it? Nitric oxide production being integral to the whole relaxation of the smooth muscle and the endothelium to allow for blood flow whether we’re talking about the fingertips or the penis. Can you talk a little bit about nitric oxide? Maybe briefly mention how an assessment can be made, the ADMA being one of the means of assessing that as far as the blood test and anything else that might be accessible to a general physician or clinician that might be seeing these patients.

Chong: Well, I mean, endothelial function is, to me, the ideal way to get an assessment of that because I'm a big proponent of the idea that we want to check end of point factors as often as we can. Classic example of this is looking at the different impacts of certain dietary changes on cholesterol markers and making conclusions about whether or not that is good for the vascular system or not, certain changes like HDL going up, for example, after the implementation of a certain diet did not guarantee by any stretch of the imagination that you're having a positive effect on the vascular system so I like to use endpoint markers or end, sort of, functional markers as much as possible so far and away still, the best way to me to assess nitric oxide levels is via those endothelial function tests that we mentioned already.

Other ways to sort of try to get an assessment of it, the only other way that I’m really aware of is if you've seen … You've been to enough conferences, I know. You’ve probably seen this company that has this little saliva test that you can use to check basically nitrate levels in the saliva. That’s going to be … Nitrate is a crucial factor, nitric oxide production as well, so some people are using these little saliva tests to check what a person’s typical nitrate intake is and then recommending dietary or supplement interventions based on that. Those are really the only ways that I’m aware of to sort of really truly get an assessment on that other than, obviously, history and talking to a person, seeing how well things are working, so to speak.

Kaczor: Can I ask you a question? I don’t mean to put you on the spot and I do not know the company that’s offering nitrate levels in saliva but is this something that’s been validated or is it with any rigor or is this one of those early adoption things that happen?

Chong: Right. You're asking me if something has been validated with scientific tests or research? Can you restate?

Kaczor: Or at least … Yeah.

Chong: You do that with everything which is great. That’s why I like you so much but I don't know for sure. This is … In all honesty, I haven’t really looked too deeply into that method of assessment with people, so I wouldn’t be able to say with any certainty at all. I know that they’re quite widely used and it’s not a very complicated, technically complicated test so I think it’s pretty straightforward. I do recall seeing literature being made available by these companies but I have not looked that in-depth at that at this point.

Kaczor: Well, I appreciate your honesty. When you're on the cutting edge, early adoption of new technologies is part of our … We get to do that. We get to be right there doing, instituting things but it’s important, I think, for us all to go at a pace that has some, at least reproducibility, if not rigor.

Chong: Absolutely. The other thing that I would say to add to that is like using different angles of assessment is also crucial, not just relying on one piece of information whether it be cholesterol. That’s why the classic conventional mistake is like, “Okay, we’re going to check and see if you have a high risk for cardiovascular disease. Let’s check your lipid panel. There’s so much more beyond that that can be done to assess and evaluate people and get a much clearer picture. That’s a classic idea, just sort of not settling on one thing, not just using the newest thing, whatever it is. Use as many tools as you can within reason to get the clearest picture.

Kaczor: Yeah. I want to continue on the molecular biology of this and specifically, we have just a few minutes left, really talk about-

Chong: Time flies when you're talking about erectile dysfunction.

Kaczor: What’s that?

Chong: I said time flies when you're talking about erectile dysfunction.

Kaczor: Well, oxidative stress, being something that you mentioned and it’s just something that we’re … That inflammation is kind of always at the forefront of anyone who’s doing integrative medicine or optimal wellness or however you want to term it. I guess my thought is this. In a concise way, can you tell me if you use any actual blood markers that are widely available and what are some of your favorite ways of, kind of across the board, addressing oxidative stress issues, which even beyond erectile dysfunction, it becomes part and parcel with that but it’s also just part of life and part of being alive, is creating oxidation?

Chong: Right. In the realm of assessment, especially if we were going to so far as to separate out inflammation in oxidative stress because obviously, they aren’t exactly the same thing, when we’re talking inflammation, the primary markers that I’m measuring with people certainly are high sensitivity CRP as our sort of general global marker of inflammation or lack thereof. When we’re talking about the vascular system, I’m also typically going to be checking something called Lp-PLA2 or what’s also known as the PLAC test. That is more specifically an inflammation marker for the vascular system so it’s going to actually reveal immunoactivity and inflammation going on in the wall of the artery whereas a high CRP is not going to be able to definitively determine that or not. MPO or myeloperoxidase is a later stage, nonspecific but frequently correlated marker for late stage vascular inflammation for a vulnerable vascular system.

In the realm of oxidative stress, the 2 primary markers that I might look at is actually … number 1 is actually oxidized LDL so it’s pretty hard to have moderately elevated LDL levels and a high amount of oxidative stress and not see a relatively increased level of oxidized LDL in the bloodstream. That is sort of a good, what you'd call extracellular oxidative stress marker, but we can also get intracellular oxidative stress for different reasons.

For that, you can also check something called 8-oxoguanine which is an actual, actually a urinary test. Not too many labs run that. I’m not sure if we’re supposed to name names here but that is an … If you just Google 8-oxoguanine test or something like that, you can probably find the labs that run that but that’s going to give you more of an assessment of intracellular oxidative stress. Then, beyond that, you can, in all honesty, get a pretty good idea whether or not somebody is going to be a candidate for high oxidative stress just by talking to them and looking at them and that type of thing as well.

Kaczor: Yeah. A lot of those other markers for cardiovascular disease like obesity, even the aging process, certainly smoking, all-

Chong: Right. Absolutely.

Kaczor: Obviously, we would take into account for oxidation. Can you let me know or let the listeners know your top three? Someone looks at you and they’re like, “Listen. I do everything right. I exercise. I eat well. My BMI is normal. I don’t drink. I don’t smoke. What are the three supplements you …” You only get to see them once. They’re going to leave your office.

Chong: These people are eating well, you said, in my opinion?

Kaczor: Okay. That brings up the point. What would that look like in your opinion?

Chong: No, no. I’m sorry. I’m just-

Kaczor: We only have 2 minutes left but what would be an ideal guy in your opinion and then-

Chong: No, no, no, no, no. I’m sorry. I was just clarifying the question. If these people are already eating well like they’re eating lots of fruits and vegetables, et cetera and I’m just talking about supplements, the 3 main ones I’m going to recommend are going to be vitamin C, magnesium, and then probably some type of concentrated plant-based antioxidant. As a naturopath, herbal medicine trained, I have an affinity to hawthorn but also, I frequently recommend hibiscus tea to people.

Kaczor: Nice. Hibiscus being, you're also from Hawaii so that’s-

Chong: Good point. You could certainly go beyond that and complement it with things like arginine, citrulline, and then there are a number of nitric oxide precursor type of products that are high in dietary nitrates.

Kaczor: Well, Dan, I really appreciate this. I feel like we could have a whole part 2 where we go into the therapeutics and more details into all of this but I think the listeners have gotten good overview today and I really do appreciate the time you've taken and your expertise, and best of luck with your Healthy Heart Project.

Chong: Thank you, Tina. It was good to talk to you and happy to help as I can.

Kaczor: All right. Take care.

Chong: All right.

Transcript

Karolyn: Hello, I'm Karolyn Gazella, the publisher of the Natural Medicine Journal. Today our topic is male urinary incontinence and my expert guest is Dr. Ronald Morton. Dr. Morton, thank you for joining me.

Dr. Morton: Hi, Karolyn, and thank you for having me today.

Karolyn: Well great. Well, let's just start with the basics. How is urinary incontinence diagnosed in men?

Dr. Morton: Karolyn, urinary incontinence is not as common in men as it is in women, although it does happen more commonly than people think. The main causes are as it is with women, aging and weakening of the pelvic floor muscles. But more importantly, and the reason for many of the interventions that we have for urinary incontinence in men is it can be due to trauma to the male pelvis and/or surgery for diseases of the prostate. When I say disease of the prostate I mean both benign conditions like BPH, which many men suffer from and are aware of, and then also prostate cancer, which is a very common cause for surgery on the male pelvis.

Karolyn: And then what's considered the gold standard of treatment for this particular men's health condition?

Dr. Morton: There are many ways to treat male incontinence, as there are many ways to treat female incontinence. The usual approach that will be taken by a urologist is to go from the least invasive to more invasive solutions until the patient is happy. I think that one thing that always has to be kept in mind is that this is really a quality of life issue for most men, especially since urinary incontinence in males is generally a disease of men who are older. The median age of diagnosis of prostate cancer is about 63 years of age or so. Since operations on the prostate are the common cause for this, they're generally older men and it's a quality of life issue.

What one male will find satisfactory control of the urinary incontinence might be totally unsatisfactory to another. So the general approach would be to start with exercises, commonly called Kegel exercises. The same exercises that we suggest that women do who have a mild degree of urinary incontinence and see if that won't help. If Kegel exercises won't help and it's not something that can be helped with diet and weight modification, then we go into more invasive treatments for male urinary incontinence.

The first level of invasion is a procedure that only takes a few minutes, really, less than a half an hour called a male urinary sling. It's much like the slings that are used in women. It  supports the male urethra and holds it up, providing support that has been lost due to the previous surgical intervention or pelvic trauma in hopes that that will correct the incontinence.

Fore more severe degrees of incontinence we often times need to move towards what is really considered, as you say in your question, the gold standard for severe incontinence, which is the artificial urinary sphincter [AUS]. In that procedure, a cuff is placed around the urethra and this cuff is connected to a pressure-regulating balloon, which controls pressure in the cuff, keeping the urethra closed and preventing leakage of urine and also a pump, which is placed in the scrotum. When it's time to urinate, the male can just activate the device. The fluid leaves the cuff and goes into the pressure-regulating balloon, opening the urethra. The male can then urinate and then after a period of lock-out time, the cuff will refill, returning him to a state of continence.

Karolyn: So let's talk about these two, the sling and the sphincter. What determines whether or not a patient is severe enough for the sphincter versus the sling? What's the difference between those two patients, the one that gets the sling and the one that gets the sphincter?

Dr. Morton: Good question because again, it has a lot to do with personal preference. But there are some general guidelines that one can go by. When we measure incontinence and it can be a difficult thing to put a number on, but most men who have incontinence will use urinary pads in their shorts in order to trap urine leaking. A good gauge of to what degree a male leaks is how many times they have to change that pad. Now, some men will as soon as there's a small amount of urine because of the discomfort it will cause will change that pad right away. Some men tend to allow the pad to get very, very soaked before they'll change it. Everyone behaves a little bit differently.

A way to get a handle on exactly how much leakage a man has it to do what we call the pad weight test. So we'll give them all the pads that they might need for a day and a bag that can prevent evaporation and they just collect the pads that they use for the day, put it in this bag, and everything is pre weighed, and then we weigh it to see what the volume of urine leakage is.

A rule of thumb, if they're leaking around five pads or 300cc of urine a day, that's severe and is more likely to be treated with the artificial urinary sphincter. Degrees of urinary leakage that are less than that can be and generally might be recommended that they be treated with the sling procedure.

Karolyn: Now are there are any contraindications associated with each of these options, the sling or the sphincter? So in other words, are there men who would not be a good candidate for either of these options?

Dr. Morton: Well, they have to be able to undergo a surgical procedure, and while the sling procedure is relatively short, it does require at least a regional anesthetic. The artificial urinary sphincter procedure is a little bit longer and requires a general anesthetic so they have to be fit for the surgery. The sling is generally not recommended for men if they have been treated for prostate cancer with radiation. The outcomes there haven't been as good as they have been with the artificial urinary sphincter so in that setting we generally would recommend a sphincter as opposed to a sling, even if they were otherwise a good candidate for a sling.

Karolyn: What about side effects? Are there any side effects associated with either of these devices?

Dr. Morton: I'll take that question separately for each of the two devices. The side effects associated with the sling are that if you don't choose the patient in the best way, two things can happen. One, the patient can not have their incontinence adequately treated. A second issue is if you put a sling in a patient whose major problem is not one of the urethra but is a bladder issue, and that can be sorted out ahead of time with uro dynamics, but if you did you may render that patient obstructed or in urinary retention. The problem doesn't have to do with external sphincter deficiency for that patient.

For the artificial urinary sphincter what we're doing is we're placing this cuff around the urethra. It does over time potentially compromise some of the blood supply to the urethra in that area and you can get what's known as atrophy of the urethra in the area of the cuff. When you get atrophy in the area of the cuff there can be a return to urinary incontinence. Of course for both of these procedures, since you're putting a foreign body in, there's a risk of infection, although infectious problems with these devices have been relatively low.

Karolyn: Okay, that makes a lot of sense. Now, I'm just curious because you have a certain expertise in this area as chief surgical officer of American Medical Systems. What general advice do you give to physicians who are treating men with urinary incontinence?

Dr. Morton: One, most of the advice that I have is for physicians who have men with incontinence but aren't necessarily the experts in treating them. There's a couple of things. One of the things that our research has shown us is that many men who are subjected to surgery for prostate cancer, for example, and who then suffer from incontinence don't recognize, or aren't made aware that there are treatments for it and they suffer in silence we like to say. So, if we can get anything out to the many physicians listening to this podcast it would be don't let this happen to any of your patients. Make sure they understand that if they do get incontinence after, for example, radical prostatectomy, there are options and there are potential solutions for this.

The second message is I spend a lot of time working with the engineers and we're constantly looking at ways to come up with a better mouse trap if you will. What can we do to avoid the complications we spoke of earlier? What can we do to help physicians identify the proper patients so we don't use a sling in a patient who should've had an AUS, or an AUS in a patient who should've had a sling? And what can we do to make the functioning of the AUS a little bit easier so that in this elderly population of men they are always candidates for the device?

Karolyn: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense and I'm glad that you brought that up about suffering in silence and information. Obviously, a well-informed patient is the best patient to have. So letting that patient know his options is absolutely critical.

So one final question for you Dr. Morton. What is on the horizon when it comes to devices for this particular issue with men? Do you see existing devices just being improved? Do you see new devices? Are we kind of where we should be? Look into your crystal ball and tell me what the future holds for this.

Dr. Morton: I don't know if I'm the best person to predict the future, but I think that our efforts are to make sure that A, these are the right solutions. We are constantly looking at, are there other options? Are there other ways to manage urinary incontinence? Could we come up with a less invasive way to place the sling or a less invasive device would replicate the great performance of a sling?

On the urinary sphincter side of things it's a mechanical device, so can we simplify that mechanism so that it's easier for the patient to implement? Remember there's a patient interface with the AUS. Most devices that we implant, like when a cardiologist implants a pacemaker, there's no patient interface. The patient doesn't have to decide whether or not their pacemakers work. It's in and it just works. For our device, at least for the artificial urinary sphincter, there's that patient interface. So if we can improve that patient interface with the device and make it as reliable as possible, that's what we're looking to do in order to improve the overall performance of the device and have men have a greater satisfaction with their quality of life.

Karolyn: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Well, this has been very informative. Once again, thank you, Dr. Morton, for joining me today.

Dr. Morton: Karolyn, thank you for having me.

Karolyn: Have a great day.

In this interview, naturopathic physician Todd Born, ND, CNS, describes his approach to treating inhalant allergies. Born explains the intimate relationship between the immune system and allergies and how physicians can support immunity in this patient population.

About the Expert

Todd A. Born, ND, is a naturopathic doctor, certified nutrition specialist (CNS), co-owner and medical director of Born Naturopathic Associates, Inc., in Alameda, California. Born is the product manager, head of new product development, and scientific advisor for Allergy Research Group, LLC, and is editor-in-chief of their science-based Focus newsletter. He is a thought leader for the UK-based Clinical Education, a free peer-to-peer service that offers clinicians a closed forum to ask clinical questions and receive evidence-based responses from experts in their fields. Born is also lead advisor and president of the International Society for Naturopathic Medicine. Born graduated from Bastyr University in Seattle and completed his residency at the Bastyr Center for Natural Health and its 13 teaching clinics, with rotations at Seattle-area hospitals. For more information, visit www.bornnaturopathic.com.

By Natural Medicine Journal 

By Natural Medicine Journal

Leading integrative medicine pioneer, Russell Jaffe, MD, PhD, CCN, describes his philosophy regarding hard-to-treat thyroid conditions. Jaffe starts with proper diagnosis and then takes listeners through to the environmental impact, alkalinizing the body, and using targeted nutrients to provide an individualized approach.

Approximate listening time: 21 minutes

About the Expert

Russell M. Jaffe, MD, PhD, is CEO and Chairman of PERQUE Integrative Health (PIH). He is considered one of the pioneers of integrative and regenerative medicine. Since inventing the world’s first single step amplified (ELISA) procedure in 1984, a process for measuring and monitoring all delayed allergies, Jaffe has continually sought new ways to help speed the transition from our current healthcare system’s symptom reactive model to a more functionally integrated, effective, and compassionate system. PIH is the outcome of years of Dr. Jaffe’s scientific research. It brings to market 3 decades of rethinking safer, more effective, novel, and proprietary dietary supplements, supplement delivery systems, diagnostic testing, and validation studies.

About the Sponsor

PERQUE Integrative Health (PIH) is dedicated to speeding the transition from sickness care to healthful caring. Delivering novel, personalized health solutions, PIH gives physicians and their patients the tools needed to achieve sustained optimal wellness. Combining the best in functional, evidence-based testing with premium professional supplements and healthful lifestyle guides, PIH solutions deliver successful outcomes in even the toughest cases.

Lyme disease can be a challenging condition to treat. In this interview, integrative medicine expert, Russell Jaffe, MD, PhD, CCN, describes his treatment approach and also explains the important connection between Lyme disease and small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO).

Approximate listening time: 20 minutes

About the Author

Russell M. Jaffe, MD, PhD, CCN, is CEO and Chairman of PERQUE Integrative Health (PIH). He is considered one of the pioneers of integrative and regenerative medicine. Since inventing the world’s first single step amplified (ELISA) procedure in 1984, a process for measuring and monitoring all delayed allergies, Jaffe has continually sought new ways to help speed the transition from our current healthcare system’s symptom reactive model to a more functionally integrated, effective, and compassionate system. PIH is the outcome of years of Dr. Jaffe’s scientific research. It brings to market 3 decades of rethinking safer, more effective, novel, and proprietary dietary supplements, supplement delivery systems, diagnostic testing, and validation studies.

About the Sponsor

PERQUE Integrative Health (PIH) is dedicated to speeding the transition from sickness care to healthful caring. Delivering novel, personalized health solutions, PIH gives physicians and their patients the tools needed to achieve sustained optimal wellness. Combining the best in functional, evidence-based testing with premium professional supplements and healthful lifestyle guides, PIH solutions deliver successful outcomes in even the toughest cases.

People who currently and have historically struggled with eating disorders often have many eating disorder-related symptoms that respond positively to an integrative approach to treatment. Just like many other chronic health conditions, with appropriately selected interventions, recovery from an eating disorder can be further facilitated with holistic support. Nutritional support, and natural support for mental health and digestive issues are just a few of the topics that we discussed during this interview with naturopathic expert Carrie Decker, ND. 

Listening time: 33 minutes

About the Author

Carrie Decker, ND, is a certified naturopathic doctor who graduated with honors from the National College of Natural Medicine (now the National University of Natural Medicine) in Portland, Oregon. Decker also holds graduate degrees in biomedical and mechanical engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign respectively. Decker sees patients at her office in Portland as well as remotely. Her practice focuses on gastrointestinal disease, eating disorders, allergies, mood imbalances, autoimmune disease, chronic fatigue, thyroid disorders, and skin conditions. The primary modalities Decker employs are clinical nutrition, botanical medicine, homeopathy, biotherapeutic drainage, and counselling. Decker also supports integrative medicine education as a clinical education thought leader with Allergy Research Group and by writing for various other educational resources. More about her practice may be found at www.carriedecker.com or www.blessedthistle.info.

About the Sponsor

Founded in 1979 by molecular geneticist Stephen Levine, PhD, Allergy Research Group® is one of the very first truly hypoallergenic nutritional supplement companies. For over 30 years Allergy Research Group® has been a leading innovator and educator in the natural products industry. Our dedication to the latest research about cutting-edge nutritional supplements continues to this day.

Our purpose is to provide customers with products they can use to improve their patients’ quality of life, through scientific based innovation, purity of ingredients, education and outstanding service.

ARG is proud to be a sponsor of the Clinical Education LinkedIn Forum. A closed peer-to-peer group on LinkedIn where healthcare professionals can ask clinical questions and receive evidence-based and clinical-based responses by experts in their field.

Visit www.clinicaleducation.org/linkedin for more information & to sign up for free!

Visit www.allergyresearchgroup.com for more information on ARG and our products.

In this interview Tieraona Low Dog, M.D., discusses the state of micronutrient deficiencies in America. Vitamin D, vitamin B6, magnesium, omega-3 fatty acids, and even vitamin C are deficient in tens of millions of Americans. Tieraona Low Dog, M.D. also discusses what can be done to identify and treat what she calls a “hidden epidemic of micronutrient deficiencies.” 

Tieraona Low Dog, M.D. will be speaking at the AANP Annual Conference, which will be held July 12-15, 2017, at the Arizona Biltmore in Phoenix.

Approximate listening time: 23 minutes

About the Author

Tieraona Low Dog, M.D., began her exploration of natural medicine and its role in modern health care more than 35 years ago while studying midwifery, herbal medicine, massage therapy and martial arts before earning her medical degree from the University of New Mexico School of Medicine. She served as the Fellowship Director at the University of Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine, where she oversaw the training of more than 500 physicians and nurse practitioners in integrative medicine and is currently the Fellowship Director for the Academy of Integrative Health and Medicine. An internationally recognized expert in integrative medicine, dietary supplements and women’s health, Tieraona Low Dog, M.D. was appointed by President Bill Clinton to the White House Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine Policy, and has served as Chair of the US Pharmacopeia Dietary Supplements and Botanicals Expert Information Panel. Learn more about Tieraona Low Dog, M.D.

In this interview, Ronald Hoffman, MD, discusses how he uses the specific carbohydrate diet (SCD) to treat inflammatory bowel conditions. Hoffman recently wrote an Abstract & Commentary on the efficacy of the SCD in children with Crohn's and ulcerative colitis. In this interview, he describes techniques to enhance compliance and outcomes with the SCD. He also compares and contrasts the SCD with the Paleo and low-FODMAP diets. Hoffman draws on his clinical experience in this area to give practitioners advice on how to manage difficult-to-treat cases of inflammatory bowel conditions.

In this interview, Aviva Romm, MD, reviews how the stress response is triggered, how the hypothalamic-pituatary-adrenal (HPA) axis engages, and what can be done to lessen the health consequences of chronic stress. She explains how lifestyle measures such as getting adequate sleep and eating at the proper times can begin to set the normal rhythmicity needed for maintaining normal HPA function. She also discusses the differential effects of various adaptogenic plants such as ahwagandha, the ginsengs, rhodiola, reishi mushrooms, and more.

About the Author

Aviva Romm, MD, has bridged the best of traditional medicine with good science for over three decades. A midwife, herbalist, and Yale-trained MD, Board Certified in Family Medicine with Obstetrics,  Dr. Romm's focus is on the impact of stress, diet, and environmental toxins on health, willpower, food cravings, weight, chronic disease, and hormone imbalance in women.

Christopher Shade, PhD, is a globally recognized expert on the topic of human detoxification. In this interview he describes his testing and treatment protocol that effectively cleanses the system of mercury and other toxins. Shade also discusses dietary supplement liposomal delivery technology.

About the Expert

Christopher Shade, PhD, obtained bachelor of science and masters of science degrees from Lehigh University in environmental and aqueous chemistry, and a PhD from the University of Illinois where he studied metal-ligand interactions in the environment and specialized in the and analytical chemistries of mercury. During his PhD work, Shade patented analytical technology for mercury speciation analysis and later founded Quicksilver Scientific, LLC, to commercialize this technology. Shortly after starting Quicksilver Scientific, Shade turned his focus to the human aspects of mercury toxicity and the functioning of the human detoxification system. He has since researched and developed superior liposomal delivery systems for the nutraceutical and wellness markets and also specific clinical analytical techniques for measuring human mercury exposure. He used his understanding of mercury and glutathione chemistry to design a unique system of products for detoxification that repairs and then maximizes the natural detoxification system.

About the Sponsor

Quicksilver Scientific is a CLIA-certified laboratory and health supplement wholesaler located in Lafayette, CO, specializing in superior liposomal delivery systems and blood metals testing for human health and detoxification. We use state-of-the-art technology, including patented mercury speciation, for the most accurate and reliable testing available today. Our liposomal supplements incorporate our Quicksilver Delivery System which brings the power of intravenous therapy to oral delivery and dramatically increases absorption and effectiveness, to restore the body’s natural detoxification system and re-establish natural health and optimum functioning. Our tiny particles encapsulate health-supporting compounds that absorb directly through the mouth into the bloodstream, bypassing the harsh digestive process that destroys or excretes most pill-form supplements. Smaller and faster, Quicksilver Scientific's Etheric Delivery™ systems are clearly superior to other products on the market.

In this podcast, Danielle Citrolo, PharmD, describes how a unique combination of L-glutamine and L-alanine can enhance electrolyte and water absorption in the intestines, stimulate glycogen synthesis, inhibit muscle protein breakdown and promote the synthesis of muscle protein. This dipeptide compound has also been shown to help protect the integrity of the gastrointestinal tract, contributing to better nutrient absorption.

About the Expert

Danielle Citrolo, PharmD, is manager of technical services at Kyowa Hakko, where she provides technical, scientific, and regulatory support. She also acts as liaison with regulatory authorities in the United States, Canada, and Latin America. Before joining Kyowa, Citrolo was the clinical coordinator at The Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City. She has experience in developing clinical research protocols and managing clinical trials. She earned her bachelor of science in biochemistry and bachelor of arts in chemistry from North Carolina State University and her doctorate in pharmacy from Albany College of Pharmacy in New York. She is licensed by the New York State Board of Pharmacy.

About the Sponsor

Sustamine®  L-Alanyl-L-Glutamine is an excellent choice for use in clinical nutrition because it does not have the problems of poor stability and low solubility that are associated with free-glutamine. Glutamine begins to degrade when mixed with liquids, but Sustamine®  is a unique dipeptide form of glutamine that’s been designed for maximum stability. This means patients get the amount listed on the label when they add it to water or their favorite beverage. Sustamine®  is tasteless, colorless, odorless and dissolves completely in hot or cold liquids – so there is no gritty texture. Manufactured exclusively by KYOWA HAKKO BIO CO., Sustamine® L-Alanyl-L-Glutamine is also ultra-pure, vegetarian and allergen-free.