WEBVTT 00:00:01.000 --> 00:00:05.000 This free program is paid for by the listeners of Redwood Community Radio. 00:00:05.000 --> 00:00:09.000 If you're not already a member, please think of joining us. Thank you. 00:00:09.000 --> 00:00:16.000 This free program is paid for by the listeners of Redwood Community Radio. 00:00:16.000 --> 00:00:20.000 If you're not already a member, please think of joining us. Thank you. 00:00:20.000 --> 00:00:27.000 This free program is paid for by the listeners of Redwood Community Radio. 00:00:27.000 --> 00:00:31.000 If you're not already a member, please think of joining us. Thank you. 00:00:32.000 --> 00:00:36.000 [Music] 00:00:36.000 --> 00:00:41.000 [Music] 00:00:41.000 --> 00:00:46.000 [Music] 00:00:46.000 --> 00:00:51.000 [Music] 00:00:51.000 --> 00:00:56.000 [Music] 00:00:56.000 --> 00:01:01.000 [Music] 00:01:01.000 --> 00:01:06.000 [Music] 00:01:06.000 --> 00:01:11.000 [Music] 00:01:11.000 --> 00:01:16.000 [Music] 00:01:16.000 --> 00:01:19.000 Well, welcome to this month's Ask Your Herb Doctor. 00:01:19.000 --> 00:01:20.000 My name is Andrew Murray. 00:01:20.000 --> 00:01:23.000 My name is Sarah Johannison Murray. 00:01:23.000 --> 00:01:25.000 My name is Sarah Johannison Murray. 00:01:25.000 --> 00:01:29.000 Okay, we're in 2011. Happy New Year to you all. 00:01:29.000 --> 00:01:31.000 It's the first show of the year. 00:01:31.000 --> 00:01:34.000 For those of you who perhaps have never listened to our shows, 00:01:34.000 --> 00:01:38.000 which run every third Friday of the month from 7 to 8 p.m., 00:01:38.000 --> 00:01:41.000 we're both licensed medical herbalists who trained in England 00:01:41.000 --> 00:01:44.000 and graduated there with a degree in herbal medicine. 00:01:44.000 --> 00:01:48.000 We run a clinic in Garboville locally where we consult with clients 00:01:48.000 --> 00:01:50.000 about a wide range of conditions, 00:01:50.000 --> 00:01:53.000 and we recommend herbal medicines and dietary advice. 00:01:55.000 --> 00:02:00.000 It's become increasingly obvious over the last few years at least 00:02:00.000 --> 00:02:03.000 that if you really want to get a point across, 00:02:03.000 --> 00:02:06.000 you cannot just mention it once or twice, 00:02:06.000 --> 00:02:10.000 but that varied topics encompassing the same root subject 00:02:10.000 --> 00:02:14.000 will result in a coherent view of the matter in question. 00:02:14.000 --> 00:02:19.000 And association is, after all, an excellent tool for improving the memory. 00:02:19.000 --> 00:02:24.000 We get a lot of very positive feedback concerning Dr. Ray Peat, 00:02:24.000 --> 00:02:27.000 who's joined us on many of our shows now. 00:02:27.000 --> 00:02:29.000 And again, he's joining us tonight, 00:02:29.000 --> 00:02:33.000 and we'll discuss the role of inflammation in the disease process 00:02:33.000 --> 00:02:39.000 and reiterate some root causes and ways to avoid generating inflammation generally. 00:02:39.000 --> 00:02:43.000 Okay, so good evening, Dr. Peat, and thank you so much for joining us again. 00:02:43.000 --> 00:02:44.000 Happy New Year. 00:02:44.000 --> 00:02:45.000 Oh, yeah. Hi. 00:02:45.000 --> 00:02:48.000 Hi, Dr. Peat. Sorry to interrupt you, Andrew, but... 00:02:48.000 --> 00:02:49.000 Go on. 00:02:49.000 --> 00:02:51.000 We need to say... 00:02:51.000 --> 00:02:53.000 What are you trying to say? 00:02:53.000 --> 00:02:55.000 Basically, there's a disclaimer. 00:02:55.000 --> 00:02:56.000 Okay. 00:02:56.000 --> 00:02:59.000 The views and opinions expressed throughout this broadcast 00:02:59.000 --> 00:03:01.000 are our views and opinions, 00:03:01.000 --> 00:03:05.000 and they do not reflect the station's thoughts and ideas. 00:03:05.000 --> 00:03:06.000 Absolutely. 00:03:06.000 --> 00:03:08.000 Not necessarily. They might agree, they might not. 00:03:08.000 --> 00:03:10.000 Oh, absolutely they might not. 00:03:10.000 --> 00:03:12.000 Time will be made for other viewpoints. 00:03:12.000 --> 00:03:13.000 Thank you for joining us. 00:03:13.000 --> 00:03:16.000 Very good. Okay, so 2011 kicks off with a good old disclaimer. 00:03:16.000 --> 00:03:20.000 Okay, so to get back to Dr. Peat, 00:03:20.000 --> 00:03:22.000 thanks so much for joining us. 00:03:22.000 --> 00:03:27.000 As always, for folks who've not listened to our show before, 00:03:27.000 --> 00:03:29.000 let alone perhaps heard you on the shows, 00:03:29.000 --> 00:03:34.000 would you perhaps just go over your academic and professional career? 00:03:34.000 --> 00:03:40.000 I was a student and teacher in the humanities 00:03:40.000 --> 00:03:43.000 for about 10 or 15 years 00:03:43.000 --> 00:03:48.000 before I studied in graduate school a biology, 00:03:48.000 --> 00:03:54.000 basically nerve biology and reproductive biology. 00:03:54.000 --> 00:04:03.000 And I've taught a few courses in biochemistry and immunology 00:04:03.000 --> 00:04:06.000 and other things. 00:04:06.000 --> 00:04:08.000 Okay. 00:04:08.000 --> 00:04:12.000 I know you've extensively written papers, 00:04:12.000 --> 00:04:15.000 fully referenced papers on many different topics. 00:04:15.000 --> 00:04:22.000 And I know that a lot of the programs that you've joined us on 00:04:22.000 --> 00:04:27.000 have really been a broad range of separate subjects, 00:04:27.000 --> 00:04:29.000 but interrelated in many different ways. 00:04:29.000 --> 00:04:33.000 And I know the topic for tonight's discussion 00:04:33.000 --> 00:04:37.000 is the role of inflammation on the human body. 00:04:37.000 --> 00:04:40.000 What inflammation does, how is it generated, 00:04:40.000 --> 00:04:43.000 how can you do something about it? 00:04:43.000 --> 00:04:45.000 But perhaps people that are listening, 00:04:45.000 --> 00:04:52.000 would you just briefly discuss what you think we all understand 00:04:52.000 --> 00:04:54.000 when we hear the word inflammation? 00:04:54.000 --> 00:05:01.000 And then we'll go over the broad view of inflammation in a newer thinking. 00:05:01.000 --> 00:05:03.000 The thinking is actually fairly old, 00:05:03.000 --> 00:05:07.000 but it's been brought up by contemporary doctors. 00:05:07.000 --> 00:05:10.000 So what do you think people first understand when they hear inflammation? 00:05:10.000 --> 00:05:12.000 How do we understand it? 00:05:12.000 --> 00:05:16.000 About 50 years ago or so, when I was in school, 00:05:16.000 --> 00:05:23.000 they were teaching that inflammation is part of the curative healing process. 00:05:23.000 --> 00:05:29.000 So we needed to kill germs and heal. 00:05:29.000 --> 00:05:32.000 But in the last 10 or 20 years, 00:05:32.000 --> 00:05:40.000 the change has been seeing it occurring in all of the degenerative diseases, 00:05:40.000 --> 00:05:47.000 Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, heart disease, arthritis, and so on. 00:05:47.000 --> 00:05:48.000 Okay. 00:05:48.000 --> 00:05:57.000 So it's pretty abrupt in the 20th century 00:05:57.000 --> 00:06:01.000 that there was this sudden change to seeing inflammation 00:06:01.000 --> 00:06:06.000 as at least not all good, maybe all bad. 00:06:06.000 --> 00:06:11.000 Okay. Do you know that from... 00:06:11.000 --> 00:06:19.000 I was reading a little bit about Plato and Aristotelian views of medicine, 00:06:19.000 --> 00:06:21.000 and I know from an inflammatory point of view, 00:06:21.000 --> 00:06:26.000 they definitely had a different metaphor for understanding it. 00:06:26.000 --> 00:06:32.000 Given that the doctor, Ilya Metchnikov, 00:06:32.000 --> 00:06:37.000 and later on, Raymer, was it? 00:06:37.000 --> 00:06:41.000 Gosh, you can describe the doctor, Jamie. 00:06:41.000 --> 00:06:44.000 That's it, yeah. 00:06:44.000 --> 00:06:48.000 With the view of inflammation that both Ilya Metchnikov 00:06:48.000 --> 00:06:52.000 and the later doctor have brought around, 00:06:52.000 --> 00:06:54.000 would you describe the difference between it 00:06:54.000 --> 00:06:57.000 and how fundamentally it makes such a big difference 00:06:57.000 --> 00:07:01.000 to the way we should understand what it is that causes it 00:07:01.000 --> 00:07:03.000 and how to help ourselves? 00:07:03.000 --> 00:07:08.000 Metchnikov had worked primarily as an embryologist, 00:07:08.000 --> 00:07:16.000 understanding the organization of developing primitive organisms 00:07:16.000 --> 00:07:18.000 and more complex. 00:07:18.000 --> 00:07:23.000 And when he saw the phagocyte process, 00:07:23.000 --> 00:07:26.000 when he put a splinter in an organism 00:07:26.000 --> 00:07:29.000 and saw cells gathering around it, 00:07:29.000 --> 00:07:34.000 he interpreted that in the context of what he knew best, 00:07:34.000 --> 00:07:41.000 which was how the organisms create and maintain their body structure. 00:07:41.000 --> 00:07:49.000 And it was partly the fact that the Nobel Prize went simultaneously to him 00:07:49.000 --> 00:07:54.000 with that very biological view of immunity 00:07:54.000 --> 00:08:00.000 and to Ehrlich, who was working with chemical poisons. 00:08:00.000 --> 00:08:08.000 And the idea of immunity as killing bad organisms 00:08:08.000 --> 00:08:12.000 took over throughout the United States 00:08:12.000 --> 00:08:18.000 and most of the world for most of the 20th century. 00:08:18.000 --> 00:08:26.000 And that, as Americans started studying the white blood cells 00:08:26.000 --> 00:08:33.000 and the thymus gland and things that we think of as part of the immune system, 00:08:33.000 --> 00:08:40.000 they were influenced by the drug industry, Ehrlich's, 00:08:40.000 --> 00:08:47.000 looking for the bullets to kill the evil organisms. 00:08:47.000 --> 00:08:53.000 That passed over to thinking about antibodies and cells 00:08:53.000 --> 00:09:01.000 as aimed primarily at organisms that are trying to take over. 00:09:01.000 --> 00:09:09.000 It reminds me of how you've described the progression of hepatitis C being-- 00:09:09.000 --> 00:09:13.000 well, we're told that it's this nasty bug, 00:09:13.000 --> 00:09:17.000 but maybe it's just the body's trying to rearrange something 00:09:17.000 --> 00:09:25.000 and there's an inflammation and a process that's going on that is from damage. 00:09:25.000 --> 00:09:31.000 Yeah, the retroviruses in general, we've got lots of them, 00:09:31.000 --> 00:09:37.000 and they seem to be as much part of us as anything, 00:09:37.000 --> 00:09:44.000 and they don't do anything that for sure is harmful. 00:09:44.000 --> 00:09:51.000 And if you mess up an organ like poison the liver, 00:09:51.000 --> 00:09:57.000 you get a bunch of these retroviruses, which they're-- 00:09:57.000 --> 00:10:04.000 why they call them retro is that normally DNA makes RNA and RNA makes protein, 00:10:04.000 --> 00:10:11.000 but there are enzymes which will turn RNA into DNA, 00:10:11.000 --> 00:10:16.000 and that was first observed in 1979, 00:10:16.000 --> 00:10:27.000 but at that time, Trochan and Lamarck, they had been totally weeded out. 00:10:27.000 --> 00:10:34.000 In the late 1940s with the Cold War, all of Lamarck's followers 00:10:34.000 --> 00:10:39.000 were fired from all of the teaching positions in the U.S., 00:10:39.000 --> 00:10:52.000 and so in 1979 when the idea that information could go from RNA to DNA was demonstrated, 00:10:52.000 --> 00:10:57.000 my professors unanimously said it's impossible. 00:10:57.000 --> 00:11:01.000 Lamarckian and not permitted. 00:11:01.000 --> 00:11:06.000 Just to let people listening understand, the-- excuse me. 00:11:06.000 --> 00:11:11.000 DNA is a thing in our cells that codes for the manufacture of proteins 00:11:11.000 --> 00:11:15.000 and many, many things that are necessary. 00:11:15.000 --> 00:11:22.000 RNA is the messenger, the transcription factor for producing the DNAs. 00:11:22.000 --> 00:11:27.000 If the retroviruses then can actually manufacture DNA, 00:11:27.000 --> 00:11:32.000 that DNA then can get into our mitochondria 00:11:32.000 --> 00:11:36.000 and/or affect a change in its own right because it's DNA. 00:11:36.000 --> 00:11:41.000 And some of the people inclined in the direction of Lamarck, 00:11:41.000 --> 00:11:47.000 Barbara McClintock and Lee Senko, 00:11:47.000 --> 00:11:55.000 they had proposed that you can get genetic change. 00:11:55.000 --> 00:11:59.000 Eventually Barbara McClintock got the Nobel Prize for it, 00:11:59.000 --> 00:12:04.000 but about 40 years too late, 00:12:04.000 --> 00:12:12.000 demonstrating that they believed that information can flow from the environment into the DNA, 00:12:12.000 --> 00:12:18.000 and some of these people were actually saying that there should be enzymes 00:12:18.000 --> 00:12:21.000 such as are seen in retroviruses, 00:12:21.000 --> 00:12:31.000 enzymes that can create new DNA in response to environmental experience. 00:12:31.000 --> 00:12:36.000 Well, that reminds me about that test. 00:12:36.000 --> 00:12:39.000 I think you said it was in Egypt, Dr. Peat? 00:12:39.000 --> 00:12:40.000 Oh, yeah. 00:12:40.000 --> 00:12:47.000 There was-- in many countries there was a schistosomiasis epidemic. 00:12:47.000 --> 00:12:55.000 It was pretty chronic, and a very high percentage of Egyptians had it, 00:12:55.000 --> 00:13:02.000 and they were treated for that with some chemicals that injured their liver. 00:13:02.000 --> 00:13:08.000 And now they say that it was caused by spreading a virus, 00:13:08.000 --> 00:13:14.000 but other experiments suggest that just the chemical treatment 00:13:14.000 --> 00:13:24.000 that was aimed at killing this parasite could have been enough to cause the livers to express retroviruses, 00:13:24.000 --> 00:13:29.000 one of which is now called hepatitis C. 00:13:29.000 --> 00:13:38.000 So it's looking at the disease as a damaged particle rather than an infectious organism. 00:13:38.000 --> 00:13:39.000 Yeah. 00:13:39.000 --> 00:13:44.000 I think this is what Peter Guzburg is suggesting 00:13:44.000 --> 00:13:57.000 when he says that the retrovirus of HIV, for example, isn't known to be a cause of immunodeficiency, 00:13:57.000 --> 00:14:02.000 that he suggests that it's the result of chemical poisoning. 00:14:02.000 --> 00:14:07.000 And I remember reading about five years ago an article from Dr. Stefan Lanka 00:14:07.000 --> 00:14:17.000 who was also putting down the HIV hypothesis for-- or the viral hypothesis for HIV. 00:14:17.000 --> 00:14:20.000 Okay, so back to inflammation. 00:14:20.000 --> 00:14:24.000 In terms of the inflammatory process then, 00:14:24.000 --> 00:14:32.000 and how we-- or I understood it from school and from university studying physiology, 00:14:32.000 --> 00:14:40.000 how does the newer view or the older view, explained in a newer way, describe inflammation, 00:14:40.000 --> 00:14:43.000 and how does it differ? 00:14:43.000 --> 00:14:51.000 Well, if you look at the injury of the fetus, it heals without inflammation, 00:14:51.000 --> 00:14:56.000 and it doesn't produce a scar, and basically it's perfect healing. 00:14:56.000 --> 00:15:08.000 At a very early stage, you can split the embryo, and each part of the embryo will grow into a complete animal. 00:15:08.000 --> 00:15:17.000 But later in development, you can cut or otherwise injure a part of the fetus, 00:15:17.000 --> 00:15:25.000 and it simply zips itself shut, makes new cells, and doesn't leave a scar or inflammation. 00:15:25.000 --> 00:15:34.000 And it's after being born that inflammation as we know it occurs. 00:15:34.000 --> 00:15:37.000 We need to all crawl back into our mother's womb. 00:15:37.000 --> 00:15:41.000 Yeah, and there are two things that happen when we're born. 00:15:41.000 --> 00:15:51.000 One is our carbon dioxide exposure goes way down, and the oxygen availability increases greatly. 00:15:51.000 --> 00:15:56.000 So a shift away from carbon dioxide, which is anti-inflammatory. 00:15:56.000 --> 00:16:11.000 And at the same time, when we're no longer protected by the uterus and placenta, which act as a filter, 00:16:11.000 --> 00:16:25.000 and they let very little polyunsaturated fat in so that practically all newborns are considered deficient in the essential fatty acids, so-called. 00:16:25.000 --> 00:16:36.000 But these begin building up during childhood from practically any diet that we're exposed to, 00:16:36.000 --> 00:16:44.000 and that combined with the reduced availability of carbon dioxide, 00:16:44.000 --> 00:16:52.000 you can account for basically all of the features of inflammation and degeneration 00:16:52.000 --> 00:16:59.000 that are distinct from the prenatal healing process. 00:16:59.000 --> 00:17:09.000 We still have some of the features of prenatal healing, and they can be recovered to some extent. 00:17:09.000 --> 00:17:19.000 For example, if you pack a wound with sugar, it practically heals without a scar, 00:17:19.000 --> 00:17:27.000 and that's partly because it's not exactly approaching prenatal conditions, 00:17:27.000 --> 00:17:38.000 but it's giving an extremely generous supply of sugar, which can be used to make carbon dioxide. 00:17:38.000 --> 00:17:43.000 This is behind the Greeks using honey in deep wounds. 00:17:43.000 --> 00:17:51.000 And the sugar makes it unnecessary for the cells to metabolize any of the fatty acids, 00:17:51.000 --> 00:18:00.000 so that even if the organism has been eating them and integrating them into the tissue's presence of sugar, 00:18:00.000 --> 00:18:10.000 it makes it possible to energize and repair cells without drawing down more of these unsaturated fats, 00:18:10.000 --> 00:18:20.000 which produce all of the features that we know of as inflammation as distinct from healing. 00:18:20.000 --> 00:18:27.000 Just to summarize for some of our listeners, in case you haven't heard of polyunsaturated fat, 00:18:27.000 --> 00:18:34.000 these are liquid vegetable oils that are present in almost everybody's diet, 00:18:34.000 --> 00:18:41.000 and you can avoid them to some extent by avoiding any liquid vegetable oil apart from olive oil, 00:18:41.000 --> 00:18:48.000 and eating coconut oil and butter in place. 00:18:48.000 --> 00:18:55.000 Okay. For those listeners who've just joined, you're listening to Ask Your Herb Doctor on KMED, Garboville, 91.1 FM, 00:18:55.000 --> 00:19:00.000 and from 7.30 until the end of the show at 8 o'clock, you're invited to call in with any questions, 00:19:00.000 --> 00:19:04.000 either related or unrelated to this month's topic of inflammation. 00:19:04.000 --> 00:19:08.000 The number here, if you live in the area, is 923 3911, 00:19:08.000 --> 00:19:13.000 or if you live outside the area, the toll-free number is 1-800-KMUD-RAD. 00:19:13.000 --> 00:19:23.000 Okay. So, those two things then, the decrease in carbon dioxide and the increase in polyunsaturated fatty acids, 00:19:23.000 --> 00:19:30.000 if people started to increase their carbon dioxide content, 00:19:30.000 --> 00:19:35.000 I know we've mentioned in the past bag breathing as a very simple way to do that, 00:19:35.000 --> 00:19:40.000 and/or living at elevation, if that's possible. 00:19:40.000 --> 00:19:41.000 But a higher elevation. 00:19:41.000 --> 00:19:42.000 A higher elevation. 00:19:42.000 --> 00:19:46.000 And cutting out polyunsaturated fatty acids. 00:19:46.000 --> 00:19:57.000 What else could be done in a person to lessen their chance of the inflammation that might otherwise be generated? 00:19:57.000 --> 00:20:09.000 Another of the very basic things promoting inflammation rather than healing is the endotoxin from bacteria 00:20:09.000 --> 00:20:12.000 that can be absorbed into the bloodstream. 00:20:12.000 --> 00:20:13.000 Okay. 00:20:13.000 --> 00:20:23.000 And if your liver is well-nourished and well-energized, it can cut out practically 100% of the endotoxin. 00:20:23.000 --> 00:20:33.000 But if the intestine is stressed in any way, which can be nervous stress, 00:20:33.000 --> 00:20:39.000 increasing the adrenaline that cuts down the blood supply, 00:20:39.000 --> 00:20:46.000 the reduced blood supply does things like release histamine and serotonin, 00:20:46.000 --> 00:20:55.000 which make the intestine more permeable, letting more of the endotoxin get into the bloodstream. 00:20:55.000 --> 00:21:01.000 And the endotoxin does the same thing throughout the body. 00:21:01.000 --> 00:21:14.000 It increases the permeability, lowers the energy, and increases the inefficiency that shows up as inflammation 00:21:14.000 --> 00:21:29.000 in its various things such as swelling, turning red, local heating because of the high blood supply. 00:21:29.000 --> 00:21:31.000 Okay. 00:21:31.000 --> 00:21:38.000 So basically stress is a big killer along with other things that promote inflammation. 00:21:38.000 --> 00:21:43.000 I know for our listeners, I've just been thinking while Dr. Peat's been talking about stress, 00:21:43.000 --> 00:21:48.000 that there's lots of herbs that can help to de-stress you. 00:21:48.000 --> 00:21:57.000 I know thyroid is also something that can help your body work better and not run on so much adrenaline and stress hormones. 00:21:57.000 --> 00:22:03.000 And a lot of people who get extremely stressed are often running on adrenaline to keep their metabolism up 00:22:03.000 --> 00:22:06.000 rather than running on an adequate amount of thyroid. 00:22:06.000 --> 00:22:12.000 So, Dr. Peat, do you have anything else to add to how we can help minimize stress? 00:22:12.000 --> 00:22:19.000 Keeping the intestine as clean as possible, moving stuff along, 00:22:19.000 --> 00:22:31.000 raw carrots or bamboo shoots happen to be antiseptic vegetable material that doesn't feed the bacteria 00:22:31.000 --> 00:22:40.000 and tends to suppress the bacterial growth so that it doesn't come too far up the intestine. 00:22:40.000 --> 00:22:48.000 And they also bind the endotoxin and other chemicals that should be eliminated. 00:22:48.000 --> 00:22:57.000 If the intestine is sluggish, what the liver has excreted into the bile trying to get rid of 00:22:57.000 --> 00:23:02.000 will be reabsorbed farther down the intestine and come back to poison the liver. 00:23:02.000 --> 00:23:10.000 And if you keep a stream of good, clean material moving through, 00:23:10.000 --> 00:23:17.000 you can lower the toxins that should be excreted. 00:23:17.000 --> 00:23:22.000 And that would include unwanted hormones including estrogen, 00:23:22.000 --> 00:23:29.000 which the liver should be able to 100% eliminate as they reach the liver. 00:23:29.000 --> 00:23:41.000 And it will reduce the endotoxin and shift the serotonin and histamine 00:23:41.000 --> 00:23:47.000 such that it will also lower the cortisol production. 00:23:47.000 --> 00:23:59.000 And that total pattern will increase the good hormones, progesterone and testosterone, for example. 00:23:59.000 --> 00:24:02.000 And for those who might like a nice recipe, 00:24:02.000 --> 00:24:07.000 Dr. Peat suggested that if you add apple cider vinegar or lemon or lime juice 00:24:07.000 --> 00:24:11.000 to raw grated carrots with some salt and coconut oil or olive oil, 00:24:11.000 --> 00:24:19.000 that it's even more antimicrobial, antiviral, antibacterial, 00:24:19.000 --> 00:24:23.000 as well as antifungal with the apple cider vinegar. 00:24:23.000 --> 00:24:28.000 Dr. Peat, what do you think about using anti-inflammatories 00:24:28.000 --> 00:24:35.000 as another means to lower inflammation in addition to what we've talked about briefly for foods and avoiding foods? 00:24:35.000 --> 00:24:39.000 Some of them are very helpful. 00:24:39.000 --> 00:24:45.000 I mentioned that cleaning the intestine will lower the production of cortisol 00:24:45.000 --> 00:24:51.000 and raise the pregnenolone, testosterone and progesterone. 00:24:51.000 --> 00:24:58.000 These are natural, most powerful anti-inflammatory things to stabilize. 00:24:58.000 --> 00:25:08.000 The fetus is exposed to an extremely high concentration of progesterone until it's born. 00:25:08.000 --> 00:25:15.000 And so keeping our production of progesterone as high as possible 00:25:15.000 --> 00:25:22.000 can make a big difference in susceptibility to inflammation and degeneration. 00:25:22.000 --> 00:25:38.000 But aspirin and related things, a lot of fruit chemicals are similar to aspirin and have a protective effect. 00:25:38.000 --> 00:25:41.000 What particular fruit chemicals? 00:25:41.000 --> 00:25:49.000 I'm specifically thinking of neringen and neringen in oranges. 00:25:49.000 --> 00:25:53.000 Okay. Is that in grapefruits as well? 00:25:53.000 --> 00:26:00.000 There's another one in grapefruit that happens to poison an enzyme system in the liver, 00:26:00.000 --> 00:26:03.000 letting estrogen accumulate tremendously. 00:26:03.000 --> 00:26:08.000 And this is such a well-known medical fact that in Fortuna Maternity Ward, 00:26:08.000 --> 00:26:14.000 they say we no longer serve grapefruit juice to our pregnant mothers because it interferes with the hormones. 00:26:14.000 --> 00:26:20.000 They didn't specify that it blocked the P450 enzyme that helps the liver excrete excessively high 00:26:20.000 --> 00:26:23.000 or all of the excess estrogen. 00:26:23.000 --> 00:26:28.000 Okay, so neringen. And then is there anything else that you think of? 00:26:28.000 --> 00:26:29.000 No. 00:26:29.000 --> 00:26:35.000 Okay. Do you know, have you heard or have they done in the past? 00:26:35.000 --> 00:26:37.000 I can't imagine they haven't. 00:26:37.000 --> 00:26:44.000 But animal experiments, modeling after keeping the CO2 concentration high, 00:26:44.000 --> 00:26:52.000 keeping all the inflammatory products that would normally be associated with an animal's diet 00:26:52.000 --> 00:27:00.000 or their environment out and measuring different things to see how they performed or how long they lived. 00:27:00.000 --> 00:27:12.000 Oh, yeah. About 70 years ago, people were noticing that food restriction could increase lifespan 30 or 40 percent. 00:27:12.000 --> 00:27:21.000 Then it has gone through phases in which they saw that this could happen in even adult animals 00:27:21.000 --> 00:27:27.000 could live longer and healthier by reducing the food intake. 00:27:27.000 --> 00:27:32.000 But then they started trying different specific foods. 00:27:32.000 --> 00:27:42.000 And it happens that the foods which are eliminated are those which produce inflammation in various ways. 00:27:42.000 --> 00:27:51.000 For example, the polyunsaturated fats and the amino acids that contribute to inflammation, 00:27:51.000 --> 00:28:05.000 such as tryptophan and methionine. Just eliminating one of these will increase longevity about 30 or 40 percent in animal studies. 00:28:05.000 --> 00:28:06.000 Okay. 00:28:06.000 --> 00:28:10.000 Wow, that's a lot, 30 to 40 percent. 00:28:10.000 --> 00:28:16.000 So these Indians that live to 120 years of age, live in the Himalayas. 00:28:16.000 --> 00:28:24.000 I mean, the Andes, sorry, excuse me. Are they just not eating any polyunsaturated oils? 00:28:24.000 --> 00:28:26.000 Do you know anything about that? 00:28:26.000 --> 00:28:36.000 At high altitudes, all of these long-lived cultures in South America and the Caucasus and Nepal, 00:28:36.000 --> 00:28:44.000 they all lived at fairly high altitudes and were surrounded by glaciers in most of the cases 00:28:44.000 --> 00:28:54.000 so that they were drinking water that was fairly recently high-altitude snow, 00:28:54.000 --> 00:29:00.000 which happens to be isotopically different from sea-level water. 00:29:00.000 --> 00:29:10.000 It's been refined by a repeated distillation as it rains out going to higher and higher altitudes. 00:29:10.000 --> 00:29:22.000 It becomes metabolically stimulating light water, where average water contains some of the metabolic-flowing heavy water. 00:29:22.000 --> 00:29:32.000 But at the same time, the atmosphere at high altitudes is very low in oxygen, 00:29:32.000 --> 00:29:38.000 and so people retain more carbon dioxide in their tissues. 00:29:38.000 --> 00:29:44.000 That's another resemblance of the prenatal condition. 00:29:44.000 --> 00:29:48.000 And generally, they are sheep farmers. 00:29:48.000 --> 00:29:53.000 Sheep can live at relatively high altitudes, 00:29:53.000 --> 00:30:07.000 and so they tend to either eat vegetables, fruits, or cheese, lots of cheese and milk-related dishes. 00:30:07.000 --> 00:30:10.000 That's very interesting. 00:30:10.000 --> 00:30:16.000 The thing about the rainwater, that's pretty interesting. 00:30:16.000 --> 00:30:24.000 I know from an alchemical perspective, the first prerequisite is to distill water seven times to be used in experiments, 00:30:24.000 --> 00:30:29.000 because the alchemists always believe that each successive distillation raises the energy of the water. 00:30:29.000 --> 00:30:37.000 I've read an article about storm water, water that was only collected during electrical storms. 00:30:37.000 --> 00:30:42.000 I did read an article about water, because many, many years ago, 00:30:42.000 --> 00:30:46.000 I never thought there was any difference between regular water, tap water, or whatever. 00:30:46.000 --> 00:30:48.000 It was all water to me. It was all H2O. 00:30:48.000 --> 00:30:53.000 But it's actually very different, and a lot of papers have been written on the subject of water 00:30:53.000 --> 00:30:59.000 and how different energetically they are and what difference they make in the body 00:30:59.000 --> 00:31:05.000 and how available the water is to the body and to the cell. 00:31:05.000 --> 00:31:14.000 In the 1930s, when they first made isotopically heavy water with deuterium replacing hydrogen, 00:31:14.000 --> 00:31:22.000 they found that it slowed biological processes, the daily rhythm, nerve conduction. 00:31:22.000 --> 00:31:31.000 In 1950, they showed in mouse experiments that it tremendously accelerated the aging process, 00:31:31.000 --> 00:31:38.000 all of the features of aging, slowing metabolism, and dying prematurely were produced. 00:31:38.000 --> 00:31:47.000 But it took about 50 years after that before people started experimenting with the light water 00:31:47.000 --> 00:31:50.000 from which the heavy water had been removed. 00:31:50.000 --> 00:31:57.000 And they found that, for example, they were experimenting with it in Russian space vehicles, 00:31:57.000 --> 00:32:03.000 and they found that the condensed sweat had been filtered, 00:32:03.000 --> 00:32:09.000 and it was a very light water resembling glacier water. 00:32:09.000 --> 00:32:13.000 So what water do you recommend people drink, Dr. Peat? Do you have one? 00:32:13.000 --> 00:32:17.000 No. You have to go to a senior at Glacier. 00:32:17.000 --> 00:32:21.000 Okay, so you have to go 15,000 feet in, right? 00:32:21.000 --> 00:32:24.000 This is probably why they bottled glacial water, right? 00:32:24.000 --> 00:32:26.000 Yeah, if it really is that. 00:32:26.000 --> 00:32:38.000 It happens that some plants will absorb the water at high altitudes and concentrate it even more. 00:32:38.000 --> 00:32:45.000 Sugar beets, for example, intrinsically eliminate deuterons, 00:32:45.000 --> 00:32:50.000 and so they have light hydrogen incorporated into their tissues. 00:32:50.000 --> 00:32:58.000 If they grow in Colorado at a high altitude where they're getting already refined water, 00:32:58.000 --> 00:33:03.000 then the beet sugar contains the equivalent of glacier water. 00:33:03.000 --> 00:33:05.000 Wow. Cool. 00:33:05.000 --> 00:33:11.000 I wonder what kind of altitude beet stops growing at, though, because I don't know. 00:33:11.000 --> 00:33:13.000 It's not that cold-hardy, is it? 00:33:13.000 --> 00:33:18.000 Yeah, they're fairly cold-hardy, but I don't know the altitude limit. 00:33:18.000 --> 00:33:20.000 Okay, well, you're listening to Ask Your Herb Doctor. 00:33:20.000 --> 00:33:25.000 From now until the end of the show, you're invited to call in with any questions 00:33:25.000 --> 00:33:28.000 either related or unrelated to this month's topic of inflammation, 00:33:28.000 --> 00:33:31.000 and our guest speaker is Dr. Raymond Peat. 00:33:31.000 --> 00:33:34.000 Okay, so until people start calling. 00:33:34.000 --> 00:33:41.000 The cell communication thing is quite interesting to me in terms of, I think, when people-- 00:33:41.000 --> 00:33:48.000 when we were taught physiology, we were taught about phagocytic activity, engulfing cells, 00:33:48.000 --> 00:33:57.000 and cell-drinking activities, and I understand that these descriptions are not that accurate. 00:33:57.000 --> 00:34:04.000 The language with which it's been described is pretty erroneous, if you like, to use a better word. 00:34:04.000 --> 00:34:09.000 What do you think about, in the context of what you understand, cell communication, 00:34:09.000 --> 00:34:14.000 cell-to-cell communication? 00:34:14.000 --> 00:34:27.000 I think it works on many different levels, but I think the important one has been sketched out 00:34:27.000 --> 00:34:37.000 by starting with people like Albert Szent-Györgyi, who demonstrated that cells, muscle systems, 00:34:37.000 --> 00:34:52.000 and secretory systems and such are tuned electronically to the properties of the molecule that are-- 00:34:52.000 --> 00:34:56.000 they talk about them as quantum chemical features, 00:34:56.000 --> 00:35:03.000 but it's just the way the electrons resonate in the particular molecules, 00:35:03.000 --> 00:35:11.000 and that's because the whole cell is tuned to resonate to certain substances. 00:35:11.000 --> 00:35:17.000 There's a recent lecture by--I think his name is Luca Turin, 00:35:17.000 --> 00:35:20.000 a Google lecture on pharmacology, 00:35:20.000 --> 00:35:28.000 but it is showing the current vitality of that idea of Albert Szent-Györgyi, 00:35:28.000 --> 00:35:40.000 another person, May Wan Ho, has a website talking about the coherence of an organism, 00:35:40.000 --> 00:35:49.000 and her website has a picture of a worm made through a polarizing microscope 00:35:49.000 --> 00:35:59.000 showing that there is coherence on the atomic level all the way through the little worm. 00:35:59.000 --> 00:36:06.000 I think that kind of coherence, electronic or chemical and electrical interaction, 00:36:06.000 --> 00:36:11.000 is at the basis of such things as cell recognition. 00:36:11.000 --> 00:36:22.000 There are the lock and key processes, enzyme, substrate, and antibody, antigen recognition, 00:36:22.000 --> 00:36:34.000 but the important things for communicating between cells, I think, are a whole step beyond the lock and key. 00:36:34.000 --> 00:36:38.000 Okay, before we go any further with that, I know there's a couple of callers on the line. 00:36:38.000 --> 00:36:40.000 At least there's one on the line for sure. 00:36:40.000 --> 00:36:41.000 Paula, you're on the air? 00:36:41.000 --> 00:36:42.000 Hi. 00:36:42.000 --> 00:36:43.000 Hi, good evening. 00:36:43.000 --> 00:36:44.000 I have two questions. 00:36:44.000 --> 00:36:50.000 One is if you and Sarah could give a phone number to contact you. 00:36:50.000 --> 00:36:54.000 And my other question is for Dr. Peat. 00:36:54.000 --> 00:36:58.000 I've been doing the carrot thing, and this is very interesting to me. 00:36:58.000 --> 00:37:00.000 I'm just fascinated with it. 00:37:00.000 --> 00:37:08.000 But I have an unrelated question, and that is I've been getting off of Prozac that I took for many years, 00:37:08.000 --> 00:37:15.000 and I'm having all of what they call discontinuation syndrome, which I would call drug withdrawal, 00:37:15.000 --> 00:37:20.000 but, you know, like agitation and sweating and so on. 00:37:20.000 --> 00:37:28.000 And I was wondering, are there herbs that one can take to help alleviate that discomfort while it's going on? 00:37:28.000 --> 00:37:36.000 Yes, yes, there are herbs that you can take to help alleviate the discomfort of withdrawing from Prozac. 00:37:36.000 --> 00:37:45.000 I was doing it partly because I'm worried about the influence of the serotonin uptake inhibitors on my bone structure. 00:37:45.000 --> 00:37:46.000 Right. 00:37:46.000 --> 00:37:49.000 I remember you called before and Dr. Peat had said -- 00:37:49.000 --> 00:37:50.000 Right, right. 00:37:50.000 --> 00:37:52.000 So I'm well into it, and I'm surviving, but I was wondering -- 00:37:52.000 --> 00:37:53.000 Well done. 00:37:53.000 --> 00:37:56.000 Dr. Peat, do you have any recommendations? 00:37:56.000 --> 00:38:08.000 Yeah, the good effect of those serotonin uptake inhibitors, I think it's really other things, not at all serotonin. 00:38:08.000 --> 00:38:11.000 I think it's in spite of the serotonin. 00:38:11.000 --> 00:38:17.000 And if you look at the history of serotonin, you see that in the 1950s, 00:38:17.000 --> 00:38:28.000 it was discovered to be what makes the carcinoid syndrome or the carcinoid tumor so bad. 00:38:28.000 --> 00:38:39.000 And the tumor itself, instead of turning almost all of our dietary tryptophan into niacin, 00:38:39.000 --> 00:38:47.000 these tumors turn the bulk of it, more than half of it, into serotonin. 00:38:47.000 --> 00:38:49.000 And so they flood us. 00:38:49.000 --> 00:38:51.000 They're worse than Prozac. 00:38:51.000 --> 00:38:59.000 And the features well-defined for this massive overdosing of serotonin 00:38:59.000 --> 00:39:05.000 are a good insight into what's going on with the drug industry. 00:39:05.000 --> 00:39:15.000 The people flushed, became depressed, anxious, and aggressive under the influence of serotonin. 00:39:15.000 --> 00:39:25.000 They developed arthritic pains, a whole range of inflammatory degenerative symptoms. 00:39:25.000 --> 00:39:29.000 The skin would eventually thicken. 00:39:29.000 --> 00:39:32.000 Heart valves would become fibrotic. 00:39:32.000 --> 00:39:39.000 And these are things that are now being seen associated with the uptake inhibitors, 00:39:39.000 --> 00:39:45.000 osteoporosis, heart disease, breast cancer, obesity. 00:39:45.000 --> 00:39:47.000 And here serotonin is the supposed good guy, 00:39:47.000 --> 00:39:51.000 and it's just another mediator of inflammatory responses. 00:39:51.000 --> 00:39:56.000 Well, I don't think it's that good because getting off of it is really awful. 00:39:56.000 --> 00:40:00.000 It must have been doing something else besides making me feel a little better. 00:40:00.000 --> 00:40:04.000 There are good ways to get off. 00:40:04.000 --> 00:40:10.000 I think pregnenolone, thyroid, and coffee are very helpful. 00:40:10.000 --> 00:40:12.000 Coffee? 00:40:12.000 --> 00:40:16.000 Yeah, you have to adjust to the coffee, 00:40:16.000 --> 00:40:26.000 but it goes with thyroid, sugar, progesterone, and so on as part of an anti-inflammatory system. 00:40:26.000 --> 00:40:31.000 When we were talking about the anti-inflammatory substances, 00:40:31.000 --> 00:40:35.000 I should have mentioned caffeine as one of them. 00:40:35.000 --> 00:40:40.000 And also, too, with caffeine, if you're already running on a lot of adrenaline 00:40:40.000 --> 00:40:46.000 and you get very low blood sugar, if you drink caffeine, that can worsen the symptoms. 00:40:46.000 --> 00:40:54.000 But if you restock your liver's glycogen stores through eating sugars 00:40:54.000 --> 00:40:59.000 that are lower glycemic index, but more importantly, non-starchy sugars, 00:40:59.000 --> 00:41:06.000 then your body will not respond to the adrenaline like it would if you were very low blood sugar. 00:41:06.000 --> 00:41:10.000 So that's a process of adapting. 00:41:10.000 --> 00:41:14.000 Great. Now, could you give me a contact number for you and Andrew? 00:41:14.000 --> 00:41:17.000 Yes. Are you within the 707 area? 00:41:17.000 --> 00:41:21.000 Yes, I am. I'm in Laytonville, so I'm not that far away. 00:41:21.000 --> 00:41:33.000 Okay. So it's 986-9506 and extension 2 to ask questions, extension 3 to set up a consultation. 00:41:33.000 --> 00:41:35.000 Oh, okay. And you're in Garberville, right? 00:41:35.000 --> 00:41:37.000 Yes. Our clinic is located in Garberville. 00:41:37.000 --> 00:41:42.000 Okay. I just couldn't find you in the phone book, so I thought this month I'm going to get your phone number. 00:41:42.000 --> 00:41:46.000 Thank you so much, and thank you, Dr. Peat. I'm reading things on your website. 00:41:46.000 --> 00:41:48.000 It's so informative. Thank you. 00:41:48.000 --> 00:41:50.000 Thank you for your call. 00:41:50.000 --> 00:41:53.000 Thank you. Okay. I think, is there another caller? 00:41:53.000 --> 00:41:59.000 Well, someone had a question about Arnica, how it works, and how to use it. 00:41:59.000 --> 00:42:00.000 Okay. 00:42:00.000 --> 00:42:08.000 So Arnica is a very anti-inflammatory flower, and you really need to have an oil made from Arnica. 00:42:08.000 --> 00:42:12.000 You'd want to make a macerated oil, and this is how we make it. 00:42:12.000 --> 00:42:17.000 And then we don't actually sell it to stores for retail like we do our herbal tinctures. 00:42:17.000 --> 00:42:18.000 Does it grow around here? 00:42:18.000 --> 00:42:19.000 No. 00:42:19.000 --> 00:42:22.000 No, it grows at high elevations. I mean, I imagine it grows-- 00:42:22.000 --> 00:42:23.000 European Alps is-- 00:42:23.000 --> 00:42:25.000 Well, and also in Montana. 00:42:25.000 --> 00:42:26.000 Yeah. 00:42:26.000 --> 00:42:28.000 It's Arnica Montana is the Latin name. 00:42:28.000 --> 00:42:29.000 But it doesn't grow around here. 00:42:29.000 --> 00:42:33.000 I don't know if you could get it to grow around here because it is such a high elevation plant. 00:42:33.000 --> 00:42:38.000 Yeah. I think the strict sense of the word Montana is mountain. 00:42:38.000 --> 00:42:39.000 Well-- 00:42:39.000 --> 00:42:40.000 [Laughter] 00:42:40.000 --> 00:42:42.000 I thought it did grow in the U.S. 00:42:42.000 --> 00:42:46.000 Well, no, maybe up in Montana there's lots of mountains up there, so it's definitely not-- 00:42:46.000 --> 00:42:49.000 I thought it did grow in the mountainous United States. 00:42:49.000 --> 00:42:54.000 Anyways, we can check on that and see if I'm right or wrong here on the Montana. 00:42:54.000 --> 00:43:01.000 But you want to make a heat maceration in order to extract the anti-inflammatory compounds, 00:43:01.000 --> 00:43:03.000 and you don't want to take it internally. 00:43:03.000 --> 00:43:05.000 I definitely don't recommend you take it internally, 00:43:05.000 --> 00:43:11.000 but it can really help to alleviate bruises and tendon sprains and tears 00:43:11.000 --> 00:43:16.000 just by rubbing the oil on the affected area immediately after the injury. 00:43:16.000 --> 00:43:19.000 It works really, really well. 00:43:19.000 --> 00:43:21.000 I've seen lots of evidence for it myself. 00:43:21.000 --> 00:43:24.000 It's one of those-- How does it do that? 00:43:24.000 --> 00:43:26.000 How does it stop the inflammation? 00:43:26.000 --> 00:43:31.000 Maybe Dr. Peat understands the physiological effects of Arnica. I don't know. 00:43:31.000 --> 00:43:32.000 No. 00:43:32.000 --> 00:43:34.000 Okay. All right. 00:43:34.000 --> 00:43:36.000 Okay, so that's that one. There's no more questions. Okay, so-- 00:43:36.000 --> 00:43:42.000 Dr. Peat, I wanted to ask you about the cells' communication from one cell to another. 00:43:42.000 --> 00:43:44.000 You were talking how they can communicate to each other, 00:43:44.000 --> 00:43:54.000 and I think there is also a study that you mentioned to me about cells communicating even through, like, a piece of plastic. 00:43:54.000 --> 00:44:02.000 Yeah, that was-- The Gerbichs in the 1920s and '30s were demonstrating that. 00:44:02.000 --> 00:44:08.000 If you used quartz that passes certain frequencies of ultraviolet, 00:44:08.000 --> 00:44:16.000 they demonstrated that cells could stimulate cell division across the thin sheet of quartz, 00:44:16.000 --> 00:44:28.000 and that is being taken up again in the last 10 years, more people demonstrating coherence. 00:44:28.000 --> 00:44:32.000 There are variations on that. 00:44:32.000 --> 00:44:41.000 One person is arguing and demonstrating that cells sense and respond to infrared frequencies, 00:44:41.000 --> 00:44:50.000 but most of the work is in the ultraviolet frequency of communication. 00:44:50.000 --> 00:44:52.000 Okay. Excuse me. 00:44:52.000 --> 00:44:59.000 You mentioned May Wan Ho and then the other person was Albert Szent-Györgyi. 00:44:59.000 --> 00:45:00.000 Could you spell his name, please? 00:45:00.000 --> 00:45:08.000 Szent-Györgyi, S-Z-E-N-T hyphen G-Y-O-R-G-Y-I. 00:45:08.000 --> 00:45:11.000 Okay, Szent-Györgyi. Okay, good. 00:45:11.000 --> 00:45:19.000 Okay, so the main thing in our bodies is that everything communicates properly. 00:45:19.000 --> 00:45:24.000 It's when things don't communicate properly that the problems occur. 00:45:24.000 --> 00:45:30.000 So in terms of-- I know you've mentioned before from an energetic point of view, 00:45:30.000 --> 00:45:38.000 the use of thyroid hormone or improving your diet to improve your own hormone thyroid function, 00:45:38.000 --> 00:45:45.000 that communication is benefited by a higher energy, and that's the function of thyroid. 00:45:45.000 --> 00:45:54.000 Yes, the carbon dioxide is one of the sort of a hormone of metabolism. 00:45:54.000 --> 00:46:01.000 It acts like a universal hormone, keeping everything in the optimal condition. 00:46:01.000 --> 00:46:13.000 For example, it holds histamine and serotonin in a bound position, holds calcium in a bound position. 00:46:13.000 --> 00:46:23.000 So if you just hyperventilate and lower your CO2 within a minute, your platelets, for example, 00:46:23.000 --> 00:46:29.000 which carry most of the serotonin in your blood in a harmless state, 00:46:29.000 --> 00:46:37.000 just a minute of hyperventilation will cause the platelets to release the serotonin 00:46:37.000 --> 00:46:45.000 and immediately cause capillaries to become permeable, leaking fluid out into your lungs. 00:46:45.000 --> 00:46:50.000 So you can create pulmonary edema with a minute of hyperventilation 00:46:50.000 --> 00:46:54.000 just because you've messed up the carbon dioxide concentration. 00:46:54.000 --> 00:46:58.000 Okay. Wow. Okay, pretty dangerous, huh? 00:46:58.000 --> 00:47:01.000 Okay, back to retroviruses a little bit. 00:47:01.000 --> 00:47:07.000 Because this, again, is something that I've not been familiar with at all. 00:47:07.000 --> 00:47:14.000 I think the way that we're indoctrinated with the way things are supposed to be is that 00:47:14.000 --> 00:47:17.000 all these little things are viruses, they exist, and they're all different, 00:47:17.000 --> 00:47:20.000 and they all cause different problems. 00:47:20.000 --> 00:47:28.000 Are you saying that ultimately we coexist with a wide range of retroviruses, 00:47:28.000 --> 00:47:33.000 none of which normally give us any problem until some other insult? 00:47:33.000 --> 00:47:38.000 Yeah, I think Duisburg said we all contain hundreds of them. 00:47:38.000 --> 00:47:46.000 And we do--when there's an injury to the tissue, we do form antibodies, 00:47:46.000 --> 00:47:52.000 and some people will say that's evidence that they're an alien thing. 00:47:52.000 --> 00:47:59.000 But many years ago, someone did an experiment, I think it was rabbit cartilage. 00:47:59.000 --> 00:48:03.000 They removed a piece of cartilage, 00:48:03.000 --> 00:48:12.000 and they would replace the untampered with cartilage in one group of rabbits, 00:48:12.000 --> 00:48:17.000 and it would just--it didn't produce any reaction. 00:48:17.000 --> 00:48:24.000 But if they twisted the cartilage just enough to damage the structure, 00:48:24.000 --> 00:48:29.000 just as you would if you fell and twisted your knee or something, 00:48:29.000 --> 00:48:32.000 when they put that one back in the same rabbit, 00:48:32.000 --> 00:48:39.000 it produced--the rabbit produced antibodies to it like it was an alien thing. 00:48:39.000 --> 00:48:45.000 But what that means about antibodies in the case of our antibodies to retroviruses 00:48:45.000 --> 00:48:52.000 or whatever is that they're a part of a cleanup process. 00:48:52.000 --> 00:49:00.000 Something is disturbed, the antibodies are part of preparing the situation 00:49:00.000 --> 00:49:06.000 for our phagocytes to go in and remove the damaged material. 00:49:06.000 --> 00:49:08.000 Okay. 00:49:08.000 --> 00:49:14.000 So we're looking at the immune system instead of this killer attack system 00:49:14.000 --> 00:49:17.000 that just kills and attacks all these different bugs. 00:49:17.000 --> 00:49:21.000 Perhaps it's just a rearranging--a house cleaner just goes in there, 00:49:21.000 --> 00:49:25.000 and it just cleans and mops up this little bit of damage here 00:49:25.000 --> 00:49:28.000 from the milk that's spilt on the floor. 00:49:28.000 --> 00:49:34.000 Just fairly recently, someone showed that in a traumatic brain injury, 00:49:34.000 --> 00:49:41.000 the presence of antibodies to the injured tissue corresponds to the healing. 00:49:41.000 --> 00:49:46.000 The absence of the antibodies lets the tissue deteriorate, 00:49:46.000 --> 00:49:51.000 so it's pretty well established that it's a cleanup process. 00:49:51.000 --> 00:49:59.000 And in the thyroid, people think about autoimmune antibodies as causing the problem, 00:49:59.000 --> 00:50:08.000 but just an excess of thyroid-stimulating hormone because something is blocking the function, 00:50:08.000 --> 00:50:15.000 the pituitary increases its drive against the thyroid gland, 00:50:15.000 --> 00:50:21.000 and that overstimulation causes something like inflammation, 00:50:21.000 --> 00:50:29.000 and the body is cleaning up the damaged or stressed thyroid cells when it produces antibodies. 00:50:29.000 --> 00:50:34.000 And so if you keep the thyroid-stimulating hormone low enough, 00:50:34.000 --> 00:50:40.000 the cleanup will proceed and the antibodies will disappear. 00:50:40.000 --> 00:50:46.000 Wow. It's very different to current thinking and what we're all told is the way it is 00:50:46.000 --> 00:50:50.000 so that I guess drug companies can sell their drugs. 00:50:50.000 --> 00:50:54.000 It's probably--I don't mean to be cynical, but there's probably some truth in it for sure. 00:50:54.000 --> 00:50:56.000 Okay, for those of you who are listening, 00:50:56.000 --> 00:51:00.000 you're listening to Ask Your Ob-Doctor on KMU Decalvo, 91.1 FM. 00:51:00.000 --> 00:51:05.000 And from now until the end of the show at 8 o'clock, the next, oh, at least seven minutes, 00:51:05.000 --> 00:51:07.000 people are invited to call and have any questions. 00:51:07.000 --> 00:51:09.000 We do have Dr. Raymond Peat here. 00:51:09.000 --> 00:51:15.000 He's a very well-published scientist and researcher, and we're very pleased to have him on the show. 00:51:15.000 --> 00:51:18.000 We've been talking about inflammation and the role of inflammation 00:51:18.000 --> 00:51:24.000 and all the things that can cause inflammation and how to help yourself. 00:51:24.000 --> 00:51:28.000 Getting back to--in case we get any--we don't get any calls. 00:51:28.000 --> 00:51:33.000 So look out. We have a caller, I think. 00:51:33.000 --> 00:51:36.000 Are you on the air? Hello? 00:51:36.000 --> 00:51:37.000 Hi. 00:51:37.000 --> 00:51:38.000 Hi. You're on the air. 00:51:38.000 --> 00:51:41.000 Thanks. I'm sorry. I tuned in about midway through. 00:51:41.000 --> 00:51:45.000 I'm not sure if you've covered this, but I'm interested in your thoughts on eczema 00:51:45.000 --> 00:51:53.000 and relationship to leaky gut and digestive stuff. 00:51:53.000 --> 00:51:56.000 Okay. Dr. Peat, what's your view on eczema? 00:51:56.000 --> 00:51:57.000 Say it again. I didn't hear. 00:51:57.000 --> 00:52:02.000 The lady was asking about eczema in relation to leaky gut and/or-- 00:52:02.000 --> 00:52:11.000 Well, the celiac disease is one of the causes of both skin disease and arthritis. 00:52:11.000 --> 00:52:18.000 The celiac disease, among other things, will allow endotoxin into your circulation. 00:52:18.000 --> 00:52:19.000 Right. 00:52:19.000 --> 00:52:29.000 And low thyroid is probably the most common thing associated with just ordinary eczema. 00:52:29.000 --> 00:52:36.000 And that's because when your thyroid is low, the circulation to your intestine is poor, 00:52:36.000 --> 00:52:48.000 the serotonin is high, and this combination of endotoxin and serotonin, for example, 00:52:48.000 --> 00:52:55.000 cause the skin to have abnormal growth patterns. 00:52:55.000 --> 00:52:58.000 Would psoriasis then be in the same category? 00:52:58.000 --> 00:52:59.000 I think so. 00:52:59.000 --> 00:53:00.000 That's so interesting. 00:53:00.000 --> 00:53:07.000 And that's why when people who have eczema and psoriasis take liver herbs like dandelion and burdock, 00:53:07.000 --> 00:53:09.000 that they notice an improvement. 00:53:09.000 --> 00:53:13.000 It's generally not enough to cure them, but they do notice an improvement. 00:53:13.000 --> 00:53:21.000 The curative effect has to be more of a combination of looking at the whole system like the thyroid and the diet 00:53:21.000 --> 00:53:24.000 and how that influences an overall inflammation. 00:53:24.000 --> 00:53:30.000 But working on the digestive tract definitely makes a big difference with eczema and psoriasis. 00:53:30.000 --> 00:53:31.000 Thank you. 00:53:31.000 --> 00:53:34.000 And can I ask one more question in relationship to the celiac disease? 00:53:34.000 --> 00:53:35.000 Sure. 00:53:35.000 --> 00:53:45.000 Do you think the tests that test you for gluten allergies are good? 00:53:45.000 --> 00:53:46.000 Accurate? 00:53:46.000 --> 00:53:48.000 Yeah, accurate. 00:53:48.000 --> 00:53:50.000 Dr. Peat, did you hear that question? 00:53:50.000 --> 00:54:01.000 Well, they can very clearly demonstrate the enzymes involved in it, 00:54:01.000 --> 00:54:07.000 but I think gluten is toxic in itself to anyone. 00:54:07.000 --> 00:54:13.000 It's just that some people are more resistant to it. 00:54:13.000 --> 00:54:24.000 It has an overlap with the transglutaminase enzyme, which is -- there's a lot of it in the skin and in the intestine, 00:54:24.000 --> 00:54:29.000 and it happens to be an enzyme that's activated by estrogen. 00:54:29.000 --> 00:54:34.000 And I think that's why women have more of a problem with it, 00:54:34.000 --> 00:54:42.000 but it isn't that it's some particular disease. 00:54:42.000 --> 00:54:52.000 It's that gluten is just absolutely not intended as a food. 00:54:52.000 --> 00:54:59.000 The seeds create the protein and gluten as a storage form, 00:54:59.000 --> 00:55:06.000 but also as a byproduct it discourages animals from eating it 00:55:06.000 --> 00:55:14.000 because it contains these amino acids that contribute to inflammation. 00:55:14.000 --> 00:55:18.000 So the seed intends it to cause inflammation in your intestine, 00:55:18.000 --> 00:55:23.000 and a very tough person can withstand it for a long time, 00:55:23.000 --> 00:55:27.000 but it's not a good idea for anyone to eat it. 00:55:27.000 --> 00:55:32.000 And traditionally, Europeans ate bread, but it was always soured, 00:55:32.000 --> 00:55:36.000 and the actual souring process does change the gluten into a less allergenic form, 00:55:36.000 --> 00:55:41.000 although some people still react adversely to it. 00:55:41.000 --> 00:55:47.000 And soaking it for 12 hours or so increases the protein value tremendously 00:55:47.000 --> 00:55:50.000 while destroying the gluten. 00:55:50.000 --> 00:55:56.000 So soaking your grains before making the bread 00:55:56.000 --> 00:55:59.000 and then also souring them for 12 hours. 00:55:59.000 --> 00:56:03.000 You know, bread now, sourdough bread is risen in 3 or 4 hours. 00:56:03.000 --> 00:56:06.000 If that, maybe even 1 or 2. 00:56:06.000 --> 00:56:09.000 I asked a baker and he said 20 minutes. 00:56:09.000 --> 00:56:10.000 Wow. 00:56:10.000 --> 00:56:15.000 And that's not enough time for the cultures in the starter 00:56:15.000 --> 00:56:19.000 to actually break down the gluten and change it into a much less allergenic form. 00:56:19.000 --> 00:56:23.000 So traditionally, we never ate bread products like we do today. 00:56:23.000 --> 00:56:28.000 And in fact, a lot of the European cake recipes don't even call for flour 00:56:28.000 --> 00:56:34.000 because flour was a highly prized possession to have in Europe, 00:56:34.000 --> 00:56:41.000 and most of the cakes and desserts were made with eggs and milk and sugar and not flour. 00:56:41.000 --> 00:56:46.000 And now, the rules have switched, but I know we're running out of time now. 00:56:46.000 --> 00:56:51.000 I mean, sorry, values have switched, and flour is cheap, and butter and eggs are expensive. 00:56:51.000 --> 00:56:53.000 Well, we are coming to the end of the show now. 00:56:53.000 --> 00:56:55.000 We've only got a couple of minutes left, 00:56:55.000 --> 00:56:59.000 and I don't want to rush the information that we'd like you to know about Dr. Peat's website. 00:56:59.000 --> 00:57:04.000 So thank you so much again for joining us, Dr. Peat, and sharing all of your knowledge with us. 00:57:04.000 --> 00:57:05.000 Okay. 00:57:05.000 --> 00:57:07.000 Thank you, Dr. Peat. 00:57:07.000 --> 00:57:12.000 For all of those people that have listened, Dr. Raymond Peat's got a very good website 00:57:12.000 --> 00:57:17.000 with a pretty extensive list of referenced material on many different subjects, 00:57:17.000 --> 00:57:26.000 from thyroid to progesterone and other related hormones to the fish oil experiments and many, many other things. 00:57:26.000 --> 00:57:32.000 So do take a look. His website is www.raypeat.com. 00:57:32.000 --> 00:57:35.000 And that's the R-A-Y-P-E-A-T. 00:57:35.000 --> 00:57:37.000 And guess what? He's not selling anything. 00:57:37.000 --> 00:57:40.000 Okay, very good information, well-researched. 00:57:40.000 --> 00:57:42.000 Yeah, can't say enough good things about him. 00:57:42.000 --> 00:57:47.000 And I've seen a lot of very positive situations turn around using his advice. 00:57:47.000 --> 00:57:49.000 So thank you very much. 00:57:49.000 --> 00:57:53.000 And we did have one last caller who wanted to caution people that I assume from her own experience 00:57:53.000 --> 00:57:58.000 that soaking the wheat does not take care of her allergy issues. 00:57:58.000 --> 00:57:59.000 Okay. 00:57:59.000 --> 00:58:00.000 Be warned. 00:58:00.000 --> 00:58:06.000 No, definitely a lot of people still have difficulty eating grain products, 00:58:06.000 --> 00:58:13.000 not just wheat and gluten-containing grains, but a lot of different grain products, even with soaking. 00:58:13.000 --> 00:58:17.000 Probably the main reason is because of the effects they have on the intestines. 00:58:17.000 --> 00:58:19.000 Maybe we can cover that in the next show. 00:58:19.000 --> 00:58:25.000 But we can be reached, Andrew and myself, Sarah, can be reached, like I gave my number out before, 00:58:25.000 --> 00:58:35.000 707-986-9506 or toll-free 888-926-4372. 00:58:35.000 --> 00:58:42.000 And the acronym for that is WBM Herb, Western Botanical Medicine, WBM Herb, H-E-R-B. 00:58:42.000 --> 00:58:45.000 For further consultations or more information. 00:58:45.000 --> 00:58:47.000 Thank you. 00:58:47.000 --> 00:58:48.000 And thank you and good night. 00:58:48.000 --> 00:58:49.000 Now, happy New Year to you. 00:58:49.000 --> 00:58:50.000 It's 2011. 00:58:50.000 --> 00:58:53.000 Hopefully it's going to go on for a bit longer. 00:58:53.000 --> 00:58:55.000 Well, we could talk about that later, too. 00:58:55.000 --> 00:58:56.000 Okay. 00:58:56.000 --> 00:58:57.000 Have a good night. 00:58:57.000 --> 00:58:58.000 Thank you. 00:58:58.000 --> 00:58:59.000 Thank you for listening. 00:59:00.000 --> 00:59:03.000 [Music] 00:59:03.000 --> 00:59:06.000 [Music] 00:59:07.000 --> 00:59:10.000 [Music] 00:59:35.000 --> 00:59:38.000 [Music] 00:59:38.000 --> 00:59:41.000 [Music] 00:59:41.000 --> 00:59:52.000 [Music] 01:00:05.000 --> 01:00:08.000 [Music] 01:00:08.000 --> 01:00:29.000 It is 8 o'clock and you are tuned in to the greatest radio station on the planet, 01:00:29.000 --> 01:00:32.000 and that is Redwood Community Radio. 01:00:32.000 --> 01:00:37.000 Please remember that this program is supported by the listener members of Redwood Community Radio. 01:00:37.000 --> 01:00:44.000 If you like what you hear, please consider becoming a member of KMUD or renewing if you've already joined. 01:00:44.000 --> 01:00:48.000 A regular yearly membership is $50, but we accept any amount. 01:00:48.000 --> 01:00:51.000 Help us keep free speech alive. 01:00:51.000 --> 01:00:57.000 Please remember that this program is supported by the listener members of Redwood Community Radio. 01:00:57.000 --> 01:01:03.000 If you like what you hear, please consider becoming a member of KMUD or renewing if you've already joined. 01:01:03.000 --> 01:01:08.000 A regular yearly membership is $50, but we accept any amount. 01:01:08.000 --> 01:01:11.000 Help us keep free speech alive. 01:01:11.000 --> 01:01:16.000 Please remember that this program is supported by the listener members of Redwood Community Radio. 01:01:16.000 --> 01:01:23.000 If you like what you hear, please consider becoming a member of KMUD or renewing if you've already joined. 01:01:23.000 --> 01:01:27.000 A regular yearly membership is $50, but we accept any amount. 01:01:27.000 --> 01:01:30.000 Help us keep free speech alive.