Well, welcome once again to this month's Ask Your Ab Doctor. My name is Andrew Murray.
As always, for those who have tuned in and have not listened to the show before, we broadcast every third Friday of the month from 7 to 8 p.m.
on KMU DeGarboville 91.1 FM.
We're discussing a wide range of alternative medicines,
health topics related to alternatives, and I'm very pleased as always to have Dr. Raymond Peat join us once more.
For those who may not know you, Dr. Peat, would you please give our listeners a rundown of your
academic and professional background before we introduce our next guest?
After studying and teaching the humanities and linguistics and various things,
except biology,
before 1968, then I went to graduate school in biology to get a PhD
1972 and
specialized in
aging physiology of reproduction, but in general studied physiology and biochemistry
and since then have been
doing short courses and counseling and such.
Okay, excellent. All right, and this month,
very specially, I'm very pleased to welcome a second generation. Well, actually, that's not true.
I've called her a second generation medical herbalist because I didn't understand her father's actual background before.
But anyway,
Sophie Lam, daughter of distinguished medical herbalist Brian Lam. Welcome to the show, Sophie. Thank you so much. I'm so delighted to be here.
So,
let me let me ask you this. I've always called you a second generation herbalist, but actually your father's background is...
Well, my father's background is there's about four generations of doctors and surgeons going back about 200 years and
although they were
surgeons and doctors, a big part of the medicines that they used at the time was herbal medicine,
so they had their apothecaries at lot alongside their surgeries.
Okay, I know I know Brian. He's 82 now.
He qualified, I think I think I'm right in saying he qualified in 1978 from what was then
the School of Herbal Medicine
before the degrees came into place and the the honors degrees that were given to herbal medicines.
And he's been in full-time practice since and he also
manufactures a wide range of fluid extracts, syrups and some time-honored recipes using medicinal herbs and
he has a fairly busy practice as well as working day to day. He does. He's so amazing.
So he's nearly 82 and he works full-time, gets up very early with the birds and goes, you know, works all day long and
I'm just amazed at the energy he still has at his age.
And I think it's driven by the passion that he has for his job, the love he has for the herbs,
the fact that he's 82 and is still discovering and exploring so much because
it's something you could study for a lifetime and still not
extinguish all there is to know. So yeah, he's driven by passion, I think. Absolutely. And he's
excuse me, like Dr. Peake, people that listen to Dr. Peake can clearly hear he's very, excuse me, scientifically grounded in
what he's discussing. Although sometimes his
explanation is different from what would be a typical understanding of it and that's because he knows something different.
Your father also, he's very much into the science in herbal medicine, isn't he? Oh, he's really into the science.
I mean, he spends a lot, I mean when he's not actually physically preparing herbs or seeing patients or working in a dispensary,
he's researching, he spends lots and lots of time researching still.
Yeah, and he loves that. Now, am I right in thinking that he, I
don't know for how long, but he came to the America and working for a Utah company developing some products for them?
Yeah, so he's to
to America giving lectures on herbal applications for cosmetics and
he's worked for a few network marketing companies designing herbal products for them and supplements and encapsulating them
and making them work for a large-scale company. Yeah, so do you know how long that was again?
He spent how? Well, I know that he, how long ago was that? No, no, how many years he's been doing this for?
I think it must have stretched over about 10 years. Yeah, okay good. So Sophie,
Winter coughs, colds, preparations are some favorites.
Let's get an idea of what it was like growing up in a household
on the northernmost tip of Scotland
with an herbalist as a father. Okay, well, where there's, so I have three sisters, there's four of us daughters together,
so when you have four young children growing up,
typically speaking, young children develop coughs and chest infections, and that was definitely the case with us.
It may have been made worse by the fact that we're growing up in the most, we're on the top of the map of the
UK, so our home looks over the Orkney Islands.
Right at the very top, but really, really incredible herbs grow locally and are very specific to this area.
So we, we have an agar in the kitchen and my childhood memories are full of
herbs drying on top and syrups being made at the side of the agar and
yeah, so we all actually had whooping cough as children, all four of us, I believe, but my sister, my elder sister had it the worst and
what dad did for her and he did for all of us was he sliced up thin slices of garlic,
smeared the soles of her feet with Vaseline and
applied thin slices of garlic to the soles of her feet and
applied and wrapped around cling film and applied a sock. He would have left it on for a few minutes,
I'm not sure how long, because obviously after a time garlic can actually burn, so you don't want to leave it on for too long,
but you know within a few minutes the
essential oils have gone up, the volatile oils have gone up through the bloodstream and you're breathing out garlic and
that's what shortened the duration and severity of our whooping cough as children.
We used to pick Tosolago,
Coltsfoot, and it makes the most incredible syrup because the flowers themselves smell of honey,
but by the side of the agar we'd do a layer of, and I mean all four of us were
lured out to the hills and to the sand dunes and moors
picking herbs, or lured out by a quarter of a snicker bar each, because in those days we weren't given chocolate, and
we'd pick sackfuls of these herbs and go home, we'd do a layer of flowers, layer of sugar, a layer of flowers,
they'd macerate by the side of the hot agar and we'd have the most incredible syrup.
One of the things that my dad is most well known for is he makes an incredible thyme syrup.
And thyme, I mean, thyme
as a herb fits the need of the lungs like a glove.
It's an antitussive, so it reduces the cough reflex, it's anti-edema on the lungs when you get swelling of the lungs,
it's expectorant, it helps you spit out the mucus, and it's antiseptic, and he makes an incredible syrup
using de-slide water, which in itself is a healing water, and molasses.
That's interesting, actually. Your father actually uses a specific water. I think you should speak about that for a little bit.
Well, all of his extracts are made using
de-slide water. Now, de-slide is a well or a spring which comes from the Pannanock Hills around Aberdeenshire, I believe.
My dad actually worked as a consultant for this water company because he understands water very well, and that water is not just water.
Different waters have different values and properties, because my dad's also an engineer before he was a herbalist, and he's very scientific.
So, people, so the royalties, royal families, who travel to this area of Scotland to make their own herbalist,
they drink the healing water, this de-slide water, and my dad actually extracts all of his herbs in this de-slide water.
How far away, because your home is up in a place called Thurso, which is the very northernmost point of Scotland.
How far away is Deeside from Thurso?
So, it would be about a five-hour drive south.
Five hours, okay. All right, good. Well, you're listening to Ask Your Herb, Dr. K. M. E. D. Galbraith, 91.1 FM, from 7.30 until 8 o'clock.
Listeners are invited to call in with questions, any questions they might want to pose Sophie, as well as Dr. Peat, who is on the line
and is going to be joining us and interjecting. We're going to be questioning him about some of the science,
about some of these things that Sophie's going to talk about.
I did want to say that a little bit of the background, just for people that are listening,
in terms of England's law and herbal medicine and it being protected.
In 1154, Henry II institutionalized common law, and it's been the basis of the legal systems of England, Wales, Northern Ireland,
and Ireland, plus many other countries around the world, until the present time.
And common law is based on the premise that everything is legal unless it's deemed illegal.
Pretty straightforward, huh? Now, herbal medicine throughout history has always been protected under common law.
However, in 1542, the medical profession at that time wanted to prevent herbalists from practicing.
Fortunately, Henry VIII, as an avid user of herbs, came to the rescue and implemented the herbalist charter,
which underpinned the herbalist's right to practice, and anyone with knowledge of herbs could continue to use them.
Quoting from the text, "That at all time, from henceforth, it shall be lawful to every person being the king's subject,
having knowledge and experience of the nature of herbs, roots, and waters."
And Nicholas Culpeper, in 1616 to 1654, was an apothecary who lived in a time when fees paid or charged by the medical professionals
were out of the reach of the general public. So Culpeper translated the medical texts from Latin to English
and sold copies at a low price to the apothecaries and anyone who could read so that they could use these life-saving works.
Henry VIII and Culpeper saved herbal medicine for the people, and thanks to the work in England of Fred Fletcher Hyde and other herbalists,
the 1968 Medicines Act allowed herbalists to continue to prescribe and prepare herbal medicines
under Section 12, Part 1, and Section 12, Part 2 of this Act.
However, with the current relationship with the European Union, European law is now having a profound influence
on the daily lives of herbalists, including the jurisdiction of herbal medicine.
European law is founded on Napoleonic law, not common law, and Napoleonic law is based on the premise
that everything is illegal unless it is deemed legal. So completely back to front.
Anyway, I know that the National Institute of Medical Herbalists is still working fairly tirelessly
to keep the practice out of the reach of exclusion from the Brussels establishment,
and I think you're probably, you're a member of the National Institute of Medical Herbalists, aren't you?
No. MCP? Yeah. Right.
Okay, in England there's two authoritative bodies on herbal medicine.
The National Institute of Medical Herbalists, which I think is founded in 1864,
and then the College of Practicing Phytotherapists, which actually is probably more allied to the European ESCOP,
the European Society on Pharmacopoeia. Good.
Okay, so again, this mirrors a kind of restriction and influence one system of medicine has against another,
limiting freedom of choice to the patient. We're not quite there, both in the UK and the US,
but as we've mentioned many times in past shows here on KMUD,
the overreaching corporations in tandem with government and lobbyists are seeking to eliminate
any competition in favour of monopoly in the hands of the pharmaceutical and medical industries.
It's only by the power of "we the people" speaking out against any restrictive legislation that this will be avoided.
A good example is the current legislation now forcing vaccination on the people using the law
to monopolise profits in the name of the greater good, when the very industry producing vaccines
is indemnified by law against punitive damages when individuals are crippled or killed by adverse drug events,
many of which are clearly identified as the adjuvants within vaccines, like aluminum for example.
It's one thing to produce safe, effective vaccines and quite another to manufacture drugs
which have been linked to autism and other neurological impairment.
We have spoken about this at a fairly good length.
Dr. Peat, on the subject of autism, I wanted to ask Sophie the same question afterwards
and then get your feedback about the answer that she's going to have, which I haven't really asked her at this point,
I'm not too sure what she's going to say and I definitely don't know what you're going to say.
But what do you see as a safe approach to helping the autistic child and what do you see as a cause?
I think just about anything harmful to the parents, especially the mother, and especially during pregnancy,
almost any environmental harm is going to increase the rate of autism.
For example, environmental estrogens and things that cause hypothyroidism,
things that cause obesity are known to be causes of autism.
But I think, for example, in Texas there was a study showing that Latino kids,
especially Mexican immigrants, were at a much lower rate of autism
than the well medicalized white residents.
I think a major source of adversity during pregnancy is what John Goffman saw
was the major cause of breast cancer and heart disease in the United States,
namely medical radiation or medicalization in general in the case of autism,
including too many x-ray exams for the mother, too many treatments in general,
including bad thyroid therapy, bad endocrine therapy, and the use of many toxic drugs.
And touching has been identified as one of the things that makes kids' emotional system
and nervous system develop properly.
And there has been a kind of a culture of ignoring the babies in the standard American culture.
And Latinos, they are very touchy compared to the Anglo population.
So I think there are lots of causes.
And enriching the environment, removing toxins, and improving the thyroid and progesterone
of the person's system, all of the endocrine system,
can be modified and improved to a remedy to some extent, at least the autistic.
Okay, Sophie, I wanted to ask you the same kind of thing and then anecdotal evidence.
Yeah, I have a couple of friends whose children have been quite severely autistic at some point.
And my friends have actually been incredibly dedicated.
They've been very dedicated mothers, but they've been very dedicated to bringing their children on
as far as they can to help to incorporate them into mainstream education
and just have a better hope for their futures.
And they've done a really great job of this, and they've definitely focused on their diets
and on their gut health because with both of these children I can think of,
their digestive habits or their bowel motions have been disturbed.
And one friend I can think of in particular, when her autistic son used to go into what's called stemming,
which is repetitive physical movements like jumping up and down on the spot
and acting kind of more hyperactively and less responsive to his mother,
she used to visit a pediatrician, and this pediatrician used to prescribe her son a strong antifungal
because it was suspected that he had a huge fungal overgrowth,
which was almost creating an alcoholic syndrome, or he was producing a lot of alcohol in his system.
And the antifungals would hugely modify his behavior and help him take him on in leaps and bounds.
Dr. Peat, what do you think about that, the presence of gut organisms that metabolize carbohydrates,
producing ethanol, and how that could impact?
Yeah, the intestinal flora produce lots of toxins, but the yeast in particular produce both alcohol and estrogen.
And the estrogen is I think more toxic than the alcohol.
Okay, there you go. Okay, Sophie, sleep disturbance then.
And it's a very common presentation that I think a lot of verbalists get consulted about.
Do you see many people with insomnia or other disturbances in sleep, and what do you treat this with?
Well, I do now because I've been sort of spoken about as a bit of a sleep expert, but I have to thank Dr. Peat for that.
I was an eight-year insomniac, a rather severe insomniac.
It was an extremely depressing and debilitating condition and situation to be in for such a long period of time.
And when I re-hooked up and managed to speak to Sarah, your wife, and you about it properly,
you taught me about how Dr. Peat views insomnia.
And then I started to learn the actual genuine, the true physiological approach to insomnia
is that if you can get your stress hormones down, you're most likely going to sleep well.
I was a chronic under-eater, not intentionally necessarily, but because when you're chronically stressed,
you have a chronically depressed appetite.
So I would say I was a chronic under-eater or chronically calorie-deficit.
And then I started to learn about sugars, about carbohydrates, about the right types of sugars to lay down as glycogen,
that if we're really healthy and if our thyroid's helping us lay down glycogen,
we should be able to, or healthy individuals should be able to get an eight-hour sleep
because that eight-hour glycogen store feeds our active brain through the night.
And a very, very key point of understanding insomnia is to understand, first of all, that sleep is an active process.
It is not a passive process.
Our brain does a huge amount of repair.
Our brain shrinks, and we go into a deep rinse cycle.
It's a very active process.
And Dr. Peat might want to correct me on this.
I think that the brain uses about 100 grams of glucose through the night.
So obviously and apparently to energize that active process of healing, we need to supply the brain with glucose.
And if we've not laid down enough glycogen during the day to sleep well at night for our brain to be able to dip into that reserve,
we're going to get a rise in stress hormones, which will catabolize our fat and our muscle to deliver that energy for the brain.
And of course, a side effect to stress hormones or cortisol and adrenaline is mental alertness, which you don't want at night.
So you've got to view insomnia actually as a daytime disorder which is presenting itself at night.
Dr. Peat, what do you speak to in terms of the liver's ability to store glycogen
and any impairment in that which would trigger insomnia?
Thyroid is the essential thing for being able to store glucose in the form of glycogen in the liver in particular.
But the muscles are a major reservoir too besides the liver.
And the brain itself stores, when conditions are good, stores quite a bit of glycogen locally.
And when you run out of glycogen in your brain, muscles, and liver, you mobilize free fatty acids out of stores.
And the free fatty acids create the condition of diabetes in the brain as well as throughout the body.
It turns off brain metabolism by essentially poisoning the mitochondria, blocking the ability to use any glucose that your body produces by breaking down protein with the stress hormones.
So in the UK and I'm sure in America as well, it's the same.
We're under this impossible situation where we're all told to keep carbohydrates and avoid sugar.
And some particularly health conscious mothers even try and avoid fructose and fruits for their children, especially fruit juice.
And adults are avoiding salt. And you've got a perfect storm for insomnia.
So first of all, if I have a patient with insomnia, the first place I look at is diet and the second place I look at is herbs.
There you go.
All right. So Sophie, getting back to the kind of foundation of your background, you know, with your father being a noblest,
did you say that it was three or four generations that he was?
Well, I know it goes back about 200 years. I'm pretty sure it's four generations.
It's on my TED talk.
OK, there you go. Well, let's talk about that very briefly then.
Your TED talk, I think everybody who's listening has probably heard of TED talks.
Now, they do in all sorts of different countries and they're a wide range of subjects.
So tell us a little bit about your TED talk, what you did and where it was and how.
Well, I gave a TED talk with my sister Naomi and the title was Why We Are Dependent on Plants for Medicine.
We were given an opportunity to do a TED talk and I felt the most important thing for me as a herbalist anyway was to reconnect and reconnect the dots of people.
People often think that herbs are some kind of archaic system or even something to be degraded like, you know, as witchcraft or something.
Whereas actually it forms a bedrock of our most important medicine.
So the medicines on the essential medicines list of the World Health Organization, a significant proportion of those drugs are based on herbs.
We would not have those herbs if it weren't for the discoveries in plants.
So what comes to your mind?
Well, the first thing that comes to my mind is morphine, because I mean, if you think about what people have gone through with the Second World War,
I'm not sure if it was available in the First World War, it's tended to the wounds and grotesque injuries of wars.
There's nothing that rivals morphine still as an analgesic.
And then you think about the lidocaine, novocaine that was discovered from coca leaves.
Then I think about aspirin, which I love.
You think about the diabetes medicine from Goiga.
What is that? I can't remember the name of that drug.
Metformin.
Yeah, so metformin that has its origins in goat's roe.
You think about 90% of our chemotherapeutic drugs have their foundations in plants and natural.
Yeah, taxol from the European Yew tree.
And vinca.
And vinca, vinblastine, great periwinkle.
I mean, so I feel that for me personally, it's very important to get that message out there that you look out to those fields and you're walking past essential medicines.
Right. And I think, again, I know when we were discussing the outline of the show on the way in, because you didn't show back up again.
You've been out all day long.
But basically I drew up a guideline here of questions and answers and things that I wanted to get Dr. Peat's perspective on.
I know that you have how long have you been? Is it eight years or so?
How long has it been you discovered that sugar wasn't bad for you and the whole thing turned around?
Eight years.
Eight years ago, right.
So quickly talk to me about how you implement what you've learned from Dr. Peat and everything that Sarah will have discussed with you, because I know you two are in dialogue pretty constantly by email going backwards and forwards with different patients and talking about them and how, you know, the success and what to do next and all the rest of it.
How I implement personally.
Yeah. As an herbalist, a daughter of an herbalist of 200 year old succession of people that are doctors, you know, herbal medicine was your be all.
Yeah, it was.
And I think I'm fair in saying that there is no one modality to cure any body.
It's a multi, multi complex situation.
So whether it's herbs, whether it's certain chemicals that are, you know, drugs that are very helpful, whether it's, you know, red light, whether it's sound, whether it's, you know, there's many different modalities that can really be brought together by a good practitioner to get the best result.
Possible.
And when you were practicing, obviously, you would have got your knowledge from the same course, the same university and obviously from the whole background of your father having grown up in it since you were born.
Tell me some of the differences perhaps or maybe some of the cases that you've come to and maybe hit a wall after which treating and looking at a different angle to it or using a different compound in conjunction with herbs with or without how that's changed your practice.
Oh, how it changed my practice.
Okay, well, now what I do with my patients is I help them remove the good and bad tags they have all over all sorts of foods because they're often very misplaced.
And the problem with that, what that does is it stops them eating.
The bad tags you mean like brainwashing that's associated with it?
Well, you know, sugar's bad.
Right.
Salt's bad.
Yeah, sugar's bad, salt's bad, vegetable oil good, margarine good, butter bad, all that kind of stuff.
Because actually what that's done, I think one of the worst things that that's done is it's removed people's instinctive eatings, where it was instinctive, you know, leading of how they eat.
You know, they may well be hungry and they may well be craving salt but still resisting that desire to eat salt and the same with sugar and, you know, not so much protein because that doesn't have that bad tag attached to it.
But they're denying themselves their basic physiological needs because they have this perception that food is bad and I think that's one of the worst things that's come out of it.
Dr. Peat, what have you got to say about that in terms of sugar and salt and what you believe is the kind of undoing of the instinctual craving for it?
Oh, those doctrines against them were distinctly created by the pharmaceutical industry.
When they came out with new diuretics around 1950, they convinced doctors that pregnant women had to use them because it would prevent weight gain and water retention in pregnancy.
And just absolute fabulation, making up diseases that didn't exist so they could sell their product.
And in the process, they destroyed many, many pregnancies in the United States with their salt restriction plus diuretics.
And the sugar thing appeared around the same time with the marketing of the polyunsaturated vegetable oils.
Those were defined as essential and so the food industry first promoted them as medicinal in great quantity, 100 times more than any possible theoretical essentiality would indicate.
But they were promoted to lower cholesterol, but then a doctor showed that sugar raises cholesterol.
So the food industry created the cholesterol myth to sell their polyunsaturated oils and then to explain away heart disease and the elevated cholesterol, which really is the result of hypothyroidism, almost all of it.
The ban on sugar to lower, prevent heart disease was promoted all through the 60s and 70s.
Again, the insulin industry and the drug alternatives to insulin were promoted along with basically a sugar-free diet, teaching people that sugar causes diabetes.
Yeah, and then again, of course, there's a whole sugar feeds cancer misdirection.
Sophie, what are fish oils doing in Europe and in England now?
I mean, are they still really advertised as really healthful and your patients are always talking about how good the fish oils are?
You probably set them right, but what do you think the general current thinking is?
Yeah, I tend to steer them away, but the buoyant, definitely still very buoyant.
But interestingly, last year a newspaper published a study linking fish oils with liver disease.
I think actually scarring of the liver as far as I remember.
And I think that hit a mainstream newspaper last year in England.
I wonder, Dr. Peat, you probably have something to say about liver scarring and fish oil consumption from a physiological perspective or even an anecdotal perspective.
Yeah, lots of stresses contribute, but definitely not good foods like saturated fats and sugar.
Okay. All right. You're listening to Ask Europe's Dr. K. M. Udgar, 91.1 FM.
From now until 8 o'clock, callers are invited to call in with any questions either for Dr. Peat and/or Sophie.
And the number, if you live in the area or if you live outside the area or outside the country, is area code 707-923-3911.
So that's 707-923-3911. Questions any time from now until 8.
I think we have a caller on the line already. Caller, you're on the air. What's your name? Where are you from? And what's your question?
Jeff from Long Island.
Hey, Jeff.
I have two questions for Dr. Peat.
One, the soils that plants are grown in obviously don't have the same minerals that they used to, as we all know.
And there's a couple of products that have gotten a lot of attention, fulvic and humic acids, which apparently are coming from rock formations that are very old.
Are you familiar with those and whether the enzymes and the natural minerals associated with those are complementary and beneficial in any way?
No, I think they're mildly harmful.
Because?
To the extent that they break down, they can be absorbed and release toxic things.
Any minerals such as magnesium and trace minerals would be beneficial, but the substance fulvic acid and humic acid are not in themselves safe.
Okay, are there studies on that or is that just a gut feel that you have?
Is that something you've done research on in the past?
No, you can find articles on PubMed.
Yeah, the articles I've found have all been actually favorable.
The reason I mention it and I'm pushing it a little bit is because I am actually the same person who told you that I had a skin rash on the insides of my armpits and elbows for literally, it went on for 12 months.
I mean literally 12 months.
They told me to take cortisone, which I didn't want to do.
So the suggestions you've refreshed were taking the salt baths with baking soda, which I think was very helpful.
CO2, I think you mentioned vitamin D.
So I did some of that stuff and it was very helpful.
But I must say, I believe the fulvic and humic acids, which I took more recently, have actually improved the assimilation and the enzymatic absorption of all nutrients that I consume.
I really do believe that.
It's actually a lot of articles are very positive on it.
Now maybe there are some mixtures that are toxic relative to others, but I strongly believe in that.
But anyway, okay, so that's one.
I actually would love to see if you write up on that and actually can reference specific articles that describe the damage that can be done by them.
I'd be really curious.
But I found in personal experience that it might just actually be the opposite.
Anyway, the other question I have relates to thyroid.
I think at one point we discussed the fact that it's not -- compared to an adrenal gland, which apparently can repair itself on its own, the same is true of any gland, including the thyroid gland.
But the bigger, more complicated issue I think we discussed was it's more important because PUFA and other issues may affect the production, transport, conversion, and uptake of T3 into the cell.
And so I guess my question specifically is if someone is improving their consumption where the PUFA is down and therefore the uptake, transport, and conversion is better, why isn't it possible to eliminate thyroid?
It just seems to me that for some reason you're taking thyroid all the time, and if you're complying with the diet, it seems to me that the benefits of improvement of the adrenal gland should also apply to the thyroid gland for somebody who's a strict proponent of your diet.
Where am I missing?
I've seen lots of people who either were able to stop their thyroid supplement or greatly reduce it, and that happens.
One or two people, it happened in a week.
They broke the pattern so quickly.
They didn't need it after having been in very serious condition.
Others take three or four years, for example, a fat person who is well saturated with unsaturated fats has to get rid of a lot of that stored thyroid-inhibiting fat before they can get away from a supplement.
What about all the electromagnetic radiation that's certainly disruptive to thyroid activity that's nothing to do with diet?
Yeah, and the environmental estrogens.
There are so many things like tooth-filling material, packaging of food, just almost any food you'll get some of these estrogens.
It could block the thyroid.
All right, well, thank you for your call.
Andrew, one other question that you just raised.
If I can.
You mentioned red light earlier, and I just wanted to understand in Dr. Peat's mind the benefits of red light.
What does it physiologically do relative to the CO2, whether it's CO2 through putting yourself in a bag or putting yourself in a tub?
What is it actually?
The CO2 itself, I understand, lowers or stops any production of nitric oxide.
What does the red light do?
They're different benefits, are they not?
Yeah, very different.
Red light has a variety of effects, all involving action on electrons, which are out of their normal condition or orbit,
especially cytochrome oxidase, copper enzyme, the blue enzyme of the crucial enzyme of oxidative metabolism.
Stress lowers that activity.
Just going through the night, it lowers its ability to oxidize nutrients.
And just a few minutes of exposure to red light will restore the electronic balance of the copper
and restore the copper to its relation to the enzyme, activating the enzyme.
But there are a lot of other effects related to inflammation.
For example, radiation poisoning at a lethal dose can be neutralized to the point that the animal will survive by exposing
within the first hour or so to red light following the X-ray or gamma radiation.
Excellent.
Dr. Peat, I really appreciate your reply there.
We do have two other callers, so I don't mean to rush you, but let's make sure these other callers get their calls in.
And anybody else listening, it's askyourabdocterkmedia@gmail.com, 91.1 FM, from now until 8 o'clock.
Oh, there goes the lights.
I think we have three callers, 707-923-3911.
Okay, let's take this next caller.
Caller, you're on the air.
Where are you from?
From Portland, Oregon.
Portland, Oregon.
Yeah, go ahead.
So one question is, perhaps it's a fad, but what are the benefits of drinking 16 ounces of celery juice a day?
Sophie, go ahead.
Well, celery juicing is a real craze in the U.K. right now.
Maybe it is here as well.
Not really, not too much.
Yeah, people are juicing about three whole heads and stems of celery juice each morning.
I don't know specifically what it is, but I think there's a huge amount of minerals in there, including potassium.
And people do seem to feel much better on it and lose some water retention.
Okay, Dr. Peat, what do you know about celery juice and its activity?
I know celery seed is definitely used in the treatment of gout as a waste-clearing mechanism for the kidneys.
But do you know much about celery juicing?
I think the main problem is quite a few people are allergic to it.
All right.
Okay.
Can I ask one quick one?
Yeah, go ahead, quickly.
So, Dr. Peat, how much sugar do you consume a day and what are the ways that you get it?
Is it white sugar and fruit juice?
I try to get it all from fruit, but when I don't have good fruit, then I fill in with white refined sugar.
And I try to get more than half of my calories from sugar.
There you go.
So, like a thousand calories?
Oh, no, more like 1,500 to 1,600.
Oh, yeah.
Okay.
Yeah, I was going to say when you're thinking and you're processing information and you're sitting on the computer and you're researching stuff and answering calls, the brain is very hungry.
Okay, next caller.
You're on the air.
Where are you from?
What's your question?
Hi, I'm from Australia.
My question is I've had some blood tests done recently and my circulating iron is fine, but my iron, my ferritin is actually quite low.
And I've been eating a thyroid supportive diet for over 12 months now and following a lot of your methods, Dr. Peat.
But the doctor is suggesting that I should have some iron injections.
When I eat my red meat, I have that with orange juice to try and increase the absorption, but still it's quite low.
I'm just wondering whether I should have those injections or if there's another method that I can use to increase my iron levels.
How was the iron measured as the first?
It was blood tests.
The ferritin was 6 micrograms per litre.
Was it saturation of transferrin?
Iron saturation.
Transferrin.
Yeah, transferrin saturation done.
Yes, 3.5 grams per litre.
What was the percentage?
3.5 grams per litre.
Yes.
No, I mean the percentage of the saturation.
They haven't given a percentage.
The results I've got, you've got 3.5 grams per litre.
That would be hemoglobin, wouldn't it?
It says transferrin and then it's got TIBC of 76 micro millimoles per litre.
Saturation 10, ferritin 6, iron 7.8.
We might use different measures here.
Well, Dr. Peat, your rationale for increasing, I know you're always wary about increasing iron as it's extremely reactive and powerful oxidant.
But in terms of what the lady is talking about having done those things dieterally, what would be another step so far as your perspective is concerned for raising this lady's iron and her hemoglobin and getting her saturation back up?
The hemoglobin depends on body temperature for one thing.
Thyroid is required for absorbing copper from your diet.
And the copper is needed for integrating the iron with the blood and getting your waking temperature up to close to normal, close to 98 degrees at waking and 98.6 during the day.
And making sure that your arms and legs are warm, close to your body temperature.
It's possible to have a normal oral temperature and still have very cold feet.
And the blood is made in your long bones so they have to be warm.
And thyroid is the main factor keeping the blood synthesis going and the copper absorption to use the iron.
And you can get a very high intake of iron in a safe way if you eat some liver and eggs every day and have orange juice with it.
I am having liver about 200 grams per week. I have probably two eggs every second day.
My rising temperature is usually around 36. I don't know the conversion to Fahrenheit so I'm not sure. But I am doing all those things to improve.
But my stores are still low 12 months later so there's nothing else I can do. You wouldn't recommend having the iron injections?
If your iron saturation is down around 5% or lower then that might justify it. Have you tried oral supplements?
I haven't at this stage.
I've known people who had such terrible effects from iron injections that I think if you're seriously low in saturation then I think the first thing would be if the liver and eggs haven't worked.
And oysters are another very good source.
I have those as well.
How about from a herbal perspective Sophie because I know you've dealt with this before.
Traditionally speaking to strengthen the blood but I've also seen in practice nettle can help.
Is this regular stinging nettle? Is it an infusion or are you talking about an extract?
It's a tea or a juice. And then also black strapped molasses but that also is because it has iron content and I think also has copper.
But black strapped molasses daily and strong nettle tea might help.
I suppose the fear is if you have a hemorrhage or if you have an accident that your stores aren't there.
Okay we do have three other callers.
Thank you for your time.
Thank you for calling in but we've got three more so let's get the next one call away from. What's your question?
Hi I'm from Texas. I have two questions for Dr. Peat.
Okay we'll make them quick. Dr. Peat if we can make your responses fairly quick these next couple of people will get a chance to ask a question too before 8 o'clock.
Yeah so first what can be done for someone who has a high temperature and pulse but still has chronic fatigue and other hypothyroid symptoms?
Okay from an adrenaline perspective. Dr. Peat somebody with a high waking temperature and still has lethargy.
Yeah checking your vitamin D level and your calcium intake those support your thyroid function and magnesium and calcium are necessary for the thyroid to work right.
And you would equate that waking temperature to be an adrenaline based stress hormone dominated physiology?
Yeah you should check your pulse rate at the same time as your waking temperature but also about 10 or 11 o'clock in the morning.
And if your temperature is steady even after you've had some carbohydrate, fruit juice and such then it might be something other than high adrenaline.
Okay and what was your second question caller?
Yeah I was wondering if you've heard of chlorine dioxide and if you think it would help for reductive stress issues like autistic symptoms.
I think there are lots of antiseptic agents that are safer than that. It isn't especially dangerous but long term use could promote cancer.
Things like food fibers, any kind of fibrous food that goes through you without causing inflammation or gas will help to disinfect your intestine.
And Sophie you wanted to interject here.
Yeah I personally have experienced brain irritation myself in the past and I've definitely linked it to my gut.
And one of the things I've used for patients in the past and for myself also is a herb called cat's claw which is very anti-inflammatory on the gut and anti-microbial etc.
But it's also I believe got some research for brain inflammation too.
Excellent. Okay so let's get this next caller. Caller you're on the air. Where are you from? What's your question?
Is that me?
Yeah that's you. Go ahead. What's your question? Where are you from?
I'm from the Garberville area and I'm calling because this is a very pertinent show for me.
I'm nearly seven months pregnant with my first child and we're choosing to go a very natural route.
In our local paper here, The Independent just Tuesday, they published that there's a potential outbreak of whooping cough also known as pertussis in our area.
There have been a few cases recorded so far this year. They're not labeling it as an outbreak yet.
But I had a couple of questions about the treatments recommended by Sophie with the garlic and the thyme syrup.
Are those safe enough and recommended to be safe enough for small children, infants?
Also is the thyme syrup meant to be made from fresh thyme or dried thyme?
And if Sophie wouldn't mind repeating those four wonderful useful things that the thyme syrup does that's helpful with whooping cough. Thank you.
Yeah of course. So thyme syrup is usually made from dried thyme.
And the four actions of thyme are it's anti-tussive, reduces the cough reflex. It's expectorant, it helps you cough the phlegm up.
It's antiseptic and it's also anti-edematous so it reduces swelling in the airways too.
That's wonderful. Do you think it's safe enough to use on very small children?
Well I used it on my son from, I mean to be honest with you, with my son I happily gave it to him from about six months onward.
And if he had a need I possibly would have given it to him earlier too but in much much reduced doses.
I mean you may be able to give drop doses even.
Okay good. Thank you. And do you think the garlic sounds fairly innocuous to try something like that on a small child as well?
It is innocuous. You just don't want to leave it on for so long that it burns.
Right. So very quickly.
Well maybe a couple of minutes.
Actually I heard a trick to keep it from burning is peel it without actually damaging the skin.
And the trick I heard was to put it in a sock against the infant's foot and just overnight.
But if you break the actual skin of the bulb then that oil comes out and it burns.
Oh great.
So very very gentle peeling.
Yeah. Okay lovely.
And you get a whole clove of garlic not like sliced clove of garlic.
Yeah because the oil was more irritating. That's just a trick I'd heard. I don't have a good one.
Yeah.
I've tried it on myself though and it is very very different. You can hold that clove against you for all day.
Right. That's great.
Okay Dr. Peat. Do you want to quickly say anything about whooping cough?
No I haven't had any experience with it.
Okay. Alright. Is that the call? We've got through the callers. Okay so.
Yes. Thank you so much.
You're very welcome. Anybody else? Have you got any calls? You can quickly squeak in a quick one between now and 8 o'clock.
But I want to have a few minutes here. Okay the engineer is shaking his head going no no no.
Okay. Let's just leave it the way it is and I appreciate people calling in.
Always adds interest to the show and I'm very grateful for the acknowledgement that people are listening
even though sometimes we have the shows and we don't get too many callers.
But as always I keep saying that these things are recorded in posterity and you know they're on the internet
and they're on YouTube and I'm going to be speaking with Dr. Peat about something to do about making sure the evidence
and the information is actually correct.
So Dr. Peat let me just thank you very much for your time again this month.
We really appreciate it and I'm going to give out some information about you right away.
Okay. Thanks.
Thank you. Okay so people have listened to the show Dr. Peat's website is www.rayPeat.com.
He's got plenty of articles there. He's been doing this for 40 plus years.
And Sophie Lam, medical herbalist or medical herbalist from England, sorry Scotland, not England, from Scotland.
Gosh you're like a probably a fifth generation or sixth generation herbalist.
Anyway it's alive and well in Scotland and your dad's 82.
He's been doing this for a long time and he is very much alive and well doing it.
And if you've got any way that people would reach you perhaps you might want to share with people.
Yeah well my sleep specific site is called donecountingsheep.com.
So d-o-n-e counting sheep.com.
That's dedicated to sleep.
But I also have my own website which is sophielam.com.
And you're a member of the College of Practicing Phytotherapists, CPP in England.
Very good. Okay.
Okay so for those people that have tuned in I appreciate you calling.
I can be reached Monday through Friday, any time I guess really because it's a toll free number
and I may not answer the phone but leave a message.
I will always get back to you.
You can email me andrew@westernbotanicalmedicine.com or 1-888-WBM-HERB.
And as I said before on the last couple of shows we are intending to get a, what do you want to call it,
an authoritative source of Dr. Peat's information, his tireless explanation scientifically
so that people can see it for what it really is.
And we love to see real science in action.
I am totally an advocate of scientifically backed medicine, herbal medicine, alternative medicines.
There's no reason to ban any of it.
Let's just be rational about this and produce good results for people.
That's all we want to do is see people get better.
So until the third Friday of next month, actually you know what, I won't be here.
Third Friday of next month, that's right, August next month I will not be here.
So it's going to be September. So I need to check in with the studio about that so I get a replacement.
But next month I will not be here.
But back again in September.
So until the third Friday of September, I wish you all good night and thanks for joining in.