Dr. Justin Marchegiani welcomes Dr. Russ Teams, a functional neurologist who practices in Arizona’s leading chiropractic center for Functional Neurology and Functional Medicine. Join them as they engage in a very informative
conversation about brain health and the conditions affecting it. Learn about the assessment process, diet, nutrition and find out how the brain is connected to the gut.
Gain valuable information as Dr. Russ Teams drop some knowledge bombs and answers the listeners' questions about vitamin D and how it helps the brain, medical marijuana, and brain concussion.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani
In this episode, we cover:
11:05 Self-assessment and tools
11:46 Diet and Brain
21:12 Nutrition for brain inflammation
27:51 Nutritional Debt
32:02 Brain and Leaky Gut Connection
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Hey guys, it’s Dr. Justin Marchegiani here. Welcome back to Beyond Wellness Radio. Fabulous Friday here down in Austin, Texas. I have a good friend Dr. Russ Teams— Dr. Russ Teams. I actually went to Chiro school together. So blast from the past. Great to see you again, Dr. Russ. Again, you do a lot of functional Neurology brainwork. Your website azchironeuro.com Will put the link in the show notes. You also have an excellent coaching functional neuro- program at BTBhealthsystems.com so more information about some of the things we’re gonna be talking about can be grabbed at those sites. Will put the links below in the show notes as well. Dr. Russ, welcome to the show, man.
Dr. Russ Teams: Hey, Dr. Justin. Thanks for having me. It’s good to see you again. It’s been a while. I feel like we’re old men now.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: [laughs]
Dr. Russ Teams: Five years out. So you gotta be like what, six or seven and?
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah. Yeah. You got it.
Dr. Russ Teams: I’ve been following you a lot. So, thanks for having me. I’m excited.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Well, thank you. And anyone listening, feel free to chime in with questions. Try to keep it pertinent more to the functional neuro- brain stuff. At the end of the show, we’ll take a few minutes
Dr. Russ Teams: So a lot of people that we see are kind of actually going through the gamut. They’ve already been here. They’ve been here. They’ve seen the specialist.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Dr. Russ Teams: And—and I’m sure you notice it a lot. Those specialists just look here. This specialist just looks there.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Uhm.
Dr. Russ Teams: This guy is a big toe on the right foot kind of specialist. And so what we try to do is we bring it all together with brain help, the whole brain, plus the functional medicine side of thing and nutrition to make sure that we’re really understanding all of the components and systems so that they all work well together.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Got it. So what are those typical symptoms? There are people coming in the brain fog, anxiety, depression. I mean obviously there’s probably people that have already had like neurological damage maybe like a stroke or have autoimmune conditions like Parkinson's and MSO kinda like—kinda give us the rundown.
Dr. Russ Teams: So, everybody that comes in has a brain, right? So what we do is, we first start off with just evaluating their brain. It doesn't matter what diagnosis you have, it’s gonna show up in this evaluation and history. So starting from a young age, we—I’ve been seeing a lot of genetic diseases lately uh— where the system doesn’t get a chance to really activate. And so my job is to and activate that system so you get functional or functionality from the baseline.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Uh-hmm.
Dr. Russ Teams: Like vagal nerve
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Uh-hmm.
Dr. Russ Teams: Which lead to brain-gut dysfunction, right? So once you’ve opened up that brain-gut access, I mean, really, anything is possible. Autoimmunity, chronic pain fatigue, uh—open up to infection. I mean, you name it. You deal with a lot of this stuff, too. So, uh—I mean we can go off on a deep end on this, but—
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: So—
Dr. Russ Teams: It’s anything— anything out there.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah. So what
Dr. Russ Teams: So the three things that we do right out of the gate are autonomic testing, which is blood flow, blood pressure, heart rate, uh— respiration. So all those centers are located in the lower brainstem, which is kinda like where that brain-gut access and
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Got it. And what are you typically seeing with some of these patients? How are they presenting with some of these
Dr. Russ Teams: So often—everybody— not everybody. Sometimes people are super good but they have major neurological symptoms. When their symptoms or when their exam is normal, that’s when we know we need to do all functional medicine immune base control or uh—management. When we see
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Got it. And how are you incorporating a lot of the adjusting that you're doing? Like someone comes in, let’s say you see some—some deficits with eye or our muscle tone. Like you’re a chiropractor, so you're doing current chiropractic work. You're also doing neurological work, maybe exercises, different things. So, how are you prescribing adjustments? How are you prescribing some of the exercises or some of the auditory stuff? How are your prescriptions based on what you see?
Dr. Russ Teams: Well, first, I must say that as a chiropractor, I don't just see something and do something because I have that tool. I have to assess and think, “Why is this here?” “What is the root cause of this problem?” So, in an adjustment situation, I may do—if I see a right-sided cerebellar problem, which is gonna be eyes closed the nose, eyes closed, touch the nose. If you’re off on one side, my right hand, then I might do an adjustment in the neck or low back or foot or hand to try to stimulate that area. So just—the adjustment is so powerful, sometimes it can be too much in some cases. So talking about brain health and concussions, sometimes I don't even adjust anybody for the first month or two until the brain becomes stable enough to receive an adjustment.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Got it. So, when you're looking at brain function, right? We have like cerebellum—just kinda back part of the brain by the brainstem area which helps to balance. And then we have the cortex kinda the higher function of the brain. Can you just kinda differentiate the cortex and the cerebellum for?
Dr. Russ Teams: You got it. So, the cerebellum is considered the little brain. I talked about
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Uh-hmm.
Dr. Russ Teams: Blod flow, thought, emotion, actual physical movement and then the cerebellum make sure that that is very coordinated. If the cerebellum's off, you’re gonna get things like movement or dysmetria, things like that.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Okay, Got it. And then when you and—can you kinda talk about some of the— so when you adjust, you’re—you're helping the opposite brain, right? Because the brain tends to cross paths, right? So an adjustment on your right side may help bring up that left cortex and vice versa on the other side. Is that true?
Dr. Russ Teams: Yes. So, yes and no. So, in some cases, like the diversified technique—
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Dr. Russ Teams: You will contact one side and then you give a quick rotation in the opposite direction. So, yes, you’re adjusting the neck on that side.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Dr. Russ Teams: Based on muscle spindle activity, as the muscle shortens, you’re getting an increase in information; as it lengthens and you activate, you know, GTO, for you and I –
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Dr. Russ Teams: Basically, if you inhibit a muscle, it decrease hold in the tendon. More information, less information. But here’s the – here’s the kicker. As you rotate your head, you’re actually activating the opposite side, vestibular system. So you’re getting a bilateral effect. The technique that I used is—is called Coupled Reduction. So it’s a lateral bend. And that bend is only in one side the majority of it. There’s no way you can do just one little piece, but the majority of inflammation is a little more specific from one side.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Okay. So if someone has let’s say a—a weak cortex on the left versus the right or right versus the left, what kind of symptoms would they see or express?
Dr. Russ Teams: So the left brain is highly associated with language, with numbers, with letters, with speech, with logistical and logic motor-based planning. So a lot of these folks tend to be—also it’s kinda the go side. So the right brain is the opposite of all those. Creativity and whatnot. So you may see some lack in understanding like dyslexia is a very common left brain issue. Uh—you may have focus and attention issues. You may have some gargling up of words, you may have some issues with, you know, articulating words and things like that. You may have some changes on the right side of the body with sensory issues. You may have issues with memory with face and other things of learning new objects versus understanding who that is kind of thing even though you’ve met them before. So,
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Okay. Then how about if you’re having issues with the cerebellum in the back?
Dr. Russ Teams: That cerebellum is going to be highly associated with the coordination, right? So you may sway to the right side when you close your eyes. You may have a little bit of a tremor in that right hand. You may have an issue knocking things over. If you’re gonna grab your phone and then you knocked it over or a glass or a beer for that matter.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Uh-hmm.
Dr. Russ Teams: You may bump into things on that right side as well. You’re gonna have changes in muscle tone on that side. Meaning like chronically uh— rolled ankles. You’re gonna, you know, stab your fingers, stab your toes. And you may have an increased startle response from that side coz you’re not really sure if where that right side of your world is.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Okay. So if someone’s listening at home right and they’re like, well, I am thinking about going to see a functional neurologist, someone like yourself, what are some things that people could do just on their own right now to kinda help with overall brain balance? Are there any self-assessments or tools that they can utilize?
Dr. Russ Teams: Sure. There's a really good test is—put your feet together, close your eyes and see if you can stand still. You could try one leg versus the other, right? A good—that's a really good test to count down immediately. There is a research project that says if you can't stand on one leg for 15 seconds, your gonna have an increased risk of developing a neurodegenerative disorder, which is cerebellum to front lobes. So all this activity is brain-based. Uh—finger to nose. Just close your eyes and try to touch the tip of your nose right here, right? So bringing that to the tip of your nose, if you’re off a little bit, or if you hesitate or you poke yourself, that's a problem in the cerebellum on that side.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Got it. And let's talk about the diet component. How much does the diet affect the brain? I mean, we know gluten, protein and wheat barley and rye and other types of cross-reactive grains
Dr. Russ Teams: So, in our clinic, we see a lot of concussion. Usually, it’s
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Foundational. Yeah.
Dr. Russ Teams: Foundation. So, we don’t need to beat that horse anymore. But the things that I like to do right out of the gate,
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Totally. Right. So the brain is really important
Dr. Russ Teams: Absolutely. And one of the things you said, basically, when there's too much junk and there’s too much insulin, what does that create? It creates
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Right. Yeah.
Dr. Russ Teams: They’re taking the trophies, the pictures off the wall, the chairs out of the room. They’re ripping apart stuff. So they’re basically cleaning up anything everything in their site and that starts to break down other neurons. So that inflammation is what we as clinicians and you guys
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Uh-hmm.
Dr. Russ Teams: ..better absorption.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Better absorption. Right.
Dr. Russ Teams: Unless they have sensitivity to black pepper. I’m actually seeing that in a lot of cases. So we have options for simply turmeric or we hide those other things as well. So Resveratrol—great antioxidant to help keep free radicals from __ 15:24 things up. Right after head injury and long-term, you’re gonna lose blood flow by about 70%. So we use a—a component or a nutrient called Vinpocetine or vinpocetine, which helps to improve basically capillary perfusion. So, you start immediately getting more blood flow to your brain. On top of that, omega-3 fatty acids, right? It’s probably gonna be like that’s every patient should be on those unless you have sensitivity or you can't tolerate fats. That's another issue altogether, we can address that separately. Uh— you know, I usually use anywhere from 3 to 5000 mg a day, personally. I’ve heard dose as high as 10,000 mg or 15 in in severe cases. Uh—glutathione or N- acetylcysteine, uh—Glucoraphanin is a product that I use in one of my lines that we use in the office.
Uh—it’s phenomenal. Uh—let’s see, what else? Oh! Mag Threonate or __16:24 I use Hydrogen__, but uh—it’s a great, great product. Mag Threonate helps to keep your brain from over firing so you got this cell that wants fire on its own. I just
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah. It makes sense. I know the Kynurenine pathway or the Quinolinic Acid pathway, which is an inflammatory pathway in the brain gets dampened by higher magnesium. I know Magnesium Threonate is one of the
Dr. Russ Teams: So, essentially every brain in a simplistic form, you need multiple things to make a cell work.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Uh-hmm.
Dr. Russ Teams: Glucose, proper amounts of glucose, oxygen inactivation. All three of these things help to create ATP or energy, right? So ATP is our energy source think of it as, I mean, just oxygen in this case. If we don't have oxygen, we’re toast. So that ATP consider it like a lifeline and so all these things have to be in proper amounts in order to make proper amounts of energy. When you start having excessive firing of these cells, you start using up your glucose, you start firing randomly. So ultimately, it lets too much calcium in and that starts popping onto cell. So that’s why we do magnesium and actually magnesium is that— is a little plug that plugs that that receptor that allows too much calcium. That’s why magnesium is so important in that case. Blood sugar instability as you as you drop too low, you start to starve and the cell start to fire up to try to survive. So that's where blood sugar stability comes in. If you have too much, you develop insulin resistance so fuel can’t get in. If you have too little, you don't have any fuel so the cells start gasping for air essentially and it starts popping off and firing off saying, “Hey, somebody help me, I’m gonna die.” And that’s what happens. As they fire off, they release excitatory neurotransmitters, which are called glutamate or cytotoxicity.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Right.
Dr. Russ Teams: So you excite all the other cells around you and if those are unstable enough, they will fire off to the point where they die, too. And so you actually get dying of cells and fatigue of these cells so then you lose your ability to talk, you lose your ability to balance, you lose your ability to have a proper emotional response to somebody asking a simple question, you can't sleep, right? All these things, all these symptoms come from, many times, unhealthy brain tissue.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Totally makes sense coz we have this kind of Goldilocks effect with high blood sugar, you know, it decreases enzymes in the brain that cleanup junk and then you have this decrease in cellular
Dr. Russ Teams: Yup.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Okay. Cool. And then also, couple other things, too. You mentioned, you mentioned the magnesium component. Let’s go back to some of the antioxidants. So we have things like Resveratrol and turmeric which kinda, they’re like in these nerve to pathways which really helped clean up brain inflammation.
Dr. Russ Teams: Yup.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: I was at the seminar last weekend
Dr. Russ Teams: Two parts.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yup.
Dr. Russ Teams: There’s—people who like sports like for me, I was playing every single day. I know there are lots of kids that are going from one practice to another. So there's this such thing as overtraining, right? The—the difference in building versus breaking down. So, you have to really watch that stress response, your adrenal glands, your changes in blood sugar, that—that fatigue rate and keep an eye on your ability to make energy. So, number one, just watch out for overtraining and especially young kids and especially things like triathletes, okay? So, when we get into, what where you after or you will do prior to these contacts is number one, you got to make sure they have good, healthy
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Dr. Russ Teams: Though I’m not promoting any products there,
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: That’s okay.
Dr. Russ Teams: And then uh—MemorAll Supplement. All the stuff is from Xymogen.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: And what pathways in the brain acetylcholine
Dr. Russ Teams: Uh—temporal lobe and hippocampus. So the memory component which is what breaks down in Alzheimer’s.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Interesting. So if someone is doing contact sports, you gave some of those nutrients that can be helpful. I'm going through Tom Brady's book the TB 12 Method and he’s— he's all about pliability when it comes to lifting weights. So really interesting coz he’s trying to get his muscles to be as pliable as possible. His kind of theory is that the muscles get, you know, more dense, harder. The training is you know, contributing—creating concentric contractions. And the problem with that is the muscles are harder and
Dr. Russ Teams: Sure.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: I think he's also doing potentially some O2, you know,
Dr. Russ Teams: Sure. Oh, laser. Glad you brought that up.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Dr. Russ Teams: It’s right here, actually. [laughs]
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Oh, great. Erchonia Laser—wonderful.
Dr. Russ Teams: Erchonia Laser—if you guys don't have any—do you got—do you have a laser over there? Do you use laser therapy?
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: I’ve done in the past. I do not currently. But I think it’s phenomenal. I think if you’re—If I was letting my kid play
Dr. Russ Teams: Absolutely not.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Dr. Russ Teams: No way. I mean—I’m considering them getting into a sport where the contact is not involved in every play. I don’t have a kid, but moving forward, I’m a golfer, so, the odds of you sustaining a concussion in golf—
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: [laughs]
Dr. Russ Teams: You know, you’re not playing fast enough, but
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah. Exactly.
Dr. Russ Teams: I always—my job is to educate not to make decisions for people. So, so that’s kinda— I don't like to speak out of turn but, for me, that kid is going to be on certain products, nutrition
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Hundred Percent. It makes sense. And again, most kids today their diets are absolute crap.
Dr. Russ Teams: Yup.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Here's the analogy—I’ve kinda built over the last few years. It makes a lot of sense. A lot of people look at food as calories and that it's like going to the gas tank and you just put fuel in your gas tank, it doesn’t matter what fuel you get. The difference is when your engine starts running on low, when you're driving that car, your car doesn't start metabolizing the bumper or the seats for fuel.
Dr. Russ Teams: Right.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: The difference is our body will do that. And it's also not looking at calories which is just a measurement of heat, right? It’s also looking at the micronutrients and we, today, we can have a whole bunch of calories with very poor micronutrient levels.
Dr. Russ Teams: That’s true.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Meaning low minerals, low vitamins, low amino acids and plus when you're having excessive in the carbohydrates primarily
Dr. Russ Teams: Yeah. And that’s what I was talking about with the—that overtraining.
So the thing—and I’m kinda getting divert and then come back to it.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah. Totally.
Dr. Russ Teams: Stress is one thing that I feel has to be addressed in every single patient. Stress cranks up your cortisol, cranks up blood sugar, starts sending those cytokines you talked about. They start lighting up the areas of the brain which is essentially the fight or flight area, the midbrain, right? That area is what keeps you awake at night, it's what keeps you from focusing, it’s what—it’s what leads to basically depression and anxiety. And so all those things were you're not firing optimally, right? Optimal firing would be here. This is where we wanna be. When we go here, not so good. So when we go to blood sugar and all the things that you're talking about, uh—it’s— it's really— you just have to address everything. I hate to say like that, but you really a look at every different system and how they interact.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: So we kinda have like the chiropractic side, where its’ working on stimulation and kinda giving one side of bump
Dr. Russ Teams:
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Dr. Russ Teams: We’ve already been talking about.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Good.
Dr. Russ Teams: Glutathione, Omega-3’s,__, Resveratrol, uh—you’ve got your Turmeric. You can go right into
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Probiotics.
Dr. Russ Teams: Yup. There it shows that if you injure your brain within minutes to hours, you develop a leaky gut. So you have to not only fix the gut from nutritional side, but you have to fix it from a brain-gut axis. So, typically, what we’ll do is—we’ll wait—we’ll get going on the nutrition and bring people in for laser only. If they’re—if they can tolerate it, we’ll run an exam and evaluation at first day and then we’ll say, “Hey, come back about a week and then we’ll check you out again.” Coz most concussions should heal in 2 to 4 weeks, but we like it a baseline so we know that in four weeks if they’re not healing, we’ve gotta—we can show how well they have healed, right? And so, that's the stuff you need to be doing in the acute phase. Uh—hyperbaric chambers, if you can do, more so in the acute phase. They seem to do better. The chronic phase is kinda the, you know, the injury is still out on them. And then chronically, basically, the whole system is involved because you developed that leaky gut, you start to ramp it up— inflammation— you start breaking down the
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Can you talk more
Dr. Russ Teams: So I’m gonna draw this out—kind of—Can I draw this? Is there a way to do that?
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Of course. Yeah. Uhm—not sure. But if you’ve got any paper, just draw it out and hold it up on the screen.
Dr. Russ Teams: So this is just super quick. Alright. If I have a whiteboard, this would be so much easier. Okay. So right here—
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yup.
Dr. Russ Teams: It’s kinda where we’re looking at. Right brain, left brain. This is our brain stem. So this is the midbrain we talked about. The pons and the medulla. This part here is the parasympathetic part. This part here is the parasympathetic part. This big guy right here in the middle, he is the sympathetic dominant guy. He gets lit up in head injury. Everything else starts to break down. Now, it’s interesting is basically through here, is a major conduit of—I’ll call it like a freeway. All information that gets from the brain to the body has to go through this brainstem. And this is the area that gets hit the hardest in concussion. So these two big lines the vagus nerve, that’s part of the conduit or that freeway system. So as you get whacked, immediately inflammation goes up, decreases your sympathetic tone, I’m sorry— decreases your
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Right.
Dr. Russ Teams: And fight or flight,
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: That makes sense. So the blood flow starts going more towards the extremities away from the organs.
Dr. Russ Teams: Yup. It’s basically saying, “Hey, you need to survive. Run. Get the heck out of here.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: That makes total sense. Alright. Interesting. And then you said the area right in the middle part of the sympathetic. So when that gets lit up and that basically decreases the parasympathetic tone, couple people on the chat here wanted to know ways to help increase the parasympathetic tone. I mean, in the functional neurologic—Do stimulators like singing or kind of a gag reflex kind of thing. There's obviously you know, breathing to the nose, right? Coz of the olfactory nerves. Uhm— Obviously eating an anti-inflammatory diet and lifestyle can help. What else? Is there any other more nuanced things that you're working on patients with?
Dr. Russ Teams: Absolutely. So gargling. Gargling is probably easiest and most
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Right.
Dr. Russ Teams: Though anybody who needs more parasympathetic tone, they start gargling. It’s as simple as taking to drink of water [gargling sound] Gargle as long as you can, as hard as you can. If you can go like one or two seconds, that vagal tone or that parasympathetic tone is dampen. So we need to get better at it. We’re gonna practice at it. And then you can do things humming and singing which activates the back of the throat. You can do what I call tongue push-ups.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Right.
Dr. Russ Teams: You know, not specific to them. But we use what’s called the vagal nerve stimulator. And so it’s got two prongs, we can use it in the ear on the vagal afferent here, on the conchae. We can also use it on the SCM to the point that the muscle actually contracts a little bit because the vagus nerve runs right along that SCM. We personally stay on the right side of it because it has more to do with
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Now if we don't have the low-hanging __. Like this person is, let’s say consuming gluten, poor sleep, blood sugar instability, just doing some gargling won’t be enough to overcome all of the sympathetic habits and the other side of the fence. Is that true?
Dr. Russ Teams: True. It won’t fix the problem, but it will start activating that pool of neurons to—it’s like—if you like going to the gym and eating like crap—
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Got it. Great analogy.
Dr. Russ Teams: And so, at least you’re getting some type of brain activation. Sorry to interrupt. Meditation.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Uh-hmm.
Dr. Russ Teams: Meditate mindfulness. De-stressing yourself. Huge.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Makes a lot of sense. That’s excellent. And then regarding the gut component, right? We didn't really talk much coz you talked about the brain and then you talked about that could cause leaky gut. We also have leaky gut and leaky brain starting from the gut. We can have H. pylori or dysbiotic bacteria with lipopolysaccharides, but then open up those tight junctions in the gut and then those things can get past the astrocytes or the
Dr. Russ Teams: It’s higher. Well, let’s put it this way. I don’t know the exact percentage, but you have 10 times as many microglial cells as you do neurons.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Neurons. Perfect.
Dr. Russ Teams: So, there's a lot. Uhm—when we talk about the gut-brain, let's say it’s more than likely gonna be from an infectious side or a food side because that vagal nerve, if that’s not firing well, you are going to break down your gut anyway. So you're talking about that brain-gut axis kind of as a general assumption, right? So, let’s say we got out of town, we’re feeling great, we get a parasite. Or we get an infection, right? That starts to cause up internal inflammation, down regulates and crowds out all your good bacteria, starts screwing with everything. Inflammation shuts down your motility. Motility means how well we move stuff through our system. So we started constipation and/or mixed diarrhea, right? With H. Pylori, it’s kind of a little bit of both. And so when you have this break down of the gut, you start to
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Great. Excellent. And how many people are you seeing, just in
Dr. Russ Teams: Okay. This is gonna sound weird. I’d say 50-50, but a 100%.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Uh-hmm.
Dr. Russ Teams: Right? So, if it starts from the gut and it’s like there's an emotional trauma early in childhood, you’re gonna have that that uh— sympathetic stress-related response, which is great going to break down your gut. And that’s gonna open it up for opportunistic infections if you're eating poorly, leaky gut-leaky brain. If you're super healthy and you’re able to travel the world, you expose yourself to more infectious stuff, right? So that’s always part of the history is, you know, when did this start? Where did you go? Did you emotional trauma at that time? an injury? An infection? Whatever it may be. So, on one hand, it’s like 50-50. But on the other
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Great. Awesome. So, I’ll ask one more
Dr. Russ Teams: Oh, man. Just take care of your brain. Seriously, it’s the only one you got. If you know somebody with laser and it can handle the side of nutrition just like you do—
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Uh-hmm. Uhm—you also know somebody who can fire the right parts of the brain at the right time at the right frequency, then you're gonna be in pretty good shape. So, if you're struggling with any of that stuff, you need that holistic approach. So people can work on all these systems at the same time. Not one system this week, one system next week, you
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Awesome. Great. So, I’m gonna go into
Dr. Russ Teams: Yup.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: So, vitamin D, how does it help the brain?
Dr. Russ Teams: Uh—it helps with—basically helps with immune system balancing. So, T- regulatory cells, you gotta have it.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Excellent. Marijuana—Do you recommend it? And then, THC versus CBD for
Dr. Russ Teams: I personally don't go into that because I don't know stuff changing every day. I know, anecdotally, some people do well with it, other people feel horrible on it. So, I'll refer to another practitioner for that.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Got it. Uhm, let's see, here another one, here—x intermittent fasting, ketogenic diet, is that the foundational diet you recommend?
Dr. Russ Teams: Yes. So, I do it probably
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Very cool. Can you lose use fine motor skills and be dizzy without an injury like showing a clean CT or MRI?
Dr. Russ Teams: Uh, after a concussion?
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: I would say, well, I would say after in general, this person has you know, they went to the ER and they got these neurological test on but they still have these fine motor issues.
Dr. Russ Teams: Sure. Absolutely. You can have it at
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Right. It makes sense. Yeah. We don’t have a seatbelt holding our brain in place, right? You see like a woodpecker outside kinda banging their head against the tree, so to speak. They actually have ligaments that actually hold the rain in place. We don't have that. So that makes a lot of sense. Uhm, regarding TCE Traumatic Chronic Encephalopathy. That's the concussion issue. Uh, what's your take on it? And what’s your take on the new test that can supposedly test the TCE protein within 20 minutes after injury.
Dr. Russ Teams: Uh so, well, I guess technically you're probably looking at more of the inflammatory response with that test. So that’s gonna tell you if you have an injury or not. It doesn't tell you what you need to do nutritionally, right?
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Right.
Dr. Russ Teams: So, getting a diagnosis is important. I always assume that there's a
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Do you think microglial activation is part of the mechanism with TCE?
Dr. Russ Teams: Yup. Hundred percent.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Okay. Excellent. And then regarding—also, some of these injuries too could be autoimmune. They could be on the lower kind of subclinical autoimmune side, too. And you could have to start these neurological issues. It may not even be a chronic—a trauma, right?
Dr. Russ Teams: Right. So, what’s the root cause autoimmunity?
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Leaky gut, gluten sensitivity, blood sugar infections.
Dr. Russ Teams: So, this CTE and brain-based dysfunction
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Uh-hmm. Like I see people that have had one concussion her whole life and it was a minor one, and their brain has shrunk to the size of like a grape versus an orange, right? I mean, they have all these
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Totally. Makes a lot of sense. And then regarding—we talked about the marijuana component, you talked about leaky guts. Uhm— when people get a concussion, do you make them stay up the whole next day. What’s the mechanism with making someone stay awake and not letting them go to sleep essentially.
Dr. Russ Teams: So, honestly I’m getting to the point where ICYA or I covered my ass.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Dr. Russ Teams: I sent people to get a CT in the acute phase. A couple of hundred bucks to to make sure that you’re not bleeding is the number one thing, right? So that’s—if somebody’s like, “Hey, I just hit my head.” “Alright, go get an image.” “Well, it’s just this symptom.” I’m like, “ Hey, that’s up to you.” My recommendation is to go get that image. So if you're still experiencing these weird symptoms a week later, they’re probably gonna run an MRI, okay? Now, if everything is clean, then you’re gonna rest a little bit. But we need to actually get that body moving, start doing some of these nutritional stuff right away. And start instituting some of these uh—some of these supplements and nutrition pieces. One thing you don't want really do right away and it kinda goes 50-50. We go back and forth with this, honestly. Depending on the presentation, you may not want to dampen that microglial response right away because you want them to clean up junk.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Right.
Dr. Russ Teams: You want to over clean stuff up. So, most of the time, I do nutrition, glutathione, Omega’s, Vinpocetine, Resveratrol. And then based on the symptoms, as they start to improve, then I’ll start hitting the uh—the turmeric in heavy dose like
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: That makes a lot of sense. And then regarding the staying up, is it just because it’s a sign there there there's not a bleed happening where they could they could be asleep and you don’t know if they’re passed out because of the bleed. Is that the main reason why?
Dr. Russ Teams: Yes. So, a lot of people, I mean, you can have a slow bleed that takes two weeks to really create a life-threatening symptom, right? So that’s what I just—I just default to that, CYA. And make sure instead of guessing, right? I'd rather run this and be wrong than not run it and you know what I mean?
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: And in the conventional medicine, I mean, they really don't have much. It’s like
Dr. Russ Teams: Yup. Yeah. So just watch and wait. That’s—they’re like, yeah, watch and
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Wow. And then with progesterone— we talked about that as having some really good effects outside of just fasting. What’s the dose of progesterone you like? So that’s actually one thing I was talking to you uh—my business partner before this. Uh— we don't—
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Uh-hmm.
Dr. Russ Teams: It’s all based on where their cycle is. If they’re at a certain place and their progesterone is low, and they hit their head, they’re gonna have a way worse response then if it’s elevated.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Right.
Dr. Russ Teams: Though—when it comes to hormones, based on that H—HP H, I guess, hormone axis.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Dr. Russ Teams: Uh, we don't do that. We have
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Okay. Got it. But if it’s a guy that does not have a cycle, is
Dr. Russ Teams: I’ll tell you what, I’ll follow up with you once we—once we—once the verdict is out on that. In the notes—
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Perfect. That sounds great. Well, Dr. Russ, is there anything uh—that you wanna highlight?
Dr. Russ Teams: Sorry, can you repeat that?
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah. No problem. Is there—that answers all of our
Dr. Russ Teams: Uhm—yeah. You know, if you have—if anybody out there is looking for a functional neurologist or chiropractic neurologist, feel free to either post a message here or contact me directly uh— through the website. Either RussTeams@BTBhealthsystems.com or AZchironeuro@gmail.com and I’ll try to get you in contact with somebody in your area. Uh—if you can't—if we can’t find you anybody close, we do intensives all the time or we get like six weeks of treatment
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Do you work with any patients over Skype or a computer?
Dr. Russ Teams: Uh—we do uh, a lot of times, it’s over the phone. Like right now, I’m talking with somebody in the London. I’m getting him set up with some nutrition and some uh laser therapies. So we’re actually, they’re getting to the point where they’re gonna buy a laser because they can't travel very much. Uhm, we see people—
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: That’s awesome. Dr. Russ, thank you very much. russteams@azchironeuro.com He’s got health coaching for various doctors. BTBhealthsystems.com WE’ll put the links below. Dr. Russ, thank you so much for coming on the show and dropping some serious knowledge bombs. We appreciate it. Have a good weekend.
Dr. Russ Teams: Well, last thing.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yes.
Dr. Russ Teams: We have a seminar coming up next weekend in San Francisco. Saturday and Sunday. Dr. B, myself, Dr. Barry and Dr. Jared Siegler from the Living Proof Institute.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Oh, great.
Dr. Russ Teams: We’re gonna be hammering autoimmunity, brain-gut axis, so, expanding on everything we just talked here today. So, you guys, if you anybody or any doctor you want to know uh more about this stuff, we’re happy
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: That’s great. And Dr. Jared was supposed to be on the podcast last week. I had to reschedule him. He’ll be on here really soon as well. Well, thanks for sharing that. Dr. Russ, we look forward to connecting soon.
Dr. Russ Teams: Okay. Sounds good. Thanks, Dr. J.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Take care.
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