Mitochondria 101: The Key to Longevity
By Dr. Justin Marchegiani
We all remember the mitochondria as the “powerhouse of the cell” from biology class. While most of us haven’t thought about these organelles since high school, the incredible power of the mitochondria has recently been gaining more and more attention. Today we’re going to take a refresher course in mitochondria, and learn how the mitochondria just might be the key to longevity.
What Are The Mitochondria?
Mitochondria are small organelles floating in our cells that produce about 90% of the chemical energy, adenosine triphosphate (ATP), that cells need to survive. Depending on how much energy a cell needs, some cells have thousands of mitochondria while others have none. These tiny organelles turn the electrons in the food we eat into energy our cells can use to power our bodies. Mitochondria are so important that they even have their own DNA, known as mitochondrial DNA (“mtDNA”).
Apoptosis: Cellular Suicide
In addition to creating energy, mitochondria produce other chemicals your body uses for various tasks, like breaking down waste, recycling waste products, and something called “apoptosis.” Apoptosis is programmed cell death and is crucial for a healthy body. When your body senses viruses and gene mutations, it may trigger apoptosis to prevent these from spreading. Cancer and tumors grow when left unchecked; apoptosis is needed to reign them in.
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Take Care of your Mitochondria
Healthy functioning mitochondria are essential for many of our life-sustaining metabolic processes. As essential to life as mitochondria are, they are also delicate and quite susceptible to damage. Mitochondrial dysfunction is currently characterized by a variety of metabolic illnesses. 
The following conditions are associated with changes in the structure of mitochondrial DNA or are symptoms of mitochondrial damage or malfunctioning include
- Multiple Sclerosis: A neuroimmune disease, multiple sclerosis patients generally have impaired ATP synthesis, which is evidence of malfunctioning mitochondria. Most MS patients also have chronic oxidative stress.
- Autism, Asperger syndrome, ADHD
- Fatigue: One of the most common symptoms of weak mitochondria is chronic fatigue.
- Motor skill problems, including trouble walking, talking or swallowing; loss of motor control; balance and coordination issues.
- Digestive issues: vomiting, diarrhea, constipation, bloating, acid reflux.
- Muscle aches, pains, weakness
- Heart, liver, kidney disease or dysfunction.
- Neurological problems,
- Age-related hearing loss
- Cancers
- Cyclic vomiting syndrome
- Cytochrome c oxidase deficiency
- Neuropathy, ataxia, and retinitis pigmentosa: muscle weakness, vision loss
- Stalled growth and development
- Respiratory problems
- Migraines
- Hormonal imbalance
Supporting Your Mitochondria Naturally
>>Healthy Lifestyle Habits: Avoid blue light at night, get full-spectrum sunlight, make conscious choices regarding the products you buy, get enough sleep.
Additionally, it’s important to be conscious of carcinogenic EMFs and minimize your exposure to these man-made electromagnetic frequencies. Healthy mitochondria can protect you from suffering too much damage from acute exposure, but constant bombardment from EMFs including cell phones, computers, Wi-Fi routers, microwaves, etc. will wear down your mitochondria. You can read more about protecting yourself from EMF radiation here.
>>Healthy Nutrition: Eating organic, whole foods is important for everyone. For an extramitochondrial boost, consider supplementation. I recommend Mito Synergy for a packed-punch of antioxidants and mitochondrial supporting nutrients.
Mito Synergy contains:
- Vitamin B: B vitamins are integral to mitochondrial energy production and proper mitochondrial function. A deficiency in any of the B vitamins disrupts normal energy production, leading to an accumulation of toxic byproducts and increasing oxidative stress.
- Creatine: Creatine is a substance similar to amino acids that you find in muscle cells. It can help increase muscle mass, strength, exercise performance, and protect against neurological diseases.
- L-Carnitine: Carnitine is an amino acid produced by the body, and is also found in red meat! It is involved in transporting compounds and also stimulates glutathione production—the master antioxidant.
- CoQ10: In order for our bodies to make use of the food we eat, our mitochondria has to turn food and oxygen into usable energy in the form of ATP. This conversion process requires the presence of CoQ10. Read more about CoQ10 here.
- Alpha Lipoic Acid (ALA): ALA has actually been labeled a “mitochondrial nutrient” by researchers due to its ability to improve the structure and function of mitochondria. ALA has also been studied for its ability to increase antioxidant levels, restore vital enzyme activity, prevent oxidative damage, and protect against cognitive decline.
- Curcumin: Curcumin is anti-inflammatory: it works on a control switch called NF-κB. Genes generally aren’t turned completely on or off, it’s more like adjusting the volume on your stereo. Curcumin helps downregulate or turn down the volume on NF-κB, which results in less inflammatory markers and less inflammatory stress. Curcumin also upregulates glutathione, known as the master antioxidant that also protects mitochondria, by up to 600%!
Still have questions about the air inside your home? Click here to talk to a professional!
References:
https://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/mitochondrial-dna#conditions
Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy with Ryan Brinkerhoff | Podcast #195
Welcome to a functional medicine podcast with Dr. J and Ryan Brinkerhoff, author at Inside Out Hyperbaric & Wellness Center. Watch this video as they discuss Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy and the issues it addresses, such as strokes, concussion, brain trauma, brain inflammation, and autism on kids. Listen as they hit over a lot of major benefits and applications of hyperbarics, suitable candidates for the therapy, and more.
Keep tuning in for more videos to get the latest about what’s happening on the functional medicine world. Hit subscribe, smash the bell, and don’t forget to share!
Ryan Brinkerhoff
In this episode, we cover:
01:00 Mechanisms Involving Hyperbarics
04:00 Protocols Accompanying Hyperbaric Sessions
07:12 Hyperbarics for Wellness
08:45 Adjunct Therapies Synergistic to Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy
17:25 Inside Out Hyperbarics and Wellness Center In a Picture
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Hey, there! It’s Dr. Justin Marchegiani. Welcome back to the podcast. We have Ryan Brinkerhoff here, who is a hyperbaric uh— expert. We’re gonna talk about Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy and— and what it can be good for. Ryan’s website is insideouthyperbarics.com. He’s at of uh— St. George, Utah. he has a clinic, where he hs treat people with a p— patients with all kinds of different uh— issues from autism to brain injuries, to trauma, to strokes, to aneurysms. And we’re using these types of therapies to naturally help that tissue heal and, ideally, get back to optimal functions as much as possible. Hey, Ryan, welcome to the podcast.
Ryan Brinkerhoff: Pleasure to be here, Dr. Thanks you.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Oh, great. Well, talk to us about hyperbarics. What— What is this technology? Can you kind of break it down? How does someone utilize it and apply it, and who’s it good for?
Ryan Brinkerhoff: Okay. So, hyperbarics, basically, uhm— just kind of paint a picture of what it is— So, you’re getting to a pressurized chamber, and while you’re in there, you’re gonna breathe a hundred percent Oxygen, full-time. And so, there’s a lot of things that happen inside the body when there’s a— when you’re inside the chamber. The first thing is— is— It’s actually a law of Physics. It’s called Henry’s Law.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Uhmhm—
Ryan Brinkerhoff: So the Oxygen, it’s actually being changed from a uh— a gas to a liquid. So instead of travelling a task to red blood cells like Oxygen normally does, now it’s being flooded through the plasma. So when that happens, you can get really, really high doses of Oxygen in the uh— the extremities, and mainly into the brain. So they’ll see Oxygen levels inside the brain go up 700-900% when— when you’re doing this. Uhm— A few other things that happens. Stem cell production goes up, so your body naturally starts using ,the stem cells that are there to help your body go into a healing state. And then uh— another cool feature is this. Its Collagen production goes way up. So we—
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Oh! Interesting.
Ryan Brinkerhoff: Yeah. So we actually get a lot of uhm— women in here that are using these Hyperbaric chambers to kind of fight uh— you know, doctor time e— and keep their youthful and vibrant looks.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: So, in general, like, Oxygen saturation in our environment’s what— like, 20, 21, 22 percent. So the whole goal is number one, you’re increasing that overall percentage, and it’s pressurized so i— it’s getting absorbed more efficiently? Is that what’s happening?
Ryan Brinkerhoff: Right. So it’s getting absorbed more efficiently but it’s also changing the way that it’s delivering throughout your body. So, again— So, like somebody, for instance, with Anemia, right? So, they— They’re suffering from…
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Ryan Brinkerhoff: …low Oxygen [inaudible] ‘cause they don’t have enough red blood cells to carry it.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Right.
Ryan Brinkerhoff: So, when— when— when you get in a hyperbaric chamber, you don’t even need red blood cells to transport Oxygen anymore, and that— and that’s the reason why they’re starting to put these uhm— in Louisiana right now. They’re putting hyperbaric chambers on emergency vehicles. So, if somebody loses a ton of bloods, and they get stabbed, they’re— or something happens, the whole race to get them back to the hospital to save their life is to what? Give them blood so they can— they can breathe, right? Well…
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Uhmhm—
Ryan Brinkerhoff: If you’re through somebody a Hyperbaric Oxygen Chamber, you do not have to have the red blood cells there. The— The body will still get the Oxygen that it needs.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: So are we still breathing all the Oxygen or is this Oxygen permeating through our skin or through other means outside of our— our Sinuses?
Ryan Brinkerhoff: No. You’re still breathing it all in. No. You’re still breathing it all in. No—
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: It’s just that a higher intensity in it. It’s pressurized so it— it’s getting into the cells— into the bloodstream kind of not necessarily passively but more actively from the pressure?
Ryan Brinkerhoff: Exactly. Yes. So…
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Uh— Okay.
Ryan Brinkerhoff: …when they get converted from it’s gas to its liquid state, now it’s just free-flowing with the plasma instead of— of needing Hemoglobin and red blood cells to travel. So, that’s why it gets in such higher concentrations.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani:Got it. So, therapeutically, we— we’re getting it in there more through an active transport, not necessarily a passive transport.
Ryan Brinkerhoff: Exactly.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: If there’s Anemia, we’re kind of bypassing that mechanism. And then, having that high saturation of Oxygen, so we’re decreasing inflammation. So if someone has a brain injury, it’s helping that tissue heal. So walk me through it. Someone comes in. They bumped their head. They get in a car accident. Like…
Ryan Brinkerhoff: Right.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: …what does that protocol look like to help this person get better?
Ryan Brinkerhoff: Well, it— it— The protocol really depends on their overall uhm—
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Uhmhm—
Ryan Brinkerhoff: How they are healthwise, right?
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Uhmhm—
Ryan Brinkerhoff: So if they…
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yup.
Ryan Brinkerhoff: …were extremely healthy before they got the concussion, uhm— we start everybody out and about the same level. So, we put them in a Hyperbaric Chamber for an hour. We’ll adjust their Oxygen to uh— a specific level, and then we’ll monitor how they do throughout the session, and then when they get out. Because, as you all know, you can give somebody too much…
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Uhmhm—
Ryan Brinkerhoff: …Oxygen…
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yup.
Ryan Brinkerhoff: …an you can have…
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yes.
Ryan Brinkerhoff: …side effects like headaches and Vertigo kick in. So, we— we basically have a process where we are just monitoring our patients all the way through their hyperbaric sessions, and, as essentially, bump people into that 90 minutes uhm— sessions. And that’s the 45-minute to the 90-minute mark is where all the stem cell production happen. So we love to keep our patients in that Goldilocks zone, as long as we possibly can, but we can’t jump right to 90 minutes because then we, in a risk, you know, give them too much Oxygen and have those side effects of— of— of that. So—
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: I understand. So, regarding, like, the timing of it, you’re not gonna have to worry about the over Oxygen saturation that you keep it 90 minutes or below essentially?
Ryan Brinkerhoff: Right, yeah. Yep. That’s exactly right.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Okay. So if this frequency starts 90-minute session, right— like what’s that look like? Everyday, you’re gonna be coming in for the next month? What would that frequency look like if someone had a significant trauma?
Ryan Brinkerhoff: Uh— So, if it’s significant, we recommend that they come in five (5) days a week. Uhm—
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Okay.
Ryan Brinkerhoff: And— And the other thing, my— my company does is we actually offer rental units, so we will take Hyperbaric chambers right to somebody’s home.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Oh, wow.
Ryan Brinkerhoff: So, if—if they don’t live in the St. George area, or they’re in a situation where they can’t travel in everyday, w—we’ll put a chamber right in their home so they can get that, you know, health that they need right there from the comfort of their own home.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Oh, that’s great. And then, regarding that, so someone comes in, they’re gonna be doing this probably at least for a month, and then…
Ryan Brinkerhoff: Right.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: …basically the Oxygen, you said, is helping with the stem cell production. It’s helping with Oxygenation. It’s reducing inflammation. What other mechanisms neurologically is it affecting?
Ryan Brinkerhoff: So, one of the really cool ones uhm— that they— they discovered a few years ago was it actually upregulates uhm—the antioxidants in your body.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Uhmhm—
Ryan Brinkerhoff: So, when I first started studying Hyperbarics, you know, everybody’s always worried about Oxygenate damage in the body.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yes.
Ryan Brinkerhoff: And— So, they did a study, and after the first session they saw a little rise i—in free radical damage. But then after that, they saw those numbers dropped and they continue to drop throughout all the treatments so it’s stimulates your body to use antioxidants more effectively. So that’s where the other amazing things at Hyperbarics does.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: And can you use Hyperbarics for like Wellness Care? Like let’s say you’re somet— like— like myself or yourself— You’re already in good health. Could you use his type of therapy just to accelerate your health or improve your health? [incomprehensible]
Ryan Brinkerhoff: Oh! [crosstalk] Yeah. You sure can. So, I have uh— a couple gentlemen here that are getting older. They’re clinical psychologists, and they notice their—their brain wasn’t as sharp as it used to be before they get a lot of brain fog. Well, anytime when they have big meetings coming up or they’re doing podcasts—thing like that—they’ll come in and get the chambers beforehand, go out, and then just chill. Their memory gets i—insanely sharp. The one gentlemen uhm—had failed his last two uh—pre-Dementia screenings. He came in and did about 60 sessions, went back and took those same screenings again, and just aced them.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Oh, wow!
Ryan Brinkerhoff: So— Yeah.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: And what about professional athletes? Are you seeing a lot of athletes that are, you know, putting their body into wear and tear, just sleeping on these things or utilize them a—as an acceleration to help their body heal?
Ryan Brinkerhoff: Right. Yeah. So we do— We see a ton of marathoners share uh— St. George is a big area. We have an Iron Man competition here…
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Uhmhm—
Ryan Brinkerhoff: …and also tons of marathons throughout the year. So, I have a group of marathoners every time when the races are coming up. They’ll come and start hitting the Hyperbarics about a week before. They’ll hit their PR’s and their marathons, and then they’ll come in about a week afterwards to help their bodies heal up from the strain the race put them through. So I always see that with a lot of CrossFit athletes as well.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Oh, excellent! And how did you actually get into this field? Because uh—This is your uh—Were you in the health field before you jumped in the Hyperbarics?
Ryan Brinkerhoff: No. I actually was and I was actually in the computer technology world. Mainly, uhm—
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Oh!
Ryan Brinkerhoff: …you know, like the in—in the oil industry. Uhm— Hyperbarics all came about, for me, from having been stricken once a disease that, depending on what neurologist I saw, was either ALS or MS, uhm— Uh—It turns out I have Lyme’s disease.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Okay.
Ryan Brinkerhoff: That’s why I get a ton [crosstalk] of interventions to try to get myself back to full levels of health.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Right.
Ryan Brinkerhoff: And I could only get about 80%. It was the best I could achieve. And then, once I got in a Hyperebarics and I just saw my—my health accelerate to— to where it is now, I now have no symptoms, whatsoever. So—
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Oh, wow!
Ryan Brinkerhoff: It would really integral part of giving me back to—to where I am today.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Are there any adjunct therapies that you think are very synergistic to combining with Hyperbarics, or maybe therapies that you do combine with Hyperbarics at your clinic already?
Ryan Brinkerhoff: Uhm— Yeah. So there is a machine called the beamer. Uhm—
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Ryan Brinkerhoff: It’s a Bemer. And it basically—
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: P-E-M-F basically, right? Pulse Electromagnetic Frequency?
Ryan Brinkerhoff: That’s it. That’s…
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Ryan Brinkerhoff: …the one. And uhm— So it— it stimulates microcirculation, right? So we have our clientele. Well, some of them will get in on the Bemer…
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Uhmhm—
Ryan Brinkerhoff: … before they get in. Really open up those capillaries, get everything ready, and then we throw them in a Hyperbaric chamber and it seems to quantify the power and affects the— the other chambers.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Excellent. So when you combine these therapies, you typically do a Hyperbarics first and then do the P-E-M-F second?
Ryan Brinkerhoff: No. We do the P-E-M-F first to—to really open everything up…
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Ryan Brinkerhoff: And then we throw them in Hyperbaric chambers afterwards.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Very good. Do you have any good case studies that you typically, you know, any—any recent patient success stories that you want to share?
Ryan Brinkerhoff: Uhm— Yes. So, one thing we do at our clinic is we will donate our Hyperbaric chambers’ time to local veterans…
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Right.
Ryan Brinkerhoff: …when they are not being used by our paid customers. Uhm— On our website, insideoouthyperbarics.com, we have uh— a testimonial on there from uh— a vet who, basically, was suffering from PTSD so bad that his whole life is falling apart. And uh—after about 30 sessions, he was back working again, and after about 90 sessions, he’s completely healed. He’s got a job. He just graduated with high marks from Dixie State University here, and he’s just loving and living life again. And he will be the first one to tell you it was all Hyperbarics that helped healed his brain and get him back to that point.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Excellent. Are there any nutritional strategies that you combine with it or diet or lifestyle strategies? Someone comes in, obviously if you’re just eating McDonalds or crappy food…
Ryan Brinkerhoff: Yeah.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: …uhm— i— it may just kind of be like an uphill battle utilizing a therapeutic modality when there’s so much crap going on in their life. How do you combine other healthy lifestyle or diet habits? And what kind of things you recommend?
Ryan Brinkerhoff: Yeah. So we have a dietician that uhm— is on staff here that actually teaches at the local college here, too. She’s a professor there. And, yeah, and you’re 100% right. I tell people over time. And you come in here and we’re eliminating inflammation, and then you go out and you get your McDonalds, or you …
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Right.
Ryan Brinkerhoff: …drink soda cups, you’re counteracting everything that we’ve just done. So, we like to get people on a very good diet. We do tons of supplementation after we checked blood work. We also look at genetics, too, to see if MTHFR and COMT and a bunch of these things are playing roles in— in— in their health. And so we build a whole program around the individual. We don’t have a set program for everybody. We work at everybody as an individual, and it’s up to us to design a program for them. And then we follow through with that program.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Are there any objective measurements that you combine with the Hyperbaric therapy? Do you do any like SPECT Scan or like uhm— or like the type of scan that uhm— SPECT Scan that the Daniel Amen does, or do you do any EEG stuff or brain mapping before and after? What’s your experience with that?
Ryan Brinkerhoff: Uhm—So we have not done any brain imagery stuff yet.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Ryan Brinkerhoff: Uhm— I got a uh—a neurologist who wants to start doing some studies with us, but there’s actually a couple doctors out there that are really killing I right now, uhm— where you can actually go to their websites and look and see their brain images. And it just shows the brain is actually killing itself. I mean, one of the biggest lies I’ve seen and I was told when I was younger is uh—you know, you only got X amount of brain cells so you got to make sure you take care of them, right?
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Right.
Ryan Brinkerhoff: ‘Cause once they’re dead, they’re dead. And I always thought, “Well, you know, our liver is rebuilding itself constantly.” [crosstalk] “Our kidneys, why is [incomprehensible]—”
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: …[crosstalk] nails, hair, skin, right?
Ryan Brinkerhoff: Yeah. Everything is rebuilding. A— And now, With— With, you know, SPECT Scans and things like that, they can actually show the brain is being repaired while you’re in a Hyperbaric chamber. This is one reason why NFL teams are now having hyperbaric facilities installed at all their training facilities. You get a head injury, everybody’s worried about CT now. Well, you get a concussion, they’re gonna throw you right in the hyperbaric chamber because it’s proven to actually heal the brain.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: What other nutrients do you combine with it from a supplement standpoint? Do you any of the— the uh—Resveratrol or the Alpha-GPC compounds I’ve seen some interesting research on— on those really helping to cool and quiet the inflammation for all/some of these Nerve-2 compounds like Green Tea, Ashwagandha. What supplements have you seen the best success with it, you use in conjunction with the hyperbarics?
Ryan Brinkerhoff: Well, you mentioned a couple of them right there.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yep.
Ryan Brinkerhoff: …is Vestrol is uh— one that we use. And we always put every uhm—every one of our patients on uhm—anti oxidants…
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Ryan Brinkerhoff: …a really good antioxidants formula, just to make sure that they have everything there in place so they can combat the oxidative stress and get out with that.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Right.
Ryan Brinkerhoff: So—
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: And what kind of antioxidants outside of like your Vitamin A, D, and K. Anything else uh— specifically?
Ryan Brinkerhoff: Those are actually the main ones that we use. Uhm—I was actually hoping to get with you and see if you could help throw me together a little protocol uh—for that as well, ‘cause I know you understand those things better than most— anybody else I listen to on the internet. So, I was— I was gonna try to collaborate with you to develop uh—this specific supplement.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Ye—Yeah. I think there are some— definitely some good compounds in there. Uhm—the alpha-GPC compounds are excellent. The uh—The Nerve-II compounds, the Green Tea, the Curcumin, the Resveratrol, a lot of the Mitochondrial uh—nutrients like the Carnitine, and the Ribose, just because there’s a lot of Mitochondria density in the brain. And when these…
Ryan Brinkerhoff: Right.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: …tissues get injured, right— we need Oxygen for the Mitochondria, but we also need some of these nutrients and— to help combat the oxidative stress. So, yeah, that’s— That sounds great. That sounds awesome.
Ryan Brinkerhoff: Yeah. Yeah, it’s— It’s— It’s good stuff.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: And was there anything else that you wanted to highlight? Like, what are like— Like, what are the top three peop— What are the top three like average patients? What are they coming in for? Is it just, they bump their head, or is it just like, “Hey, they’re having some brain fog or Alzheimer’s, Dementia”? What are you typically seeing?
Ryan Brinkerhoff: Uhm— So, in an average day, we’ll probably see four to five different types of disease processes that people are trying to get help with. Of course, we have the athletes coming in for that— you know, that edge that they can get by using Hyperbaric chambers. But, for instance, one thing that we’ve seen a lot with lately is GI issues. Uhm—
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Hmm—
Ryan Brinkerhoff: There—There’s actually a ton of research now being done with hyperbarics and GI issues, and it all came apart as a— a— a scientist, whose wife have gotten a car accident. She got a major concussion, had some problems, and so, he started throwing her a Hyperbaric chamber. But as he was going a lot to her sessions, he noticed that her symptoms of Crohn’s disease was starting to disappear.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Mm—
Ryan Brinkerhoff: And— And he talked in front about this and everything like that. And then, as uh— Rice University and the University of Israel, combined on a study that takes a bunch of people with IBS problems, put them in Hyperbaric chambers and see what happened. And it was 80% uhm— or higher that these people were getting reduction with their symptoms or complete elimination. So, now, I’ve been doing a lot of radio spots about that and we are starting to see a lot more focus come to the doors with— with, you know, intestinal issues. Uhm—Another big one we see is brain fog. So, you’ll have people that come in that are tired, wore out, and one of their main symptoms is they’ll have brain fog. Well, when you get tons of fuel in the brain and the central nervous system, the body starts running at a lot higher level. And so they’ll see their brain fog a—and fatigue issues disappear for a week after only one session. So it’s a great pick-me-up for— for those folks who are looking forward to it.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Oh, wow! That’s great. Yeah. I have seen research on the fact that if, yeah, brain trauma or head trauma…
Ryan Brinkerhoff: Right.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: …a lot of times, the brain, if there’s injury to it, and inflammation, it can actually cause leaky gut. Like a lot of people know, like, “Okay. I eat gluten, I have an infection. I have food allergens like that, leaky gut, ken— kind of those immune compounds can create the bloodstream make their way to the brain and create brain inflammation and brain fog.
Ryan Brinkerhoff: Right.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: But it can also work the other direction. If we have impact or inflammation stress that hits the brain directly, that can easily drive gut permeability then create more gut issues. So that makes sense because if this is the root issue that cause it all, [crosstalk] and we get that better, that could help with the gut permeability down south.
Ryan Brinkerhoff: Yeah. It’s funny that you mentioned that, too, because when I uh— when I got super sick, I—I fell and got a—a really bad concussion. And then I develop Rheumatoid arthritis probably about two (2) weeks after that, which I never had, and it turned out it was an issue with gluten at that point. [crosstalk] When I put away the gluten, the RA went away, but I never had that problem with the gluten in ‘til I got that major concussion. So, I— I didn’t know they were studying that but I just answer the question, for me, I’ve had for a very long time.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Absolutely. So if there was like— there wasn’t a lot of gut issues, but then the head stuff happened first, that could be the root issues. That—That’s great. So, someone walks into your clinic, what’s your clinic like? How many Hyperbaric chambers do you have? Someone walks in, is— is— what’s the tip of— I know, it’s gonna be customized, right? But, what’s the typical protocol? Three times a week, 60-90 minutes? Ad, how many people can you service at once in your clinic?
Ryan Brinkerhoff: So we have three (3) chambers here right now, and plus we have nine rental chambers out there in the field.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Hmm—
Ryan Brinkerhoff: So uhm— i— in-house, uh— pretty much all day long, we’ll have one to two of our chambers running at all times, and a lot of times. And then half of the day, we’re pretty much booked up. So folks who come in, uhm—we will get them square away. We do a very extensive medical history because I want to know, you know, are you working in a chemical plant. I want to know a lot about your lifestyle and everything like that so we can help address that. But on a day-to-day basis, uhm—we just have folks coming in. Usually three times a week is what we recommend uhm—unless there are serious, serious issues going on, and then we’ll recommend folks come in five (5) days a week.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: If someone needs to rent a unit from you but let’s say they’re not in Utah, is it possible for you to get them set up with the rental? Do they have to be relatively local?
Ryan Brinkerhoff: Right. So we— we travel about ten-hour area anywhere from Southern Utah, but I’m working with a company right now to get it s— set up with some little containers. Because now I way you have just the Hyperbaric chamber. You got to ship. Do you have the Oxygen concentrator to compress…
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Right.
Ryan Brinkerhoff: …with everything like that. So—
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: That could be explosive, right— if it’s compressed like that? [laughs]
Ryan Brinkerhoff: Right. Yeah. So, well, we don’t use compressed Oxygen. We use at what they called concentrator.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Okay.
Ryan Brinkerhoff: So, the ambient air takes all the Nitrogen— everything else— out of it, and then just push a straight Oxygen to the— to our patients.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Excellent. So I think we hit over, you know, a lot of the major benefits of Hyperbarics and how could it be applied and who are some of the best candidates, right? We talked about uhm—strokes. We talked about concussions, brain trauma, brain inflammation, potentially, even kids that have Autism as well, right?
Ryan Brinkerhoff: Uh— Right, yeah.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Minor brain inflammation— Is there any other person that this type of therapy’s a good fit for?
Ryan Brinkerhoff: Uhm— Anybody that’s just trying to take their health to that next level.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Uhmhm—
Ryan Brinkerhoff: Uhm—Like, me with Lyme’s disease, for instance. It’s known in—in the clinical literature now that it is a juggernaut against microbes ‘cause most of the nasty microbes are anaerobic.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Right.
Ryan Brinkerhoff: And haven’t I actually live in the blood, so when you’re putting that Oxygen right into the plasma, you are not only sending uh— a life source for yourself but you’re actually killing microbes off extremely faster in the blood. So, uhm— And like I said, I—I got to a plateau. I got about 80%. I was stuck there for about three (3) years. And then, once I started the Hyperbarics, it was just the icing on the cake. Not only, I think, eliminating microbes but also getting my body functioning the way it did prior to the infection.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Excellent. Very cool. And is there any other information that you think is important or that we haven’t quite gone over yet that you want to highlight before we go?
Ryan Brinkerhoff: Uhm— One of the main things— I mean, pretty much the main thing I’d like to highlight is Hyperbarics are amazing. They do a lot of wonderful things, but I don’t want anybody to think they can just, you know, go visit a Hyperbaric clinic somewhere and, magically, everything’s gonna change in their body.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Right.
Ryan Brinkerhoff: You’ll see some benefit but the— the holistic of addressing every part of healing is what really, really is the cornerstone that anybody getting better in any situation. So, uh— I don’t want folks to be misled, thinking I’m saying Hyperbarics can fix everything ‘cause it won’t. But I think it is an integral part o— of somebody’s healing modality if they’d like to try it.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: That’s great. Well, if you’re in the St. George, Utah area, insideouthyperbarics— with an “s”. We’ll put the link down there below. Is there any other avenues or social media places where people could find you online?
Ryan Brinkerhoff: Yeah. We have uhm—Facebook. We got our uh—Inside Out Hyperbarics and Wellness Center. Uhm— And I think we got a YouTube page up as well, where you’ll see a bunch of our videos. It’s just Inside Out Hyperbarics. And uh— we a lot of radio stuff, and hopefully, more podcast stuff with— with folks like you.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Oh, great. Awesome, Ryan. Well, I appreciate you jumping on the show here today and dropping some good knowledge bombs. I thank you for everything, and you have a phenomenal day.
Ryan Brinkerhoff: Thanks, Dr. J. Well, see you later.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Thank you.
Ryan Brinkerhoff: Bye.
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REFERENCES:
http://insideouthyperbarics.com/
Dr. Robert Rakowski – Acid alkaline balance, cancer prevention and the magnificent 7 – Podcast # 129
Dr. Justin Marchegiani and Dr. Robert Rakowski talk about what is new in the Functional Medicine Nutrition as they focus on addressing the root cause of a health problem. Listen to them as Dr. Bob Rakowski shares his experience and expertise in addressing conditions he encounters in his practice including diabetes and cancer.
Learn some knowledge bombs about conventional drugs and vaccines, including its implication to one’s health. Gain tons of information regarding his recommendation when it comes to nutritional needs of his patients depending on different situations and conditions. Also, know the importance of acid-alkaline balance and enzymes in our bodies and how it affects our health.
In this episode, we cover:
3:49 Diabetes
9:40 Improving performance through diet
18:01 Recent studies on vaccinations
25:08 Acid – Alkaline balance
29:26 Nutrition Recommendation for athletes
37:43 Nutrition Recommendation for cancer patients
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Hey there! It’s Dr. Justin Marchegiani. I got Dr. Bob Rakowski here all the way from Houston Texas. We’re just in his neck of the wood yesterday. Dr. Bob welcome to the show.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: Happy Beautiful day. Honored to be here as always.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Thank you. I’m looking forward to some knowledge bombs drop here today like you always do. Well, we got this podcast on video today. So if you’re listening via mp3, check out the YouTube channel link below so you can see Dr. Bob in the flesh. So Dr. Bob, what’s new in your world of uh – Functional Medicine Nutrition?
Dr. Robert Rakowski: You know, that’s a really broad question.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: I know.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: But let’s just say we get better – we get better, stronger, faster, smarter all the time. The research keeps unveiling that our strategies are simply the absolute best in the history of the game. You know I just had a patient come in take 8 different drugs and uh – you know, for diabetes, right? And some of those medicines just – that’s what they do. But yeah. We have people on good nutrition program where their diabetes resolves the typical case in 60 days or less. So she’s pretty excited to get her health back and uh – you know, stop taking some of those poisons.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Its really crazy coz in the world of Conventional Medicine, you have diabetes basically a sugar intolerance, right? Too much carbohydrate too much sugar, receptor issues, metabolic derangement. But nowhere else in medicine that if you have a peanut intolerance or a lactose intolerance, the typical treatment is you avoid the lactose, you avoid the peanuts. But only in Conventional Medicine is it – No, No, No. Keep taking what you’re intolerant to, and let’s give you drugs that shut down absorption of glucose. Let’s shut it – Let’s give you drugs like Glucophage that shut down uhmm gluconeogenesis. Or let’s just give you insulin short-acting, long acting so we can just jam that blood into the cell.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: And all of the above for this patient. So, I wish I met her 20 years ago when she was diagnosed with diabetes. But I’d say, “What happened?” “How did you get diabetes?” She says, “I was fat and I ate a lot of sugar.” It’s like, “Okay, you think that’s what caused it.” Yeah. Well, I think we have a pretty easy solution, right? Like you said, I never have to put it that way. That’s brilliant. It’s essentially sugar intolerance. It’s a carbohydrate intolerance. Uh, but now, she’s post stroke in 8 meds and a lot of them are not doing her any good. And she’s like, “I want my life back.” Well, let’s get it back. You gotta be healthy to get your life back. So-
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: And most doctors that are you know – most people that think the doctors know exactly what’s going on with this. They’re really in the dark. I worked in surgery for four years and I was the one literally holding the limbs on the diabetic as the surgeon will come in and literally tie off the arteries and amputate the limb. Hundreds of limbs passed my possession into the morgue. And I talked to these doctors as they were scrubbing out, I’d say well, “How come we’re in front of this? What’s the prevention? What’s the fore thinking so we can avoid this?” and like, it was just like over their head. They were just there doing what they were designed to do. And that mindset wasn’t quite in play.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: You know, if you go to a surgeon, you’re gonna get surgery. If you go to a drug doctor, you’re gonna get drugs. If you go to a natural doctor, you’re gonna get uh –
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Natural Solutions.
–interruption–
Dr. Robert Rakowski: Absolutely. So I got patients in here, they’d be pouring after this podcast. But uh – It’s fun to have a little – a little shift of pace. But even really, our number one focus is education. So – As long as it’s the same line, it’s what we do with every patient at a time.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani. Love it. So you’re uh – we’re kinda talking about diabetes right now. So what are the low hanging free- fruit for anyone that has a metabolic diabetes issue. You can be like PCOS coz a lot of people may not be at that diabetic level. They may have the insulin resistance and kinda be in between.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: Well, you said it first and best. You know, it’s gonna be what we called the Ketogenic Diet. But I like a healthy Ketogenic diet.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: A lot of people – lasted Atkins.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Uh-hmm.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: I know some things to blast him about. Like you don’t wanna have the bacon whip cream diet.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yup.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: But you know what, I always tell people my favourite ketogenic diet is leans, greens, nuts and seeds. So lean meats, green vegetables, organic raw nuts, organic raw seeds. That’s a great choice. Now there are some so low glycemic fruits and berries and blueberries are awesome. But as a general rule, we’re gonna do leans, greens, nuts and seeds. We’re gonna exercise. Those are the things that can get us there. Uhm you know, I always tell people, I call them the magnets inside of your gut.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: Eat like, drink like, think like, move like, sleep like, talk like everyday if you do that.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Love it.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: If you do that, guess what? You can keep diabetes away.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: I love it. That makes so much sense. And you know, you also mention about lean meats. Now, we know that conventionally, a lot of toxins will get stored in the fat. It’s typically where it goes. So it makes sense with conventional meat for sure. If we’re eating like really good pastured meat, high-quality meat, is it okay to have more full fat meats?
Dr. Robert Rakowski: Yeah. Absolutely so. Uh the president of the Swedish Grass Grows Beef Association – uh I’ve stayed with him at his farm house and a dozen trips to US, Sweden.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Wow!
Dr. Robert Rakowski: And they test every single lot of grass-fed beef. And the ratio of Omega 6 to Omega 3 and grass-fed animals is 1:81.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Beautiful.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: Which is a very healthy ratio. So you’d eat all that fat that you want.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah. And we know if you eat the – the grain, it goes up to 30-40 to 1, right?
Dr. Robert Rakowski: Uh – you know it’s stored in so many ways. The animals get sick. They put them on antibiotics and the meat becomes more anti-inflammatory by multiple mechanisms beside the omega 3, omega 6 ratio. So, not a good strategy there. We want healthy animals. Do you know what you’re animals – Do you know what you’re food is eating? That’s important to know.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah. Absolutely. That makes a lot of sense. Now in my clinic, when we look at blood sugar issue, some of the things I look at, obviously, A1C, uh- fasting glucose can be helpful. Uh – triglyceride:HDL ratio, fasting insulin. And even just the good blood sugar mirror to see how they do right after a meal. Kind of like a functional glucose tolerance. Just curious to get your take on that. And uh – what test are you doing in your office to look at these issues?
Dr. Robert Rakowski: You know all of the above. Everything you’ve just said. And those are pretty much gold standard solid and we also have a sugar refractometer that can measure urinary sugar which is pretty sensitive.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Wow.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: So it’s gonna be all sugars uh – not just uh – glucose. So that’s –that’s interesting. Coz if we do have some more sugars in the __ than glucose. It’s something called Fructosamine.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Fructosamine. 10-day window. Yup.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: And uh – uh – uh yeah. That’s a nice test. So quicker response for sure than A1C.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Great. Now I see a lot of patients that have higher A1C’s and all the other markers look good. Do you ever get false positives or just false high readings on the A1C but everything else looks on the better side?
Dr. Robert Rakowski: Not typically. But it can happen and – and so, you got to remember they don’t need value and Physiology behaves on bell shaped curves.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: So for instance, when cholesterol’s gonna elevate, that’s a functional__. Actually the uh – the glucose or the insulin is driving HMG-CoA reductase.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yup.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: Which by the way is what__
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yup.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: So that elevates cholesterol.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yup.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: It also impacts cholesteryl ester transfer protein converts HDL to triglycerides. But if those mechanism fail, those numbers can work normally. Even pretty decent or close to ideal – but being on a failure aspect. So, bell shape curves, values rise then fall like insulin, right? We can have a perfect insulin with a perfect blood sugar. Or our insulin rises, rises, rises until our pancreas fail so if we can’t keep up then it falls, falls, falls, falls. So two spots that insulin can be perfect.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah. Very good. And that’s the issue, I think – That’s the issue really bankrupting healthcare today. I mean I Think I’ve read that the average diabetic with blood sugar issues, they’re spending $2-3 million managing the disease and it’s – it’s really interesting because in conventional healthcare, there’s like disease management, right? And then with us there’s root cause management. We’re actually getting to the root cause. As we chip away the root cause, we’re actually fixing the underlying issue. Can you talk more about that?
Dr. Robert Rakowski: Well, let’s talk about the cause issue first.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: Diabetes is the most expensive problem.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Huge.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: And the sick care system. That healthcare – system is sick – their expense on diabetes. And so we do live in a universe of cause and effect. So what did you do that created this challenge? People are sitting on the couch, people are eating chips, drinking Coca-Cola, not making good dietary choices. They don’t eat right, think right, move right, sleep right, poop right or talk right. And they wonder, “Gee, I wonder how I got sick?” Yeah. And doctors will monitor them and then, Well – you know, I think a good doctor would say, “We’re not starting to get out of hand here.” You know, do something a little healthier. Like if they ask them, “Can you be more specific about that?” “Well, sorry I wasn’t trained for that, you know. Maybe go see the dietician. And I haven’t ___In hospitals my diabetic patients peak up high for dessert, you know. So uhm – you really need to go to someone trained natural if you want natural advice. If you want drug advice, go to someone trained in drugs.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah. Absolutely. I mean I always tell my patients, “When was the last time you had a good meal in the hospital?” I mean, my god, like never.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: Uh-hmm. Good point, right?
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah. Absolutely. Now you build your reputation over the last 20-30 years really working with high-end individuals, professional athletes, and then you can name the gamut of the whole field, Yao Ming, and I could think of many off the bat. But working with these guys, what’s – I mean there’s probably some commonalities that you are using, or your addressing with these high-level athletes that you’re also addressing maybe with your – you know, average day person that’s looking to improve their performance? What are those – Let’s say the top three that you can take from the professionals and extract that information for the average Joe’s?
Dr. Robert Rakowski: The big three. From the sickest to the sick and the best of the best. And that’s stress, toxins, and malnutrition. So I think any of these – how are these high level athletes stress? Well there is a performance stress, there’s a recovery stress, there’s a lack of sleep stress. My favourite stress protocol that I use over the last 5 years with a lot of success even with lab markers is using melatonin, 1-3 milligrams.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Wow!
Dr. Robert Rakowski: Every waking hour. We now know that melatonin actually binds to the adrenal cortex and blocks the pituitary gland or at least buffers the pituitary cortisol. And uh – by the way, the gut makes 400x melatanonin as the brain. That’s a proven fact. So it’s not –
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Right.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: It’s not like the melatonin crosses the blood-brain barrier. Detox – number one thing is you know, keep yourself away from toxins. So create a clean environment. Put clean clothes in your body, clean water in your body. Then you do some medical food based detox –
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: Which is really, really solid. Now we start looking at malnutrition. You know, I’ve created my own food pyramid. Now they have the plate out there which is no good at all based on how they have it.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Terrible.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: But based only the food pyramid, guess what? There can be food and whole natural clean healthy foods. And we’re gonna have super foods and there’s a number of those with super nature in density. And then I actually have medical foods, functional foods. And then to top that off, we have multivitamin Omega 3’s, probiotics, and vitamin D. And by the way, sicker people, they need a lot more of each of those things but you’re gonna have the best of the best in people that are fighting for their life.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: It’s really interesting that some of the foundational information that we review everyday with average patients, these are some of the things that professional athletes aren’t even doing themselves. I remember a talk that Paul Chek gave maybe a decade ago. And he talked about being in the New York Giants uh wait room. And there was like Doritos and all this crap everywhere. And for some reason they had to do it because of the sponsorship. I just couldn’t believe it. Uhm, I remem – I recall I’m a big fan – I’m from Boston area, so a big fan of Tom Brady. I know they beat the Texans last month. So maybe a little hard feeling there. Uhm, But –
Dr. Robert Rakowski: They beat everybody last month.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani. They beat everyone. Yes, so- But Brady is the functional medicine guru, right? I mean, he told – his records say in 2008 when he had his ACL injury, that he actually got better from that. That he avoided the standard of care rehab life. He saw uh – people like yourself, get the nutrition dialled in. I mean basically eats uh – alkaline, Paleo diet. 20% meat, lots of veggies, avoids nitrates,10 hours of sleep at night, all of the high-quality supplements. And this guy is getting better 40 Years into it. At age 40 – What’s your take? Coz I think most athletes aren’t even doing these things and some are. And you’ve seen the ones that are thriving.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: Now you – you – This thing is if you master the basics yourself, you don’t need anything else.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: And I literally got that sick when promoting my real champion Kung Fu guys. But uhm – and then we’re going, “Okay, well how are you doing on the basics?” “Tell me about your diet.” “Well, it sucks, you know.” “How are you doing on your sleep?” “Well, that sucks.” “What do you drink?” “Well, that sucks.” Right. And so we’re just talking with this very very basics and you realise that the best of the best, if they sleep better, they’re gonna perform better. Quick study with the US Military, they found out that when a military gets less than 6 hours of sleep for 6 straight nights, they functioned on a level as if they’re legally drunk. So – so just imagine that, right?
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Six hours of sleep for six months?
Dr. Robert Rakowski: Six hours for six straight nights. No, not six months, just for a week, right? And then so – do we want drunks walking with high-powered weapons? You know, that’s not a good idea. Uh – and so your cognition drops, your coordination drops, reaction time drops. All these things drop, so – When we started swinging that to the athletes – In Stanford, they had an interesting study. They just had their tennis team stay in bed an extra two hours a day. 10 hours a day within 2 weeks time, they have 17% improved performance on first serve. So sleep has been –
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Wow!
Dr. Robert Rakowski: Our – our athletes, they’re blessed in so many ways, but yeah, they’re still misinformed like the general population.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Oh, absolutely. Especially the fact they’re putting wear and tear on their body so they’re breaking down their ligaments, their tendons, their joints, their tissues. And an old expression – I can’t remember who said it first, but – “You can’t make chicken salad on a chicken shit.” So –
Dr. Robert Rakowski: There you go.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: If you have the poor quality nutrition coming in, the tendons – all those raw material and building blocks get downgraded each time. And eventually that means more time on the DL and you lose a step, then you’re out of the league, right?
Dr. Robert Rakowski: That’s exactly right. I look at Emman Smith, you know. And – and he was one of my favourite running backs and some people my age will remember him as well. But, you know – one step he went from the best of the game to barely in the game. He lost two games – two steps and he’s out of the game. Uh, but how long can you keep that well? Like you said, Tom Brady is a great example, but others pitcher and way back Satchel Paige.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: And I don’t even know how old he was when he was pitching. But he seem to be absolutely timeless. You know, Gordie Howe, the hockey player played – I believe professional hockey in six different decades.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Wow!
Dr. Robert Rakowski: I mean how in the world do you do that? Well, one, back then, there’s certainly a lot that are food quality.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: So, uh – pretty remarkable stuff that in today’s environment, goodluck getting good quality food. It’s just harder and harder coz our animals are malnourished and toxic. So when you do supplement – across the border, we need a supplement.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Love it. Totally makes sense. I remember Julio Franco the old uh – I think he was uh – outfielder I think from the Cleveland Indians. But he played into his mid-40s. And even – even Nolan Ryan from the uh – Texas Rangers. I mean he played into his mid-40s. Julio Franco – I remember reading articles of him. He had pre-made organic food uh – brought to the ballpark and everyone would look at him eating his own they’re like looking at him like he’s crazy. But the guy played 26 years in major leagues.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: Yeah. Well you look at my athletes that have had longevity, they all got early on that nutrition is important.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah. I love it. And what are the most – I mean maybe this is gonna be individual, I know it is. But are there typical muscle imbalances where certain muscles aren’t turned on appropriately that you’re seeing across the board in some of these athletes?
Dr. Robert Rakowski: Well, let’s just go into general population.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: ____ In Geology, there’s something Specific Adaptation__ So we sit longer, we get better at sitting. So –
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: You know it starts pulling our lumbar spine into lordosis. Our spine compensates, we get forward leaning posture. Uh – you know, most of us have our shoulders drawn up, rather than down and back like they should be.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: And there’s a number of imbalances. But literally the imbalances seem universal in our society. And its’ gonna be the – the – the – like what I just described__with shortened hip flexors. So when you do –
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: And that creates reciprocal inhibition with the glutes. So then your hip extension, you’re gonna be utilizing the lower back versus hip extension for the glutes. So then you get lower back pain, right?
Dr. Robert Rakowski: Yeah. I mean, by the way, you’re gonna lose a step or two or three if your glutes aren’t firing, right? That’s the most __ on a solid splint is that glute causing that hip extension, so – Yeah.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Absolutely.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: That’s uh– across the board, super important.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: One of my biggest 2 investments that I made in the last two years is I got a stand desk that can go up and down. And I also got a walking treadmill that could slide under the desk. So when I see patients virtually, like we’re talking on Skype now, I literally walk 12 miles a day, 60 miles a week while seeing patients.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: Man, that’s awesome.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: And isn’t that great? It’s amazing.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: And why these companies don’t introduce what treadmill does? You know, I read a book called, Drop Dead Healthy, years ago.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Oh, yup.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: It was a writer from New York magazine. And one of his tips was, “Hey, if I’m gonna sit around and write all day, why don’t I just get a standing desk with a treadmill?” And he’d walk 1.5 miles per hour with a 3% incline.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: That’s what I do.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: And just type away and had his work and sure enough, burn calories to get healthy. Fire the muscles, stay young and get – and be productive at the same time.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Love it. Makes sense. You did a YouTube video, I think it was a Facebook video, uhmm maybe a year or two ago. And you touched upon the MMR Vaccine. I was just kinda curious kinda what your thoughts in – in general? I mean we can touch upon it here, but you brought up – you know, when you speak from it, you’re talking about actual peer-reviewed research. That’s why I love it. It’s not a lot of emotion behind it. What’s your take on that? And what are some of the most recent studies you’re seeing about the MMR? Just vaccinations in general?
Dr. Robert Rakowski: Well, luckily the conversation is coming into the light.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: And when you walk at the data right out of CDC you’ll find out that death rate from infectious disease drop 91% –
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yup.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: From basically you know, 1900 to 1964 when they started this – started the mass vaccinations. And it hasn’t gone down even a bit. And so – is there justification for some vaccines? Maybe for some kids but certainly not 76 before the age of 6. Uhm – when you look at the child’s immune system, it’s not really fully functional until the age 2. And so they generally are not gonna respond to vaccines. So if you’re injecting a new born with toxins that their immune system isn’t gonna respond to, how can you have anything but a downside to it? So I’m just very much for people making an educated choice. So let’s just look at education for a moment. Guess who does not vaccinate their children? They found out it was people in the highest income quartet, right? The highest IQ, right? And – and therefore, whether we think rich, smart people don’t love their kids –
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Exactly.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: And the answer is no, they love them enough to look into what’s going their bodies and say, “Hey, something’s not right in this picture.”
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah. And I totally agree. And if you You look at the World Health Organization info mortality rate, we’re at number 40 just behind Cuba. And if you look at some of the Scandinavian countries that are in top 10, they’ve done some epidemiological studies looking at the trend vaccinations versus the mortality rate. And in- in like Finland, Norway those type of countries only have about 10 Vaccinations in for kids for the first I think 4-5 years, where we have 40 to 50. So these countries are top 10 and they have 75% less vaccinations. So they obviously know something different than we know, right?
Dr. Robert Rakowski: I think they’re not as swayed by money.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: As our government. So by the way, the top lobby of our US government. Number one is gonna be the NRA, number two, pharmaceuticals.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah. Interesting.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: So – pretty basic. Yeah.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: And people also forget, too. The uh – the CDC, I think, make $68 billion dollars a year of off vaccine patent. So there’s a little bit of a conflict of interest there. Also, uhm – you talked about this, too. It’s interesting. In one of your lectures a few years back, you talked about the uh – the Hannah Poling issue. Hannah Poling was vaccine injured. Interesting enough, her father was a neurologist, her mom was a lawyer. So she had pretty good representation in the vaccine courts. One of things that came out of there, I think she had autism and they said that she had autism because she had a potential mitochondrial defect. And very interesting because if the government is admitting that there is potential autism from mitochondrial defects, are we screening mitochondrial defects? How do we even know it? So it’s interesting that that’s out there but we’re not even screening for that. Any take the mitochondrial defect aspect?
Dr. Robert Rakowski: I believe that the stats are just about the exact same challenge that she has. It’s about 1 in 50. But you have to remember that she was developing perfectly normally uh- and now, all of a sudden there’s boom extreme dose of toxins causing extreme brain inflammation uh in – by the way, the brain is the most energy dependent system in the body. So part of that spiralled her into a downward spiral. But to the point that the mitochondria alone is – is blatantly broad.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Uh-hmm.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: Uh – uh and so, you know–
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Right.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: Plenty of these kids that are gonna have mitochondrial problems are more likely to be injured by the vaccine but it’s not a prerequisite to have a vaccine injury.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Now, exactly. Yeah.Totally agree. Any other thoughts on that? Any other comments or research articles that you’re coming up?
Dr. Robert Rakowski: Oh, boy. You know, so – So Hannah got a $20 million settlement.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Phew!
Dr. Robert Rakowski: And what’s pretty fascinating is – is Sanjay Gupta –
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yup.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: Interviewed Julie Gerberding who was the head of the CDC at the time. And she never answered any question directly. And she just basically said, “You know what, very rare case. Parents, whatever you do, please make sure you go out and make sure your kids get their vaccines.” And after that, after she retired from CDC, she got some –
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Merck.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: mega contract to be a spokesman for a bright and major drug company –
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Merck. She’s the head of vaccine research of Merck.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: Absolutely insane, right? So uhm – you know I’d like to hope that somehow, someway in their grey matter they’ve really think that this is a good service for humankind. But oh my gosh, there’s plenty of educated people who’d argue with that. So what’s the stance? I think everybody should get educated.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: Everybody should get the right decision and have the freedom to make the right decision for their child.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: And I don’t personally think vaccines cause autism. It can’t be causal because it would be a one-to-one relationship. Everyone that got a vaccine, would have autism. But we know there’s definitely stressors out there. GMO’s, heavy metals, whether it’s- forget mercury. It could be aluminium, it could be phthalates, it could be squalenes. It could be other compounds. It could just be antigenic load from too many at once. Uh – leaky gut, uh – babies not being breastfed, right? All these different stressors could add up and make someone more susceptible. What are your thoughts on that?
Dr. Robert Rakowski: I agree with you. You know, but let’s take it a step further. Let’s look at risk-benefit always. I mean, look at the risks of these diseases, it’s relatively minor in the population right now. You know, my kids all got the chickenpox. And –
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: You know, none of that – it never lasted more than more than – more than five days. My son got the whooping cough. He beat it and got a lifetime immunity. I had a kid come into my clinic that actually have Rubella. And so found out, I took him home to play with my kids. My kids never got sick. You know, but uh – you know, whether you’re exposed or not, at least there’s a possibility that you can’t beat a natural immunity and a healthy body. And the data is really questionable. What is the risk-benefit? I think for healthy kids, especially the way it’s going right now, it’s more on the side of the risk then benefit.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah. That totally makes sense. Uh looking at all the things that are happening to your clinic, is there any new things that you’re delving into clinically right now?
Dr. Robert Rakowski: Uh – Well, there’s the statement there. There is nothing new under the sun, right?
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah. Fundamentals.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: We always get better, stronger, faster, smarter at what we do, but like you said, the fundamentals. How many people have really mastered the fundamentals? And not many, right? And even if they have, they’re coming in saying, “I’m totally awesome. I feel lots of the charts are amazing. Do you think you can – game up a little bit more?” Uh, so it’s hard to beat the fundamentals, you know. Everybody always wants to come up with a shiny new penny. But reality is you can’t beat good, clean, healthy living. And – and you highlight it. There’s a lot in the basin –
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: And just focus and discipline and then the magnificent seven.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Totally makes sense. And what are the foundational lab testing – I mean, obviously we know you’re drinking clean water, eating organic food, you’re doing all that good stuff, your sleep is probably dialled in, you’re exercise is dialled in. What are the more nuanced things you’re doing right now to assess your health? Lab tests or uh – treatments? What’s happening in your neck of the woods?
Dr. Robert Rakowski: You know, in terms of real subtle things, we’ve been doing this for decades at this point. The pH Balance –
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: Probably doesn’t get enough press for being so critical. So I always tell patients every single enzyme in our bodies is pH dependent. You know our hormone’s pH dependent. And as we look across the board, we see the sickest people have the worst acid- alkaline balance. Their buffering is actually terrible. Uh – and so how do we buffer it? We buffer it with good elimination, good detoxification.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: High Levels of – of nutrients, quality food choices – But I think pH is one of those markers that we need to spend more time pursuing.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Interesting. And how much this diet and food uhm – affect pH? I know we’ve talked about this before. A lot of people say, “Well, we cut out meat.” but then we know that grains are actually 10x more acidic than meat as well. And we know that inflammation plays a huge role on that. What’s your take?
Dr. Robert Rakowski: Well, we have to understand that every process that we have that makes energy, makes acid.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yes.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: So as I explained to doctors and the patients as well, oxygen goes into the cell, product comes out, converts oxide and the one in the blood can form carbonic acid.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Carbonic acid. Yeah.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: A hundred trillion cells doing – a trillion times a day. So as we start looking at this process, the Pharmacology Journal say this – They say, “Look, how much acid you eat a day? Maybe a 100 units.” “How many do you produce by living? Probably 15,000 units.” So we have at least a dozen different buffers against acid inside the cell and outside the cell. So we got proteins, we got phosphates, we got minerals, we got bicarbonate buffer. And all our elimination routes get rid of acid. So uh – as I tell patients who contributes very little to acid burden, but it’s basically what makes up our acid buffers. So we wanna make good choices.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: So what you’re saying is adding the inflammatory foods in there will increase the acid but making sure nutrient rich, lots of greens, lots of rich minerals, magnesium potassium. Those things are gonna help buffer a lot of the – out. A lot of the acidity.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: Well said. Yeah. That’s exactly right.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: What other lifestyle things are creating more of an acid environment?
Dr. Robert Rakowski: Stress.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah. So just emotional stress, physical stress. Yeah.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: All of the above. When you’re- you’re running on a fight or flight mode, understand that the first organ that’s affected is the liver. The second organ that’s affected is the kidney. The third affected organ that’s affected is the brain. Higher-level cognition drops. And so we might not necessarily be a fight or flight circumstance but if we’re sitting under a light of a blue spectrum, where I got a nice screen in front of my computer house –
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Nice.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: We have a blue blocker app.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yup.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: That it’s – it’s actually blocking the blue light. But I’m being bombarded with blue light. My melatonin’s suppressed, my cortisol’s high. I – I basically am not controlling my stress hormones. I’m inflamed and I’m in trouble, so. Several strategies like that. Modern life creates modern challenges and we’re just beginning to see. Wow, okay they made it so this stuff has a real downside to it. We need to deal with it.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: So a lot of people may justify a vegetarian-vegan diet because of this acid-alkaline theory. So, you know, looking at a pH chat of food and only choosing foods that are seven or above. You- you’re okay choosing some foods on the acidic side, like high quality, clean lean full fat meats that are good quality, etc.?
Dr. Robert Rakowski: We are omnivores.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: I mean, we have canines.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah. Incisors –
Dr. Robert Rakowski: For the purpose of tearing meats, right? So –
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: When you look at the fact there’s certain things we absolutely can’t get from plant based diet. We can’t get B12.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Right.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: And as a general rule, we don’t get high enough quality protein and we don’t get bioavailable iron. So there’s a number of factors that come in. We just wanna make smart food choices. Predominantly plant is good, you know. You know that’s a real good rule. Michael Pollan who work on the book, “In defense of Food” –
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yup.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: His top rule is eat food not too much, mostly plants.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Mostly plants –
Dr. Robert Rakowski: That’s really solid advice.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: I mean look at Tom Brady. He’s a big acid-alkaline guy. 80% vegetables, 20% meat. I think that’s a pretty good way to go for a lot of people.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: Yeah. And you look at his body mass, right? And his – his exercise burden. If that’s good enough to keep him in shape, why wouldn’t it be good for the rest of us?
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: And what’s your take on vegan or vegetarian people that are excelling in professional sports? You work a lot with these people. I know there are people out there that say it. My theory is they have to be doing a whole bunch of pea protein or hemp or rice protein. Something to get the extra aminos in there. What’s your take?
Dr. Robert Rakowski: Well, they are. Certainly if they’re seeing meats. We can manage mind to the lean tissue breakdown but there are also supplement branch in amino acids, they’re doing B12 injections. So, uhm – you know, there’s a way but it takes a lot of effort. And a lot of supplementation on a vegetarian based diet.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah. Plus you don’t get the rich sulfur amino acid the 12 that run those glutathione detox pathways, too.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: Absolutely. They can get some in cruciferous vegetables but it’s certainly a higher concentration in meats.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Plus I noticed too, you have to really combine your, you know, rice and beans for instance. You really have to combine your proteins well because there are some deficiency in methionine and lysine which are really important for let’s say producing carnitine. Run the carnitine to burn fat for fuel. So you really got to combine things well. But if you look at, let’s say, rice and beans, you know,15 g of protein to 75 g of carbohydrate. People that are maybe insulin resistant, that may be a little bit too high in the carb side.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: I’m with you on that. You know, I mean people – we only need to find a diet that works and we need to find a diet that makes sense. And for the most part to me, the vegetarian diet doesn’t make sense for too many people.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Got it. That makes sense. So just looking at kinda like your pre and post workout, you know, set ups with your professional athletes. What does that look like? So you get them ready for the workout. Are they doing a shake before? Are they doing something during? What are they doing afterwards to recover? And what do you recommend supplement-wise pre and post?
Dr. Robert Rakowski: Well I did train them more than—and there’s a before training and after that’s required. So there’s plenty of data just depends on what kind of training. But branch and amino acids help maintain the lean mass.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: The electrolytes, the fluids, and all that.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yup.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: He’s not gonna eat a meal. You know, meal is gonna take a lot more time to digest than uh – shake. And so I usually want them to eat a minimum of 2 and a half hours in front of an intense Workout. So it’s at least well digested. And that should be not a super heavy meal, right?
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yes. Coz if it’s – once in the stomach, it’s not gonna get to the extremities or if you’re still eating, your digestion is gonna be compromised. So I really like a prework out shake, a post work out shake and something simple during training. Nothing’s gonna tax the digestive system. Pre form amino acids, branch and amino acids, electrolytes and fluids during the training.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Typically, with the electrolytes, will there be a little bit of a glucose or fructose with that?
Dr. Robert Rakowski: I do. I do some fructose. Now we’re looking at these athletes that need fluid replacement and electrolyte replacement. They’re training plenty hard. Fructose has ¼ the glycemic index of glucose. With that said, post workout, for certain athletes, there’s a benefit. Actually spiking insulin, lower cortisol.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Lower cortisol, yeah. Bingo. Makes sense. Are you using a product like with the Endura, with the electrolytes and with the extra fructose?
Dr. Robert Rakowski: Yeah. So I – I use a couple of different products. One is Endura and we’ve got a product called, Dynamic Fruits and Greens, which is a powder based of 20 different organic super foods, so. Taste good, goes down good, and certainly works good.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Excellent. It’s very, very cool. So are there any challenging cases that have come into your office at all recently?
Dr. Robert Rakowski: Yeah. Everybody has their own unique challenge. Uh – you know, probably the most recent real earth-shattering cases, I have one that it was probably somewhere you like to describe when you go to the foot to be amputated.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: Uh, she was – she was scheduled for an amputation. The first thing I saw was a picture. I never cover the foot of just a few days. So I added a dose every single waking hour to kill infection to re-enhance uh – circulation to control the control the blood sugar. I would say two weeks she had a tremendous shift in the color of her blood-
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Wow.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: A lot of gangrene started to recede. Uhm – we got pictures of the entire process.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Wow.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: But literally, she did auto like a tips –
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: Uh for the toes a lot. But she kept the rest of the foot fully functional. But what’s better about that case is, at first she was taking a mega dose of insulin and half a dozen drugs, and they were all failing. By the time we were done with her, she was taking just the lowest dose of insulin since her diagnosis is you know, since childhood age, she was diabetic. And the no other drugs and really the tissue help up the entire body improve dramatically.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Wow. Amazing. I know you mentioned earlier but taking mega doses are you know, higher amounts of melatonin to help increase uh – antioxidants and such. Uh, tell me about the feedback loop. Do you feel like taking that much in for how long – will that affect the feedback loop of the, you know, gland talking and making melatonin?
Dr. Robert Rakowski: It’s highly improbable.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: That the melatonin cross the blood brain barrier. So the Gas – World Journal of Gastroenterology shows that the gut makes 400x times melatonin as the brain. The gut also makes the majority of the serotonin so that’s – that’s nothing new to people who have been studying that. So it’s unlikely that it will cross the blood-brain barrier. And what – the reason I believe is number one, sleep nutrient, is because it puts the break on cortisol. But I only do that for 7 to 10 days.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Because I have ___ and maybe a person’s own production could become altered. So we do it to have a quick shift in the metabolism memory__So I haven’t seen any that’s had challenged it. And on the flipside of that, I’ve seen plenty of people that have been feeling better than they have in decades doing that for a short period of time.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: And when you recommend hydrochloric acid to your patients, do you feel like giving hydrochloric acid affects the feedback loop at all with gastrin and HCL production in general?
Dr. Robert Rakowski: Certainly can.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Uh-hmm.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: So what we’re gonna do is, we do a hydrochloric acid challenge.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Uh-hmm.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: Which is actually defined by Jonathan Wright –
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Uh-hmm.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: Over 25 years ago. But basically, when people eat their meal, they’re gonna try supplementing with hydrochloric acid coz if they have a burning in their gut, they probably don’t need it. That’s too much HCl.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Uh-hmm.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: Uh they should really have a nice warming sensation, uh –but most people wouldn’t get that. And so what we do is we have to do it after the meal so the body is gonna release whatever they’re gonna release. Then as we start enhancing the digestion to the proteins, the minerals, and to the essential nutrients, the body can be more effective at producing the HCl. Uhm but– you know, we don’t want people to__
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: The guideline is the lowest dose for the shortest duration. So as soon as they can start titrating down their own dose, uh- and by the way, let’s say, you start taking uh- let’s say, 4 hydrochloric acid tabs.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: And you have to do that for a few weeks. Also, and 4 creates a little uncomfortable sensation. Guess what? For now, 3 ½ for 3 and then ultimately, we’d like people to be able to wean off it a little bit.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah. That’s really good general idea. And regarding enzymes, do you like taking enzymes before, during or after a meal?
Dr. Robert Rakowski: It’s gonna do different things.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Uh-hmm.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: And so enzymes away from food, there’s actually a specialized supplement in the gut called an M cell. And the M is for macromolecules. And in a pediatric gut, new born infant section has a ton of those cells. And by the way, when you look at mother’s milk, it has immunoglobulins in it.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: That’s passive immunity.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: And the only way that it can get to the infant system is by being absorbed intact so they have a higher concentration in each cell. So we all have the ability to absorb certain macromolecules intact. If you take enzymes away from food, it have a number of systemic benefits. Take it with food, I always tell people it digest food. But away from food, it digests into the system like scar tissue, like infection. And there’s even date suggesting that it’s anti- cancer.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah. The serrapeptidase enteric coated enzymes work phenomenal. I used a company about called World Nutrition. They do really good pepsin. Great research on dissolving cancer and such as well, tumors, too.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: It’s fascinating. You know the book, “Wellness against all Odds” Started 30 cancer patients off of being cancer with nothing but actual remedies. One of the things they did was natural enzymes and pancreatic enzymes.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: Nicholas Gonzalez.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Gonzalez – has passed.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: I had a few years ago, last year.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: Last year.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Last July.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: He published the longest survivability of non-operable pancreatic cancer patients.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: And the only intervention was pancreatic enzymes. So it’s something we need to dive into and look at.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: I think it’s excellent. Yeah. And you have quite a bit of experience dealing with cancer patient. I know we can do a whole podcast on this. But what are the low hanging fruits dealing with cancer patients? I think you already mentioned the ketogenic diet. So you may – you may add that in there. But what are the top three things that your – we should be listening to or focusing on with cancer?
Dr. Robert Rakowski: Well, you started out right with ketogenic diets.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: We actually did a rat study within a ketogenic diet and I think the exact statistic was it was something like 50, 58, or 59% longer than people who did not eat ketogenic.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: The second thing is gonna be tons – by the way, the entire diet should be organic. But –
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Of course.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: fruits and vegetables. So-
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Tons –
Dr. Robert Rakowski: Study goes way back but people that eat the least fruits and vegetables get most cancers than those eating the least. I mean, here’s one that people may not think about, but again, in the book, “Wellness Against All Odds”, daily coffee –
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yup.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: Everyone of this patients did that. And that’s a great way to get the liver dump bile and toxins.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yup. I know you have a little slogan here –
Dr. Robert Rakowski: And if we go –
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Go ahead.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: Uh – I was gonna say if I tell them one more-
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: But since we’re on the topic of melatonin, National Cancer Institute, talked about mega doses of melatonin at bedtime, 40-50 mg.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: And these patients that have inoperable cancer, live longer with less tissue breakdown. So I think what you’re going with is not by jingle but savaging that live jingle.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yes.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: Way back when 20 years ago, there was a jingle that was the best part of waking up was Folgers in your cup.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yes. Let’s hear it.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: Now the best part of waking up is Folgers in your butt.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yes, I love it.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: But we certainly have better coffee choices, right? We like organic coffee and –
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Of course.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: But the top super food that is real nice for drinking and detoxing, if that’s how you wanna use it.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah. Everytime I see a Folgers commercial now I flashback in to you in seminar, singing that jingle there. So –
Dr. Robert Rakowski: Yeah.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Love it. Very cool. So we have ketogenic diet, we have uhm –coffee enemas, obviously the organic greens, organic diet. Anything else? Any other low hanging fruit?
Dr. Robert Rakowski: Well, you have to look at stress management.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: So –
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Sleep, too.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: The top two enemies of the immune system are gonna be stress and sugar. And then you threw in sleep in there. You wanna get good sleep. But the first immune cell that drops in a high stress response is a natural killer cell. So daily meditation, visualization. These are things that are proven to have anti-ageing, anti-cancer, certainly long__
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah. I think the World Health Organisation put shift work. You know, essentially not sleeping when it’s dark out in the same category, in the same cancer category as asbestos and cigarettes smoking. So we know, you know, it’s a non-substance carcinogen.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: I don’t really know why it’s even legal to still do that, you know.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: I understand that some people need to work the night shift, work the night shift. The idea of shifting your clock so frequently is just so harsh and you’re right. The data is overwhelming. Nobody should do it. It’s toxic on every level to the body.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: And it’s funny, too, because the people you think of with shift work, you think of doctors and residency, right? The ones that are standing up all night, ER docs, people that are on-call. The people that are supposed to be promoting health will actually making them the sickest. And I think there’s statistics that the average MD lives 10 years less than their average patient.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: Years ago, there was a special on TV – on Youtube uh –and Impaired-
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yup.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: And they found out that among all the professions that the medical doctors have some of the highest risk of drug and alcohol dependents, uh – clinical depression.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yup.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: So we gotta take care. These are good people. They’re not in the good system but I hope they got involve to help people. Hey, emergency medicine is great. If you need medicine, medicine is great. But listen, we don’t need to be drugging every man, woman and child for every made up malady on planet earth.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Absolutely.
Dr. Bog: It’s just crazy.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Absolutely. Absolutely. I had a conversation with Paediatric Oncologist over the weekend. And we’re talking about ketogenic diets and we’re talking about sugar. And one of the most interesting things is oncology – there’s very little nutrition given about cancer. I mean I’ve had many patients seen on-call and they’re like, “No, diet has no implication in it.” And they’ll even don’t take your antioxidants, don’t take your vitamin C, don’t take your curcumin for tumor while we’re doing treatment. So that – that’s always very irritating. But the test that they use to look at cancer, the PET scan, right? Uh Positive Emission Tomography. What the test is, it’s basically giving someone some radioactive glucose. And seeing where that glucose goes because the cancer cells are soaking it up. So we know that we’re using these testing to test in conventional medicine to see where the tumor is going. So essentially we’re feeding it during the test so we can get a radiograph picture. But we’re not even telling people to not eat the foods that’s feeding the cancer in the PET scan got begin with.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: Complete and total disconnect, you know.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Total.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: It is uh – cancer cell takes up glucose at about 10x the rate of every other tissue in the body. So, yeah. You nail it right on the head. You know, when you explain it to patients as we just have, they get it. And you know, I got a friend right now who’s finishing Osteopathic- college. Just an absolutely amazing guy. And he always tells me, he says, “Bob, a big part of education is education against natural medicine.” You know, and a lot of people buy it. But lie in sinker. And that’s why we’re such a sick nation and we started a trillion dollars on sick care.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Wow, love it. I mean you said it just so succinctly. Well, is there anything else Dr. Bob, on your mind that you wanted to bring to the listeners?
Dr. Robert Rakowski: You know, it’s always such a joy connecting with you. But I think we hit it pretty well. We don’t need the real extravagant about how we proceed with health. You know the basis of health is love, do what you love, love what you do.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: Love yourself, zealously inspect what you put everything in your body. Have a purpose. And in our environment, we need to have discipline. So I was just uh – I’ve read 6 books by Navy Seal in the last year.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Wow.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: And listened to a podcast by Navy Seal. But yes, it says “Discipline Is Freedom” you know, and – and so, one of our mentors said we all must suffer one-two pain. The pain of discipline or the pain of regret and disappointment. If we start living an undisciplined lifestyle, eating the garbage that’s stale, watching the garbage that’s on TV, drinking the garbage that they promote to us, guess what? Garbage in, garbage you will be. So uh- master the basics, be very, very careful about everything that you allow in your environment, especially bad TV. I think that’s been my one of my most recent personal discipline is no more TV for about four years and I don’t know that I’ve missed anything. I mean, no news, nothing like that. I haven’t missed anything that happened in the world. I heard we had a presidential elections.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Hahaha
Dr. Robert Rakowski: But I mean, seriously, right? How many of us really need to be immersed in the bad news every single day? It’s just crazy.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Totally makes sense. And it’s great that you are a physician that totally embodies health. Your practicing and promoting all of it. You’re telling to your patients yourself so you can be a shining example of that.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: Well, back at you. Uhm – when we talk about shining, it’s funny, I’ve been training mixed martial arts and some of my patients look to me, they said, “you get punched in the eye this weekend.” “No, I was playing basketball. We played six hours of basketball.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Wow.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: Went up for the board and flicked an elbow to the eye. I wish I had a better story than that. You know, but it’s fun playing basketball with my son who’s 23 and fit.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Wow.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: Playing with him for six hours, and everybody else, you know. It’s just – you know, healthy living has so many awards and rewards. I personally don’t understand how can somebody make a choice other than to maximise their wellness. Coz it’s a beautiful way to live longer around this planet and contribute.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Absolutely. And last question for you. If you’re stuck on a dessert island, and you only can bring one supplement, one herb, one whatever, what is it?
Dr. Robert Rakowski: Well you know, number one super food I’m planning to get is Ghanaian donuts. It’s got the full complement of vitamins, amino acids, proteins, carbohydrates, fats, fiber and water. I uh – and so-
Dr. Robert Rakowski: It’s considered to cause a sync in nutrition perfection. So that’s what I’m going with. But let me go with my navy seal buddy. They said, Hey, if they drop you out in any of the world, and you can only have two things with you, whatever weapon, whatever you would take is I’m gonna need two things. I need oxygen and I need water. And he says the Seals without oxygen, they realize they need it. They go without water, they realize they need it. You know what, guys like us, we can fend for ourselves just give us some air so our brain can work and give us some water so that we can function for about 5 days. Five days anywhere, we’re gonna be okay. We have enough savvy to find what we need to survive and make the world better.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Again, anyone that’s listening, thedrbob.com (T-H-E-D-R-B-O-B.com) Dr. Bob lectures to help professionals, physicians, nutritionists, nurses and he also has some excellent coffee in your website, too. I know you’re really big in the coffee that you mentioned as well. So feel free to check out Dr. Bob. I think you’re also available for appointments worldwide as well?
Dr. Robert Rakowski: Yeah. You gotta love this technology, right? So I do Skype on occasion halfway around the world. We have to get our timing just right. Uh – I always prefer treating patients face-to-face just kinda face-to-face is okay. But I’d rather see them in person. But guess what? We got some pretty good successes across the planet. Just with a different eye looking at the data that they have.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Awesome, Dr. Bob. Thank you so much for what you do.
Dr. Robert Rakowski: I appreciate it. You always enjoy making the world better.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Thank You.
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