Cutting Edge Healing Technology – The Neubie with Garrett Salpeter | Podcast #279

We are back to Beyond Wellness Radio! For this episode, we have Garrett Salpeter, producer of the amazing technology called Neubie. He works with professional athletes who are trying to recover from injuries. Check out this podcast to know more about Neubie, how it works, and it’s unique features.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani

In this episode, we cover:

1:15    How It All Started

3:50    The Framework of Neubie

16:47   Muscle Repairs

21:21   Unique Features of Neubie

35:07   Importance of Nervous System

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Hey guys, it’s Dr. Justin Marchegiani. Welcome back to Beyond Wellness Radio. I have a phenomenal guest friend and colleague, Garrett Salpeter. He’s here. Garrett runs an amazing clinic down in Austin, Texas where I am from. Garrett works with professional athletes, you name them across the board, all sports, people that are trying to recover from injuries and weekend warriors. Garrett has some amazing technology that he has produced, as well as a lot of different clinical techniques that people come to him to apply to help accelerate their healing and allow their body to perform at their max potential. Garrett, welcome to the show, my man. 

Garrett Salpeter: Thank you, Dr. Justin. It’s a pleasure to be here. I’m excited to be on the show. 

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Same here. Well, I’ve been using your technology for a while and you’ve really taken it to the next level the last couple years creating your own device called the Neubie, and you also have a lot of education. Can you see illogical neurological techniques that you’ve encountered? into this. So, I know a lot of people listening may be potential patients or people that have injuries. Some practitioners may be listening. So how did you stumble across this technology? And how did you kind of bundle it up like you have the last 10 years.

Garrett Salpeter: So it’s it’s been an interesting journey and I definitely didn’t didn’t know this is what I’d be doing 10 or more years ago. And the initial catalyst for me was actually an experience I had as an as an ice hockey player. I played in college Division Three, mostly on the practice squad. But I had this this amazing experience where I had some torn ligaments in my wrist. I was supposed to be out for three months and have surgery. And I worked with a guy who was a chiropractic neurologist, and in working with him, and taking a functional neurology approach, as opposed to just a structural or tissue based approach that you would see in the traditional orthopedic or physical therapy right? You know, taking this this different approach, I was able to heal the ligaments in three weeks instead of three months, I was able to avoid surgery. And it really was a tremendous aha moment where I was was exposed to this approach and and saw firsthand how focusing on on the activation of the muscles and addressing these neurological patterns of protection and compensation that happened in the area around the injury. You know how focusing on that could actually make this profound impact. And so, you know, I was already doing my education and engineering I went on and continued and did graduate school and got a master’s in engineering. And with this experience that I had, I knew at the same time that I wanted to do something in this realm professionally. So I was able to find a way to to, I also went back and then did additional graduate work in neuroscience and has been able to combine everything but that that experience was a catalyst for me where I worked to open up a facility here in Austin over 10 years ago. Now and started in 150 square feet in the back of a different chiropractor’s office using older versions of electrical stimulation and some of these techniques from functional neurology, and, you know, it started to grow from there. And I just saw a lot of opportunities to improve the methods and the technology along the way. And that’s, that’s part of what led to the Neubie device as well. 

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah, it’s really interesting. I want to talk more about the Neubie, but before we do that, you’ve blended a lot of techniques, whether it’s chiropractic or functional neuro or even soft tissue techniques to help, let’s say set the foundation so the newbie and the bioelectric healing that comes from it helps work better. Can you talk about some of the techniques that you use structurally before you really get that device moving with patient care?

Garrett Salpeter: Absolutely, that’s that’s a great question. And I think it’s worth mentioning that the framework that I’m using first, I think this is a little bit of a of a throwback to my idea. As an engineer, also where there’s this concept of the black box and engineering, we’re going to put inputs into the black box. And then we see outputs emerge. And we don’t necessarily know what happens in there, you know, it’s a theoretical construct. And in some ways, the body is like that. We know from neuroscience and from physiology and you know, there’s a lot of course that we know about the body. And, and yet, it also in some ways can be like this theoretical black box. And so what I’m what I’m thinking about in any technique that we’re evaluating, and using is, okay, we’re thinking of that technique as an input. And then we’re looking at what happens within the, the system, and then we will see what output we get on the other end. And if we’re giving the right input, we should see an increase in output. Right? What What I mean by that, just for for context, is you know, in the in the context of someone that we might work with, oftentimes when someone is injured or has surgery which is, you know, more intense form of injury, or, you know, trying to recover from something. It’s so interesting that, that it’s not always as much about the original incident or injury as it is about their response to that injury response to that trauma, and how the body guards and protects and braces, yes, around that injured area. And that’s, that’s a big part of why it takes so long to heal. Because you know, just the excessive tension can literally block the flow of blood and nutrients and raw materials that would your body would normally use to heal. It also causes these compensation patterns where since he’s trying to limit movement in certain areas, you develop these patterns of less and less movement over time and start to move away from and try to unload certain areas and hold the excessive tension in others.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: In other words, if someone hurts the right knee, they may develop compensation patterns on the hip superior to that or on the other side of the body to help teach slack off that injured knee essentially.

Garrett Salpeter: Exactly, yeah, they’re gonna try, you know, subconsciously without even realizing it, try to walk more on the other leg and get it right from that. And so, so there’s all these interesting things that happened in the response to injury. And and because of that, you know, it’s interesting, that’s the response the brain and the nervous system, actively limit and govern and hold, right in certain areas. You know, our brains number one priority is survival and protection. So our brains actually limit us more than more than trying to get us to do to do more and dude, do a lot you know, our brains want to get us to do less to make sure that we don’t move too far don’t move too fast don’t get hurt. And so, the this it sets up this very interesting, this very interesting input and output process where because the brain is such a such a profound influence that limits the output of the body. If we can find the right inputs to tell the brain, Hey, it’s okay to allow this muscle to stretch further. Or this movement to go faster or this person to start loading that light, again, that had the knee injury that you mentioned, whatever it is, if we can change those inputs, then there’s an opportunity to change outputs very, very quickly. Because when, when we’re talking about some of these changes that people make them into, and when we’re talking about some of these manual techniques, the one of the coolest things that happen is, you know, I’ll use a handheld dynamometer. So I’ll do a test on someone’s quad, you know, the lie down, I’ll push down. Yep, they may be at 50 pounds of force on one side. 25 on the other side, so you think, Oh, my gosh, we have to we have to double this person strengthen the injured leg. That sounds like it might take you know, I don’t know a periodized strength program. It might take 16 weeks it might take two years right. But we’ll do some of these techniques will work on so you know, to act to actually answer your question. Now, you know about some of the techniques will work on certain reflex points will work on areas where the brain is holding tension and protecting, trying to break through those deals. Defensive and protective patterns. And all of a sudden, in just a few minutes now that like there was a 25. Now, it’ll be at 50. It’ll be equal to the other side. And you’ll start to think, well, gosh, how could you double someone’s strength in the span of a few minutes? You know, it’s an impossibly short period of time for them to build muscle or make neurological adaptations or do the different things that we think of as needing to happen to increase strength. Obviously, all we did was tap into strength that was already there lying dormant. So it’s like we have this black box is somewhere in there as a reservoir of untapped strength, we give the right signal, and now they’re able to get more more strength out so it’s more of like a software than a hardware thing. But that’s so-

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Okay. So it’s kind of like if someone has a backup generator in their house and they lose power. And now their house is relying on that backup generator. They may not be able to have the TV on they may only be able to use a couple of outlets, maybe keep the maybe keep the fridge going. They’re limited in regards to the electrical output. That generator versus if they’re, if they’re regular power reasons that sound right? So it’s kind of like, We’re going back to the regular power supply, which is providing a better, better, essentially input back into the muscle, which then allows the muscle to work better. Does that sound right?

Garrett Salpeter: That’s a great metaphor. And I would add to it by saying that, that it’s it’s not like the, it’s not like the power got turned off, you know by, by a flutter by lightning strike it’s like, it’s like, it’s like you purposefully went and turned off your main power breaker, be like, because the brain is intentionally turning off or reducing the output in certain areas, and then it can also choose to go turn it back on.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Exactly. So it sounds like if we’re relying on that backup generator, right, we wouldn’t go in there and try to put new wiring to the parts of the house that’s not working. In other words, we wouldn’t go to that muscle that has poor input from the brain and start to exercise it more. We actually want to fix The flow going from the brain down to that muscle, we don’t have to go exercise. So that’s kind of the different paradigm is, hey, that imbalance that you mentioned in the muscles. We don’t have to create this big strength program, we can just work on that neurological input to that muscle, and then things start to magically balance out. Without having to do that. Is that what you’re saying?

Garrett Salpeter: That’s exactly what I’m saying. I think that’s, I think that’s a wonderful way of saying and I hope that’s something I think it is something that would resonate with a lot of people. And so when we think about these different types of manual techniques, or using the new beer, anything that we’re using, we’re trying to find the strategic, highest impact inputs that we can use with somebody in order to create more output. And so so some of those techniques or you know, different manual techniques, like you mentioned, we use a blend of different things from from applied kinesiology, osteopathic chiropractic traditions. Yep. You know, a blend of different things. And that’s that framework is you know, it could be it. You know what, there’s a lot range of inputs, you could give somebody as long as you’re getting an improved output, then you’re you’re doing the right thing or you’re doing something that is beneficial for that person and their nervous system, and is allowing them to tap into more of the potential that they have. That’s just lying dormant

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: 100%. And that’s one of the things I think that sets you apart from other people that provide technology, there’s an education, let’s say that sets the foundation for to work better. So I know at your clinic in Austin, you see patients virtually, you also offer that device for people virtually and then clinicians as well. And then you also offer that training. So I think it’s important because when I would see patients, and that you were if you were to just do the device without setting the foundation with those blend of techniques, the results are good, but not quite too great. So I just want to highlight there’s a educational aspect that sets the foundation that allows the technology to work better, so some people are just shiny object, but if you can marry the two, I think it’s gonna work a lot better for anyone listening?

Garrett Salpeter: Absolutely, I’d say, you know, it’s part of what we’ve believed to be a complete system in terms of assessments and manual therapeutic interventions and and work on the device. So. So it’s definitely something where you know, every part adds a meaningful piece to the overall equation. And I think this the whole is greater than the sum of the parts even.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Correct. And I think the results speak for themselves. We’ll talk a little bit more about the tech and I want you to give us a demo here as well. I know you had a patient a few years back, you posted the progression on your YouTube channel and the patient had had an ACL injury. And the typical ACL injury repair time is usually 9 to 12 months conventionally. I know you had this person within three to four months back on the field, which is amazing. And I just think those kind of case studies are what resonates with people and really, it’s like, okay, you’re the proofs in the pudding.

Garrett Salpeter: Yeah, so that, you know, there’s A few different stories like that, that we’ve had. And I’ll, I’ll caution you know, there are people that that are resistant to go back to to go back to sport or activity ahead of schedule because they’re concerned about graph tooling. And so you know, I don’t want any of this to come off as kind of pressure anyone to go out and do anything they’re uncomfortable with. However, however, I’ll certainly share this, you know, this story because I think it’s instructive. One of these that comes to mind is a girl that we worked with young young woman who was senior in high school was already set to go to college to play division, one softball and her senior year. She was skiing over spring break, or Christmas break on New Year’s Day. She tore her ACL. She had surgery middle of January, so about January 15. And they told her that she was going to be out for at least seven months just to forget about her high school softball season, and to focus on going and playing college, you know, she’d be able to go Go started college in the fall and be joined the team and everything like that. And yet she loved her high school teammates, and she wanted to see if it was possible to play at all during her high school softball season that spring. And so we started working with her, her mom did some research online found us and they drove across town and saw started working with us a few days a week. And, you know, long story short, she made significant progress. She met all of her milestones a lot faster, she was off crutches and a few days instead of a few weeks, she our range of motion returned in a few weeks, instead of a couple months, her strength levels were back in, you know, six to eight weeks instead of, you know, four months. And so she just was meeting all these milestones faster. And at the three month mark, her surgeon who’s generally a very conservative person who said he would never clear anyone before six months. Her surgeon looked at her and said, Wow, this is the most stable knee I’ve ever seen at this range. And then You know, they were having a conversation and he actually cleared her just before just right at three, three and a half between three and four months he cleared or to go out and play. And so in the middle of April, she rejoins her team, as they’re getting ready for the state playoffs, the state softball playoffs here in Texas and she actually leads her team to win a state championship and high school softball season that that she was supposed to miss entirely.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: That is amazing. I love stories. I love stories like that. And I’ll put a link here below people listening. If anyone’s interested in this technology as a patient, even virtually if you’re like, man, do I have someone nearby that can help me with this kind of things. There may be virtual people that can help you on Garrett’s team as well. Or if you’re interested in the technology, I’ll put a link down here below, neu.fit and then we have a promotion near /justinhealth. And I’ll put the link down below so if you guys are driving and you can’t quite get to I’ll put that down below for you guys and just if you even have questions about the technology, that could be a great place to get it, you know, answer specifically. So getting back to what you’re talking about Garrett, the thing that I like is the technology from what I see is accelerating healing and blood flow to these tissues that are a vascular, right? They don’t get a lot of blood supply, therefore, it takes forever to heal, right? Anyone that’s maybe pull the muscle muscle can heal in a couple days to a couple of weeks. But cartilage and tendons and ligaments can take months. So you have this technology that’s really driving blood flow, you’re working on these compensation patterns to get muscles working better. And thus those muscles now are absorbing force. So instead of that force going into the sensitive tissue, like tendons and ligaments, now you have muscles that are acting like better, smarter shock absorbers, is that correct?

Garrett Salpeter: I think that’s I think that’s a good way to put it. Yeah. And in terms of terms of blood flow. It’s definitely the case as you mentioned, that muscles can heal faster. And I think that makes sense because we’re used to you know, people would go to the gym, and I think most people would That, you know, if the muscles are sore get broken down at all, you know, they’re repaired in 48 to 72 hours. So the body is regularly breaking down and rebuilding muscles. So of course, it’s easier, there’s a, there’s a process in place for that. So it’s easier to repair muscle injuries more and more challenging definitely to repair those tendon and ligament injuries. And, and that’s that is such a key to it is that the muscles have to be able to turn on and create stability because if they don’t, then we end up bracing against or collapsing into those more passive structures. And that’s how those tendons and ligaments and discs and cartilage that’s how they get injured. And so I think that there’s a whole there is a whole component to this work that can be protective or pre emptive or proactive, where we can work with somebody. And actually, by identifying the same dysfunctions that we would treat to help them if they were injured. We can identify those dysfunctions and help them move better help them perform better and make them more resistant to injury in the First place. And that’s, you know, when you talk about absorbing force, that’s one of the most important principles there. And this is one of the differentiating factors between the Neubie, you know, between our technology and what else is out there in this in this space and these types of modalities is that most for instance alternating current devices typically as a signal goes volleys back and forth causes muscles to contract co contract fight against each other so, so it teaches you to move like if you’re driving your car hitting a throttle and the brake pedal at the same time, you’re resisting your own.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Ah, yes, and so like with what kick though, just people kind of know about 10 devices, right? It’s kind of like a like electricity aspirin ,right? And that’s kind of the set the brake and the gas pedal at the same time and how’s your electric current different.

Garrett Salpeter: So, a 10s unit, it is like an electronic aspirin the way most people use it, that’s a great, great way to put it. They usually just put it on at a mild setting to try to distract or mask some of the nerve receptors that They go up to the brain that trigger ultimately within the brain the experience of pain. And so it’s like, it’s like a distraction. It’s like, it’s like if you have a headache, he’s, you know, do something to your foot or you don’t feel your head anymore because you’re feeling your foot. And yeah, it’s like something, something like that. But yeah, when if you turn it up to a high enough level to really make a difference in neuromuscular re education, in loading muscles and challenging muscles and teaching them to work in a new way, by actually activating underlying nerve pathways. If you did that, then you’d run into these these hurdles or these roadblocks, where you’d be causing the muscles to fight against each other because of that, that signal volleying back and forth alternating current, and how that interacts with the nervous system. So that In contrast, the direct current device to show you the the neubie, so when we’re using that- 

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: I’m sorry, can you can you put it up one more time when I spoke it, the video went to me go head, try again.

Garrett Salpeter: Yeah, so that’s so we’re using that there. So this puts out a unique direct current signal. And when that when that direct current signal is only going in one direction, it causes a much more controlled input of sensory pathways in the nervous system and a lot less of those contractions and co contractions. And if we’re talking about, you know, certainly injury recovery, but even this, this notion of proactively helping make someone more resistant to injury, that’s so important because remember, we want to be able to bend but not break, we want to be pliable and resilient. And so if we’re, if we’re stiff, then that means we’re more likely to break and not bend, we’re more likely to snap and get those injuries. Whereas if we can use technology like this, to amplify that ability of the body, to make the muscles more supple, make the tissues more pliable. That’ll ultimately make the body more resilient. And I think that that shock absorber metaphor that you mentioned, is a good way to do that. So that so this can actually help us re educate the the neuromuscular system to become more more pliable so that we’re not resisting our own movements, we’re better able to lengthen those muscles to accommodate greater ranges of motion, and to absorb force and protect those other structures of the body.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Excellent. Let me summarize. So you have a current that’s going to be a direct current that’s more harmonious with the body. That’s like hitting just the gas pedal where an alternating current, which is what you see maybe with the 10s unit is like hitting the gas pedal in the brake the same time and it’s more just, it’s like white noise. And in a room where people are talking, it’s just kind of covering up that chatter, that pain input, where this is actually providing stimulation for oxygenation, which helps tissues heal, it’s driving blood flow as well which provides nutrition in and pulls inflammation out. And then you’re also and I know a little bit guys because I did this technique when I had a physical office for many years, I believe in it, I wouldn’t be sharing it with you guys, if I thought it was something that wouldn’t be beneficial. When you are doing scanning of the device, you’re also finding specific compensation patterns. So we’re not just smacking a pattern input onto a muscle, we’re specifically scanning. So we can find those areas that that aren’t communicating well. So there’s a specific way to target that. And I really want you to show that and I also want to highlight one thing with the newbie, that’s amazing. There’s double the amount of outputs that you would typically see on other devices. And this is what makes it awesome is with other devices, you’d have to have two machines to do what you can do a one I think that’s really, really profound as a clinician, you don’t think about it. But it’s, it’s amazing if you’re treating patients upper body or lower or patient at the same time. It’s really cool.

Garrett Salpeter: Yeah, absolutely. So there’s some, definitely some features and functions that make it user friendly, just from a clinician day to day perspective in terms of that scanning process that I’m glad you mentioned that because that is a huge part of that that neuromuscular re education puzzle, where, first of all, you need to figure out what the heck to re educate in the first place, right. And so this goes back to the, the response to trauma and how the brain and nervous system are oriented towards survival and protection. And that’s why our brains limit us in so many ways. And so if I, you know, for instance, if I’m scanning around on the body with something like this, if I’m scanning around, I’m going to be sending because of the unique effects of the direct current, and how it impacts the nervous system, I’m going to be sending the same signals as if that muscle is being loaded, as if that muscle is being challenged as if that muscle is lifting weights or if that muscle is stretching, and I’m going to be sending these same inputs. And wherever the wherever the muscles are working well, my brain will will see that input and it’ll just say, Oh, yeah, that’s it. Just you know, Garrett’s arm doing its thing, or that’s just that bicep doing what it normally does, there’s nothing threatening or, or you know anything about this that needs to be addressed or, you know, no reason to protect against it. And then if I get to an area here, where the brain is actually limiting output, because it because of either learned disuse from bad patterns over time, or because of a traumatic injury, where I have one of those compensation patterns, and my brain is saying, No, no, don’t move there. If I scan over an area like that, then that signal is actually going to be perceived as threatening, that’s going to be saying, whoa, you’re loading an area at at 40 that I only want to be at 20. And the brain is going to say that’s threatening and it’s going to trigger this output. So it’ll it’ll feel like, like a trigger point or something like that. But actually, you’ll actually notice something that’s distinct and different in certain areas. And so that’s how we know where exactly the brain is imposing those patterns and where we need to change that. pattern in order to optimize function, and to basically get rid of the impediments that are that are blocking the healing process, so you can get the blood flow there. So you can get, you know, open the floodgates so the body can send those healing resources and the healing process can progress as it should.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: I think that’s really interesting, because with other devices, like a 10s unit, for instance, you’re just going to smack it on the muscle, there’s not going to be really scanning involved to be ultra specific. And what’s really interesting is sometimes where you think the pain is, let’s say your lower back, you may scan there, but a lot of the hotspots that come back that are more sensitive when you scan may not necessarily be exactly where the pain is. And that’s kind of pulled back into this whole compensation pattern where the compensation may be in a different area than the pain is expressing.

Garrett Salpeter: Absolutely, absolutely. So there’s there’s two things I was in more than two, but there’s, you know, in the response to injury, there’s the original, the original response. So there’s the original insult. And then there’s the response to that. And the response can happen in many areas around that it can happen on the same side, the opposite side. And in synergistic, or antagonist muscles, it can happen in other tissues and other areas that can happen. Like you originally said, you know, if you, if you’re injured knee on one side, you might just start loading the other side more in general. So it can lead to things much further down the chain. And being able to have a process like this where we can map the body and identify where these issues are, it allows us to kind of fill in the gaps and figure out where those where those patterns where those problems, you know, are presenting or you know, where they’ve traveled to, and help really just kind of do it in a very methodical way to work on those issues.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: That’s excellent. Would you mind showing the Neubie again, and just kind of showing where it’s a little bit unique with some of these extra outputs? I think it’s really fascinating.

Garrett Salpeter: Yeah, so we’ve got four there, they’re color coded just for convenience. And the-

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Most would only have to like make the most would only have maybe that green and the yellow. But then with your new technology, you’ve really modified it to provide extra output.

Garrett Salpeter: Extra outputs. Yeah. And so, you know, we have either physical therapy clinics or professional sports teams or university athletic departments where they’ll have one of these on a station, or it’s usually like on a carton in the therapy room. And they can have one patient or one athlete using this side of the machine, another patient on the other side of the machines, they can actually have two, two patients working on the same machine. And there’s a range of presets for more mapping and the more therapeutic or for different work, that would be more in the fitness and performance realm still still based in in the process of neuromuscular re education. But would it be more of a little bit of a different use case. And so there’s ability to move between and among those settings and one of the things that actually is in our first first patent on this, on this technology is the ability to move between preferentially contracting In preferentially lengthening or relaxing muscle Wow. And so you know in a in a session for example, we can actually help someone contract their muscles to really challenge and build strength in a very targeted powerful way. And then we can help relax those muscles so they can recover between sets of an exercise help replenish helps you know send more blood flow to the area replenish some of the energy and get ready and then go do it again do another set of the exercise and and challenge the muscles there and so you know, you can contract and then you got to lengthen back out to prepare those muscles to contract again. And so we can we can even do switch between those those settings within a session sometimes. 

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: That is awesome. Is there anything else that I mean you have amazing athletes. I mean, you posted on your Instagram a professional hockey player doing some of your exercise routine just just yesterday. I thought that was pretty amazing. I know you’ve had Trent Dilfer, a Super Bowl, quarterback come down there and get training as well. What are some of the biggest things that separate you or entice a lot of these professional athletes to work with you? Is it just the fact that they want to get better faster? They’re in pain, and they’re and they’re having a hard time recovering? Is that a performance thing? What’s their motivation? And what’s separating you from most of your competitors? 

Garrett Salpeter: That’s, that’s a good question. So thankfully, this has caught on in a few different places, one of which is with elite and professional athletes. And for them, a lot of the value proposition is in the results and the speed at which they’re able to see results because we’ve, we’ve probably all had the experience, please, most of us listening to this have had the experience of going in and doing therapy, you know, for some injury for some pain, and with traditional physical therapy, you know, sometimes it feels like, you know, sometimes it feels like a middle where they’re just trying to get as many people through as they can. There’s not much attention. Sometimes it feels like going through the motions. Sometimes it feels like we’re doing something for the sake of doing Something and no one’s really expecting to see a tangible result from that session. Certainly there’s there’s many forward thinking practitioners and people that, that, that care as much as we do about results, and so I’m not describing everybody by any means, but but there is a, you know, I would say a big opportunity for improvement in the traditional therapeutic practices. And so, so that’s the differentiating factor. A lot of times as you know, we’ll have athletes will have a separated shoulder like a grade two AC separation, for example, can’t lift their arm pass here, and it’s painful, and in one session, there’ll be up there, unbelievable overhead. And so, so that sometimes it’s just the you know, the dramatic nature and immediate nature of the results that that cause someone to believe like, oh, wow, this is really powerful. And then you know, then they tell their, their friends and teammates and colleagues and, you know, I can kind of grow from there.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: It’s excellent and you provide amazing education on it. On the functional neurological aspect and of course you have the newer technology. This may create a lot of questions for listeners again, we’ll put that link down below neu.fit/justinhealth. We’ll put that link down below. Garrett and his team would be happy to answer any questions that you guys have. Or if you’re, you know what this whole coronavirus, lockdown people aren’t able to go out and I know you offer that care where you can do it in house where you can mail out a device as well, which could be really convenient during this time, especially if people are in pain or just trying to heal and and exercise and not have to do it in a gym setting. So this is a great option for y’all.

Garrett Salpeter: Absolutely, yeah, that’s something that we know most of the time people have been doing it with a practitioner in, you know, no local physical therapy clinic chiropractic office, integrative medical practice. However, during a time like this, we’ve been working to make even more we know we’ve had people for whom we’ve already had to do it. So there’s a great model in place, and I think it’s being emphasized even more being able to do remotely at home. And so we have, you know, infrastructure in place to be able to accommodate people and, and get most of the results, you know, a vast majority of what we can do in person can still be done remotely.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: That’s excellent. And what’s your opinion in in incorporating stem cell technology with more severe injuries in what you do? Have you tried that? Have you seen that? What’s your opinion?

Garrett Salpeter: That’s a great question. So we have a few practices that are using the newbie in a in a practice where they do a lot of PRP or stem cell and regenerative injections. So we have some, some really good use cases showing that the combination can can really be fabulous. And I look at it as when we’re trying to help someone recover from from chronic pain from injury, structural tissue damage, there’s two aspects that we need to work on. There’s, of course, the structural piece, if there’s damage, we want that to be fixed. And there’s also the functional piece where when there’s this function when people aren’t using those areas of their body, they need to relearn how to how to do that. And if you’re if you’re giving someone stem cells or exosomes or PRP, that can be a fabulous intervention to help them regrow or heal or regenerate on the structural side. And yet, if we don’t also address the functional piece, there’s a good chance that they might just reinjure re damage that area. Again, they’ve invested thousands of dollars in stem cells, but because, you know, they’re still collapsing into their knee into their knee joint in the same way, they’re just going to reinjure it. So if they can also work on the functional side, then that can complement the the injections are the regenerative work that they’re doing. And the two seem to work together very well. I think there’s also a really cool bridge, because conceptually, when you’re when you’re giving someone PRP or stem cells, you know, part of what you’re trying to do is actually irritate the target tissue with the needle, so that you trigger the body’s own natural healing. Right, exactly, exactly. Yeah. So you trigger that that local inflammation and the cascade of different chemical processes to heal that tissue. And one of the things that we’ve seen is that the newbie helps the body heal so much more efficiently from injury, it also can help the body heal more efficiently from that little bit of injury that was intentionally and purposefully induced by the needle. And so the the two, it seems like, again, can be can be synergistic, and I think complimentary in a way that leads to better overall outcomes based- 

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: That makes sense. In other words, if we take this analogy and translate it to cars, if we were to do a stem cell injection that helps heal or it makes their their tire more fancy or better looking or heal faster, but the suspension or the axle or the whole shock system isn’t fixed. Those are the compensation patterns. Eventually that tire will wear down again in the future. So we’re trying to get to the upstream issue. And if we combine the two, it’s all it’ll be better.

Garrett Salpeter: Absolutely. Absolutely. I think you got it. You got to work on both and any approach that doesn’t address both is gonna leave some Sort of shortfall somewhere?

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: That’s excellent. Garrett, is there anything else you want to leave the listeners with today?

Garrett Salpeter: So, I believe, very, very strongly that the most powerful and transformative way to help people recover from pain and injury is to focus on the nervous system and work on these areas that we’ve been talking about. And I’ve seen people recover from incredible things like we’ve seen people use our technology to, you know, to regain function to get out of wheelchairs or start walking again, after spinal cord injuries or start moving again, after debilitating bouts with MS or things like that. And, and so, you know, even if someone doesn’t, doesn’t work with us or any of our practitioners, I really want to shift the dialogue and start introducing into dialogue, the nervous system and how powerful working with the nervous system can be and how empowering it can be. And I want people to know that if you’re in If you’re facing chronic pain or you’re having trouble getting back to function or if you’re frustrated because you can’t play basketball and tennis with your kids because of because your joints always hurt, you know, there there can be solutions out there. And I would just encourage people to look at this the power of this functional neurology approach and how it can help certainly with pain and movement and also things related to the autonomic nervous system and just there’s there’s a whole range of things that because the nervous system controls so much about the body, now just just you know, think, think neurology. I think if I had to summarize it in two words.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: I love it. That’s excellent. So for anyone listening here, that’s from the Austin area wants to travel down to Austin. Garrett’s got a great clinic right on the 360 Highway in West Lake right near the Rudy’s Barbecue is anyone from Austin knows 360 and Rudy’s they’ll know exactly where that is. And then if you guys want to reach out to anyone- 

Garrett Salpeter: If you’re not in Austin, you’ll be amazed to know that one of the best barbecue places actually inside a gas station. 

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: It is. If anyone wants to fly in you got the gas station next door with some great barbecue. And if you guys want to reach out we have that special link for you guys today neu.fit/justinhealth we’ll put it down below so you guys can click. And if you want to get more information on Garrett’s educational programs, click there. If you want to get information on the device, click there or being a patient or being a patient virtually all that’s going to be there for you, Garrett, anything else?

Garrett Salpeter: So that is you mentioned the educational piece that is one thing that you know, we definitely take very seriously that for clinicians who will get our device we have a whole certification education program with continuing education and ongoing support. And that’s something that you know, if you are a practitioner, we’d love to share with you because you know, the device is good. And yet, without the knowledge, it wouldn’t be nearly as good. So the system and the thinking behind it is something that we love to share with people as well.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: And I’ll give Garrett a pat in the back air as a PhD candidate at UT studying this time. Technology at a PhD level and obviously as clinics have gotten so big he’s prioritizing his patients over that now, but Garrett has a higher level of understanding that we’re not even talking about here, because we want to keep it simple. So Garrett, the main man to reach out for more education on that Garrett, thanks so much for being part of the podcast.

Garrett Salpeter: Thank you, Dr. Justin. It was a pleasure. I really appreciate it. 

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Thank you. Take care.

References:

https://justinhealth.com/

Audio Podcast:

https://justinhealth.libsyn.com/cutting-edge-healing-technology-the-neubie-with-garrett-salpeter-podcast-279

Are Your Migraines Caused by the Food You Eat?

By Dr. Justin Marchegiani

The food you eat on a daily basis has a profound effect on your body’s inflammation level. The more inflamed you are, the faster your body breaks down. The faster your body breaks down, the more you suffer from pain, fatigue, headaches, hormonal issues, and other problems commonly attributed to ageing. On the flip side, the more you are putting your body into an anti-inflammatory state, the easier it is for your body to heal and perform at the highest levels possible.

Consuming gluten is strongly linked to migraine headaches. Gluten has been shown to cause a decrease in cerebral blood flow: the blood flowing to your brain. The main role of cerebral blood is to carry oxygen and nutrition to the brain for fuel so it can perform and thrive in its daily activities. When the brain isn’t being fed, migraine headaches can occur (1).

Imagine crossing your legs for 2-3 hours. Do you remember that pins-and-needles feeling you get when your leg hasn’t received enough blood? Now imagine getting up and running across the room— you’re likely to trip and fall. A similar thing happens to your brain when having cereal for breakfast, pizza for lunch, and pasta for dinner. Except instead of a pins-and-needles sensation causing your legs to go wobbly, you get a killer migraine headache that makes driving, taking a test, working, and other daily functions very difficult. A diet high in gluten is likely to cause chronic headaches and oftentimes migraines too, which severely limits your performance and your potential.

Click here to know about the possible causes of your migraines.

Other Simple Causes of Migraines:

1. Nutritional Deficiencies: Gut inflammation is caused by common food allergens, such as grains, dairy, and legumes. These common allergens are notorious for preventing important nutrients like iron, calcium, selenium, magnesium and vitamin C from being absorbed.  These nutrients are important for everyday health functions and healthy blood flow to the brain.
2. Consumption of artificial compounds: Aspartame, Splenda and MSG (monosodium glutamate) are known excitotoxins. Excitotoxins are chemicals that stimulate neurons in the brain to the point that they are destroyed; this is not a good thing! Research from Russell Blaylock MD, a renowned neurosurgeon has elaborated on this phenomenon in his book Excitotoxins: The Taste That Kills. These compounds are commonly found in fast food and soda.
3. Exposure to toxic chemicals: Personal care and cleaning products can cause serious damage to your health, and are a common cause of migraine headaches too. I recommend all of my patients to thoroughly examine the ingredients in their household cleaners, perfumes, dryer sheets, makeup, and shampoos. The Environmental Working Group has compiled an excellent database where you can personally look up the products you use and the level of toxicity is graded on a scale of 1-10 (10 being the worst). Whole Foods and other natural grocery store are a great place to find non-toxic alternatives.
4. Hormonal and Blood Sugar Imbalances: These can cause migraines in some females. These hormonal imbalances can be attributed to blood sugar disturbances, or the ebbs and flows in progesterone or estrogen that occur throughout the monthly menstrual cycle. Getting an adrenal-cortisol rhythm or monthly females hormone salivary lab test can help assess if this is the cause of your migraines.
5. Joint Dysfunction: Any time the joints in your body—especially the joints in your neck and the upper cervical spine—aren’t moving properly, migraine headaches can occur. Getting your neck assessed by a good chiropractor can help you determine whether your joints are the root cause of your headaches.

Having frequent migraines? Click here to find out if it is related to your food intake.

References:

1. American Journal of Gastroenterology, Vol.98, No.3 2003, 626-9.

Dr. Bernd Friedlander – Using collagen to promote optimal health – Podcast #126

Join Dr. Justin Marchegiani as he welcomes his special guest, Dr. Bernd Friedlander in this week’s episode all about collagen. Obtain a lot of valuable information as Dr. Bernd shares his success and expertise in his field of practice when it comes to nutrition and supplement recommendation of collagen in the athletes he trained.

Pick up on some helpful information regarding the different benefits and uses of collagen in issues like wounds, ageing and healing. Listen carefully as they discuss and relate collagen with leaky gut and other inflammatory conditions. Explore all about caloric restriction diet, its health benefits; and apply specific recommendations of these experts when it comes to improving mitochondrial function, carbohydrate, fats, and protein consumption.

In this episode, we cover:

3:57   Collagen: types, benefits, dosage recommendation

14:21   Systemic enzymes for inflammation

21:09   Glycine and Leaky gut

24:40   Caloric Restriction diet

30:58   Mitochondria

41:03   Carbohydrate and Glucose Consumption

48:33   Cholesterol and Fat Consumption

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Hey there! It’s Dr. Justin Marchegiani. Welcome back to Beyond Wellness Radio. Today we have a great guest Dr. Bernd Friedlander. Dr. Friedlander is a researcher; he’s a clinician; also a physical therapist; doctor in chiropractic medicine; nutritionist; has years and years of experience with uh – human performance and bio hacking at the professional level, as well as the clinical level, that we see all our patients at today. So, Dr. Bernd, welcome to the show.

Dr. Bernd:  Dr. Justin, how are you? I appreciate you having me on your show. I look forward to talking to you.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Well, thank you. I know you’re one of the most foremost experts out there on collagen. And I love collagen for all the great benefits. It helps with hair, skin, nails, joints, and it’s such a really excellent amino acid. Would you mind – I know we were – We have a- a product that you help formulate here for us called, “True Collagen” – That’s absolutely great. It’s a collagen peptide formula which I love the peptides, that we deal with so much with leaky gut. And people have a hard time taking the collagels and in breaking it down. And this makes it a lot easier. Would you mind talking about – just kinda collagen and kinda the overall benefits and kinda what your take on it is.

Dr. Bernd: Yes. You know, uh – I got into collagen actually accidentally when I was working with the Los Angeles Raiders. I was working with uh – a number of the athletes there, especially Howie Long.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Uh-huh.

Dr. Bernd: And I was introduced to an Orthopedic doctor back in the 80’s. And – and he was interested in my work with the athletes and how I incorporated nutrition, as well as dietary supplements to the athletes. In the 80’s, you know – they weren’t into that. They were still eating carbohydrate and uh – low fats, low protein. But now, I’d – I’d sort of turned around by increasing the protein levels and reducing the carbohydrate. And uh – that time, I was working with Knox Gelatine.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Uhm.

Dr. Bernd: They developed that formula for me – that I was able to use with my athletes. So the Orthopedic doctor was telling me that he reverse his own serious uh – disherniation that he developed as an athlete. He was a premier high school athlete that was uh – highly recruited by five different universities. And he ended up in Michigan. And his first year in Michigan playing football, he uh – ruptured his disc so badly, that it really destroyed his uhm – possibility to even be a professional athlete.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Uhm.

Dr. Bernd: So he – he ended up going to medical school training and become an Orthopedic doctor. And he tells me, instead of trying to get surgery done, he looked at every aspect of the  uh – spinal cord and to see how he reverse the genera – generative condition – condition that he’s developed-

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.

Dr. Bernd:  from sports by healing himself. So he started using Knox Gelatine collagen at that time, which was not a true collagen.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yes.

Dr. Bernd: Uh – it was more in the gelatin form.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yes.

Dr. Bernd: But he started taking 3-4 packets a day with vitamin D, vitamin C, and calcium. Within six months, the pain was gone. Within one year, he never needed surgery. So we – we discussed this while I was working with the Raiders. How it – beneficial collagen is. And I started really researching at extensively with uh – Linus Pauling.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Wow!

Dr. Bernd: And we got the experts in the field and discovered that 99% of the spinal cord is made up collagen. It was the primary protein that developed the spinal cord.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Wow!

Dr. Bernd: And then the nerve, myelin sheath, etc. developed from that. And I started realizing that collagen has many properties: anti-inflammatory, uh – repairing, regenerating, cartilage repair. It also repairs tendons and ligaments. It’s the only protein that does that.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: I love it. And then regarding the collagen types that you like, you’re a big well – The main collagen that were doing is getting from grass-fed beef. That’s the true collagen, and that’s type I and type IV, correct?

Dr. Bernd: It’s actually type I and type III.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: I and III.

Dr. Bernd: Uh – yeah. I and III is predominantly what the human body is made out of. Type II has a little hyaluronic acid.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yes.

Dr. Bernd: And that’s usually from chicken cartilage.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yup.

Dr. Bernd: Uh – the palm wine never got into chicken cartilage because most of the uh – producers of chicken cartilage are not naturally-fed.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.

Dr. Bernd: They use soy in corn. And that disturbs the hormonal balance uh – of the chicken, as well as the thyroid – disrupts thyroid function. So I stayed away from chicken cartilage.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: That’s amazing. That is very good. So I and III is gonna give us the best bet. Now with the collagen peptides II, we have the digestion benefits, right? Coz they’re in peptide form. That’s why when you put the regular gels in it, it kinda – it makes basically gello. That’s kinda where the word “gello” came from. But this – this type of collagen that you’ve created, you put in a peptide form, so that- when you put it in the water, you literally can see it dissolve and breaking down right in front of your eyes. Can you talk about how you guys do that? And then, how does that benefit us from an absorption standpoint?

Dr. Bernd: Well you know – uh going back to the days that I would work with Knox Gelatine, I – we were discussing this with the R&D Department. And R&D Department put on a show – uh that’s an entirely uh – advance in the field of collagen peptides. They’re not willing to make this kind of collagen. It was too extensive and too high, pricey. So they sort of connected me in how I need to achieve that kind of peptide. Once I started reviewing the research, and working with chemists, and the ideal thing is, you want a hydrolyze uh – peptide form of collagen. So it is 99% absorbed immediately.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Love it.

Dr. Bernd:  -with 5 to 10 minutes, without any digestive enzymes requiring. As you know, every amino acid protein out there, you have to break it down to hydrochloric acid and pepsin.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yes.

Dr. Bernd: And through the stomach.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yes.

Dr. Bernd: And the uh – pancreas, through the pancreatic enzyme, trypsin and chymotrypsin. And you also need B6 to convert the amino acids to peptide.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yes.

Dr. Bernd: Collagen doesn’t require any form of enzymes or B6 to be broken down. It’s immediately delivered in the blood to the area that it needs to repair, regenerate, or work with.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: I love that. So that just really increase the absorption. And with the True Collagen, I play it around to make the neo cell chicken cartilage, that you mentioned. And you can just pour some of it in there. And you can see it literally become emulsify kinda right before your very eyes.

Dr. Bernd: Right. And the other thing about your collagen that you have is, it is the most molecular weight collagen on – on the planet right now so far – very low. And the other thing that don’t people understand compared to all the other collagen out there, our molecule levels is extremely low. Therefore, it’s gonna be assimilated, absorbed immediately. Number two: the density that the structure and the density of the collagen is very important. Uh – we were able to also bring down the density structures to the levels that it is now truly absorbable, uh – utilized more efficiently and you are producing more minerals out of these collagen, as well.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: I love that. And I know we talked in the past about dose. And the typical recommendations I have for my patients currently 10-20 g a day maintenance, and after 40 to 60 grams if you’re trying to get aesthetic benefits, or if you’re trying to rehab joint issues or disc issues, would you say those recommendations are correct?

Dr. Bernd: I would say for maintenance for skin – We did a study with animals back in Japan.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Wow.

Dr. Bernd: In the early 2000 and we found that 10 grams of collagen restores elasticity in the skin, and also helps with bone density. In one year working with human, you want to increase that level because there are so many other factors. You know, density, and structure, and inflammation. So I find that if you do 30 grams in the morning, and 30 grams in the afternoon, or early evening, I have seen people were there joints, shoulders, rotator injuries uh – torn rotators, bone to bone cartilage in the knee or the hip, I’ve seen people and have people testimonials come to me saying that they are able to walk the first time, or use weights for the first time. And using that program about 60 grams. We found about 40 to 60 grams restores and repairs and regenerate injuries.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Now what did you notice with your chiropractic patients clinically in practice. What were you seeing with their disc issues? Let’s say before using collagen to after. What were you noticing in their recovery time? How much has it improved?

Dr. Bernd: Well, very important, uh – going towards my latter part of my years with the athletes, I notice the athletes dramatically improved and recovered much faster when I started them on collagen, especially with the Raiders and the Rams, and some of the other athletes. And then when I started introducing it to my patients, I’ve noticed that I was able to facilitate their healing dramatically. So I – I didn’t need to treat them as long – as much as I used to. And they’re are able to function much faster and the pain – the first thing I hear from the patient is dramatically that the pain goes down dramatically. And that’s so important, as you know, reducing – reducing pain and inflammation. So that’s the first thing – inflammation and pain went down dramatically fast. And then within weeks, they’re able to uh – function and move their joints, and are able to sit, or drive without having that discomfort in their lower back.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Now are there any herbs that you find with really synergistically help reduce the inflammation. Maybe Boswellia or Curcumin? Anything you’ve done clinically?

Dr. Bernd: We’ve done a lot of research and I’m on the board of the AMM University College of Pharmacy and at the Ohio State University, College of Medicine and then working with the UC Davis, UCLA. Uhm – we found that there’s many plant’s out there that are very highly anti-inflammatory. And you mention Boswellia being number one.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Uhm.

Dr. Bernd: We found Boswellia by far number one. Ginger, rosemary, uh – actually turmeric and curcumin was not in the high rank.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Uh-hm.

Dr. Bernd: It wasn’t extremely as powerful as some of these other herbs but Boswellia, definitely number one in every situation we did research. And then we found ginger rosemary close. All the other uhm – you know uhm – spices you see out there. Cardamine is very powerful as an anti-inflammatory. And – but then if you add turmeric with ginger and rosemary and Boswellia, it does enhance. But if by itself, it didn’t to as much. Uhm –my number one thing, I’ll tell you by far, is Aspirin. I find Aspirin works all the time for me, because aspirin is a natural inflammatory works on COX-1 and COX-2 inflammatory uh – prostaglandin. The only one that deals with 1 & 2. And number three, it has tremendous antioxidant ability, as well as helps trabecular, meaning it restores bone back with collagen. When taken aspirin with collagen, it helps to bind the collagen to the __ and glue them together.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: So regarding the aspirin, would it be just as good or better to do the white willow bark instead? Just to avoid some of the gut or liver side-effects?

Dr. Bernd: No. There’s really not that much that – the problem with people with aspirin is that they already __and vitamin E reduces ulcers dramatically. Uhm – if they take baking soda with aspirin, they can actually buffer the aspirin. So they can take 6 – I have people take 6 to 10 aspirins a day with baking soda. And they have no problem. And that affects uh – one of the side-effects that was – that one person who is dealing with the structural problem was on my collagen, and he started taking 6 to 10. His stomach cancer actually went down dramatically and his father who’s an MD, was amazed by the results. And so he incorporated aspirin for his patients for other conditions such as you know – colon and stomach cancer.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: And aspirin, doesn’t it have the side-effects of like – Ibuprofen or the NSAID family?

Dr. Bernd: No.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: The Non Steroidal Anti Inflammatory Drug, correct?

Dr. Bernd: It doesn’t cause any liver discomfort or uh – those of the detoxification system.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Right.

Dr. Bernd: And it has so many – it also reduces fatty acid synthesis, which is a – a byproduct of our mitochondrial deficiency.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Uhh.

Dr. Bernd: When you – if you take aspirin and collagen and coffee in the morning, it doubles the uncoupling mechanism of the mitochondrial proteins. It enhances the mitochondrial to achieve ATP more efficiently.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani:  Interesting. And I think aspirin was created from the while willow bark, too. Correct? So that did come to the herb originally.

Dr. Bernd: Uh-hmm. Yeah. And you can use, like you said, why throw a bark? It’s exceptional. It works. Uhm and usually takes a longer time, but once you have enough in the body, it does work as well or even better than aspirin.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Very interesting. What’s your take on systemic enzymes for inflammation?

Dr. Bernd: Uhm, you know, for inflammation, I find – I’ve always use Remylin, number one, for that purpose, and Parsitan. Remilyn-Parsitan works for me the most effectively. Uhm – and the research that I look at, it’s always well known in athletic performance. That Remilyn was always number one. Uhm – chymotrypsin, trypsin – all these things uhm – they have some anti-inflammatory mechanisms, but they work more on breaking down proteins more efficiently. And that’s their function. Remilyn and has more of an anti-inflammatory mechanisms. Uhm – uh you know, dealing with prostaglandins-

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Prostaglandins, right. Interesting. And what about topical effects of collagen? Maybe putting it on topically or taking it topically? Maybe they heal cuts, or wounds and scars? What’s your take on the best protocol for healing cuts, wounds, and scars?

Dr.Bernd: Well the one you have, the True Collagen, that you uh – provide  to your patient because of the molecular weight is extremely the lowest on the market today. It will penetrate down through the skin a little bit more efficiently. Most collagen, the molecular weight’s too large.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Right.

Dr. Bernd: It’s like a hyaluronic acid. They are different molecular weight, hyaluronic acids, uh – and for the joints, you need the lowest molecular weight to get in there. For the skin, you don’t need that much. But in collagen, you will get some effect from the low molecular, low density weight of collagen. And people have made like uh – like a topical paste. You know –

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yes.

Dr. Bernd: – on their skin. And I’ve heard incredible stories. I myself take it orally.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yup.

Dr. Bernd:  And I’ve noticed just orally, everybody says I’m 68 and I’m out on the sun everyday. They all say, “you got incredible skin, how do you keep it that way?”It’s gotta be collagen because I don’t much other than that.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Absolutely. I was – I saw Dave Asprey maybe a year or two ago at the Paleo conference and he was getting all these compliments on his hair growing out, and his skin is vibrant. And he’s just really up to collagen – so 60g a day. I think that mirrors your protocol. The 30 and 30.

Dr. Bernd: Yeah.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani:  And he was crediting a lot of his skin and hair benefits from the higher dose collagen as well.

Dr. Bernd: You know, interesting uhm – three years ago, I had dinner with uh –with one of the doctors, uhm – and he had a client in Chicago who’s working out, who is an osteopath there. And she was working out in the gym, and right across the street is uh – Oprah Winfrey.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Wow!

Dr. Bernd: Oprah Winfrey is very close to this guy named Alexis. Alexis is a Bulgarian Powerlifter.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Right.

Dr. Bernd: He had a gym called – in Chicago and he was telling me that, he was taking my collagen – that collagen peptide that you have. And he’s – he has severe bone to bone loss of cartilage on his knee from lifting over 33,000 lbs over his head. And he’s record holder in his country and he was a former Olympic uh – lifter. And he was complaining every day about pain. So the doctor says, “well, let me give you some of this collagen I’ve been taking” So gain a couple pounds of it and in a couple of days, he went back to her and said, “this is the most incredible thing, uh – I started taking uh – 60g of this stuff and I noticed my pain went down” So he went on 100g a day level for six weeks, went to see his Orthopedic doctor, he took an x-ray of his knees, and he says, “My God, what’s going on? You’ve got cartilage growing back in your knee.” And he says, “you know, I noticed __. So uhm – it was – you know, he’s on a hundred because he’s a massive individual. He’s huge. You know, he’s like a football player, but very short and stocky. So when you’re in that kind of dense person and athletic like he is, you need to go even higher.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Love it. That’s make so much sense.

Dr. Bernd: And you don’t have to be on it all the time. You don’t have to be on it – I read from a leading article way back in the 50’s, 60’s from uh – MD, and he was giving everybody bone broth, chicken stock and collagen from different sources. And he was adding it every single day to their diet. And that’s how he restore their health completely.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: I love it. That makes so much sense. And are there any topical products out there on the market are you aware of that you can take in conjunction with the collagen, but topically to put on in any cuts or wounds or things like that to help improve healing and recovery there – reduce scarring?

Dr. Bernd: You know, Yeah. You know – I mean if you ever have a problem with any situation, hydrogen peroxide works so easily and so fast in wound healing. And also somehow, basal cell carcinoma you may see it disappear. Uhm – vitamin E and vitamin C are my two favorite.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Uhm.

Dr. Bernd: Because vitamin C and vitamin E and hyaluronic acid together, and it is one of the best because you know – Vitamin C and collagen are so complimental to each each other.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yes, they are.

Dr. Bernd: They work – work synergistically together and uhm – when you have enough Vitamin C, it enhances collagen function and also collagen does the same thing to vitamin C. So having vitamin C just as itself has profound effects.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: That’s great.

Dr. Bernd: And if you get – yeah. If you above 10% of the solution, then you gonna see results.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Is that a 3% hydrogen peroxide? Or is that a food grade?

Dr. Bernd: Uhm – Yes, I’ve used even food grade where I mix it a little bit so I get it down to about 10, 15%. And I myself has a couple of uhm – you know a couple of thins on my – on my nose from being outdoors. I play professional soccer all my life so I’ve been outdoors all my life and then tracks. So you develop this little sunspots.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Sunspots.

Dr. Bernd: And I put it on there, and it goes away – it’s gone. If I have, with a Q-tip, I use it topically, and it stings. You want to get it to the level where you have a sting out of it. For about three minutes, it stings and then you just let it go, and the next day, add another one. And then in a few days, it’s gone.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Love it. That’s great. Excellent tips.

Dr. Bernd: Yeah.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: And then let’s talk about some of the gut healings. I know you mentioned just bone broth a few minutes ago, and I know Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride, the person who created the GAPS diet to help people with gut issues, the gut and psychology syndrome diet. She talks about bone broth and bone broth is really high in glycine. That’s one of the major benefits of glycine. And we know glycine is also really, really, really high in collagen along with hydroxyproline and.

Dr. Bernd: Yeah.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Can you talk about how glycine really helps to work to heal the gut?

Dr. Bernd: Well collagen and glycine – you know that some – the wall – the lining of the wall is pretty – even in the arteries. People don’t understand that Linus Pauling told me this many years ago, that the lining of the walls of the arteries, of the gut, is predominantly the teflon to smoothness –

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Uh-hmm.

Dr. Bernd: – is made from collagen. That’s why he was a big promoter of lycine, and proline, and vitamin C in his program. It’s because he wanted to increase the – the Teflon, the smoothness, elasticity of the lining of the wall. The cell membrane where uh – nutrients go in and out, water retention in sodium potassium – It’s all controlled by collagen proteins such as glycine. And it helps to heal the gut by sealing the leaky gut syndrome. The gut junctions which get inflamed. And they start you know – proliferating with uh – holes because of the inflammatory mechanisms. And collagen seems to seal that. So if people start taking collagen with their meals, they don’t have the symptoms of leaky gut or Crohn’s or IBS or colitis. They don’t get that kind of symptoms because collagen helps to reduce the inflammatory mechanisms by suppressing MMP-9, which is a major inflammatory component. And – and

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Uhm.

Dr. Bernd: Collagen is one of the few that reduces the MMP-9 uhm – mechanisms that causes most of the inflammation in the gut and it does that. And glycine does that. So does glycine, choline and alanine. And – and even a little glutamine in there. So you’re gonna get that healing effect that happens. And you’re right, you know – the endotoxins that we consume and produce in the gut, when it leaks out, it causes all your inflammatory conditions, neurological conditions, you know uh – Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s. All these things are caused by that. Arthritis is another component of leaky gut syndrome. So the more collagen you take, the more you having more protection in supporting the lining of the wall and reducing the inflammation.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Interesting. Yeah, I see that. That’s the matrix metalloproteinase nine.

Dr. Bernd: Uh-hmm.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: And there’s a couple of studies I’m looking at – one here, right now on Pubmed in the Journal of Development. They’re talking about that being really – being modulated by collagen matrix formula. That makes sense.  So it’s really helping to modulate the MMP-9, thus helping to reduce inflammation and improve joint inflammation recovery.

Dr. Bernd: Yes. Yes. We got many benefits from collagen. It’s not only just repair and generate, but protection. And also another big thing, you know – uh one of the biggest areas I – I worked on was a caloric restriction diet.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Uh-hmm.

Dr. Bernd: And it wasn’t about 20 years later after working with Roy Walford.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.

Dr. Bernd: And I uh – I started realizing what is uhm – what are the benefits of caloric restriction diet? Well the major benefits, I started reviewing every single paper from Richard Miller –

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.

Dr. Bernd: to Lopez to Aschinger and others is that –

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah. Autophagy.

Dr. Bernd: Yeah. By increasing autophagy –

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.

Dr. Bernd: And by reducing inflammation and iron, and reducing polyunsaturated oils, which are the major contributors of ageing.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.

Dr. Bernd: But here’s what I started, if you reduce certain inflammatory proteins like, methionine, cysteine, and tryptophan, which are devoid in collagen. Now I understood why collagen is such an important protein because it’s devoid of three major amino acids that contribute to basically oxidative stress.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Uhm.

Dr. Bernd:  Glycation, thyroid dysfunction – all proven by these low caloric restriction diets that they saw the markers of what they are looking work for. The stresses on the body, the epigenetic genes that are – are expressed by reducing uh – caloric restriction. It all comes back to these amino acids. There was a link to all these three researchers Richard – Miller –

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yup.

Dr. Bernd: work on this, who’s a PhD, MD and some other people like Lopez and Aschinger

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Uh-hmm.

Dr. Bernd: And the others like that.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.

Dr. Bernd: It showed that collagen devoid of this, is the only protein out there that is safe to consume on a daily basis, that have the caloric restriction benefits.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: But you don’t see any problems with – I get that. So maybe we can apply some intermittent fasting in such –

Dr. Bernd: Yeah.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: – to our weekly regimen. That makes sense. I get that, but eating like grass-fed meat or like fresh salmon, or foods that have a serotonin or 5-HTP or tyrosine in it, is that gonna be okay? Is that gonna cause a problem?

Dr. Bernd: Eventually the serotonin issue raises estrogen and with my cancer patients – I’ve treated over 14,000 patients, and estrogen and serotonin is very high in almost all of them. And they’re contributing to uh – reducing thyroid function, number one.  They also increase nitric oxide and histamine, which is a contributing factor to endotoxins, leaky gut syndrome, and brain function. So what I’ve also discovered, if you compliment collagen with uh – these type of foods-

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.

Dr. Bernd: That are high in tryptophan, it sort of reduces the uh-

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yes.

Dr. Bernd: The damaging effect of-

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yup.

Dr. Bernd: of tryptophan, methionine and cysteine. So collagen balances whatever foods you gonna eat. So I remember uh – a very famous MMA cage fighter.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.

Dr. Bernd: And working with Chris Cyborg who’s number one in the world.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Ohh.

Dr. Bernd: undefeated. When she was on whey protein, she had a lot of distention and bloating, and gut issues.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.

Dr. Bernd: When we added collagen in a higher level, all the symptoms went away completely. But when she stopped with collagen, they came back.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Interesting.

Dr. Bren: So it was – So that’s why she realized that how important was collagen to her supplement because it reduced the inflammation, the gut, the bloating, the distention, and the fatigue that she developed from having that.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah. So you think maybe there was a good parity with the collagen adding the extra glycine hydroxyproline-proline with some of the higher amounts of  sulfur amino / glutathione precursors in the way. You think that kind added a good balance to it essentially?

Dr. Bernd: Yeah. And one of the – you gotta be careful with glutathione and sulfur groups, uhm – In all the research that we’ve done and I’ve looked at, maintaining an oxidative uh – metabolism, that means you now looking at the redux signaling. You got glycation of glucose –

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Uh-hmm.

Dr. Bernd: Oxidation of glucose. It’s how everything works and then you have the reduction stage as the byproduct of energy. Okay, you get the reduced state. You don’t wanna convert to reduced state the NADH back to NAD+

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.

Dr. Bernd:  That’s where all the sciences go on. So maintaining a highly NAD+ state, maintains longevity and – and reduces the chances for heart disease, cancer, and diabetes. And by reducing these amino acids, that I mentioned, these amino acids – even the glutathione amino acids uh – maintain the body in an NADH state in a reduced state. And you want to convert that back to NAD+ And the amino acids that do that, are your choline, lysine, and glycine. You know lycine, choline and glycine are the major ones to contribute to an oxidative state.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Very interesting.

Dr. Bernd: Yeah. And that’s why –

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Go ahead. Yeah.

Dr. Bernd: That’s why a lot of the stem cell clinics – are the Ahvie Herskowitz in San Francisco uses my collagen to prep the body to make more stem cells. So when he does stem cells from either the fatty tissue or the – you know from the bone, using bone marrow.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Uh-hmm.

Dr. Bernd: He’ll prep the patient up with collagen because it doubles the stem cell function and improves the stem cells.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Love that. And you’re just referring a lot of the various pathways that are involved in the Kreb’s cycle which has to do with the mitochondrial function. I wanna talk about that in just a bit. And you were talking a lot about these reducing agents. And just for the listeners at home, all our reduction agent is a –takes on an electron. Oxidation is a loss of electrons; reduction is a gain of electrons. So you have the NAD, plus the H, that’s the electron UVF ADH, too, which add the extra electron. And these electrons, these hydrogen compounds are then brought into the electron transport chain to generate more ATP. So Bernd, can you switch gears and talk about the mitochondria? Just kinda give your Reader’s Digest version of what it is, and what people can do to help improve the mitochondrial function?

Dr. Bernd: Yes. You know, going back to billions of year ago, the molecule that gave life to every living system was a bacteria, called an organelle, called the mitochondria.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Uhm.

Dr. Bernd: And when the mitochondria establish an envelope around itself, they created that – these organelles for energy. Every plant, every animal, every living system has – and this is what the oxidation reduction cycling is all about. And every disease state, like Edison Pharmaceuticals, working on a mitochondrial uhm – molecule that increases mitochondria in the brain, because all degenerative diseases they’re finding are caused by the lack of NAD+ an increased NAD H which is the reduction state of the cell.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.

Dr. Bernd:  And if you can increase the NAD+, you main – well we’re born – we’re born with a  500:1 ratio of NAD+ to NADH.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Uh-hmm.

Dr. Bernd:  As we get older, this level starts declining to 200:1 to uh – 100:1 and then it shifts. That’s how a disease starts and that’s how the cell – everything that the body regenerates with, it requires mitochondrial function.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Uh-hmm.

Dr. Bernd: Immune system functions by the mitochondria by producing energy and the byproduct of CO2, carbon dioxide.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah

Dr. Bernd: And carbon dioxide is a chemical necessary. It’s very valuable in producing energy as well, but it’s an antioxidant. It reduces free radical damage.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Uhm.

Dr. Bernd: – by producing CO2 and people don’t realize that’s why high altitude –  athletes train in high altitude to enhance performance and recovery. We did a study with cancer patients by putting them at high altitude; they were able to recover from their cancer. Because the more CO2 you have, the great ability to recover and to increase NAD+. And Speckmen – Speckmen the largest study in the world on human –on animals than human, that by maintaining a highly oxidative state, uhm –all the animals that live the longest, all the human uh – uh –cultures that have the highest longevity, he discovered they all had a very high metabolic function due to the NAD+, to the mitochondria being at optimal levels. Sinclair and Garante out of Harvard, they are all working on molecules that produce mitochondrial energy by increasing NAD+ because once you have NAD levels higher, you can get hypoxia, which is one of the components to ageing, and disease, and cardiovascular disease, and then cancer. And then another thing that occurs is fatty acid synthesis which is another molecule that cancer cells switched from oxidative blood glucose they go into breaking down uhm – fats and proteins in our body to make energy for the cancer cells to you know – continue their uh – reproduction and growth.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Interesting.

Dr. Bernd: If you switch that – Yeah. If you switch that and reduce fatty acid into synthesis – synthesis uh – reduced hypoxia inducible factor 1, you do that by increasing NAD+. That’s how you change the whole element. So, niacinamide and collagen together.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.

Dr. Bernd: -works the best for increasing –

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: B vitamins – B2

Dr. Bernd: NAD

Dr. Justin Marchegiani:  Uh-hmm.

Dr. Bernd: B1, B2, you’re absolutely right and  uh– Cortisone, anything that has air and that has uh – that helps with NAD molecule. And then also reducing the inflammatory uh – conditions of the body, the amino acid that produce inflammation, the foods that produce inflamm– Iron polyunsaturated oils. One of the worst things that reduces NAD levels in the mitochondria. So you wanna reduce polyunsaturated oils and only eat –go to Queen butter olive oil, coconut oil, MCT oil. These are promoters of NAD. They’re promoters mitochondrial function and they also promote thyroid. And thyroid is the major organ that regulates the mitochondria and maintains the function of the mitochondria at the optimum levels.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: So I just wanna make sure I’m hearing correctly. You talked about oxidative stress being a good thing, right? But at the same standpoint, though, iron can create more oxidative stress while I guess like the rusting on the nail that oxidative stress as well. Like that’s the rusting on the nail, right? That’s oxidative stress.

Dr. Bernd: Yeah.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: How do we have both of those things that kinda seem like their almost in- in- in conflict?

Dr. Bernd: Well again and at a certain age, we can reduce the levels of iron. We need at –

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Right.

Dr. Bernd: – the age of 40 as much. So by reducing – never take iron with vitamin C. That’s the problem.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yup.

Dr. Bernd:  And iron and polyunsaturated oils are another problem. They contribute to glycation and misfolding protein.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Correct.

Dr. Bernd: So in that sense that’s – that’s okay. That’s what we have to do. But by making sure that we shift our body to a high NAD+ state with CO2, as uh – you know from drinking –that’s we get from baking soda. You increase CO2 levels, you get it from drinking mineral water like, Pellegrino or the German one called __.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yup.

Dr. Bernd: These are the good sources of natural CO2 and that keeps your body at that level.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Interesting.

Dr. Bernd: So – so the thing is you always want to keep an oxidative of – oxidation of glucose is the major function of the mitochondria. Once it’s efficiently high and that oxidative state of glucose by breaking down glucose more efficiently, that’s how we get energy. And that’s just basically regulated by our thyroid and reducing estrogen in our body.  Estrogen and nitric oxide and histamine are the major – major contributor factors to deficient uhm –mitochondrial function and lowering thyroid function.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Totally understand it. Regarding the iron, too. That recommendation may be different with females to males, as women do menstruate  every month, you know, up until they go menopausal.

Dr. Bernd: Yeah.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: – late 40s or late 50s. So they’re shedding some of that iron every month in their menstruation. Would you recommend therapeutic phlebotomy or just giving blood, maybe once a quarter or a couple times a year to help reduce some of that iron load as well?

Dr. Bernd: Yeah. And it’s also to produce more red blood cells and it’s like stem cells. You – you’re stimulating the body to make more red blood cells and you wanna do that. It – one of the best things to do that  is every 3 to 6 months. I have friends that do that religiously and that keeps theirs – health up and immune system up, and they seem to do really well.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Very good. Now regarding some of the oxidation/reduction. So you mention the oxidation agents are like NAD or FADH minus the H2. So,  we’re missing that extra hydrogen. So basically what I’m trying to understand and kind of boil down for the patients is that we’re trying to take those hydrogen, those electrons from the Krebs cycle and we’re trying to move them over to the electron transport chain, so we can generate more energy and have better mitochondrial function. Is that the goal?

Dr. Bernd: Yes, it is.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Okay.

Dr. Bernd: Uhm, you know, I had wonderful discussion way back in listening to the fellow that invented the RNA DNA with cricket and wasps.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yup, yup.

Dr. Bernd:  He was on Charlie Rose and about five years ago, four years ago – five years ago, he said on national television, we’re losing the war on cancer and Charlie says, “why?” He says, “we’re not looking at the Krebs cycle, we’re not looking at the oxidative uh – uh effects of glucose – oxidation of glucose in the – in the in the mitochondria.” He says if we start looking at that, and shipped back to understanding how the Krebs cycle, we can win the war on cancer. He said it on national television and he’s actually right. He says that we can increase the NAD+ levels in our body, we should be able to repair anything that’s damaged and reverse conditions that are – you know uh – created by these deficiencies. And so he said the right words and it’s all based on all the Otto Warburg-

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yes.

Dr. Bernd: He said that and got two Nobel Prize. Uh, Gombert said the same thing in his works. Solley did the same thing uhm – so did Sir George

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah. George. Yeah

Dr. Bernd: So did uh – William Code. They’re all – all five people and minus point agreed with all five of them that this is such an important thing about the oxidation of glucose that goes totally in a deficient or breaks down in the mitochondria due to these elements of free radical damage. And that’s why autophagy, recycling the damage and using it for energy is why you have intermittent fasting.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Right.

Dr. Bernd:  -or exercise or you know – and  that’s what caloric restriction have done. They – they help in autophagy phases –increase the mechanisms.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Okay, so this is interesting. So we have a phenomena known as advanced glycation and products, that if we consume too much sugar in we coat our proteins with too much sugar, we get our human hemoglobin A1C levels too high, we can increase free radical stress. So where is the balance? Where is the tipping point where glucose goes too high and we create this extra oxidative stress? Is it have to do with insulin resistance? How do you measure that? How you make specific recommendations for your patients regarding carbohydrate and glucose consumption?

Dr. Bernd: Okay, very interesting. You and I, I – I started uh –working with the uh – inventor of the MRI, okay?

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Uh-hmm. Wow.

Dr. Bernd: And we’re looking at brain chemistry. Raymond Damadian is the genius. So we’re looking at cerebrospinal fluid and Raymond is actually the founder of MRI and he founded the Fonar.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Uh-hmm.

Dr. Bernd: And he says that chiropractors are the greatest people to work with because they know how to treat the cerebrospinal fluid which contributes to every neurological disease known to man.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Uhm.

Dr. Bernd: Okay. Concussion syndromes found uh –like the worst one was Jim McMahon

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.

Dr. Bernd: And I’ll share this – really important why. Jim McMahon had the worst concussion syndrome of any athlete in the football.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: And just for the listeners, he was the quarterback for the Chicago Bears 86; he won the Super Bowl with them as well.

Dr. Bernd: Uh-hmm.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yup.

Dr. Bernd: And the whole story is on his website and then finally the family uh – sent Raymond uh – send Jim McMahon to Raymond Damadian in New York for a – for his Fonar. The Fonar the only true MRI that you can stand up, not recline, you get the correct posture, the correct flow of the brain, cerebrospinal fluid so you can see what is actually wrong with the body.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Uhmm.

Dr. Bernd: And it takes 30 seconds and it is not a claustrophobia effect and it costs almost nothing to do. Any he did a whole evaluation of his brain and –and with the camera that he developed the late uh – early 2000s with the Fonar, he was able to see the cerebrospinal fluid, the ventricles and how it was damaged.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Uhmm.

Dr. Bernd: In concussion syndrome, it is the ventricles –the cerebrospinal fluid is supposed to flow from the brain to the spinal cord.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Got it.

Dr. Bernd: -32 quarts a day. 32 quarts

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Wow.

Dr. Bernd: and half the quarts produced by the ventricles every day.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Wow.

Dr. Bernd: And lay – and the concussion syndromes like Jim McMahon and many others and MS patients, they’re only producing 12 quarts or less. And when he had a a – chiropractor named Scott Rosa to do an active uh – uh hole to one adjustment, a – you know – atlas only.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.

Dr. Bernd: They corrected Jim McMahon in two treatments where his function is back to normal; his dementia is completely gone; he’s functioning full – at full state of mind. And that’s rare; you never see that. We done that with other athletes from the NFL same thing, they restore themselves back to normal and with uh – autism patients –adult autism patient, completely recovered back just by correcting the cerebrospinal fluid.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: So what are the best chiropractic techniques-

Dr. Bernd: Yeah.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: -to help with that? I know sacro-occipital technique is great.

Dr. Bernd: Uhm.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani:  Upledger as well. You mention some of the upper cervical whether it’s Atlas Orthogonal, or cervical knee chest, or uhm Nucca. Are there any other specific chiropractic techniques you like for that?

Dr. Bernd: Well, you know, I ask that with Raymond. He believes that chiropractic in general has the best benefit. Yes, if you can isolate the atlas and adjust that correctly, he said that has been the – the best value for treating these conditions. And the results are very quick and fast. And – and another thing I was talking to a Cell Physiologist who works with Raymond, who developed the –uh – a lot of inside for Raymond to develop the Fonar. He says if you correct the thyroid, the thyroid does the same thing. It helps with cerebrospinal fluid function.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Wow.

Dr. Bernd: So going back to this glycation, misfolding protein.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.

Dr. Bernd: One of the things we found with Raymond and others, its not sugar that causes misfolding. It’s actually the wrong thing. It is the polyunsaturated oils.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Uh-hmm. Uh-hmm.

Dr. Bernd: – in our diet that are the major contributors to misfolding aggregation glycation of – of the – uh proteins. And sugar is so vital for a chemistry to work. Actually my cancer patients, I have the double their sugar intake by giving them more honey, pure cane sugar because that retains the oxidative state of the NAD. That’s how I get to them to switch from the reduction state of NADH back to the oxidative state of the cell.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Interesting.

Dr. Bernd: And we found – and it sugar – going back to my 18 uh – 1800,1867, there was two William MDs followed by name of Budd (B-U-D-D).

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Uh-hmm.

Dr. Bernd: – from England and another Priori (P-R-I-O-R-I). Both of them at the same period we’re treating diabetes. And you know how they reverse diabetes?

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Uhh

Dr. Bernd: They added extra sugar from glucose, fructose such as honey and bone broth or chicken broth and they were able to reverse diabetes. There was uh – recently there was another animal study on diabetes. They gave animals a chow of high sugar and another animal, uh –mice uh –low sugar content. And the ones with the higher sugar, they were able to measure and show that the island of Langerhan’s –

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yup.

Dr. Bernd: – in the pancreas was totally repaired and regenerated. They repaired and regenerated a new uh – function in that island of Langerhan’s to produce insulin again. So it was uh – so the is now showing that you know, we need fats; we need cholesterol coz cataracts are produced by low cholesterol diet.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Interesting.

Dr. Bernd: – and statin drugs. And glycation is now contribute to – glycation is also due to low cholesterol and low sugar diet.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Interesting. And now on a Paleo – go ahead, yup.

Dr. Bernd: No, go.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: On a Paleo template diet, you know, one of the things we’re doing is we’re really focusing on – again more high-quality saturated fats, whether it’s coconut oil, grass-fed, omega 3’s from salmon. You know, the good healthy fats are gonna be more stable and less and less lipid peroxidation be in the polyunsaturated. So, we’re doing that and then with some of these patients I’m seeing – I’m seeing a lot of diabetics, I do see diabetes reverse quite frequently with lower carbohydrate diet. I mean we see their fasting insulin above 10 and we get back below 4.

Dr. Bernd: Yup.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani:  We see that re-established. So, is it because we’re changing the polyunsaturated fats in the fats? And that’s why we’re getting these results? Coz how are we – How can we get both results, you know, doing two different things? So what’s the difference? What’s the common variable?

Dr. Bernd: Uh – number one, I will tell you this – talking to these numerous Cell Physiologists at various universities such as Oregon, uh – working with Linus Pauling Institute over at Oregon State with the Tory Hagen and Joseph Bachman and all that. There’s no doubt and – and Bruce German out of UC Davis, and our Richard Beach out of NIH.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani:  Yup. Robert.

Dr. Bernd: Yeah. And Robert Ward of Utah. They all agree that we need to go back and increase our creams and butters –

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Uhm.

Dr. Bernd: – and saturated fats.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Okay.

Dr. Bernd: That is the most protective mechanism we have today against ageing and diseases. And think about libido and hormones, it’s all produced by cholesterol. Cholesterol produces pregnenolone.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yup.

Dr. Bernd: – progesterone, testosterone, and DHEA.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yup.

Dr. Bernd: The major hormones that we need on a daily basis that have the greatest brain protection and protection against cardiovascular disease and cancer, is all produced by cholesterol. By reducing the polyunsaturated levels, we’re noticing that there’s less glycation in misfolding protein. So that is the contributing factor because the unsaturated oils, even the omega-3’s, the fish oils are contributing to these problems because fish oils are uh – you know, cold-blooded animals.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Correct.

Dr. Bernd: And they – when you extract oil out of the fish, you give it uh- human.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yes.

Dr. Bernd: that has a 98.6 temperature, you’re actually creating oxidative damage –free radical damage, and that’s what happens. And so by reducing the – by increasing the saturated fats, the monounsaturated fats, like olive oil-

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Avocado, yeah.

Dr. Bernd: you’re protecting the body. You’re protecting the body against oxidative damage. And that is the major contributing factor. And then second, yes, your carbohydrates, pastas and bread, you know, by reducing those, you know, will help, too.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Makes sense. There’s probably also an inflammatory component there, too. Because a lot of the refined sugar is – again, the refined sugar’s a little bit different and also a lot of refined grains, too, can have an inflammatory component as well, correct?

Dr. Bernd: There was a uh– one of the article done at the Stanford Lipid Chemistry Department and talking the Buck Institute – there, a Lipid Chemistry Department there. They found by reducing these polyunsaturated oils, you actually reduce inflammation. They’ve – one of the biggest contributors of inflammation is polyunsaturated oil.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: So do you suggest having any nuts at all? Or do you say, no nuts?

Dr. Bernd: No. No nuts because nut- the other problem we have in food is the uhm – you know there’s a gene called GLO 2

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Uhm.

Dr. Bernd: And GLO 2 is a major anti-ageing gene and it’s part of the kidney. It regulates vitamin D in the kidney. And also helps with calcium absorption in the bone. Uh – so the GLO 2 is damaged by high phosphorus foods. If you look at all the nuts, predominantly most nuts, except for maybe macadamia and cashews, which have the lowest phosphorus levels.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Okay.

Dr. Bernd: Uhm- the higher the phosphorus versus calcium, that is what you wanna uh – you know, look at. Any foods that have a high phosphorus coz that phosphorus  pulls out calcium out of the bone and also causes kidney problems. Some of your kidney stones and gallbladder stones are caused by high phosphorus diets.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: So we wanna have nuts that have lower phosphorus, higher calcium.

Dr. Bernd: Yeah.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: That’s gonna be your cashews and macadamia nuts. Is that correct?

Dr. Bernd: Those are the two. I remember working with Robert Atkins.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.

Dr. Bernd: And Robert, you know, started the Atkin diet.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani:  Uh-hmm.

Dr. Bernd: His only nut that he would ever use was the macadamia. He would travel to LA and I’d meet with him at natural product show, and that’s what he would be consuming a little bit. But I do very little of any nuts at all. Uhm – I did look up the ratio of cashew, they e seem to have the lowest amount of phosphorus to the calcium level and that seems to be okay then.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Interesting. Well, while we’re on that topic, what’s your typical – what’s your typical diet like in a day? Just give me a quick little day in the light. What’s breakfast, lunch and dinner look like for you?

Dr. Bernd: Okay. You’re talking to the wrong person since I was part of the caloric restriction diet.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Oh.

Dr. Bernd: You know, I had to do that. But what I –

Dr. Justin Marchegiani:  In general, though.

Dr. Bernd: In general, I – we started taking a natural uhm – prescription thyroid.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Uh-hmm.

Dr. Bernd: Because I started realizing how important the thyroid really is.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.

Dr. Bernd: As you get older, you need to optimize your thyroid. For 30 minutes, I don’t eat anything, then I have an over easy soft boil of poached egg.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Nice.

Dr. Bernd: That’s my breakfast. Then I have 30 grams of collagen with magnesium, calcium and vitamin D and I put uhm – some anti-inflammatory compounds like Boswellia  and zinc. I always have calcium, magnesium and zinc twice a day, and with collagen and vitamin C. So then I go and I work out, I- I- I work at seven days. I do core exercise, flexibility exercise, you know, I was uh – I took gymnastics in college, so I do a lot of the headstand push up kind of things because that’s what I have to do when I was in college.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Great.

Dr. Bernd: Learn how to do balancing with my body. So that’s basically my program I eat very little throughout the day. Uh – once I take collagen in the morning, my appetite diminishes quite a bit. I kinda get a little protein and fruit in the afternoon. And in the evening, I’ll have a light soup with vegetables. I love chicken wings, I like ox tail, lamb shanks.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Uhm.

Dr. Bernd: All the foods that are very high in collagen are – chicken wings are number one, ox tail, lamb shanks uhm – anything with bone is actually good for you. And you know, I steam – I cook all my vegetables because when you cook vegetables, you actually break down cellulose, and you increase the-

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Nutrients- yeah.

Dr. Bernd: – nutrients and absorption.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: People forget that.

Dr. Bernd: So – yup. And salad’s enough a good thing because we did a study and found that salads contribute to fermentation and gut inflammatory mechanisms and growth of bacteria because of the – anything that is like a green and it’s not cooked like kale and chard and chart, you have to boil 30 to 40 minutes in order to reduce the oxalic acid.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.

Dr. Bernd: The phosphorus level and increase the nutrients of vitamin K.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Totally makes sense. Now I don’t see a lot of excess of carbohydrate in your diet, number one.

Dr. Bernd: No.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Number two, are you also adding an MCT oil, too?

Dr. Bernd: I usually take a low MCT with coffee, but not always. I’m more of a __guy. I like to increase my butter consumption in the morning. That’s how I trained my – yeah. I trained the 84 Olympic team by giving them butter in the morning for a workout, before workout.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: That’s amazing. How bad are these athletes diets before you get in there? I mean you work with Howie Long, LA Raider guys- what was their diet like, typically? And how did you change it?

Dr. Bernd:  Uh – Howie Long is actually an exceptional guy.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.

Dr. Bernd: He’s one of the smartest athlete I ever came across.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Wow.

Dr. Bernd: So his diet was not so bad.  He was a big uhm – you know, Italian guy.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.

Dr. Bernd: So he made a lot of uh– but the – the sprinters like the – Ron Brown,  the uhm – Evelyn Ashford they almost – 100-200 meters sprinters, their guy was so bad that one and I was so bad that one of my sprinters who  ended up playing professional football was Ron Brown.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Uh-hmm.

Dr. Bernd: And he came to me because he’s always injured. He would have ice cream and uh – those Peanut Reese’s cups. That was his main diet.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Oh, man.

Dr. Bren: And he was wondering why he was always injured. Uh – a guy named Robert Devans, uh –  four hundred hurler, who won against Edward Moses. Uh – we changed their diet into more of a fat and protein and less carbohydrate diet. And once we did that, we started using uh – collagen from Knox Gelatine at that time.  You know, uh- it, it really helped and we got more medal winners in ’84 and ‘88 than any other country.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Wow.

Dr. Bernd: Because of the change of the diet. Yeah. And the key was start the morning with protein –

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yup.

Dr. Bernd: Because that’s where you increase your metabolism and your thyroid. And if you don’t start the morning with protein, your body’s metabolism doesn’t work. It slows down and therefore, you increase your – you reduce the fat burning mechanism so your body starts storing more fat in the belly.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Totally. Yeah. My recommendation is always 30 grams of protein in the first 30 minutes of waking up. That makes a lot of sense. And it’s amazing how this big disconnect with sports and athletes, that they just cannot think of food as calories to run the engine. They don’t think of it as building blocks to also help repair the bodies. So you get guys that are making tendons and ligaments out of basic crap on their diet.

Dr. Bernd: Yeah. And they don’t understand – athletes, they are you know extremely high-intense performers and they’re working out with heavyweight. The muscles grow but the tendons and ligaments do not grow.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: That’s it.

Dr. Bernd:  So when you start increasing the massive amounts of training, you are increasing muscle, but you’re pulling on the ligaments and tendons.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.

Dr. Bernd: And you’re damaging the cartilage. That’s why collagen is the only protein that helps with tendons and ligaments repair. It’s the only food that we know that has that ability to repair tendons and ligaments.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: And when those tissues get damaged coz they’re severely avascular, meaning they don’t have  a lot of blood flow. So as soon as you get injured, it takes forever to repair. And these guys lose a step or two, and they’re out of the league.

Dr. Bernd: Yeah. As a chiropractor, your gonna – uh, we started using infrared lights heat.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yup.

Dr. Bernd: Infrared- uh for infrared, uh – mats, anything to restore circulation to that area. You know LED dial. So any kind of uh- you know, ultrasound. Whatever we can do to increase the circulation. That’s the problem.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Oh, awesome. That’s great. Today has been an awesome show. Lot’s of uh- brain candy here, today. Is there any other information that you wanna address for the listeners, today?

Dr. Bernd: Well again, like what you said, it’s uh – you know, it’s maintaining a good diet.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Uh-hmm.

Dr. Bernd: You know, red- especially proteins an increasing your collagen consumption uhm – you know and – don’t overeat.  We tend to eat too much in one sitting. We can actually eat smaller meals throughout the day and maintain a metabolism to increase throughout the day. And the quality of food is important. Reduce the polyunsaturated, number one of ageing. Do not be afraid of sugar and honey and put it in your coffee or tea. Actually that keeps your – uh the brain requires the most amount of sugar than any part of the body and then the heart, because they’re – they’re utilized 24 hours a day. And oxidation of glucose is the main contributing factor for these organs to work.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Interesting.

Dr. Bernd: And you know – and look at epigenetic, how genes get turned on and off, and we now know that uh – the amino acids found in collagen, the zinc, the magnesium

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Uhm.

Dr. Bernd: The vitamin D, the vitamin K, the green teas- they have the greatest components to helping prevent epigenetic damage.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Love that. That makes so much sense. Now, Dr. Bernd, I ask this question for everyone. If you’re stuck on a desert island and you only can bring one supplement, herb or compound with you, what would it be?

Dr. Bernd: Oh, God. Definitely – being on collagen, I would have to say collagen.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: I knew it.

Dr. Bernd: Because – And I would have to say Niacinamide would be my second most important one.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Got it. And that’s B3. Excellent. Well, very good, Doc. Is there any ways people can get in touch with you, if they want to get a hold of you? I know your website is another great to get a hold of you. Any other information for the listeners?

Dr. Bernd: Uh you can So it’s David – Robert Boy – period – Friedlander F-R-I-E-D-L-A-N-D-E-R one zero @ gmail.com

Now understand, I’m not really in practice anymore, I’m more in consultation, research end. And working with doctors like yourself.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Totally makes sense. You’ve been doing this for 40+ years. So good for you. You got a –

Dr. Bernd: Yeah.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: massive encyclopedia of knowledge there. Well, I appreciate that. Thank you so much. And you, too.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Thanks a lot, Dr. Bernd. Great having you on the show. Look forward to having you back soon. You have a great day.

Dr. Bernd: Thank you very much. I appreciate that. Bye.

Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Thank you.

References:

Is The Food You Eat Causing Your Migraines?

By Dr. Justin Marchegiani

The food you eat on a daily basis has a profound effect on your body being in a pro-inflammatory state or an ant-inflammatory state. The more inflamed you are the faster your body breaks down. The faster your body breaks down, the more symptoms like pain, fatigue, migraines headaches and hormonal issues occur. On the reverse side, the more you are putting your body into an anti-inflammatory state, the easier it is for your body to heal and perform at the highest levels possible.

Migraines and gluten consumption have a strong connection. Consuming gluten has shown to cause a decrease in cerebral blood flow, the blood flowing to your brain. The main role of cerebral blood is to carry oxygen and nutrition to the brain for fuel so it can perform and thrive in its daily activities. When the ability to feed the brain is impaired migraine headaches can occur (1).

The analogy I give my patients is, imagine crossing your legs for 2-3 hours. Do you remember that pins and needles feeling you get when your leg hasn’t received enough blood? Now imagine getting up and running across the room, you’re likely to trip and fall. The same rings true when having cereal for breakfast, pizza for lunch and pasta for dinner than having to use your brain to problem solve or take a test. Living your life like this is likely to cause your performance to suffer and potential headaches.

Click here to know about the possible causes of your migraines.

Other Simple Causes of Migraines:

1. Nutritional Deficiencies: An Inflamed gut from common food allergens like grains, dairy and legumes are notorious for causing mal-absorption of important nutrients like iron, calcium, selenium, magnesium and vitamin-c to name only a few.  These nutrients are important for every day health functions and healthy blood flow to the brain.

2. Consumption of artificial compounds: Aspartame, splenda and MSG (mono sodium glutamate) are known excitotoxins. Excitotoxins are chemicals that stimulate neurons in the brain to the point where they are destroyed; this is not a good thing! Research from Russell Blaylock MD, a renown neurosurgeon has elaborated on this phenomenon in his book, “Excitotoxins: The Taste That Kills.”

3. Exposure to toxic chemicals: Personal care or cleaning products can cause serious damage to your health and are a common cause of migraine headaches too. I recommend all of my patients to thoroughly examine their house hold cleaners, perfumes, dryer sheets, makeup and shampoos that they are being exposed to on a daily basis. The Environmental Working Group has compiled an excellent data base where you can personally look up the products you use and the level of toxicity is graded on a scale of 1-10 (10 being the worst). Whole Foods and other natural grocery store are a great place to find non-toxic alternatives.

4. Hormonal and Blood Sugar Imbalances: These can cause migraines in some females. These hormonal imbalances can be attributed to blood sugar disturbances or ebbs and flows in progesterone or estrogen that occur monthly in the female cycle. Getting an adrenal cortisol rhythm or monthly females hormone salivary lab test can help assess if this is the cause of your migraines.

5. Joint Dysfunction: Any time the joints in your body, especially the joints in your neck and the upper cervical spine aren’t moving properly, migraine headaches can occur. Getting your neck assessed by a good Chiropractor can help see if this is the root cause of your issue.

Having frequent migraines? Click here to find out if it is related to your food intake.

References:
1. American Journal of Gastroenterology, Vol.98, No.3 2003, 626-9.