Busting Heavy Metals Myths | Podcast #196
Welcome to a functional medicine podcast with Dr. J and Evan Brand! Watch this video as they geek out on today’s topic, Heavy Metals, to clear some myths and misconceptions about the big ones, such as Aluminum, Arsenic, Cadmium, Lead, and Mercury. Listen as they also talk about some of the significant ways to support detoxification.
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Dr. Justin Marchegiani
In this episode, we cover:
00:30 The Big Ones
03:00 Sources of Heavy Metals
05:10 Heavy Metals and Cognitive Issues
11:52 Linked Major Infertility Issues
28:10 Dental Amalgams, Flu Vaccinations, and Various Chemicals
17:25 Inside Out Hyperbarics and Wellness Center In a Picture
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Hey, guys. It’s Dr. Justin Marchegiani here. Evan Brand, how are we doing today?
Evan Brand: Hey, man. Happy Monday to you. We’re gonna talk about heavy metals. I’ve been geeking out on this, and I thought, “Why don’t we cover this ‘cause there’s a lot of myths and misconceptions about heavy metals and…”
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Totally.
Evan Brand: …a
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Absolutely. So we’ll go over some of the major sources for our more toxic heavy metals. This will include uh—Aluminum, Arsenic, Cadmium, Lead, Mercury—those are kind of like our big ones— and some of the major ways we can kind of help support detoxification. And, you know, we talked about the vectors. We’ll talk about the detoxification. A lot of the unspoken things is actually good digestion. Right? A lot of metals are removed via our hepatobiliary system, which is our liver and gallbladder dumping out into our gut as well. So we need healthy digestion, healthy gut function to be able to eliminate metals as well. So a lot of people just think, “Hey, let’s do this fancy chelating program or this IV or this or that, but having good digestion can actually help eliminate a lot of our toxins out our stool better. We have healthier transit time. We have less leaky gut so there’s less of these metals get reabsorbed into our body and create
Evan Brand: Yeah. One thing that we test for— We run a stool test on every new client, and one thing we look for is a marker called beta-glucuronidase, which is an enzyme that goes elevated usually in the presence of bacterial overgrowth— they’re some other type of gut issue. And what it indicates if it’s elevated is that the person is reabsorbing toxins. So this would include heavy metals, meaning, if you buy some fancy detox tea or detox protocol, but you have elevated beta-glucuronidase because you have a gut infection or, like Justin said, your gut’s not working properly, you’re recirculating all of this stuff. And if you’re not pooping on a daily basis, preferably twice a day but at least once a day— if you’re not doing that, it doesn’t matter how perfect your heavy metal detox protocol is. You’ve got to fix these big foundational pieces first before a detox will work.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: One hundred percent. And then, just another simple aspect is, the solution to pollution is dilution. Drink enough good quality water and good healthy minerals, whether some sea salt or trace mineral support supplement, that’s gonna be helpful as well just to kind of keep your body keep flushing things out.
Evan Brand: Just sip on water all day. I mean, some people argue
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: I mean, I think it depends. I mean, you know, you’re gonna absorb it. If you’re drinking a whole bunch of cold water before
Evan Brand: Yup. Let’s talk about some of the sources of heavy metals. People may hear the topic of heavy metals and think that it’s some like new ones that
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah. Let’s start with the—what I consider the more toxic heavy metals. So, Aluminum’s one, for instance. So Aluminum i—is actually still common in vaccinations. You’ll see it on the ingredients label as Aluminum hydroxide, so that’s still there for sure. You’re gonna see in some antiperspirants, in various deodorants, uh—Aluminum cookware, utensils, Aluminum foil is very common as well, uh—Aluminum cans as well. I still drink at some Aluminum cans, just because when I go in my boat or whatever, you know, you can’t quite bring a nice glass bottle ‘cause it may break and go in the water. So— It’s kind of a dose-dependency thing, so just do your best if you’re gonna drink out of Aluminum cans ‘cause they are convenient if you’re drinking a sparkling mineral water. It
’s nice, you know, you don’t have to worry about a breaking or cracking. Just try to follow the 80-20 rule on that. We talked about deodorant. We talked about toothpaste— another big one. Toothbr—Toothpaste
Evan Brand: Yeah, dude.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: -Aspirin—
Evan Brand: So, I’ve got— I’ve got a— a paper pulled up here that was from The American Journal of Epidemiology 2009, and it’s called, “Aluminum and Silica in Drinking Water, and the Risk of Alzheimer’s Disease or Cognitive Decline,” and it was like a 15-year study, and what they were saying is, just based on doing tap water—just everyday tap water exposure—They were looking at these people in Southern France, and it was almost 2,000 people that were studied, and of course, what they find is Aluminum intake significantly associated with increased risk of Dementia. So, when we hear heavy metals, people like, “Okay, yeah. I know heavy metals are bad. Why should I care?” Well, you should care because this stuff is affecting your brain. Like Klinghardt, I had him on the Candida summit. He talked about the Alzheimer’s. He talked about Dementia and these cognitive issues, and there’s a huge link to Aluminum. So, this is a big deal and it’s not something that you want to ignore. So, I—I put the link, Justin for you in the—in the—in the chat box, and then, we may be able to share it later on with the—with the listeners.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Absolutely. So, I think—I think a big kind of take-home for the Aluminum is, number one, you’re vaccinations are gonna be a big factor. Uh— The antiperspirants, the Aluminum foil, the Aluminum cookware, uh—pesticides, chemicals,
Evan Brand: Right.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Anything you wanted to highlight there?
Evan Brand: Let’s move on to Cadmium because we see-
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Evan Brand: -Cadmium a lot. We know that it does come from car exhaust fumes, and there are different ways that you can measure heavy metals.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Uhmhm—
Evan Brand: Maybe we’ll talk about that in a minute but— I would say car exhaust is huge—a big, big, big source! I’ve also looked at a couple of papers where they studied people who lived close to the highway, or— get this— even more interesting, people who live close to a stop sign or a stoplight.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Oh, really?
Evan Brand: Think of the car as it’s driving by, it’s probably not as big of a deal, but a car using it’s brake pads to stop at a stoplight or stop at a stop sign, that brake dust creates more toxic off-gassing into those houses that lived closer. So, they literally, on the same street, studied uh—the levels of metals in the person on the street, where they just have people pass by, and then they studied the people closer to the stop sign. The people closer to the stop sign have more— had— have more heavy metal exposure, just from the brake pads.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: And, what was that study, Evan?
Evan Brand: Uh— Let me see if I can pull it up. It was on—It was on PubMed, one of my random search days. Let me see if I can find it though.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: That’s crazy. Well, while you’re looking for it, other major sources. Cadmium— you can commonly get it in cigarettes and, potentially, marijuana, uh— ceramics, burning coal, instant coffee. It can be found in Amalgam fillings, pikes, fungicides or pesticides. You’re also gonna see it in some paints. You’re gonna see it in some oil. You’re gonna see it in various
Evan Brand: Here’s the—Here’s one of the papers. So this one is— It’s— It’s titled—This was in uh— 2012 International Journal of Environmental Public Health, and it’s titled, “Influence of Traffic Activity on Heavy Metal Concentrations of Roadside Farm Land Soil.” Basically, this one was different in the city one. This one was in the country and they were checking the soil, and they found that on certain roads that had a farm right next to the road-
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Uhmhm—
Evan Brand: -and they found significantly higher Lead. Let me see what else here. I know Lead was the big one, which I guess, which is-
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Uhmhm—
Evan Brand: -weird because maybe certain countries are still suing Lead in gasoline, where in the US, we’ve mainly got rid of Lead.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: [clicks tongue] I think—
Evan Brand: I put that one in the chat box.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: I think there is still some Lead in certain types of gasoline, not like maybe the conventional one but I think maybe in certain gasoline in—in jet fuel. I think there may still be Lead in like various jet fuels.
Evan Brand: Okay, okay, okay.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Not quite a hundred percent sure on that. I’ve seen some research showing that jet fuel is—is a source of Lead, so I have to imagine there are still got to be some in there.
Evan Brand: Yeah. I just put another link in—in your Skype chat or your uh—Google chat. People can’t see it, but it’s for you. And maybe you could post it in the YouTube, but it was people—This was uh—uh— LA Times article about freeway pollution and how far that it travels and it
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Interesting. Yeah, I know right now in Austin, we have this issue with sub-Saharan-African dust. So, it’s this weird kind of thing—You can Google it— but you have this dust from like this kind of African area that’s like over Austin right now and parts of Central Texas. And there’s a lot of allergens in it, so people’s allergies right now really kind of in full effect because of this African dust.
Evan Brand: You’re saying this is literally coming from Africa and blowing-
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Evan Brand: -around the planet?
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah, literally.
Evan Brand: Holy smokes!
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: yeah, exactly. So, and it’s one of those things. We got to do our best to really create a healthy home environment.
Evan Brand: Yeah. So this uh— Sorry to interrupt you. This—
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Evan Brand: It was UCLA who did this sp—specific study in California, and what they found is
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah, man. It may really depend, right? If you— If you want to be living in the city or if you have to work in what- a major hub like New York City or something, you know, that’s a sacrifice you’re gonna have to make. You’re gonna have to invest more on making sure water’s on board, uh—being on more detoxification support, whether it’s various binders, whether it’s activated charcoal or Chlorella or Glutathione precursors, or like kind of liver-
Evan Brand:
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Because—Because they chelated some of the metals down?
Evan Brand: That’s right.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Wow-
Evan Brand: It was—
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: -it was powerful.
Evan Brand: Yeah. This was a long time ago. This was over uh—20 years ago that this was— that this has come out. This was journal and toxicology. Just type in “Heavy Metals Fertility,” and people can read about it. But this is real stuff, so it’s not just uh—a trendy bus word to work on
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: And a lot of these metals, they have a similar mechanism, how they—they irritate or damage people, right? What are they doing? They’re affecting the Mitochondria. They’re jamming up the Mitochondria, making it harder to generate energy. So, it’s like taking uh—a five or four-lane highway into a one-lane highway. They’re jamming it up. Uh—Number two, they’re putting stress on your liver and on your detoxification system. Right. Of course, these compounds are flowing around the body. There’s more inflammation. More inflammation can mean brain fog. It can mean more leaky gut. Right? All of these various things are gonna be there. And of course, these
Evan Brand: Yep. Yeah, that’s a good point about the research. I could cherry pick things and—and make it look like heavy metals ‘cause every health problem ever. But a gut infection plus a heavy metal problem, a lot of practitioner ay that they go together. The heavy metals and parasites and other gut infections are sort of two peas in a pod, and then if you don’t address one, you can’t—you can’t fix the other. And I would agree.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: But—But the research stuff, for instance, let me give you an example. Someone— I saw someone put an article on soy, how, say, soy isn’t that big of a deal. It’s not producing a significant amount of Estrogen to hurt—hurt a
Evan Brand: That’s smart. That’s really smart. You mentioned the sauna, so sweating— I talked Dr. William Shawl, the Ph.D. at Great Plain Laboratory. He said it doesn’t really matter in terms of detox. It doesn’t matter whether you sweat via infrared sauna, whether you sweat a hot rock sauna, whether you sweat from running or riding your bicycle down the street. The sweating was the key that he’ seen across the board over the last 10-20 years to reduce levels of toxins. This is not—
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: So exercise?
Evan Brand: Yeah, so exercise was key, he said so. He runs, basically,
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: I have seen data though that it’s showing that the—the near infrared, right? I think it’s the far infrared
Evan Brand: I—I believe it. Here is the interesting thing. The guy eats out basically every day at restaurants, and that’s obviously conventional food that’s sprayed with pesticides and a bunch of other things, but he didn’t seem to worry about it. I was kind of let down. I’m like, “Man, you’re like a guy I look up to. You created this great laboratory.” He’s like, “I don’t bring my lunch.” And I said, “So that means you eat out everyday at— at conventional restaurants?” And he was like, “Yup. I don’t worry about it. I’m feeling pretty good.” It’s like, “Dude!” So—
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah. I mean, I’m a big fan of the 80-20 rule, so try to do your best 80% of the time, and 20 percent of the time you can have a little bit of latitude. Now, again, that rule kind of fall South that the more sick you are, the more symptoms you have, then we go up to 90 to a hundred percent. But yeah, I agree. I mean, there’s lots of things that are out there o you try to do your best to have lifestyle habits or substitutes, or you find good restaurants that are gonna good options for you. [crosstalk] That makes sense.
Evan Brand: Yeah. Look for grass-fed— grass-fed burgers and organic restaurants. I mean, just type in, “Organic Restaurant” in your city, or wherever you’re
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yup.
Evan Brand: -out some of the heavy metals and pesticides from the tap water if you have to drink tap water.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Totally, hundred percent. So let’s keep on rolling here. Copper’s another one. I mean, Copper’s in it an actual nutrient as well, so it’s not a heavy metal, like a toxic meta per se, but you can have high amounts of it with an IUD called uh– Paragard is one. Copper pipes—older ones. There’s some Copper in some fungicides and various—and various chemicals up. Some people eat, just get too much Copper in their Vitamins, or they’re eating a vegetarian diet that’s higher in Copper and they’re not getting enough Zinc from potential meats. That’s another option. Not a huge deal with that. With Copper, you can always do Vitamin C to help chelate, as well as
Evan Brand: Yeah. I just posted a podcast today with Ann Louise Gittleman, and she talked about how she had clients with major, major Acne issues-
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Uhmhm—
Evan Brand: -and they were Copper-toxic, and it was because they were drinking Kombucha. So, supposedly, Kombucha is the natural properties of the tea is that it uptakes Copper from the soil, that the tea is grown-in, which is huge for the Kombucha. So she got the client off Kombucha completely—
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: What kind of Kombucha did she say?
Evan Brand: She said any. Any and all Kombucha. She doesn’t—
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Well, I imagined if it’s organically grown though there’s gonna be a more balanced, I mean, amount of minerals in there, right?
Evan Brand: I don’t know. I don’t know. She—She acted like it was all Kombucha. She—She said, “Stay away from it. You know, don’t touch it with a 10-foot straw, basically.” So—
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Well, I—I think there’s a lot of health benefits in Kom—in Kombucha. There’s a lots of different kinds out there. Some are really high in sugar. Some are low in sugar. Some are organic; some are not. So I think [incomprehensible]—
Evan Brand: I know. How would she—
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: -maybe not as good.
Evan Brand: I know. It was a broad brush stroke, but it’s like, “How would you verify?” I guess you’d have to test all the different brands, like GT’s, and measure is there high Copper? But anyway-
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Evan Brand: Either way, she had them come off Kombucha and then she did some ZInc, and then this person’s major Acne problem went away. So she was talking about if you’re trying to think, “Okay. If you can’t get your doctor to test you for uh— for the Copper, look for some of the symptoms, and some of the biggest ones were— were mainly skin. And then also like Anxiety issues and fatigue issues-
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Evan Brand: -and uh— Tinnitus,
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah. I mean, we’ll see. I mean, hh— I have a hard time thinking that that’s all because of Copper.
Evan Brand: Yes.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Personally, there could have— There— There could easily
Evan Brand: Yup.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: A— And that could have been the mechanism, right? I don’t know, but I mean, just my clinical experience with thousands of patients, I don’t— I don’t see that being a huge deal. Changing other diet and support the detoxification in getting, you know, more Zinc in there tends to be a good way of supporting that. But we’ll— we’ll note it.
Evan Brand: It sound— I mean, it sounds sexy, right? All the problems were just linked to that one little beverage, but yeah, I agree with you…
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: I— I don’t—
Evan Brand: …probably more root causes. And that’s the hard part too. Like, when you interview these people, I mean, you could just probe them and probe them and like call them out on their stuff. But then, I don’t know. Like, are you gonna end up getting— getting somewhere with it or is it just gonna go nowhere? You know?
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: The problem is, number one, we’re moving so many levers. It’s not like we’re having a clinical study or a clinical trial where people are in a metabolic war and we’re tweaking only one variable.
Evan Brand: Yeah.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: So, we have to really use common sense, and that’s why I try to look at what are the major mechanisms we— we’re moving when we make a diet change or a lifestyle change or a supplement change? And the— the— the foundational levers are simple things like sleep, water, digestion, getting rid of infections, supporting hormones, supporting inflammation, reduction, and you— So many symptoms can change with just one of those levers, and if we, like, isolate each lever one at a time, it would take patients years to get better.
Evan Brand: Very cool.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: So, you know, we just do our best as clinicians and doctors to like use our common sense to— to see based on our experience what we think it was. So, yeah!
Evan Brand: [crosstalk] We— We probably moved— I don’t know— 50 needles at a time or something.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Wow. So many, totally. [crosstalk] So next, let’s go to Lead. Let’s go to— Oh! What yo—
Evan Brand: Yeah, hit Lead.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: -next.
Evan Brand: Hit Lead-
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Evan Brand: -but we got to hit Mercury, too.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Auto exhaust. But again, we talked about that being unleaded for most of United States. Maybe some jet fuels aren’t. You know, perchlorate’s in the jet fuels. smelting stuff, anything that’ smelted,
Evan Brand: Uh—I would add guns. You know, shooting.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Oh, yeah. Shooting booths, yeah.
Evan Brand: Uh—I have—
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: That’s good.
Evan Brand: I had a female client who—she was like a private investigator. I think she worked for the government. Anyway, she was at the shooting range every single week, and it was an indoor shooting range. She said that the airflow was not very good, and she could see like the smoke, you know, floating around her after she was shooting, and she had a lot of like the Lead toxicity symptoms. So, you know, her brain was not working very well. She was depressed. She was anxious. Her blood pressure was up. Her memory was terrible. Uh—She didn’t have any of like the crazy Lead stuff, like paralysis, and numbness, and Parkinson’s, like some of the major manifestations. She didn’t have that, but her sleep was crap and her brain was crap. So we did start giving her just some gentle uh—Chlorella-based uh—tinctures, and we did see symptoms get better. However, though, like you said, at the same time, I wasn’t doing just that. I was also getting rid of the many, many, many different gut infections that she had.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Totally. Not—I go to the shooting range like once a quarter, like when my wife was
Evan Brand: I go to an outdoor range, but then also, I use—I use Copper bullets. Uh—
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: That’s good.
Evan Brand: They don’t have it—
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: A lot more—They are a lot more expensive though, so—
Evan Brand: [crosstalk] They are expensive. I just don’t shoot as many. [laughs]
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah. There you go.
Evan Brand: Yeah.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: That’s a good option. So let’s hit Mercury next. Anything else you wanted to highlight about Lead there, Evan?
Evan Brand: I mean it’s huge. We can spend a whole hour. We can spend a whole year on Lead. It’s a big deal. You got to look at all sources, especially your Lead
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah, and that’s why I just don’t—don’t trust—I don’t trust any government’s
Evan Brand: Yup.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: You know, you can get a good one
Evan Brand: Yeah. I don’t want toxins in my water. Let’s hit Mercury.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Evan Brand: You mentioned the uh—the vaccines for Aluminum. Obviously, Mercury— Thimerosal is like I think it’s 48%
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Evan Brand: …in vaccines?
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah. It’s gonna be in primarily your Flu vaccine now. They pull some out but they replaced a lot of the ones that had Thimerosal in it with Aluminum hydroxide-
Evan Brand: Oh.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: -so it’s only in that one. There may be one version of the deep— the D— DTP, and one version NMR, potentially. There was, right now, the primary one is just the Flu vaccine.
Evan Brand: Okay. So you think Mercury is out of— pretty much out of vaccines? Uh—
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah. Now, there is some Mercury that’s used in the processing of the vaccination, like not in the actual ingredients.
Evan Brand: Okay.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: And if you go look
Evan Brand: Yeah. I would say, particularly, people that could pay mo— that should pay more attention to this would be like military people, where they travel to certain countries and they have to go and get like 20 or 30 different vaccines to go to Afghanistan, for example. I mean, how do you mitigate that?
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Evan Brand: -opt out.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah, and there’s some research on that. Like, if you watch the documentary, Trace Amounts, they go over some of that with the Mercury. But just something to keep in mind, the big source is gonna be your teeth though. Dental Amalgam fillings,
Evan Brand: People have to look up the documentary Our Daily Dose. It goes into the whole history of how the American Dental Association got corrupted. I think it was back in the
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: What’s it called again?
Evan Brand: It’s called Our Daily Dose.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Our Daily Dose. Alright, cool. So we’ll make sure we put links for that. I have to put that on my list.
Evan Brand: It also— Yeah. It’s incredible, man. It also talks about the uh— cremation and how anybody who lives near crematories should probably move because when they’re cremating the bodies, all of the Mercury out of those dead bodies is going out of the exhaust pipe into the air from the crematory, landing in the soil and into the air. If anyone living near a crematory— So, we’ve got to find a better way to— to mitigate— I mean, everyone dies, and we’ve got millions of bodies that have Mercury in them, so—
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: I’m surprised they don’t require— there’s not some kind of
Evan Brand: A scrubber or something?
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Something that a scrubber to filter that out. I— I would think it wouldn’t be that difficult to do that.
Evan Brand: I know. I know. I— It’s— It’s— When you watch that documentary, it will literally blow your mind because it’s ending up in the groundwater. They’re doing studies of groundwater near uh— crematories, and even the groundwater— uh— The fish are contaminated next to uh— I guess we can mention fish in the ocean but for this specific topic, I meant fish any— in any uh— freshwater near crematories is a big deal.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Wow. Well, good to know. But your dental amalgam fillings will be the biggest. And of course, things uh— like that are excellent to know about vaccinations with the flu, for sure, is gonna be a big one. Uh— Some various pesticides and chemicals will still have some of these things in there. Again, we have a list we’re going off of so I can’t give you specific products, and again, if you’re buying things from certain countries that don’t have the— the higher environmental regulations, like some of the places in China, may have a higher level of Mercury still in the paint or Lead in the paint, or you know. So you got to be careful of where you’re getting things. But again, I can give you a whole list. Fertilizers, laxatives, lumbers, paints, [crosstalk] exhaust fumes, embalming fluids— So embalming fluid makes a lot of— well, embalm— I should say, embalm— U— Yeah. Embalming fluid. That’s like basically antifreeze, I think.
Evan Brand: They use uh— Formaldehyde in them—
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Formaldehyde. Yeah, Formaldehyde. Exactly.
Evan Brand: It’s not—
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Chlorine bleach, sludge, sewage disposal, lightening creams, waxes, wood preservatives— I think the big thing people got to be aware of is the Flu vaccine component, the heavy metals in your mouth,
Evan Brand: And the fish, [crosstalk] the Tuna.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah. Some of the Tuna, the higher Mercury— The Skipjack Tuna’s pretty good. It’s got a very low Mercury to high Selenium ratio. So— Selenium’s a natural chelator of Mercury, so if you’re eating fish that have Mercury in it, Selenium’s a natural chelator, and Selenium’s actually a mineral-precursor to Glutathione. So, the more Selenium, the fish— the nutrients in the fish are actually detoxifying you at the same time. It’s—
Evan Brand: What about other fish? Do you worry at all about like, even in Salmon or Cod, or Haddock? Do you worry about the Pollack, the smaller fish?
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: You got to look at the high Mercury to low Selenium fish. So the shark, the pilot whale, the swordfish— those are gonna be more concerning ‘cause they have lower amounts of Selenium and higher amounts of Mercury. But if you look at the higher Selenium and lower Mercury fish, Skipjack Tuna, your Salmon, your Haddock, your Cod. So, man, I think three to four servings a week is fine. There’s been some studies showing that when women cut out their fish, right— even during pregnancy time, their kid actually— their baby drops IQ of seven points because of the healthy fats, the DHEA, the DHA fats in the fish are now reduced out of their diet, which is— those fats are really important for neurological and brain formation. So I think three to four servings a week is fine, just choose the higher Selenium to Mercury ratio fish. Just Google “High Selenium Low Mercury ratio fish,” and you’ll get a nice little PDF
Evan Brand: I guess you could, if you were extra paranoid, you could do some of the chelators that we’ve talked about. And I— I hate to call them chelators, so technically not that. Mild detoxifiers, like your Michael Ni’s C— Chlorella could help if you’re gonna consume seafood.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Totally. By the way, a— an MD friend of mine used to give me so much crap ‘cause I would use to call them [chē-ˌlā-tərs] like you just did. He was like [ˈkē-ˌlā-tərs] [crosstalk]. I’m gonna pass. I’m gonna pass down that— that knowledge to you as well.
Evan Brand: I— I— I shouldn’t even use the word ‘cause it’s technically not correct. It’s— It technically the— ‘cause the chelator is more something that is—
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Like a DMPS-
Evan Brand: Yeah.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: -or TSA or EDTA.
Evan Brand: Yeah.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: More of a chemical bonder.
Evan Brand: Yeah. The natural stuff is not a chelator. I— It’s technically just a mild detoxifier. So I’ll just ditch the word from my vocabulary.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Nah. No— No problem. I’m just giving you a little hard time there.
Evan Brand: [laughs]
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: But in general, cheap Chinese herbs,
Evan Brand: I don’t think so. I mean, we could go on and on with some of these other metals. I mean, car exhaust has so many different things It pops up across the board for containing Thallium as well. Uh— we
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yes.
Evan Brand: Uh— I think you could freak out and probably make yourself want to live in a bubble pretty quick if you start reading about some of
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yep.
Evan Brand: -gut-wise before you go into biological dentistry if removing Amalgams.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Bingo! Stronger with your detoxification pathways, good nutrition, uh— healthy gut function before you actually go into the process of removing things. I think if you want simple things, you can alway do some of the— the binders, the Chlorella, uh— the various citrus pectins, the
Evan Brand: ‘Cause they can’t get it out, and then—
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: ‘Cause they can’t get it out because you actually have to have healthy detoxification to push it into the hair. So the question is if you’re detoxification’s impaired, you may not see it in the hair. And if— the hair is the indicator of what your body burden is— Well, it’s— It’s a couple
Evan Brand: Now, are you recommending a random urine test after the provocation agent or you having like 24-hour collection after provocation?
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Just a two to
Evan Brand: ‘Cause the
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Evan Brand: I’ll have to uh— find that paper and— and send it to you ‘cause it’s pretty mind-blowing.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Absolutely, yeah. So, if
Evan Brand: Yeah.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: -out with
Evan Brand: Yeah, and some— Some practitioners, some dentist have protocols they may impleme— implement with (R)-lipoic acid and Alpha-Lipoic acid, and-
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Evan Brand: -some other things, so just uh— We always recommend people look at the link— Let me double check the website. It’s the I-A-M-O-T—
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: I-A-M— Yeah. International Association of Oral and Medical Toxicology dot (.)
Evan Brand: Yeah. So I— I’m making sure I’m typing it in right.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: IAOMT.org.
Evan Brand: Yep. That’s the one.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: That’s Dr. Jack Kennedy’s site.
Evan Brand: Yeah, but there’s a whole database there, so you can look in someone [inaudible]
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Feel free you guys. Look at the uh— the video called The Smoking Tooth. If people think or your dentist says that heavy metals stay put when they’re put in your mouth, watch that video and your mind will be blown. Oh—
Evan Brand: That video clip is in that Our Daily Dose. They
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Okay.
Evan Brand: It’s like 2000 times the safe amount of Mercury gets released when they drill it out-
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Totally.
Evan Brand: –
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Insane. Hundred percent insane. But hey! Education, we start here. We vote with our dollars. Make smart decisions. And if you guys are loving this podcast, give us a thumbs up. Give us a share. We appreciate it. We get energized by your comments. We get energized by your feedback, and we’re just— We’re here to empower everyone. Then, if you want to take that next step and dig in deeper, for Evan’s help, evanbrand.com, as well as myself, justinhealth.com. Look forward to being of service. And, Evan, you have a phenomenal day. Great chatting with you.
Evan Brand: Sounds good. We’ll talk to you all next week. Buh-bye!
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Take care. Bye.
——————————————————————————————————
REFERENCES:
Aluminum and Silica in Drinking Water and The Risk of Alzheimer’s Disease or Cognitive Decline, An American Journal of Epidemiology 2009 15-Year Study
Trace Amounts, a documentary
http://www.ourdailydosefilm.com/ Our Daily Dose, a documentary
IAOMT.org
Dr. Layton’s “The Smoking Tooth” Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJVBYZEsqEU,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pBVjZJhPrw
Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy with Ryan Brinkerhoff | Podcast #195
Welcome to a functional medicine podcast with Dr. J and Ryan Brinkerhoff, author at Inside Out Hyperbaric & Wellness Center. Watch this video as they discuss Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy and the issues it addresses, such as strokes, concussion, brain trauma, brain inflammation, and autism on kids. Listen as they hit over a lot of major benefits and applications of hyperbarics, suitable candidates for the therapy, and more.
Keep tuning in for more videos to get the latest about what’s happening on the functional medicine world. Hit subscribe, smash the bell, and don’t forget to share!
Ryan Brinkerhoff
In this episode, we cover:
01:00 Mechanisms Involving Hyperbarics
04:00 Protocols Accompanying Hyperbaric Sessions
07:12 Hyperbarics for Wellness
08:45 Adjunct Therapies Synergistic to Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy
17:25 Inside Out Hyperbarics and Wellness Center In a Picture
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Hey, there! It’s Dr. Justin Marchegiani. Welcome back to the podcast. We have Ryan Brinkerhoff here, who is a hyperbaric uh— expert. We’re gonna talk about Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy and— and what it can be good for. Ryan’s website is insideouthyperbarics.com. He’s at of uh— St. George, Utah. he has a clinic, where he hs treat people with a p— patients with all kinds of different uh— issues from autism to brain injuries, to trauma, to strokes, to aneurysms. And we’re using these types of therapies to naturally help that tissue heal and, ideally, get back to optimal functions as much as possible. Hey, Ryan, welcome to the podcast.
Ryan Brinkerhoff: Pleasure to be here, Dr. Thanks you.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Oh, great. Well, talk to us about hyperbarics. What— What is this technology? Can you kind of break it down? How does someone utilize it and apply it, and who’s it good for?
Ryan Brinkerhoff: Okay. So, hyperbarics, basically, uhm— just kind of paint a picture of what it is— So, you’re getting to a pressurized chamber, and while you’re in there, you’re gonna breathe a hundred percent Oxygen, full-time. And so, there’s a lot of things that happen inside the body when there’s a— when you’re inside the chamber. The first thing is— is— It’s actually a law of Physics. It’s called Henry’s Law.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Uhmhm—
Ryan Brinkerhoff: So the Oxygen, it’s actually being changed from a uh— a gas to a liquid. So instead of travelling a task to red blood cells like Oxygen normally does, now it’s being flooded through the plasma. So when that happens, you can get really, really high doses of Oxygen in the uh— the extremities, and mainly into the brain. So they’ll see Oxygen levels inside the brain go up 700-900% when— when you’re doing this. Uhm— A few other things that happens. Stem cell production goes up, so your body naturally starts using ,the stem cells that are there to help your body go into a healing state. And then uh— another cool feature is this. Its Collagen production goes way up. So we—
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Oh! Interesting.
Ryan Brinkerhoff: Yeah. So we actually get a lot of uhm— women in here that are using these Hyperbaric chambers to kind of fight uh— you know, doctor time e— and keep their youthful and vibrant looks.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: So, in general, like, Oxygen saturation in our environment’s what— like, 20, 21, 22 percent. So the whole goal is number one, you’re increasing that overall percentage, and it’s pressurized so i— it’s getting absorbed more efficiently? Is that what’s happening?
Ryan Brinkerhoff: Right. So it’s getting absorbed more efficiently but it’s also changing the way that it’s delivering throughout your body. So, again— So, like somebody, for instance, with Anemia, right? So, they— They’re suffering from…
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Ryan Brinkerhoff: …low Oxygen [inaudible] ‘cause they don’t have enough red blood cells to carry it.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Right.
Ryan Brinkerhoff: So, when— when— when you get in a hyperbaric chamber, you don’t even need red blood cells to transport Oxygen anymore, and that— and that’s the reason why they’re starting to put these uhm— in Louisiana right now. They’re putting hyperbaric chambers on emergency vehicles. So, if somebody loses a ton of bloods, and they get stabbed, they’re— or something happens, the whole race to get them back to the hospital to save their life is to what? Give them blood so they can— they can breathe, right? Well…
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Uhmhm—
Ryan Brinkerhoff: If you’re through somebody a Hyperbaric Oxygen Chamber, you do not have to have the red blood cells there. The— The body will still get the Oxygen that it needs.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: So are we still breathing all the Oxygen or is this Oxygen permeating through our skin or through other means outside of our— our Sinuses?
Ryan Brinkerhoff: No. You’re still breathing it all in. No. You’re still breathing it all in. No—
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: It’s just that a higher intensity in it. It’s pressurized so it— it’s getting into the cells— into the bloodstream kind of not necessarily passively but more actively from the pressure?
Ryan Brinkerhoff: Exactly. Yes. So…
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Uh— Okay.
Ryan Brinkerhoff: …when they get converted from it’s gas to its liquid state, now it’s just free-flowing with the plasma instead of— of needing Hemoglobin and red blood cells to travel. So, that’s why it gets in such higher concentrations.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani:Got it. So, therapeutically, we— we’re getting it in there more through an active transport, not necessarily a passive transport.
Ryan Brinkerhoff: Exactly.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: If there’s Anemia, we’re kind of bypassing that mechanism. And then, having that high saturation of Oxygen, so we’re decreasing inflammation. So if someone has a brain injury, it’s helping that tissue heal. So walk me through it. Someone comes in. They bumped their head. They get in a car accident. Like…
Ryan Brinkerhoff: Right.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: …what does that protocol look like to help this person get better?
Ryan Brinkerhoff: Well, it— it— The protocol really depends on their overall uhm—
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Uhmhm—
Ryan Brinkerhoff: How they are healthwise, right?
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Uhmhm—
Ryan Brinkerhoff: So if they…
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yup.
Ryan Brinkerhoff: …were extremely healthy before they got the concussion, uhm— we start everybody out and about the same level. So, we put them in a Hyperbaric Chamber for an hour. We’ll adjust their Oxygen to uh— a specific level, and then we’ll monitor how they do throughout the session, and then when they get out. Because, as you all know, you can give somebody too much…
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Uhmhm—
Ryan Brinkerhoff: …Oxygen…
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yup.
Ryan Brinkerhoff: …an you can have…
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yes.
Ryan Brinkerhoff: …side effects like headaches and Vertigo kick in. So, we— we basically have a process where we are just monitoring our patients all the way through their hyperbaric sessions, and, as essentially, bump people into that 90 minutes uhm— sessions. And that’s the 45-minute to the 90-minute mark is where all the stem cell production happen. So we love to keep our patients in that Goldilocks zone, as long as we possibly can, but we can’t jump right to 90 minutes because then we, in a risk, you know, give them too much Oxygen and have those side effects of— of— of that. So—
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: I understand. So, regarding, like, the timing of it, you’re not gonna have to worry about the over Oxygen saturation that you keep it 90 minutes or below essentially?
Ryan Brinkerhoff: Right, yeah. Yep. That’s exactly right.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Okay. So if this frequency starts 90-minute session, right— like what’s that look like? Everyday, you’re gonna be coming in for the next month? What would that frequency look like if someone had a significant trauma?
Ryan Brinkerhoff: Uh— So, if it’s significant, we recommend that they come in five (5) days a week. Uhm—
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Okay.
Ryan Brinkerhoff: And— And the other thing, my— my company does is we actually offer rental units, so we will take Hyperbaric chambers right to somebody’s home.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Oh, wow.
Ryan Brinkerhoff: So, if—if they don’t live in the St. George area, or they’re in a situation where they can’t travel in everyday, w—we’ll put a chamber right in their home so they can get that, you know, health that they need right there from the comfort of their own home.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Oh, that’s great. And then, regarding that, so someone comes in, they’re gonna be doing this probably at least for a month, and then…
Ryan Brinkerhoff: Right.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: …basically the Oxygen, you said, is helping with the stem cell production. It’s helping with Oxygenation. It’s reducing inflammation. What other mechanisms neurologically is it affecting?
Ryan Brinkerhoff: So, one of the really cool ones uhm— that they— they discovered a few years ago was it actually upregulates uhm—the antioxidants in your body.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Uhmhm—
Ryan Brinkerhoff: So, when I first started studying Hyperbarics, you know, everybody’s always worried about Oxygenate damage in the body.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yes.
Ryan Brinkerhoff: And— So, they did a study, and after the first session they saw a little rise i—in free radical damage. But then after that, they saw those numbers dropped and they continue to drop throughout all the treatments so it’s stimulates your body to use antioxidants more effectively. So that’s where the other amazing things at Hyperbarics does.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: And can you use Hyperbarics for like Wellness Care? Like let’s say you’re somet— like— like myself or yourself— You’re already in good health. Could you use his type of therapy just to accelerate your health or improve your health? [incomprehensible]
Ryan Brinkerhoff: Oh! [crosstalk] Yeah. You sure can. So, I have uh— a couple gentlemen here that are getting older. They’re clinical psychologists, and they notice their—their brain wasn’t as sharp as it used to be before they get a lot of brain fog. Well, anytime when they have big meetings coming up or they’re doing podcasts—thing like that—they’ll come in and get the chambers beforehand, go out, and then just chill. Their memory gets i—insanely sharp. The one gentlemen uhm—had failed his last two uh—pre-Dementia screenings. He came in and did about 60 sessions, went back and took those same screenings again, and just aced them.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Oh, wow!
Ryan Brinkerhoff: So— Yeah.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: And what about professional athletes? Are you seeing a lot of athletes that are, you know, putting their body into wear and tear, just sleeping on these things or utilize them a—as an acceleration to help their body heal?
Ryan Brinkerhoff: Right. Yeah. So we do— We see a ton of marathoners share uh— St. George is a big area. We have an Iron Man competition here…
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Uhmhm—
Ryan Brinkerhoff: …and also tons of marathons throughout the year. So, I have a group of marathoners every time when the races are coming up. They’ll come and start hitting the Hyperbarics about a week before. They’ll hit their PR’s and their marathons, and then they’ll come in about a week afterwards to help their bodies heal up from the strain the race put them through. So I always see that with a lot of CrossFit athletes as well.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Oh, excellent! And how did you actually get into this field? Because uh—This is your uh—Were you in the health field before you jumped in the Hyperbarics?
Ryan Brinkerhoff: No. I actually was and I was actually in the computer technology world. Mainly, uhm—
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Oh!
Ryan Brinkerhoff: …you know, like the in—in the oil industry. Uhm— Hyperbarics all came about, for me, from having been stricken once a disease that, depending on what neurologist I saw, was either ALS or MS, uhm— Uh—It turns out I have Lyme’s disease.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Okay.
Ryan Brinkerhoff: That’s why I get a ton [crosstalk] of interventions to try to get myself back to full levels of health.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Right.
Ryan Brinkerhoff: And I could only get about 80%. It was the best I could achieve. And then, once I got in a Hyperebarics and I just saw my—my health accelerate to— to where it is now, I now have no symptoms, whatsoever. So—
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Oh, wow!
Ryan Brinkerhoff: It would really integral part of giving me back to—to where I am today.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Are there any adjunct therapies that you think are very synergistic to combining with Hyperbarics, or maybe therapies that you do combine with Hyperbarics at your clinic already?
Ryan Brinkerhoff: Uhm— Yeah. So there is a machine called the beamer. Uhm—
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Ryan Brinkerhoff: It’s a Bemer. And it basically—
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: P-E-M-F basically, right? Pulse Electromagnetic Frequency?
Ryan Brinkerhoff: That’s it. That’s…
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Ryan Brinkerhoff: …the one. And uhm— So it— it stimulates microcirculation, right? So we have our clientele. Well, some of them will get in on the Bemer…
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Uhmhm—
Ryan Brinkerhoff: … before they get in. Really open up those capillaries, get everything ready, and then we throw them in a Hyperbaric chamber and it seems to quantify the power and affects the— the other chambers.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Excellent. So when you combine these therapies, you typically do a Hyperbarics first and then do the P-E-M-F second?
Ryan Brinkerhoff: No. We do the P-E-M-F first to—to really open everything up…
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Ryan Brinkerhoff: And then we throw them in Hyperbaric chambers afterwards.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Very good. Do you have any good case studies that you typically, you know, any—any recent patient success stories that you want to share?
Ryan Brinkerhoff: Uhm— Yes. So, one thing we do at our clinic is we will donate our Hyperbaric chambers’ time to local veterans…
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Right.
Ryan Brinkerhoff: …when they are not being used by our paid customers. Uhm— On our website, insideoouthyperbarics.com, we have uh— a testimonial on there from uh— a vet who, basically, was suffering from PTSD so bad that his whole life is falling apart. And uh—after about 30 sessions, he was back working again, and after about 90 sessions, he’s completely healed. He’s got a job. He just graduated with high marks from Dixie State University here, and he’s just loving and living life again. And he will be the first one to tell you it was all Hyperbarics that helped healed his brain and get him back to that point.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Excellent. Are there any nutritional strategies that you combine with it or diet or lifestyle strategies? Someone comes in, obviously if you’re just eating McDonalds or crappy food…
Ryan Brinkerhoff: Yeah.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: …uhm— i— it may just kind of be like an uphill battle utilizing a therapeutic modality when there’s so much crap going on in their life. How do you combine other healthy lifestyle or diet habits? And what kind of things you recommend?
Ryan Brinkerhoff: Yeah. So we have a dietician that uhm— is on staff here that actually teaches at the local college here, too. She’s a professor there. And, yeah, and you’re 100% right. I tell people over time. And you come in here and we’re eliminating inflammation, and then you go out and you get your McDonalds, or you …
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Right.
Ryan Brinkerhoff: …drink soda cups, you’re counteracting everything that we’ve just done. So, we like to get people on a very good diet. We do tons of supplementation after we checked blood work. We also look at genetics, too, to see if MTHFR and COMT and a bunch of these things are playing roles in— in— in their health. And so we build a whole program around the individual. We don’t have a set program for everybody. We work at everybody as an individual, and it’s up to us to design a program for them. And then we follow through with that program.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Are there any objective measurements that you combine with the Hyperbaric therapy? Do you do any like SPECT Scan or like uhm— or like the type of scan that uhm— SPECT Scan that the Daniel Amen does, or do you do any EEG stuff or brain mapping before and after? What’s your experience with that?
Ryan Brinkerhoff: Uhm—So we have not done any brain imagery stuff yet.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Ryan Brinkerhoff: Uhm— I got a uh—a neurologist who wants to start doing some studies with us, but there’s actually a couple doctors out there that are really killing I right now, uhm— where you can actually go to their websites and look and see their brain images. And it just shows the brain is actually killing itself. I mean, one of the biggest lies I’ve seen and I was told when I was younger is uh—you know, you only got X amount of brain cells so you got to make sure you take care of them, right?
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Right.
Ryan Brinkerhoff: ‘Cause once they’re dead, they’re dead. And I always thought, “Well, you know, our liver is rebuilding itself constantly.” [crosstalk] “Our kidneys, why is [incomprehensible]—”
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: …[crosstalk] nails, hair, skin, right?
Ryan Brinkerhoff: Yeah. Everything is rebuilding. A— And now, With— With, you know, SPECT Scans and things like that, they can actually show the brain is being repaired while you’re in a Hyperbaric chamber. This is one reason why NFL teams are now having hyperbaric facilities installed at all their training facilities. You get a head injury, everybody’s worried about CT now. Well, you get a concussion, they’re gonna throw you right in the hyperbaric chamber because it’s proven to actually heal the brain.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: What other nutrients do you combine with it from a supplement standpoint? Do you any of the— the uh—Resveratrol or the Alpha-GPC compounds I’ve seen some interesting research on— on those really helping to cool and quiet the inflammation for all/some of these Nerve-2 compounds like Green Tea, Ashwagandha. What supplements have you seen the best success with it, you use in conjunction with the hyperbarics?
Ryan Brinkerhoff: Well, you mentioned a couple of them right there.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yep.
Ryan Brinkerhoff: …is Vestrol is uh— one that we use. And we always put every uhm—every one of our patients on uhm—anti oxidants…
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Ryan Brinkerhoff: …a really good antioxidants formula, just to make sure that they have everything there in place so they can combat the oxidative stress and get out with that.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Right.
Ryan Brinkerhoff: So—
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: And what kind of antioxidants outside of like your Vitamin A, D, and K. Anything else uh— specifically?
Ryan Brinkerhoff: Those are actually the main ones that we use. Uhm—I was actually hoping to get with you and see if you could help throw me together a little protocol uh—for that as well, ‘cause I know you understand those things better than most— anybody else I listen to on the internet. So, I was— I was gonna try to collaborate with you to develop uh—this specific supplement.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Ye—Yeah. I think there are some— definitely some good compounds in there. Uhm—the alpha-GPC compounds are excellent. The uh—The Nerve-II compounds, the Green Tea, the Curcumin, the Resveratrol, a lot of the Mitochondrial uh—nutrients like the Carnitine, and the Ribose, just because there’s a lot of Mitochondria density in the brain. And when these…
Ryan Brinkerhoff: Right.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: …tissues get injured, right— we need Oxygen for the Mitochondria, but we also need some of these nutrients and— to help combat the oxidative stress. So, yeah, that’s— That sounds great. That sounds awesome.
Ryan Brinkerhoff: Yeah. Yeah, it’s— It’s— It’s good stuff.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: And was there anything else that you wanted to highlight? Like, what are like— Like, what are the top three peop— What are the top three like average patients? What are they coming in for? Is it just, they bump their head, or is it just like, “Hey, they’re having some brain fog or Alzheimer’s, Dementia”? What are you typically seeing?
Ryan Brinkerhoff: Uhm— So, in an average day, we’ll probably see four to five different types of disease processes that people are trying to get help with. Of course, we have the athletes coming in for that— you know, that edge that they can get by using Hyperbaric chambers. But, for instance, one thing that we’ve seen a lot with lately is GI issues. Uhm—
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Hmm—
Ryan Brinkerhoff: There—There’s actually a ton of research now being done with hyperbarics and GI issues, and it all came apart as a— a— a scientist, whose wife have gotten a car accident. She got a major concussion, had some problems, and so, he started throwing her a Hyperbaric chamber. But as he was going a lot to her sessions, he noticed that her symptoms of Crohn’s disease was starting to disappear.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Mm—
Ryan Brinkerhoff: And— And he talked in front about this and everything like that. And then, as uh— Rice University and the University of Israel, combined on a study that takes a bunch of people with IBS problems, put them in Hyperbaric chambers and see what happened. And it was 80% uhm— or higher that these people were getting reduction with their symptoms or complete elimination. So, now, I’ve been doing a lot of radio spots about that and we are starting to see a lot more focus come to the doors with— with, you know, intestinal issues. Uhm—Another big one we see is brain fog. So, you’ll have people that come in that are tired, wore out, and one of their main symptoms is they’ll have brain fog. Well, when you get tons of fuel in the brain and the central nervous system, the body starts running at a lot higher level. And so they’ll see their brain fog a—and fatigue issues disappear for a week after only one session. So it’s a great pick-me-up for— for those folks who are looking forward to it.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Oh, wow! That’s great. Yeah. I have seen research on the fact that if, yeah, brain trauma or head trauma…
Ryan Brinkerhoff: Right.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: …a lot of times, the brain, if there’s injury to it, and inflammation, it can actually cause leaky gut. Like a lot of people know, like, “Okay. I eat gluten, I have an infection. I have food allergens like that, leaky gut, ken— kind of those immune compounds can create the bloodstream make their way to the brain and create brain inflammation and brain fog.
Ryan Brinkerhoff: Right.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: But it can also work the other direction. If we have impact or inflammation stress that hits the brain directly, that can easily drive gut permeability then create more gut issues. So that makes sense because if this is the root issue that cause it all, [crosstalk] and we get that better, that could help with the gut permeability down south.
Ryan Brinkerhoff: Yeah. It’s funny that you mentioned that, too, because when I uh— when I got super sick, I—I fell and got a—a really bad concussion. And then I develop Rheumatoid arthritis probably about two (2) weeks after that, which I never had, and it turned out it was an issue with gluten at that point. [crosstalk] When I put away the gluten, the RA went away, but I never had that problem with the gluten in ‘til I got that major concussion. So, I— I didn’t know they were studying that but I just answer the question, for me, I’ve had for a very long time.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Absolutely. So if there was like— there wasn’t a lot of gut issues, but then the head stuff happened first, that could be the root issues. That—That’s great. So, someone walks into your clinic, what’s your clinic like? How many Hyperbaric chambers do you have? Someone walks in, is— is— what’s the tip of— I know, it’s gonna be customized, right? But, what’s the typical protocol? Three times a week, 60-90 minutes? Ad, how many people can you service at once in your clinic?
Ryan Brinkerhoff: So we have three (3) chambers here right now, and plus we have nine rental chambers out there in the field.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Hmm—
Ryan Brinkerhoff: So uhm— i— in-house, uh— pretty much all day long, we’ll have one to two of our chambers running at all times, and a lot of times. And then half of the day, we’re pretty much booked up. So folks who come in, uhm—we will get them square away. We do a very extensive medical history because I want to know, you know, are you working in a chemical plant. I want to know a lot about your lifestyle and everything like that so we can help address that. But on a day-to-day basis, uhm—we just have folks coming in. Usually three times a week is what we recommend uhm—unless there are serious, serious issues going on, and then we’ll recommend folks come in five (5) days a week.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: If someone needs to rent a unit from you but let’s say they’re not in Utah, is it possible for you to get them set up with the rental? Do they have to be relatively local?
Ryan Brinkerhoff: Right. So we— we travel about ten-hour area anywhere from Southern Utah, but I’m working with a company right now to get it s— set up with some little containers. Because now I way you have just the Hyperbaric chamber. You got to ship. Do you have the Oxygen concentrator to compress…
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Right.
Ryan Brinkerhoff: …with everything like that. So—
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: That could be explosive, right— if it’s compressed like that? [laughs]
Ryan Brinkerhoff: Right. Yeah. So, well, we don’t use compressed Oxygen. We use at what they called concentrator.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Okay.
Ryan Brinkerhoff: So, the ambient air takes all the Nitrogen— everything else— out of it, and then just push a straight Oxygen to the— to our patients.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Excellent. So I think we hit over, you know, a lot of the major benefits of Hyperbarics and how could it be applied and who are some of the best candidates, right? We talked about uhm—strokes. We talked about concussions, brain trauma, brain inflammation, potentially, even kids that have Autism as well, right?
Ryan Brinkerhoff: Uh— Right, yeah.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Minor brain inflammation— Is there any other person that this type of therapy’s a good fit for?
Ryan Brinkerhoff: Uhm— Anybody that’s just trying to take their health to that next level.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Uhmhm—
Ryan Brinkerhoff: Uhm—Like, me with Lyme’s disease, for instance. It’s known in—in the clinical literature now that it is a juggernaut against microbes ‘cause most of the nasty microbes are anaerobic.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Right.
Ryan Brinkerhoff: And haven’t I actually live in the blood, so when you’re putting that Oxygen right into the plasma, you are not only sending uh— a life source for yourself but you’re actually killing microbes off extremely faster in the blood. So, uhm— And like I said, I—I got to a plateau. I got about 80%. I was stuck there for about three (3) years. And then, once I started the Hyperbarics, it was just the icing on the cake. Not only, I think, eliminating microbes but also getting my body functioning the way it did prior to the infection.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Excellent. Very cool. And is there any other information that you think is important or that we haven’t quite gone over yet that you want to highlight before we go?
Ryan Brinkerhoff: Uhm— One of the main things— I mean, pretty much the main thing I’d like to highlight is Hyperbarics are amazing. They do a lot of wonderful things, but I don’t want anybody to think they can just, you know, go visit a Hyperbaric clinic somewhere and, magically, everything’s gonna change in their body.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Right.
Ryan Brinkerhoff: You’ll see some benefit but the— the holistic of addressing every part of healing is what really, really is the cornerstone that anybody getting better in any situation. So, uh— I don’t want folks to be misled, thinking I’m saying Hyperbarics can fix everything ‘cause it won’t. But I think it is an integral part o— of somebody’s healing modality if they’d like to try it.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: That’s great. Well, if you’re in the St. George, Utah area, insideouthyperbarics— with an “s”. We’ll put the link down there below. Is there any other avenues or social media places where people could find you online?
Ryan Brinkerhoff: Yeah. We have uhm—Facebook. We got our uh—Inside Out Hyperbarics and Wellness Center. Uhm— And I think we got a YouTube page up as well, where you’ll see a bunch of our videos. It’s just Inside Out Hyperbarics. And uh— we a lot of radio stuff, and hopefully, more podcast stuff with— with folks like you.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Oh, great. Awesome, Ryan. Well, I appreciate you jumping on the show here today and dropping some good knowledge bombs. I thank you for everything, and you have a phenomenal day.
Ryan Brinkerhoff: Thanks, Dr. J. Well, see you later.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Thank you.
Ryan Brinkerhoff: Bye.
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