View the Show Notes For This Episode Niraj Naik discusses Soma Breathwork with Dr. Ben Weitz. [If you enjoy this podcast, please give us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, so more people will find The Rational Wellness Podcast. Also check out the video version on my WeitzChiro YouTube page.]    Podcast Highlights   Niraj Naik is a certified UK pharmacist turned holistic wellness and breathwork expert.  Niraj funs a global breathwork community and trains hundreds of breathwork experts in his Soma Breath techniques, which is taught at numerous wellness centers in the US, Europe, and Asia, including the University of Cambridge. Niraj is working on a new book, Breath Works, which is soon to be released. His websites are NirajNaik.com and SomaBreath.com.  Dr. Ben Weitz is available for Functional Nutrition consultations specializing in Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders like IBS/SIBO and Reflux and also Cardiometabolic Risk Factors like elevated lipids, high blood sugar, and high blood pressure.  Dr. Weitz has also successfully helped many patients with managing their weight and improving their athletic performance, as well as sports chiropractic work by calling his Santa Monica office 310-395-3111. Dr. Weitz is also available for video or phone consultations and he uses DUTCH testing regularly.

View the Show Notes For This Episode Dr. Aristo Vojdani discusses the Early Detection and Prevention of Autoimmune Diseases at the Functional Medicine Discussion Group meeting on January 25, 2024 with moderator Dr. Ben Weitz.   [If you enjoy this podcast, please give us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, so more people will find The Rational Wellness Podcast. Also check out the video version on my WeitzChiro YouTube page.]    Podcast Highlights   Dr. Aristo Vojdani is the Father of Functional Immunology and he has dedicated his life's research to helping us figure out what are the triggers for autoimmune diseases and many of the tests he has developed for Cyrex Labs are focused on this.  Dr. Vojdani has a PhD in microbiology and immunology and he has authored over 200 scientific papers published in peer reviewed journals. Dr. Vojdani is the co-owner of Immunosciences Lab in Los Angeles, which offers testing for various types of infections, including Lyme Disease. He is the Chief Science advisor for Cyrex Labs, whom he has developed all of the testing for, including the Lymphocyte Map test, Array 2 for Leaky Gut, and Array 5, The Multiple Autoimmune Reactivity Panel, and from Immunosciences, the Autoimmune Viral Trio Panel.  Dr. Ben Weitz is available for Functional Nutrition consultations specializing in Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders like IBS/SIBO and Reflux and also Cardiometabolic Risk Factors like elevated lipids, high blood sugar, and high blood pressure.  Dr. Weitz has also successfully helped many patients with managing their weight and improving their athletic performance, as well as sports chiropractic work by calling his Santa Monica office 310-395-3111. Dr. Weitz is also available for video or phone consultations.

View the Show Notes For This Episode Dr. Howard Elkin and Dr. Ben Weitz, discuss Rhabdomyolysis with Dr. Ben Weitz. [If you enjoy this podcast, please give us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, so more people will find The Rational Wellness Podcast. Also check out the video version on my WeitzChiro YouTube page.]    Podcast Highlights 2:17  Rhabdomyolysis (rhabdo) is characterized by an acute destruction of muscle tissue and the contents of the destroyed muscle tissue--myoglobin--is emptied into the bloodstream.  This myoglobin makes the urine appear brown in color and thick and it can overwhelm the kidneys and cause kidney destruction and renal failure... 6:24  Certain drugs like statins that are used to lower cholesterol can play a role in causing rhabdo, since they can adversely affect skeletal muscles, though this is more common in the older statins that are lipophilic like simvastatin (Zocor) and atorvastatin (Lipitor) than the newer statins that are hydrophilic like fluvastatin, rosuvastatin (Crestor), and pravastatin.  This can be made worse if certain other drugs are taken at the same time that inhibit the cytochrome p450-3A4 liver detox pathway, such as certain antibiotics (such as clarithromycin), antifungals, calcium channel blockers and certain other drugs.  Also, the use of alcohol, amphetamines, and methamphetamines can worsen the likelihood of the occurrence of rhabdo.  8:34  Patients with rhabdo usually present with intense pain, extreme fatigue, and their urine is very dark, even brown, because of myoglobin that is being released.  They will have elevated CPK in their blood as well as elevated myoglobin.                 Dr. Howard Elkin is an Integrative Cardiologist with offices in Whittier and in Santa Monica, California and he has been in practice since 1986.  While Dr. Elkin does utilize medications and he performs angioplasty and stent placement and other surgical procedures, his focus in his practice is employing natural strategies for helping patients, including recommendations for diet, lifestyle changes, and targeted nutritional supplements to improve their condition.  Dr. Elkin has written an excellent new book, From Both Sides of the Table: When Doctor Becomes Patient.  His website is Heartwise.com and his office number is 562-945-3753. Dr. Ben Weitz is available for Functional Nutrition consultations specializing in Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders like IBS/SIBO and Reflux and also Cardiometabolic Risk Factors like elevated lipids, high blood sugar, and high blood pressure.  Dr. Weitz has also successfully helped many patients with managing their weight and improving their athletic performance, as well as sports chiropractic work by calling his Santa Monica office 310-395-3111. Dr. Weitz is also available for video or phone consultations and he uses DUTCH testing regularly.     Podcast Transcript

View the Show Notes For This Episode Charlotte Blease, PhD, and Cosima Locher, PhD, discuss The Nocebo Effect with Dr. Ben Weitz. [If you enjoy this podcast, please give us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, so more people will find The Rational Wellness Podcast. Also check out the video version on my WeitzChiro YouTube page.]    Podcast Highlights 1:45  The placebo effect is when a patient feels better after taking a sugar pill of some other treatment that is not thought to be able to help them, because they believe that it will help them.  When a scientific study is conducted they often have a placebo arm with one group getting the pill with the active ingredient and the other group getting a pill without the active ingredient, which is referred to as the placebo group.  And yet a significant percentage of the patients who get the placebo improve.  The nocebo is sort of the opposite of the placebo in that if the patient believes or has fears or expectations that they are likely to have side effects or a negative result from a medication or treatment, they may have such negative effects.  The book The Nocebo Effect: When Words Make You Sick is designed to bring awareness to the nocebo concept, which has been much less researched than the placebo effect. And this book also attempts to bring some solutions so that nocebo effects occur less frequently.                   Charlotte Blease, PhD is a philosopher and health researcher at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, and the Department of Women’s and Children's Health at Uppsala University, Sweden.  The book that Charlotte and Cosima helped write is The Nocebo Effect: When Words Make You Sick. Cosima Locher PhD is a psychologist who has published in leading medical journals and is the co-founder of the Pain Net, an international network of researchers interested in chronic pain with a special focus on the placebo and nocebo effects. Dr. Ben Weitz is available for Functional Nutrition consultations specializing in Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders like IBS/SIBO and Reflux and also Cardiometabolic Risk Factors like elevated lipids, high blood sugar, and high blood pressure.  Dr. Weitz has also successfully helped many patients with managing their weight and improving their athletic performance, as well as sports chiropractic work by calling his Santa Monica office 310-395-3111. Dr. Weitz is also available for video or phone consultations and he uses DUTCH testing regularly.  

View the Show Notes For This Episode Valentin Prisecaru and Jeff Ingersoll discuss Genomic Testing with Dr. Ben Weitz. [If you enjoy this podcast, please give us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, so more people will find The Rational Wellness Podcast. Also check out the video version on my WeitzChiro YouTube page.]    Podcast Highlights 5:02  Genetics or the Human Genome refers to the genetic code that is made up of only four letters, A, G, C, and T and this code about 3 billion letters long.  The majority of the genome is still kind of a mystery because we don't know exactly what it does.  But we do know about 20 or 30,000 genes that code for proteins or for RNA or a few other things.                                                             Valentin Prisecaru is a scientist who with Dr. Peter D'Adamo helped develop the Opus-23 platform that is the basis for the Genomic Insights, the Genomic Health Profile offered by Diagnostic Solutions Lab.  Diagnostic Solutions Lab web site is DiagnosticSolutionsLab.com  and the phone is 877-485-5336. Jeff Ingersoll is the President of Diagnostic Solutions Lab, which besides the Genomic Insights profile, offers my favorite stool test, the GI Map, a cytokine panel Cyto DX, an organic acids profile, an amino acids profile, as well as food allergy and foods sensitivity panels. Dr. Ben Weitz is available for Functional Nutrition consultations specializing in Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders like IBS/SIBO and Reflux and also Cardiometabolic Risk Factors like elevated lipids, high blood sugar, and high blood pressure.  Dr. Weitz has also successfully helped many patients with managing their weight and improving their athletic performance, as well as sports chiropractic work by calling his Santa Monica office 310-395-3111. Dr. Weitz is also available for video or phone consultations and he uses DUTCH testing regularly.

View the Show Notes For This Episode Mark Newman discusses Hormone Metabolism and Testing with Dr. Ben Weitz. [If you enjoy this podcast, please give us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, so more people will find The Rational Wellness Podcast. Also check out the video version on my WeitzChiro YouTube page.]  Podcast Highlights 1:48  Dried urine testing or DUTCH testing uses a dried sample for convenience, which is a big advantage over the other leading type of urine hormone testing, which is the 24 hour urine test that requires carrying around a jug of urine that you keep in the refrigerator all day.  This is very inconvenient and you lose the the changes in those hormones levels, esp. cortisol, that vary throughout the day using a 24 hour sample.  The dried urine test you collect samples throughout the day so you can look at the cortisol pattern, which correlates with what is seen on saliva in studies that have been published.  And the urine testing of hormones allows you to see the metabolites of estrogens and androgens that you can't see on blood testing....  4:57  On the other hand, dried urine testing does not allow you to measure SHBG, which can be measured through blood, such as when a woman is on birth control and this drives up her SHBG, which drives down her free hormones. Urine testing is also not a good way to measure thyroid hormones. Also, if your kidneys are not functioning well, then you are not excreting urine as well as you should and this can impact urine testing. Also, saliva has some advantages for the cortisol awakening response (CAR)... 8:50  Estrogen metabolism.  Urine testing allows for monitoring of estrogen metabolites that you can't get with serum testing and this can give us some information about how the person processes their hormones and also provides some information about estrogen related cancer risk....                              Mark Newman, MS is a recognized expert and international speaker in the field of hormone testing. Mark spent nearly 25 years developing and directing urine, blood, and saliva-based hormone testing along with other biomarkers like organic acids. His unique experience led him to pursue a revolutionary way to test hormones; so Mark began his own lab, Precision Analytical Inc., to create the latest innovation in hormone testing, the DUTCH Test® (a Dried Urine Test for Comprehensive Hormones). In pursuit of the most accurate, evidence-based testing and best practices, Mark has co-written multiple peer-reviewed research papers and abstracts, highlighting the accuracy and clinical utility of dried urine hormone testing. Mark’s primary educational goal is to find and communicate truths about HRT monitoring to help providers care for their patients. He understands that each form of testing has its own strengths and weaknesses, which is why he encourages clinicians to follow the evidence even when lab testing isn't clinically helpful. For clinicians to learn more about the DUTCH test, go to DUTCHtest.com.  Patients can find a referral to a DUTCH Lab provider to order and interpret the testing for them. Dr. Ben Weitz is available for Functional Nutrition consultations specializing in Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders like IBS/SIBO and Reflux and also Cardiometabolic Risk Factors like elevated lipids, high blood sugar, and high blood pressure.  Dr. Weitz has also successfully helped many patients with managing their weight and improving their athletic performance, as well as sports chiropractic work by calling his Santa Monica office 310-395-3111. Dr. Weitz is also available for video or phone consultations and he uses DUTCH testing regularly.  

View the Show Notes For This Episode Dr. Jessica Hehmeyer discusses Weight Loss Mastery with Dr. Ben Weitz. [If you enjoy this podcast, please give us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, so more people will find The Rational Wellness Podcast. Also check out the video version on my WeitzChiro YouTube page.]    Podcast Highlights 1:37  Some of the biggest challenges that clients have when trying to lose weight include the fact that people were born into a psychological force field that doesn't serve them.  By force field, Dr. Hehmeyer is referring to a series of conversations and perspectives that are not a good match for the outcomes that people want to happen.  The first problematic conversation that people have is that what you eat or not is a moral decision--that food is good or bad or that if you cheated on your diet, you did something bad, and this can lock people into a cycle of shame. It would be better to see what we eat or not and whether we exercise or not will simply produce certain outcomes and this is not a moral situation.  If we want different outcomes, we need to make the necessary changes. 3:50  People have different motivations for eating and for what they eat.  Losing weight is not easy and that is why these new weight loss drugs like Ozempic are being used by so many patients that can afford them. 4:50  As we dig into the science of these GLP-1 agonist drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy, we can find many natural alternatives that can produce the same effects as these drugs have, such as fiber and berberine and eating healthy fats, without the potentially horrible side effects of these drugs, such as intestinal paralysis or obstruction, which can lead to death, or gall stones or pancreatitis.  8:11  Obstacles to weight loss.   19:24  Dietary approach to weight loss.     Dr. Jessica Hehmeyer is the founder of Well Empowered, where she practices data-driven, outcome oriented Functional Medicine. She is a Doctor of Chiropractic, an IFM certified practitioner, a Licensed Dietician Nutritionist and a Certified Nutrition Specialist. She is also an expert in the fitness industry. Her website is Wellempowered.com. Dr. Ben Weitz is available for Functional Nutrition consultations specializing in Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders like IBS/SIBO and Reflux and also Cardiometabolic Risk Factors like elevated lipids, high blood sugar, and high blood pressure.  Dr. Weitz has also successfully helped many patients with managing their weight and improving their athletic performance, as well as sports chiropractic work by calling his Santa Monica office 310-395-3111. Dr. Weitz is also available for video or phone consultations.

View the Show Notes For This Episode Dr. Ben Weitz discusses the Implications of a new paper on Centenarians and Biomarkers and in particular whether having higher levels of cholesterol are better for longevity. [If you enjoy this podcast, please give us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, so more people will find The Rational Wellness Podcast. Also check out the video version on my WeitzChiro YouTube page.]    Podcast Highlights The paper that is discussed in this podcast episode is  Blood biomarker profiles and exceptional longevity: comparison of centenarians and non-centenarians in a 35-year follow-up of the Swedish AMORIS cohort, published in Geroscience in September, 2023. 1:09  While it is difficult to conduct randomized trials using humans to test strategies to improve longevity, is that humans live a long time, so you would have to do a 100 year study, another way to get ideas about longevity is to study centenarians to see how they made it to 100.  This new study on centenarians and blood biomarkers cited above resulted in some results that were expected, including that centenarians had higher lower levels of glucose, which is not surprising, since higher levels of glucose are associated with diabetes, non-alcoholic fatty liver, poor metabolic health, insulin resistance, and more inflammation. But a few of the results seem to be surprising, including that centenarians had higher levels of cholesterol and of iron.  3:37  A popular health podcaster--Mike Mutzel on his High Intensity Health podcast--recently remarked (published Sept 29, 2023 on YouTube as Low Glucose, High Cholesterol & Living to 100 Years Old) that this paper demonstrates that higher levels of cholesterol are associated with better health and longevity. I disagree that that is the right conclusion to draw from this study.  4:26  This study looked at total cholesterol levels, which is not the best way to assess your risk of cholesterol causing heart disease. It would be better to look at LDL-C and even better to look at LDL particle number or ApoB or oxidized LDL or small, dense LDL. 5:52  Cholesterol. When we look at the charts supplied in the paper about cholesterol levels we see that to begin with, the difference in levels of cholesterol were very slight as compared to differences in glucose and other parameters. Second, we see that for men aged 64-74 they actually had slightly lower levels of cholesterol, while men aged 75-84 had slightly higher levels of total cholesterol. It might be more appropriate to conclude that having lower levels of cholesterol are beneficial in that they will likely result in lower levels of heart disease, but that once you hit your 80s it probably doesn't matter as much, since developing heart disease likely takes decades of build up.  Also as you get older, lower cholesterol levels can be an indicator of poor overall diet and of vitality, and in the 80s and 90s sarcopenia and frailty can be bigger causes of mortality due to falls and weaker immunity making you more vulnerable to not being able to fight off viruses or pneumonia. 9:40  Iron. The other marker that was somewhat surprising was iron, where overall slightly higher levels of iron were associated with longevity.  But this is similar to the cholesterol story. Those men and women in the 85-99 year old group had slightly higher levels of iron, though those in the younger groups had the same of lower levels of iron.  High levels of iron above what is needed to produce hemoglobin to produce red blood cells are generally associated with higher levels of oxidative stress and negative health consequences.  On the other hand, higher levels of iron at the oldest decades may be associated with higher levels of nutritional status and less frailty.  Those 90 year olds with greater vitality and greater muscle mass and bone mass are likely to live longer because they are less likely to fall and break a hip.   Dr. Ben Weitz is available for Functional Nutrition consultations specializing in Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders like IBS/SIBO and Reflux and also Cardiometabolic Risk Factors like elevated lipids, high blood sugar, and high blood pressure.  Dr. Weitz has also successfully helped many patients with managing their weight and improving their athletic performance, as well as sports chiropractic work by calling his Santa Monica office 310-395-3111. Dr. Weitz is also available for video or phone consultations.

View the Show Notes For This Episode Kim Shapira discusses How to Improve Your Health and Lose Weight with Dr. Ben Weitz. [If you enjoy this podcast, please give us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, so more people will find The Rational Wellness Podcast. Also check out the video version on my WeitzChiro YouTube page.]    Podcast Highlights 1:26  Some of the biggest challenges that clients have when trying to lose weight include that they do not listen to what's going on inside their own body.  You need to be mindful and use your rational mind, which knows that food is fuel. Our irrational mind thinks food is comfort, joy, entertainment, the enemy, fun.  6:08  In order to figure out which foods are good for us, Kim likes to run the Everywell Food Sensitivity panel, which is done by pricking your own finger at home and sending it in and this test is reasonably priced. 10:56  Kim has six rules for eating and the first one is to only eat when you're hungry. And she also recommends the 15 minute rule so that you learn to eat slowly and that is to only eat no more than half of your food in 15 minutes by putting half as much food on your fork or spoon, put your fork down between bites, and chew your food many more times than you are used to, and eating slowly.  It takes about 15 minutes from the time we start eating for the hormone leptin to be secreted that helps tell us that we are satiated. After 15 minutes you can check in with yourself and see if you are satisfied or not yet.  Many of us today are eating so quickly and frequently and so much that we don't really know what being hungry is.  We are hard wired to be afraid of being hungry, since this means that our survival is at risk.  But in the modern world where food is readily available, we should get used to being hungry and it is important to be hungry every 2 to 4 hours.  If you are not hungry every 2 to 4 hours, your body fat is too high or you overate your last meal.    18:40  Emotional triggers.  Early in our lives we tend to develop our own individual emotional triggers, which take us out of our rational mind into your irrational mind. This leads to emotional eating. We flip from from thinking about food as fuel to food as comfort or food as fun.  When we have a thought that food is a good idea, which should scan our body and take some deep breaths and figure out if we're really hungry or just wanting to eat for an emotional reason. 20:19  Hormones.  There are a number of hormones that play a role in regulating appetite, including ghrelin, leptin, insulin, and cortisol.  When our tank actually gets a little low, ghrelin sends a signal to the brain telling us it is time to start focusing on the next meal. When we eat slowly, we give leptin a chance to tell our brain that we're satisfied. When we respond to stress incorrectly, such as the stress from either lack of sleep, too much sleep, alcohol, or food choices that are inflaming your body, the way that your nervous system is responds can cause our cortisol, our sex hormones, and our blood sugar to get out of whack.  This is when we tend to store excess energy as fat.  We need to work on meditation and mindfulness and long walks and listening to high vibration music and singing and humming and having more joy in our life, so we can relax our nervous system so we can say to our body, "We're actually safe. We're safe right now. You are safe to carry on. We do not need to store that way." 24:24  Exercise.  When it comes to exercise, Kim recommends getting 10,000 steps per day, which is common recommendation.  We need to work on muscle strength, muscle endurance, and balance.    Kim Shapira is a dietician with a BA in Kinesiology from Tulane and a Masters degree in Human Metabolism and Clinical Nutrition from Boston University and author of This is What You’re Really Hungry For: Six Simple Rules to Transform Your Relationship with Food to Become your Healthiest Self.   Her website is KimShapiraMethod.com.   Dr. Ben Weitz is available for Functional Nutrition consultations specializing in Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders like IBS/SIBO and Reflux and also Cardiometabolic Risk Factors like elevated lipids, high blood sugar, and high blood pressure.  Dr. Weitz has also successfully helped many patients with managing their weight and improving their athletic performance, as well as sports chiropractic work by calling his Santa Monica office 310-395-3111. Dr. Weitz is also available for video or phone consultations.