Why Your Detox Isn't Working with Dr. Robert Whitfield

All right, welcome everybody. This morning we're going to talk about something. I've touched on it before with respect to genetics, but I just was talking to a patient yesterday, it was top of mind. So when you're living in certain environments, so maybe an older home, maybe one that you know how to water leak or there's a problem under sink or in the shower and you actually see molds that will affect whether it's you personally or a loved one differently. Part of it is each of us inherits a set of genes from our parents, you know, the X and Y chromosomes and some of the ways that, you know, we find it difficult to understand why one person is doing or having a difficult time in environment has to go back to that. So for instance, I don't methylate well. Many of you know what the MTHFR gene is or may have heard about it. Methylation is a chemical reaction, adds a methyl group and it's very helpful with something like say DNA repair. So if you don't methylate well and you go through a stressful event, a difficult workout, an illness, injury, twist your ankle. But something as simple as the common cold, which is typically viral, caused by the rhinovirus, after you recover from the virus, physically you may feel fine, you're not tired anymore, your breathing is fine, but you may have a persistent cough. And so I tell this story because this happened to me actually when I was in medical school as a fourth year student, I believe I was with a whole group of students and the consultant physician who was teaching us about infectious disease. At that point we were seeing patients and it was about two weeks after I had been sick with a cold and I felt fine, but I still had a cough. We were around the patient's room and I had to step completely away from the room and the group because I was about to cough. It was going to be obviously loud, so I moved away and I coughed and it went on for a little bit. You know, I was embarrassed because I didn't, I didn't feel bad, I didn't know how to resolve it. So the infectious disease doctor at that time actually said, you know, what's wrong? And I told him what had happened and I felt fine, but I still have this cough. And so he listened to my lungs and asked me some questions. And ultimately he said, well, you probably have a problem with residual inflammation. And he actually helped me with something that was an inhaler to help with that. Now, in retrospect, I think that boils down to a couple things, like, although My body has an ability to recover. About 40% of the population have this issue with methylation. And that's why many of us have this prolonged bout of inflammation after we recover from any kind of viral illness. And so this went on after each time I would get ill over the next several years and year over year. Actually now, decade over decade, I've learned more and more and more about myself personally by looking at my own genetics. And so I've had my genetics tested through all sorts of companies, most recently Envision Labs, which is the vendor we use now because we feel they're currently the most comprehensive. And so, so what does that really mean? Well, the genes give you the blueprint, if you will, for everything. And so I know I don't methylate well, so what's my strategy to work around that? Well, one of the main things I use is a methylated B complex vitamin because it's methylated already. Because of my little limitation genetically, I then don't have to methylate it. So that's just one example of, you know, me personally, who. And I've had difficulty with inflammation and post workouts, inflammation, staying sore longer than expected. You know, my entire, most of my entire young adult, adult life into my, you know, 40s, even now in my 50s, I work out not as often as I used to due to my schedule, but I work out and I don't stay sore for long periods. I don't work out as intense as I used to. I do things for flexibility and mobility, but I still do strength training, but I don't have prolonged bouts of stiffness, soreness because I'm doing a much better job with number one, sleep, getting enough quality and quantity of sleep. My HRV heart rate variability, which helps measure recovery, is actually getting better now as I get older. I'm doing things specifically with my breathing and with my strategies during the day to manage stress, eating correctly, not fasting probably as long as I used to in the past or all those things I think in my personal case, play a component. So, you know, genetically we are given a certain amount of capability to perform these reactions that relate to detoxification and specifically support immunity. And I just want that to be top of mind because I get patients asking me why there's differences between themselves and maybe their spouse or loved one, even though they went on, say the same trip, for instance, or they ate the same foods. Now everybody will react differently based on their genetics, so as it pertains to methylation, but they'll also act differently as it relates to Food based on each person's individual characteristics in their gut microbiome. Many of my patients are facing different imbalances in the gut microbiome like Sibo. So there's a bacterial imbalance, there may be a candida imbalance there. And this is something that we are seeing more and more and more is a parasitic imbalance. And that can be. Yesterday I spoke to a client in Hawaii. Anytime you consume any raw fish like sushi, you're you're going to expose yourself to more parasites. So traveling, you know, in and out of different countries because the, the water is going to be, from a filtration standpoint, have different levels of bacteria, parasite components. And so this is just something you have to be aware of. Just like if you went, you know, for a hike and you were going to drink water out of a stream, you would definitely have taken steps and brought something with you to filter that from a, you know, like sediment, gross sediment standpoint, or like, you know, like sand, but also for parasite. Because a classic example of a parasite you would get from drinking water out of like a stream somewhere is giardia. So all these things are really, you know, they're obviously, you know, things we're concerned about, we see in our patients routinely. That's why we're very, very adamant about workup pre op. Looking at your genetics, different aspects of toxicity, gut microbiome, health, all those things are extremely important in running the sharp method that's meant to prep you for any type of surgery. But as it relates to what I do is predominantly explant surgery. It also can lower your inflammation if you're not quite, you know, in the position to have an explant. So if you're just thinking about, hey, I implants, I've had them for a period of time, I have some of these symptoms. I don't know if I'm really dealing with the inflammation like other patients are. And I'm otherwise happy. I just want to lower my inflammation. The sharp method helps to do that. So in my book I describe, you know, much of my methodology and philosophy about looking at genetics, how that relates to our input. So environmental toxins, you have to be careful and you want to really think about your environment in a way that, you know, one, you can feel as good as possible. So yesterday, in fact, talking to this patient in Hawaii, they lived on a golf course. And there are a lot of people around the United States who live on or nearby courses. Courses have to be sprayed. One example I have of a patient getting exposed to a Chemical is atrazine. That was one of the things that used to be sprayed on golf courses routinely. Atrazine causes all sorts of issues with inflammation and toxicity. So that's just one, you know, thing. If you live near or grew up around agricultural environments, crops, there will be things like glyphosates. So all these, that's what's in Roundup is glyphosate. So there's all sorts of examples of where our environments contribute to issues. I recently had a patient have a high amount of a heavy metal called barium. And so barium is something that I'm familiar with from my training. It was used to really look at patients under X ray to look for problems with swallowing or, you know, any issues of blockage in the GI tract. It's, you know, it was actually in the 90s used, you know, very frequently, probably less, you know, nowadays, you know, even when I was training, things like gastro grafrin. Gastro grafrin were being used instead of barium because barium would affect, affect being able to view a CAT scan. But so there's all sorts of things that can be in your groundwater. You know, specifically for me, I had a bunch of arsenic in my groundwater. So, you know, you know, fast forward, you know, what's important is, you know, from a toxicity standpoint, if you have one of these issues, it's important to, you know, think about, you know, your intake. So air we breathe, you know, filtered air is important. I live in an environment where there's a lot of problems with oak, cedar and mold, other pollens. You know, these are all things that if you have a lot of reactive airway issues that they can stimulate you and give you a cough, they can give you itchy red eyes. I do get that frequently From a fluid standpoint, you know, what you drink your fluids in, Try to drink, you know, filtered water. Always you want to drink it out of something stainless or glass. If you have the ability to control, you know, financially, you know, your input in terms of food, try to get as much. If you're eating animal protein, grass fed, grass, finished beef, and if you're getting poultry, make sure it's non hormone, pasture raised, other, you know, meat or organ meats, you want those to be organically sourced, grass fed, grass finished. In terms of fruits and vegetables, you have to be very careful. Thin skin fruits can absorb, like I was mentioning glyphosate. So you want to get organically sourced fruits. Be careful with how many thin skinned fruits you're getting. You can have elevated level of glyphosate. Because of that, I had a patient who grew up in California in the agricultural area area, and as a child would fly under the crop duster and get sprayed by the crop duster and to this day still has elephant elevated glyphosate levels. And so, you know, the recommendations for those will always be to work with our detox team to help get that out of their system. And you just have to begin. All right, remember to submit any questions you have about this. Make comments, I'll respite, I'll reply to all of them to the best of my ability as quickly as possible.