In this episode, Sachin interviews Dr. Tom O'Bryan on excess inflammation and the effects it has on your body. They address the causes of inflammation, the purpose of inflammation in your body, and how it can accumulate by continued exposure to toxins in your body. Dr. Tom O'Bryan talks about his docuseries The Inflammation Equation, the experts he interviewed over a year for the docuseries, and how you can access this docuseries and learn more about inflammation in your body. Dr. Tom also recommends the Neural Zoomer Plus test to learn about excess inflammation you may have in your brain. Listen to learn more about excess inflammation and its treatment and prevention.

Key Takeaways:

[1:02] Sachin introduces today's guest, Dr. Tom O'Bryan. Today we're going to talk about one of the most important topics that impacts virtually every cell, every system, and every organ in your body, something that Time magazine has called the silent killer, inflammation.

[1:24] Dr. Tom is not only a brilliant clinician but also very detail - and scientifically - oriented. He is working on a new project Sachin says will blow your mind.

[1:54] Sachin welcomes Dr. Tom to Perfect Practice. Dr. Tom wishes he and Sachin lived in the same place to get together weekly or so for coffee. Dr. Tom lives in Costa Rica but he imports his coffee from Reno, Nevada, from Brain Bean.

[2:44] Dr. Tom tells about Brain Bean, its founder, Dr. Michael Nelson, and their coffees, including Zen Blend. Sachin says "I'm going to buy it right now. … I'm sold. Thank you."

[3:55] Dr. Tom explains his work with inflammation. We wouldn't be here if we didn't have an active immune system protecting us every day. When it gets called up, the question is, what's it trying to protect you from?

[4:55] A related thought is that, according to the CDC, 14 of the 15 top causes of death are chronic inflammatory diseases. It's always excessive inflammation that causes disease.

[5:28] Dr. Tom shares a slide from Dr. David Furman at Stanford. The slide has three gears that are linked in a line. The first gear has teeth labeled with things that attack our systems: viruses, bacteria, inactivity, obesity, lack of regenerative sleep, excess stress hormones, and more.

[7:11] When the first gear gets out of balance, it turns to the middle gear, labeled Systemic Chronic Inflammation. Your immune system is responding to a perceived threat.

[7:44] Dr. Jeff Bland, the Founder of Functional Medicine, told Dr. Tom in an interview, "A negative thought is just as powerful at activating your immune system, creating inflammation, as exposure to the SARS-CoV-2 virus."

[8:21] Dr. Patrick Hanaway, who co-founded the Functional Medicine Center at Cleveland Clinic, told Dr. Tom in an interview, after a diagnosis of Stage 4 throat cancer, "I thought I was bigger than the stress in my life."

[9:50] Then Dr. Hanaway talked about how he has learned to handle the stress of life so much better, which reduces activating the immune system.

[10:24] Dr. Tom returns to the image of the three gears. The gear in the middle is your immune system trying to protect you. That turns the gear on the right, which is your genetics and antecedents, such as mercury toxicity. Genetics and antecedents point to your weakest link.

[11:02] The pull on the chain attacks your weakest part. The pull on the chain is inflammation. Excessive inflammation is bad for you.

[11:28] The World Health Organization tells us for the last four years, the average life expectancy for newborn children is less than the average life expectancy of their parents, meaning kids are expected to live shorter lives than their parents are expected to live.

[11:50] The main reason for this shortened average life expectancy is the inflammation from your immune system trying to protect you from something. We have to identify what your immune system is trying to protect you from. Maybe your toxic dishwasher detergent!

[12:57] We can't eliminate all exposure to toxins, but we can make progress. Keep working at it, a little bit at a time. Can you reduce your immune system's need to protect you?

[13:54] Dr. Tom interviewed the actress Fran Drescher. She's a 23-year survivor of uterine cancer. Her oncologist saved her life. Fran wrote a NY Times bestselling book, Cancer Schmancer. She started the Cancer Schmancer organization to educate people about cancer.

[14:50] Fran Drescher said the first thing you have to do is to treat yourself as your best friend. Educate yourself on the chemicals you use every day. For longevity and quality of life, take regular baby steps to reduce the load on your immune system trying to protect you.

[15:27] Dr. Tom has patients answer a questionnaire and take labs before he sees them by Zoom. One of the tests is the Neural Zoomer Plus. It looks at 53 markers of excess inflammation in your brain.

[17:18] Blue Cross Blue Shield came out with a paper in February 2020 that went unreported because the pandemic was happening. The paper said that in the previous four-year period, there was a 407% increase in the diagnosis of Alzheimer's in 30- to 44-year-olds.

[17:56] Right now, there is an explosion of cognitive decline, diagnosed depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, brain dysfunction, autism, and attention deficit. The brain is a sensitive and active organ with 20‒25% of the body's blood at one time. Inflammation is killing brain tissue.

[18:36] Dr. Tom has never had a Neural Zoomer Plus come back normal. Results show people have low-grade inflammation in the brain. It doesn't make them sick but it eventually triggers symptoms. Then they get diagnosed with a disease, after decades of inflammation.

[19:31] A government report published in 2019 stated that Alzheimer's will bankrupt Medicare within 25 years because so many more people are getting it.

[19:59] They showed that there are 20 to 25 years of excess inflammation in the brain before you ever have a symptom. You feel fine but your brain's on fire! By the time symptoms come you're pretty far down the path.

[20:32] Look for antibodies being elevated. Dr. Tom tells of four immune systems. The one in our gut is like the sheriff. The marshall is in the bloodstream. The system in the brain is the glial cells. They fire an inflammatory cascade to get rid of anything that's not supposed to be there.

[21:47] When you have chronic inflammation from environmental toxins like mold in your house, your immune system tries to fight it. Inflammation in the bloodstream crosses the barrier into your brain and the glial cells react like fireworks exploding and causing collateral damage.

[22:44] The collateral damage causes elevated antibodies to get rid of the damaged brain cells. The Neural Zoomer Plus test identifies elevated antibodies in the bloodstream. Next, find out where the inflammation is coming from; food, mold, or toxins.

[23:36] Dr. Tom says the Neural Zoomer Plus test looks at pathogens like herpes, cytomegalovirus, and streptococcus. Those pathogens can be in other parts of the body, but the antibodies cross into the brain.

[24:24] Dr. Tom speaks of a connection between some celiac patients and antibodies to the cerebellum. If they have these antibodies, when they go gluten-free, the antibodies to the cerebellum go down. Dr. Tom calls this molecular mimicry.

[25:21] When the cerebellum is attacked, you can lose your balance, or misjudge door frames as you walk through them. To test balance, take your shoes off, stand straight, lift your right knee in the air, and count to five. Let it down lift the left knee and count to five.

[25:48] Repeat the test with eyes closed. That's a simple test for cerebellar balance. If you can't keep your balance, we now know where we have to look. Let's measure and see. Do you have antibodies in your cerebellum? We have a path to follow to reduce the inflammation.

[27:30] The Journal of the American Medical Association, one of the most prestigious journals, published a paper on couples going to assisted fertility centers. It showed that women who ate three servings a week of organic fruits and vegetables had the best outcomes.

[31:11] The study didn't address this, but Dr. Tom thinks the women were also doing other things to be exposed to fewer toxins, like using organic shampoos and soaps. Probably there were other areas where there was less insult activating the immune system trying to protect them.

[32:07] Dr. Tom notes that a fertilized egg has no defense. It's completely dependent on Mom's environment. If Mom has a toxic environment, from a lifetime of accumulating toxic chemicals, and she's eating conventional fruits and vegetables, that takes her over the edge more often.

[33:01] In those women, the implantation failed 18% more often, and if there was a pregnancy, it was lost 26% more often. That's powerful information! Anyone can eat three servings of organic fruits and vegetables a week while working in the direction of reducing the toxins in your life!

[33:23] Buy organic shampoo from the health food...