The Dr. Hyman Show - Exclusive Dr. Hyman+ Ask Mark Anything: Detoxifying Heavy Metals, Microbiome Health For Infants And Children, And More

Episode Date: March 28, 2023

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Hey podcast community, Dr. Mark here. I'm so excited to offer you a seven-day free trial of my revolutionary new platform called Dr. Hyman Plus. For seven days you get special access to all the private content included in Dr. Hyman Plus entirely free. It's so easy to sign up. Just go to Apple Podcast on your phone and click try free button on the Doctors Pharmacy podcast. You'll get exclusive access to ad-free Doctors Pharmacy podcast episodes and functional medicine deep dives where a practitioner dives into topics like heart health, muscle health, insulin resistance, and more to help you understand the root cause of specific ailments and walk you through the steps to improve your health today. You'll also get access to all my Ask Mark Anything Q&As where

I answer the community's biggest health and wellness questions. Because I'm so sure you're going to love this platform, I am offering you free access to all of this content for seven days and a teaser of my brand new Ask Mark Anything episode. Head on over to the Doctors Pharmacy podcast on Apple podcast and sign up for your free trial. Okay, here we go. Hi, everyone. Thanks so much for tuning in to another episode of Ask Mark Anything. My name is Harshal korth and i'm the dr hyman plus community manager i'm joined by darcy gross hi darcy hi and she's one of the producers of the longevity roadmap docuseries and of course we're here with our expert um dr

mark hyman hi dr hyman hi how's it going going super well and a big congratulations to you on all the success of the new book. We're so excited. We're going to get to talk about that in just a second. But let's go ahead and get started with today's question. So we're here to ask Mark anything. So number one is, do you have any suggestions on eliminating or reducing mercury in your body? Well, okay. Yes. I mean, I basically learned functional medicine through my own mercury poisoning. So whether I like it or not, I became an expert in having to deal with heavy metals and mercury.

And I really learned so much about the body's own detoxification system and how to enhance it. And I think that we have a real ability to optimize our body's own detoxification system and how to enhance it um and i think that we have a real ability to optimize our body's own capacity to get rid of stuff and the truth is we are all exposed to high levels of environmental toxins there's 80 000 new chemicals uh on the market and they have all different effects on us but heavy metals are real and mercury is real mercury comes from multi-efficient fillings you know we call them silver fillings but they're actually um mercury over half of the content is mercury and that gets absorbed over time if you have a lot of fillings it definitely correlates with body burden and mercury fish is that you know big big source uh coal burning

plants if you live near pollution cement plants that can be a source if there's air pollution and uh you know big fish and i think um we really can change the way we we sort of eat to actually reduce our mercury exposure and then we can enhance our body's own detoxification system so you know the way i think about it is that they're like basically four or five processes that have to work in the body for you to get rid of the metals and the first one is to actually you know bind them and and kind of activate the the mercury removal from the tissues and this is usually with a chelating agent something like dmsa which is a drug drug that used is used to chelate heavy metals there are other compounds that will help with this like zinc which activates an enzyme called metallothionine, which is your body's own built-in enzyme that is in every cell to help it get rid of metals and toxins. There's also various compounds like selenium and other things will help with metal detoxification.

But you need to first mobilize the mercury. And then you need to increase your circulation to help it move out of your cells and tissues into your liver to be ready to detoxify. And that's through things like exercise, things that enhance limb circulation, saunas, massage, you know, just moving it through your system. I think that's really important. And saunas are a really key way, not just because of the increased circulation, but they also help with the excretion through the skin so forth and then you want to activate your detoxification pathways so this is a really critical part you have many many different pathways for detoxification you optimize these especially sulfation methylation this is a very key cycle two cycles that are interconnected that

produce glutathione and which are really important for binding to the metals glutathione is is basically made from glutamine glycine and cysteine three amino acids that you can supplement with or you can take in a steel cysteine or you can take herbs like milk thistle or you can take lipoic acid you can take whey protein all these things increase the the glutathione content in the body, which is often depleted with mercury. So you need the right protein, amino acids, detoxify. You need the right B vitamins, B12, folate, B6 for this methylation and

sulfation cycle. You need the right raw materials to support glutathione production. You need all those things. You need the right foods that help also activate these pathways so the whole broccoli family cruciferous vegetable family broccoli collards kale cabbage brussels sprouts all those contain compounds called glucosinolates sulforaphane and indoles all that activate um detoxification particularly phase two detoxification and glutathione production, which is basically a sticky substance like fly paper, which the mercury binds to and is excreted. So you need to make sure you're

activating all those pathways in your liver. And there are many other supplements that can help, like inositol cysteine, lipoic acid, selenium, zinc, and all the B vitamins and so forth. So there's a lot of stuff we can do therapeutically. And then once you've got it out of your liver processing, you need to increase the excretion. So you need to make sure your bowels are moving. There's fiber content in your diet. There's binders that you can use like silica and alginates

and other things to help bind the metals to get rid of them. You also need increased hydration and move you know fluids through your body so it's immobilization it's increasing circulation it's activating detoxification and it's increasing elimination and so if you don't do it that way if you don't if and if you don't do it smartly you can actually get quite ill from from trying to detoxify because you will maybe mobilize it, but you won't excrete it. But if done slowly and steadily over time, you can really drop metal levels and it has huge implications for health.

I mean, for me, it's solved my chronic fatigue syndrome, my gut issues, my autoimmune issues, and all sorts of other cognitive issues that I had. And it really fixed a lot of that. So I've treated people with heavy metal issues for decades. And it's one of the most powerful things when you find someone who's got a heavy metal issue, then you actually can get rid of it. And it actually has a powerful, you know, effect on your overall health. Yeah, that's super helpful. Thanks, Dr. Hyman. Darcy, over to you for the next question. Yeah, for sure. So the next question is kind of related to almost what we were talking about a little bit, but really it's just about alcohol flush. And if when you get that and maybe what it is in the first place, is that possibly related to other food intolerances or, you know, what causes alcohol flush?

Well, alcohol is something that's metabolized in the liver by an enzyme called alcohol dehydrogenase. And there are certain variations in the population that cause it to move more slowly. And so when you are consuming alcohol alcohol you don't detoxify it well for example a lot of asians are having a sluggish enzyme for alcohol dehydrogenase and then they get the flushing and the red face and all that you've probably seen that um that that's that's that's important and there's really kind of no way to really jack that up very well i think that it's really about avoiding alcohol or minimizing it if you have this particular problem. There are many other pathways in the liver that allow to other food sensitivities and reactions.

They're not so much related to alcohol, but things like sulfite sensitivity, for example, is really common where people have sulfites and they get like a rash or they get, you know, mouth stuff or they get like feeling crappy and there's a lot of sulfites in our food from you know salad bars to um preservatives that is used in food like dried fruit and so forth so people can have sulfite sensitivities um that are that are often treated with increased selenium and manganese and other nutrients to help some of these detox pathways we just talked about so i mean they're not exactly related, but it's just all about detoxification. Yeah, for sure. Thank you for that. And over to you, Herschel. So our next question is about the microbiome of toddlers and children. So what is

the best way to improve their microbiome? Well, first is to have the health of the mother be a priority. And that's really important. The microbiome of the baby is governed by the microbiome of the mother. And when it's delivered to the vaginal canal, it kind of eats basically the vaginal fluids, swallows them, and then that starts to populate the microbiome, which is sterile in the gut and the uterus. The problem is many women have depleted microbiomes themselves. Many women, probably most people, are not antibiotic virgins. And so we've all probably had antibiotics at some point in our life. And that causes a decimation of a really important keystone species called bifidobacterium infantis and that particularly bacteria is like the

cornerstone of building immune health in the gut of a baby really really important and so a lot of women are don't even have it even if they give vaginal birth if you have a c-section that's a problem because you're not going through the vaginal canal so and then babies are often given formula which tend to foster the growth of bad bacteria in the gut um as opposed to breast milk which breast milk has like uh like i think it's 25 of its calories is not even uh digestible by the baby and so the question what, what is that? It's oligosaccharides that are food for the healthy bacteria, particularly for the bifidobacterium infantis.

And so we have a double problem. We may be not breastfeeding as much. We may not have the bacteria in there. And so a lot of kids have immune issues, allergies, eczema, asthma, and it's all related to changes in damage to the gut microbiome. So there is actually a company that has developed a product called Invevo, which is a supplemental bifidobacterium infantis, which you can take as a supplement.

The baby can take it, the mother can take it, but you can literally put on the breast and then breast suck it off or they can mix it on water, put in a bottle of something and it's easy to give the baby. They put on your finger and they'll suck it off. And that actually is a very important strategy for establishing a healthier microbiome. Now most somebody take a probiotic as an adult, you don't colonize, you don't sort of, they kind of work like tourists they sort of change the environment in there temporarily like you know the economy has changed when the tourists

come by but basically it doesn't sort of set up house uh whereas bifidobacterium infantis when the baby's young can set up house and have a lifelong benefit from taking it for you know three six months a year when they're a baby So I highly encourage pregnant women to take it and for their babies to take it. And I think it's sort of probably should be universal given how widespread this phenomenon is we call newborn gut deficiency. Thank you. Super helpful. I know many members on our team have used that in fact for um their their children

so thanks for that darcy over to you all right the next question um is are there any tests or considerations that can help individuals with muscle twitching yeah for sure so uh muscle twitching with eye twitching muscle cramps twitches in your muscles i mean it's most likely magnesium deficiency um magnesium is what keeps your muscles relaxed it it's actually what we use in medicine to treat you know constipation arrhythmias hypertension seizures like anything that's kind of really irritable and twitchy uh we use magnesium as a relaxation mineral. And it's super important. So you can take magnesium, you know, three, four, 600 milligrams at night. Magnesium glycinate if you're not constipated, magnesium citrate if you tend to

be more sluggish in your bowels. And you can just take that. That usually takes care of it. Sometimes it's something else. Sometimes it can be something more serious, like a neurological problem, whether it's a nerve compression from a disc or whether it's ALS or something. So there are other more serious problems that can be causing muscle twitching, but usually it's just run-of-the-mill magnesium deficiency. And then staying hydrated, upping your electrolytes, really important. So I usually, you know, there's some people believe you should never drink water without electrolytes. I obviously do, but I think, you know, having electrolytes on regular basis key. So for example, now every morning I drink a liter of water with a quart

of water, let's say with electrolytes in it. First thing I do in the morning. I mean, after I go pee. Yeah, that's so helpful. And actually on our, one of our recent team calls we were talking about just um in honor of your new book that just came out young forever we were talking about what longevity hacks that we've all personally implemented and the top one that kept coming up over and over was a hydration challenge where they started their day exactly like that where they'd start off with a liter of water with electrolytes. And that was, um, most of our team was practicing that and it's just so helpful. Yeah. And over to Herschel. Yeah. It's definitely something that, um, many of us use on our team and notice a huge difference on just in that, you know, simple drinking water in the morning

with electrolytes. So super helpful. Um, So our next question is about stem cell treatment. And what are the pros and cons of stem cell treatment? And can it help individuals with brain function or nerve damage? Great question. So we're at the beginning of our understanding of how to use stem cells in medicine. And there's a lot of research going on all around the world about this. So whether it's just orthopedic injuries or whether she's for dealing with chronic illnesses or autoimmunity issues or whether they're doing neurologic problems like alzheimer's parkinson's i think

i think it's very very promising the problem with stem cells is they're hard to get and they're expensive and they're not approved for everything yet so i I think the key is, I mean, if you can afford it, worth trying, but the good news is that the body has its own stem cells. And that a lot of the things that I talk about in young forever are ways to activate your body's own stem cells and to activate your body's own healing system. So if you can afford it, great. But, uh, you know, I think it's, it's out of reach for most people. I mean, and, and the problem in America is you can afford it, great. But I think it's out of reach for most people. I mean, and the problem in America is you can't actually harvest them and grow them. You can only harvest them, which means you get a certain number and there's a certain

amount, which is not necessarily enough to be therapeutic. So you kind of have to go to Panama or Cayman Islands or Costa Rica or somewhere like that to actually go and be able to grow stem cells that were your own, for example, or get umbilical or placental stem cells. So it's kind of a great question, but I think they're very promising for many, many things. And I think they're going to be a key part of medicine, but right now we're still kind of early in that stage. Well, I hope you enjoyed that teaser of exclusive content that you get every single month with Dr. Hyman Plus. If you want to listen to the full episode and

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