Speaker 1:
Welcome to the Dr. Gundry Podcast, where Dr. Steven Gundry shares his groundbreaking research from over 25 years of treating patients with diet and lifestyle changes alone. Dr. Gundry and other wellness experts offer inspiring stories, the latest scientific advancements and practical tips to empower you to take control of your health and live a long, happy life.
Dr. Steven Gundry:
Well, it’s that time of year again when weekly we hear of a virus of the week. Those of you who have school-aged children know the fun of your child bringing home the bug of the week and passing it on to you. In the medical field, we call children fomites, and that basically means a vector for disease transmission, and it’s that time of year.
Fun fact, any guess why viruses are so prevalent in the winter months rather than in the summer months? It’s because sunlight basically disappears for five or six months, and our vitamin D levels plummet. And I’ve talked on previous podcasts about the importance of vitamin D in fighting viral infections, among other things. So the next time you catch a cold, think about the reason you’re more susceptible is in fact your vitamin D level’s probably low.
Now, when you catch a cold or develop a sore throat, there are alternatives. Now most of us are running to the drugstore, and you probably have a bottle of NyQuil or some antihistamine available to you. If you haven’t tried already, you’ll know that trying to purchase an over-the-counter antihistamine is a very interesting experience because now they are behind the pharmacist, and you will more than likely have to show your driver’s license, and perhaps have three people stand up for your fine credibility as a human being. I’m just joking.
The reason for that is, of course, that most antihistamines can be easily manufactured into methamphetamines. I’ll leave it at there. But rather than reaching for those things, there’s a lot of natural alternatives that will be better for you and work just as well, if not better. Just remember that products like cough suppressants or even cough lozenges usually contain large amounts of sugar. Now, let’s be clear, sugar is very soothing to a sore throat, and so the first temptation is, “Oh, my throat feels a lot better when I down that swallow of”… We’ll pick on Nyquil, but I’m not picking on them specifically.
But we have to realize that sugar is one of the best ways to suppress the function of our immune system that anyone has ever discovered. And I’ve mentioned already that they’re a very famous study in human beings, having human beings drink an eight ounce glass of orange juice and then looking at the function of their white blood cells, whether their white blood cell can actually eat bacteria or viruses, and the white blood cell function was suppressed for about six hours following that glass of orange juice.
So don’t go reaching for the orange juice, don’t go reaching for the syrupy, sugar, cold relief medicines. That’s kind of the best way to make that cold last longer, which is not exactly what you want. There are some really good topical products out there that I’m quite fond of. The first one is called Chloraseptic. It’s usually available as a spray, but they also make lozenges. But be careful, you have to look for the sugar content. Now, I used to be a professional singer in college, and I can tell you from personal experience that we always traveled with Chloraseptic because it is an actual really good topical anesthetic for a sore throat, and we had very good use for it.
But there are other very good anti-inflammatory, anti-histamine products. One of my favorites is Quercetin, sometimes pronounced cur-see-ton. This is kind of a yellow substance that’s very common in the peels of apples in onions and in the white pith of citrus. Quercetin has been shown to be a very effective anti-histamine, with the benefit is, unlike other anti-histamines, it does not make you sleepy. The other very potent anti-histamine that’s a natural compound is rosemary. So you could chew rosemary leaves. They are certainly pungent and be just like the Acciarolis in the south of Italy, who have more people over the age of 100 years of age than any town in the world.
In fact, about 30% of the population is 100 years or over. And the experience with those people is that one of the factors in their longevity is the fact that they cook with rosemary and chew rosemary throughout day. Now, you don’t have to chew rosemary, you can actually buy rosemary capsules. So I personally take quercetin and rosemary whenever I want relief of a runny nose, and it works. Rosemary and quercetin are both antimicrobial, which may benefit as well. Now there are antioxidants that support immune health. Black cumin oil or black seed oil is getting a lot of popularity recently, and it is a useful way of getting antibacterial antiviral compounds into you. It’s traditionally been used to fight respiratory infection. Similarly, oregano oil, oregano oil has numerous antimicrobial properties, and I use oregano oil in some of my patients who develop parasitic infections in their gut ,and there’s good evidence of its effectiveness.
Now, however, both of these compounds, black seed oil and oregano oil are very potent antimicrobial agents. That means they do kill bacteria as well as parasites and viruses. And you got to be careful about chronically taking these because yes, they’re very effective in a short term, but long-term use may begin to compromise your own microbiome, so use them with a short period of time in mind. Finally, you’ve probably seen sambucus or black currant supplements. They’re pretty expensive, but they do have vitamin C, and it’s been shown to boost your immune system, and can be very effective against combating colds. So these are just a few of the natural products that are available to you.
Now, what about good, old-fashioned methods? The saltwater gargle. Back in the dark ages when I was a kid, that’s about all we had. And quite frankly, saltwater gargles work. What you do is you put about a teaspoon of salt into warm water and you gargle it, and you do that several times a day.
The salt has many interesting properties. First of all, warm saltwater absolutely positively soothes your throat, but saltwater salt in particular has actually very impressive antibacterial property. You may recall or may know that salt was one of the original preservatives for meat or even for vegetables, and that’s because of the antibacterial properties that salt has. The Japanese use huge amounts of salt in pickling their vegetables, in preserving their meats and salt. Lots of salt has some really bad features, but gargling with salt water has absolutely stood the test of time. Salt water can also thin mucus, and as you know, much of the mischief of getting cold or sore throat is actually from that thick mucus dripping down the back of your throat from your nose, and helping to break up mucus is one of the benefits of salt and salt water gargles. So it’s an oldie but a goodie, and it’s time to break it out.
Now, there are a number of sugar-free lozenges. First of all, stay away from any of the lozenges that have sugar, and most of them do. Again, sugar feels soothing, but the last thing you want when you have either a bacterial infection or a viral infection is to consume extra sugar. In fact, just the opposite. There are some sugar-free lozenges. Some of them are herbal-based, some of them are menthol or eucalyptus-based. There actually are some published studies that menthol actually does significantly reduce throat discomfort and provide symptomatic relief. So don’t be afraid of a eucalyptus or menthol-based lozenge, but please look for sugar-free.
Now, as you know, sugar-free does not necessarily mean safe. And I like you to look for the words sucralose or Splenda, that’s a no-no. Splenda actually really reduces the microbiome diversity. Studies out of Duke a number of years ago said that one packet of sucralose is enough to wipe out 50% of your bacteria in your gut. There are definitely better alternatives, and they’re getting better with every passing year. There are now some allulose-based lozenges. There’s certainly lozenges with stevia available. Some of the erythritol and/or maltitol, xylitol lozenges are safe for short-term use. So all of these are options. The other nice thing about lozenges, which may not be apparent, but these things are slowly dissolved in your mouth. And you produce a lot of saliva during that process, and saliva in itself is very soothing to the throat. And so that’s another really good option.
Now finally, hot tea. Now hot tea plus a little bit of honey is a great way to soothe your throat. Tea has a large number of polyphenols, tea has theanine and a little bit of caffeine, but tea has been shown to really soothe the throat. Now what I don’t want you to do is put tablespoon after tablespoon after tablespoon in honey thinking if a little is good, more is better.
Once again, honey is sugar. And there are some studies, particularly with manuka honey from Australia, showing that that particular honey does have antibacterial property. But again, more is not necessarily better. Now luckily, Manuka honey is available in many stores. It’s often in Trader Joe’s, so a teaspoon of Manuka honey in hot tea is a great way, but don’t dump the jar in.
Ginger and turmeric tea also have analgesic effects. That means it soothes your throat. Finally, drinking tea is a way to stay hydrated, and warm tea is a way of getting lots more water into you. And the more hydration you have, once again, the more thinner that mucus becomes, and the easier it is to get rid of it, cough it up. So these are all great, natural alternatives to going to the drug store and getting that syrupy stuff that I know you’re going to go look for, and that you see on the TV all the time. Try to stay away from that. It’s only going to prolong your misery, not shorten it.
It’s that time of year again where people are getting sore throats, and they’re getting swollen tonsils. And you may in fact be told you have tonsillitis or strep throat. So today we’re going to talk about tonsils. Now, I think tonsils are maybe one of my favorite subjects. What the heck are tonsils, and why do we care about them?
I like to draw a picture for my patients of a harbor with a fort on either side of the harbor, at the entrance to the harbor. And those fortresses at the entrance to the harbor are actually your tonsils. Your tonsils are the first bastion of your immune system, of your white blood cells that encounter basically everything you swallow, or for that matter breathe, into your body. So they are the first line of defense against these, and the first alert system that something potentially bad is on the way.
And one of the things that impressed me early on in my new career is that a great number of my patients with autoimmune diseases with lectin intolerance had their tonsils removed at an early age. Or at the very least, were treated multiple, multiple times for tonsillitis, usually with antibiotics. So I became very impressed that on a history, whenever they said, “I don’t have my tonsils,” I would almost always predict that we’d find some mischief in terms of what they could tolerate as foods, or that we’d probably find an autoimmune disease. And quite amazingly, that prediction almost always comes true. So what is it about the tonsils?
First of all, realize that if there is a war going on at the entrance to your harbor, if there’s a battle going on, that does not necessarily mean that there is a battle with bacteria. Because bacteria are in your mouth, we now know that we have a rather diverse oral microbiome. And fun fact, a huge number of the bacteria that are normal in our mouth are streptococcus. Now, I mentioned that because most of the streptococcus in our mouth are perfectly fine. They’re supposed to be there, and they not only don’t do us any harm, but they’re part of our oral flora.
But so many of my patients and so many doctors look at somebody’s tonsils and they’re red and they go, “Oh my gosh, you have strep throat.” And some of them may even take a swab or a culture and strep grows out and they go, “Yep, you have strep throat. Here’s some antibiotics.”
Well, let me tell you an interesting story, when I was a medical student back in the dark ages at the Medical College of Georgia, we had the benefit of rotating through practitioners’ offices, even first or second year of medical school.
And I rotated through a pediatrician’s office, and of course almost every kid in there was in there with a cold or a sore throat or an ear infection, and the doctor would swab the kid’s throat and put it on a Petri dish and set it to culture, and then the nurse would hand the mother a prescription for antibiotics and a decongestant. And after a couple of days of watching this, I said, “Oh yeah, you just took a throat culture. It’s going to take 48 hours for that throat culture to grow out. And even then we’ll have to find out if you have the bad kind of streptococcus, beta hemolytic strep. Why did you give her antibiotics before you knew?” And he kind of looked at me like, “Sonny, let me explain something to you. The kid, no matter what I do, will most likely get better, but I’ve got to give mother something to do, and this is something for the mom to do.”
And I’m going, “Yeah, but you don’t even know if he has a bacterial infection.” And he shrugged and he says, “If I don’t give her that, something to do, she’ll go down the block and get it from my competitor, who’ll be more than happy to give it to her.” So that’s the way it is. Welcome to medicine.
That had a really interesting effect on me, and the point of all this is, most of the things that turn your tonsils red are not beta hemolytic strep. Yes, you may culture strep when you swab somebody’s tonsils, but 9 times out of 10, it is not beta hemolytic strep. In fact, beta hemolytic strep tonsillitis has a very interesting appearance, and I won’t go into that today. So just because you had a throat culture or just because the doctor says, “Oh, that looks like strep throat,” buyer beware.
Finally, much of the inflammation of tonsils in my experience has come from people interacting with lectins or casein A1 in American milk, not from anything else. That’s the problem with tonsils and tonsillitis. Now, luckily, I had a lot of tonsillitis, and I can’t believe the number of times I was told I had strep throat. Looking back, I probably didn’t have strep throat, or I may have had streptococcus on my tonsils, but it wasn’t the bad kind.
Luckily for me, my parents persevered even though the doctors wanted to take my tonsils out, because they were always inflamed and always very big. But they were always inflamed and always very big because I personally am quite lectin intolerant, and the battle was ongoing there. So please, if you have kids, number one, don’t start antibiotics until you actually have a culture that says beta-hemolytic strep. That’s the only reason you would need to take antibiotics, and it’s incredibly rare, and you can find it on a culture.
So as I was in medical school still with my tonsils, I had interesting big white, for lack of a better word, pebbles that would develop in my tonsils, and they would appear on the outside of my tonsil, and occasionally I kind of cough them up and spit them out, and they smelled really bad. In medical school, I was taught that these are called tonsilliths. I’m lisping tonsilliths, and that nobody knew what they were.
When I started reading the literature of lectins and our defense system against lectins, it turns out that tonsilliths are extremely common in people who are sensitive to lectin. And, if you will, they’re basically the dead bodies of the soldiers of the white cells who have been fighting this battle. And to this day, I am pleased that quite a number of my patients had tonsilliths, and that remarkably, those tonsilliths disappeared when they started lectin-free or lectin-like diet. I haven’t had tonsilliths in over 30 years, because there’s no more battle occurring at my tonsils.
So if you have something like that, rest assured it’s just another sign that these fortresses guarding your harbor are hard at work, and you ought to get rid of the things that they’re battling. Now, is there a situation where you have to remove tonsils? Yes, of course there is. Some kids get such large tonsils and adenoids, which is the corresponding tissue at the back of our nose, that they literally can’t breathe properly. That’s a decision between you and your practitioners.
But one of the things I urge my patients who have kids with big tonsils is first and foremost, put them on a lectin-free diet, and you’d be shocked how many of them have saved their kids’ tonsils and adenoids, because they’re no longer battling the troublemakers. And that includes American milk products. Let me be clear about that. And it is a lectin-like substance that is one of the troublemakers in kids who have big tonsils and adenoids, and that’s an easy thing to fix.
Today we’re going to dive into a topic that affects millions, yes millions, toenail fungus. Now I’m here to clear the air and reveal some surprising myths behind this stubborn condition. But before we jump, make sure you subscribe if you’re watching on YouTube, or follow if you’re listening to the podcast. Okay, let’s get started. How about myth number one?
Myth number one, it’s not the same as athlete’s foot. Wrong, actually, it’s exactly the same as athlete’s foot. It’s exactly the same as crotch rot, and this is caused by the same fungus. That’s the first thing I want you to understand. Just like athlete’s foot, toenail fungus is ubiquitous, and it’s generally not a cause for concern. It develops first on your feet and it can cause, as anyone knows, itching, burning, stinging redness, and you don’t have to be an athlete to get athlete’s foot.
Myth number two, fungus loves sugar. Now, many people believe that toenail fungus or athlete’s foot fungus feeds off of sugar, and they do whatever they can to avoid sugar to try and get rid of it wrong. It turns out that this fungus is not after the sugar in your skin or your toenail. It’s actually after carotene, which is a protein found in hair, nails, and skin, not sugar. And avoiding all the sugar in the world is not going to change whether or not you’re going to get toenail fungus, or whether you’re going to get rid of it.
Now, that’s kind of like myth number three. Fungus on the feet is caused by a gut problem. Now, some people think that if you have fungus on your feet or your nails, it must be caused by a growth of fungus on the inside of you. Now, I’m the first to say that all disease begins in the gut, but this is simply not the case for athlete’s foot or toenail fungus. It really, unfortunately, has nothing to do with your gut, and it’s not a direct sign of an imbalance gut or any other issue in your gut.
However, there is some evidence that people who develop fungal infections in their feet or nails may have an immune system that is not good at recognizing fungal elements as mischievous. And there’s a lot more research going into this. So it’s not an overgrowth of candida in your gut, it’s not an overgrowth of mold in your gut. It’s not black mold growing in your shower. This is a fungus that’s ubiquitous, that’s growing on your feet.
Myth number four, you’re at risk if you’ve had your spleen removed. Now, there’s a bit of truth to this, but not what you think. We know that people who’ve had a splenectomy for various reasons, most of the time from blunt trauma from an auto accident or a fall, and I’ve taken out some spleens in my career, we know that people who lack a spleen are more susceptible to bacterial infections.
And let’s be clear, a fungus is not a bacteria. They’re totally unrelated. So the proviso is that if you’ve had your spleen removed, you are more at risk from bacterial infections such as, for instance, pneumococcal pneumonia. And that’s why in people who we’ve removed their spleen, we use pneumococcal vaccines, among other things, for these people, because they’re at increased risk.
Myth number five, treatments like Vicks VapoRub or brushing your toes with baking soda will do the trick. Wrong. I’ve seen these treatments online, and let me be the first to tell you they’re not going to work. And if they have any effect, the effect is short-lived. Here’s the bad news. This is a very, very, very difficult fungus to get rid of long-term. In fact, athlete’s foot in general is very resistant to treatment, even the prescriptions given by a doctor.
Now, I want to talk about these antifungal prescriptions for a moment. Yes, they will kill off the fungus in your nail if you take them long enough, but that treatment often is a year or more. And here’s the bad news. I personally have done two liver transplants in patients who were taking these oral antifungal medicines, and you might be one of the unlucky ones where this medication literally kills your liver. And there’s a black box warning on these things, and I’ve seen it in several patients in my own practice now, who unwittingly were put on these oral antifungal medications for their toenail fungus, and within a month, I immediately saw their liver enzymes going up, indicating that their liver was already being damaged. So please, please, please do not be talked into an oral antifungal medication.
Now, there are a lot of topical treatments as well. There are a number of effective anti-fungal athlete foot treatments. Each one works a little bit differently, and interestingly enough, each individual seems to have one or two of these compounds that are more effective than a different compound. So it’s kind of a trial and error to see which one works. But remember, just because it works topically on your athlete’s foot doesn’t mean it’s going to work deep inside your nail bed.
These infections actually start deep inside the nail bed, and that’s where the problem lies. These topical treatments just can’t get there. Finally, a few years ago, laser therapy for toenail fungus was a big deal. And yes, laser therapy will destroy toenail fungus, but sadly, I’ve seen so many of my patients, as the new nail grows out, the fungal infection comes back. So yes, the lasers will work, but more than likely that infection will come back because it is so deep in the nail bed. Okay, so what can you do?
First of all, don’t panic. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with you. This is everywhere. You wouldn’t believe how common it is in people I see every day. It was almost always in every one of my patients who I did heart surgery on. So it’s everywhere, we just don’t talk about it very much. Just remember, it is highly contagious. So you have to take caution when you’re at the gym doing yoga. Be careful about being barefoot on shared yoga mats, and taking a shower at the gym, and using equipment barefoot. Also, remember that these funguses thrive in warm, moist locations. So it sounds obvious, but the more you can keep your feet dry and clean, the better off you are long-term. Finally, if these things really bother you, just remember that the topical treatments for athletes foot will be effective for you, but don’t hold out hope that they’re really going to have much effect, if any, on your actual toenail fungus.
Speaker 1:
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