Welcome to Be HEALTHistic: Body By Nature

Dr. Steve Sinatra: We've all experienced it. You go to a doctor's office, they sit with you for five minutes and then write you another prescription. Something is seriously wrong with healthcare in America. But what can you do about it? Today we're going to be talking about why it's so important to take back control that we've relinquished to doctors. We'll help you get back in the driver's seat of your own health journey. Hi, I'm Dr. Steve Sinatra, and I'm with my son, Dr. Drew Sinatra.

Dr. Drew Sinatra: Hey, folks, welcome to Be Healthistic.

NARRATOR: Welcome to Be Healthistic, the podcast that is more than just health and wellness information. It's here to help you explore your options across traditional and natural medicine so that you can make informed decisions for you and your family. Health isn't a one-size-fits-all approach. Everyone has their own needs to Be Healthistic. This podcast illuminates the whole story about holistic health by providing access to the expertise of Doctors Steve and Drew Sinatra, who together have decades of integrative health experience. They'll share with you the best that traditional and modern medicine has to offer, so that you could be more productive and more proactive in managing your overall health. Be Healthistic is powered by our friends at Healthy Directions. Now let's join our hosts.

Dr. Drew Sinatra: Hi, folks. Before we launch into our discussion today, I wanted to encourage you to be a proactive member of our Be Healthistic community. If you like what you hear today, and you want to listen to future conversations on all things integrative and holistic health, subscribe to our podcast on Apple Podcasts or wherever you download your favorite podcasts. Also check out and subscribe to our YouTube channel, which will feature video versions of our episodes plus video extras you won't want to miss. And finally we have more with me, Dr. Drew Sinatra, my dad, Dr. Stephen Sinatra and other Healthy Directions experts as well as a robust library of health and wellness content over on the Healthy Directions site. So visit HealthyDirections.com to explore our database of well researched content and information. And of course, you can always follow us on our social media channels.

Dr. Steve Sinatra: You know, Drew, sometimes the greatest moments occur in the middle of the night, where it can have an incredible aspect on your own life. I'll never forget this story. I admitted a gentleman through the emergency room. It was about 4 o'clock in the morning. And I go upstairs to the CCU, and I meet his internist up there. He came in as well, and we had just sent this guy home six months ago. And he came back through the ER, I call it revolving-door medicine, with the exact same symptoms as before. Of course we treated him with conventional methodologies. We used pharmaceutical drugs and things like that, but he was back again. Something has got to give. I mean at that point, the internist and I looked at one another, and we said, "We got to do something different." And that's one of the times when I realized how important complimentary or preventative medicine is. It's so vitally important, especially when you're dealing with acute cardiac situations or emergencies.

Dr. Drew Sinatra: Well that's really one of the reasons why I became a naturopathic doctor, is I wanted to do something differently with my health. Because as a kid, being really sick, being chronically ill, being on all these medications, and the doctors back then didn't really offer me any solutions. And I had no roadmap, I had nowhere to go, so I had to really pave my own way. And that's partly why I went to naturopathic medical school, so that I could learn different modalities, different procedures, learn about exercise and mind-body medicine and good nutrition and targeted nutraceuticals to really get my body and my mind in better working order. And I feel so blessed today, being a naturopathic doctor, because when I see a patient for the first time, I've got 60 minutes to hear their story, to be in front of them, to dig deep into their health history and to really be the detective that I have to be to uncover and unravel just the complexities of what's going on for this person and to offer them solutions. And when they come back to see me again, I've got 30 minutes to talk to them instead of five to 10 minutes, which conventional doctors have, which is just not enough time to connect with the patient in front of you and to help them. I feel blessed.

Dr. Steve Sinatra: So Drew, a lot of people have asked me, why did I choose cardiology, or even more so why I became a conventional cardiologist in recovery. And I'll never forget it. I was in my office, and I had patients that were waiting, and my secretary was all nervous, because the waiting time was 20 to 30 minutes. And all of a sudden, a patient comes in, and he said I had to speak to this Jacob Rince, because he was managing his blood pressure, and I had to talk to him. He was a Dutch chemist, and he got a PhD. So anyway, I get on the phone, and I'm listening to this guy. He's 91 years old, and he's witty and erudite and smart. And I'm going, my gosh, if I ever made it to 91, I would like to be just like this guy. He said to me, "Hey, doc, I corrected my own heart. I didn't need bypass surgery. I did it with nutrition."

I had maybe 30 minutes of nutrition in my entire training. He's talking to me about magnesium and vitamin E and phosphatidylcholine and phosphatidylserine. I didn't even know what he was talking about. It was absolutely amazing, and then I get off the phone, and I'm saying he's 91. He corrected his own heart situation. He's sharp as a tack. I got to be just like him. That's when I became a conventional cardiologist in recovery.

Dr. Drew Sinatra: Great story, Dad.

Dr. Steve Sinatra: Amazing story, isn't it?

Dr. Drew Sinatra: That is.

Dr. Steve Sinatra: Now your story is interesting too, because I invited you to the hospital, remember?

Dr. Drew Sinatra: Yeah, well my story even goes back a little further. I mean as a kid I was a really sick kid. So I had asthma. I had allergies from a young age, and the doctors I went to, they just put me on medication. So I was on Prednisone. I was on the Albuterol inhalers, steroid inhalers, and the problem I had back then was that I thought being sick was normal. I thought being symptomatic was something that everyone had to kind of go through, and symptoms were normal. So I remember walking into that allergist's office. Remember him?

Dr. Steve Sinatra: I had fights with him, yeah.

Dr. Drew Sinatra: He was a good man, but he never really addressed the underlying cause of why I was sick. But I remember looking around, looking at all these sick kids, and I said to myself, "I don't want to be like this anymore. I don't want to be this sick kid anymore." So I made some changes at that point, really decided that I wanted to strive towards health and not just be in this disease state in which I was. So yes, fast forward to 16 or 17 years old, and I'm listening to my father speak on statins in a hospital. So I remember looking around at all the doctors, and they looked unhealthy to me. They looked unhappy. They didn't want to be there, and then you're up at the top of the stage there talking about statin medications, and there was just this massive fight going on between the doctors.

And I really decided at that point I didn't want to become a conventional medical doctor. I wanted to become a naturopathic doctor. I wanted more integrated medicine. I wanted to really understand the cause of illness. I really wanted to use more than just pharmaceuticals to help people. I wanted to use diet. I wanted to use herbal medicines. I wanted to use physical medicine, counseling, everything that goes into treating someone. I didn't want to be a conventional medical doctor who just really treated symptoms and diseases. I really wanted to promote health, to really understand the mechanisms behind good, sound health.

Dr. Steve Sinatra: I just remember that you were so enthusiastic that you even said to me, "Dad, can I come to your office and just shadow you?" And this was before you'd made that decision of naturopathic medicine. You just wanted to see what I was doing in my everyday life. And what was that like for you, sitting in my office when I was talking to patients?

Dr. Drew Sinatra: Those were the days. They really were, because I saw you in your prime with patients. I saw you listening to their stories, spending the time to sit down, look them eye to eye and listen to their story for a solid 10, 15, 20, sometimes even 30 minutes. I remember you never pressured them. There was never this time crunch. You sat and listened, and that was what the medicine was all about.

Dr. Steve Sinatra: You're right.

Dr. Drew Sinatra: Right, just listening to their story was huge.

Dr. Steve Sinatra: I got the universal chill on that one, the angelic chill. Yeah, I think the most powerful aspect of being a healer is to listen to that person, try to connect with them on an energetic level and try to get in touch with their struggle. Look, we all have struggles. We all have our issues in life. There's no doubt about it. But if another person understands your struggle, and you can do a dance with them, then miracles can happen, and I really believe that. I have to tell you, for me becoming a psychotherapist was the icing on the cake about how to deal with the suffering of patients. And if you can get into a patient's psyche, and if that patient understands that you understand their sufferings and their struggles, that's when doctoring becomes very good, and that's what you're doing now.

Dr. Drew Sinatra: Yeah, I couldn't agree more, because the problem today is that you walk into a doctor's office, and you've got five, 10 minutes max to talk about why you're there.

Dr. Steve Sinatra: Is that's what it's like for you as-

Dr. Drew Sinatra: No, not like for me. This is more like conventional medicine, just the way insurance is set up and all that. So how do you get your message across? How do you get your story across? How do you tell why you're there in a matter of five to 10 minutes? You don't have that time. You don't have that luxury. So unfortunately you walk in, and you tell them, "Well I've got high blood pressure. What can you do for me? What kind of pill can you give me?" Instead of, "I've got high blood pressure," well, tell me about why you have high blood pressure. Why is that? What kind of stress do you have going on in your life? What's your diet like? What are your relationships like? That's the kind of work that you and I do, and that's so valuable to people, because patients need time. They really need time to spend with their doctor. And unfortunately the system is just not set up that way.

Dr. Steve Sinatra: You're absolutely right.

Dr. Drew Sinatra: Dad, let's talk about integrative medicine, which is the medicine that you and I both practice. Now I look at conventional medicine, and I think there is no better system out there for acute emergency care. Would you agree?

Dr. Steve Sinatra: Absolutely.

Dr. Drew Sinatra: So you break your leg, you break your arm, whatever it is, you go to the hospital, you go to urgent care, and you get patched up.

Dr. Steve Sinatra: With a heart attack, you have an arrhythmia, you want pharmaceutical drugs. You need bypass surgery, you've got to call a surgeon. One of the best things about conventional medicine is acute cardiological care. I mean look, arrhythmias can be deadly. You have to use pharmaceutical drugs. Blood pressures that soar, people can get strokes. I mean this is something that conventional medicine is good at. And when it comes to bypass surgery, if you have refractory chest pain, you need a bypass. So let's face it; conventional medicine has its important attributes, especially when your life is on the line.

Dr. Drew Sinatra: Yeah, and I think the problem arises with chronic disease. You look at conventional medicine right now, and treating chronic disease is not happening properly, in my opinion. We're putting patients on medications for life but not really addressing, well, why do you even have these symptoms in the first place? Really looking at the underlying causes, and I think that's where more the integrative approach comes in, blending more of the natural medicine and conventional medicine, because really the fact of the matter is, we need both systems, right?

Dr. Steve Sinatra: Absolutely.

Dr. Drew Sinatra: We need both systems in order to really achieve optimal health.

Dr. Steve Sinatra: We need to encourage people to use other modalities, that they can become productive without being self-destructive, because there's a lot of side effects to pharmaceutical drugs. Let's face it.

Dr. Drew Sinatra: Yeah, there are, and I think for people listening to this, just know, let's say if you do have diabetes, there's way more options than just taking Metformin or insulin or whatever it is that you're going to be taking. I mean I had a patient recently, she came in with a hemoglobin A1c of 7.9. She's diabetic, hadn't been tested in a long time, but I was confident, because I knew she was motivated to make changes in her life with changing up her diet and exercising and taking some supplements, that I knew we could get that back down into at least the sixes and maybe, if we're lucky in a year from now, perhaps in the fives, the high fives. Now three months later, her hemoglobin A1c dropped down to 6.6, and right now I'm awaiting her latest test results. So we'll see a major drop, and when she saw her primary care doctor, the doctor said, "Well there's an error with the lab. This doesn't make sense. There's no way you could've dropped that that fast." But I had her on a whole program, and she was doing it at 100%. She was extremely motivated to get that blood sugar under control.

Dr. Steve Sinatra: That's why good healers, when they do the stance with their patients, and that word, motivation, is key, because we want to give them the control back. In other words, we want to put them in the driver's seat. So if we can teach our patients certain ways of treating themselves without pharmaceutical drugs and getting their life back, because that's what they really want, they want control of their life without taking drugs, to me that's a key of good, healthy medicine. Dr. Drew Sinatra: This is really why we're offering this podcast to our listeners, because we want you to have the knowledge to be in the driver's seat. So if you've got diabetes, we don't want you to feel like you have to take a medication, that's your only solution. We want to give you all the tools that you need to change your diet up, to make sure you're eating the right fats, to make sure you're eating the right ratio of carbs and proteins, to make sure you're exercising properly, to make sure you've got the right nutraceuticals or supplements on board to help you on that journey.

Dr. Steve Sinatra: That's why you and me have to empower our listeners. Once we empower our listeners with vital information, they can get their life back. Again, we have to be productive without being self-destructive. That's sort of our mantra in this healing series.

Dr. Drew Sinatra: Now Dad, you mentioned being productive without being self-destructive. Now the obvious things are lack of exercise or eating a poor diet, or smoking is a very common one. But what are some of the less common, destructive behaviors that people get into, or obvious?

Dr. Steve Sinatra: Well I think one of the most destructive behaviors is anger. Anger is like driving your car with your breaks on. It's okay to have anger, but if the anger goes into uncontrollable rage, that's not okay, because people do funny things under rage. They lose control of their bodies. As a heart specialist and psychotherapist, I can tell you, one of the best ways of getting rid of anger is to really communicate your anger with somebody. You can talk about it. As a therapist, when I was working with patients in my office, for example, one of the best ways of diffusing anger is to cry. I mean it's unbelievable. Once the crying comes out, and I think crying is one of the best ways of alleviating the heartbreak that we all have, that leads to heart disease, I think the emotions trump everything. And not only in heart health, I mean I think it's health in general, but that's my point of view.

Dr. Drew Sinatra: And working on the emotions can be really challenging. Wouldn't you agree?

Dr. Steve Sinatra: Absolutely.

Dr. Drew Sinatra: I mean you got to work with a psychotherapist. You got to work with someone that really knows how to dig deep into the anger to figure out, well, how do we resolve this? What do you do? Do you do deep breathing? Do you do other exercises to help reduce stress? I mean it's hard to really dive deep into anger, wouldn't you say?

Dr. Steve Sinatra: It is, and people do not want to dig into their emotions. Look, Drew, do you know how many times I have heard people tell me, "Doc, I'll stay in this marriage until it kills me. Doc, this job is killing me." I've seen corporate executives climb the ladder, all of a sudden get an MI, and they're looking at the ceiling in the CCU for five days and nights. I go in and talk to them, and they say to me, "Doc, I'm in the wrong job. I know why I got this heart attack." And even marital situations like I said, I mean these are colloquialisms, but basically they're true. I mean people got to realize that emotionality, in my opinion, trumps all the other risk factors. And I feel that emotional cleansing, and the biggest thing that people need to do is tell the truth, tell the truth about themselves. In my practice as a heart specialist, I've had refractory hypertension. So Drew, you have an understanding of refractory hypertension as a naturopath, right?

Dr. Drew Sinatra: Right, I mean that's hypertension that just does not respond to any other therapy.

Dr. Steve Sinatra: Right, it doesn't respond to drugs, doesn't respond to mind-body. It's one of these situations where you fail as a physician. And believe me, I've had this in my practice, and it's kept me up at night.

Dr. Drew Sinatra: You know, Dad, there's a term out there called alternative medicine, and I just don't like that term, because the medicine that you and I practice is more integrative. It's more preventative, and I think those are more accurate terms, because alternative sounds like there is an alternative to the system. So let's say you and I are eating healthy foods. We're exercising. We're getting out in nature. How is that alternative to pharmaceuticals or surgery? That's primary, in my opinion. That needs to happen first.

Dr. Steve Sinatra: Exactly, it's preventative. I mean it's preventative medicine, let's face it. We can call it complimentary, but it's really preventative. Look Drew, you really said it; the body has the wisdom to heal itself. All we need to do as clinicians is get the person on the road better traveled, so to speak, empower them to fortify their body with natural remedies that can help heal the body. I mean let's talk about it. I mean a non-inflammatory diet, for example, I mean that's key. And we have a future podcast planned about eating the right diet. The second one would be what? What comes to mind?

Dr. Drew Sinatra: Exercise.

Dr. Steve Sinatra: Exercise, great. I mean we can talk about the propellants of exercise. I like mind-body medicine.

Dr. Drew Sinatra: Great, love that component.

Dr. Steve Sinatra: I mean that's my training as a psychotherapist. That's number three. What would be number four?

Dr. Drew Sinatra: Well as a naturopathic doctor, detoxification, something that we all need to be doing every single day, and we'll get more into that later.

Dr. Steve Sinatra: And listen, you know more about that than I do. As a naturopath, you have lived that for years. I mean, I am really excited to have this podcast with you later on, because I think we can empower people. If people detoxify their bodies, they're halfway there.

Dr. Drew Sinatra: Exactly.

Dr. Steve Sinatra: That's halfway to optimum health.

Dr. Drew Sinatra: And also the fact of just being out in nature can be really healing. I mean one of my slogans is nature is the best medicine, and I truly believe that. Being out in nature, immersed in the wilderness, in the woods is healing.

Dr. Steve Sinatra: And the last pillar of healing we should really talk about is targeted nutritional supplements.

Dr. Drew Sinatra: In my practice, I couldn't practice without them. I mean I need to have them, and the reason is because what I do with naturopathic medicine, I'm trying to use the least force necessary, the least invasive modality to help people. And often times starting off with some nutritional support or with it as a supplement that has vitamins and minerals in it, or I may use herbs that may have anti-inflammatory benefits or antiparasitic or antibacterial or anti-yeast qualities and et cetera, because what I'm trying to do is just to support people with using the least force necessary. Because one tenant in medicine that I really believe in is do no harm. And if you start off using basic things like targeted nutritional supplements, you're not going to do any harm. Or at least if you use them appropriately, you won't do any harm.

Dr. Steve Sinatra: That's a great conclusion to the Hippocratic Oath, Drew, “Do no harm.” I love it.

Dr. Drew Sinatra: Okay, folks, so now we're going to switch gears a little and discuss the importance of body by nature. You're tired, you're achy, you just don't feel good, cancer, heart disease, whatever “it is” you've been diagnosed with, guess what? The root cause of all that is inflammation. But what does that really mean?

Dr. Steve Sinatra: We're going to let you in on the secrets of diet and other actions that you can take to have a body by nature.

Dr. Drew Sinatra: Body by nature is really taking a closer look at what we're putting into our bodies, specifically food.

Dr. Steve Sinatra: Right, foods can be healthy, and foods can be inflammatory. I mean look at all the information that's forced it by the foods we put in our body. Look at the amount of sugar we take into our body, Drew.

Dr. Drew Sinatra: Well I think the latest statistics was saying 152 pounds of sugar per year, per American.

Dr. Steve Sinatra: Yeah, I think it was closer to 160, but that's right.

Dr. Drew Sinatra: Maybe it is 160, and that's a high level.

Dr. Steve Sinatra: I mean think about that. And why do we have 100 million diabetics in the country? I mean sugar is one of the things that's in the American diet, and we must, and I would emphasize, we must look at our diet as a way to prevent illness and disease. So a noninflammatory diet, in my mind, is one of the key pillars of healing the human body. So as a naturopath, sugar and the microbiome probably has a particular affinity for your profession. Is that correct to say?

Dr. Drew Sinatra: Yeah, it certainly does. I mean what we talked about earlier is sugar in general in pro inflammatory. And what I see for the gut microbiome is when people consume a lot of sugar, it creates a state called dysbiosis. And dysbiosis just really means there's an imbalance for gut flora. So in other words, it's going to really mess up your gut flora and make it not health promoting for you, but more disease promoting. So I always tell people to get sugar out of their diets, whether that is in the form of soda or other hidden forms of sugar. If you're consuming lots of salad dressing or ketchup, that's one thing with my kids, that I just can't get them to decrease their consumption of, this ketchup. It's loaded with sugar.

Dr. Steve Sinatra: Correct.

Dr. Drew Sinatra: So there's all these hidden sources of sugar that people are getting, and that can be tough to eliminate. But once you do that, you're going to support the health of the flora in the microbiome. We'll talk more about the gut and the microbiome in a future podcast.

Dr. Steve Sinatra: Sounds good to me.

Dr. Drew Sinatra: You look at going to the grocery story. Okay, you're walking down the aisle, and you see all this processed food to the left and right of you. No one is overseeing if that's okay for you to consume. Okay, that stuff is just on the shelf, and it's there, and there's no guidelines around whether maybe you should be eating this, maybe you shouldn't. It's really in our hands, whether we choose to eat that food or not. And we really need to become educated about what is good food and what is not good food.

Dr. Steve Sinatra: You want the organic, fresh fruits and vegetables. You want the organic meats and things like that, and a lot of stores don't have it. So what are the healthy foods that we can tell our listeners to really take in more often in their body?

Dr. Drew Sinatra: Yeah, that's a great question, Dad. I mean I look at fruits and vegetables. You mentioned organic meats, so if you are a meat eater, whether that's doing organic chicken or organic beef or whatever it is, lamb, fish. I'm a big proponent of eating cold fish like salmon and halibut that's smaller in size. Sardines are good for people. I like recommending nuts and seeds.

Dr. Steve Sinatra: Fish is a great way of taking in Omega 3s. I mean look at our meal last night. We both had fish.

Dr. Drew Sinatra: We had fish, yeah.

Dr. Steve Sinatra: We walk our talk, and why are Omega 3s so important? I mean as a naturopath, this is your territory.

Dr. Drew Sinatra: Yeah, well I look at Omega 3s as being really anti-inflammatory.

Dr. Steve Sinatra: Exactly.

Dr. Drew Sinatra: And we're talking about inflammation today, so I look at Omega 3s being good for the brain, being good for the heart, being good for the joints, being good for the body systemically.

Dr. Steve Sinatra: I got to tell you, the Seattle Heart Watch study that was done years ago showed that if you ate two fish meals a month, you could reduce your sudden death by 50%. I mean think about that. That's amazing. That's incredible statistics, but if you can eat fish a couple of times a month or, better yet, take in Omega 3s and a supplement every day, this is one supplements that I couldn't practice cardiology without. I always said if I was stranded on a desert island, I would want some CoQ10 and Omega 3s to be washed ashore.

Dr. Drew Sinatra: Well, let's talk about quality for a moment, because I mentioned some cold-water fish that I like to recommend, which is like salmon and sardines, these generally smaller fish, because what happens is these fish can accumulate toxins over time in their body, because they're swimming in an ocean that unfortunately is toxic right now. So there might be some heavy metals or some PCBs that are found in the fish. So why does quality matter for fish oil, then?

Dr. Steve Sinatra: Quality is essential, because if you take in fish oil, you don't know whether those fish are older fish or heavier fish or been in the ocean for a long time, where they can take on pollutants. So flame retardants, for example, which they found in whales recently and stuff like that, so I've been a big fan of squid oil. I like calamarine oil. You know what the magic of squid oil is? I mean let's face it. A squid can live in the ocean for about 450 days, and they're smaller. They only weigh a couple of pounds, so to speak. So if they're only in the ocean for a limited amount of time, a short period of time, they can't take on the petrochemicals, the flame retardants or the toxins that are in the oceans today.

Dr. Drew Sinatra: Dad, what we're talking about right now is the skinny on fats, and unfortunately there's this myth out there that fats are bad for people. And yes, there are some bad fats out there. There's also many good fats. So let's talk about that.

Dr. Steve Sinatra: Yeah, fat is a complex subject. There's no doubt about it. I mean there's saturated fats, there's monounsaturated fats, there's trans fats, which are really bad.

Dr. Drew Sinatra: Well I mean, speaking of other oils, so we love squid oil.

Dr. Steve Sinatra: I love squid oil, absolutely.

Dr. Drew Sinatra: We love eating fish. What are some other oils that patients listening to this or viewers listening to this can really bring into their diet? What else?

Dr. Steve Sinatra: My favorite oil or the secret sauce of the Mediterranean diet is olive oil. I mean I've been an olive oil ... I hate to use the word, but I've been an olive oil freak for years. I mean my grandfather brought me up on olive oil, and thank god he did. I mean if you look at the PREDIMED study, you know that study that was done in Europe several years ago, they had close to 8,000 participants, they would divide it up into three groups. They had one group with the American Heart Association diet, touted as a healthy diet, low in fat. And then it had another group that was eating a handful of nuts a day, just like the Seventh Day Adventists in America eating nuts that showed a paucity of illness, and then they had another group taking in four tablespoons of olive oil a day. The PREDIMED study showed less heart disease, less cancer. Less Alzheimer's disease, less diabetes, and it all boils down to inflammation. There's less inflammation. I mean you know as a naturopath that inflammation is the root cause of all disease.

Dr. Drew Sinatra: And so olive oil is helping reduce the inflammation, then.

Dr. Steve Sinatra: Absolutely, and the way it does it, olive oil changes gene expression. Since we all have pro-inflammatory genes, it makes sense to take in a substance like a monounsaturated fat like olive oil, which changes pro-inflammatory genes back to their non inflammatory condition. It doesn't get better than that.

Dr. Drew Sinatra: That's amazing.

Dr. Steve Sinatra: And if you look at the world's cultures, where is the longest longevity of peoples? I mean, where are they? They're in the Mediterranean Basin. By the way, Portugal and Spain just passed Okinawa has having the longest living people in the world. 86 point, I think, seven years is the average longevity. Now in America it's 79 years. What are we doing wrong? Allegedly we spend billions of dollars on healthcare, and we are not eating enough monounsaturated fats like olive oil. So I'm all in on olive oil.

Dr. Drew Sinatra: Well here's a tip of our listeners, and I'm sure you'd agree with this. You don't want to cook with olive oil, right?

Dr. Steve Sinatra: Yes.

Dr. Drew Sinatra: You don't want to saute vegetables over, I think it's over 350 degrees, because what you're going to do is you're going to oxidize that oil, which is then not going to be good for you.

Dr. Steve Sinatra: Well you're going to make it a saturated fat as opposed to a monounsaturated fat, correct.

Dr. Drew Sinatra: So if you're going to use olive oil, perhaps drizzle it over some tomatoes and mozzarella or on your salad or something like that.

Dr. Steve Sinatra: Or your vegetables.

Dr. Drew Sinatra: Or your vegetables, exactly, yep.

Dr. Steve Sinatra: Now look, last night we had dinner together. We both had fish. What was our appetizer?

Dr. Drew Sinatra: Artichokes.

Dr. Steve Sinatra: Yes, what are the benefits of artichoke, for example? That's part of the Mediterranean diet.

Dr. Drew Sinatra: Well we know artichokes are really good for the liver.

Dr. Steve Sinatra: Exactly.

Dr. Drew Sinatra: And artichokes are actually also a prebiotic, which can help feed the microbiome, the different flora there, so multi uses of artichokes.

Dr. Steve Sinatra: Artichokes, I just feel, is one of the healthiest things you can take into your body. I mean it has remarkable effects on the absorption of carotenoids, for example. I mean the medicinal aspects of artichokes are huge. And as a liver support in this day and age, when non-alcoholic fatty liver disease is really on the rise because of all the toxins in the environment, it makes sense to eat like a Mediterranean and I would put artichokes at the top of the list.

Dr. Drew Sinatra: Now here's something we should bring up to the listeners. We dipped our artichoke leaves in butter. What's your thought on butter?

Dr. Steve Sinatra: Butter is fine, as long as it's organic. I mean I like butter. Butter has more saturated fat in it, but I don't throw saturated fats under the bus. Look, some saturated fats are fine. There's no question. I believe more in the monounsaturated fats, and I love the Omega 3s like we just talked about. If you want to take in saturated fats, that's fine. I'm a big proponent of coconut oil, for example. I think people who use a lot of coconut oil - I think this is conducive to their health. However, there is always controversy in the medical literature on coconut oil. There always is, because remember, some of these oils are long chained fatty acids, which can accelerate oxidation. But again, I just feel that to me, saturated fats in the form of coconut oils is fine.

Dr. Drew Sinatra: So a key takeaway here that I'm hearing is that oils in moderation, certain ones are okay. So if we're going to have some saturated fat, we're going to consume some butter, grass fed butter, organic butter in moderation is okay.

Dr. Steve Sinatra: Absolutely.

Dr. Drew Sinatra: And really the quality of the fat matters.

Dr. Steve Sinatra: So Drew, what do you use for cooking?

Dr. Drew Sinatra: Well I do use olive oil for very, very, very light heat. I like to use coconut oil, because I generally sauté lots of my vegetables in coconut oil. And I'm also privy to avocado oil. It's a monounsaturated oil, and you can actually use it on a little bit of a higher heat. And it doesn't have that much flavor to it, so it's a great cooking oil.

Dr. Steve Sinatra: Now you don't use canola oil by any chance, do you?

Dr. Drew Sinatra: Never. I would never use that oil. I haven't used that in probably 20 years.

Dr. Steve Sinatra: I mean canola oil, let's face it. Canola oil is good for machines, but it's not good for the body.

Dr. Drew Sinatra: Not good for human bodies.

Dr. Steve Sinatra: No way, so for our listeners, if any of you were using canola oil, please do not use it. That's a takeaway, folks. That's a pearl. So Drew, we talked about fats. What are some other food taboos that we need to talk about?

Dr. Drew Sinatra: People listening to this, you've probably heard of gluten-free or dairy-free foods. And I got to tell you, as a naturopathic doctor, I take a lot of my patients off of gluten-containing foods and dairy-containing foods, and here's the reason. A lot of people, they can't break down the proteins in those two food groups. So let's talk about gluten insensitivity. Basically what happens is people, they have a difficult time breaking down the gluten, and it creates inflammation in the gastrointestinal tract. And this is partly why people develop bloating from it, and it's really funny. You ask people, well, how do you feel when you have a burger here, or you have some pizza, or you have some pasta? "Doc, I get bloated. I get bloated all the time." But then you ask them if they go to Europe or Australia, they have wheat. Generally they don't get the bloating. So there's something about North American wheat that leads to excess bloating. And also you can have systemic symptoms happen from gluten. So for example, people can sometimes get skin rashes, or they get headaches, or they feel really fatigued. And the only way to really know if you have a gluten sensitivity is to go off gluten entirely. And people listening, this is bagels, pastries, pizza, pasta, crackers. Beer even has gluten in it. And you got to be really careful. You got to give up gluten entirely for around two, three weeks and then see what happens to your symptoms. Maybe your bloating goes away. Maybe your brain fog goes away. Maybe you have joint pain that goes away. And then you reintroduce the gluten back in, in whatever form it is, whether it's bread, and you see what happens. Maybe joint pain comes back. Maybe your brain fog comes back. Maybe you feel really tired. And at that point, you know you've got a gluten sensitivity, and that's a food that you should not be consuming.

Dr. Steve Sinatra: So there are certain people that they have it in their genes, but you can also acquire this. Tell me about that.

Dr. Drew Sinatra: Yeah, well I think what's going on these days is that we're seeing a higher incidence of celiac disease. And we're also seeing a higher incidence of non-celiac gluten sensitivity. And really, what I believe is going on is there's something happening in the North American wheat production. We know that there's a plethora of chemicals that are being sprayed on wheat-containing products, glyphosate being one of them. And we know that glyphosate was originally patented in the 1970s as an antibiotic. Okay, so it's messing up our gut microbiome, and we know from research that glyphosate actually causes zonulin release into the intestines, and zonulin is going to break up these tight junctions that hold cells together, and it's going to lead to something called leaky gut. So we're creating this perfect storm of consuming wheat that's sprayed with chemicals like glyphosate, which is creating a lot of this acquired gluten sensitivity.

Dr. Steve Sinatra: So what can we tell our listeners to do? What are some takeaways or pearls about the diet?

Dr. Drew Sinatra: Well I always tell patients, "As a trial, you might want to give up gluten for two or three weeks and see how your body feels." Another food group that I like to tell patients they should probably give up for a little bit is dairy, specifically if they're having congestion in their sinuses, or their child is having a lot of earaches or ear infections, or they just don't feel like they have the best cognition happening. They feel like they're in this brain fog. I always tell people, "You know what? Just give up dairy, see how you feel, and if you feel better on it, well then reduce your intake of it."

Dr. Steve Sinatra: So if you have a child in your family that's not right, something is wrong, or let's face it, any illness in the family, any unexplained illness, the right thing to do would be to give up gluten, sugar and dairy just as a start.

Dr. Drew Sinatra: It's a great start.

Dr. Steve Sinatra: So our listeners can be their own doctors, so to speak, and just do that as a start and see if symptoms go away.

Dr. Drew Sinatra: And there are other food allergies and food sensitivities out there like, for example, eggs or citrus, or some people react to the nightshade family, which includes stuff like peppers and tomatoes and, and then there are nut allergies.

Dr. Steve Sinatra: The nut allergy is huge. Even on an airplane, I mean they're not serving nuts anymore.

Dr. Drew Sinatra: Right, so there's this huge incidence of allergies to foods that we're seeing these days, which is not really common. I mean as a kid, did you see any peanut allergies?

Dr. Steve Sinatra: Very rarely.

Dr. Drew Sinatra: Yeah, now every classroom there's usually a sign out front that says, "No nuts allowed," or, "No peanuts allowed."

Dr. Steve Sinatra: So Drew, how is food allergy connected to leaky gut?

Dr. Drew Sinatra: Right, well what we know is that when people are eating foods that their body is going to react to, it can create inflammation along the GI tract. And when there's inflammation there, the tight junctions that hold cells together, they can break apart. And food particles and proteins and different bacterium, they can actually move from the gastrointestinal tract into the bloodstream, because there's no barrier anymore. And when that happens, the immune system begins to get over activated. And what that does is create this continuous loop of information. That's what leaky gut is.

Dr. Steve Sinatra: So it's the immune system saying, "I got you."

Dr. Drew Sinatra: Yeah, it's the immune system just reacting to things that it normally shouldn't react to, because it's coming through the gut wall into the bloodstream. And the good news is, we've talked about some foods that may not or actually will promote inflammation, but let's talk about some good foods here. So we know fruits and vegetables, right?

Dr. Steve Sinatra: Yes.

Dr. Drew Sinatra: Number one, I mean that's something that if you're walking in a grocery store, stay out of the middle section. Go to the perimeter, those end aisles, because that's where there's going to be fresh fruits and vegetables. And that's what you want to be primarily eating.

Dr. Steve Sinatra: And as a cardiologist, I love onions and garlic. I mean they lower blood pressure.

Dr. Drew Sinatra: What are some other fruits and vegetables that you like?

Dr. Steve Sinatra: Gosh, broccoli comes to mind immediately. Broccoli contains sulforaphane, and this is an incredible phytonutrient that heals. But if you eat sulforaphane combined with a lycopene of a tomato, you get a synergistic response. And there were articles in the literature stating that these were great derivatives to eat in combating not only breast cancer, but prostate cancer in the male as well.

Dr. Drew Sinatra: You mentioned these phytonutrients, and what I like to tell patients is when you have a plate in front of you, you want to have it like a rainbow-colored plate of fruits and vegetables. So you get the yellows, the greens, everything in it, the orange color. So you're getting all this mix of phytonutrients in there and antioxidants.

Dr. Steve Sinatra: Yeah, if you look at the carotenoids, for example, or beta cryptoxanthin, I mean that's found in mango. I mean yellow fruits and vegetables. So it's important, these pigments have different constituents. I mean look at red wine and resveratrol, for example. I'm not a big proponent of drinking red wine every day, but it's one way of getting resveratrol in the body. Resveratrol is in the lining of the red grape, and it's very medicinal, especially on mitochondrial function. And as a heart specialist, I really key in on mitochondria. I mean I think mitochondria is one of the essences of anti-aging medicine. So whenever you bring mitochondrial support to the table, and resveratrol does it. Turmeric does it. They fight off age glycation, which is really another factor in a diet. So I'm all in on these vital nutrients. I just think that healthy, organic eating should be a part of every day's nutritional program.

Dr. Drew Sinatra: You mentioned turmeric, and that's definitely one of my favorite spices that I like to cook with, whether it's a curry chicken or-

Dr. Steve Sinatra: A curry chicken sounds great.

Dr. Drew Sinatra: I mean I love to sprinkle even turmeric on my eggs, and turmeric is an anti-inflammatory herb. I consider it like a food, though. That's a thing, right? It's more like a food, so you just want to add it into your daily regimen.

Dr. Steve Sinatra: Turmeric and resveratrol are two of my favorite nutraceutical polyphenols and carotenoids and that whole class of phytonutrients. I just think we need to take more of them into our body on a daily basis, and that's why I formulate vitamin and mineral supplements. Look, there's no doubt about it. A healthy diet is key, but sometimes we can't get all these valuable phytonutrients in a healthy diet.

Dr. Drew Sinatra: Well, I think what our listeners need to understand, too, is that the foods that we eat today are not as nutrient dense as they used to be. What I tell my patients, and this is what I do with my family, is we try to strive to eat organic whenever possible. And if organic isn't an option for someone because of the cost, well what I recommend that you do is go to the EWG.org website. It's www.EWG.org, and on that website you'll find a list for the dirty dozen fruits and vegetables, which are, as that said, dirty dozen. You do not want to be consuming these foods unless they're organic. And this is apples and pears and strawberries and such, right?

Dr. Steve Sinatra: Well the worst three in my mind are apples, peaches and strawberries. So you listen to this out there, your takeaway here is you must, and I want to emphasize, you must, if you're going to eat these fruits, they got to be organic, peaches, strawberries and apples.

Dr. Drew Sinatra: Yeah, I couldn't agree more, and the stat that I came across a couple months ago was that in the United States there is 1 billion pounds of pesticide sprayed on our foods every single year. 1 billion pounds, I mean I can't even fathom that. I can't even just think about that. So when you're consuming foods, number one thing you want to do, first off, is consume foods that are not sprayed with chemicals. So there's the dirty dozen we talked about. There's also the clean 15, which is another list of foods you can find on the EWG website. And these are things like onions or garlic or avocados or mangoes.

Dr. Steve Sinatra: They don't have to be organic. Avocados, you can get conventional avocados. You don't have to spend the extra for organic, and that's what I do when I go to the grocery store.

Dr. Drew Sinatra: Same thing for onions and garlic, yep. And I also tell people that if you go to a local farmer's market near you-

Dr. Steve Sinatra: I love that.

Dr. Drew Sinatra: That's going to be the best, because listen. The food is coming locally. So you're not going to lose a lot of that nutrient content via shipping long distances. Because on average, if you're shopping at a grocery store in the United States, the food is being shipped 1,500 miles on average. And over that time, that's going to be over days, maybe even a week. The nutrient content is going to go down steadily. Now do I dare mention chocolate here?

Dr. Steve Sinatra: No, Drew, good point, high-polyphenol chocolate, run with it. Let me hear about it.

Dr. Drew Sinatra: Well, I was just going to say, I mean I think of chocolate being a really high antioxidant, right?

Dr. Steve Sinatra: Right.

Dr. Drew Sinatra: Food, and chocolate also has a lot of magnesium in it as well. I don't know if you knew that but lots of magnesium in it. So when I tell people, hey, you going to reach for chocolate, just reach for a darker chocolate, like let's say 80% or 85% or higher. And at least you're guaranteed to not get as much sugar in that chocolate compared to eating a milk chocolate bar. You're going to be getting a fair amount of sugar in there, and not necessarily all those compounds from the chocolate itself that are going to be healthy for you.

Dr. Steve Sinatra: Folks, I don't want to ruin your day, but white chocolate and milk chocolate are out. They're out of my diet. If I'm going to eat chocolate, the darker, the better. Because remember this, dark chocolate not only brings the polyphenols to the table like Drew has mentioned. But dark chocolate is one of these constituents that can help support blood pressure lowering. I mean I've used it in my patients, and I've had great success. And you don't have to eat a lot of dark chocolate, one or two squares a day four to five days a week is enough to get this polyphenol content into the body.

Dr. Drew Sinatra: And while we're on the topic of polyphenols, let's just briefly talk about teas and coffee. I'm a big fan of coffee, and I always buy organic, fair-trade coffee. And I'm actually into buying coffee that doesn't have mold or micro toxins in it. So that's a big piece for me, is I tend to avoid the coffees that have micro toxins in it.

Dr. Steve Sinatra: That's a subject for another show.

Dr. Drew Sinatra: It is, totally. We'll talk about that at some point.

Dr. Steve Sinatra: I mean you're the micro toxin guy and the mold talk guy. I mean I want to hear about this.

Dr. Drew Sinatra: Well, we'll talk about it, but for a tease, I'm a big green tea guy. I learned that from you. I watched you drinking green tea growing up. So do you still consume that?

Dr. Steve Sinatra: Yes, as a heart specialist, there was a study that came out years ago. It was about what beverage would prevent coronary artery disease. It was an incredible study. They looked at, I believe it was, a Japanese study, and they looked at different beverages that they took into their diet, whether it was black tea, green tea, sake, red wine, white wine, beer, all these constituents, all these liquids. And none of them were supportive of heart health except for green tea. And they did coronary arteriography on these volunteers, and it was amazing. Green tea was the one nutrient that prevented coronary artery disease. And when I read that study, and it was a study of about 500 people, a good end number, I said, "My gosh, I'm all in on green tea."

Dr. Drew Sinatra: That's great. That's great. Now you mentioned red wine earlier, because we talked a little bit about red wine and resveratrol and such. What's your overall take on alcohol?

Dr. Steve Sinatra: Not good for the body. Moderation is key, and for our listeners, if you don't drink alcohol, don't drink it. However, if you do drink alcohol, I like red wine, because it brings a lot of nutrient value to the table. But again, one to two glasses a day, maximum, maybe four to five days a week. Now look, we've all heard about the French paradox. I mean these people in France, who have average cholesterols of 250 to 275, have the lowest incidence of heart disease in Western Europe. However, they have the highest incidence of cirrhosis in the world. So in other words, sure. Resveratrol in red wine is really positive in heart healing, but again, moderation is key. I do like red wine, small amounts of it every day or every other day.

Dr. Drew Sinatra: I'm finding that more and more that a lot of people are reacting negatively to red wine. It's like this kind of theme these days, where people come in. They say, "Doc, I drink a glass of red wine, I get a headache that night, and I feel hungover in the morning."

Dr. Steve Sinatra: It could be the pesticides, insecticides, yeah.

Dr. Drew Sinatra: It could be, and some people are sensitive to sulfites. And I also think, doing the work that I do with patients, I think that mold is high in certain red wines. And it's really hard to find a really good quality red wine out there.

Dr. Steve Sinatra: Drew, it's a good point. I think organic red wines are the way to go. I mean I think as a society, we got to be thinking, the more natural, the better.

Dr. Drew Sinatra: Today we've been talking about inflammation and how certain foods in the diet can be pro-inflammatory and how other foods can be anti-inflammatory. What may our listeners not know about inflammation? What else is there out there that may help with inflammation?

Dr. Steve Sinatra: I think the best way of alleviating inflammation is walking barefoot, barefoot on the beach, barefoot on grass, barefoot on concrete. Even if you have a basement floor that's concrete, walk barefoot. Or you can hold your faucets in your home, because your faucets are grounded where the water comes out of them. Or you can sit on a chimney or on the hearth, so to speak, and put your hands on the brick or stone. I think being natural energy into your everyday life is essential.

Dr. Drew Sinatra: Grounding, and correct me if I'm wrong here, but grounding and earthing is something that we always did as a culture, right? We always did it as people way back in the day. We slept on the ground. We had leather soles of our shoes or our moccasins or something like that, where we're connected to the Earth on a regular basis. But today we're wearing rubber soled shoes. We're moving from one box to another to another, from our home to our car to our office back to our home again, and we're never really in contact with the ground anymore.

Dr. Steve Sinatra: But we've become disconnected as a society from Mother Earth. Everybody walks on rubber, and we are disconnected, whether it's sneakers or all these different rubber soled shoes that we have. It disconnects us from Mother Earth.

Dr. Drew Sinatra: So for listeners right now, what they can do is they get home from work. They can take off their shoes. They can just put a chair in the grass, sit down for five, 10 minutes, and they've been grounding. Or better yet, the best thing I like to do is go to the beach, to walk barefoot on the beach along the water. Who doesn't feel better when they go to the beach?

Dr. Steve Sinatra: It's the greatest anti-inflammatory, and it's free. That's the amazing thing. Now I sleep on grounded sheets, and I use grounded footwear. I mean for the ladies listening out there, go back to those leather shoes. I'm telling you, those thin leather shoes, perhaps they could save your life. The medicinal aspects on grounding for me are just incredible. So if you're an avid gardener, take off the gloves and put your hands in the soil and work with those plants and get that mother Earth energy. I think it's just incredible energy to take into the body, and it does everything right. I'll tell you that.

Dr. Drew Sinatra: And on another level, even on a spiritual level, if you want to call it that, grounding is really a way to connect with Mother Nature. It's a way to connect with Mother Earth. It's something that we're just not doing these days. We're so focused on work and other things, and we don't get enough time in nature.

Dr. Steve Sinatra: I would like all our listeners to bring the Earth back into their living room.

Dr. Drew Sinatra: All right, we talked about a lot of things today. And in summary, not all fats are bad. Sugar is bad. Many fruits and vegetables are anti-inflammatory, like we talked about.

Dr. Steve Sinatra: Especially colorful fruits and vegetables.

Dr. Drew Sinatra: Colorful fruits and veggies, exactly, and taking a walk in nature grounded. Every day it's something we should all be doing.

Dr. Steve Sinatra: And remember this. Canola oil is a toxin, but olive oil is the secret sauce of the Mediterranean diet.

Dr. Drew Sinatra: So before we wrap up our premier episode, I wanted to introduce you to one final feature that will be a regular segment on the Be Healthistic Podcast. We're calling it “Wellness Wisdom”, it will consist of all sort of interesting tips, facts, studies and trends having to do with that day's topic. It'll give us an opportunity to give you one last tidbit of information to take away with you, which hopefully will make an impact on your overall wellness, because small tips can add up to huge benefits. So with that, our very first wellness wisdom tip is an extension of what we've been talking about today. Having a “Body By Nature” means being more conscious of what our bodies are telling us, really working with our health providers to find root causes of health issues, and finding more natural solutions to treat and heal our bodies when we're ill or in pain. Being more green in terms of our environmental footprint is another expression of this. So in the spirit of natural solutions, I wanted to provide a few tips on how you can be a little bit more green in your everyday life.

First off, use less plastic. I know it's tough to avoid using plastic, because it's everywhere. Most manufactured products contain some form of plastic, and discarded plastic items are clogging our landfills. This surge in drinking plastic bottled water has only added to the problem. Additionally, most plastics release harmful chemicals that can lead to cancer, birth defects and other diseases. One of the biggest health offenders is a group of chemicals called phthalates, as well as a chemical called bisphenol A or BPA. Whenever possible, avoid plastic and instead use glass or reusable water bottles. Next, we all clean our homes on a daily basis, so switch to natural or homemade household cleaning products. Most cleaning products contain toxic chemicals that are harmful to your health as well as the environment. Exposure to these chemicals can cause headaches, gastrointestinal disturbances, central nervous system disorders, joint and muscle pain, immune dysfunction and even cancer. Fortunately, all sorts of natural cleaning products that are safe and won't pollute the environment are now widely available in stores or online. Another option is to make your own cleaning products using ingredients such as baking soda, distilled white vinegar or hydrogen peroxide. We'll provide a link to some examples of our homemade cleaning products. I hope these tips are helpful to you and that they contribute to your overall wellness.

Remember, everyone, if you like what you heard today, and you want to be an active member of the Be Healthistic community, subscribe to our podcast on Apple Podcasts or wherever you download your favorites and subscribe to our YouTube channel. You can also find more great content and information from us and the Healthy Directions team at HealthyDirections.com as well as on our social medial channels. Check it out. Thanks, folks for tuning in. This is Be Healthistic, and I'm Dr. Drew Sinatra.

Dr. Steve Sinatra: And I'm Dr. Steve Sinatra. See you next time.

Speaker 3: Thanks for listening to Be Healthistic, a health and wellness podcast powered by our friends at Healthy Directions with doctors, Drew and Steve Sinatra. See you next time.