A New Way To Age- Interview with Suzanne Somers
Dr. Michael Galitzer is my anti-aging doctor. He’s the guy I go to for aches, pains, mineral IV’s, chelation and in general to keep a check on my energy. Aging is about a lack of energy so his specialty is especially pertinent to those of us who want to stay vital and energetic. His clinic is in Santa Monica calif. If aging is about loss of energy, he’s your guy. He gets it and treats without drugs for the most part; only when absolutely necessary. He also is an expert in bioidentical hormones and homeopathic medicine.
SOMERS: You spent 15 years as an emergency room doctor until you needed to move on. So many ER docs I’ve interviewed all say the same thing: at some point the Emergency room is so stressful that you must make a major change, but how can you GO back to normal doctoring?
GALITZER: I found the integrative world a natural transition as it is AN AREA OF MEDICINE that is constantly changing and growing exponentially with cutting-edge breakthroughs happening at a pace that’s CHALLENGING to keep up with and that provides the passion and excitement. There are three ways medicine can assess the body;
-there is THE physical LEVEL
-There is THE chemical LEVEL
- and there is THE electrical or energetic way.
When I was a board-certified ER doc THE TESTS THAT I UTILIZED LOOKED AT THE BODY MOSTLY FROM A PHYSICAL AND CHEMICAL LEVEL, EXCEPT THE EKG, WHICH LOOKED AT THE ELECTRICAL HEART
SS: please explain physical.
MG: Physical are X-rays, CAT scans, MRIs, biopsies, mammograms -- they look for structural changes.
Chemical are blood tests; but THE PHYSICAL AND CHEMICAL ASSESSMENTS really look for diseases, and traditional medicine believes that health is the absence of disease. – MOST PEOPLE HAVE SYMPTOMS SUCH AS FATIGUE, INSOMNIA, BLOATING, ALLERGIES, ARTHRITIS, WITH NORMAL LAB TESTS. THESE ARE NOT THOUGHT OF AS DISEASES, BUT AT THE SAME TIME THEY ARE NOT INDICATIVE OF HEALTH. Health is on one end OF THE SPECTRUM, and disease is on the other.
SS: How do you describe your practice; most people don’t know what anti-aging doctors are doing?
MG: In order to analyze health, you have got to go beyond the physical and the chemical to look at the electrical.
-A cardiologist TAKES AN EKG TO LOOK at the electrical heart because the electrical impulse of the heart precedes the physical heartbeat.
-A neurologist looks at the electrical brain VIA AN EEG
There are also EXISTS
-the electrical liver, kidneys, pancreas, adrenals, and thyroid.
Your body is this orchestra in which these organs and glands are instruments in that orchestra. Some are sluggish and out of tune. Some are strong and in tune. My goal is to find out what is sluggish and out of tune and get it strong and in-tune so the orchestra plays GREAT music.
SS: lovely metaphor
MG: Part 2 is toxins. In the ER we were concerned about life threatening toxins; overdose of sleeping pills, carbon monoxide poisoning, oil spills – but in this new medicine we are looking at chronic low-level toxicity.
Pesticides, heavy metals, chemicals, viruses, bacteria, yeast, over-the-counter medications, prescription medicines, these are all chemicals. The goal is to reduce toxicity because when toxins accumulate in the body the body doesn’t work as well as it should.
That’s the overall assessment of a patient in addition to blood tests and X-ray studies that people frequently bring in to me.
SS: you often mention bioimpedance, can you explain?
MG: Bioimpedance looks at body fat, body water, but more importantly something called the phase angle which is a measure of regeneration.
Our bodies are always destroying old cells and creating new cells. The phase angle tells us how well we are regenerating and how well we are creating new cells.
The last thing I do, in addition to a physical examination, is TO ANALYZE heart rate variability. The autonomic nervous system is the subconscious nervous system where all your old emotions are stored. IT CONTROLS THE AUTOMATIC FUCNTIONS IN YOUR BODY SUCH AS YOUR HEART BEAT, YOUR BREATH, AND YOUR BLOOD PRESSURE.
The autonomic nervous system has two parts; SIMPLISTICALLY PUT the sympathetic is the energy producing ASPECT and the parasympathetic is energy recovery.
The healthier the autonomic nervous system the healthier the heart AND THE REST OF THE BODY.
SOMERS: would I be correct in calling this energy medicine?
GALITZER: Yes. because health is energy. The energetic level of the body correlates to how people feel. I have people come in with normal blood tests and X-rays but they are fatigued or they can’t sleep or they have allergies or their joints hurt. Their doctors tell them ‘hey, you look okay to me’. Well, that’s on the physical and chemical level but on the electrical level they don’t look okay. They are toxic, their liver is overloaded, their adrenals are tired. Being able to assess that overload and help people is VERY REWARDING.
SOMERS: You use a screening TOOL called electrodermal TESTING and I used to make you mad (small ‘m’) by calling it hocus-pocus and I never meant to do that, especially since I find the readings from this machine so accurate. I have great respect for electrodermal screenings. What does it actually do?
GALITZER: 15 years ago I was burned out from the Emergency room and looking for a change. IN 1986 came across an ad looking for a doctor to do general practice and nutrition in Westwood. I had no clue about nutrition but understood general practice FROM being an ER doc. I decided I would learn nutrition, I went to seminars, listened to tapes, hired a nutritionist but nobody got any better. I ordered all these new blood tests but that didn’t help either. I was perplexed and one of these people that didn’t get better was my best friend at the time who in running these new blood tests found out he had elevated mercury levels in his red blood cells.
I had heard the expert, Hal Huggins DDS, from Colorado speak on mercury toxicity and afterwards I asked him who I could refer my friend to locally. I was looking for a dentist who was able to change fillings to remove mercury toxicity.
SS: It’s hard to believe we used to fill teeth with mercury.
MG: Mercury FILLINGS in teeth is a crazy concept…Hal Huggins gave me the name of a dentist who specialized in this area. In those days WE would do a blood test to find out what metals were compatible with the person’s blood in order to REPLACE THE AMALGAM FILLING, just as you would do with a food allergy test. My friend had all the blood tests and then went to the dentist who did electrodermal testing. He TESTED VARIOUS SUBSTANCES and this testing was able to show what MATERIALS were good for his body and WHICH were POORLY TOLERATED, and THE RESULTS exactly matched the blood test.
SS: nice. At less expense and no poking with needles
MG: yes. So, WHEN I REALIZED THAT ENERGY MEDICINE TESTING could TELL ME WHERE THE ENERGETIC WEAKNESSES EXISTED IN THE ORGANS AND GLANDS OF THE BODY, non-invasively, I wanted to learn MORE. IN DECEMBER 1986 I WENT TO MY FIRST ENERGY MEDICINE SEMINAR IN LOS ANGELES, THAT WAS BEING CONDUCTED BY A EUROPEAN PHYSICIAN, ROY MARTINA MD. I QUICKLY realized the tremendous value of this protocol and I have been doing it ever since.
The real value in electrodermal testing is to find out specifically what food, nutrient, herb, homeopathic, and WHAT MEDICATION IS SAFEST FOR A PATIENT. THE PATIENT MIGHT NEED AN ANTIBIOTIC FOR AN INFECTION, OR HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE MEDICATION, OR AN ANTI-DEPRESSANT..
SS: it’s an individualized assessment which allows you to exactly give the right thing for the right person?
MG: yes, eventually what you are trying to find Suzanne, is if it is effective and is it tolerated? EFFECTIVE MEANS DOES IT WORK, AND TOLERATED MEANS IT HAS NO SIDE EFFECTS. THAT IS THE PERFECT COMBINATION FOR ANY SUBSTANCE THAT I PRESCRIBE FOR A PATIENT.
An example of something that’s effective and POORLY tolerated is cancer chemotherapy; it kills cancer cells but has MANY side effects.
But if we can find out what’s effective and what’s tolerated and what works for that individual person and what supplement can work for one person and not work for the other, THE PATIENT GREATLY BENEFITS.
We are all AWARE about the person who drinks a cup of coffee in the morning AND who can’t sleep at night, and then there is another person who can drink coffee right before they go to sleep and sleep fine.
We are all different in our ability to breakdown and metabolize substances so the real value of electrodermal testing is to find out exactly what will work for that person, which is a huge breakthrough.
SOMERS: it was interesting in re-reading your book about fascia (the connective tissue); to dumb it down for myself, my understanding of fascia is similar to when you peel an orange and you get rid of the skin but there is always this sort of white web that’s around the orange itself that you peel off called the fascia. I know in yoga I have fascia right under the skin between the skin and the muscles and we are always trying to break that down and soften that to eliminate cellulite (not that I have any! Haha) . How does that work in your approach to health?
GALITZER: This connective tissue is called mesenchyme and is the interface between the blood vessels and the cells.
SOMERS: why do I care?
GALITZER: You’re funny. So, the heart pumps the blood and the blood goes into the aorta and then to the arteries and ARTERIOLES, and finally down to the capillary. The capillary then delivers oxygen and sugar (or glucose) to the cells to create energy.
The connective tissue is important because that interface between the cell and the capillary IS where nutrients are delivered and toxins are removed.
SS: the magnificence of the human body...what a journey.
MG: Connective tissue is vitally important and the health of that connective tissue can be helped with all sorts of THERAPIES THAT I do in my office like liver drainage, lymph drainage, and kidney drainage. When we get these organs to work optimally the connective tissue is able to function at its highest level.
SOMERS: Is this a new approach? I have never heard talk about connective tissue in this way.
GALITZER: The process in biological medicine which discovered electrodermal testing recognized the importance of understanding THE connective tissue and has been around since the 1960s. It was introduced to this country in the ‘80s around the time I met these particular people from Holland and Germany. There are only a few people in this country who practice this kind of medicine and certainly not many physicians.
SOMERS: You’ve found a very unique niche and that’s why people come from all over the world, I have seen people in your office from Indonesia, Europe and Asia and I’m always impressed that somehow the word has gotten out. People spend years trying to figure out what’s wrong with them and keep hitting allopathic walls where finally pills don’t work, then they hear about you. When they sit down for the first time what are the usual complaints?
GALITZER: They don’t have enough energy. Their body’s ability to handle stress in their lives has been severely compromised, their toxicity level is very high. People feel if they eat organic, meditate or exercise that’s all they have to do. Exercise is key, but MOST people are toxic and have low energy, and the symptoms are a result of that combination.
SOMERS: Do you start with hormones?
GALITZER: Absolutely. But its more than that. The initial complaints are usually; ‘I don’t have enough juice, I don’t have the energy I used to have, I can’t focus, I can’t concentrate like I used to, my memory is a problem, my sleep is a problem.
SS: I know from my lectures sleep is a huge issue with people. Most women complain the most they get nightly is 5 hours.
MG: sleep is a game changer. They also complain their digestion is off, that they bloat after meals or they bloat all the time. Women complain about this more often than guys. They also say they can’t lose the weight no matter what they do.
My approach is first do bioimpedance AND then after the physical I take a look at their blood tests and X-rays and everything else that they bring in. The bioimpedance tells me their regeneration potential and if the regeneration potential is good then I am quite confident they are going to get better pretty quickly.
The second part is the heart rate variability that gives me information about the heart and the parasympathetic nervous system.
(The sympathetic is how fast did you run the 100-yard dash whereas the parasympathetic is how long did it take for you to get your breath back) YES
The parasympathetic is most important because most people are sympathetically driven and can’t relax and can’t recover as well as they should.
The parasympathetic nervous system (organ wise) corresponds to the liver and the adrenals.
The liver is the major organ to remove toxins out of the body.
The liver is also the organ that has to process all the foods we eat and absorb, whereas the adrenals are the organ affected by stress -- Stress can be mental stress, emotional stress, nutritional stress, eating allergic food like gluten or dairy. Environmental stress means you are exposed to pesticides. Electromagnetic stress is when you are talking to your friend on the cell phone to your ear for an hour.
SS: is physical stress damaging to the adrenals?
MG: yes imagine you have had surgery or you are hurt at the gym or you contract INFECTIONS CAUSED BY bacteria, viruses, AND MOLD -- Whenever there is a stressor the adrenals SECRETE THE MAJOR STRESS HORMONE CALLED CORTISOL If the stress recurs for too long a period of time or if there are multiple stresses occurring at the same time the adrenals get tired, the cortisol goes down and with that your ability to handle stress IS SEVERLY COMPROMISED. Your body can’t differentiate big stress from little stress so you overreact to little things and ultimately you are going to get anxious.
Imagine if you wake up in the morning and your brain is having a conversation with your adrenals and your brains says ‘look I got a lot on my plate today, I have got to do this, this, this, and that, and I know you can secrete hormones to get me through the day’, the adrenals say ‘I have got nothing to give you. You are going to HAVE ANXIETY because you don’t have the reserves to deal with the stressors of the day.
SS: Interesting, Adrenal fatigue, inability to sleep is because your cortisol is off. It’s a cascade. A meltdown.
MG: correct. I find adrenals to be weak and tired in just about everybody and there is the thinking that you can’t sleep because your cortisol levels are high at night. But what I see is the exact opposite, most people’s cortisol and adrenal function are too low. Basically, they need adrenal support. The key nutrient for the adrenals is Vitamin C.
I utilize a lot of Vitamin C intravenously. 95 percent of the people I see have suboptimal adrenal gland functioning.
SS: The major HORMONES ARE INSULIN, THYROID, AND ADRENAL HORMONES, AND WHEN THEY ARE NOT OPTIMAL, THE MINOR HORMONES (ESTROGEN, PROGESTERONE, AND TESTOSTERONE ARE AFFECTED.
GALITZER: The body wants balance: with thyroid and adrenal hormones, I liken it to running your Ferrari around the race track and of course you would put high octane fuel(NUTRITION) into this car; I see the thyroid as the fuel injection system and the adrenals as the gas pedal. The adrenals are paramount and in women adrenals represent survival, the stress response, and the ovaries represent reproduction.
The body always wants to maintain the ‘stress and survival’ response and frequently at the expense of reproduction.
Here’s how it works:
if the adrenals are tired – (and this most often will happen with women in their 40’s and early 50’s), the body will CONVERT OVARIAN PROGESTERONE TO CORTISOL, AND OVARIAN ESTROGEN TO DHEA, in order to maintain survival at the expense of reproduction. In this scenario a woman gets depleted in progesterone and estrogen, and consequently goes into peri-menopause and menopause.
The adrenals affect the ovaries more often than the other way around. When people come in with pre-menopause or menopausal symptoms you not only have to replace the progesterone and estrogen, but you also have to strengthen the adrenals so you are not shunting those hormones that ARE NEEDED TO MAINTAIN SURVIVAL.
SOMERS: So it’s nature perpetuating the species. And it’s also alchemy. This is all each individual’s complex chemistry, right?
GALITZER: Right. Absolutely.
SOMERS: This ‘new way to age’ requires detective work, a new approach. I don’t remember the last time you ordered a blood test on me, you seem to get more out of bioenergetics.
I’ve started taking my 20 mgs. of cortisol all in the morning rather thaN spreading it out throughout the day, and I have so much more energy. Why is that?
GALITZER: Normally your cortisol is highest in the morning. Your own adrenal glands produce about 20mgs. daily and in some people 30 milligrams a day. So, giving you 20 is still physiological and if you get sick that is when you double the dose.
SOMERS: do you treat the heart?
GALITZER: I ALWAYS SUPPORT THE HEART IN PATIENTS OVER 70. I ALSO SEE cancer patients.
I see cancer as a tug of war; the energy of the cancer VS. the energy of the body.
Traditional medicine tries to win the tug of war by killing the bad guys. Unfortunately, then the good guys are weakened.
My approach has always been to strengthen the body, and I thoroughly believe that people with cancer can get better with chemotherapy or with immunotherapy as long as somebody is paying attention to the body. I DON’T AGREE WITH THE STATISTIC THAT CHEMO IS ONLY EFFECTIVE IN 5 % OF CASES. THOSE STATISTICS DO NOT APPLY TO PATIENTS THAT ALSO INCORPORATE INTEGRATIVE MEDICINE IN THEIR PROTOCOL. My experience has been that if you give intravenous Vitamin C on the weeks between chemo, and if you strengthen the liver, the adrenals, and work at controlling the stress and worry of having cancer you’ve got a good shot at winning. Everybody with cancer has weak adrenals, and you need to know that chemo kills cancer cells but all THOSE DEAD CELLS HAVE to be cleared by the liver so supporting the liver is crucial for GETTING WELL So, if you are supporting the adrenals and supporting the rest of the organs in the body people seem to do MUCH better.
You have got to win the tug of war and the only way to win the tug of war is to make a concerted effort to support the body.
My approach has always been to honor the belief system of the patient AND tell the patient that you have TO HAVE BOTH AN ONCOLOGIST AND AN INTEGRATIVE MEDICINE PRACTITIONER. MY WIFE, DR. JANET HRANICKY, HAS CREATED THE COMPREHENSIVE CANCER WELLNESS PROGRAM AT HIPPOCRATES HEALTH INSTITUTE IN WEST PALM BEACH, FLORIDA. JANET HAS WORKED WITH CANCER PATIENTS FOR 35 YEARS. SHE VIEWS CANCER AS A METABOLIC DIESEASE. SHE TEACHES PEOPLE HOW TO INCORPORATE A HOLISTIC APPROACH INTO THEIR OVERALL CANCER TREATMENT PLAN, AND DEVELOP PERSONALIZED STRATEGIES FOR GETTING WELL AND STAYING WELL THE PROGRAM ADDRESSES TOPICS SUCH AS STRESS, PSYCHOLOGICAL FACTORS AND CANCER, AND THE POWER OF THE MIND IN GETTING WELL. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS PROGRAM FOR ANYONE WANTING TO BEAT CANCER. IT IS A ONE WEEK PROGRAM GIVEN MONTHLY.
SOMERS: Any patient that has cancer and is on chemotherapy must understand the concept that if you are breaking down you’ve got to build it up.
GALITZER: The real mandate for us as we get older is a continual need to optimize our cardiovascular system. Exercise is key and that’s one of the hard things to do when you are sick. Traditional medicine has two weaknesses; an inability to motivate patients to change, and an inability to show people how to change. Motivation is key, people need to exercise. I put my patients on the Sonix vibrational machine just to get their body moving. They seem to like that a lot. Then I use the EECP (enhanced external counter pulsation) which improves blood flow throughout the body, it’s a great technology for a lot of people.
CoQ10 is also great nutrient for the heart, and the herb Hawthorn is great for the heart.
SS: what’s the average age of your patients?
MG: As I have progressed in this practice the patients are no longer 20,30. and 40 years old, but now they are 60, 70 and 80 and the need to optimize the cardiovascular system is critical.
SOMERS: When you and I were both kids we went to our doctors and he handled everything. Specialization hadn’t started yet, but the downside of specialization is nobody is talking to the other doctors in charge of the other parts of the patient’s body. So, as a result, there is a lot of medication-mixing that OVERLOADS THE PATIENT. I have always felt there should be an ‘alpha doc’ with the different doctors who specialize in different parts of the body in adjoining offices where they all get together and discuss patient #1.
One of the nicest things that happened to me this year was being in your office when you asked me how I was feeling and I said I think I am the happiest I have ever been in my life. And then you used your BIOENERGETIC testing and went whoa! and said my oxytocin (the love and happiness hormone) was off the charts.
I thought about that a lot. Because I don’t take oxytocin. I thought about it because for years I’ve practiced gratitude in my daily meditations. Its the first thing I do every morning, I wake up and thank God for the life I live and the life that I was able to create. How important is happiness relative to health?
GALITZER: Its critical. The Beatles said it so well; “Love is all there is”. I can measure oxytocin or oxytocin energy so to speak and I find it so important in treating my patients. I think guys don’t have nearly as much oxytocin as women because women are mothers. They deliver babies and as a rule more intuitive and more connected to the world than men; there are of course exceptions. Interesting, I find cancer patients don’t have enough oxytocin -- I actually believe that cancer fills in the space that love is supposed to fill in, as in were you loved as a kid? Do you deserve love? Are you loving in your relationship with your wife or husband? Do you love your kids? Do your kids love you? How do you express love? All of that is reflected in oxytocin levels and you obviously, are extremely loving and have high levels. Women with cancer (I can tell you) don’t have enough love in their life. Men would actually benefit from a little bit of oxytocin as a supplement especially the hard driving men that aren’t too concerned about other people’s feelings. They could probably use a little oxytocin.
SOMERS: Am I loving because I make high levels of oxytocin or do I have high oxytocin which then makes me a more loving being?
GALITZER: Don’t know but it’s something I prescribe when it feels called for; I actually take it from time to time in the office, -- In the kind of work I do I am always holding hands with people and you pick up a lot of energy that way, frequently good energy, but not always good energy and so IF I am a little flustered and a little irritable I find oxytocin sublingually is wonderful.
SS :One of the things I find so enjoyable about writing a book is sometimes things manifest I don’t plan. I love free-form. Throughout this book the importance of our thoughts and that thoughts create keeps arising as a theme; that we are in charge of our health and happiness by the thoughts we think and that if we grew up in an environment that wasn’t emotionally healthy our job as adults is to recognize who we are (or aren’t) and do the work that we can to change it. Do you concur, that thoughts are that important?
GALITZER: Absolutely. I used to have this SAYING on the wall in the office that said ‘thoughts that make you happy make you well’. The three key things in life are; purpose, passion and gratitude. You talked about gratitude earlier. But your purpose -- Why are you here? What’s your vision? What’s your goal? What’s your dream? If you find your purpose and let your purpose drive you, THAT IS A VERY IMPORTANT PATH to happiness. The people that don’t do well are the people that focus on what they don’t have, AND those that focus on what they CAN’T control.
SS: How do you cleanse and fortify your mind of negatives? What are the things that get in the way of that?
MG: I would say the major thing that gets in the way of people’s progress is fear: Fear of illness, fear of death, fear of cancer, fear of poverty, fear of loss of love, fear of criticism.
SS: what is the antidote to fear?
MG: Faith. Having the faith is key that it’ll all work out.
SOMERS: The older I get the more God plays a bigger and bigger role in my life. It’s very comforting. Probably has a lot to do with the happiness. You say your patients are more in the 50’s, 60’s, 70, 80-year range and that’s the time of life when we start depleting; our hormones become depleted, our minerals and nutrients become depleted, we have difficulty absorbing as well (or at all) as we once did. Our stomachs stop making sufficient stomach acid, we don’t make enough digestive enzymes. The list goes on and on. I am sure that all this is part of the myriad of complaints. wrong. What do you do for them?
GALITZER: There is a lot that I do. We talk about the high levels of toxicity and the three key organs to get the toxins out are the drainage organs; liver, lymph and kidneys. Herbs and homeopathics HELP to strengthen the liver, lymph and kidneys. Liver drainage is helped by lemon in your water, celery juice is great, juicing green vegetables is great. Acupuncture for people to improve the flow of energy through the acupuncture channels. We use energetic therapies like Ondamed which is pulsed electromagnetic fields. Creating a magnetic field will increase blood flow to the organs so that’s key.
Light therapy is another form of energy. For stress reduction I use NuCalm -which is a great system to balance the autonomic nervous system, THAT we talked about earlier. And then find out what foods they are allergic OR HAVE SENSITIVITIES to, including gluten and dairy. Supplements are key because we are not getting enough nutrition from our food. Today’s food is questionable, it’s contaminated. There are too many pesticides in the food so people need supplements from good supplement companies, a multivitamin, a multimineral, Vitamin D, fish oils, curcumin for inflammation. A FRIEND OF MINE IS GURUJI MAHENDRA TRIVEDI. HE IS A SCIENTIST, AND HAS MADE A VERY IMPORTANT DISCOVERY REGARDING VITAMIN D. AS YOU KNOW VITAMIN D IS ALSO A HORMONE. FOR IT TO HAVE AN EFFECT IT MUST ENTER THE NUCLEUS OF THE CELL AND BIND TO A VITAMIN D RECEPTOR. HE HAS DISCOVERED THAT EVEN THOUGH MANY PEOPLE HAVE NORMAL LEVELS OF VITAMIN D IN THE BLOOD, IT IS NOT GETTING INTO THE CELL. HE HAS CREATED A TECHNOLOGY THAT INCREASES THE NUMBER OF VITAMIN D RECEPTORS, AND INCREASES THE BINDING OF VITAMIN D TO THE RECEPTORS. THUS THE EFFECT OF VITAMIN D ON THE IMMUNE SYSTEM AND THE REST OF THE BODY WILL BE GREATLY ENHANCED. THIS RESEARCH HAS BEEN VERIFIED BY 2 INDEPENDENT LABS. THIS IS A MAJOR DISCOVERY.
SOMERS: And Magnesium
GALITZER: yes magnesium is very important, most people are magnesium deficient. Intravenous Vitamin C is important to help boost people quickly. And then hormones are critical, especially adrenal hormones.
SS: how do you strengthen adrenals with supplements?
MG: Herbs like ashwagandha, rhodiola, licorice, Siberian ginseng, homeopathics, all strengthen adrenals and some people need cortisol, plus many people need the hormone DHEA.
Then the hormones that really make people feel WELL, as you have written about so extensively Suzanne; estrogen, progesterone, testosterone for women and testosterone for men. These are important.
If you are a big guy and your blood test for testosterone HAS A NORMAL range of 300 to 1,000 and you are at 400, well you didn’t get to be a big guy by having a testosterone level of 400 when you were 20 years old. So as you age men and women need more testosterone. Women always need estrogen and progesterone and this IDEA about BIO-IDENTICAL HORMONES ARE THE CAUSE OF cancer is ridiculous.
Natural bioidentical hormones when used in a program that addresses toxicity and hormonal balance, exercise and optimal nutrition all together have an anti-aging effect. This keeps your brain sharp and your heart AND BONES strong
SOMERS: I don’t know who I would be without my bioidentical hormones.
GALITZER: I agree, they do keep one happy and upbeat.
SOMERS: There is a myth out there that you take hormones for a while and then you don’t need them. That is not true, once you drain out you are never going to rev up again, so once you start hormone replacement it’s a commitment for life.
MG: yes, and you will feel so good you will want to be committed to this for life.
SS: It’s a simple thing to do; rubbing on some cream everyday.
You started talking about NuCalm; what it is and why you have been so very enthusiastic about it?
Is this because our stress levels are so off the charts that here is a non-drug protocol that allows to calm yourself down and de-stress?
GALITZER: to be healthy you need energy AND coherence; that means the cells need to talk to each other and have proper signaling. The autonomic nervous system is part of the signaling process, sending impulses to the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system.
Most people have an imbalance. If their sympathetic nervous system is too strong, and their parasympathetic nervous system is too weak; it’s not good, a great example is a heart attack.
The new research seems to indicate that people who get heart attacks have an underlying weak parasympathetic nervous system and then they get a sympathetic stress. That stress can be an emotional outburst, anger outburst, or physically exercising too much, WHICH can throw these systems out of balance and cause the heart to get acidic.
Then the heart swells, the coronary artery CONSTRICTS, A CLOT FORMS and you have a heart attack.
But if you have a strong parasympathetic nervous system you could handle any sympathetic stress and we have sympathetic STRESSORS every day. NuCalm has been proven through heart rate variability to strengthen the parasympathetic or relaxation/energy recovery nervous system.
Q: How does one arrive on the planet with a strong parasympathetic system? Is that just the luck of the draw?
GALITZER: We arrive with a strong sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system. WE EXPERIENCE STRESSORS IN MANY AREAS OF LIFE THAT AFFECT OUR NERVOUS SYSTEM. IF THERE IS TOO MUCH SYMPATHETIC STIMULATION, THE RESULT CAN BE hypertension (high blood pressure).
The parasympathetic nervous system CAN BE STRENGTHENED BY
meditation, exercise, POTASSIUM, AVOCADOES, DEEP BREATHING, YOGA, PEPPERMINT TEA, GARGLING, AND SINGING.
With NuCalm you put on head phones and listen to music, but EMBEDDED WITHIN the music there are brain frequencies that put you into what’s called alpha and theta states. When you and I ARE talking we are in beta, that means our brains are beating 12 to 18 times a second. Alpha is the meditation state so the brain slows down to eight to 12 beats per second, and theta is a deep kind of dreamlike creative state where the brain goes between four and seven beats per second.
NuCalm takes you from your heightened thinking state into a calm or relaxed alpha and theta state. Doing it for 30 minutes relieves stress, PREVENTS ANXIETY, sleep is enhanced, and people feel so much better.
SOMERS: Where can my reader get NuCalm?
GALITZER: Well there is a website NuCalm.com – and there’s a book THAT I WROTE called A New Calm. It’s been SCIENTIFICALLY validated at Harvard for its ability to strengthen the parasympathetic nervous system. All sorts of people use it especially in the sports field; the Washington Capital Hockey Team which won the Stanley Cup uses it, the Golden State Warriors use it, Nick Foles the 2018 Super Bowl quarterback for the Philadelphia Eagles uses it, Djokovic who won THE LAST Wimbledon, AND is number one in the world uses it.
Life seems to cause us to be too sympathetically driven and WE DON’T RELAX ENOUGH. People sleep poorly and NuCalm helps with all that.
SOMERS: Alan has been using it for the last couple of years due to issues where mold AFFECTED HIS NERVOUS SYSTEM CAUSING FACIAL SPASMS. In order to get his face to calm down AND stop the involuntary spasms he uses NuCalm and when he puts it on, he always falls into a deep sleep.
You are the new version of the old country doctor, just in a much more sophisticated way. I come to you because I want you to figure out my ‘body language’; my aches and pains, bloating, constipation, moods, dry skin and the things that go wrong as we age. All issues of ‘body language’ are actually your body telling you something is wrong or ‘off’. This I believe is what people are looking for, this is what people want, we don’t want a prescription pad anymore.
GALITZER: yes, people want to feel great. That’s why I titled my FIRST book “Outstanding Health”. When I ask my patients do you want to live to 100 and they say, ‘not if I am in a nursing home or in a walker or a wheelchair’. People want outstanding health. We reward outstanding in our society, right? We give Academy Awards, Super Bowl rings, gold medals. Basically, people want to feel great, and the way to get that is more than just normal X-rays and normal blood tests.
You have to look at energy, coherence, and signaling in the body and there are ways to do all that. So, it’s exciting and it stays exciting -- I just told you after doing this for 32 years I’m more excited than ever.
SOMERS: It’s exciting as a patient. I am as happy as you said I tested and I sure feel it every day I think it’s because I do have outstanding health.
SOMERS: Well thank you for your pearls of wisdom. My readers are looking for a ‘new kind of doctor’ in order to access ‘the new way to age. I see these people in your waiting room.
Along the way people are getting truly well. We are going to live longer than we have ever lived before in the history of humanity so we might as well have a lot of fun and quality.
It requires initiative and an understanding that the doctor isn’t responsible for your health, you are responsible for your health.
MG: it is my privilege to assist in the journey.