S1 Ep 4: 'Wheat and the Brain' featuring Tom O'Bryan DC, CCN, DACBN

Are you a nutritional therapist or nutrition professional - you'll love the new IHCAN magazine Podcast.

Presented by the wonderful nutritional therapist Kirsten Chick, we'll bring you IHCAN content you know and love in easily digestible 45 minute episodes, perfect to listen to on a commute, a dog walk, while cooking or in-between clients 🎧.

Dr. Tom O’Bryan has been educating us about the potential dangers of wheat and gluten for many years, and how eating wheat could potentially develop into autoimmune conditions.
 
In this episode we focus on wheat and brain health, including Alzheimer’s disease, brain fog and depression. Dr. Tom talks us through the immune response to wheat, via toll-like receptor IV and zonulin in the gut, through to the blood brain barrier and glial cell activity in the brain. He explains why it’s not just the gluten in wheat that’s the problem, what to test for, and why declining brain health is the “canary in the coal mine”.
 
 “There has been, between 2013 and 2017, in a four year period - these are the most  recent statistics that I can find - there was a 407% increase in the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s in 30 to 44 year olds. Wow. In four years, a 407% increase in 30 to 44 year olds. This is like… can you let that sink in for a minute? What do you think has happened in the last six years now? Since that statistic cameout? Anything changed for the better in terms of air pollution?”


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Want to hear more from Dr Tom O'Bryan? Listen to him live in London at this year's IHCAN Summit on Saturday 24 June.

For more information and to book your place, visit https://www.ihcansummit.co.uk.

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The IHCAN magazine Podcast is provided for professional education and debate and is not intended to be used by non-medically qualified individuals as a substitute for, or basis of, medical treatment.

Transcript

Speaker 1

Hello, I'm Kirsten, Chick nutritional therapist and author, and I'd like to welcome you to series one of the ICAN Magazine podcast on today's episode. I'm talking with Doctor Tom O'Brien, who has been educating us about the potential dangers of wheat and gluten for many years, and how it could. Potentially develop into autoimmune condition. So today we're going to be specifically focusing on brain health, but we'll be touching on some autoimmune conditions as well. But first of all, hello, Doctor Tom, thank you for joining me on the ICAN Magazine podcast.

Speaker 2

Hello, Kirsten. Thank you. It's a real. Pleasure I love. Icon and all of the attendees at the conferences. It's always. An event that we. Look forward to so to have this opportunity on the podcast is wonderful. Thank you for that.

Speaker 1

Fantastic. And you're going to be speaking at the 2023 conference again this year. So wonderful. What initially led you into you that led you to be interested in this whole area of wheat and gluten originally?

Speaker 2

Yes, yes. Well, we have to go back 44 years. I was an intern and my ex and I could not get pregnant. We were trying and nothing was happening, so I called the seven most famous holistic doctors. Of the day. And I was lucky enough to be able to talk to all of them. And I asked, what do you do for infertility? Me and they said, well, do you know what a category one is? I said no. Learn. OK category one. And they all told me what they do and I put a programme together. We. Were pregnant in six weeks. And my neighbours in married housing, we lived on campus. They had been through artificial insemination and nothing had worked and they asked if I'd work with them. And I said, well, I don't, I don't know. I'm I don't think it's. Gonna hurt you. OK, they were pregnant in three months now. So now we're four months pregnant and our neighbours are pregnant and we're just telling all of our friends, you know, we were in Chicago. I was in. School in Chicago. We're just very happy and grateful and looking forward to this and. And tell our friends and our friend's sister in Wisconsin who had had three miscarriages. Called and said. Please can I come talk to you please? I said well, OK. And I worked with them. They got pregnant and they had a healthy pregnancy and delivery, so even before I got out into practise, I was already hot to trot to help couples who were having problems with pregnancy or fertility. You know, there's not much in medicine that's all or every but this was every. Every couple that was having problems with hormone related issues, whether it was recurrent miscarriages or premature ***********, it didn't matter what it was. One of the components contributing to the problem that they didn't know about, you know. You back out of the driveway. And you said what's wrong with this car? It it's going backwards but it shows up. The emergency brake and you let go of. The emergency brake and then you back up, right? One of the contributing factors for every single couple that we've worked with, and this has been true for 40 years, that they didn't know that an emergency brake that was inhibiting their progress, their health was that they were eating foods that didn't make them sick when they ate them, so they thought they were fine. And we know. Of course, in celiac disease, the ratio is 8 to one for every one patient that has gut symptoms, there are eight that don't. They feel fine when they eat wheat, but they get migraines or they have increased liver enzymes or their children have a fair failure to thrive. The shortest kids in the class, but they don't get sick when they eat wheat, so they. Think there's no problem? From there. So that misconception. That you have. To have gut symptoms, if what you're eating is a problem for you, that misconception still goes on today, you know, and there's all this science that says no, that's not true. But we forget, and it's critically important that our healthcare practitioners understand that basic concept. You know the Centre for Disease Control in the US tells us that 14 of the 15 top causes of death in the world today are chronic inflammatory diseases. Which means there's ongoing chronic inflammation that the person doesn't know what's going on. They don't know because they feel fine. And of course, I've said this so many times, the most common environmental trigger that's activating a inflammatory response is what's on the end of your fork. But if it doesn't make you sick when you eat it, you think there's no, or I can have a little of this. I mean those practitioners out there that are talking about a low gluten diet or a cheat day. Shame on you. There is no evidence that you can do that, and when you go gluten free and your autoimmune antibodies come down and we'll talk about that and you now put that disease into. Mission. You have a cheat day and you feel fine because it's not affecting your gut, it's affecting your thyroid or the myelin on your brain, you know, wherever it's affecting and you have a cheat day just one day, just one exposure. The risk is at the increased immune response from that. Cheat day. You're now producing antibodies to your thyroid for four to 8 weeks. Elevated antibodies from one cheat day, so I need to nail that one right. Now I should get a hammer. If I could just go boom.

Speaker 1

So with that, are you talking about celiac disease or are you talking about anyone with a gluten?

Speaker 2

Sense anyone with a wheat related disorder? There is no such thing because wheat is, as far as I know, the only food. It's it's not a food that's the problem. Wheat is the only thing we eat. That when you cross the line of tolerance, whenever that is at 2 years old, 22 years old, 92 years old, whenever you cross that line of tolerance and you start producing elevated antibodies to the peptides of poorly digested wheat. Whenever that happens, you also produce memory B cells. Memory B cells don't go away. You know, you you. Get a vaccination for measles and they give you a shot of the buck, right? And your brain says, whoa, what's that? And in your your your brain says to your immune system your general cause. You've got Army, Air Force, Marine Corps general sitting around with nothing to do. General, you now are general measles. Take care of this. General measles builds an assembly. Line the assembly line is specifically built to train soldiers special forces to go after measles. Nothing else. They just go after measles. They're special forces with high-powered rifles. And it takes a number of weeks to build this assembly line and to produce the antibodies. The response to a normal vaccination, not the garbage that we're exposed to right now with the last couple of years. But I'm talking about the childhood vaccinations. Takes takes a number of weeks to build that assembly line, and general measles is watching all this. So when the measles bug from the injection has been destroyed, there's no more of that around general measles says alright, turn off the assembly line. We don't need any measles antibodies right now. You shouldn't have measles antibodies in your bloodstream right now unless you've been exposed. But you shouldn't have them normally. So now, but general measles is vigilant, the rest of his life. That you're sitting on an aeroplane and some guy behind you from Mozambique coughs into the air and measles bugs are are in the air now and you breathe in measles bugs. General measles. That's always monitoring the bloodstream. Ohh, look. Measles. Turn on the assembly line. And in one day, maybe two days. The antibodies are right there. Not 4 to 8. Weeks cause you already built the assembly line. That's the purpose of a memory B cell. Wheat is the only food that I've ever found. The evidence you produce memory B cells when you cross that line of tolerance, and now you have elevated antibodies to any of the peptides of wheat, you produce memory B cells. So tell me. How in the hell? Did you get away with thinking it's OK? To have a cheat day.

Speaker 1

So do you think everybody's got memory B cells?

Speaker 2

Excuse me. No, no. Everybody has now crossed the line of tolerance. That's why you have to test the rule is test, don't guess. But once you have the elevated antibodies, you're done. That's it for wheat from a physiological point of view. Now, there's lots of research. Going on to find a drug that calms down toe like receptor for in your gut so it doesn't act. Activate this and you know within 5 minutes of wheat coming out of the stomach into the proximal part of the small intestine, which is where toe like receptor for the century standing guard. I refer to them as the soldiers at Buckingham Palace with those big hats, you know, they're as stiff as can be. They don't move, they they look harmless, they look dormant. But don't mess with those guys, right? That's toe like receptor 4 in your gut and toe like receptor 4 is watch. Everything that comes out of the stomach, everything, that's its job, it's it's, it's genetically how our ancestors survived. Those that could respond on to a toxin in the food that they were eating because the number one survival factor was. Did you get enough food? And this this is before agriculture. So you know your ancestor would find something. The first thing they do is sniff it. Then they nibble at it. Then they eat it, and if they had pathogens in it that they couldn't identify, it's toe like receptor 4. And the proximal part of the small intestine. That will that's there to scan everything that's coming out of the stomach. And when it sees a bug, two things happen. It activates the production of zonulin. Which is the mechanism causing leaky gut and I've shown the videos before at icon conferences within 5 minutes. Of that food coming into the proximal part of the small intestine in humans within 5 minutes, here comes leaky gut. Now, why would that happen? Well, it's because the life saving mechanism that leaky gut opening up the tight junctions between the cells is designed to let water come into the lumen of the intestines. Why to wash out the bug with the poop? Just wash it out. You know, but sometimes you know the it's like. If you have mud stuck on the driveway and you turn on a garden hose to try and wash the mud off, but it's caked on to the driveway, you have to put your thumb over the opening of the hose to get a spray, and then you can spray it. That's zonulin. It's a life saving mechanism, leaky. That's not bad for you. Excessive leaky gut is bad for you, right? So toe like receptor for when it identifies a threat? Two things. First, it increases zonulin production and second it increases NF Kappa B. The major amplifier of inflammation inside the. So every time and Maureen Leonard, a very famous gastroenterologist at Harvard, did a literature review on this topic in 2017, six years ago. I mean, every healthcare practitioner should know this by now, but she did a literature review of over 60 studies on this topic. And she published the Journal of the American Medical Association and confirmed that this happens in all humans who consume gluten. So unless someone that's watching this interview is not human. It means that every time you eat wheat, you get leaky, you get transient, leaky gut and increased inflammation in your gut every time without exception.

Speaker 1

So is this why your vocabulary has shifted from talking about gluten to talking about wheat?

Speaker 2

Really good question. We now know that there are many components in wheat that activate TOLICH receptor for it, not just the gluten proteins. There's the glutenin proteins, the opiate receptor stimulating gluteal morphans. The amylase trypsin inhibitors are likely the most powerful activator. Of TOLAK receptor 4 and the amylase trypsin inhibitors, the ATI's activate folate receptor 4 at nanomolar concentrations that's one billionth of a gramme. And it activates TOLICH receptor 4, so you get something gluten free. It's not amylase, trypsin inhibitor free. It's not wheat germ agglutinin free. The lectins and wheat. Maybe it's gluten free. That doesn't mean it's safe. So there's a whole world that we've been misled and that's what I'm going to talk about this year, about the diets between gluten, free ketogenic, Paleo, Vegetarian Mediterranean. I'm gonna go boom. Boom, boom, boom, boom and just show that these diets that seem to be beneficial. Also have a potential downside. So we need to be much more selective about our recommendations to patients and how long should they be doing a particular diet and how do you monitor if you're being successful with that recommendation to them. So that's what we're going into later this year in June.

Speaker 1

That's a fantastic little teaser, but we're not gonna go into that now and I wanna talk about the brain. And you've talked about? Leaky gut, obviously there's similar issues going on with the blood brain. Barrier as well. Well, you've you spoke about this at last week at last year's conference you you spoke all about the brain and then and and you were talking about the Canary. Why why were you referencing the Canary?

Speaker 2

Yes, yes, yes. The brain is the Canary in the coal. Mine, which means coal miners in the 1800s would take a Canary in a cage down into the coal mine with them, and they'd light a candle and leave the Canary over on the side there, singing its little thing all day. And if the Canary stopped singing, someone walked over to the cheque, and if the Canary had fallen over dead, they blew a whistle and everyone immediately got out of there because the Canary is much more sensitive to methane gas and carbon monoxide, and it'll fall over dead. Before humans fall over dead, so a Canary in the coal mine is a term that means an early warning system. Of problems that are going on right now. And, you know, unfortunately your generation doesn't know this, and that's what our presentation was about last year. There has been between 2013 and 2017 in a four year period. This are the most recent statistics that I can find. There was a 407% increase in the diagnosis of Alzheimer's in 30 to 44 year old. Wow. In four years, 407% increase in 30 to 44 year olds. This is like. And you let that sink in for a minute. What do you think has happened in the last six years now? Since that statistic came out? Anything changed for the better in terms of air pollution? In one study, I'll show this year 200. And seven, I think it was 207 healthy adults in Mexico City, healthy. No complaints, 202 have evidence of early Alzheimer's. Wow. It's like what, what? That the pandemic that's going on right now is something we're all not aware of and it's what's going on in our brains. So we're we're going to talk about that this year and about diets and how diets, especially in women of childbearing age. And what what happens to your future baby's brain depending? On what you're eating.

Speaker 1

Yeah. So, so back to the current brain that a really hot topic has been recently has been brain fog, partly because and people talk about brain fog a lot with things like chronic fatigue and various post viral syndromes. But also menopause is a major. Hot topic at the moment and that's one of the key wonderful features of menopause that that so many experience is brain fog as well. So what? What? Are the links that you've been seeing there between weeks?

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Speaker 2

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's a really good one. Could everyone, as long as you're not driving, would everyone please just cross your legs for a minute? Thank you, Kristen. OK, leave them like that for three hours. Stand up and run. You can't. OK, uncross your legs, but. You can't. There's not enough blood. When you don't have enough blood, you get brain fog. I mean, that's what brain fog is. It's called hypoperfusion. That's the primary contributor because when you fix the hypoperfusion, the brain fog is gone in a couple of minutes. It's just gone. 73% of people with wheat related disorders have hypoperfusion in the brain. And the area of the brain depends upon your genetics and antecedents. How you live your life. You know you play soccer, you do head ****, head ****, head ****. You have that minor trauma, accumulative minor trauma in a practise you might be practising your head **** into the goal, so you do it 20 times. You know that's trauma. And you breach the blood brain barrier. You cause a breach of the blood brain barrier. So just depending on what area of the brain is more vulnerable is where the hypoperfusion manifests. If it's in the back of the brain, you get seizures. But it all for everyone. The 73%. It always included the frontal lobes. And that's where depression and anxiety come from. That's why Michael Mays, MA ES. If you Google Professor Michael Mays, he's in Thailand and. I I forget, I I think it's London. He married a Thai woman. So he has an office there and I think his other offices in. London. But you read his science and he's the first guy that ever referred to the leaky gut diet in the early 90s to deal with depression and anxiety. And because wheat was, and his leaky gut diet is gluten free, dairy free, added sugar free and the result is these people with major depressive disorder, which by definition means you're on 2 medications, but you can't function, you can't go to work. You're really in a bad, bad way. That's major depressive disorder. They get better on a leaky gut diet because it's the gut and the inflammation from the gut. I think everybody knows this now, but it was Michael Gershon from I believe is at Princeton in 1999, wrote the book the Second Brain. And he told us back then for every one message from the brain going down, giving instruction to the gut, there's nine messages from the gut going up, giving instruction to the brain. The Ratio's 9 to one right and so that's why you always have to deal with the gut when you've got brain dysfunction of any type.

Speaker 1

I've heard you say as well that we talk about the guts as the secondary brain, but actually we should be calling it. The primary brain.

Speaker 2

Exactly. Well, just look at the numbers. You know, people. Oh, that's nonsense. Really. Really just. Read the science. Who's in control here. The Ratio's 9 to one. So and so we'll use the scientific term modulates brain function.

Speaker 1

And then say is. That obviously there's going to be lots of different mechanisms involved here. But we've already talked about the we're we're talking about like. Got briefly mention the blood brain barrier. Can you explain a little bit more about how wheat, gluten and so on then affects the blood brain barrier as well?

Speaker 2

You bet. You bet. There's six different ways that I'm aware of that have been identified. The the most common one is hypoperfusion. The lack of brain blood flow into the brain for symptomatology, but for pathology molecular mimicry is very common. Which means that when you have elevated antibodies, the the most common test and the one that unfortunately some labs still only offer and they say it's for wheat and it's for gluten is antigliadin antibodies and it's good test but 50%. Of celiacs don't have elevated antigliadin. And then antibodies, well, what does that mean? It means there must be other triggers besides gliding, right? That's why, you know, I I talked about it last year about the wheat Zoomer test. It's called the wheat cause you zoom in on the problem and it's available now in England, Great Britain. And it looks at 26 different markers of poorly digested wheat, so you don't miss them anymore. But when you have elevated. Antibodies to gliden, which many people do you? Can't count on. That test, to be comprehensive in determining if there's a wheat related disorder, but it's still a good test. If you have elevated glide and antibodies, those antibodies will attack the blood vessels of the brain. Is called molecular mimicry, and those antibodies looking for gluten are looking for glidin. The amino acid structure of glidin is very similar to the inside lining of the capillaries in the brain. It includes that protein, not protein, that amino acid signature. And so the antibodies, the special forces that are looking for glide and in the bloodstream because, you know, your bloodstream's. Just a highway. I mean, you know, just a highway with no lanes of traffic. You know it's. Like driving in in India, if you've ever been to India, don't drive in India. Do not drive there.

Speaker 1

I said yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2

Those guys take their legs in their hands, but everything's bouncing into each other. But molecular mimicry means special forces sees something over there on the walls that's look over there glidden's hiding, and it fires its chemical bullets at the blood vessel wall and it creates a a breach in the blood, brain barrier. Leaky brain. So then molecules that may be normal in the bloodstream but are too large to get into the brain because the blood brain barrier is the tightest of our barriers in all mucosal immunology. But now you got a leaky brain. So molecules that are in the bloodstream normal in the bloodstream, they get through the leaky brain. And then your immune system in the brain, the glial cells, they're just dormant, just like toylike receptors are. They're just dormant. But this all of a sudden this larger molecule, this macro. Molecule gets inside the blood vessel wall and glial cells do not mess around. They don't have high-powered rifles like special forces, they have bazookas. And they. And they just destroy whatever's trying to get into the brain. Well, that's a really good thing. But if you're eating weed every day because you haven't identified it, and you've got molecular mimicry, that's your genetic vulnerability. Attacking the capillaries in the brain, allowing macromolecules that are normal in the bloodstream but get through into the brain. Activating the glial cells trying to protect you. You've got like. Well, the US the 4th of July fireworks. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. And that's inflammation in the. And then when you do the neural zoomer plus test, which I talked about last year, that looks at 53 markers of inflammation in the brain. Your blood test just lights up. You've got so much inflammation in the brain. Here. Here, here, here, here. It just lights up and you go. Oh, my God. That is why. There's a 407% increase in four years in Alzheimer's and 30 to 44 year. Is because their parents grew up in the generation of way too many chemicals causing problems in the body. So Mom had too much of that stuff in her and then baby was born and grew up with more of these chemicals. And so these young people, these people of your age bracket. They've been exposed to.

Speaker 1

You're being very kind to me. I'm a. Little bit older than that.

Speaker 2

Oh, that's well, that's OK. But you know, but they've been exposed to so much more of this stuff than ever before in history, that is. By every autoimmune disease that's been checked is going up 4 to 9% every year. And the worst of the mall is celiac. Celiac is climbing faster than anything else. But every Hashimoto psoriasis rheumatoid and it doesn't matter, they're all going up 4 to 9% a year. But This is why it's the it's the level of toxins that we're all being exposed to now and your immune system is just overwhelmed, right? And you get leaky gut and then you get leaky brain and.

Speaker 1

And wheat is going in there and. Just opening the doors to. All of this.

Speaker 2

Wheat is, you know, the most common source of triggers of inflammation, what I call gasoline on the fire is what's on the end of your fork. That's the most common sort, except in Mexico City. It's the air in the study that I referenced earlier. But it's what's on the end of your fork and wheat is the most common food that people eat multiple times a day, every day. Our society is completely dependent. On it, 20 to 48% of the protein in somebody's diet comes from wheat. Very, very common to see that and the B vitamins because the flowers are enriched and the the minerals that the flowers are enriched with, some people, they don't take any vitamins. And so they're dependent on much of their. Nutrients from the wheat products they're eating.

Speaker 1

Mm-hmm. So just to get practical for a second. So we've got all of these kind of the the gluten free industry out there that have produced all of these foods that have got like 1520, thirty ingredients in there trying to simulate that kind of chewy fluffiness, that gluten. Provides and failing miserably, but still trying obviously. We're not gonna. Recommend that people start eating loads of these foods. What's your best tip for somebody that just says I just miss bread?

Speaker 2

Me too. I'm happy Italian. My grandparents came from Italy in 1922. We made our own pasta. I I grew up with homemade pasta a couple times a week. Every week, homemade ravioli, mostacholi, Canali. And you know, I grew up on all that. I just miss sweet. Well, OK, OK, you know, well, I you know it. Doesn't matter. Live with it. Live with it, right?

Speaker 1

Find other pleasures.

Speaker 2

Yeah, and and of course, I don't mean to negate that, but as healthcare practitioners. We have to dial it in for ourselves. Once you dial in the lifestyle that works and you just keep doing the weed Zoomer every six months until you've nailed this until the test is negative, you know, and it should be coming down every time. But some people, they still have things that they cheat. 5th or they still have. Cross reactivity with another food and so they have to learn a little more about how to take care of it.

Speaker 1

Yeah. We haven't even mentioned cross reactivities, have we? That's a whole other.

Speaker 2

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But, you know, in my view, healthcare practitioners need to get off their Duff and become the very best in the world, trained on guiding people, living a wheat free lifestyle.

Speaker 1

Kettle of fish.

Speaker 2

Not just gluten free wheat free lifestyle. There is a paper that's ohh. It's just over there on my desk. I can't quite. That to it that unfortunately talks about the amount of emilys trypsin inhibitors and other wheat components in gluten free beer. Which means just that you're still activating the immune system. You're still getting all those problems and you're still going to fuel your Ms or your rheumatoid or your serialis or your hash. But it's gluten free.

Speaker 1

I have people coming to see me who have reported that they've tried some gluten free products and they can't tolerate them at all. They get the same thing, yeah.

Speaker 2

Yeah, yeah, exactly. And it's that, that's probably the reason why, you know, people in the US say, well, I can go to Europe and I can eat the wheat and I'm fine I. Said no, you're not. No, no, no, no, doc, I'm fine. I can eat the pasta and I feel great. And then I have to, you know, you explained to him that. Well, there's a component in wheat called fermentable carbohydrates, fodmaps and the fodmaps. When you have a sensitivity to the fodmaps in wheat, you get bloating, you get gas, you get cramps. But gluten doesn't so much cause bloating and gas and cramps. Gluten activates the immune system, so here comes the system. Systemic problems, depending on your genetics and your antecedents, gluten triggers the systemic problems. Gluten and wheat. Fodmaps trigger the gut problems for the most part. You know there's some crossover, but the majority and the wheat in Europe is lower in fodmaps. That's why the Americans can go to Italy and eat the pasta, and they feel fine, but they come back and all of a sudden they're headaches are back again. Or their their Ms symptoms are starting to creep in a little bit. So I always tell patients I always.

Speaker 1

OK.

Speaker 2

Tell them that. Look, let's just do the wheat zoomer. Let's just confirm everything's normal. You've worked really hard for the last 2 1/2 years. Way to go, let's just make sure everything's normal and then go to Europe and eat whatever you want and you'll feel fine when you eat the pizza in Italy and you'll be so happy and you'll just enjoy it cause I really. Miss my pizza. You know, and you'll you'll enjoy and then you come back and we'll do the test and you'll see your myelin. Antibodies are. Back because gluten activates the immune response. Amylase trypsin inhibitors activate the immune response. We germa glutens, activate the immune response.

Speaker 1

Better Together. Brilliant. It's so it's so good to make that real clear distinction as well. There's one question that I asked everybody. Well, there are two actually. The first one is, is there anyone or anything in the nutrition world right now that's really grabbing your attention?

Speaker 2

Oh my goodness, yes, there's a wonderful a a clinician in in Canada named Steven Genius. And he really is a genius. He's been writing articles now for many years about environmental exposure to toxins and how it affects us. And you, you take Doctor Geniuses observations and what he writes about. And when you understand, I mean, everyone should be intimately familiar and it's been in many of my presentations over the years since I first. Came to London in 2011 at the Royal Academy of Science and I've been talking about Doctor Arbuckles article in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2003, she. Went to the Veterans Administration hospital. And looked for people with lupus. She found 100. And 32 people, I think it was with lupus. And they're veterans. They were in the armed forces and they had their blood drawn many, many times when they were in the Navy and the Army and the Air Force. The Marines, when they were healthy. And what most people don't know is that US government's been saving almost all of that blood since 1978. They've got 10s of millions of samples of our service. People's blood well, Doctor Arbuckle knew this, so she asked for permission to go back and look at the blood of the currently diagnosed lupus patients. When they were healthy. And she got permission. And when she found every single one of them had all 7 antibodies to lupus, they're seven. All seven of them elevated years before they ever had a symptom. Years. And the average was seven. Years for the seven antibodies, some of them 13 years beforehand. The antibodies were elevated. And they felt fine. Well, you know, by definition, elevated antibodies are killing off more tissue than you're making. By definition, and So what she showed and it was a brilliant article and her drawings in there are great, everyone should just intimately be familiar with this article. Maureen Arbuckle, New England Journal Medicine, 2003, and she showed that every year all of the antibodies. Went up incrementally. Incrementally, incrementally killing off tissue, killing off tissue, killing off tissue until they hit this plateau and they stayed there. Then the symptoms started happening. And then it was six months to two years of symptoms before those 132 patients received a diagnosis of lupus. So when did it happen? When did they? Get lupus back there when the antibodies started going up, which means there's low grade inflammation going on for years and years when people feel fine. And that's one of my goals now. Is to help our clinicians understand how do I identify this low grade inflammation and how do I educate my patients that this is where we have to go? You want longevity and quality of life in your 70s, your 80s, your 90s. You need to deal with the low grade inflammation that's killing off cells, killing off cells, killing off cells. And we've got this. Pandemic, now of brain dysfunction. So a great every patient that comes to me every test that we. Every one of them gets the wheat zoomer and the neural zoomer plus, as the entry level for whatever is going on for them, and there may be other tests we have may have to do with thyroid panel or musculoskeletal panel, whatever, but they always get the neuro Zoomer plus and the wheat zoomer. Those two, because we have to start the mechanism they come to you for symptomatic relief. But I propose that we're there to help them work towards longevity and quality of life, that that's really what our primary no, some people, the primary role, you know you're you're in sports injuries, you just need to get them fixed and back on the field and that's what you love to do. That's great. Wait, but for most of us, we would like to help enhance quality of life and longevity. And the only way that it's not taking a better vitamin or you know, a better source of coenzyme Q10 or a better source of a new Tropic for brain function, you know all those things. Help, of course, but it's reducing the chronic, low grade inflammation that's not causing symptoms right now. Encouraging them to deal with it. So we have to educate them first. We have to identify it, educate them on what it means and then guide them into a lifestyle that is reducing that low grade chronic inflammation that currently is not causing symptoms.

Speaker 1

Which is true, preventative medicine is not. That's right. Yeah. OK. So what is it then, Doctor Tom, that you love most about your work?

Speaker 2

It gives me juice. You know, I think you can tell that I have a little excitement about this. I I enjoy talking about this because I know the impact it has. If I can be successful in imprinting on the. Impact of these studies, what these researchers are trying to tell us, if I can help our clinicians hold the big picture of this, then as they wrestle with it for themselves and their families and begin implementing some of this, then they carried out into the world. And they can look at a. Patient who says, well, I miss my. Pizza, I'd say. I know. Me too. I really miss it. I mean I. Grew up Italian. And but I. Feel so much better now and I understand that, you know, my likelihood of having a longer life and quality of life is is good. So there in my office in Chicago for 25 years. I had this. Poem on the wall in every room, every treatment room. You know, I had a number of treatment rooms there, but this poem was done all of them. So I'll tell. You the poem. Cause I think it's it's from George Bernard Shaw. This is the true joy in life. The being used for a purpose recognised by yourself as a mighty one. The being a force of nature. Instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining, the world will not devote itself to making you happy. I am of the opinion my life belongs to the whole. And it is. My privilege to do for it whatever I can. Life is no brief candle to me. It's a sort. Of splendid torch that I have a hold of for the moment and want to make burn as brightly as possible before passing it on to future generations. So I read that every day when I went into my office and it allowed me to not get caught by. Patience, resistance, and patients whining, being a selfish, feverish little clod of ailments and grievances, I miss my pizza. I could have a little, can't I? No, unfortunately, no. You can't cheat, cheat. Daves are not allowed in this world. You know, with sugar. OK, maybe, but not with things that activate your immune system, no. If you want to reduce the low grade chronic inflammation that's setting the stage for 14 of the top 15 causes of death in the world today.

Speaker 1

Wow. So that I mean, that really is an inspiring piece of poetry and hopefully this has been really inspiring for a lot of our listeners out there. So thank you so much. And Doctor Tom Bryan, for joining us today. So yes, that was Doctor Tom O'Brien chatting with me Kirsten Chick about about wheat, about the brain, about autoimmune conditions, the whole lot. And I hope you enjoyed it and have found it as interesting and. Useful as I have.

Speaker 3

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