In this episode · 2018-02-16 · 23:52 pill melatonin vs. liquid melatonin vs. liposomal melatonin...

Ep isodE #194

H o w t o d E t o x Y o u r B r a i nw i t H d r . C H r i s t i n E s C H a f f n E r

In this episode...

03:30 about Dr. Christine Schaffner ................................................................................................................................................................... 209:15 the glymphatic system .................................................................................................................................................................................. 415:29 glyphosate, aluminum and vaccines ........................................................................................................................................................ 620:16 sleep and the glymphatic system ............................................................................................................................................................. 823:52 pill melatonin vs. liquid melatonin vs. liposomal melatonin .......................................................................................................... 926:29 improving glymphatic system function ................................................................................................................................................ 1033:18 improving glymphatic system functioning with ultrasound ......................................................................................................... 1335:19 detox supplements ........................................................................................................................................................................................ 1440:13 chelators and binders .................................................................................................................................................................................. 1544:22 preparing the body for detoxification ................................................................................................................................................... 1746:38 DMSA ................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 1849:02 DMPS .................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 1850:39 heavy metal testing ...................................................................................................................................................................................... 1953:21 universal toxins ............................................................................................................................................................................................. 2054:18 order of detoxification ............................................................................................................................................................................... 2057:17 the most pressing health issue in the world today ....................................................................................................................... 221:00:05 more about Dr. Schaffner ........................................................................................................................................................................ 23

Wendy Myers: Hello everyone. Thank you so much for joining the Live to 110 Podcast. My name is Wendy Myers. And today, we have a very special guest, Dr. Christine Schaffner. And we’re going to be talking about how to detox that brain, how to drain your brain.

A lot of people are suffering from brain fog. A lot of people out there have trouble having conversations—you know who you are. I used to be that person too seven years ago—a little trouble forming sentences. And a lot of you are very, very tired and want to have mental clarity.

And there are a lot of things standing in the way of that that we’re going to be talking about today—why your brain is full of toxins, mercury, aluminum, glyphosate and other chemicals and what stands in the way of your brain draining and what you can do to detox your brain. We talk about supplements. We talk about synthetic chelators and natural chelators that help remove metals and toxins from your brain and your body. Very, very interesting conversation. This one is super juicy, full of lots of great details.

But before we have our little conversation, we have to keep in mind that this podcast is not intended to diagnose or treat any disease or health condition and is not a substitute for professional medical advice. This podcast is for informational and educational purposes only. So please consult your healthcare practitioner before engaging in anything that we suggest today on the show.

Ep isodE #194 H o w t o d E t o x Y o u r B r a i n

page 2 © The Live to 110 with Wendy Myers 2016

I am so thrilled to mention my new book, coming out on Amazon. It’s available right now for pre-order. It publishes April 29th 2017. So go, get it right now, hot off the press. It is called Limitless Energy: How to Detox the Toxic Metals to End Exhaustion and Chronic Fatigue.

I know so many of you also are very tired of being tired. I’ve been there myself—exhausted, overweight, brain fogged and angry about it. And so, in this book, I talk about all the different metals that cause fatigue, how they cause fatigue and how to detox them from your body, so that you can have and enjoy the energy that your body is capable of making so you can stop living off caffeine and stimulants like so many people are doing.

I’ve been guilty of that myself, just desperate for energy and willing to take, to intake whatever you need to get that energy and get through your day and take care of your family and get to work and perform. And unfortunately, these stimulants we’re all taking leave us more depleted, and eventually, over the course of many years, we develop adrenal fatigue or even chronic fatigue syndrome and other problems, reduced immunity, poor sleep. It has dramatic consequences on our health.

So, I want to help you get off that stimulant roller coaster and get your body making energy on its own. So that’s my goal with my book Limitless Energy.

03:30 ABouT Dr. CHrISTInE SCHAFFnErWendy Myers: our guest today is Dr. Christine Schaffner. She’s a forerunner in naturopathic care within the

beauty and health industries. She’s a board-certified naturopathic physician who graduated from Bastyr university in Seattle, Washington. She completed her undergraduate studies in pre-medicine and psychology at the university of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Dr. Schaffner is a passionate advocate for naturopathic medicine as a way of life, a medium for connecting every facet and function of the body to one another for greater overall health. Her expertise is in organic ingredients and therapies. And she’s informed her work in skin care within a diverse range of areas including oncology aesthetics.

Dr. Schaffner draws on both naturopathic and conventional therapies to develop individualized treatment plans that truly optimize a patient success in feeling and looking their best. Her work continues to evolve as she collaborates with deeply influential naturopaths which she then delivers to Bella Fiore patients.

outside of her work with Bella Fiore, Dr. Schaffner works closely with the world famous, the one and only Dr. Dietrich Klinghardt, MD, PhD. He’s a pioneer in the treatment of chronic illness at the Sophia Health Institute in Woodinville, Washington.

Dr. Schaffner is a true gem in the field of naturopathic medicine and beauty and wellness. Patients



come from across the country to experience her treatments as well as the luxurious services of her renowned staff of naturopathic trained aestheticians.

You can learn more about Dr. Schaffner at DrChristineSchaffner.com.

Christine, thank you so much for coming on the show.

Dr. Christine Schaffner: Thank you, Wendy. I’m so honored to be here.

Wendy Myers: Why don’t you tell the listeners a little about your background and how you ended up becoming a naturopathic doctor?

Dr. Christine Schaffner: Absolutely. So, actually my father is a medical doctor. He’s an oncologist. My mother has a nursing background. And I grew up on the east coast, outside of DC. But I was always around medicine. I joke, I think they say one of my brother’s first words was chemotherapy unfortunately. But I grew up in that environment.

And then as I got closer to the time when I was really considering whether or not to go to medical school or naturopathic school, I learned about Bastyr. And Bastyr university is a naturopathic university in Seattle, Washington. There are only a handful actually of universities that train MDs in our country. There is a school in Seattle, Portland, Arizona, one in Connecticut and then one also in Chicago.

And so it’s a really small profession, but I took a leap of faith and I went to Bastyr and I was really, really drawn to more of that holistic mind, body, spirit, going to the root cause of illness. The conventional medicine that I grew up around where I saw it served a purpose, I did see its limits and I did see some of the frustrations that my father encountered as a medical doctor.

And so yeah, I took a leap and went to Bastyr. And I’ve been really, really blessed and fortunate ever since I graduated Bastyr in 2010 That I’ve had the privilege and honor to work with my mentor, Dr. Dietrich Klinghardt. And so over the last seven years, I have really had a wealth of learning.

I started off seeing the toughest patients. Just with Dr. Klinghardt, he’s been in practice for about 43 years now and he really has honed a niche and seeing people who are really chronically ill who have seen many, many doctors, tried a lot of different approaches. They’ve been sick unfortunately for decades. So we’re thinking outside the box all the time.

And then during my training with him, we have the opportunity to create a clinic together called that Sophia Health Institute. That is outside of Seattle, Washington. And we have been in this configuration for about five years. And it’s been a wonderful learning opportunity. It’s just a really unique and innovative environment where not only does Dr. Klinghardt see patients there, but we have a team.

So we have a team of MDs and then we do IV therapy. We have a detoxification spa. We have two



types of colon hydrotherapy, ionic foot baths, infrared sauna, ozone steam sauna, lymph drainage, acupuncture, rolfing. You name it. We try to have a very compressive approach for patients to experience not only thorough assessment, but get a great experience with treatment and go home with a treatment protocol.

And then we try to replicate in their home, community some of these treatments that really work for them in the office, so they can really incorporate them into their protocol, their lifestyle so they can get better.

Wendy Myers: So, on the podcast today, we’re going to be talking about how to detox the brain and specifically the glymphatic system in the brain.

A lot of people want better brain functioning. I know I do. Everyone wants it. Everyone wants better. Some people are just trying to have a conversation with another human being and sound halfway intelligent. other people just want really speedy brain functioning and be able to have a very high functioning memory. We’re all looking for that next level.

And unfortunately, due to our toxic environment, we have a lot of metals and chemicals in our brain. And Dr. Schaffner is going to be talking to us today about how to do just that.

09:15 THE gLYMPHATIC SYSTEMWendy Myers: So, what is the glymphatic system and what is its role in detoxing the brain?

Dr. Christine Schaffner: Well, it’s a great system to know about. As we know, Wendy, like many patients, we have people who suffer from brain fog, depression, anxiety, neurological illness. And so, our brain health is really, really critical.

And there’s been a rise, as you know, in increased neurological illnesses and just chronic illness in general. And just before I even share what the glymphatic system is, I know that you educate a lot of your audience about what we’re up against, all the environmental toxicity. And when we think about the brain, we know a few really important things to be aware of.

one is mercury. Mercury has a huge effect on what we call astrocytes. So we know that it can damage neurons and lead to neurological illness.

Aluminum also is another heavy metal that creates a lot of neuro-vascular inflammation. So it’s going to inflame the blood vessels in the brain. There are studies that link Alzheimer’s directly to aluminum in the brain. There’s also glyphosate and I know that awareness has increased dramatically over the last few years around glyphosate. glyphosate is the active ingredient in roundup. And it has a synergistic effect actually with aluminum.

one of our friends, Dr. Seneff, wrote a great paper on how aluminum + glyphosate actually



damages the pineal gland and has also a couple of different mechanisms where it decreases melatonin in the brain. And so that’s something to be very aware of. And we evaluate all of our patients for glyphosate.

And even if you have a pristine diet, we still find that there are exposures to glyphosate. So it’s just something that is ubiquitous in our environment unfortunately.

And then EMF. EMF is something that I know a lot of you listeners are aware of, electromagnetic fields. Dr. Klinghardt, this is one of his most passionate topics to talk about. And he often says that in his 43 years, the illnesses that we see today are not the illnesses he used to see. And so of course our environment is a huge factor for some of the things I just shared about.

And then EMF is something—I think the iPhone is 10 years old. I don’t even know how old it is. But we’ve seen this exponential increase in electromagnetic field exposure over the last decade. And it keeps on increasing.

And we all have technology. I use it every day. But there is definitely hygiene that we can use and to try to decrease our exposure because it can damage our DnA. They are showing studies in Europe and even now in America about how EMF can have a dramatic effect on our neurological health.

And then infections. Infections are the other thing to think about when we think of brain health and why we want to even detoxify the brain to begin with.

So, in our paradigm, we think of any imbalance in the body as not only environmental toxicity, but also chronic infections and there’s chronic stress in the immune system. So we look at Lyme and co-infections, viruses, parasites. Mold exposure can be another damaging effect on the brain.

And so we think of all those things and that’s really what our brain is up against these days. And so I think it’s really important to know how we recover our brain.

And so the glymphatic system was actually recently discovered I think in about 2012. Why just was it in recent discoveries? Because you cannot examine this in a cadaver body. You have to be alive and awake to be able to see the activity of the glymphatic system.

And so it is natural ability, our brain’s natural ability to bring nutrients into the brain and take toxicity out.

And so if your listeners want to learn more, there are great YouTubes or even really great visual diagrams to show. But essentially, what happens is when we sleep – again, sleep is really, really important – the metabolic activity of our brain goes up about 10 times. And our brain actually shrinks.

The neurons actually shrink about 60% to make room for this movement of cerebrospinal fluid through our brain. So it comes quickly along arteries and moves across brain tissue around what



we call our neurons. And then it’s tightly controlled by astrocytes.

remember, astrocytes can be affected by mercury. And astrocytes are what we call a glial cell. That’s why it’s called the glymphatic system, so glial-dependent lymphatic system. And so that cerebrospinal fluid moves across the brain tissue and then exits along the veins. So it has this sweeping motion that happens again at night.

And one of the discoveries about those is that neurons naturally produce a protein called amyloid beta. People might have heard of this. They have connected high amounts of amyloid beta with Alzheimer’s disease. And what we’re finding is, actually, that as we age and if we don’t sleep well or if we’ve had a dramatic brain injury, if somehow, our glymphatic system is damaged, this accumulates in a way that is not ideal and that can actually damage neurons over time. So, that’s really one of the mechanisms that we’re thinking for Alzheimer’s.

So the glymphatic system is something that we should all be very aware of. And think about it not only helping us detoxify our ongoing exposures, but to prevent future neurological illness.

Wendy Myers: Yes, I’m glad you said all that. That is so good. Yeah, it’s so important to make these distinctions and talk about this because one of my number one complaints with people coming to me that are seeking to detox and tried all kinds of other things that are not really working, they’re not getting the results (meaning their health goals) that they want, one of their main concerns is brain fog.

That was one of my big concerns too. And toxins really explain a lot. I love that extra distinction you made about the glymphatic system and its role as well.

15:29 gLYPHoSATE, ALuMInuM AnD VACCInES Wendy Myers: And so something that really rang a bell for me in my mind when you talked about aluminum and

glyphosate and how those can potentiate each other and cause inflammation to the brain–and those are in vaccines. And so can you talk a little bit about that?

I know in a lot of vaccines, it’s not just regular aluminum. They’ve actually changed the formula to make it a much stronger aluminum, if you will, that does more damage to the brain. And so they’re doing that to elicit a response, an immunological response and they’re finding they seem to make forms of aluminum that are stronger, so to speak. Can you speak a little bit about that?

Dr. Christine Schaffner: Absolutely! And I really appreciate the education that you’re doing you’re your audience around vaccines. I feel like we have a safer climate to talk about it these days, but we see many, many vaccine-injured children in our practice and it’s something that’s heartbreaking. And I think that there should be again more informed consent around really what we’re exposing our children to.

In the paper that Dr. Seneff uses to describe this method, it’s an interesting mechanism. And for anybody who doesn’t know Dr. Seneff, she has been a really pioneer of educating people about



glyphosate. When we met her, I looked to Dr. Klinghardt and I said, “All we have to say is we’re treating glyphosate toxicity.” There’s a mechanism in the body for everything that we see go wrong with glyphosate.

glyphosate was first patented as an antibiotic. It has a huge effect on our microbiome. And so what Stephanie is demonstrating with glyphosate and aluminum is that, again, glyphosate is making our intestinal lining more damaged.

And so it’s going to affect the lining of our digestive tract. It’s going to increase the probability that we have dysbiosis in our gI tract for a lot of different reasons.

But as you probably know, a lot of children who have been affected by vaccines or have autism often have C. difficile or other types of anaerobic bacteria that can be producing different, what we could call, biotoxins.

one biotoxin, in particular, she mentions is called p-Cresol. And that actually increases the intestinal permeability even more. And so what happens is that this aluminum that we ingest—again, a vaccine is through the skin, which is even more dangerous than ingesting it orally. She really looks at that mechanism, the oral ingestion of aluminum or through the respiratory tract.

But part of the reasons why vaccines are so injurious is because a lot of our protective barriers and mechanisms are taken away from us and we get that direct exposure.

But going back to her mechanism for everyone to understand, so glyphosate again, creating intestinal permeability, making it more likely that we have dysbiosis, and then aluminum can cross over, that intestinal lining, and get into our blood stream.

And also glyphosate and aluminum actually are—glyphosate chelates aluminum. So they actually potentiate each other. And then she, through a series of different mechanisms, describes how aluminum and glyphosate actually affect—through the circulation, they get into the pineal gland and can affect the production of melatonin.

There are other mechanisms too that glyphosate can affect the production of melatonin and not only affects our Cytochrome P450 system, which is our liver detox pathway, which has an impact in producing melatonin, but it also affects tryptophan or serotonin synthesis that also produces melatonin.

So, the thing that’s fascinating with Stephanie is she’s been down the rabbit hole. And the more that she goes down the rabbit hole, the more that she’s finding around all of the mechanisms, not only these agents alone, but together, potentiating effects.

So, I think it’s a really important thing to be aware of. How can we reduce our exposure to aluminum and glyphosate and to make informed choices? Think very carefully before you decide to inject yourself with these agents.



Wendy Myers: Yeah, I had Dr. Stephanie Seneff on the podcast talking about glyphposate. If you guys want to listen to it, it’s phenomenal. I got a huge, huge response and people just love that one because it really drives home the point that there are the toxins. All of us have glyphosate. It’s just sprayed on all the playgrounds. It’s sprayed on all the non-organic food. And even organic food has it as well (some of it is contaminated).

20:16 SLEEP AnD THE gLYMPHATIC SYSTEMWendy Myers: So let’s talk about how does sleep play a critical role in the glymphatic system?

You mentioned that glyphosate and other things can affect the pineal gland, which produces melatonin. And melatonin makes you sleepy and it helps you stay asleep. So it’s not surprising so many people are having trouble sleeping.

I struggled with it for years. I just wrote a whole 30-page epic on it, on all the different things that can affect sleep. It’s just a big, big problem.

So, let’s talk about how sleep plays a critical role in the glymphatic system.

Dr. Christine Schaffner: Absolutely. And so as a naturopath, we all know that the foundations of health are so important—and sleep being one of them. And I think once we learned more about the glymphatic system, that understanding, it clarified tremendously why sleep is so important.

And sleep is important again because of that increased activity of the glymphatic system. We actually have very little activity of the glymphatic system during our waking hours. So our brain is dependent on sleep to actually detoxify.

And so when we think about this—again, as I believe I was saying, the brain shrinks about 60% at night to make room for that exchange of fluid, nutrients and waste. And so if you don’t have a restful sleep, you’re missing this whole opportunity and that’s when things build up.

And when things build up, there can be neuronal damage. There can be again more chances of having symptoms and neural degeneration. And so sleep hygiene is very important.

And again, you probably talk a lot about the underlying causes of why people have poor sleep. Again, just knowing some of the things we just talked about, melatonin is really important.

And with a lot of our artificial light and the light that we’re getting from the computers, we have all of these disruptions to our pineal gland. We have aluminum and glyphosate, we have EMF, we have the screens. We’re not probably honoring our sleep-wake cycle as much as we can with being able to stay up past dark.

And so, we’re missing out on these opportunities to have our pineal gland produce melatonin.



And one thing that we touched on a little bit is not only melatonin helps us sleep and so our glymphatic system has their opportunity to actually work, but melatonin, in and of itself, actually is a potent detoxifier of the brain. So melatonin can detoxify the brain and it’s a powerful antioxidant.

If you look in PubMed, there are studies that show that melatonin can not only detoxify the brain from viruses, but also heavy metals such as lead and cadmium and potentially mercury.

As you probably have shared with your audience too, all melatonin isn’t created equal. And so if you’ve experienced melatonin, maybe you haven’t had a positive effect, there are other forms to try.

And we really like a homemade melatonin called liposomal melatonin. And anything that’s liposomal is prepared in phosphatidylcholine typically, and so it can penetrate and be absorbed through fat.

our cell membranes and our brain are made of phosphatidylcholine. our nervous system is highly made up of phosphatidylcholine. So if you prepare melatonin with phosphatidylcholine, it has more of a chance of being absorbed and getting into the tissues that we actually wanted to work on.

23:52 PILL MELATonIn VS. LIquID MELATonIn VS. LIPoSoMAL MELATonIn

Wendy Myers: And so what is the difference between say a pill melatonin (which most people probably take or have tried), liquid melatonin (which is taken sublingually) and then liposomal melatonin?

Dr. Christine Schaffner: That’s a great question. And all sorts of companies claim all sorts of different things and what they may or may not add to the melatonin.

Capsules are going to be most likely the harder to digest because they’re going to have to go through digestive tract and processed through the liver.

You can have the right medicine, but getting it absorbed into the right tissue is the art of medicine.

And so if you have already have an inflamed or compromised gI tract, you’re going to absorb that potentially less.

Liquid, you’re going to have a little bit more absorption. You don’t have to digest a capsule. Some of it might get absorbed in the mouth. So that can be a little bit more digestible or effective.

I mean, I’ve been working with melatonin for seven years I guess since I’ve been out of school. And



I have seen people have the strongest response to liposomal again because of the fast absorption that you can just hold it underneath the tongue and then it’s absorbed very quickly and then directly into the tissues we want it to go.

Wendy Myers: nice, nice. Yeah, and I’m definitely going to be trying some liposomal melatonin.

Dr. Christine Schaffner: Absolutely! The caveat, something to think about, one of the things that we’ve seen clinically is that some people get that hangover effect of melatonin. okay, they take melatonin and they feel groggy in the morning. And what Dr. Klinghardt have theorized (and what we’ve been seeing clinically) is that is not groggy from the melatonin. That is actually a grogginess from your brain detoxifying.

And so again, you need to work with a healthcare practitioner and a provider to pick appropriate agents.

But with some people who it’s appropriate, we’ll pair liposomal melatonin plus DMSA which is a chelator. So, for some people, it’s very safe. But again, you have to work with someone who knows how to use this safely. But DMSA helps primarily with lead and mercury.

So, as that’s pushed out of the brain and then you have an effective detox agent onboard at night to capture the fallout, people actually feel less groggy. So I’ve seen that.

So, if you feel groggy, maybe if DMSA is not appropriate, we use a lot of binders (algae or charcoals or peptins or things that can catch some of the fallout). Try that before giving up on it.

26:29 IMProVIng gLYMPHATIC SYSTEM FunCTIonWendy Myers: Yes, very, very interesting. I love these distinctions that we get here on the podcast. And so let’s

talk about—more on supplements later. We’ll be talking about supplements that help you improve the functioning of the glymphatic system--well, let’s talk about that now.

So what are some of the strategies to improve the functioning of the glymphatic system? You mentioned liposomal melatonin. What are some other things that help you drain your brain lymph?

Dr. Christine Schaffner: Absolutely. I’m happy to mention a few supplements. And one thing I just want to also just take a step back and share with our listeners, some of the other things to think about when they’re evaluating their health, again, we are seeing patients who’ve tried a lot of things and so we’re thinking outside the box and maybe what hasn’t been looked at.

And so, very common in our work-up, we’ll look at the teeth, we’ll look at the tonsils, and then actually the veins in the neck or something called TVAM. And that actually all impacts the glympathic system.



So in the mouth, we want to advocate for metal–free mouths–so no mercury, no mixed metal. root canals are often very harmful for people. There also can be things called wisdom tooth cavitations, which are infections in the jaw bone.

So we just take that as part of our history and make appropriate recommendations with a very skilled biological dentist if appropriate.

Again, if our teeth have infection or toxicity, that’s going to affect the lymphatic system downstream that will affect the brain. As some of your patients or some of your audience may know that the teeth actually develop from the same embryological tissue as our brain. And so there’s a nervous system connection with our teeth.

And I don’t know if you’ve seen that acupuncture chart, the Meridian chart with our teeth. Every tooth has an acupuncture connection.

And so let’s say somebody has a chronic kidney bladder issue, not that this is the cause, but it can be contributing or could be something that is preventing that system to get well. They might have a root canal or heavy metal on tooth seven or eight.

So there are those connections that we see in the body. So we want to clean the mouth up.

And then another thing that we always ask our patients (even before we knew about the glymphatic system) was the health of the tonsils. And the tonsils are, as Dr. Klinghardt lovingly calls them, the toilet of the brain.

And so when you think about the tonsils, there’s not only palatine tonsils, but we have something called Waldeyer’s ring which are five different tissues. So have the tonsils, the adenoids, the tubal tonsils that are at the end of the Eustachian tube, the lingual tonsil underneath the tongue and the pharyngeal tonsil around the larynx.

So, that whole ring of glymphatic tissue is very, very important because, essentially, the glymphatic system is like hydraulics. If a tissue is congested downstream, that’s also going to prevent flow, the flow of the sub-stream.

So, oftentimes, we’ll ask people if they’ve had chronic strep (mercury can drain into the tonsils) and if you have had amalgams. So we want to get that potentially toxic and chronically infected tissue healthy.

And that can be challenging, but there are lots of tools to do that. But that, if someone’s again not getting better or if their healing has plateaued, we look there.

And then one other thing to think about is—it’s a newer concept. We find that an outcome of chronic Lyme disease or any infections and what we call the lining of the blood vessels or the endothelium can affect and maybe make changes in the veins in the neck.



And so there’s something called transvascular autonomic modulation or TVAM. Essentially, blood is not getting out of our brain as well as it could be.

So if you have what we call stenotic or malformed veins, coming out of your brain, again think of hydraulics, pressure will build up.

And remember, we shared how the glymphatic system moves alongside the arteries and then drains alongside the veins. So if you have congestion in this tissue or in the veins in the neck, that can affect all the veins in the neck, end up in the brain upstream, and that can impair the movement of what move or flow as well.

So, opening up the glymphatic system can be helpful. But again for some people, there is actually a doctor in newport Beach, Dr. Arata, he really specializes in this TVAM procedure. And what that will be, that’s a balloon technique where they go in and they gently stretch the veins open.

That may or may not last the opening, but you’re also stretching the autonomic fibers. So it has a resetting effect on the autonomic nervous system. For people who have some autonomic dysfunction, that can help.

But we would always first clean up the teeth, the tonsils, and then, if that’s appropriate, TVAM. Just because the anatomy has changed, you don’t always need a procedure. But I think it gives your audience a good visual of what are the things to think about to help the lymph drain better out of the brain.

And so as far as supplements though or some strategies people can do at home, liposomal melatonin can be very helpful again. We use anything that you can do to again improve your tonsil health and then help drain it in the neck.

I love essential oils, different essential oils or different blends for the neck. We use a couple of different creams as well (so again, applying drainage).

There is also something called soft lymphatic drainage massage where you can actually just manipulate the tissues in the neck wherever there’s congestion again to help our thoracic duct just on our left side. It helps drain our lymph.

And then there’s another technique called cranial compressions. I think we still have that video on our website where Dr. Klinghardt actually teaches how to manually compress the cranium. And it’s great to do before bed. That is going to help to improve the flow of lymph.

And then cranial psychotherapy, other hands-on techniques.

I read a paper actually that sleeping on your side at night, actually—they’ve shown that you have better activity rather than sleeping on your tummy or on your back, but sleeping on your side actually improves the flow of the glymphatic system. So that’s what’s on top of my head I guess.



Wendy Myers: great! That’s what I do. I have to sleep on my side.

Dr. Christine Schaffner: Yeah. I know. You refine your intuition.

Wendy Myers: Yes, absolutely. I’m going to drain my brain.

Dr. Christine Schaffner: Absolutely.

33:18 IMProVIng gLYMPHATIC SYSTEM FunCTIonIng WITH uLTrASounD

Wendy Myers: And you also mentioned ultrasound when we’ve talked before as a way to improve functioning of the glymphatic system. Tell me about that.

Dr. Christine Schaffner: Yeah, absolutely. one of our friends, Dr. ruggiero, he and Dr. Bradstreet (who passed away), they have really pioneered a lot of work with autism.

And so Dr. ruggiero is a radiologist. He’s an expert in the use of ultrasound. And they refer to using this diagnostically to look at—they found that the brains of autistic children had more fluid and space between the neurons and that was a sign of inflammation. And so, again, they were on to this idea of congested lymph in the brain.

And so Dr. ruggiero, he has pioneered (as well as Dr. Bradstreet, they collaborated in this) knowing how ultrasound worked. ultrasound is sound save, it’s mechanical wave, and they theorized, “How can we use this as a therapy?”

And so we at Sophia, we use an ultrasound.

Well, there are two openings into the brain—around the temples and then around the occiput, that ridge. And we’ll put ultrasound here and then along the neck. And that can gently stimulate the flow of lymph on those tissues.

So it’s a really simple, fast, easy, gentle technique. But that’s been something we’ve been using for about a year with really great results.

People in your audience, if you can find a really good lymphatic drainage practitioner, they’re not accessing the brain as deeply. But again, they have a lot of techniques to open the lymph in the interior and posterior neck. And that can help again with the brain drainage.

But ultrasound, it’s been a really fascinating application. I’ve only learned of using ultrasound primarily as a diagnostic technique. So, we’ve been pleasantly surprised with the results in the clinic with this.



35:19 DETox SuPPLEMEnTSWendy Myers: Let’s talk about some of those supplements that you can use to detox your body generally. I mean

I know Dr. Klinghardt loves chlorella. He uses zeolites and other types of things. I like modified citrus pectin. Let’s talk a little bit about each of those and their pros and cons.

Dr. Christine Schaffner: Absolutely! So, we try to individualize as much as possible for all of our patients. As you all know, what works for someone may not work for another person. But we tend to use a couple of different strategies. And all the things that you just mentioned are what we call binders.

Binders are really important for a lot of different reasons. Especially if we’re also treating infections in the body, we always want to pair that because we not only have the environmental toxins, but we have biotoxins that are produced by the pathogens.

And so, our body needs help to eliminate these things.

And so binders tend to act by binding to toxicity that’s coming out of the gallbladder and the bile. So they engage with the bile, the intestines and then carry them up to the stool.

I love chlorella. I think chlorella, if people tolerate that and it doesn’t make them constipated, it’s really, really great. Again, the source for all of these things is very, very important. You want to get things that are very high quality and not contaminated with the things that you’re trying to detoxify from.

But chlorella is wonderful because it is going to be full of fat-soluble vitamins. We call it our multivitamin because it’s really jam-packed with nutrition. But then it is very well documented.

I know there are some people talking about that it’s not a true binder, but at least, I’ve seen this for years be a great binder. And there are a lot of studies to show that it can bind mercury, lead, dioxins, PCBs, other types of environmental chemicals as well.

And then, we’ll use zeolite. Zeolite is definitely one to be very picky about your supply and the type of zeolite that you’re going to use. It’s essentially a silica product.

And we actually use a lot of something called Enterosgel. Have you used that before, Wendy, Enterosgel?

Wendy Myers: I’ve heard of it. I don’t use it personally. I just personally prefer BioSil because I think it’s attached to a choline molecule. It specifically gets trivalent metals like arsenic, aluminum, tin, valium and cesium. So it works really well for that specifically.

Dr. Christine Schaffner: Yeah, we love BioSil as well for all of those reasons.

And I guess we look at all the metals, but we really look mercury, lead and aluminum as the very damaging metals. If you focus on those, typically the other metals come out too.



And so Enterosgel is great because silica, whenever you’re trying to get aluminum out of the body, you want to use a silica product. Silica binds to aluminum and will let that exit. Zeolite does that as well.

And then Peptisol or modified citrus pectin, I use—there are really great studies on lead detoxification. Also, for people who have cancer, that can be a great tool as well. I probably don’t use as much pectin, but I think it’s a great product. There are different types of charcoals and clays as well.

But I find with our patients, they need at least two binders to rotate through. And then on top of that, you can pair either different things that are going to help mobilize or to chelate the metals out of the body.

And so we’re big fans of cilantro. Cilantro is very well tolerated. If you don’t have that condition where it tastes soapy, the cilantro works well. People tolerate it. It’s gentle, but very effective.

We consider melatonin, again, as a detox agent right now (again, when appropriate and when medically guided). DMSA and DMPS or EDTA can be helpful.

But as a naturopath, we’re always looking at how to support the body’s ability to eliminate.

So, if you’re looking at the organs of elimination and seeing where people are stuck, we just want to make sure the colon is working properly, people are able to sweat, the lymphatic system is working well, the air we breathe, all these, the kidneys, good-filtered water.

Sometimes, the basics can be life-changing for people.

And then also, making sure that the air people are breathing and the water they’re drinking are not full of an exposure because 1) we want to eliminate exposure and then 2) we can help detoxify the body more.

40:13 CHELATorS AnD BInDErSWendy Myers: So I hear you’re saying that at Dr. Klinghardt’s clinic, they use natural chelators and binders, but

also the synthetic prescription-based chelators like EDTA and DMSA and DMPS.

So, let’s talk a little bit about those and some of the differences between suppositories of those products and oral consumption. So let’s just start with the EDTA. So differences, pros and cons of suppositories, oral, a lot of oral EDTA supplements in the market, versus IV chelation and EDTA.

Dr. Christine Schaffner: We do use a lot of IV therapy in the office, but I feel like that that can be very, very helpful for getting people to appoint. But again, as we know, detoxification doesn’t overnight. It’s a lifestyle. So I’m a big proponent of getting people tools at home that they can use.



And so EDTA, from my understanding and what I see clinically, it can be helpful, but it’s a weaker chelator. So, it’s going to be very good for lead and mercury, but it’s going to be a little bit more weakly bonded onto those things.

And I love EDTA suppositories. I think people do very well with them.

When you think about some of the conditions of the pelvic floor (so interstitial cystitis, any bladder irritation, any menstrual endometriosis), things that can be linked to a toxic exposure as well, I like suppositories because you get that local effect into not only the colon, but also into the lymphatic and into the circulation of the pelvic floor.

Dr. Klinghardt always talks about the pelvic floor, how it sits. Heavy metals are heavy. They’re going to gravitate towards those tissues in the body. So I feel suppositories are a great tool.

They’re really safe. They’re really well-absorbed. I don’t use a ton of oral EDTA. I know there is a product– I think you saw Chris’s products, Chris Shade’s products. He has a liposomal EDTA that I’ve seen great results with.

But in the Lyme world, we also consider EDTA another agent to help with biofilm. It can also be known to help break up biofilms. So that can be another plus for using EDTA.

Wendy Myers: Yeah. So, IV chelation, EDTA, are definitely necessary. I have some clients that come to me that are just so cadmium toxic. And that is a class 1 carcinogen. It causes more cancer than mercury, lead and arsenic combined. And that’s what gives people that smoke in cancer. It’s the cadmium in the cigarette smoke.

So, there is a place for IV chelation because some people, it’s an emergency. They need to bring these levels down and do it very quickly. Even though generally I’d say you want to detox slowly and safely, there are some emergency situations. Even if it’s on acute poisoning, people need to bring their levels down to reduce the risk of cancers.

Dr. Christine Schaffner: Absolutely, absolutely! I’m grateful that we have IV therapy as a tool because I have seen people completely turn around and lives changed because of using that intervention.

I think in naturopathic medicine, we have something called a therapeutic order. Essentially, you meet the strength of the intervention with the strength of the illness if you think about it in that way.

And a lot of these chemicals in our body are man-made (they are because of man-made interventions), and they need man-made or stronger agents sometimes to eliminate them.

And so, I see some people will need, for a period of time, some stronger chelation maybe through an IV or an injection. And then they can transition to more lifestyle and gentle things to not only continue to decrease their burden, but to also mitigate their ongoing exposure.



So, I completely agree. There’s a time and a place for all medicine. I try to be very open-minded.

44:22 PrEPArIng THE BoDY For DEToxIFICATIon Wendy Myers: And do you generally recommend people do IV, like say IV EDTA if they’re really, really ill and very,

very chronically fatigued? I’m assuming you do things to prepare their body for detoxification rather than just bombing with a bunch of IV synthetic chelators.

Dr. Christine Schaffner: Absolutely, absolutely. And we do many different things to have a thorough assessments with patients.

We’ll do different types of urine challenge test. We do the oligoScan to look at heavy metals. We try to get a snapshot of the body burdened. Even though no test is perfect, but it can give us a level of urgency depending on what people’s levels are and what their clinical history is.

And then of course, you have to meet the patient where they’re at. So if there’s somebody who’s already depleted, very weak, I would not start there. We would help to build them up.

And then we always, always, always pair our IV protocols, our chelation protocols with balancing minerals, doing good naturopathic strategies at home from castor oil packs to coffee enemas, dry skin brushing and then binders.

And so again, as you’re saying, we definitely want to do this in a comprehensive way.

And then for people who it’s appropriate, we’ll also do maybe vitamin C or glutathione or mineral or nutrient IVs to help replete or support their body’s ability to eliminate.

So, this is an art and there is also a very individual approach that you have to take. The last thing any of us want to do is to make our patient sicker when they’re coming to us to feel better.

Wendy Myers: Yeah, exactly. And unfortunately, as far as detoxification, you are going to feel a little bit sick sometimes or tired or crabby. You don’t want to feel too bad. You’re just going to feel a little bit bad.

Dr. Christine Schaffner: We have a saying in the office: “The only way out is the way through.” So, things do have to exit the body, but we try to mitigate that as much as possible, the discomfort. But we know what’s typical and what’s not, so we try to support the body as much as possible.

46:38 DMSA Wendy Myers: Yes, absolutely. And so let’s talk a little bit more about DMSA, suppositories versus oral versus

chelation.



Dr. Christine Schaffner: So DMSA, again this is a tool that can be used again for mercury and lead primarily (I mean it has other metals that it chelates as well). The unfortunate thing about DMSA is that it used to be—even when I was at a school, I believe one popular product line was able to carry it. But because of the FDA—

There used to be a medical drug that was DMSA, and then also a supplement. And right now, we’re only able to get it compounded.

And so we get it compounded through oral or suppository. And most often, we’ll use it orally.

Dr. Pizzorno, one of our mentors in the MD school, he’s one of the founders of Bastyr, he’s a big proponent of DMSA too. I’m just sharing a resource if people want to use that as a reference. But it’s very safe, but you do have to definitely watch minerals with using DMSA—magnesium, zinc, these types of things.

And then I don’t know what your experience is on oral versus suppository. DMSA in the uS, we don’t have an injectable DMSA. We only use oral or you can compound things into anything essentially (topical, oral or suppository). But primarily, our protocols right now, we’re using DMSA or that combination of melatonin + DMSA. I’ve seen that work very well.

What we also see in the office (and one of the things that Dr. Klinghardt has seen clinically over the years) is that some people who have a high fungal load in their gut will get very aggravated by DMSA.

So, there is that synergy effect where a terrain that’s high in mercury and heavy metals will be more apt to grow Candida and fungus for lots of different reasons.

So, while you’re chelating mercury out of the system, you can aggravate yeast. And so if you don’t have a good antifungal strategy, that can flare you. So, if someone has ever experienced a DMSA discomfort or intestinal flare, that could be a reason, just an FYI.

49:02 DMPS Wendy Myers: And let’s talk a little bit about DMPS, maybe not as popular as DMSA or EDTA, but let’s just talk

a little about that and its benefits, pros and cons.

Dr. Christine Schaffner: Yeah, DMPS is something that Dr. Klinghardt knows very well. It was developed in russia, and then brought over to the uS. If you google it, there are lots of controversy around it.

I’ve seen it do miracles for people. But again, we have some different techniques in the office that we use to make it very, very safe and strategic. But it’s definitely stronger.

It’s going to be stronger than DMSA and EDTA, really strong for not only mercury, but lead.



We see also a decrease in biotoxins too with DMPS. Again, as we’re getting metals out of biofilm and detoxing people, we do see people have a positive result.

So I learned to trust and use DMPS appropriately, but you can use it as an injection, an IV or oral capsule or suppository.

But I do err that with caution. You want to be very mindful of the kidneys and there is an effect of mercury being released out of the kidneys with DMPS, and you don’t ever want to use it if the kidneys are compromised or if you don’t have enough support. But if it’s done mindfully, it can be a game-changer for people.

Wendy Myers: Fantastic!

Wendy Myers: And that is a huge, huge problem because when you do like a hair mineral analysis, for instance, very rarely do you see lead.

But everyone has lead because of all of the leaded gasoline we were all breathing in for decades, and then all that auto exhaust is getting into our soils (it gets into the air and then settles in the soils) and it persists for 500 to a thousand years in our environment (forget the lead paint and everything).

And even in developing countries, they still are using the leaded gasoline. So it’s just ever present in our environment and our body stores it in our bones.

Dr. Christine Schaffner: Absolutely.

50:39 HEAVY METAL TESTIngWendy Myers: Yeah. So talk a little about that.

Dr. Christine Schaffner: Yeah, I’m glad you brought that up. There are different types of testing that you can do. But anybody who walks into my office, I just assume that they have heavy metals.

usually, the people who are chronically ill have impaired detoxification because of genetic susceptibilities and other stressors in the body. Hair, urine, stool, all of the skin, all of that can give us a snapshot.

But as you’re sharing too, if you’re in a depleted system, you’re not going to be excreting these heavy metals. And so one of the things with lead is that it has a similar charge to calcium. And so if you are calcium-deficient or mineral-deficient, the body is going to put the lead into the bone.

And one of the things that we see with menopausal women is something called reverse toxicity. And so as women age, our estrogen levels go down and that can have an effect on our bone



health. We can have osteopenia or osteoporosis. And while we’re breaking down our bone, we’re releasing lead in our body. That can be a very subtle, but very detrimental symptom.

And so, we work with women who have bone loss. We want to of course stop the bone loss and replete them with minerals, but also to help to get the lead that’s being mobilized out of their body. But I completely agree that different metals get different publicity. over time, when we forget about all the bloody gasoline that’s along over, but these things persist in our environment for years.

And then we have this whole—we typically come into this world from our maternal exposure to heavy metals. So we all start off with an exposure to heavy metals that are in our environment, and then we bio-accumulate them over time. And if we’re not mindful of detoxification, that’s really what leads to chronic illness if we’re not trying to get the water out of the bucket.

I have that analogy, the bucket or the drain analogy. Things overflow and by the time that happens, people are in our office.

53:21 unIVErSAL ToxInS Wendy Myers: So I have my theories about this. But what do you think—when someone’s coming into your office,

what are the metals you know everybody has? I know there are some metals like almost everyone has these because they’re just in our environment, air, food and water.

Dr. Christine Schaffner: Aluminum, lead and mercury. And then I do see a lot of cadmium (and with non-smokers too). So there are these environmental exposures to cadmium. And then as we were talking before we began, I see a lot of my Southern California patients with uranium.

But the top three (and the top three that we know just because of research) are aluminum, lead and mercury. And then my whole idea is if we can target those, we know that we’ll get the rest of them out.

And so of course, some need some other strategies. But if we can identify and target those, we’re typically decreasing the body burden of heavy metals.

54:18 orDEr oF DEToxIFICATIonWendy Myers: Doesn’t everybody detox in a certain way? Everyone is a little bit different depending on their

genetic propensity to detox or energy levels and their nutritional status. But do you find that Dr. Klinghardt has certain theories about the order of metals in which our body detoxes.

I know you have to detox arsenic before you can detox mercury because arsenic will poison



enzymes that help remove mercury from the body. Can you talk a little about the order in which we detox metals?

Dr. Christine Schaffner: Yeah! How I think about it, Wendy, is that I see it from a tissue perspective in the sense that I feel some of my patients will—essentially, I agree with you, there are certain metals that should come out in certain orders. Mercury tends to be the deepest (the most deeply seated one).

Again, that’s why the testing can sometimes be misleading and why I always just assume that heavy metals are part of a patient’s—we need to have some strategy for them.

And so what I see with patients is as we get them more mineral replete or as we help support their body, their body is going to let go of metals in waves. And so you could catch that wave with the heavy metal tester, urine challenge test.

And some patients get discouraged. They’re going to say, “oh, my gosh, I thought we got this lead out of me. Why is it off the charts now?” And it’s like, “no, this is good. We got this in a wave.”

And so I think about it in that way. How do we support the body? give it the right nutrients, minerals, the right detox agents and support all of our organs of elimination? (Actually, our emotional health has a lot to do with this as well). And then how can we essentially help get these out of the body?

The nervous system, the brain, we’re talking about that, that’s one of our deepest, most protected system. How Dr. Klinghardt talks about it is like, “okay, let’s get the metals out of the intestinal tract.” And then there’s this grading effect as we get metals out of certain tissues and other tissues will release.

And so I think about it as getting the intestinal tract, the liver, the gallbladder. And then once we get most of the body from here to there, the brain has a better chance to detoxify.

So, I know that’s not directly answering your question, but that’s when I’m thinking of a patient clinically, I’m thinking of, “okay, how do we start? What tissues do we tackle first?”

And know that it’s really educating people that this is a process. This is not like, “okay, you take 20 days of chlorella and you’re done with your mercury load.” This is going to be a process that takes time.

Wendy Myers: no, I love that answer. I love it. You’re just a wealth of information and I could definitely keep talking forever. We’re going to have to have you come on again because you’re just absolutely a wealth of information.

Dr. Christine Schaffner: oh, thank you, Wendy.



57:17 THE MoST PrESSIng HEALTH ISSuE In THE WorLD ToDAY

Wendy Myers: And I have a question I like to ask to all of my guests. What do you think is the most pressing health issue in the world today?

Dr. Christine Schaffner: Well, that’s a big one. Well, I feel this is a big question, but I’ll answer it this way.

I love my job. I am very, very passionate about my work. I love my patients. And I see so many great people being so sick, and I just wrack my brain, “Why are people so sick these days?”

I truly feel the work that you’re doing is really, really important because I believe the illnesses that we’re seeing are reflecting more essentially a microcosm or the macrocosm of our environment. And I think that as, unfortunately, we have decided to continue to poison the planet. We’re seeing the downstream effects in our body.

And so I guess where I’m most concerned—of course, I’m seeing a lot of people who are maybe in their 30s, 40s have a stressful event, they were holding it together and things, then they get ill, where I am very concerned is where I see the fertility rate (infertility rates increase) and the increase in autism, I’m very concerned about how what we’ve done to the environment is affecting our future.

I don’t have children myself yet. I would love to have them one day. But I think it’s really, really important, the work that you’re doing to educate people about vaccines and how to prepare and have a healthy pregnancy and how to really make informed choices for our children.

I think that’s our future and I feel a great sadness to all children that have been affected by what we know that they’ve been affected by. I feel the more that we can educate consumers essentially on how to make better choices, that will have an impact on the health of our future and our planet.

But I see this is a very global issue. And I feel that the work that we do (the work that we do in our office) that as we heal each patient, we’re having the ripple effect on how can we add more healing to the planet.

Wendy Myers: Yeah, I love that answer. I, a hundred percent, agree with you. And it’s so, so important. It’s why I wake up every day, so passionate to get this message out and educate people about the fact that they have to have detox as a lifestyle. This is not just a program you do for a year or two. It’s a continued effort. It’s something you need to add to your health regimen, just like your diet and your daily walk and everything else you’re doing.



1:00:05 MorE ABouT Dr. SCHAFFnErWendy Myers: Dr. Schaffner, thank you so much for coming on the show. Tell us where we can find you and

anything else you want us to know about you.

Dr. Christine Schaffner: Well, thank you, Wendy. This was so fun. And you guys can find me on SophiaHI.com. That is the clinic that we work at, Sophia Health Institute.

I also have a website, DrChristineSchaffner.com.

And then I’ve been playing around with Instagram and Facebook, and so I have an Instagram, @DrSchaffner, and then you can find me at Dr. Christine Schaffner as well.

But yeah, I’m really passionate about this work, and I just applaud you and everything that you’re doing, Wendy.

Wendy Myers: Thank you so much. And listeners, if you want to learn more about me, you can go to Liveto110.com. You can also check out my healing and detox program at MineralPower.com.

Thank you so much for listening to the Live to 110 Podcast.

In this episode · 2018-02-16 · 23:52 pill melatonin vs. liquid melatonin vs. liposomal melatonin...

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