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Dr. Berkson's Best Health Radio Podcast

Dr. Devaki Lindsey Berkson shares decades of experience as a hormone and nutrition specialist to help you live a healthier, happier life. Disclaimer: The entire contents of these podcasts are based upon the opinions of Dr. DL Berkson, unless otherwise noted. Individual discussions are based upon the opinions of the respective individuals, based on their research, experience and communities. The information on this podcast or any related websites are not intended to replace a one-on-one relationship with a qualified health care professional and is not intended as medical advice from practitioners that know your personal medical situation. All material is educational and is intended only as a sharing of knowledge and information from the research and experience of Dr. Berkson and her community. Dr. Berkson encourages you to make your own health care decisions based upon your research and in partnership with a qualified health care professional. If you are pregnant, nursing, taking medication, or have a medical condition, you must consult with your health care professional before using protocols or products based on any of this content.
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Now displaying: July, 2018
Jul 26, 2018

Today’s show explores your microbiomes, the different biomes between breast cancer and healthy breasts, and even how pollution can attack these microbes.

You’ll also learn how Pollution Attacks Your Biomes and what you can do about it. 

Inside the human body are nooks and crannies, called biomes, teeming with microbial life that includes viruses, bacteria and fungi.  We have “biomes” throughout our entire body.

We have biomes in our eyes (the ocular biome), mouth (oral biome), in our esophagus, stomach, small intestine, colon (most commonly thought of as our microbiome), in our tonsils, vagina, respiratory tract and lungs, in the uterus, urethra, prostate, skin, and even inside our brain. There are biomes deep inside the chambers of your heart.

Your colon is your most biome dense organ. It’s the most studied so far. But in today’s radio show you learn about your many biomes, especially inside the breast!

Biomes give off peptide signaling molecules that allow biomes to cross-talk with each other and also with distant tissues like your brain. Biome signals and cross-talks are how biomes enormously influence our state of wellness or illness.

Biomes are so powerful they are now being referred to as our “third brain.”

  1. First brain—in your head
  2. Second brain—enteric nervous system inside your gut
  3. Third brain—sum total of microbial life inside all your biomes

We inherited healthy ancestral microbiomesfrom long ago. But with today’s lifestyle, including the Standard American Diet (SAD) and toxic exposures from the environment, these healthy protective microbes are getting “ill” and making us ill.

There are “disease signature dysbiotic” conditions. This means there are distinctive microbial fingerprints for various diseases. For example, patients with multiple sclerosis will have common dysbiotic microbial patterns. So will bulimic patients. So will breast cancer patients, inside their breast tissue! So do Crohn’s inflammatory bowel disease patients. So do post-bariatric surgery patients. And kidney stone formers. And even for Alzheimer, Parkinson, diabetes, and heart disease sufferers. The list goes on and continues to grow.

Diet is the most powerful driving force for the health of these biomes.

Hormone-altering chemicals from your personal care products, or from plastic containers you wash in the dishwasher and use for food, or from sitting in polluted traffic, can all adversely affect your precious biomes.

Cleveland Clinic researchers discovered that breast cancer patients have different breast biomes than breast tissue without disease. “Healthy” breast tissue, from women who didn’t have breast cancer, contains more of a healthy bacterial species called Methylobacterium. Women with breast cancer had much less, if any, Methylobacterium.

Different types of breast cancer have different symbiotic signatures. ER positive and Her2 positive shared a microbiotic signature, while triple negative and triple positive shared a similar microbial pattern.

A lactating breast has a microbiota based on what the mother eats, the bugs on her skin and her gut, and the pollutants she’s been exposed to throughout her life. In contrast to vaginally delivered infants, the gut microbiotaof infants delivered by C-section are significantly less similar to their mothers. Cessation of breast-feeding, rather than introduction of solid food, is what turns a baby’s microbiome into an adult-like microbiota. At three years old, a child’s microbiome starts to look like an adult.

How a baby is delivered initiates the health of their microbiota (the sum of all their biomes). A new born moving through a healthy vaginal biome gets a healthy start. Obese junk-food eating moms will have less healthy vaginal biomes and babies will get a less healthy start. Breastmilk’s microbiota takes it from there, and continues to influence the health of the newborn’s microbiota.

Breast milk stimulates healthy organisms in the infant’s gut like Bifidobacteria, Lactobacillus, and Bacteroides. Short-chain fatty acids in breastmilk activate receptors on T-reg cells and specific genes, so the baby won’t have leaky gut or gut inflammation. Other components of breastmilk (defensins, lactoferrin, etc.) inhibit pathogens and further contribute to microbiota composition. Healthy breastmilk and the vaginal microbiome stimulate baby’s intestinal microbiota to prevent asthma, inflammatory bowel disease, type 1 diabetes and even illnesses when the baby grows up.

The World Health Organization published that polluted air, with excess particulate toxins, is a major contributor to diverse diseases from diabetes to cancer to dementia. Hold on to your hats, air pollution is also being linked to “biome damage.” You’ll hear more about all this on today’s power packed show.

 

Jul 19, 2018

Grammy winning musician, activist and author Judy Collins shares how she conquered her “food addiction” and maintains a stellar figure and career at age 79!

Judy Collins has influenced the world through her music.  If you’re a boomer you might remember Judy’s rendition of  “Both Sides Now” from her album, Wildflowers. That recording resides in the Grammy Hall of Fame. Her version of “Send in the Clowns” also won "Song of the Year” at the Grammies.

That was 1975.  Judy is still going strong. She’s almost 80—but move over Jane Fonda—her career is more than robust and totally envious. She travels worldwide singing her heart out at 150 performances a year. She’s still being nominated for major awards. She has a figure that Barbie would envy. She’s a Renaissance woman who’s also a painter, filmmaker, record label head, musical mentor, activist and in-demand keynote speaker for mental health and suicide prevention.

Why is Judy on this health show today?

Judy Collins is also an author. Today Judy shares her third book, Cravings: how I conquered food. Dame Collins tells us exactly what she eats, how much she eats, and how she works out on the road, to maintain her energy, vitality, and amazing looks. She explains exactly how in the heck she can keep going on strong like this!

PS: Ms. Collins also discusses the “power of womanhood” as it has been evolving over the years, especially relevant with the Me Too Movementof 2018.

Cravings is a no-holds-barred account of Ms. Collin’s struggle with compulsive overeating and her journey that led to effective answers. Since childhood Judy had a tumultuous relationship with food. When she quit smoking, she developed bulimia.  She had already overcome an addiction to alcohol earlier in her life. These issues with addiction and impulsive eating nearly claimed her career and relationships.

For decades Judy thought she simply lacked self-discipline.

In this show, you’ll hear Judy explain that’s she’s learned, beyond a doubt, that her addiction to processed foods caused and maintained her cycle of her addictive cravings and behaviors.

Judy’s “Kryptonite foods” are sugar and grains, flour and wheat.

By avoiding those as well as all unprocessed foods in eating in carefully measured portions, Judy has “easily” maintained a healthy weight and sobriety for years. She also enjoys a sense of mastery over her body and life, which leads to the highest goal: inner peace. 

Check out Judy's book, Cravings, on Amazon.

Jul 10, 2018

Unless you're Bill Gates you're just one serious illness away from bankruptcy.

The paradox is that the US has the costliest health system in the world, yet it performs so poorly compared to many other countries.
In today’s episode, Jeff Kanter and Dr. Berkson delve into this growing health care crisis surrounding health insurance. Health insurance is supposed to protect against possible “future risks” —but today’s systems are not offering all Americans adequate protection.

Jeff Kanter is no stranger to politics and concern about regulatory health care and protection of the individual. Mr. Kanter was the campaign manager for Irwin Schiff’s 1996 Libertarian Presidential campaign.


Now, Mr. Kanter is tackling health insurance. In today’s world of medicine, insurance companies have more and more control over how patients get treated. Doctor’s work directly for insurance companies, not for you, their patient. To create a new paradigm, Mr. Kanter co-founded a new company. In Health Excellence Plus, the doctor and patient have direct control. This new paradigm eliminates the insurance company as the middleman, and is an insurance game-changer.

This new form of insurance, called “bottom-up patient-centric” health care, allows Americans to take back control of their health from third-party interference by insurance companies. Why does health care cost so much? Why are many Americans, even if they are insured, at risk of losing everything with a serious diagnosis? Why do health insurance policies presently—with high deductibles, co-pays, and excessive exclusions—offer little protection during a serious illness? Why are so few talking about this horrific problem for so many Americans?


New options are emerging, especially for younger and healthier Americans. This information does not YET address the growing issues in Medicare-aged Americans, which are being threatened by decreases in coverage and by privatization.

We need answers. And this show offers creative solutions for these serious health concerns. A serial entrepreneur, Mr. Kanter saw an opportunity to put libertarian ideas into action with the inception of the Affordable Care Act. You will be hearing more and more about insurance alternatives, and Mr. Kanter’s company is pioneering this direction.


On this show you will learn:
1. Why is the free market the only solution to our problem?
2. What does a self-pay patient look like?
3. Why do you need to have a strategy when it comes to your health?
4. What is the difference between insurance and medical cost sharing
5. What direction are doctors going?
6. Which direction is medicine in general going?


Check out HealthExcellencePlus.com for more information

Jul 2, 2018

Dr. Ronald Hoffman is one of New York's pioneering Integrative Medicine practitioners. Dr. Hoffman received his MD from Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and has been practicing for 34 years. His radio program, Intelligent Medicine, is the longest-running physician-hosted health program on the air. Dr. Berkson and Dr. Hoffman have been colleagues for the last 30 years.

In this show, Dr. Hoffman tackles a variety of issues including:

  • Intermittent fasting
  • How much calcium is good vs. dangerous
  • Why we over use drugs and what to do about avoid excessive use
  • How long can we expect to really stay fit
  • How can seniors have immune systems of 30-year olds
  • And more!

I so enjoyed my conversation with Dr. Hoffman and hope you do too!

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