The Root of The Matter

Unlocking Wellness: Functional Medicine, Root Causes, and Holistic Healing With Dr. Elizabeth Boham

• Dr. Rachaele Carver, D.M.D. Board-Certified, Biologic, Naturopathic Dentist • Season 2 • Episode 13

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Dr. Elizabeth Boham, director of the Ultra Wellness Center, joins us to unravel the transformative power of functional medicine. Ever wondered what it takes to truly address the root causes of illness rather than just masking symptoms? Dr. Boham shares her compelling journey from conventional medicine to functional medicine, spurred by her personal struggle with breast cancer at the young age of 30. This episode promises to offer unique insights into how addressing the root causes of disease can lead to real, lasting wellness.

Functional medicine emphasizes a whole health approach, and we discuss the vital role of collaboration between various specialists. From the unexpected link between oral health and systemic diseases like dementia, to the critical importance of individualized dietary plans, Dr. Boham sheds light on the interconnectedness of our bodily systems. Through her own experiences and professional expertise, she helps dispel common misconceptions about what it means to eat healthily—highlighting the significance of dietary diversity and the impact of food sensitivities on overall health.

We also dive into comprehensive patient care, focusing on the importance of a detailed medical history and the often-overlooked role of oral health in systemic inflammation. Dr. Boham offers practical advice on managing stress, ensuring good sleep, and building a supportive network, all of which are foundational for a balanced health plan. This episode is packed with actionable insights, including the role of dentistry in reducing inflammation, the impact of environmental toxins, and practical tips to incorporate detox-friendly habits into your busy life. Tune in for a holistic approach to health that can transform your wellness journey.

To connect with Dr. Boham and her team visit their website https://www.ultrawellnesscenter.com/

To learn more about holistic dentistry, check out Dr. Carver's website:

http://carverfamilydentistry.com

To contact Dr. Carver directly, email her at drcarver@carverfamilydentistry.com. 

Do you want to talk with someone at Dr. Carver's office? 

Call her practice: 413-663-7372



Disclaimer: This podcast is for educational purposes only. Information discussed is not intended for diagnosis, curing, or prevention of any disease and is not intended to replace advice given by a licensed healthcare practitioner. Before using any products mentioned or attempting methods discussed, please speak with a licensed healthcare provider. This podcast disclaims responsibility from any possible adverse reactions associated with products or methods discussed. Opinions from guests are their own, and this podcast does not condone or endorse opinions made by guests. We do not provide guarantees about the guests' qualifications or credibility. This podcast and its guests may have direct or indirect financial interests associated with products mentioned.

Speaker 1:

Welcome back to another episode of the Root of the Matter. I am your host, dr Rachel Carver, and today we have Dr Elizabeth Boham with us. She is the director of the Ultra Wellness Center in Lenox, massachusetts, and I'm very pleased to have her come on and talk to us a little bit about functional medicine. What is the difference between functional medicine, traditional medicine and how we really can try to get at the root right If we're always looking for the cause of disease? And Dr Bohim, welcome, thank you. Maybe tell us first your story and how you went from traditional medical practice into something a little more specialized?

Speaker 2:

Thank you, dr Carver. It's really great to be with you and all your listeners. It's so fun to be having this conversation today and getting to the root of the matter. I love it. So I am board certified in family medicine and I am FMCP so that's IFM certified and I practice functional medicine at the Ultra Wellness Center in Lenox, massachusetts. And I've been practicing functional medicine for, oh goodness, like 20 years or so.

Speaker 2:

But I was always interested in nutrition. My undergraduate and graduate degree was in nutrition and exercise physiology, so I was always interested in prevention and wellness. And then I decided to go to medical school, and medical school was a little tough for me because I really had no idea what I was getting into. Everybody in my family are PhDs or I didn't have any physicians in my family, and so I was like, oh, I just want to learn more about how the body works. And so when I got into medical school, I'm like, oh, this is not what I was thinking I was getting into. And it was because I was all interested in prevention and wellness and everything. And and then I'm spending nights in the ICU and doing acute care medicine and which is also very important but it was taking me away from where my passion was.

Speaker 2:

I ended up, though, finishing medical school, getting certified as, I'm sorry, I'm board certified in family medicine but in the middle of my residency I actually developed breast cancer. So I was 30 at the time, no family history of breast cancer, and I thought I was taking care of myself as I said, I was exercising, trying to eat right, and then all of a sudden, I got this aggressive breast cancer during residency. And then, of course, I had to go through all this treatment. And when I got through all the treatment treatment and there was a few years afterwards where I was lucky enough to, my periods came back and I was able to have a couple of kids. And then, at the other end of the whole thing, I'm like, oh my goodness, I just had breast cancer and I'm all into prevention and wellness and I was very well taken care of in conventional medicine circles, but I really was wondering why did this happen to me? Why did this happen to me? Why would somebody so healthy and back then, when you're a 30-year-old, with breast cancer was really rare? Unfortunately, you're seeing more and more cancers in young people, but this was 24 years ago and it was even rarer for a 30-year-old right, especially somebody who thought they were so healthy.

Speaker 2:

So it really took me. It really opened my eyes in terms of I've got to think about health, disease, wellness in a whole different way, and I was blessed I ended up getting a job at Canyon Ranch in Lenox, massachusetts, and that's when I met Mark Hyman and Kathy Swift and Todd Lepine and Cindy Geyer and all those wonderful people I still work with today, and I was sent on my first training program for functional medicine and I remember going to the week-long course in functional medicine and it just blew me away. I was like, oh my goodness, this is amazing. This is exactly what I want to do. Now. I understand more about how to think about the body and health and wellness and how to think about how all the systems in the body are interrelated. And it just opened my eyes to really help me for myself, figure out what I needed to do to be healthier and even though, as I said, I was doing some of the things right, but there were some things that I really needed more support with.

Speaker 2:

And then it really helped me with my patients practice when we're looking for that root cause and not just looking at a symptom and suppressing it with a medication, but really understanding that individual person and personalizing their treatment approach and looking for that individual person and looking at, okay, what is out of balance in their body. What do we need to do to shift the terrain in their body so it's healthier? Do to shift the terrain in their body so it's healthier. And so it's great to be talking with you today, because we know the mouth is so important and the teeth and the gums are so important for our overall health and wellbeing.

Speaker 2:

And actually it was something that I had to pay attention to as well, mark Hyman, when we were working together, after I went through all my cancer treatment, and he would look in my mouth and he'd be like and I had like at least 11 silver amalgams still and he was like, liz, you've got to get those out. And I'd be like, oh, yeah. And a year or so later he'd be like, liz, you got to get those out. I'd be like, yeah, and I realized, after I went through the process of safe removal and really focusing on my detoxification system, how much better my immune system worked, how much better I felt, how much better my cognition was and my energy. I didn't get sick as much, so I know it's such an important area, both for myself and my patients, that we really are paying attention to.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and it's great. Dr Bohum and I, we will work together on a couple of patients and it's so refreshing when a doctor understands how connected we have such great urgent emergency care in this country second to none in the world and so thankful that we have that. When it comes to chronic disease, which is becoming more and more problematic, we really need these root cause solutions. That's great we have. I think one of the problems we have so many super specialists, right. So somebody has a symptom, maybe your family doctor doesn't really know. They send you this specialist, who sends you to this, and it becomes so specialized that we forget that everything in the body is totally connected. So it's wonderful that you have people, but it has to take the village right. That's why I work with you, you work with me. We have all other therapists too, right. I love the ultra wellness center that you have the mental, spiritual part too, like in your very first appointment. It is not an eight minute appointment when you go to the ultra wellness center. You're spending a good part of your day there because you're meeting with all these different providers, which is absolutely key to wellness. Right, there is. There are so many facets for wellness. We talk about all these different facets on this podcast because it's important, but you've got to have. You have to have that MD. Some people shun the MD, no, they don't get that. But there are wonderful functional medicine people out there and who have all the knowledge and all that really background to understand all the intricacies of our biochemistry. So again, we have to have this whole team. So it's great when we work on this and that's the thing that's.

Speaker 1:

One of the reasons I really want to do this podcast is because most people don't think about their mouth that much, because it doesn't hurt. I had a patient just yesterday and he has this tooth with a major infection on an upper tooth that is right on the sinus and hasn't done anything about it. And I'm trying to say like, I know it's so hard to think about removing a tooth when it doesn't bother you, right? But we don't understand that impact of all of that infectious material, all the byproducts that these bacteria and fungus are passing through our lymph system, into our bloodstream, into the nerves. We know Dale Bredesen has been doing some amazing work on reversing dementia and one of his main categories of a cause of dementia is infection, oral infection, right up there as number one and think about an upper tooth. There's a very thin membrane between the tooth and your sinus and then a thin membrane between your sinus and your brain. Again, these things don't hurt, but they can impact you, and both Dr Bohan and I were so big on prevention. We don't want it to come to the point where now you have dementia. It's a lot harder to peel back those layers and to try to come back from something.

Speaker 1:

You were so fortunate with your situation that you were young and had your health going for that. You were able to recover. So maybe I'm just curious what did you discover?

Speaker 1:

Thinking you're healthy and this is a conversation that comes up a lot for me, when people are talking to me and they'll do a consult and say I eat healthy, I eat healthy and I'm like what does that mean when we say we're really healthy, we're exercising and we're all unique and our digestion, our microbiome is all unique. So sometimes, okay, these certain foods may not be good for you, but it was broccoli and cauliflower and all these. What? All the? But how am I going to get my sulfur? Isn't that supposed to be the healthiest food? But in my body those foods were not benefiting me, so it was kind of that's that's interesting. So that's why sometimes we do these food sensitivity tests. I've done that in the past. Lettuce always comes up for me. I'm like lettuce. How can my body not want lettuce? So interesting, but that's why. So sometimes, when we think we're eating healthy, but we're always eating the same thing all the time, maybe that's not beneficial, right?

Speaker 1:

Maybe we really when we talk about the rainbow right, we shouldn't be eating the same, Even if we think it's the healthiest thing on the planet. We really need the variety, right.

Speaker 2:

Oh, diversity is key, right.

Speaker 1:

Nutrients right. It's really interesting, but maybe tell us a little bit about what you thought was healthy but maybe wasn't benefiting you as well.

Speaker 2:

A couple of things that you pointed out that I want to just touch base on and then I can circle back to my personal health. But you're absolutely right, when somebody comes in to see us, we have a really long gathering period, right? So we're gathering all of that person's history. So we have them fill out these forms that have a lot of information about their health history, their timeline of when things shifted in their body, and then they meet with one of our nurses or PAs to do an intake where all that information is brought together just to help the physicians, when they meet with the patient, have a really good timeline and history and understanding of that patient. And you're right, it's so important to ask lots and lots of questions, because sometimes people just say, yeah, I'm healthy, I'm fine, I'm doing well there. So we ask a lot of questions regarding your intake of foods, as well as your health history, and a lot of questions regarding the mouth, because we know there's such that important connection with your oral health and your overall health. And then when people come in to see us, they see the physician first and then they go on and see a nutritionist. So every patient who comes in has to see a nutritionist, because we recognize how critically important food is for your overall health and wellbeing, and one of the things you pointed out, dr Carver, so importantly, is the importance of diversity and how important diversity is for feeding all the good microbes in your mouth and in your gut and in your whole body. And mixing it up and really getting a lot of different plant foods, eating that rainbow. Lots of different. Don't always for your red food, don't always have red peppers, right, mix it up and sometimes it may be beets and sometimes it may be an apple and sometimes. So mixing up your all of your colorful fruits and vegetables and we're really recommending that you're getting eight to 12 servings of foods that have phytonutrients in it, which includes your vegetables, your fruits, your spices, teas and coffees in a day just to and mixing it up for that diversity, because that will really help feed a healthy microbiome. So that's really key for for everyone and we get.

Speaker 2:

We ask a lot of questions, right. So we ask a lot of questions about antibiotic history, for example, because we know antibiotics can shift the microbes in your mouth and in your gut. We ask a lot of questions about different lifestyle and different illnesses, and that really helps us put together a personalized plan for our patients. For me, when I went through learning about functional medicine, of course you apply it to yourself and you figure out, okay what was out of balance and in functional medicine at the base of the matrix, right? The matrix is a way that we organize that person's information so it can feel especially for a new functional medicine provider it can feel overwhelming sometimes because there's all this information you're gathering. But when you organize it around a matrix, which is just a way of putting together that person's information, you can get a sense of where you need to focus and concentrate. So it really helps us as a practitioner figure out where to focus. But at the base of the matrix there are your personalized lifestyle factors. So that includes is that person getting good sleep, exercise, nutrition, stress management and relationships and networks? That's the base of the matrix and called the personalized, modifiable lifestyle factors. So for each person who comes in you focus a little on their lifestyle factors differently.

Speaker 2:

So for me I had a pretty good healthy diet. Maybe, if I look back on it now, maybe a little too high in some carbohydrates, but I was young and in general I think it was a pretty good healthy diet and I was a definite exerciser. But what I wasn't very good at is my stress management. And I was in the middle of residency training and, as I mentioned early on, I was frustrated with the whole training process because it wasn't what I thought it was going to be, and so that kind of shook me. I had made this decision to go through medical school and residency. I thought it was going to be, and so it. That kind of shook me. I had made this decision to go through medical school and residency, but it was different than what I thought it was going to be, and so I was angry with my decision. I was angry with myself. I was like I don't think this is the right thing for me. And I had, on top of that, I was never very good at managing stress, so I had, I never had any tools for managing stress. I don't think I really even understood all the stress that I was under or how much it impacted my health, and so for me that was really critical to understand, to really understand how much that anger was impacting my health, how much that frustration with my own decision was impacting my health, how much that stress was impacting my health, how much that frustration with my own decision was impacting my health, how much that stress was impacting my health, and I took three months off of residency.

Speaker 2:

I was really blessed the residency program I was in was I got three months off and it really gave me a great time, a chance to pay attention to my health again and pay attention to my body and try to listen to my body again, cause that was another thing I had to learn how to do. I was a worker, I was moving through this process, I was like, and so I had to learn how to listen to my body, learn how to rest when my body needed rest, learned learn how to do things like breath, work and understand how important it was for me to engage my parasympathetic nervous system and the calming nervous system in the body, and I had to learn how to. I did a lot of gratitude journaling, which changed my life completely. It changed my outlook, it changed the way that I was looking at this whole process. As opposed to fighting my training, I started to recognize the wonderful things I was learning and the joy and the and, even if it wasn't exactly what I wanted it. There's a lot. There was a lot of good to it and gratitude was really instrumental in changing my mindset, which was which was always fighting and struggling and stressed. In addition, I did a lot of integrative things, like I did a lot of acupuncture and I did Reiki. My mom gifted me with a weekly session of Reiki and that just was wonderful in terms of energy healing and calming my body.

Speaker 2:

And then I started, as I said, when I went through functional medicine training. I started to recognize that there was a few areas in my matrix, in addition to the stress management, that I had to really focus on, and one was my microbiome, because I was on antibiotics my whole childhood pretty much. I had chronic urinary tract infections. I was treated for them again and again with antibiotics, which ended up messing up my microbiome. I ended up having a lot of issues because of that and that needed a lot of support. And then I also realized I really needed to focus on my toxic load. I realized through testing that I had a lot of excess toxic exposure. I also genetically wasn't as good at mobilizing those toxins, and so that was those two areas In addition to the stress management I really did a lot of work on, and one of the things when I did a test on which which helped, even though I do always listen to Mark Hyman for whatever reason him telling me to get my amalgams out it seemed like this was like this huge thing and, oh, do I want to spend the money?

Speaker 2:

And whatever. So there's one test that we do a lot at the ultra wellness center and it's the quick silver tri test, and it looks at level of inorganic mercury, methyl mercury and total mercury and then how are you mobilizing it through your hair and your urine? And my inorganic mercury was really still very high, which indicates that some of your mercury is still getting secreted from those silver amalgams, and so that kind of helped me feel more convinced that, again, I always listen to Mark, but they convinced me to take that step and to go through the safe removal and then realizing that I had to really focus on lowering my toxic load and supporting my body's detox system. So those were the areas that, in addition, I needed to focus on for my own overall health.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's great. I feel like you're telling my whole story and that's again why the history is so important. Right, because what happened in your childhood, not just what's going on in the last five years, because same for me. I had acne as a teenager, so I was on loads of antibiotics, right, and then didn't really help that much. And then I was on birth control, then Accutane, like all of these things that just totally destroyed my microbiome, really affected my liver, and I too have poor detox capabilities.

Speaker 1:

I did one tox test. I think I had outrageous levels of ddt in my system. Now ddt was banned three years before I was even born. So crazy, right again, we've talked about this a little bit on the podcast too. So you, I could have inherited that from my parents. What my first couple years of my life was on a military base. My dad was like, oh, we used to spray everything all over, so I'm sure they were still using the banned substance, who knows. Crazy how these things were born with. And especially today, these babies now are born already with their buckets half full.

Speaker 1:

Could, this be part of the reason why autism and all these other things on the rise.

Speaker 1:

I 100% believe. So it's all of a sudden. My daughter said to me the other day Mom, I really don't want to have a kid with problems. And I said it starts with you. I'm like when you're old enough and you're ready and willing to do the work, because now she's a teenager she wants nothing. I just ran blood work on her and she, she's got so much omega-6, her omega-3 balance she's way off. She doesn't have enough antioxidants, all the stuff, because she's eating all the processed stuff.

Speaker 1:

But she's not ready at this point. But it's interesting that she's noting that and she was listening. So I'm like, okay, we'll get there right eventually. But that's a really big part of it for me too. So my microbiome I didn't really have one. I'm lucky that my kids are as healthy as, because the first, when I was pregnant with them, I was working in dentistry and I didn't know about safe removal. So here I am, day in, day out, five days a week, breathing in all this and my mercury I don't know where it is, because when I do those tests, like nothing ever shows up, so it's sequestered somewhere in the brain or something.

Speaker 1:

But that's what I always have to focus on too is the microbiome and the detox which is. And for me, even before detox, I think I ran into problems trying to detox so much, but my drainage pathways weren't great, right, so my liver was always a little cloggy, my bowels I always tend more towards constipation. That's where we always work too right Before we can push things out. How are those working? And again, why the history is so important, right? If I never told you, yeah, I get constipated more often than not. And then if the doctor doesn't really know that and they started giving you a lot of stuff to detox, it has nowhere to go. So again, that detailed. And why functional medicine has an advantage because you go to your regular doctor and what do they have for you? Eight, 10 minutes.

Speaker 1:

It's like just the way the model is in conventional medicine that they have to push through so many patients in a day, so it's very hard to have. And so many people when they come to me or have a consultation, they just want somebody to listen Right. Have. And so many people when they come to me or have a consultation, they just want somebody to listen right, and so I've had to learn that skill because for me, like as a practitioner, I always want to jump in and say, oh, do this, do that? But I'm like, oh no, I just have to listen, because, one, you understand, you learn so much just by listening, right and against.

Speaker 1:

I had somebody come in the other day and he had a lot of problems and I'm just trying to tell him why, but he didn't want, he just wanted to keep talking. So finally, after a few minutes, I'm like I'm just going to shut my mouth and just let him go for 20 minutes, just let him get it all out before I intervene. And I think that's one important thing that I think we've lost in modern medicine, dentistry today is that doctor-patient relationship, because it's become almost transactional. Now you come in with your symptom, here's your medication, and we've lost that. And patients just want to be heard. And that's why so many people are turning away from traditional and looking towards all of these I don't like the word alternative medicine but more holistic modalities, because they know the conventional model is broken.

Speaker 2:

Oh, absolutely, Unfortunately it is, and I know it's frustrating physicians as well as for the patients, right, Having that limited amount of time and having to create these notes to appease the insurance company and use these certain medications. It's very hard for physicians as well as the patient, and so I feel blessed to have that time with patients so we can really get to understand them and know where they're coming from and understand their history and their timeline and where we have to focus for them. And I think what functional medicine is really working to do is to work with conventional medicine and work to shift the way we're doing conventional medicine, because we all know it has to change. The way that we're doing things now is not sustainable. It's also just as you said we can do a good job with acute care medicine, but when we're dealing with all this chronic disease, we have to change what we're doing and it has to be a more comprehensive approach where we're getting to understand our patients and looking upstream and not just putting a Band-Aid on the situation.

Speaker 2:

And what's fascinating, like when people come in to see us, I'm always looking in their mouth. That's like the one thing that I'm always doing. I'm asking them questions about their. Like you said that antibiotic history is important to know. But also, what is your history when you go to the dentist? How often are you going to the dentist? What do they say about your gums? Is there any infections? So we do a really detailed history but also examine the mouth and that's important to see because it's important. Your teeth are so critical for what you can eat and chew.

Speaker 2:

And then, of course, all that inflammation that can come from the mouth and impact the body. And what we always do with every patient who comes in is we check some markers of inflammation. So we'll check. There's different markers to look at, but we look at things like C-reactive protein and if that's high, it's telling you there's something in the body that's triggering inflammation and you've got to do. That's what we are. We're detectives. We're looking to see where is that inflammation coming from, and it could be coming from their poor diet or weight gain around the belly, but it could be coming from imbalances in the microbiome and whether that's in the gut area or in the mouth. So we are often working with you, Dr Carver, and sending patients to you, and it's important to have that good relationship with a dentist so they can help you investigate, Because, unfortunately, inflammation is one of those things that sometimes takes some investigative work and we've got to figure out where it's coming from, because we know that chronic levels of inflammation always high, can lead to so many different diseases, from heart disease to stroke, to cancer, to metabolic syndrome, insulin resistance, prediabetes and so dementia.

Speaker 2:

So it's really important that we're looking for signs of inflammation and then working to uncover them. So it's an important area for us to look at. We know that with gingivitis and physicians know this, we've known this forever that inflammation in the gums is tied to heart disease. Right, I'm sure you've talked about this on this podcast we know that there are bacteria from the mouth found in plaque in the arteries in your heart, and this is not new. This is not new information.

Speaker 2:

But so often physicians don't have the time to even think about that and delve into it when they're working on helping a patient reverse their chronic disease. But it's critical because it is a strong driver for heart disease. But we also know that gingivitis is a strong or inflammation in the gums is a strong driver for dementia, as you just mentioned, right, Alzheimer's disease, dementia, certain cancers, rheumatoid arthritis, other autoimmune disease, definitely vascular disease, increasing risk of stroke. So it's critical that we're paying attention to this. But unfortunately, when you have eight to 10 minutes, you don't have time to go down that pathway and think about those connections. You're just putting out a fire or putting a Band-Aid on and it's not. It's not. The patients don't feel great afterwards and the doctors aren't feeling great afterwards. We know the system has to change.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it's true, and the exciting thing for me as a dentist is that the mouth is super accessible. Right, it's a lot easier to treat the mouth than the gut. Right, I can see directly in the mouth Now with the 3D x-ray, the cone beam. Wow, the stuff that I see, the things that I'm seeing in people's sinuses, and they have no feeling of it. They've got these big. I don't even know what half the stuff is. You know it could be. I had one patient a couple of weeks ago. The entire sinus was 100% full of fluid or something they're like. Really, I don't feel anything. I'm like, oh my goodness, this is not good. There's, you know, is there a fungal? And we know there's a lot of, you know, thought that fungus is a pre-cancer to cancer. So if we can and if it's in the mouth, it's in the nasal cavities, we have ways to try to deal with that.

Speaker 1:

But taking out those old amalgam fillings that have lots of different metals in them, that's relatively easy to do. Taking out infected teeth for a dentist relatively easy to do, and in my practice it's biologic. I'm using the ozone and all the things that also helping to detoxify the patient before we do all the pre and post, depending on the patient. Some patients are going to need a little bit more pre and post support because their immune systems are already or they have very high levels of inflammation. We know we need to support them with more oxygenate, more liver detoxification, drainage like those are really important before certain an amalgam removal or removal of a tooth we really got to you know again, treat that patient. That's why that history is super important, knowing how do they heal from certain things and they'll need some more post-op care. But again it's, the trickier ones are what we call like cavitation lesions, right? So if you've had a wisdom tooth.

Speaker 1:

So right, that's an important part of the history too. Have you ever had wisdom teeth removed? Because even though the gum tissue may heal and feel fine, sometimes, for whatever reason, the bone may not fully heal in those extraction sites and it leaves a cavity, basically a hole in the bone where things like Lyme and parasites and fungus and bacteria, all sorts of things can go and hang out right, so a nice cozy little den. There's no blood supply there anymore, so the immune system can't see that. All these things are there and they're giving off their bypass. But all of those toxins that they give off are draining right into our lymph system, getting into those arteries, all that kind of stuff, and but they don't feel anything. So that's another important thing on these 3D x-rays that we try to look for in illicit history. Interestingly, a bunch of my cavitation patients they will have had maybe head and neck issues, nerve issues, trigeminal neuralgia, all these kinds of things, and often the most common one I see is a lower wisdom tooth removal and the patient will feel like they have pain in the upper teeth. But if you look clinically you're like I don't see anything but because the nerve branches into the five different branches of that facial nerve. They all can come from that area. Those toxins and everything can creep all along those nerves. Very interesting, something that we really need to look at when again we're searching for that source of inflammation.

Speaker 1:

What else could it be? Some of the things, obviously the amalgams infected teeth, those are more obvious, but the cavitation lesions, those are a little trickier. Somebody would try general neuralgia. I'm always thinking all right, what is the? Usually some kind of toxin, right? I think a virus is more like toxin. So that got in the body. Where is it? So how can we go after that specific toxin with binders and drainage and all that kind of stuff? Can we use ozone and procaine and all these things to try to heal that nerve? So a person doesn't have to? Because traditionally we think, oh, that's something you're just going to have forever.

Speaker 2:

You just have to deal with it.

Speaker 1:

Maybe not especially. The sooner we can get to it, the better, but there's always in my opinion I'm sure in yours there's always a reason for a symptom. Absolutely you cover that you know unpack it, yeah, and it is you said being a detective.

Speaker 1:

I think that's the most fun. When I've become, this biology dentist is unpacking all these kinds of things. Somebody will come to me with a toothache. Clinically, I'm like I don't see anything, so I'll pull out my tooth meridian chart. You're like all right, what meridian is that tooth on Right? Hey, okay, that's on the stomach meridian. Are you having any reflux, any stomach issues? Have you been treated for H pylori? Any of that? And that is the fun thing when you and so often patients will be like how did you know that? Yeah, guess what? The whole body is connected.

Speaker 2:

I think you brought up a really important point about how we have to support patients through these treatment processes and I do think that's really important to pay attention to and to really echo for anybody who's listening that when we decide that somebody has to have their silver amalgams removed or it's really important that it's done in a safe manner with support whatever your individual support needs are and done to prevent that mercury from getting back into the body, it has to be done safely, and we are always working to find we get patients from all over the world. So definitely when they're local, we'll work with Dr Carver, but if they're not local, we're looking for biological dentists that will really think about how can we remove this safely and work with you to support that person's detoxification capacity. Because sometimes when people, like you said, if you jump in too fast to either the removal or these detox protocols, sometimes if they're too aggressive, you feel worse, and so it's important that we don't put too much stress on the body and there are certain times that we have to be really careful about not putting extra stress on the body If somebody is dealing with active cancer. You really got to think. You're doing things carefully, with lots of support so you're not putting extra stress on the immune system Because, as I mentioned, these toxins from the environment really put a lot of stress on the immune system. Unfortunately, we know that many toxins, including mercury, but lots of other toxins as well have been shown to suppress the functioning of the immune system, and so how easily somebody can fight off a cold or a flu or a virus or some bacterial infection when they have high levels of toxins, they might get sick more frequently or they just they get cancer. They just can't fight off things as well. We also know that toxins can really cause imbalances in the immune system, like trigger an autoimmune condition in certain people who are susceptible.

Speaker 2:

So it's and, like you mentioned, we are unfortunately seeing so many different toxins, from the forever chemicals, pfoas, to the endocrine disrupting chemicals like the plastics, like BPA and triclosan and parabens, and then, of course, there's the heavy metals and pesticides and herbicides. It's sometimes disheartening and scary, but we know that's definitely impacting. Like you mentioned, that increase in autism is definitely impacting the increase in cancer. There's just an article researchers don't know why so many young people are getting colon cancer and getting cancer. We do know we have dumped what is there like 95,000 registered chemicals that we're putting in the environment that we're not testing properly. We do know. We do know we've been sticking antibiotics into us as well as into our food supply that's messed up all our microbiome. That is absolutely related to this increased risk of cancer. So those endocrine disrupting chemicals, those toxins, the antibiotics are absolutely disrupting our immune system. So I think it's just an interesting statement.

Speaker 1:

We don't know why there's such Eye roll eye roll.

Speaker 1:

Okay, we absolutely know. But that is another important part you said like, for instance, I had a patient yesterday with cancer. One of her old amalgam fillings didn't look great but I was like I don't, I'm not touching that right now. She's in the midst of treatment, why, and even with all my mitigation techniques and we minimize, if anything, I don't want to take the risk that even one little molecule of mercury is going to upset the healing there. So that's why, ideally, dr Bohemond, always have prevention. Let's one try to do these things before we're sick.

Speaker 1:

Two, have such good oral care that we never need a filling in the first place, right? Sometimes I look at patients and I think I'm much more conservative where some people like they see the slightest shadow on an x-ray and boom, we need to do a filling. Even with the best biological we are still have chemicals in dental materials and so I don't want to put that. Can I and I know the body, the teeth, mineralize, demineralize all day, every day. I would much rather try to focus on can we do hardcore nutrition and special my little kits that I have to try to enhance that environment? Can we do that first, especially when a patient is asymptomatic?

Speaker 1:

It's just an enamel. I do not, and once you cut into a tooth it's forever Until we have figured out how to regrow an enamel. It's not like you can do a filling. Even the best dentist in the world. That filling is eventually going to break down, especially if you get it when you're a child. It would be wonderful if it could last forever. That is, I have to say, one advantage of the amalgam fillings. They do last a long time and again, and that's why some of these tests that you will get at a functional medicine, like this mercury test, because I have plenty of 70 year olds and they have a mouthful of amalgams and they appear to be healthy as horses zero medications, zero chronic ailments and so do you need to rip them all out? No, I don't think so, because their body is doing a great job, and that's why we're in biologic dentists and functional medicine doctors. We are looking at the individual right.

Speaker 1:

So we know okay, an amalgam filling has 50 mercury in it, but some people have great. It's really interesting when you take out an amalgam filling, sometimes under the tooth is completely corroded. It looks black underneath there. You know, oh my gosh, that has been leaching right into the body. But sometimes you take out a silver filling and the dentin is the perfect beautiful chalky yellow and you wow, that's so interesting. Why did it corrode on this tooth and not on that one? And again, it makes me always think about those energetic systems, how the tooth are related. Or you'll see one tooth right budding next to the other one. There's cavity on one side, not on the other. How can that be If they're in the exact same environment? Shouldn't?

Speaker 1:

they have the cat, right? No, because they're on different energy meridians too. So, again, you're thinking about that whole body and how that's working. The other thing about people who are of the older generation right, they were born before plastics, right Before these 95,000 chemicals. Right, so their immune systems, our immune system, doesn't fully develop till about age three, right, so they didn't have any of that, those terrible stuff. Their immune systems were much more robust, whereas today not so much. We're getting so much more into our bodies before age three, so none of our immune systems are as robust as they were. So that's again that individuality when you're coming up with a treatment plan is really important. When you're coming up with a treatment plan is really important?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, 100%, and I'm always thinking about the toxic load, because it's not just one toxin, it's what is that person's toxic load? You mentioned it earlier the bucket, right. How full up is their bucket and how are they able to detoxify? How are they detoxifying toxins from their body? How is their bowels working? How are they pooping? How is their liver working? Are they eating enough protein? Are they eating enough phytonutrients and minerals and vitamins to support their liver? Are they sweating? Are they drinking enough clean water? All those things that are really critical for detoxification.

Speaker 2:

And what I work with people on all the time is okay how do we lower your toxic load? Because if you just think about all those chemicals that we've been talking about, as I said, it can be pretty overwhelming and daunting and sad, but we want to work on what can we do to lower our exposure and what can we do to support the release of these toxins. So both ends it's really important and that's where we see things get out of whack and, like you said, it's not always you have to remove every silver filling. It's looking at what is that person's toxic load, what can you do to lower it and work to support their detoxification capacity.

Speaker 1:

Exactly Like in our last 15 minutes. Let's really, let's focus on this. What are your favorite tests. Maybe let's say a patient can afford to do two tests. I have my favorite ones. To look at this toxic load. What do you think is a good way to determine some of?

Speaker 2:

that. So there's a few that I look at. So I look at GGT A GGT is a test that you can do at any lab. It's a conventional lab test and it gives you a sense of your body's glutathione demand, and glutathione is a really important antioxidant for the body and it's very important for our detoxification capacity. So GGT can give us an understanding of. It's not perfect, but it can give us an understanding. And then we often do something like a Nutri-Eval.

Speaker 2:

A Nutri-Eval which has organic acids in it will look at things like markers of oxidative stress, markers of toxicity, markers of even glutathione, and when you can look at all of those together to get a sense of somebody's toxic load. You said two. We sometimes do more than that. Right, we'll look at different tests that measure toxins, which sometimes can be helpful. I mentioned the one regarding mercury, but we'll look at blood levels of all sorts of different heavy metals. We sometimes look at a test that looks at many different parabens and phthalates and glyphosate. We'll look at genetics that look at how well somebody can recycle their glutathione, and so you can look at somebody's genetic SNPs or variations that can give you a sense, and then I guess I would look at all of that, together with the patient's symptoms, and get a sense of how I went over two. I'm sorry, no, no that's okay.

Speaker 1:

No, that's a great framework. I think there's two that I like to use, and one is the organic acids test. I really like that one. It's urine, so it's super easy, you don't have to poke anybody with the needle and you get a lot of information from that.

Speaker 1:

Like you said you can see, and the difference in urine versus blood is you're actually seeing the metabolites. So sometimes if you just draw blood, something may be in your blood. But is that actually getting into your cells? We don't really know about that. Things are in the blood transiently. So when you're having, when you're looking at metabolites, you're really can see how is the body utilizing their your vitamins and how is your Krebs cycle right inside of your mitochondria, which we know are so crucial for health?

Speaker 1:

How are all of those areas working? Are they working? Okay, because we can look at metabolites of all those different things and then we can see your detox, right. And yes, there are more specific tests we can do. But and I do I like the genetic testing just to see how well.

Speaker 1:

My kids are super fortunate, they're both homozygous for the MTHFR, so that means that they cannot I'm like this totally beat the genetic odds. Like no fair. Their detox enzymes are only 30%. Mine are at 70. So I'm like, oh, so I'm always on that when they want to eat Twinkies and this and that. And they're like no, that's not fair, like you just need a little more support. So for them it's challenging. So I get frustrated when they eat all the junk because for them they can't get rid of that as easily. But organic tests and then I love any kind of like tox panel, like you mentioned. Vibrant America has one. I've been using real-time labs to look for the mold toxins. Right, that's a nasty one. You talked about before how certain things can depress our immune system and mold is one of those really nasty ones. It's really hard.

Speaker 1:

I just did one of lots of those lovely things and I got to figure out where that's coming from, and I hope it's not in my house.

Speaker 1:

I just ordered some mold testing for that Because I'm like, oh, my eczema flared again. Am I breathing in too many of those toxins? Something's getting at my system and you can look for other kinds of microbes in those toxin sets. But then all the plastics, herbicides, pesticides I think it's nice to know. Like I said I had done, one previously showed super high levels of DDT.

Speaker 1:

So let's say, we get these tests back and it's showing, okay, maybe our detox, which I think I read somewhere in some genetic thing that almost 50%, if not a little more, have these SNPs in the MTH. Everybody says, oh, mth, and to me it's almost like it's more normal to have these SNPs. And I started to think the other day, like for my children, why and I have to be optimistic, right, you talked about the whole gratitude and thinking that it's a blessing Instead of being so depressed that my children have this, this dysfunction. I'm like, interestingly, if they're so poor at detoxing, they're going to get symptoms a lot faster, right? So in this world of 95 000 chemicals, the faster you get a symptom, the faster you can deal with it.

Speaker 2:

So that's my optimism.

Speaker 1:

Maybe they selected for it because of this toxic world. We'll be able to recognize things faster so they can clean themselves out before something more serious develops. Perhaps that's my positive spin on it. But let's say somebody has these genetic defects, so they're not that great of a detoxer. How would you tell them to support their detox systems?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I mean, we always start with nutrition. Not only was my undergraduate graduate degree in nutrition, but, as I said, we have nutritionists that meet with every one of our patients, and so we are making sure that people are not wasting their calories on junk foods. We call them junk foods because they are devoid of having. They don't have enough vitamins and minerals per calorie. That's exactly what it is. So you really want to be having that whole foods diet, because that's when you're going to be getting all of the vitamins and minerals per calorie. That's exactly what it is. So you really want to be having that whole foods diet, because that's when you're going to be getting all of the vitamins and minerals and phytonutrients and protein that your body needs for adequate detoxification. So we focus on that. We focus on a diet that's really rich in the phytonutrients that help support detoxification.

Speaker 2:

You think about the allium vegetables, like the shallots and the onions and the garlic, but also the vegetables that contain the glucosinolates. You brought this up earlier that they have glucosinolates that can get converted into sulforaphane, which helps the body make glutathione. So that includes your cruciferous vegetables, your broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, kale, broccoli sprouts, and how critical and important those are for helping detox pathways. So I always start with food. If people need more things for support, we might add in some supplements like NAC, that helps the body make glutathione, or sulforaphane, again, which helps the body make glutathione. And then I think about all the other ways that we detoxify sweating whether we're recommending exercise with sweating, sauna use, lymphatic massage to help with mobilizing toxins, pooping regularly, making sure they're not constipated, making sure they're having a bowel movement every day, lots of fiber to support that good breath, work for detoxification, as I said, clean water all of those real basics can make a big difference while at the same time we're working to lower the toxic load.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, like you said, the sweating I know when I was first going through my journey. I never sweat. I could go in the sauna for 20, never sweat. So not good. Right, that detox pathway was blocked. If I'm constipated, that detox pathway is blocked. So you need to really focus the lymphatic you just mentioned.

Speaker 1:

People don't really know exactly what that is and how that feels, but, unlike the circulatory system, our blood gets pumped around. The only way that lymph can get moved around is by, like you said, manual massage, movement. This is one of the reasons exercise is important moving that body. And exercise can be vacuuming your house, going up and down the stairs. It doesn't have to be where you're going and doing the whole aerobic exercise at the gym or something. Just movement in general is how you get that lymph moving Breathing.

Speaker 1:

We've had just the last couple of podcast episodes talked about with a postural restoration person and somebody who was talking about the fascia and that diaphragm making sure so much of us now we're at death all the time we're hunched over, right, and that diaphragm is one of the biggest muscles in the body, right, it needs to be able to move and to stretch and when that gets stuck, that's one of the reasons we can have acid reflux and all sorts of other chronic issues breathing properly. We I've been researching lately sleep apnea, just if we learn how to breathe properly. Do we not have because so many people can't tolerate that, c-pap, and I have a laser treatment for it. It's not necessarily curative, but it's expensive. Hey, our breath, it's free. It's free, we have it. If we can utilize that.

Speaker 1:

Learning how to breathe properly, that's another way we move that lymph, and lymph is where all the kind of toxic waste goes, and so we need to get that moving so it can get flushed out of our bowels. So we've got to get those bowels going. Get that movement is absolutely vital, right? So there's so many. So that's why going to someplace like the ultra wellness where you have all the different team members who are supporting you because a lot of this can feel very overwhelming and, oh my gosh, where do I start? And then people get so overwhelmed they say forget it, I just I can't do it.

Speaker 1:

So you have to have the support system. It's very vital in trying to do okay. Maybe we need to do all 10 of these things, but how about we just start with one, right? What's something that you can incorporate in your daily right now, and maybe it's just after dinner. I'm going to go for a third. It's starting to get warmer here, but the Northeast maybe we have a lot of snow in the last week. Can I just go for a 30 minute walk after dinner? It's, having a little bit movement after you eat is a really great way to help digestion and moving everything along, especially at nighttime, because if we just eat and then go sit on the couch and watch TV and then go to bed, sometimes that's sitting there and that can lead to other problems. Movement, key, key, great.

Speaker 1:

So we're going to detox and again that nutrition diet has to be the cornerstone, as Dr Boham mentioned, that we've got to get, and it's challenging. And for me, who even who knows what we're supposed to do I'm busy working and running around with the kids it's a challenge. So for me, I try to plan ahead Sunday. All right, what's the week look like? What are we going to do for dinner? Because if I don't plan ahead, then I'm going and I'm grabbing something that's pre-made or something, or we're going out to eat because I'm just tired.

Speaker 1:

It's tricky with modern life planning ahead and actually I think when you eat a whole foods diet it's much less expensive. Just going to fast food. Today you go to Panera for four people. You're almost a hundred dollars. I don't even know how anybody can afford to eat out anymore.

Speaker 2:

It's 100% and also it's less weight. All the studies have shown it's less expensive per nutrient when you're eating a healthy diet. So people are like it's less expensive. It's less expensive to eat processed food per calorie, but none of us need calories Some every once in a while, but most of us just need we're deficient in nutrients. So if we're looking at what is the cost to get enough zinc and the cost to get enough B12, absolutely eating a whole foods diet is less expensive and I think people don't appreciate that. They're just thinking about the cost per calorie and that's not really where we need to be focused. That's for sure.

Speaker 1:

Exactly. Think about we're going to have. Let's roast a chicken breast, have a salad and have boil up some green beans. One takes less than 30 minutes to make right. If you've got everything and you're getting the whole foods and it's much less expensive than going to Burger King, I promise you that and then you're not getting the toxins, you're getting all the nutrients. It's, it's such a good bang for your buck's yeah, we've been so happy.

Speaker 2:

we've been supporting our local, a local organic, regenerative farm doing a farm share, and it's so fun because every week you get new and different vegetables that you may not have. When we're talking about, we're going to circle back to that diversity at the beginning, right, like how important that is sometimes. When you get a farm share, then they'll give you different things each week and you get to try different things and it's organic and it's regenerative. It's good for us, it's good for them and it's really a fun way to support the local farmers of miles away.

Speaker 1:

So maybe it's organic, but the time it's got to your table it's lost probably half, if not more, of the nutritional value. Find your local, go to the local farmer's market and one way absolutely especially these regenerative farmers. This is the future of farming and the future to secure our food supply. We've got to do some more of this regenerative stuff. We raise our own animals right here. We have chickens and beef and pigs and it's great because we know, okay, this didn't have to go, we know how it was raised, we know what it was fed and it didn't have to travel far. So we're not losing some of the nutrition there.

Speaker 2:

I have to say my brother and sister saw.

Speaker 1:

I do most of the work. I just leave the benefits. So I got to give a shout out to them. But yeah, that's such a great point and you really will. But it does require planning, right, because I get it when I'm tired from work. I'm like, oh gosh, I didn't do. I have anything in the fridge or the freezer that I can pull on. Oh, now I got to wait an hour because we don't have a microwave in our house so I don't have the defrost capability anymore. So, anyway, such such awesome points, I hope everyone got a lot of great insight here. Is there anything as a wrapping up that you want to leave our audience with?

Speaker 2:

No, it's really been. It's been a pleasure. It's been such a pleasure, dr Carver, being with you today and such a pleasure working with you with our patients. That's really been a lot of fun. I've been learning so much, even more in terms of the connection with the mouth and overall health, and thanks for being a detective with us to help our patients. I love it.

Speaker 1:

That is my dream is having. I wish we could have more and more providers who had the time and really, because I think that's sometimes where the patients they know they need to get this done but they can't find the provider, or the one provider maybe isn't as supportive. Again, one of the reasons we do this podcast is just creating awareness and the more I feel that the people, the patients, start asking for these things, that's how we're going to change the tide. All of this information is out there. We just need to create more of that awareness. So, everyone, if you enjoyed this episode, please share it with your friends. Tell the world, because we can make a difference, but we have to do it together. Thank you for your time today and tell us how we can find you at the Ultra Wellness Center.

Speaker 2:

Yes, the Ultra Wellness Center website is ultrawellnesscentercom. My personal website is drbohamcom, and on Facebook and Instagram I'm Elizabeth Boham MD, and the Ultra Wellness Center is just the Ultra Wellness Center on the social media pages. So it was really. It was so much fun being with you today. What a great conversation. Thank you for having me.

Speaker 1:

Well, thank you. It's a pleasure working with you guys. All right, everybody. That'll wrap up this episode. If you enjoyed it, please leave us a, share it with your friends and we'll see you on the next episode. Have a great day, everyone.