The Root of The Matter

The Root of Health: Exploring Gut, Skin, and Functional Medicine with Dr. Maria Azizian

• Dr. Rachaele Carver, D.M.D. Board-Certified, Biologic, Naturopathic Dentist • Season 2 • Episode 21

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What if the key to optimal health lies not just in treating symptoms but in understanding the root causes of diseases? Join us as we uncover this intriguing perspective with Dr. Maria, a board-certified surgeon turned functional medicine expert. Dr. Maria shares her transformative journey from performing GI surgeries to embracing preventive care, illustrating how the integration of traditional surgery and functional medicine can lead to a more holistic approach to healthcare. Through her dual focus on skin cancer prevention and functional medicine, she brings to light the critical role of preventive measures, from sunscreen use to holistic dentistry, in safeguarding our health.

Our conversation with Dr. Maria takes a deep dive into the intricate relationship between skin health and overall wellness. Learn how conditions like leaky gut and immune imbalances might manifest through visible skin issues and how dietary choices, including the consumption of ultra-processed foods, can have a profound impact on your skin and general health. We explore how comprehensive gut testing and personalized dietary changes can lead to significant improvements in chronic health conditions, highlighting the importance of commitment to lifestyle changes in achieving and maintaining health balance.

Functional medicine testing takes center stage as Dr. Maria and I discuss the personalization of patient care through targeted testing and treatment optimization. We examine the challenges of managing gut bacteria imbalance and candida, emphasizing the role of lifestyle changes over antibiotics. The episode also sheds light on genetics in personalized medicine, with insights into how genetic predispositions can influence health outcomes. From the implications of gallbladder removal to strategies for reversing gum disease, this episode is packed with actionable insights for those seeking to take control of their health through a more personalized and preventive approach.

Ready to connect with Dr. Azizian and her team? Here is her website: https://mindfulmedicalcarefalmouth.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.

Want to talk with someone at Dr. Carver's office?  Call her practice: 413-663-7372

Reverse Gum Disease In 6 Weeks! With Dr. Rachaele Carver Online Course!

Learn more about here: https://reversegumdiseaseinsixweeks.info/optinpage



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:

Hello everybody, welcome back to another episode of the Root of the Matter. I am your host, dr Rachel Carver, a biologic dentist who's trying to bring light to the connection between all of the systems of the body right who is a board certified surgeon and functional medicine certified provider. She is focused on food sensitivity, leaky gut and dietary toxins. Those of you who know my story you know I'm super interested to hear and learn from Dr Maria today. She is an author of the Clear Skin Diet book and she has two clinics and we'll talk a little bit more about that, especially at the end, so people can connect with you if they want some more help. So why don't we dive in and tell me how you were a surgeon and then got into functional medicine? They seem opposite.

Speaker 2:

First of all, thank you so much for inviting me. I really appreciate your focus. There is so much in common between a biological dentist and it is basically I see it as a branch of functional medicine essentially, so it's just more focused on the mouth. So yeah, so we do have a lot in common. So yeah, briefly, as a surgeon I have always been interested in what's driving the disease, because very often and the way you're trained in surgical residency is that you are the last instance and it is because usually the patient starts with their primary care doctor, then they go to subspecialist, often, let's say GI doctor, and then end up needing to have their organ removed or repaired or something happens. Or it's an urgent situation where a patient comes in, let's say, with perforated diverticulitis. That's a very common little outpouching. So we eat large intestine from the bad food we get. Very common and I'm sure many of your listeners because it's such a ubiquitous problem have had a colonoscopy and were told oh, you just have a few ticks, but sometimes those ticks become an abscess, they perforate. So I've always had an interest in what is called alternative medicine but didn't actively practice it because, again, that was not my area where I trained and then when functional medicine came along, when I found out about it, I was not my area where I trained. And then when functional medicine came along when I found out about it, I was so excited because I could actually relate to it on a very on my almost like on a childlike interest level.

Speaker 2:

So I got certified in functional medicine and now I'm basically a hybrid of both. So I have two clinics, like you mentioned. One is a skin cancer clinic here in Cape Cod and that skin cancer clinic I do lots of procedures. We do obviously, as the name sounds, lots of skin cancer and we see lots of skin issues. And also I have a functional medicine clinic, ilabmd, which is both online and in person, and then over there I'm purely functional. But I have to tell you, sometimes I spend time just trying to figure out just what's happening in conventional medicine before I even get to functional medicine. So that's basically. Then I went and got certified at Functional Medicine Institute. Dr Hyman everybody knows him, he's one of my mentors, but he doesn't know me, but one of the mentors of all of us who get certified through it. So that's basically is my journey.

Speaker 1:

Now were you like a general surgeon doing a lot of the GI surgery?

Speaker 2:

I am a general surgeon and I basically now do general surgery as a part-time thing. I do it as what we call it the locums, occasionally because with time my interest shifted. When you're younger, straight out of residency, your goal is to. It's very, you're in the saving mode, you're going to save somebody. Somebody comes in with whatever abscess, et cetera. But then when you become wiser, older and wiser, you start understanding is that the true intervention that could be done should be done earlier, before this turns into absence, because in surgery, again, you basically deal with infection, perforation those are the common things obstruction, especially when it comes to gut, when I do a lot of gut surgery, and that basically being a last instance, you understand that there has to be some kind of a prevention and that's what's driving me.

Speaker 2:

So in my clinic, like I said, was the skin the biggest prevention, and again I'm going to switch gears for a sec that the biggest prevention is actually the usage of sunscreen when you talk about skin cancer. But every medical issue, every medical problem has their specific preventions. You're a dentist, there's specific things that you could do to avoid cavities, but also there are universal things that are good for the whole body, like the holistic health and honestly, I'm interested health and I'm honestly I'm interested in both. I'm interested in my gut I love leaky gut and I love surgical gut issues. I love skin, so so, yeah, so it's all interconnected.

Speaker 1:

I love what you said. I focus so much on prevention too, because I've been practicing 20 years now and, just like you, when we're first out of dental school, we're cutting and we're drilling and we're pepping and all these things and then we're like man, this is tough, it's tough work. It's the patients specifically. They don't really like coming to the dentist. And how can I prevent these things? All this time and money? And as good of a dentist as I may be, if I drill on one side of the mouth, how is it affecting the other? The bite is off just a little bit. Those kinds of things really drove me to think what can I do to not have to drill, because every time I cut into a tooth, I'm cutting into it forever. Yes, maybe now we're not using the heavy metals and now we're using plastics instead. Is that better? I don't know. Are we going to learn 20 years from now that all those composites we're putting in were problematic, right? So again, I'm always thinking, like you said, it was very spot on that there are certain prevention methods that affect all health. Right, because having a cavity, that's, you know, that's a sign of inflammation, that's a sign of acidity in the body. Right. That's a sign of imbalance. So things that we do to prevent skin issues are also going to help prevent cavities, right. We've got to avoid the toxic chemicals in all of our beauty care products. We've got to avoid the chemicals in the foods, right, all of those are going to affect the whole body in a positive way.

Speaker 1:

And I found very interesting again, depending on our genetics, maybe in our environments, like for me I get eczema. I had acne as a kid. Skin was always an issue for me, whereas somebody else may have a lot of cavities, right, myself, my kids we don't have cavities, we have skin issues. So that's where functional medicine I think plays a key role in really personalizing. I think plays a key role in really personalizing. What is it about you and your genetics and your environment and your diet that is leading you to have this symptom versus the next person? I think too much in conventional medicine there's a one size fits all and that's why we have so many side effects with medications. I always find it funny when you're watching TV and there's so many. I feel like most of the drugs now are all about skin issues and I don't know if you've noticed that, because from my understanding.

Speaker 1:

Hopefully you can elaborate the liver right. We don't ever pay attention to the liver much and there aren't really even great tests to look at liver functionality, because it's such an amazing organ it can regenerate. It has to really be functioning poorly to show up, maybe, on a blood test. But when that gets overloaded right, our whole digestive kind of slows down. From what I understand, we, instead of going down the chute to the liver to the bowels and out, we are actually getting the toxins being pushed up into our lungs and into our skin. So a lot of these skin issues that are becoming more prevalent again in my thought process is because of this excess process and the taxing on the liver.

Speaker 1:

So I know as a surgeon you probably took out lots of gallbladders, right? I think that's one of the most common surgeries and I think I looked up a stat there was like 600,000 surgeries about a year. So that can be great and really takes people out of pain. But this is and again being so common, maybe you can talk to us a little bit about why does the gallbladder get clogged with these stones and once you take it out, how do you know that the liver still isn't making stones?

Speaker 2:

And if they do what happens, then yeah, you touched on a variety of fascinating topics and all of them are dear to my heart. Actually, the first book that I wrote was about gallbladder, because it's just by definition, honestly, that I've just taken out so many gallbladders, and some of them easy, some of them could be very difficult if they are very infected, abscessed, etc. It's a fascinating organ and we do take it out, basically, and tell the patient that you will be okay. Is that true? Yes, that is true, because for the most part, people are okay. There are, of course, side effects from having your gallbladder out and some of it could be GI symptoms like diarrhea is not uncommon. Sometimes people say that there's a weight gain, but the weight gain is because there's no gallbladder pain stopping them from overeating. So the weight gain from the surgery? That has not been proven. So there's no weight gain per se from the surgery. So that's the surgical standpoint. But just to connect between my interest, and again, my first book was about a gallbladder.

Speaker 2:

In this book, about the skin, just be totally honest, there's so much more interest in the skin. And why is that? Because it's visual. It is visual People and maybe I'm thinking you're right. You're exactly right about how those ads. There are lots of psoriasis ads. I don't watch TV much but I do see sometimes the psoriasis ads and a lot of times. And obviously the medications that they advertise they're very toxic for your whole body. So that's why there are all the side effects and et cetera. For some people that may not be the wrong thing. So I'm not going to knock it and say it's bad for everybody. No, preferably not to take it, but for some people that could be a lifesaver. So why is that? And I thought a lot about this why is that people are more drawn to skin? Yes, because skin is very visible. It's a social embarrassment if you have problems with the skin, especially if it's a visible issue. Another issue which people don't talk a lot is like they don't talk socially but they talk at the doctor's office is itching, because itching is one of the signs that something is out of balance. It could be a yeast overgrowth, but not necessarily it could be internal. It could be the sequela or consequence of a leaky gut In a sense, be the sequela or consequence of a leaky gut In a sense. So that's why it was my second book. I wrote it about between the connection between the food and clear skin. But honestly, I probably could have titled this book Gold Bladder and Food. It would have been, or whatever. Migraines and Food, because the connections are very similar. It's just how they manifest, like you said, like in some people it's skin, in other people it's cavities perhaps and just not to overwhelm your listeners with the specifics, but I'll go a little bit into that.

Speaker 2:

The premise is and now there's more and more research, thankfully accepted by conventional medicine, research thankfully accepted by conventional medicine, it's actually Western medicine data that our gut houses 60 to 70 percent of our immune system. So if every day you eat bad food like this over-fried, over-processed or they call it now ultra-processed constantly eat this food. So what happens? Your gut can't protect you well anymore. And these toxins from food because these foods are toxins, a lot of these I'm talking about bad foods obviously. So instead of us excreting them they can't be excreted Now they get absorbed into our bloodstream and our poor liver. To comment on the liver, the role of the liver is to detoxify, to clean your body off that. But the liver gets overwhelmed so it just can't do the complete detoxification and then you end up basically absorbing these toxins, absorbing these chemicals, and that's why everybody's different, everybody has different genetics. So, like for some people it could be certain problems, for somebody else could be. Oh, every time I go to a fast food restaurant I have a migraine the next day, for example, right. Or every time I eat whatever French fries, I have a GI upset, I have indigestion, because all of these things are different manifestations of the same all in the same, and a lot of times in our clinic I see people both in skin and non-skin, because I do treat obviously non-skin things too.

Speaker 2:

I noticed how people come in and let's say we always do gut tests, almost always, I would say, do gut testing for skin problem, to check them for reiki gut, and then after, of course, they also have to change their diet. It's not only about getting supplements and because that's not enough, you really have to change and it's hard for all of us. Personally I have to say, and on behalf of my patients definitely, it's hard to change your eating habits. And then when people come in, let's say after three months, so we'll recheck. We'll usually recheck every four to six weeks, but a lot of times three months is a good sort of time to look back and see, and not only the skin problem gets better if people are honestly dedicated and doing everything they're supposed to do, but also there are many other things, like some joint pains go away, energy level is higher.

Speaker 2:

There's just a variety of things. Sometimes even I've heard patients reporting to me I was going to have a surgery, like orthopedic surgery, for this and this, but I canceled it because it doesn't hurt me anymore and that's amazing. I'm like you didn't even tell me. I didn't know, because that's just human to forget to tell something, but it's so amazing to see that. But it does require time. It does require dedication because the chronic issues they can't you can't just snap your fingers and they go away.

Speaker 2:

Unfortunately, changing the diet, taking supplements and some people need minimal supplements, some people need more supplements. It's all personalized, based on their testing. That's why testing is a big component of functional medicine. But I'll be honest with you, without commitment and changing of your lifestyle, like, testing is a big component of functional medicine. But I'll be honest with you, without commitment and changing of your lifestyle, like, testing is useless. You can test, you'll find out then what. If you're not doing anything, then you just wasted money, got the testing and so yeah. But everything is interconnected the gut, the liver, the gallbladder, the skin, it's just all one, like one big sort of organism. Or sometimes I think of our body, like our planet, like earth, like there are all these things there are mountains, there are oceans, there are lakes, etc. And every geophysical, geographic place has its own kind of world right, so it's own environment, and they should stay that way and they can become out of balance. Well, that's not good for our planet. So I like often make that for me, just make those correlations.

Speaker 1:

And so you mentioned testing, which I think is really important. As I say, test, not guess. What is one of your favorite gut tests that you like to look at?

Speaker 2:

So in the functional medicine industry, and I was very happy to, honestly, I have to say, having a privilege of being trained at the Institute of Functional Medicine. To be honest, when I enrolled there I didn't realize that it would change my own life so much in every sense, in the sense of my intellectual curiosity, if my understanding of myself, and then of course, it extrapolates to my patients, to my life and everything else. Testing is very important, but it has to be coordinated with the patient, obviously, and it has to be something patient really wants. And you have to know what you're going to do with that testing. And actually that comes from why, even when I was a surgical resident, it was always like don't order a test if you don't know what you're going to do with that. Because even if it's, no matter if it's covered with insurance, but why? Why are you putting this poor patient through unnecessary CAT scanning or et cetera? So now let's move to functional medicine world. The testing in functional medicine is very. They really help you. So there are several tests that are fundamental and of course there are a bunch of companies that are always trying to outdo each other, but I have to say the main companies are very good. They're essentially the same, I have to say, and there could be like the style, how they present the data, but the main company and the Institute of Functional Medicine is very helpful so you can actually yourself, using your critical thinking, decide. So this is better for my type of patients. For example, I have several cohorts of patients in my clinic because my clinic is in Cape Cod, so we do have a lot of older patients and there are certain components that are more important to older patients. However, in functional medicine that I do online in our clinic iLabMD that's an online clinic I do there's obviously all ages, so we can have somebody who's an age 12, not necessarily somebody who is like 65 plus, which is more common for me in person.

Speaker 2:

The bottom line and I'm not very original here most of our functional medicine do the same thing. We start their fundamental test. The first one is the gut test, because the gut test shows me how your immune system works. It also shows the burden of good and bad bacteria. That's very important and I'm sure you know that I know, but for your listeners, there are a variety of newer conditions, but they're not so new. For example, sibo, which is an overgrowth of bacteria in the small intestine and something like that is hard to diagnose conventionally. But you look at the dysfunctional medicine sort of workup and there are patterns that are now classic for SIBO and variety of things.

Speaker 2:

Other things that people always get surprised and I'm no longer surprised, I used to be surprised at that too is that many of us do harbor parasites, and even people who haven't been away, they haven't had exotic travels, and some of the parasites are protozoa. Those are one-cell parasites which are actually not considered so pathogenic, they're not considered so bad, and there is actually somewhat of a divide in medicine, both actually in conventional and in functional medicine, that should we treat every patient who has that and when we see that and I see it a lot and I see in some patients we do treat it and usually when I say treated, we do use mostly herbal things, herbal and supplements. In some other patients who are very symptomatic, if patient comes in and they have diarrhea, a bunch of things and they already had colonoscopy, everything bad has been ruled out. Now we do a gut test and they have diarrhea, a bunch of things and they already have colonoscopy, everything bad has been ruled out. Now we do a gut test and we see this. Then sometimes I do treat it with antibiotics, as much as I hate it, but I do prescribe antibiotics. In my clinic I see infections. People come in with abscesses. You have to use antibiotics. But what I'm saying parasites are not as uncommon and, no, not everybody is running around with vomiting and diarrhea. You could have it chronically and that could be mild if I may say, that's not completely correct but a smaller burden of parasites, but you still harbor them. So we try to treat them with herbals, with supplements, and not to blast people with anything.

Speaker 2:

Additionally, with gut testing, which is again one of my favorites with gut testing we test inflammation in the gut and then test some digestive markers that relate to our pancreatic function, because our pancreas does lots of things. People know pancreas because of diabetes and it's true, but also pancreas is extremely important for digestion. So we look at that and then I prescribe or recommend rather, because I don't prescribe supplements, I recommend supplements. Anybody can buy supplements, but I choose supplements. I'm very careful, trying to integrate every medication that patient is on, to avoid any interactions and everything else. Actually, I will say a couple of things using your platform. Please be careful, because not all supplements are the same and some supplements could interact with your medication and cause problems. So always check with your doctor and a pharmacist is a good source as well. So always check with your doctor and a pharmacist is a good source as well, because for me, I always spend a lot of time on this, like trying to coordinate, make sure that it's all okay.

Speaker 2:

So another test that we do is food sensitivities. That is a good test and both tests together is a very good idea, but we often start with the gut. That do food sensitivities. Food sensitivities are not like food allergies, because food allergies everybody knows there are food allergies pretty much. You don't need a fancy test to find out your allergy. Most people know that. But food sensitivities are subtle. They may take up to 72 hours to manifest and the most amazing thing about food sensitivities is that you're often sensitive to foods that you eat the most, and those could be healthy foods, by the way, it could be healthy or foods as ubiquitous like potatoes. You could have four plus reaction, which is a severe reaction to potatoes. How would you know? You wouldn't know because, let's say, your symptom is joint pain. You always have joint pain because you always eat potatoes, so you don't know. And then, maybe by miracle, let's say if you go someplace there are no potatoes I can't imagine a place like that but you don't eat. You may notice that, oh, I'm actually feeling better, but how would you put two and two together? There is a lot to be said about food sensitivities and there are so many other tests.

Speaker 2:

We use a lot of tests in our clinic, but we try to be very mindful because most of the tests are not covered by the insurance. The only ones that are, partially at least, is our gut tests. So gut tests are for Medicare, only for Medicare patients. So we always try to. If you could do with less testing, we'll do with less testing.

Speaker 2:

On my website, the clinic iLabMD, we do have test packages and people often ask me about that, and that's all nice and great and they're always helpful, but it's important to know do you need it now and what tests do you need Otherwise? Another portion, aside from financial, is that you don't want to overwhelm the patient with too many tests and too many changes, and so this is wrong. And this is wrong Because another component of all of this as you know very well, rachel is stress. So you don't want to let a lot of people most of us have some level of stress you don't want to a lot of people most of us have some level of stress. You don't want to increase it now by pushing the patient if they're not ready. So yeah, but that's a very big topic, yeah.

Speaker 1:

So I love what you said and we talk about parasites a lot on this podcast because it was one of the things that I found was a major contributor to my inflammation. But it's really important what you said and I love that. You said that most people have this protozoa. Again, it's not that you travel to a third world country. I think the other interesting thing that I've learned over the years is that parasites kind of act like and I call it like a mothership, and if you have heavy metals or other toxins, they're actually sometimes there as a protective medicine to clean up the terrain. Right, we talk about the whole cellular metabolism, the extracellular matrix that often gets very clogged with toxins and infections and, again, so sometimes if we're seeing these parasites. So I love what you're saying.

Speaker 1:

It's not about always killing them. Why might they be overgrowing? Right, we have a lot of good and so-called bad. Right, it's always about the balance. So I say about in the mouth too. There are a lot of saliva tests that we do and they're just checking for the so-called bad. We all have those. It's when they get out of balance that's a problem. So we have to try to get away of always thinking about that we always have to kill and we really want to think about how do we create the environment, how do we create the healthy terrain, so these things don't get out of whack, right? Something like candida? Right, all of us have candida. It's when it overgrows that's the problem.

Speaker 1:

So functional medicine and biologic dentistry we're always trying to think why did that overgrow? Why did the environment change, right? And so, like you said, talking about food sensitivities, we've got this food sensitive. We're creating an environment that's creating inflammation and it's causing that, because sensitivity is very different from an allergy. And so do a lot of that sensitivity testing. And then I was noticing oh, it's just testing for what we're eating the most. That's what you said. So I moved a little bit away from that. But again, it's really important to say, because you eat something and the reaction is days later, so you don't know. So when you find that food sensitivity and you minimize that and you're seeing how is your body reacting to it. Because I also think food sensitivities come about because of the leaky gut, right, because of this change in the environment, because of some shift. So if you can heal the leaky gut, ideally those food sensitivities should go away.

Speaker 2:

I will add. Yes, I will add, if I may. This is actually one of the most common questions and I have in my book. I go into detail on that because between food sensitivities and leaky gut the direction it's a bi-directional sort of relationship the leakier you got, the more food sensitivities you will have, because you're starting to immunologically react to a bunch of new foods, and those immunoglobulins are mostly IgG. It could be IgA immunoglobulins that are different from allergies, by the way, which are IgE. But the bottom line, this is a real immunological testing, so that's not just like somebody's oh, I think, or we think, or you're likely, or all of this.

Speaker 2:

But one thing that people always ask me and I try to preemptively answer that question to my patients, people who are interested in food sensitivity testing is that you can grow out of your food sensitivities. You can If you heal your gut. Yes, what's your diagnosis with this? Because it is a diagnosis With the food sensitivities. You should stay away from them. You should stay, you should give yourself rest, give your gut rest time to heal and repair. But with time, after you heal and repair and that could be anywhere from three to six and sometimes longer you can actually start eating these foods that you were sensitive to, but still I would recommend eating them in small amounts because one of the biggest differences between allergies and sensitivities that with allergies usually there are some exceptions but usually you can't eat something that you're allergic to in small amounts. If you're allergic to peanut butter, you have even like a whiff of it, you will have a reaction. But with food sensitivities you can actually afford to do that. You can start eating small amounts of food that you were sensitive to and then you'll be fine because now your gut is stronger.

Speaker 2:

And even if you recheck the food sensitivities which we don't routinely recheck them unless patient wants to, because how patient feels and how their gut and other symptoms are doing, that basically is a very good sign. But if we were to recheck which we rarely do, but we do sometimes we do see that those sensitivities either downgraded or they are gone, or if they're still the same, I do say to the patient you can try if you really miss that food or whatever. They can have just small amounts. So the body is, our body is more permissive with food sensitivities. But yeah, so you can grow out of food sensitivities.

Speaker 2:

Leaky gut causes food sensitivities and food sensitivities cause leaky gut. So it's like a cycle. But there are so many other things. There are infections, there are everyday toxins that you started talking about and heavy metals and all that the plastic toxins, those things that we inhale, our sort of beauty and grooming products, that filled with toxins. So there are many things that are causing leaky gut. But I like to maybe start or focus with the diet because it's the fundamental one. But, yeah, sometimes it could be other things.

Speaker 1:

So, yes, so that's what I was going to ask, I believe because of this toxic world we live in now. The stuff's in the air, it's in the water. I think most people may have a degree of leaky gut right Depending on your genetics or whatever. Some people's hair better than others, so I he's thinking to. My one question was what do you think maybe are the top three substances infections, whatever that you see most often causing reiki guts?

Speaker 2:

That's a good question. I think that one that everybody talks about and that's probably I would put it in top three maybe not the first one, perhaps is candida, because candida yeast is very common and it does cause problem in many people, and some people more than others. There is some component of candida that's considered okay to have, but there's actually a little bit of a debate about that. There is a debate in the literature that should we allow like a small portion of candida or should we treat all of it? But definitely I would say candida. The other top two, I would say it's more like a trend, it's the trend. There are two other trends. Number one when I look at the gut test. Number one trend is, let's say, the person has decreased. They have lower than normal component of good bacteria. You look at several bacterias, you scan their gut test and you see there is a trend they have not enough of good bacteria. In fact, to be honest, I like it. I like that because it's a little bit easier to compensate, because we always like to take in rather than to give out, in a sense of like foods and supplements. At least, I've noticed that most people are much easier. You can tell them the supplement will help and they're happy to do that. But if you tell them you shouldn't eat this food, they will not be so happy. So that's why I like it more, because it's easier to communicate to the patient and you show them. You see, like one of the now in vogue bacteria, which I actually support too, is Ackermansia. So Ackermansia is an amazing bacteria that basically feeds your gut mucosa. It's really very good for cleaning and supporting your gut. So, for example again I'm being very simplistic let's see if you see this Ackermansia in not enough and there's usually a bunch of other bacteria together. Good bacteria. They're not enough. So it's easier because you can replenish them with probiotics and to help with prebiotics, which is prebiotics are foods for probiotics, so probiotics are good bacteria, so you can supplement that along with lifestyle changes, so you can supplement. So that's a very big trend. So that's that.

Speaker 2:

And the second trend, which very common too, is too much bad bacteria. So you're looking and you see there is this bacteria too much. So usually those bacteria they're called opportunistic bacteria. They're just dormant. They're there. Everybody has them, some people more, some people less, but they're within the same range. Again, relatively speaking, the same, because we're all different. But when you see the trend that say, several of these bacteria are now high, that's concerning. So you have to bring it down. And that's harder to do because that's more complex. You can't. Just it's harder when it's too much bad bacteria Because, again, we are trying to avoid antibiotics and those are not the type of bacteria that you go to the hospital and they would check in a stool test.

Speaker 2:

Because as a surgeon, and even in our skin clinic rarely, but I do order like a hospital stool test when they check for salmonella, shigella, e coli, a bunch of these stool bacteria, but they only check the virulent, the bad types of this bacteria to make sure you don't have major issue, which is great, I'm grateful that's there. But to check your gut flora like the functional medicine gut test does now it shows all of these percentages of good and bad bacteria and everything and it's a little bit more difficult to correct. Again, it is correct. It was lifestyle, food, sleep, decrease in stress, all of these things it's not one thing. Supplements too, but it's a little bit harder to correct. I've noticed that the trends would be yeah, not enough good bacteria, too much bad bacteria, candida, maybe in the fourth trend, I would say parasites, yeah, parasites, because that's another big component that we see, yeah, four trends Candida, big component that we see, yeah, four trends In Canada.

Speaker 1:

I see that all the time in the mouth. We see those white?

Speaker 2:

Yes, you do, I'm sure.

Speaker 1:

And what do you think maybe causes the overgrowth of Canada?

Speaker 2:

So, of course, first of all I have to say it's us, we, the medical system, causes a lot of Canada and it's years and years of antibiotics. It's us, we, the medical system, causes a lot of candida and it's years and years of antibiotics. It's not only recently, because it's all cumulative. And in a functional medicine questionnaire, when I talk to the patient, I ask them have you been on a lot of antibiotics as a child? And most people the answer is yes, and me, as a surgeon, I understand it very well because when you do, for example, like in an adult, we do a big surgery and then they have a little redness, a little concern, yes, most doctors, surgeons or non-surgeons would end up prescribing antibiotics, just make sure so everything is okay, like all of this, and of course it's very hard to change your thinking and stop doing that. So I'm talking from the surgical standpoint. In our clinic, what I always do and I try to communicate to each patient. When we do, let's say, big melanoma removal or something like that, I always say if there's any problem, please call me, please anytime, but call our clinic because it's easier for me to look at it. Some redness is normal, a little redness. It's from the sutures. If we have especially big excision, big work done, that's what you understand is that some redness. Of course body has to protest against this procedure that we did. We removed the big chunk of skin. But if the same patient goes to the emergency room, they don't know what I did, they have no idea. They see an incision with scar, with redness. Honestly, 99% of 100, they will give the antibiotic, and not because they're bad doctors, but it's outside of their scope of seeing the same scar over time, starting at day one, day two, et cetera, day 10, day 14. So a lot of this redness surrounding the incision, like especially after big procedures, not so small, big, it's just our body.

Speaker 2:

So we've over-prescribed the antibiotics. We still do. People constantly get antibiotics for years and all that stuff, and that's still common, despite the fact that medical environment tries. But it's still common. So that's number one. So prescriptions, antibiotic prescription, and number two, it's just disbalance, like you mentioned that too, and we both talked about leaky gut as a disbalance.

Speaker 2:

Gut is more open to harbor this yeast. And not only that, not only candida, there's also malassezia, another one that's related with, for example, skin with seborrheic dermatitis. I don't know if you've noticed that there are lots of people actually who have this flakiness and redness in their folds and like in their eyebrows. So that's a very common presentation that is related to malassezia and we treat it with antifungal cream In conventional medicine. We treat it with antifungal cream. So basically it's just this balance and just says welcome to the yeast and that's all kind of piles on and, of course, prolonged stay in the hospital piles on and, of course, prolonged stay in the hospital, many procedures, and I do think when you look at the mouse, it's the same thing as the gut, it's the same thing as vagina. Those are different places but you can get yeast in all of them because something is out of whack. You get that, yeah.

Speaker 1:

I think that's one of the harder ones to treat. I know one of my functional medicine colleagues. She said I'd much rather see somebody with parasites than fungus because it's challenging. So in your case, with somebody with maybe chronic, I know when I do stool tests I had years and years of antibiotics as a teenager per acne and then I was on Accutane and then birth control, so my gut just was pretty much obliterated by the time I was 20. So it's no wonder that I developed the eczema in my 30s. Then now it kind of ebbs and flows and I can control it most of the time but it feels like it's from all that damage done early on. It's I have to be on top of my diet, my stress, all these things. So in your clinic, how do you typically treat a candida overgrowth patient?

Speaker 2:

So we do have again. It's not. It's very interesting because you as part of all of us, we are human. It's just. I think it's a human brain. We always want like a linear treatment. This is a disease, this is the treatment. Great Done Next.

Speaker 2:

But life is not like that. When you see a candidate, first of all it's an invitation for me as a doctor to go deeper and to understand what else is in play, because I can't just treat you with skin. A lot of times I can tell you when people come in my skin clinic and they have toenail fungus, I don't even talk about it, especially if they're not ready to talk about that, unless they ask me, because toenail fungus is so prevalent. It's extremely hard to treat, almost impossible unfortunately, especially in older patients. In younger you can in many cases, but in somebody, let's say, 80 years old and very distorted toenails, it's just not going to work. It's wasteful even to make these poor patients just even doing like topicals and everything else. So I don't even talk about that because the patient is not interested and I will be just creating stress for them. So it's not necessary and it's not a life-threatening condition. It doesn't affect really. But if we are dealing with gut inside or gut on the face, let's say seborrheic dermatitis. We have to go deeper. Now we're looking at everything. So we are going through every component of their life because now it's a functional medicine sort of interaction, where we talk about physical activity, we talk about stress, we talk about sleep, and then we utilize all the gut tests and we fix the bacteria whether it's not enough good bacteria bacteria to much bad bacteria.

Speaker 2:

We treat yeast and there are several protocols, but they change from patient to patient. I do have several protocols that I've created for common patterns of candida, but they change from patient to patient because of what they're on, because of their preferences, because of their other aspects, and if a person says to me, oh, I just want like supplements and I'm not going to make lifestyle changes, and unfortunately that tells me that they are unlikely to succeed. Unfortunately they're not going to succeed because you can't just do one thing and they're going to keep going. Let's say, to Burger King every day for lunch, right, okay, you just wasted money on the supplements because it's just not going to work.

Speaker 2:

Because, if you think about it and you know it very well that garlic is one of the strongest antimicrobial if you look at it and it's just been like for centuries people knew that. But if you add good things into your diet, great, but you do have to take out bad. So if you say, now I eat garlic every day, oh okay, great, I'm sure it helps you. But if you remove the badness, then it helps you more. So that's why my every treatment, just like the functional medicine, is personalized and for some people it could be easy, but for most people it's not easy, it takes time. I would say I agree with the other, like you mentioned, that it's hard to eradicate and sometimes you can't eradicate. But patients feel sometimes better. So you're going to say, okay, we'll continue this nice healthy lifestyle because we're keeping it at bay.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I think that's one of the biggest takeaways from our conversation today. The value of functional medicine is the personalization right, because one person may have candida and the next and the next same thing with cavities. Right, this person may have decay and that and worse than that, but the reason that it's there is different. And so, again, when we're really personalizing it, this is how we get better success rate, fewer side effects. When we're tapping into the body's the whole picture right, like you said, what is their diet, what is their stress? Are they exercising, all of those things?

Speaker 1:

So, as practitioners and patients, we all want that easy. Just tell me what pill to take. The easy way, and unfortunately, that's not the way the human body works. Right, the human body is one of the most complex machines ever imagined, and so the people who get real success are the ones who are willing to do the deep dive, and so it's important to understand that the body is multifactorial. The body is always trying to help you in some ways, and so you need to look at every different aspect of health in order to correct that problem and rebalance the body. So I think that's really important. All right, we've talked about some great things. Is there anything else really important that you'd like to leave our audience with?

Speaker 2:

I would say basically reiterate what we talked about. That a couple of things personalized approach to medicine, this is the medicine. I don't want to say future, this is the medicine of now. So want to say future, this is the medicine of now. So everything will be personalized. And we didn't even talk about genetics, but genetics are so important so that really determines how we react to certain medications and treatments. So genetics are very important. And, yeah, personalized medicine of the future. And, like I said, I have focused on skin in my book, but everything in my book could be applied to other body systems because it's basically the same thing what's good for our skin is good for our body. It's just skin happens to be the largest organ of our body. That's why it's so visible.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I agree and we've talked about on the podcast before about the genetics organ of our body. That's why it's so visible. Yeah, I agree, and we've talked about on the podcast before about the genetics and what I find. I've had people tell me oh, I have gum disease, but my mother did, and my father did and me it's not that your genetics are to determine your future, but it gives you the risk factor and I always a lot of people go around saying I have MTHFR right, which is a very common snip. Yeah, and what it means is that your detox ability is compromised. So when people have a family history of something, I'm always thinking that is a history that you can't detox well. Or, in the case of MTHFR, my children both of them are homozygous for MTHFR, which means they have a 30% effective ability to detox. They have a 30% effective ability to detox, which is problematic because they're teenagers and they're into all of the terrible personal products and the diet and everything.

Speaker 1:

And I'm always like clean my daughter's room today, I found more bags of Cheetos and turkeys. I'm like, oh my gosh, so much You're going to have to do a foot beep. Sorry, you're going to have to get in the sauna. So that's the important thing to understand with genetics is how well, because we're all different, some of us detox differently, right, so some of us may need more support with methylation support and glutathione, glutathione production and so on. So that is an important aspect and why it's important to have somebody who understands that so you can have that personalized care. One last thing I know we talked about liver gallbladder, but again, being such a common surgery, maybe in just the last few minutes, do you think diet is one of the most common causes that we get the gallbladder issues and how, when you take the gallbladder out, what's happening at the liver, what's to say that this problem that caused it is fixed?

Speaker 2:

Well, the problem actually? It's the problem with the gallbladder. So the goal first? It starts with the stones, of course, and there are two types of stones cholesterol stones and pigment stones. And most of the stones in the Western world are, of course, cholesterol stones.

Speaker 2:

So the name itself probably tells your listeners that, yes, indeed, it is clearly diet-related and the gallbladder doesn't really produce anything per se. It's a storage organ and I think that's why we're lucky enough to get away with its removal. And for people who had their gallbladder out, I wouldn't cry about it. It's because sometimes I feel like people look at it as some huge loss. Yes, of course, ideally nobody wants to have their gallbladder out, but it's a storage organ. It does have some effect on the rest of our digestion, but it's not a huge effect because a lot of, if not 99% of people go on living a healthy life. They could have again some GI problems. The most common is one is diarrhea, although sometimes people could have constipation. That's extremely rare. Usually you could have in the first few months after surgery. You may be having diarrhea because gallbladder is not there to concentrate and store the bile. So that does happen. So, but usually it's in the gallbladder. I think that it's very hard to say to people eat a gallbladder, healthy diet, eat completely healthy diet, so your whole body, healthy diet.

Speaker 2:

Because, again, gallbladder is only one organ, Thank God. It's an organ that we can get away with removal as much as we don't want to, and nobody wants to, lose their gallbladder. But it is different from other organs such as pancreas, for example, and liver, where the damage is very hard to repair and sometimes, unfortunately I don't know, the complete repair would not, especially with pancreas. It's a very sensitive organ with, yeah, unlike liver, liver. Actually, as we know, liver is much better at its ability to heal itself. So that's one of the things about the liver. But, of course, if somebody is drinking alcohol, for example, we didn't even talk about it because we're talking about food mostly, but we shouldn't forget that liver is one of the main organs that is suffering from the daily alcohol use and abuse. So, yeah, then you end up with very common we see it in like with ultrasounds we see fatty liver and then in the operating room you see this like large, enlarged, fatty liver. Yeah, and so that's why I wouldn't.

Speaker 2:

In some ways, I think that people have gallbladder out just follow holistic whole, like in my book I have it's a whole clear skin diet, but again holistic. Like in my book I have, it's an all clear skin diet, but again it could have been clear liver diet or whatever. I do have the whole chapter. It's a very long chapter and it goes step-by-step components of healthy foods and, for example, there's a big chapter on fiber and how to make sure you have enough intake of fiber.

Speaker 2:

A big chapter on fats, because trans fats is those bad for us, fats that the carcinogenic tool. In addition, they're so bad for our liver. So I wouldn't go and say sometimes I see these diets for gallbladder they say to just take like olive oils, olive oil, just do this and that so and they may help. I don't know because I don't have a proof that they don't help, I don't know. But I would say just being gentle for your whole body, but like everything skin, liver, pancreas, organs and that will have much better at the end, much better kind of outcome for you, for your whole body. And if you, because people sometimes get carried away with these fat diets for organs too, like they would say, oh, I'm on this and that's not a good training as well. So I try not to let myself or my patients get on that path of a fat diet for whatever the issue. Just being going slow but steady is better than doing some quick things just to heal something or lose weight or whatever the reason.

Speaker 1:

Thank you so much for taking your time today to share all of your wisdom with our audience. Again, your book is called the Clear Skin Diet, and can you get that on Amazon or anywhere? Fantastic, and tell us about if somebody was maybe in our area in Massachusetts and really wanted to contact you. Or even beyond, because you do have a virtual clinic. Tell us about how we could get in touch with you if we want to learn more.

Speaker 2:

Thank you so much, first of all for having me. Thank you, thank you, I really enjoyed our conversation. It's always nice to speak to a like-minded person. In terms of my clinic, the functional medicine clinic, again I enjoyed very much. I am licensed in three states, in the states of Massachusetts, vermont and New Hampshire. I can only treat patients in that state, which I do, and they can just contact our clinic at iLab, so it's I like the word lab, laboratory, because we do testing as well. So iLabMD, like medical doctor, it's ilabmdcom and we have our phone number, it's 508-444-6989, that some people like to call inquire, which is totally fine with us, and then we do, of course, because they are obviously away. So we have a HIPAA protected software that does everything. That does even like our Zoom meetings and all communications.

Speaker 2:

My review I always like to review the old like old before they met you newest, up-to-date, all the labs and studies so that I know the patient and then also so that I know what we should focus, based on their previous studies as well. And then we have a very long intake that we go into things, but what we also have done in our clinic which has been very helpful, and that's relatively recent, because a lot of people they get overwhelmed by all of this. They're like where do I start? What do I do? We have this like a small I call it a personalized health report and it's very affordable it's $50, which we actually have. Patients just fill out their health questionnaire. It has a bunch of questions basically pertaining to each body system and then I review it and I look at like the whole and then I give them recommendations. Again, they're not specific because we have not started working, but at least I can tell them what you should start, maybe with hormonal testing, because not everything. We talk a lot about gut, but there's this whole world of hormones, for example, you can start with hormonal testing, because not everything. We talk a lot about gut, but there's this whole world of hormones. For example, you can start with hormonal testing or no. We should start with you. Or food sensitivities, and then it's up to the patient if they want to continue, not to continue. But most people are grateful for that because at least they have a direction, they know which system. So I like doing that too because it gives me I can connect with the patient. And then we also, with this report, that I do. We also have a 15 minute of very short get to know you thing. I like that. It's again another small bonding session.

Speaker 2:

So we have, we try to make functional medicine more functional medicine, easier, not overwhelming. So because people sometimes think, oh, I have to spend like thousands of dollars, have like sessions for it. But sometimes, yes, for some people, but for some people, maybe one or two sessions. They know what to work on and I've had patients like that. I've just had a few sessions. We did the testing, identified the problem and then they called me back several months later saying thank you because they changed their diet. I was basically helping them along. But yeah, we are always happy to hear from again from residents of those three states. And again, thank you.

Speaker 1:

Thank you so much. I hope you all enjoyed this episode. Let us know your comments and feedback, what else you'd like to hear about, and I hope you all have a wonderful day. We'll see you on the next episode. Hello, I'm Dr Rachel Carver, a board-certified naturopathic biologic dentist and a certified health coach. Did you know that over 80% of the US population has some form of gum disease? Many of us don't even know that we have this source of chronic infection and inflammation in our mouth that's been linked to serious consequences like heart disease, diabetes, stroke, dementia, colon cancer, kidney disease, even pregnancy complications. Would you like to learn how to reverse and prevent these chronic, debilitating conditions without spending a lot of time and money at the dentist? Join me for my six-week course, where I will teach you the root cause of disease. You'll learn how to be your own best doctor. Are you ready to get started? Let's go.