#40 Dr. Tom O’Bryan – The Gluten Master and his Functional Med Journey

Eric Rieger 0:00
Hello It is now time for the gut check project KBMD health fans and those at the Ken Brown clinic. I’m here with my guest host, Dr. Kenneth Brown. We’ve got an incredible special guest with us here today Dr. Tom O’Brien joins the show. Like and share of course, Dr. Brown once you take it away and introduce our awesome guests.

Ken Brown 0:19
Well, I’m so excited because Dr. Tom, you and I have been running in similar circles. And every time I bump into somebody including different lab companies, including different mindshare people, everybody’s like, Hey, you and Dr. Tom need to hang out. I’m like, I keep missing him. I’ll go on a summit and he’ll be like before me or after me. And then I’m just like, Oh, this is awesome. So we finally got you, wrangled in, you’ve got so much stuff going on. You’re an author, you’re a doctor, you obviously do some incredible deep dives. And what I love about you is everything that I’ve seen you on a webinar on a summit is science backed and that’s exactly what we do. So I’m just thrilled I I have no agenda for this. You got a ton of information. If we ended up talking about something that I need to learn about, I’m just going to peel off and say, Wait, explain that. And that’s, that’s for me. So I’m not trying to question you, but like, sure, where I’ve read some of your stuff. And it’s pretty cool. We’re talking the same stuff, fix your brain through your gut, that kind of thing. That’s all about us. So, welcome. So excited.

Dr. Tom O’Brian 1:18
Thank you. Thank you so much. And I’m thinking a place to start if I may. The Alzheimer’s Association came out last year and said one out of three elders dies with Alzheimer’s or another dementia. So that means between the three of us, one of us is going down in our brain function, and it ain’t gonna be me.

Ken Brown 1:42
It’s gonna be Eric. It’s gonna be Eric.

Eric Rieger 1:43
This is unfair.

Dr. Tom O’Brian 1:44
I feel like I understand. But that’s a reality check. And with a reality check like that, whether we like it or nobody likes to talk about brain function, no one does. You know, we all know someone that had a heart attack and survived. They changed their diet, they started exercising, they lost 25 pounds, they look better than they’ve looked in years. Most of us know someone diagnosed with cancer that went through the recommended protocols. And they’re doing better than they’ve done in years. No one knows anyone diagnosed with a brain deterioration disease that’s doing good. It terrifies us. And so we avoid the topic. So I want to talk about first the reality check that our healthcare system is not quite working the way we want it to and more people are getting sicker, especially if we talk about the brain and kids with autism and the numbers are skyrocketing and all that, but how can we look at our health care if our bodies aren’t working the way we want them to right now? What’s the big picture view of that? How do I get a big picture and I want to suggest this concept because I have found that this works really well. When I moved from Chicago to Southern California in 2010 I needed a map. How do you get from Chicago to San Diego? You need a map, you know, and I may know how to get to Denver cuz you just get on I 80 in Chicago, it takes you to Denver, right? You know, I may or it actually doesn’t, it takes you close and you have to go up and 94. But I don’t know how to get to San Diego, you need a map. When your body is not working the way you want it to you need a map. You can’t just look for a better form of vitamin C, or what brain nutrient Can I take to help my brain function better? We have to have the map and what is the map in healthcare. The map is understanding at a layman’s level, how I got to where I am and if we don’t. To understand how we got to where we are right now, we are just like a dog chasing its tail trying to get somewhere else. So the question about brain dysfunction, or the question about auto immunity is, why is the immune system attacking my own tissue? Why is my brain not functioning the way it’s supposed to, and you have to do a deep dive. And you don’t need to be a geek and know the science because there’s lots of information out there now. But we have to be willing to be uncomfortable for a little bit of time in being overwhelmed with knowledge. And we take it just one step at a time. That’s why the subtitle of my most recent book, you can fix your brain. The subtitle is just one hour a week to the best memory, productivity and sleep you’ve ever had. And it’s not cutesy subtitle It is the only way to be successful at changing the direction your brains going. Because as you learn more and more about the things that you didn’t know, you mean that little bit of mold on my shower curtain there, it secretes spores into the air every time I take a shower, and I’m inhaling those spores and they go right up to my brain. And the number one type of Alzheimer’s of the five types is called inhalation Alzheimer’s, meaning what you’re inhaling is causing the inflammation in your brain killing off brain cells. Yes, change shower curtain, you know, or whatever the trigger is. People don’t know what the trigger triggers are. So they don’t know what to do and they’re hoping for a magic pill. You need the map. How did I get to where I am, so you then can make the corrections over six months to a year that turn your health in a new direction.

Eric Rieger 6:00
I agree with that. I think that with where you’re where you’re beginning here in our discussion, many of the things you listed there, there’s a lot to unpack, but many of the things that you listed there are, I think some huge tenants that that we discussed here on the go check project. One of those is that gut brain access, Dr. Brown talks quite a bit about the relationship for brain health and how it begins really with systemic health, which obviously originates in the gut. And then you’re talking about issues of, of nerves and obviously the brain is a bundle of nerves but neural health and so what is it specifically that we need to do to protect our bodies from I would assume you’re getting to long term inflammation what what the caveats are there that are initiating those inflammatory responses? So is there something that you wanted to kind of peek at there were

Ken Brown 6:51
Yeah, so love where you’re going with this. I’m um, as a gastroenterologist what I’m seeing is an exponential growth of autoimmune disease, Crohn’s all sort of colitis are those celiac disease. Those are the ones that I deal with. And we’re seeing this huge exponential growth. What you’re describing is one in three people getting Alzheimers, we are seeing that autism is increasing. there’s a there’s a common theme here. And it’s this upward hockey stick that’s going on with chronic diseases. I love everywhere you’re going and you I’m my bandwidth is only so large, where I have to kind of focus on how do I improve your gut to improve your brain and now you’re talking other aspects. I want to get into that, but I want to know more about the guy. I’m a real big fan of how I built this. So I want to know more about the guy, the doctor Tom, how did you end up deciding that you were going to go down this path? I’ve heard a lot of your lectures so I know that you’re super smart. I know you’re very well read, but I don’t know you. So let’s talk about you for a moment.

Dr. Tom O’Brian 7:52
Sure, sure. When I began my medical education in chiropractic school, very first week, the very first week I knew absolutely nothing. You know, we’re working on a cadaver. I’ve just seen a dead body for the first time learning how to work with cadavers and genetics classes. There was a sign Dr. Sheldon Deal. Mr. Arizona was coming on campus to give a talk on Wednesday night. My very first week. This was the first week of January 1978. And I thought I’ll go listen to this guy, Mr. Arizona bodybuilder, he’s going to be a healthy guy. So I go to the talk. He has a color television on a stand in the room and back then color televisions were pretty new. And so to see all those colors, you know, he had the television on but the volume off

and he walked over to a desk opened his briefcase to pick out a bar man, an iPhone, walked up to the color Television holding the iPhone like a flashlight you know policeman holds a flashlight up Hi, walks up to the color television with this bar magnet, the picture turns upside down and walks away. It goes right side up and walks towards it goes upside down. walks away it goes. Right? In attic pollution does to your brain and your nervous system. It’s called neurological switching. These are people that say right, when they mean left, they write the number three backwards. they they they just are confused. And it was the first evidence in my mind the first introduction to electromagnetic pollution

Ken Brown 9:51
1978 he was talking about in 1978. That’s crazy.

Dr. Tom O’Brian 9:55
Yes, because he he was talking he was talking about batteries in a watch and because they were fairly new, and when you put a battery next year body and this was a watch that it can for sensitive people, not for everyone but for sensitive people. It can be the straw that breaks the camel’s back. And it impacts on their neurological organization, and how their their brain and their nervous system functions. Nowadays, we take it for granted Of course, we wear watches with batteries, and we put ear pods and our years we put batteries next to our brain. And, you know, we’re using headphones that are remote wireless, so more batteries next to the brain. You know, I’m a strong advocate that we never put a cell phone next to our head. You either use the speaker or you use a corded earphones so that you’re not putting especially for children whose skulls are thinner and these electric magnetic waves penetrate through a thinner skull of a child. And now there are so many studies on that. That’s why in the book, you can fix your brain. I talked about the pyramid of health. Remember, we’re still looking for a map here. How did I get to where I am? So in a pyramid, we think there’s three sides to a pyramid. No, there’s four. There’s also a base. So the base is structure. That’s the home of chiropractic and osteopathy, and massage and pillows and orthotics in your shoes and is your car seat tilted back. So you’re driving like this all the time. That’s, that’s structured the base, then there’s the biochemistry, the one that we all know about. And that’s what we eat and drink the air we breathe. Then there’s the spiritual or emotional and then there’s the electromagnetic. So whenever you have a health concern, you have to look at all four venues to see, where are the triggers that are contributing to my body not functioning the way it should. So that was my introduction in January of 1978, to healthcare. And from that, I started looking in the literature and I found some children living within a quarter mile of high power tension wires had higher incidences of leukemia. That was 1979. I think I found that first study. And by the early 80s, mid 80s, there are many studies coming out about high power tension wires, and people’s health if they live near that. So that validated for me, that for some people, electromagnetic pollution was a problem. Not for everybody, but for some people. And the same is true about structure. For some people. That’s the problem. For some people, it’s stinking thinking, the emotional or spiritual side and You can see the studies on stress hormones inflaming or triggering type one diabetes and triggering autoimmune diseases was what we think that or how we respond to stress and the hormones we make that set that up. For some people. That’s the trigger. It’s all about finding the map. So my entire career has been based on always asking my first mentor, no, my second mentor. My second mentor was Dr. George Goodheart, the founder of applied kinesiology, the muscle testing that some doctors have seen. Practice night have hundreds and hundreds of hours with Dr. George and he would always every weekend in our seminars, and usually they were at the Marriott Hotel at the airport in Detroit. So people fly in from all over the world to listen to Dr. George and the the podium that he’s stood on was a wood podium. And he would do this all the time. He would say, lift up his right knee and his right arm and go, Why doctor and slam his foot down really hard. So we all kind of jumped in our seats now, because that would stage would just like bounce a little bit. Why do they have what they have? Why is your patient complaining of dot dot dot? And he would consistently drill into us Why? So my entire career has been based on why is that happening? You know, for example, why is it? We’ve all heard that it takes 20 minutes before the hormones in your gut. Tell your brain that you’ve eaten enough? How come you don’t feel full right away with the volume of food you take in? How come you have you eat a little bit more and they say, Oh, I’m really full. How come that messaging is delay. I don’t really know. But doctor Ken , you might, you know, we could have some discussion about this. I just made this up. But I think it’s because we have the same body as our ancestors thousands and thousands of years ago, bodies function exactly the same. And a primary concern for our ancestors was getting enough food. They didn’t get three meals a day, they ate when they found food. So even when they’re full, maybe they should eat a little bit more because they might not get it next time. And so they get an extra few 15-20 minutes of eating the berries or eating the nuts or a little more meat on a harvest they made because they might not get a meal for a day or two. And I’m just making it up as to why I’ve never seen anyone write about why that is that that happens. But that’s that was my thought about it, but always why. So I’ve been asking why my entire career.

Ken Brown 16:01
So the why this is really interesting. So the when was 1978? The How is these mentors that have come to you? And then the Why is how do I do this? So then the how I built this, where did you go from? Okay? I am learning a lot from these experts, I have decided to shift my career focus and put in you’ve put a ton of time into developing summits into writing books into I mean, your your website is just got blogs that are just stacks and stacks deep. So when did you make this decision to go, I’m going to really commit to this aspect. And I’m going to become a thought leader and a teacher about these kind of things. Because clearly, you’re passionate. But the as, as a physician myself, it’s finding that time it’s saying I’m going to take this, this leap off this dock, say I’m going to commit to this. I feel so strongly about it that I’m willing to put myself out there.

Dr. Tom O’Brian 17:01
My third mentor was Dr. Jeffrey Bland. Who I heard Dr. Bland first talk in Chicago in 1978. And he is the Science Guy.

Ken Brown 17:15
78 was a big year for you.

Dr. Tom O’Brian 17:16
It was a big year. It was a very big year, married in 77. Went to school graduate school in 78. met these incredible mentors. You know, I think my angels just guided me to these guys. It was unbelievable. And but Dr. bland would say now this doctor in the New England Journal of Medicine said this and oh here three years ago, in the British Medical Journal, they said this and right here last week in the Journal of American Medical Association, they’ve said this, do you see how these pieces come together? And Dr. bland has always been about asking why and understanding at a deeper level why things can occur from a science level. So Dr. Goodhart was all about clinicians and being a clinician and finding out how things work. And sometimes he made up the reasons because he wasn’t as much of a science guy, as Dr. bland. so bland is talking why from the science goodheart is talking why from the results. And so what happened? Was I just with every patient, I just kept looking to see, why is that happening? Or if they’re not getting the results that I think they should have gotten? Why is that not happening? What am I missing here? What am I missing? And so I kept I keep looking and looking and looking. I’m not content when they feel better. And I mean this with the greatest of respect, I don’t really care how they feel. They don’t come. They come to me because of how they feel. But they’re really coming to me to have their bodies function better so they live a long and vital life and how they feel is transient. So whether I get them feeling better right away is secondary to identifying the mechanism behind why their body’s not functioning properly,

Ken Brown 19:11
love how you said that, so that how they feel is transient. And the first thing I thought of is how many people come to me. And they’re on multiple anxiolytics and multiple antidepressants, right? And I read the notes from the other doctors and they’re like patient reports of feeling less anxious. Plus, check. Beautiful, there it is. But now I’m dealing with side effects of eight different drugs. And so I like how you said that how you feel is transient. I need to know why. I love

Dr. Tom O’Brian 19:38
Yeah, yeah, and of course, all of these drugs, the antidepressants, the anti anxiolytics. They’re all approved and designed to be used for a short period of time. None of them are approved for the rest of your life. But they’re given to people so they continue to feel less symptoms.

Ken Brown 19:56
They’re approved to be given for short periods of time, but the pharmaceutical and I’m not passing the pharmaceutical industry. Many of these drugs if you try and get off of them create a tremendous amount of their own side effects. So knowing that, so Eric Eric’s former life, the way that he paid for his crna school was actually as a drug Rep. So he’s got some pretty interesting stories about how to make sure that you move some product.

Eric Rieger 20:19
Yeah, no comment, but I don’t work there anymore. So that’s probably the most important takeaway. No, but I do agree with that. And I do think Dr. Tom, one of the biggest issues that I never liked about certain aspects of pharmaceuticals, which were intended for short term, to become long term is they’re missing a very, very important piece. Once I’ve taken this to alleviate whatever the symptom or the feel, as you put it, there’s no exit strategy. There’s no way for me to break this dependency that I’ve now formulated to make me now feel this new normal. And that’s, that’s something to fear. I would, I think, to engage long term with a pharmaceutical that’s just simply going to function as a feeling band aid. is taking care of the issue.

Dr. Tom O’Brian 21:02
You’re absolutely right. You know, and we’ve got so many cases of people on high blood pressure medication or on antidepressants. And we always say at the very beginning, now look, here’s what’s going to happen. There are some side effects to the medications you’re taking. And you may have heard some, but I’m just want to make sure you know, these are the potential side effects. But we’re going to address why your body has high blood pressure right now. So it’s great to be taking these medications. You absolutely take them when you need them, and you need them right now. But as we address the underlying why your need for those medications is likely to go down, which means you’re going to stand up and you’re going to start getting dizzy because your blood pressure is too low, because you’ve got too much medication now. So I want you to call your cardiologist or the doctor who put you on that medication as soon as you start noticing any symptoms like this, this, this or this and say, Hey, I’d like to come in, and you come in and you say, you know, I’m getting a little lightheaded when I stand up now, and I never did before, but I’ve changed my diet. I’m exercising, I think I need less medication. Can you monitor me and we meet down when you think it’s appropriate and safe. But just gradually wean me down so that I don’t have any complications as my body’s getting healthier. And every doctor is willing to do that every doctor and if they’re not find a new doctor to monitor your medications.

Ken Brown 22:36
So I’ll stop you right there. And this is more for teaching me and with your style of practice. You have somebody that comes in you know that they’ve got the diabesity triad or whatever. And you look at them you go Okay, we need to start someplace. Do you start diet do you start environmental toxin do you start sleep, because I think those are kind of the three pillars might leave least knowledgeable aspect of that is environmental toxin because it’s just something that I’ve not gotten into yet. And when you mentioned the breathing in the spores, I’m like, Yeah, I’ve got a lot of patients that got really sick when they moved into an older home and they renovated and then they’ve never been right. Since I’ve definitely believe that mold has a big role, but it’s just the amount of time. So when you look at this, I’m challenging you to say this is where I start first, where is it?

Dr. Tom O’Brian 23:25
Really easy, really easy. There is a great program that’s been developed called the living matrix. And the living matrix is a, I don’t know 30-40 page questionnaires. And it’s going to take you, Mrs. patient, it’s going to take you a day or two to fill this out. You’ll come back to it and fill out some more of it. Someone’s going to say how is the health of your mother during your pregnant pregnancy with you? And he will say, Oh, I don’t know my mother passed. That’s all right. Call your aunts. Call your aunts and find out. Did mom take any medications during the pregnancy with me, you get as much information as you can, and when you have a completed living matrix, this is the computer model, the program sets it off into eight different categories. And it becomes obvious which categories are the most out of balance. And that’s usually the place that you start. And we’ll start with maybe two or three of those categories, depending on the individual. Some people, it’s clear, their auto immunity happened within three months of their divorce, or within three months of being sexually abused. And it’s clear, they’ve got to deal with that energy. And so that person needs to include in their protocol, a therapist that they feel really good working with about this particular topic, because that’s not my category. But if it’s not address, it’s going to thwart the progress radically.

Ken Brown 24:59
That is so interesting. That’s that insult to injury that I have to have that discussion with so many patients where I have somebody that comes to see me and they’re like, yeah, it’s unfortunate. I went to this horrible divorce. And then I started bleeding out my rectum and then I diagnosed them with raging ulcerative colitis. So like, what is the bad luck? I’m like, I hate to attribute it to bad luck. I attribute it to a sequence of events.

Dr. Tom O’Brian 25:22
Yeah, exactly. Right. I agree. Yeah, that is totally agree fully agree. And and the tool called the living matrix of every patient fills that out. I have lots of people, you know, we we did a docu series called betrayal, the autoimmune disease solution. They’re not telling you is that out yet? Okay. It is it is. And we’ve actually had over 600,000 people watch it. When I make the living matrix available to people and I think probably four to 6000 people have filled it out. You know, it’s great because it’s hard to read until you understand how it works, but it gives you a lot of information. And all of our patients fill it out before I’ll ever see them if they don’t fill it out, or they fill it out halfway. I don’t see them. If I if I see that it’s only half done. I call my staff because I’m virtual now, you know, so I do virtual consultations. But as I’m looking at the results here, and I’m looking at the screen and living matrix, you know, if it’s not filled out, I call my staff and I say rescheduled or they put the time and I’m not putting the time in until they do if they do it half ass, I’m not going to do it half ass, and so cancel them, and don’t charge them just cancel them. And if they want to come back, do it right. You know, you just don’t put up with that. And I talk on stage all the time to doctors. You can’t put up with someone who’s putting their toe in the water. They’re either going to do a deep dive with you, whatever your skill set is or they’re not and in our practice, we represent that our goal is to help them see the map of what’s happened to them. And so if they can’t, they can’t see the map. If I don’t know the history, it’s not possible.

Eric Rieger 27:16
Well, that’s actually pretty, pretty impressive because in a different in a different way when we’ve had patients who’ve come through the clinic, and then we’ve, we’ve prepped them to, to scope and I’m addressing anesthesia and of course, Dr. Ken over here is discussing with them what to expect as they continue on their journey. Something I’ve heard him address is, it doesn’t matter necessarily what led to where you are right now, whether it be your fault and all of them or none of them. But it is your responsibility to engage with the change that’s going to make you better. And you’ve had that conversation with with plenty of patients and it really just doesn’t matter what to this point we can identify the triggers, which of course helps finding the solution. But ultimately, there’s going to be self responsibility for one’s own health. And you’ve got to be able to commit to whatever that change happens to be. And I would say that really the the gut check project that this whole the whole reason for this podcast was, we felt that there are better solutions than just taking the old didactics from the pharmaceutical industry and antiquated medic medical school iidx to solve problems. Mother Nature has lots and lots and lots of tools that we don’t all, you know, use which are free available. And if you just have the discipline to stick with it for your own interest, you’ll find in most cases, a better health, healthy living style, I guess you could say,

Dr. Tom O’Brian 28:48
well, you guys are in a unique situation that you have to do the tests to identify where they’re currently at. You’ve got to be able to clearly say you’ve got ulcerative colitis, it’s at this stage and it’s in this area of your colon and Okay, so we need to calm down this fire, calm down this inflammation while we look to see where it came from. So you you guys have both areas that you have to address and I do this on stage a lot and you know doctors laugh at it, but I’ve had a number of people come back to me years later and thanked me that they implemented this. When I I tell patients that my favorite patients are the ones that say I’ve been to Mayo Clinic and they don’t know what’s wrong. And I’ll say that’s great. Congratulations. And they look at me kind of startled. You know, they heard I’m a nutcase. But Congratulations, that means you don’t have a disease. Because if you’ve got a disease, Mayo Clinic would find it. You’ve got dysfunction, something’s not functioning right. So the test we’re going to do or not the same test that we’re looking for disease, we’re going to do functional tests. And I hope that we find some functional tests, and people will and sometimes their insurance won’t pay for it. And then some patients will say, Well, I can’t afford that. And I say, Okay. Oh, okay. And then I write down in their file. Patient refuses this recommended test due to finances? And please sign this. Well, why? Why would I sign that? Because you’re asking me to work with one hand behind my back. And I’m going to do everything I can to be of service to you. I will do my very best, but I’m not responsible anymore. If a problem occurs that I miss something, because well, no, no, that’s okay, Doc, I’ll sign it. Okay. Or no, no, no, I’ll do the test. I’ll do the test. Okay, good. Because I’ve seen so many people that say I can afford it. And two months later, I see him in the shopping they’ve got a deep tan because they just spent three weeks in Mexico, on vacation. It’s just a priority thing. And if someone really can’t afford what they need, well, our services will always reduce our services for finances if it’s true, but we need patients to take ownership and responsibility to be actively involved with us. as we’re going through this process.

Ken Brown 31:28
When you started this, you open with Alzheimer’s and it’s funny because I kind of do that with my patients where you said that one in three people will now develop Alzheimer’s. And then you tell me Alzheimers Association says that Alzheimers Association, so and then you talk about a patient that cannot afford to do X, Y and Z but you see them with a deep tan. So I use the let’s fix your gut to protect your brain later in life. Because I’m I personally and I try and teach my kids this. I’ve got a 15 year old, a 13 year old. And my wife and I are on the same page where I personally prefer to purchase memories, as opposed to things. So I’m perfectly willing to take us on a trip, have some incredible meals, have some great pictures that we’ll revisit. And rather than purchase something else, and what I mean by that is what is that memory worth? That memory is worth so much more than that object to me. And then if you were to say that I’m going to take away all those memories, meaning I’m going to take away your life, that’s the panic moment with me, that’s when I want to sit there and say, I want you to change your diet, I want you to change your lifestyle, not even so much is it so much a physical thing. It’s not so much so that you can have the Beachbody, it’s not so much you can do this. It’s so that we protect your brain later. It’s so that the same concept of osteoporosis prevention in your 30s so that we’re not dealing with it and you’re 60 so you’re not busting a hip in your late 60s. And then now thing, what you’re talking about, it’s so true that you, it’s hard to get people to think big picture like that. But you’ve always done this. So 1978 you have these mentors that do this. When did you decide to really say I’m going to be part of the movement? And I’m going to develop this website? I’m going to spend, I mean, you’ve been prolific. You’ve written books, you lectured you do some crazy summits. Man, you’re gluten summit. Some of the people you have on that are like my heroes. I mean, Alessio Fasano, I mean, I’ve been following that cat since you know, early on in his career and a lot of you get some some pretty heavy hitters. That’s pretty impressive. How did you go from, I now need to make a difference. On a greater scale, I guess is what I’m saying. You’ve mentioned multiple stages and stuff like that. When did you go it’s less from one to one it’s more from one to many.

Dr. Tom O’Brian 33:53
January 2013 my friend, I think our friend I believe, you know, JJ Virgin. I’ve known JJ for many, many years. And she used to call me or I’d see her and she said, I just went to this weekend seminar was fabulous. You know, they’re talking about this marketing concept of how to get information out to people in sales. He she said, You should come and say, Oh, yeah, thanks. Thanks. And then she hired a consultant, Allie, and he called me and said, I just signed the contract and I’m working with Allie. I’m gonna learn how to do this at a bigger scale. Come do it with me. Yeah, how much? $10,000 it ain’t happening here. It ain’t happening. Right. And then JJ grew and she grew. She applied to Princeton.

Ken Brown 34:45
JJ is pretty convincing. when she gets passionate predicaments.

Dr. Tom O’Brian 34:49
Yeah. And then she called me and said, Look, I’m having a seminar. I’m having I’m hosting a seminar, you’re going to be there. I’m going to hire somebody to come grab you by the nape of your neck and bring okay, okay. Okay, welcome. So this is January 2013, dropped my jaw to hear how the participants there would do one thing that they prepare a webinar or something. And they would have 200 people attend, or 400 people attend just drop my jaw of the impact factor that was magnified by learning how to use the internet. And so I made a declaration that weekend. I said, you know, I’m a geek, and I just read a lot of science and I know these guys are I’ve been in their seminars where I’ve seen them at symposiums. I’m going to interview a number of geeks from around the world. And I’m going to put it online. Would you everyone here in the audience helps support me in this by send out announcements. And they all said yes. So my first interview, you’ll really appreciate this Dr. Ken. My very first interview ever was Professor Michael Marsh, and our the marsh Godfather, the Godfather, celiac Marsh one Marsh to Marsh three, the Godfather, and he and no one had ever interviewed him. He was 74 no one had ever interviewed and he took me by the arm and walked me around Oxford and said, Tom, that’s, that’s right, right where I stood, and that and I received my medical degree in 1962. So that’s great professor or took me down in the bowels of the library from the 1800s and that’s where he sat to study every day. And you know, so Marsh, the Godfather and Professor Fasano, Harvard and so many others from around the world. Umberto Volta chairs the celiac Society of Italy. And I interviewed all these people. And everyone who’s a JJ’s event, sent announcements out to their people. We had 118,000 people attend Luton summit in November of 2013. It was the first online. The first online health summit ever was the gluten summit. And we made it up.

Ken Brown 37:25
And that was when 2000 what?

Dr. Tom O’Brian 37:27
November 2013.

Ken Brown 37:30
I mean, thousand of those people were still doing dial up. Yeah.

Dr. Tom O’Brian 37:35
That’s right, you know, and the weekend I came back from making that declaration, I mean, I was fired up. I get a message. And this guy emails me and says, Hi, my name is Bob Roth. I am the social media director for the University of Chicago celiac center, and I’m out in California. I’m wondering if you did have time for breakfast, and I said, You i’m sure so we had breakfast and Bob said, you know, Dr. O’Brien, everyone’s University Chicago thinks you’re a nutcase. You talk about you talk about gluten sensitivity outside of celiac disease. And but I watched one of your presentations was recorded, and you’re just talking science. I said, Yes. You said, you’re actually correct. And I said, I know. I know. He’s and I said, Listen, Bob, I just made this declaration. I’m going to do this thing. I’m going to travel the world. I’m going to interview these guys. I know who to interview. And I’m going to interview them. We’re going to put it together and we’re going to do this thing online. Come join us. So Bob left the University of Chicago celiac center, and came to Southern California and was our social media person. And then we found a guy to who knew how to run this program I learned about in jjs weekend called InfusionSoft, which puts puts all the data together into one package and sends it online. And we hired Bobby from Tennessee. And we put on the gluten summit. And the next day, I mean, so many of my friends call him said, How did you do that? What did you do people like Deanna Minik and Mark Hyman and so many other my friends, how did you do that? And I said, Well, my friends helped me here. And they said, Oh, can can are my staff and we just made it up. When there was a problem. We made it up. And they said, can I talk to your staff. And I said, Sure. Then my staff came to me and said, Hey, Doc, they they want us to do this for them. We should start a company to do this. And I know man, that’s not my thing. That’s not my passion. You guys go ahead if you want to. That was the formation of health talks online which is hosted 10s of millions of people in the last seven years in different summits all over the world, they of course, that’s where it came from.

Eric Rieger 40:09
Sorry about that. I didn’t mean to talk over you. But of course, you wanted to have people that were interested in what it was that you were offering. You also find some inspiration in the fact that there were that many like minded people who were essentially as you probably assumed, but now you confirm they’re kind of starved for that information.

Dr. Tom O’Brian 40:27
Oh, I knew I knew from the day I opened my practice about the frequency of weed related disorders outside of celiac disease. I knew it. The testing was just not accurate enough at the time to confirm it. But I put people on gluten free diets and they get better again and again and again. But it was a component of a treatment program, not just gluten free diet, but it was a prerequisite you have to do that. Sure, guys, I see that the battery on my computer’s at 5%. I have to run into the other room and get the charger So I’m going to come right back to you. So

Ken Brown 41:04
we’re gonna love this. I love this conversation. So what’s really cool about Dr. Tom is just how honest he’s being. He’s just like, Hey, I met this guy. He taught me something. I met this other guy. He taught me something, I met this, JJ comes up to me and says, Hey, come over and do this, and just pulls the trigger and says, I have a message that I interview out there. And the digital marketing era was really in full swing. Right then.

Eric Rieger 41:30
the thing I felt the reason why I asked Darshan that last question was, to me it was it was eye opening, even when we met JJ is just seeing how many people were now gaining access to topics that simply were not being addressed when when we were young, or going through school, etc. And basically what I feel like Dr. Tom just illustrated here is technology has allowed us to take what has been either ignored or hidden messages out to the masses and then helping people where they couldn’t find help before.

Ken Brown 41:59
Yeah. Are you back with a Tom?

Dr. Tom O’Brian 42:02
I’m back with you. And as, as, as you were talking about technology absolutely correct, you know, for years and years that they thought I was a nutcase because I would talk about wheat related disorders outside of celiac. And now we have the testing available that’s very, very accurate 97 to 99%, sensitive and specific. And so with those kinds of tests, the test is called the wheat Zoomer, could you zoom in on problem? And with those kinds of testing, people see for themselves that their immune system is trying to protect them, whether they get sick when they eat it or not.

Ken Brown 42:43
So you’ve said this three times now, which means that it has clearly been a part of your career you said they said I’m a nutcase. They said I’m a nutcase. They knew I was a nutcase. So you’ve stuck by this, but will you explain a little bit when you say that, they say I was a nutcase. That meant that as a chiropractor discussing these other aspects infringing on people’s territory, was it that you were just so far ahead of the curve that nobody was discussing? I want to know why you feel why you Dr. Tom feels that other people viewed you as a nutcase?

Dr. Tom O’Brian 43:20
Oh, it was obvious. It was spoken about. But the the point in that is, you know, when when you know, that science is on your side, but technology just hasn’t caught up yet to confirm it. And you know, it’s on your side, because you see the results again, and again, and again and again, and you keep seeing the results, but you the technology just hadn’t caught up yet. Then either you go by the status quo, with all of these unexplained applications, and people Don’t get well, they’re the way they’re supposed to, or are you willing to break new ground and say, you know, oh, no, as is negative, when they give up wheat, they feel so much better. Why don’t you try it for three weeks, and let’s see what happens. Well then, and they get better. Their their child’s attention deficit gets better. And the teacher say the new drug, you’ve given your child’s working really well. And it was just a gluten free diet. The other parents say, Oh, we, we didn’t give them any drugs. So he’s on a gluten free diet. And you see that again and again and again. I can’t let what other people think of me get in the way of the service that I can do for my patients.

Ken Brown 44:50
Because you took a really bold let’s, let’s dissect what you just set about that. You knew that certain people in health care, we’re not saying the nicest things about you. And then you dove in when you said I don’t want to treat a patient that just sticks their toe in the water, you dove into a digital marketing world where keyboard warriors love to play also. So you went from I know that some people are going to say not nice things, too, I’m going to embrace it on a level that nobody ever has. And I’m gonna teach online, which is a very, very bold thing, because not a lot of people have the guts to do that right. To be pushing the envelope. I mean, it’s, you know, I mean, you talk about I’ve been talking about zonulin for years before we test it. And you said we’d Zoomer and that’s how I got involved with vibrant wellness. I was like, Ah, you guys figured out how to check zonulin? Yes,

Dr. Tom O’Brian 45:49
yes, yes.

Ken Brown 45:51
Yeah. And when I talked to my colleagues, I mean, even when I talked to gastroenterologists, they looked at me like you’re What are you? Are you one of those? nutjobs talking leaky gut. You’re one of those weirdos talking gluten sensitivity. Um, you know, fortunately, I fortunately did not discover the internet early enough so I didn’t have to put myself out there and have a successful career writing books and doing stuff like that. Fortunately, I still have to stick my finger in people’s butts to make a living and occasionally interview somebody who’s smarter than me that decided to put it out there on the internet and do things and do summit so that’s a but it takes guts to do that. So are you there. Dr. Tom?

Eric Rieger 46:35
Did he freeze

Dr. Tom O’Brian 46:37
sn

Ken Brown 46:38
you froze there for a little bit.

Eric Rieger 46:41
We can hear you. Okay. You guys go. How about that?

Ken Brown 46:45
Okay. There we go. Okay, back now.

Dr. Tom O’Brian 46:47
Okay. Yeah, sorry. Yeah, you’re absolutely right. You know, you asked me why and how did I do this? A home that I have in every one of treatment rooms. Can Can you hear me? Okay?

Ken Brown 47:13
Yeah, you’re going in and out a little bit, but I think it’s all right. Oh, we should go ahead and muscle through it. That’s right.

Dr. Tom O’Brian 47:19
Okay, okay. There’s a poem that I when I read it I just resonated deep deep in my being. It’s by George Bernard Shaw. This is the true joy in life, being used for purpose recognized as the Mighty One. The being a force of nature. Instead of a selfish, feverish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining The world will not devote itself to making you happy. I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole and it is my privilege to do for whatever I can, life is no brief candle to me. It’s sort of a splendid torch that I have a hold up for the moment and want to make burn as brightly as possible before passing it on to future generations. So that’s my creed.

Ken Brown 48:18
I love it. I love it. It’s awesome.

Dr. Tom O’Brian 48:20
And and from that place, if you know about zonulin, and you know about leaky gut and you think a patient’s got it and you don’t address it, because of what our peers may think, in my mind, it’s Shame on you. And I do that on stage with doctors all the time, who cares what your peers think? I’ll give you an example of that one, and you’ll appreciate this one 1986 Australia. gastroenterologist says, You know, I think that sometimes ulcers are caused by a batch said you are a nutcase. Everybody knows ulcers are caused by too much acid and you have to give antacids so what did this guy do? He does an endoscopy, puts a camera down into his stomach takes pictures of the healthy pink tissue of his stomach. And then he drinks a beaker of beaker of a bacteria called Helio backer pylori. waits for days until he’s as sick as can be, does another endoscopy takes pictures of the many ulcers that are starting in his stomach, and then he takes the antibiotics to kill the bacteria waits about a week until he’s feeling better, does another picture of the healing of the ulcers. Then he publishes that paper, then everybody knows he’s a nutcase. But he proved the under shadow of a doubt sometimes, ulcers are caused by a bacteria and the World Health or I thought that was so important. They sent that paper to every medical society on the planet. Why? Because at that time, stomach cancer was the number one cancer killing people. And it often comes from a helium backdoor infection. So, this guy didn’t care. You know, he didn’t care. He done his work, and he still was kind of thought of as a weirdo out there. Dr. Barry Marshall. 21 years later, he wins a Nobel Prize in Physiology. And the Nobel committee says and this is the exact quote, who with tenacity, and a prepared mind challenged prevailing dogma and that’s what every one of our patients needs.

Ken Brown 50:49
a prepared mind. I like that exact word mind if you if you’re tenacious, but you do your homework, you burn the midnight oil, the prepared mind with tenacity is an unstoppable force. That’s awesome. That’s love that

Dr. Tom O’Brian 51:05
is just one hour a week. That’s tenacity every Tuesday night after dinner every Sunday morning after services whenever it is, but every week, you’re going to spend one hour learning more about reading the map of how you got to where you are just one hour a week. And in six months, you’ve changed the way you think you change the way you live your life. You challenge prevailing dogma, and your health is the benefit that you get from it.

Eric Rieger 51:34
I love that.

Ken Brown 51:35
I love it. I

Eric Rieger 51:36
mean, it’s interesting that you use Marsh as that example, because when this guy sitting to the right of me developed Atrantil and went on to talk about why polyphenols are so incredibly important. I guess we’re going on six years ago now. He used that example. And that it’s okay to think outside of the box which is essentially what he was saying to challenge dogma is to go outside of this box that we have built around ourselves. If it weren’t for someone venturing outside, we never would have made innovation.

Ken Brown 52:08
And the beauty of the technology that has allowed you to have this stage where 600,000 people sign up for summon at one time, also allows us to share globally information in a way that we couldn’t before. So when I sit there and meet with some of my colleagues, and they’re like, oh, there’s no science on that. I’m like, Oh, really, let me pull up my Mendeley account. Really, here’s 8000 articles on what we’re talking about. Why don’t you start reading that and when in my world traditional medicine world especially in Texas, I think that different states a little more progressive, like California has always been a little more open to the functional medicine side but Texas, not so much coming around. But when the drug rep to my left over here when doctors say there’s no science on that what they’re saying is somebody is not brought me lunch with a detailed piece explaining what I’m supposed to say. That’s really what I’m saying. And we’re all really busy. And that is what it is. But it just happens to be just like you. You go, um, you know, I’m tenacious, but I’m armed with science, therefore, I can walk into this battlefield and hold down, even if they even if they call me crazy.

Dr. Tom O’Brian 53:17
Yeah, cuz that’s exactly right. Last week I did an interview for a neuro psychiatric psychiatry group. And the doctor who coordinated the interview, she said, you know, Dr. Brian, I heard you speak three years ago at our conference, and you yelled at us on stage. No one’s ever yelled,at us on stage before your neuropsychiatrist they’re the cream of the crop in their own mind. You know, they’re legends in their own mind. Right. And

Ken Brown 53:48
voices in their heads.

Dr. Tom O’Brian 53:50
Yes, right. Good, catch. Good, good. But what I said to them if you aren’t spending one hour a week, reading the current literature Cutting Edge literature in your field of expertise, shame on you. You’re outdated, one hour a week. And nobody’s got time for any of this. But if you don’t do that you’re outdated within a year. Yeah. And, and she thanked me. She said, You know, I took what you said to heart because it made sense. I didn’t like how you said it, but I liked what you said. And the result is I’ve completely changed my practice in three years. Thank you so much. I really want to acknowledge you here on the microphone in front of all of my colleagues, that was such an excellent recommendation to us and i and i say that to everyone. Whether you’re a general public, or a health care practitioner, one hour a week. That’s what it takes to have 10 that’s tenacity and then prepare your mind to challenge the way you think so that you can read the map of what’s happened to your body so far,

Eric Rieger 54:58
don’t you one of the reasons why really enjoy doing our show is that I’m a better doctor because of it because I prepare for different things because I have to research a lot of stuff. When we talk about topics. You’re the exact same way you have gone. You started with the gluten and the you went to the brain. You’re looking at this now you’ve got different you’ve got the whole erm.

Dr. Tom O’Brian 55:20
bottle immunity

Ken Brown 55:21
Yeah, but what’s the name of the of the program again?

Eric Rieger 55:25
betrayal,

Ken Brown 55:26
betrayal, betrayal. Yeah, I was I was trying to think of that. So when you do that you automatically your passion will have you read this. So I’m going to ask for your help. Maybe it’s not you. Maybe it’s some other people that you meet, but we’re running into something. So when I say my Mandalay account, I have a graduate student that I work with and she finds everything If you need anything, let me know just email me She will find it and get the articles and so we can sit there and look at some of this but I’m seeing something and I think that you’re probably seeing it also and it is This weird it becomes down to a nerve, dysautonomia motility type situation that can be the underlying cause of a lot of gastrointestinal issues which then lead to neuro inflammation. And now we’re getting to the vagus nerve and we’re talking about this I’ve got some really sick people that come to me and they’re they’ve all been to the Mayo Clinic they’ve all been to the Cleveland Clinic and they all have been told that it’s functional this and that, that it’s in their head and they all say you should start taking Prozac but these are really intelligent people really type a people that had very successful their attorneys or accountants and this and that. I’m seeing a trend here that the chronic disease is affecting the nerves that is it acetylcholine Do we need to start working on the you know, the, the vagus nerve, I don’t know. But I it just feels like more and more people are showing up there. They’re really trying what’s your what’s your take on that? Because if we can figure this out. That’s it.

Dr. Tom O’Brian 57:00
This is this is a PhD discussion that we’re now getting into that is at the core of the answer to your question. Arguably the number one journal in the English language for children’s health is the journal Pediatrics put out by the American Academy of Pediatrics. They published a policy statement, which means it’s not an author, you know, if I were to get an article published in pediatrics as an author, I’ve scored top tier difficult journal to get into I’ve really scored but this is a policy statement. That means it came from the board of the Academy of the American Academy of Pediatrics, and they said the toxic substance Control Act failed miserably to protect our children and princes and adults. And it is The governing legislation at the federal level for all chemicals introduced into our environment. This was passed in 1976. It’s still the regulating guidelines for all chemicals introduced into our environment. It the the guidelines are so cumbersome, that in 40 years, they’ve only regulated five chemicals or classes of chemicals in 40 years. Because the lobbyists were so successful in paying off the senators and the representatives to pass this legislation that has no teeth. The legislation says you have to show that the amount of whatever chemical a person is exposed to is toxic to them. When you pump gas and fill your tank with gas, can you sometimes smell the gas? Sure, of course. you’re smelling benzene,

Ken Brown 59:09
right? Oh, yes.

Dr. Tom O’Brian 59:10
Benzene going up your olfactory nerves right into the brain triggering inflammation killing off brain cells right now. Right? It’s killing brain cells. But there’s no evidence that the amount of benzene it’s inhaled while pumping gas is toxic to humans. There’s no evidence you can’t. There’s no evidence that it causes a problem. But give me 30 years of smelling benzene once a week and how many millions of cells you’ve killed off. I’m warming up now. 2017. papers published that came out of Chicago 346 pregnant women and the eighth month of pregnancy They did urine analysis they measured Phthalates five Phthalates Phthalates are chemicals used to mold plastic. Most of us have heard of Bisphenol A or BPA Corona is one of the chemicals. They measured five chemicals. There are hundreds of chemicals but they just measured five. they categorize the results into quartiles, the lowest, the next, the third and the highest quartile. They then follow the offspring of those pregnancies for seven years. When the kids turned seven years old, they did Wechsler IQ tests on the official IQ test. There’s not much in medicine, that’s all or every This was every every child whose mother was in the highest quartile of Phthalates eats and urine and pregnancy compared to the children in the lowest quartile of Phthalates and urine and pregnancy. Every child in the highest score tile, their IQ was seven points lower than the kids in The lowest quartile of Phthalates seven points. That doesn’t mean anything to anyone until you understand one point difference is noticeable. A seven point difference is a difference between a child working really hard getting straight A’s, and a child working really hard, getting straight C’s, right this kid in hell because his brain never developed properly. And then just go to Google and type in Phthalates and neurogenesis, nerve growth. Here come all the studies, how balades inhibit nerve growth. And you see this and you wonder why Autism is going up and attention deficit is going up. You see this and then you go back to the pediatrics article and you read that is 247 pounds of chemicals manufactured or imported into the US United States every day for every person in America 247 pounds, that’s 27 trillion pounds a year, take the population of the US multiplied by 247 times 365 days, it’s 27 trillion pounds.

Every newborn child in America has at least 200 chemicals in their bloodstream at birth that aren’t supposed to be there. Many of them are neurotoxins, brain time. You wonder why we’re seeing this increase in disease. We all are walking sewage dumps, excuse me, but we are we all are because it’s in the air. You if you sit in a room and you can see the sunlight coming through the window, sometimes the right time of day the angle and you see little dust in the air. That’s what you’re breathing. That dust is the family lychee From the plastic lines in the windows, they leach out family chemicals into the air for years. It’s the scotch guard on the sofa, leaching out those chemicals into the air for years. It’s the formaldehyde in the kitchen cabinets. If they’re not solid wood, they’re pressboard. They’re soaked in formaldehyde, and the bathroom cabinets leaching out into the air for years. And we were exposed to all of this, all of that and we’re walking sewage dumps. You wonder why degenerative diseases are going, why Alzheimer’s and the number one type of Alzheimer’s is inhalational Alzheimer’s, it’s what’s your breathing. This is so overwhelming for people. When you get when you look at this map. When you see what’s happening. It is so overwhelming. That’s why you have to operate from the platform of one hour a week. Yes, because and so one week When you learn that the leftover chicken from dinner, you put it in a plastic storage container in the refrigerator. The next day the chickens got phalates in it from the plastic. When you learn that one week, you take that hour you go into my book and there’s the three URLs to order glass storage containers, and you go to miles, kimball.com and Amazon, whatever the third was, Oh, I like those. And yours three round ones in two square ones and one for the eyes. You pay with your credit card, you hit send, it took an hour, you’re done for the week. Like that. Never again, will you poison your family with minute amounts of foul aids from leftover food in a plastic storage container. Now, there’s no evidence that the amount of families that leach out of plastic storage containers is toxic to humans. That’s how they get away with that crap it is. That’s how they’ve gotten away with it. And it’s the it’s the The indoor and just read the science indoor air pollution is much worse than outdoor air pollution in most areas of the country. Because we don’t think about our homes we don’t think about the formaldehyde, the benzene, trichloroethylene that we’re inhaling, then you go to my book and there’s the study with the graph that the study from NASA that shows to six inch house plants, and there’s the list of all the house plants that do it to six inch house plants and a 10 by 10 room absorbs up to 70% of the toxic chemicals in the air.

Ken Brown 1:05:37
warmer times. This is the front so now you’re scaring the snot out of me, but now you’re giving me a solution. So you’re saying when your book can got

Dr. Tom O’Brian 1:05:43
a Kleenex, hand him a Kleenex to get the snot and to six inch houseplants, and there’s about 12 or 14 different types of houseplans six inch houseplants absorbable To 70% of the toxins in the air in a 10 by 10 room, they’re absorbed through the leaves, they go down into the roots, the microbiome of the soil breaks that stuff down. They produce oxygen and put oxygen into the air to 10 by 10 to six inch houseplants for a 10. By 10 room

Eric Rieger 1:06:17
solution.

Ken Brown 1:06:18
Yeah, it’s a solution I’m all about so and so your book is not just teaching people what to worry about, but you’re like, this is the solution. So the one hour a week is I’m going to give you one hour a week solution. And if you continually do that, by the end, you’re going to be a healthier person.

Dr. Tom O’Brian 1:06:35
You know, everybody wants solutions. Nobody wants to hear about the problem. But there’s no way you will have the tenacity to do this. And at a pace that you can do it and not be overwhelmed. That’s why it’s one hour a week understanding. You are going to be overwhelmed, but you’re going to do bite sized pieces pieces of this. And in six months. You’ve got it. You’ve changed your life. Your husband Using the Tupperware containers to store nails in the garage, right? I mean, you’ve got all the the dishwasher, you’d never run the dishwasher during the day. Because the toxic chemicals that come out of the dishwashing detergent, when they get heated up to 160 – 170 degrees, they leach out of dishwashers are not airtight. They’re watertight, they’re not airtight, and those chemicals are in the air, you’re sucking those fumes. You only run the dishwasher at night when everybody’s sleeping. And you’ve got to learn all these little things because the paradigm that we’ve accepted the prevailing dogma that we’ve accepted about the way to live life and about our homes is killing us. It’s slowly killing us. This is why your patients are coming in with more confusing results is because they’re loaded full of all of these toxic chemicals. How many of us have been watching the chem trails? For years to say, Oh, that’s really something you know that that’s too bad. Yeah, I wonder what that stuff is. And we’ve never done anything about it. We’re sucking the fumes of all those heavy metals that were being spewed into the air.

Eric Rieger 1:08:12
Yeah, well, I do want to add something here. I know that we’ve been it didn’t seem like until just looked. But we’ve been talking for a good while. And I need to also give you some praise since you were the first to utilize the digital internet to reach so many people. You also have one of the most kick ass URLs I’ve ever seen. Yeah, so what is it? We do? So

Ken Brown 1:08:34
we haven’t ever joked about this? I was like, how in the heck did that guy get that URL?

Dr. Tom O’Brian 1:08:39
1996

Eric Rieger 1:08:42
the URL to link up with this very Dr. Tom O’Brien is the doctor.com and I want to say that one more time the doctor.com but you have the Dr. Yeah, I’m sorry. Yeah, you’re the Dr. calm. So Dr. Bri ER doctor abbreviated v dr.com. dr.com will connect you with Dr. Tom O’Brien. But you also also have two specific programs for our listeners. One is to do that with a / betrayal to get on to the train of exactly the training that you’re talking about and the other one, and I’ll put, I’ll put this in show notes, everyone, but the other one is thedoctor.com/kickstart. And if you want to do a quick rundown on exactly what kickstart is, that way, everyone in our universe can hop over and learn a little bit more from that from that with from you. Just tell us a little about thedoctor.com/kickstart.

Dr. Tom O’Brian 1:09:36
You bet that Thank you. The kickstart is a number of handouts for you. They’re going to talk about how to detox your house, how to reduce electromagnetic pollution in your house. What are the house plants that will suck up toxins? There’s there’s a handout for the kitchen there’s a handout for the bathroom. There’s a handout for the bedroom, all a number of different handouts so that you’ve got Steps to implement right away and you take them at your own pace, you’ll get the plastic storage containers out of there, order glass storage containers, things like that.

Ken Brown 1:10:10
Dr. Tom, I want to interrupt you real quick because you’ve hit a nerve with me here this is I just don’t have the I’m always I spent a lot more than just an hour a week. But I spent an hours a week looking at the stuff that I’m interested in. And I have a blind eye to what you’re talking about. And what you just said is I’m going to give you solutions. You can put a handout up, you’re just going to go do this, this and this, because I believe you and I, I don’t want to read a whole book about why I should get rid of my plastic just Just tell me how to how to fix it. That’s what I like. kickstart seems like a really cool program for that.

Dr. Tom O’Brian 1:10:46
Oh, thank you very much. And if you were my patient, I’d be all over you. That you can’t do that because it’s wanting solutions that has gotten us into trouble. Oh, gotta understand. All of you. The map of what happens

Ken Brown 1:11:01
this where you start yelling at me like you did on stage.

Dr. Tom O’Brian 1:11:06
Because if you don’t understand that mold can be a huge problem for Mrs. patient. When you go on vacation for a week or two, when you come home, you have to open the windows to air the house out. Oh, yeah, you got mold. You have to have the house remediated, you have to have a professional come Well, I don’t have a problem. When I’m here. I don’t feel anything. It doesn’t matter if you feel it or not. If you’re inhaling it, it’s going up to your brain. And it’s the number one trigger for the development of Alzheimer’s is in halation, Alzheimer’s, it’s what you’re breathing. So if your brain ain’t cooking the way it should be, it’s cooking in the wrong direction, you’re too much on fire. You have to identify where it’s coming from so you can get all the house plants you want. But if you still got mold in your bathroom, well it’s not too bad on the tiles there. You know, it’s just on the grout in between the tile that’s not too bad. We’ll Put that on your tombstone. It wasn’t too bad. You know, it’s critically important that we change our paradigm so that we understand what our individual map is, what has gotten us to where we are, because that map is going to change, you’re going to get better because you implement the things in the handouts. That’s great, you’re going to get better. But a year from now, two years from now, you’re going to get hit with something else. Because the handouts aren’t complete. There’s something else that’s there for you. And it’s killing off cells, killing off cells killing ourselves, and it’ll manifest in your kidneys and your gut in your brain and your joints in your skin. It’ll manifest somewhere. So that’s why the investigative aspect of one hour a week is so critically important. Just one hour a week of reading my book, just one hour a week of listening to shows like yours and go back and listen to it again, and take notes on some of the things you know, but You’ve got to be willing, you have to find your level of uncomfortableness, or awkwardness with the information that you can handle and keep functioning in life really well, right? So you take in too much information, you get overwhelmed and you don’t want to do anything. You’re immobilized, like a deer in headlights. So that’s what one hour a week, you just take one little piece at a time. And you address that the next week, you address this the next week, you address this, and over time in six months, you’ve got it. That’s the critical component. That is I love that.

Ken Brown 1:13:38
You avoid the business term that you just described, which is paralysis through analysis when you have so much information that you do nothing.

Dr. Tom O’Brian 1:13:45
Yeah, yeah, that’s exactly right.

Ken Brown 1:13:48
Oh, man, I love your message. I love it.

Eric Rieger 1:13:50
Dr. Tom O’Brien, everyone you can catch so much more information and from what I just got from your latest explanation is understand why You’re doing the things that you’re doing. And that way you always stay abreast of what is most important and keep up with it every single week, go to the doctor.com. That’s th e dr.com. To learn more, from our very own Dr. Tom O’Brien, thank you so much for joining us today. gut check project number 40. And in the show notes, you will find both the direct links to doctor the doctor.com forward slash betrayal as well as forward slash kickstart Dr. Tom any last words for for today’s show.

Dr. Tom O’Brian 1:14:36
Godspeed to everyone on their health journey.

Ken Brown 1:14:39
Awesome. Well, I tell you what people like you’re out there. Number one, you’re learning it your passion of learning it and clearly it is because once we start hitting on certain things, I feel like we could talk for another five more hours. And then your ability to do the work to get it out there because I mean, even doing this taking the time to get on a project. and discussing it, it requires time requires work. And more importantly, when I’m really excited is is that I know my space. And I don’t know the stuff you’re talking about, I’m going to tell all my patients get your book, I’m going to be like, Look, we’re gonna do this together. And so that’ll be kind of an interesting journey. Because this is just stuff I just have not quite honestly just haven’t thought about. I’m kind of embarrassed.

Dr. Tom O’Brian 1:15:21
What what in what an excellent idea as a physician to have a chat room with people went like a book club that everybody’s in the same book. And that questions will come up and you’ll say, you know, I don’t know the answer to that, but I’ll look into it. And, you know, you’ll call me or whatever, you know, we’ll, we’ll dial it down.

Ken Brown 1:15:43
It’s really funny because I didn’t really get deep into gluten until I met. You know, we got Rob Wolf and Chris Kresser. And these guys writing the paleo solution and so I read their books and I was like, holy Cow. You know, we exchanged some podcasts and stuff and They got me seriously thinking about it. Like I didn’t even I was just kind of going through the whole motions. And I’m like, holy cow, these guys are making sense. So educating other people so that your voice has branches and it keeps going out. JJ brought you in. You then extended that it’s it works. It’s it’s that her phrase is, you know, a rising tide lifts all ships and I think that you’re certainly emulating that. That’s awesome. Yeah,

Dr. Tom O’Brian 1:16:26
exactly. Right. Exactly. Right. Thank you so much, guys.

Ken Brown 1:16:29
All right. Well, thank you for your time. Dr. Tom, everybody, go to thedoctor.com and you’ll learn about all this stuff. This is awesome.

Eric Rieger 1:16:36
Thank you all KMBD health family. We will see you on the next episode. All right. Take care.

Ken Brown 1:16:41
All right. Take care.