Guest: Dr. John Poothullil

Release Date: 1/24/2022

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Steve Washuta: Welcome to the Trulyfit podcast where we interview experts in fitness and health to expand our wisdom and wealth. I am your host Steve Washuta, co-founder of Trulyfit and author of Fitness Business 101. In today’s episode, I speak with Dr. John Poothullil you can find everything about him and his books at Dr. JohnOnHealth.com. He sent me in advance his latest book, your health is at risk, how to navigate information chaos to prevent lifestyle diseases. I really enjoyed Dr. John’s book and his take.

And as I should say, what is going on as far as what he considers misinformation, missing information, and disinformation. He defines all three of those and thinks it’s important to understand the context of how that works in the medical community.

And we specifically target type two diabetes, and his controversial view on why he thinks they being the medical community but specifically really endocrinologists have the wrong take both from a clinical diagnosis standpoint and from let’s say, a mechanistic standpoint on what exactly is going on how we should probably treat Type Two Diabetes, I found the conversation very intriguing. It’s very science-based. And that’s what I enjoy.

So I want to thank Dr. John for not only coming on, but for all that he does to try to really put the word out there that there is probably a better way to deal with type two diabetes than we currently are as far as standard protocols are concerned. So with no further ado, here’s Dr. John and I. Dr. John, thank you so much for joining the Trulyfit podcast.

I read your book and thought it was fantastic. And that’s going to be the centerpiece of what we talk about today. But before we get into that, why don’t you give the audience in the listeners a bio of your credentials and your intellectual and professional pursuits to this point.

Dr. John Poothullil: Steve, first I want to thank you for having me and I thank our listeners. I was born in India, I did my medical training in India, I did a year of internship in Scotland. I came to the United States in 1970 did my pediatric residency in the United States, and when to do a fellowship in allergy and immunology in Canada came back to the United States, I practiced medicine for more than 35 years in the United States mostly in the state of Texas.

After I retired, I started I got time to write what I was thinking about regarding medical practice. For example, when I reached the age of 3040 plus I started noticing weight gain during the winter months, then I lost the weight in spring. But in the mid-50s I noticed that the weight I gained in winter stayed on and I did not lose it in spring or summer.

So I wanted to know why I went to the medical textbooks and they said improper diet and lack of exercise. Okay, what is improper in the diet, I thought I was eating the same I was exercising the same that led me to look into the mechanism or the physiology of hunger and satiation. For example, you cannot predict when you are going to be hungry you cannot predict when you are going to be thirsty. Similarly, you cannot predict how much will it take to quench your thirst or to make you feel satisfied.

When I went to the physiology textbooks, I could not find answers to these questions. And I researched it and came up with my own answers which I published as the first book Eat shoe live in that my primary objective was how to prevent obesity and how to prevent diabetes. Then people asked me question, if I already have type two diabetes, how can I prevent it? So I had to come up with a set of answers for those people. I researched further the current treatment, the current, it DRG or the cause of type two diabetes, and I could not agree with the concept of insulin resistance.

I wrote the second book, How To reverse type two Diabetes, eight steps to reverse type two diabetes in eight weeks. Then about 1112 years ago I was diagnosed with cancer. So I started asking my oncologist, but cost cancer and his answer was improper and lack of exercise. And when I went to India for a visit, I asked the oncologist there. And he said improper diet and lack of exercise, and the same answer you will get from oncologists in South America, in Europe, in Africa in Australia, how can that be? How can the diet be improper all around the world? That did not make sense to me? So I researched that further, and I wrote the book, how surviving cancer.

One day, I was giving a talk to a group of oncologists in a hospital, and one of the physicians stood up and asked me, Dr. John, the average age of an adult with cancer is 60. Plus, it takes six decades of accumulated mute great mutations to produce cancer. Whereas the average age of a child with cancer is six, the child has not lived long enough to accumulate mutations. So how can the child develop cancer? And that is when I started researching childhood cancer specifically and came up with my previous book, the last book when your child has cancer to guide parents, because the parents are so helpless, I know the feeling because when I was diagnosed, I felt scared. I felt helpless, I did not understand. And you can imagine what the parents will go through if they are told their child has cancer.

Now, I asked, I gave many many talks about type two diabetes, because it is a pandemic or around the world that has been going out and it keeps going out. So when I ask people, why don’t you ask the patient, you should ask your doctor. If you take insulin, yes, your brand glucose level goes down. Where does it go? Does it go out of the body? What I found us, most patients are very hesitant to ask their doctor because the doctor feels the patient is questioning them. So that is why I started writing the new book, The information problem, the chaotic information, how to navigate that, and to protect yourself. So that is the summary. And that is the reason why we are here.

Steve Washuta: Well, that is a great summary. And I like you I’m a contrarian, and I like to pick at what are considered the norms and say, how did we get here? What did we find out in the 70s 80s? And 90s? I do this in sort of my professional fitness. And does that work in this day? And age? Can we go back and look at those studies and see if there were things done wrong? Should we just believe all of these things that have been passed down? Or should we investigate them and I love that you do that.

So again, the book is called your health is at risk how to navigate information chaos to prevent lifestyle diseases, impacts, endemics, type two diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular disease, for the sake of this conversation, Dr. John, obviously, we’re going to focus a little bit more on diabetes. But first, there’s a big portion of your book that relies upon the initial, I would say thesis talking about disinformation, misinformation and missing information and the differences between them. Can you unpack that a little bit and how that pertains to the medical and health fields?

Dr. John Poothullil: Absolutely. This information is the deliberate twisting of the truth. We know the truth. But some people with a vested interest to achieve a particular purpose can twist it in such a way the followers believe because if the followers believe the leader, then they believe whatever he says they don’t have to think.

See human brain works at three different levels. One is cognition you understand or get the information. The second is analysis to decide what does this mean. And third is the emotional compound or the response. Most people don’t have the time to logically think through the process. So if they have a trusted person, they believe whatever he or she says, and if that person has a vested interest, they can preach the truth and having a following that is disinformation.

Misinformation could be due to an accidental misinterpretation of the of the evidence, but then it is continued by people who have a vested interest they make money or they have an interest in continuing the misinformation even when it could be collected. There is a proof available but they don’t want to either look into it. or they don’t have access to it, or they have a state in Russia.

That is misinformation. Missing Information is a piece of information, your doctors cannot keep up with every little bit of information. So sometimes there may be missing information that is valid for a patient, but not the doctor does not want to waste time on it. But if the patient knows about it, then he or she can take better care of himself or herself. That is the importance or difference.

Steve Washuta: Okay, well, thank you. That was a great summary of that. And that’s going to lead to my next question, do you believe that what we call consumerism, or corporatism is, is to blame for this and that it’s kind of spills over the, into the medical and health fields?

Dr. John Poothullil: It is a combination of both of these, what your body just discussed or asked, the consumer has some needs to meet, while corporations and other groups have a need to or want to make a profit. And that is where we are.

Steve Washuta: Now, do you also believe that the medical system itself has to take some responsibility? And let me kind of let me elaborate on that a bit. Because you know, my wife is in the medical community and between physicians only having 15 minutes with their patient may walk in and say, hey, you know, I’m depressed today.

I think I have obesity, I might have ADHD, and I hurt my ankle. It’s like, okay, well, I have 15 minutes. So what which, which issue? Am I going to use it here? The lack of nutritional education that we get in med schools now? Is there some blame for the medical system? And this?

Dr. John Poothullil: Steve, all of the above? I agree with all your summary. Yes, this is a shared responsibility. The question is, how do we devise a plan to correct all these and where do we start?

Steve Washuta: Yeah, yeah, that’s, that is certainly the question. And there’s, there’s a lot to that. And I want to get to diabetes, which you referenced earlier on, and I just want to maybe, again, unpack that a little bit more for the listeners. Can you explain the clinical definition of type two diabetes, and then why you think it’s misrepresented?

Dr. John Poothullil: First, let us see what is diabetes. Diabetes is diagnosed when a test medical test shows an elevated blood glucose level than it is divided into two type one and type two. To understand the difference, you need to know what is insulin and the role of insulin in the body.

After you eat a meal containing complex carbohydrate, the blood glucose levels is elevated within four to five hours because it takes that much time to digest the food. And when the blood glucose level is elevated, that stimulates the pancreas to release insulin.

Now, every cell in the body can use glucose to produce energy. But except for a few cells, like neurons and red blood cells, the cell does not know whether glucose is outside. For example, if you live in a house or an apartment, when somebody rings the bell doorbell you know there is somebody outside glucose ash, no receptor to ring on the cell wall to let the cell know I’m outside.

That is the job of insulin, it is insulin that informs the cell of the presence of glucose outside. Now, in type one diabetes, insulin is absent the cells that produce insulin, the pancreatic cells are not working.

So even though there is plenty of glucose outside the cells star, these children used to die by age 10, before insulin was discovered, so insulin When insulin started, straight away, when the doctor started treatment with insulin, the lifespan of these children improved the quality and their quality of life improved, and it became almost normal.

Now in contrast, in type two diabetes, insulin is present, yet glucose levels remain high. So endocrinologists claim that this is just due to three types of cells out of 200 in the body, not responding to insulin. This is not logical. How can these three types act independently? And no one has shown a mechanism for how they do this. That’s the problem.

Steve Washuta: Why do you believe this is so widely accepted? You know, aren’t there 1000s of endocrinologists and all this research and studies that they have to do and how come nobody else kind of sees this how you do or do they but they just don’t have the voice? To overcome all of the consumerism and corporatism that is already behind what they believe is type two diabetes?

Dr. John Poothullil: Well, they can look at it in two different ways. One is, you see, your eyes see only what you believe in. Okay, endocrinologists, we’re programmed to believe insulin resistance is the cause of type two diabetes.

So it was easy to get funding and get the study published if the results showed support for the concept of insulin resistance because most of the monetary support came from industries and others who had a vested interest in the continued promotion of the concept. Now, shall I continue? Or

Steve Washuta: yeah, but you know, let me interject real quick. I’m gonna read, I’m gonna read a direct quote from your book, I want you to answer it. How would an endocrinologist respond to this, if you walked up to an endocrinologist and said, You’ve taught the existence of insulin resistance and muscle, liver, and fat cells, but you cannot clarify a molecular mechanism of resistance in any one of these sites? How would an endocrinologist respond to

Dr. John Poothullil: respond? Oh, this is a very good question, because I’ve been asked that many times. What they will say is, oh, there are many diseases that we don’t know the exact cause. And they are like type one diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s disease, to name a few.

But the difference is that physicians who treat these conditions explain to their patients, that all they can do is treat the symptoms because they really don’t know the cause. In contrast, do you know what endocrinologists do they insist that type two diabetes starts with insulin resistance? So they also create an army of diabetes educators to spread the message, and have local statewide, national and international associations to promote the message? That’s the difference.

Steve Washuta: If you were in control of this, let’s say you were omnipotent. You had the power to change the process here. What would your patient experience look like if I was a 57 year old, I walked into your office, I was 40 pounds overweight? And I had what is now considered the standard clinical diagnosis of type two diabetes, how would you deal with that patient?

Dr. John Poothullil: The first thing is to explain to them, that Type Two Diabetes is a product of nutrition, it is not a hormonal disease. For example, if you don’t put into your mouth, something that is absorbed into the body into your blood as glucose, how can your blood glucose level go up? The current nutrition that leads to type two diabetes come from excess intake of complex carbohydrate. In our percentage diet, more than 50% of daily food energy intake comes from grain-based foods.

Think about it, when is the last time you had a meal or a snack without a grain product. So if we can cut that down to 35% of daily food, energy intake, or less coming from complex carbohydrates, we can prevent Type two diabetes or reverse it. I have no preference as to who can get this implemented. What I know is that endocrinologists and diabetes associations have not done so. My belief is that if nature intended grains for humans, we would have had beaks to pick them up. And the ability to digest the chaff. We don’t have them.

Steve Washuta: Yeah, and I mean, that’s a very interesting take. And I think you know, to add to that, Dr. John, you know, when I have clients as personal trainers who have type two diabetes, obviously and my issue is that let’s say one of my clients is on Metformin, and we have changed their lifestyle, I have helped them eat better, I’ve helped them workout three or four times three or four times a week, and now they’re one C levels, which we’ll talk about a little bit have dropped drastically, the physician sometimes attributed to the medication rather than the lifestyle change. So they never pull my client off the medication. And then we don’t know which variable is actually working.

Dr. John Poothullil: Well you have done the right thing. The problem here is the concept of insulin resistance. The endocrinologist believes and it is in the medical textbooks and I was taught the same thing that once you are diagnosed with the subject, insulin resistance as a diet Moses, you never get over it, it is permanent. And that is the excuse they use to keep continuing the Metformin medication.

There are two questions here. One, there is no test for insulin resistance, whether you are newly diagnosed with rehab complications, whether you had type two diabetes for 20 years, nobody knows whether the complication is because your insulin resistance got worse because there is no test for it. Second, nobody knows how Metformin works. You ask people, so that is the problem. So the mechanism, how does it work? So all they know is oh, this should prevent? You need to continue this because you still have insulin resistance. What is the rationale? What’s the logic?

Steve Washuta: So it sounds like you don’t think also, after saying that, that a one C is a good indicator of somebody who is pre-diabetic or diabetic? And if you don’t, is there any lab-related measure that does show something along these lines?

Dr. John Poothullil: Well, let me say this, everyone sees, he said, good test, but it is used for the wrong purpose. MNC tells you the long-term maintenance of blood glucose level, but it is used to emphasize what is called the glucose-centric management of type two diabetes, glucose control, first of all, is not the disease control.

If that is the case, if you can keep your relevancy below seven, as some of these medications, in that you will see in the TV advertisements, it will keep your blood sugar below seven even see below seven, the site means that you can escape complications of type two diabetes, absolutely not. My friend who played bridge with me for many years, he was a Ph.D. in organic chemistry.

He kept his excellency below seven for 20 years, that did not stop them from having three of his toe toes amputated, which did not stop him from having two different types of cancer. And unfortunately, he passed away a year and a half ago.

And I’m still so upset thinking about it. He could understand after I started talking to him, he was able to reduce his insulin dosage. Still keep the blood sugar down, but it was too late. By that time, all these complications have started.

Steve Washuta: It seems like a suggestion that physicians make sometimes for people who have diabetes, Type Two is to use artificial sweeteners. What are your thoughts on them? Should they be cut out completely? Should they be limited? How do you talk to your clients about them?

Dr. John Poothullil: Do you want the top answer or the long answer?

Steve Washuta: Let’s go with the long answer. I’m sorry. Let’s go with the long answer. Yeah, feel free to unpack it as much as you need to.

Dr. John Poothullil: Okay, the first question is, what is the role of sweet taste? The second thing is how much if you take sugar as the sweet? Well, let me back up a little bit. The first thing is the one of the things here at blood sugar is glucose whereas table sugar is sucrose.

So one of the confusion is when you say oh your blood sugar goes up, everybody immediately stops taking table sugar because of the word association. The table sugar is sucrose which is hard glucose how factors whereas blood glucose blood sugar is strictly glucose?

There are two independent molecules. Secondly, there is no studies to show that if you stop eating table sugar, your blood glucose level will go will get better because that’s the first thing every diet version die diagnosed with type two diabetes do they stop eating terrible sugar and it makes no difference to the blood sugar level they still can have to continue the medications.

Now, what is the purpose the physiological role of sweetness? It tells the brain when you put when your taste buds sense glucose or sugar or sweetness, that energy is coming glucose is going to be absorbed. There you know every type two diabetic patient is asked to carry sugar tablets, right? Why? Because if they start feeling symptoms of hypoglycemia? They put sugar in their mouth. Right? Correct. Do you know how long it takes for them to start feeling better?

Steve Washuta: I would assume it’s almost instantaneous,

Dr. John Poothullil: right? And the amount they take is about 15 grams at the most three tablets of five milligrams. And has that been absorbed into the body when they start feeling better?

Steve Washuta:  I would assume not. Because you said it takes much longer than that

Dr. John Poothullil: now, right? And he 15 grams is absorbed, will that make a dent in the blood sugar? Lemon?

Steve Washuta: Doesn’t sound like enough? No.

Dr. John Poothullil: So But why do they start feeling better immediately because the taste birds taste the sweetness and inform the brain that food is coming. So most of the symptoms of hyperglycemia come from a release of adrenaline, increase heart rate, sweating, anxiety, and the brain slows down the release of adrenaline the moment it gets the signal that glucose is coming. That is how you feel good. Now imagine if you put artificial sweetener instead of regular sugar.

Initially, the brain may react the same way. But then the brain finds out no glucose has been absorbed. So later on, the brain will not respond to the taste of sweetness, because you have misrepresented the missiological meaning of sweetness, that is the problem. There are animal studies to show if you keep on eating artificial sweeteners in the long term, you gain weight. And this is proven in humans also.

Steve Washuta: Yeah, I mean, just from a macro perspective, there are no solutions. There are only trade-offs here, you’re not going to cheat the body. If you’re doing something that’s fixing one problem, you’re probably causing an issue somewhere else much like the artificial sweeteners, in that in the same passage, I believe you. That’s when you start talking to the book about authentic weight. Can you explain your definition of this?

Dr. John Poothullil: Right now, especially with related type two diabetes, you don’t inherit a gene that causes type two diabetes, what you inherit is your fat storage capacity. When that is filled up, whether you are an adult or a child, whether you’re lean or whether you’re pregnant, you are in danger of developing Type Two Diabetes.

A good example is a pregnant woman with no previous history of diabetes, no family history of diabetes, she is asked by her friends or family her co-workers eat this eat that it is better for the child is better for complexion it is better for brain power over height and she eats she fills up the fat storage capacity and within eight weeks of pregnancy, she started out upping type gestational diabetes.

And in some people, after they lose weight after the delivery within days, that diabetes goes away. Why? So we have to and look at physiology muscles use the maximum amount of glucose to produce energy. But muscles are like a hybrid engine in a car that can use either gasoline or electricity to for moving the car, if it is using gasoline, it is not using electricity and vice versa. So when muscles have plenty of fatty acids available, it can use fatty acids as fuel to produce energy rather than glucose.

That means glucose will stay in the blood. This is what we normally do when you are sleeping for hours when you have not eaten when you are running a marathon most of your energy production comes from fatty acids, not from glucose is a normal process. Suppose you fill up your blood with plenty of fatty acids because it cannot be stored in your fat storage capacity. Then your muscles will switch and you will have diabetes.

Now to expand it further. Have components of your body weight are born muscles fat organs and water. In each person, the volume and weight of each component are different. And you can’t determine your authentic weight using a weight table or a body mass index because there is a range. What is, you know, there is sometimes you know, if you take one height, there will be a 20-pound range in the weight table.

How do you know whether you belong to the lower end of the upper end? And I can show you people who lost who are within the range, yet, they had increased blood sugar when they lost 10 or 15 pounds, their blood sugar became normal.

So you have to find out what Wait, you have normal fasting blood glucose, and normal fasting triglycerides, normal fasting cholesterol, and that is your authentic weight, regardless of what the weight table or the body mass index says.

Steve Washuta: Yeah, I think that is that makes complete sense to me. And I preach a lot on here for people not only to get their clients but for them themselves. If they’re worried about their health, it’s more important that you take your labs every six months or a year, and you compare yourself to yourself rather than to what the norm is supposed to be.

Meaning if I have a number, if I’ve been taking my labs, let’s say every six months since I was 19 years old, and I have a number that was a little bit higher or lower than you know what the ranges are supposed to be. But that number stays the same. Over the course of 20 years, there might not be an issue. It’s when my number changes from what my labs normally are is when I should be concerned.

Dr. John Poothullil: Exactly. That’s precisely what I’m talking about. I’m so glad that you are practicing what I am trying to explain and you are trying to explain to other people, I could not be happier.

Steve Washuta: Yeah, well, I’m, I’m glad to hear that and that. Now you have a really good analogy that you use for what you talk about in your nutrient intake response compared to being thirsty for water. Can you explain that?

Dr. John Poothullil: Yes. When first of all, you cannot predict when you are going to be thirsty. Secondly, when you are thirsty, you cannot predetermine the quantity of water needed to quench your thirst. Am I right? Yes. Okay. And let me ask you suppose I bring you 12 ounces of water right now? How much will it take to quench your thirst? Do you know?

Steve Washuta: I currently have water right next to me. And I probably just drank about eight ounces during our conversation. So it would it wouldn’t take me more than a sip.

Dr. John Poothullil: Okay, exactly. And when you take a sip, your thirst is quenched. The water you consume has been absorbed into the body yet.

Steve Washuta: It has I would assume it’s absorbed into the body but probably not. Let’s say activated in the places it needs to be. I mean, I imagine absorb somewhere but maybe it’s not down to my like dwad them yet or something.

Dr. John Poothullil: Yeah, it is not let me correct that it is in your stomach. By the time yours. thirst is quenched. It has not been absorbed into the body yet. Okay. Okay. Now, how how can how did the brain know you have consumed enough water to quench your thirst because each time you drink, your quantity is different.

If you have been working out it’s in a hot environment, you need more. Whereas just like you are right now, if you have already consumed some and you need much less Aegir take a sip, how is the brain going to know how much you consume and it matches your need.

Steve Washuta: I imagine there’s a delay meaning your brain has the feedback from the neurons and the receptors of your mouth that there is water coming in, but it doesn’t know how much until it has already been. Let’s say take it into the blood.

Dr. John Poothullil: No, that takes time. It is because absorption takes place in the small intestine, not from the stomach, you stay in the stomach and then gradually gets into the intestine that is why all the blood test it takes hours if you take something in your mouth. So that is a concept.

The response brain response is based on just like in the case of remembering sugar, we talked about sugar tablets. It is based on the sensory responses from the mouth and nasal cavity taste and knows the smell receptors. So what I’m saying in my first book is as you’re drinking now if I blindfold you and give you something to drink, you will know immediately whether it is milk or wine or water or color or whatever, right. Yeah, the same taste sensors.

These birds are also recording How much is going down, and the brain knows the quantity. And when the quantity that you can see matches the need, which the brain already knows. That is when the brain says, Okay, you had enough, you get satisfied, you don’t have to drink enough to fill up your stomach, because if it is based on quantity, you should have the same volume each time before you feel satisfied.

That is not what happens each time you drink, the quantity is different. So it is a sensory mechanism. It is not based on volume, but on the quantity which is measured by receptors in the mouth and nose.

Steve Washuta: Can you talk a little bit about some misconceptions that you believe the general population has about cholesterol and understanding cholesterol’s role?

Dr. John Poothullil: Again, very good question. The one is most people don’t have a clue what color straw is used for. They are told it is to make hormones. But 40% of the cholesterol in the body is used as insulation for the skin. If you don’t have cholesterol, insulating your skin in hot weather, you will lose water and will get dehydrated. In cold weather, you will get frostbite because of the heat you will lose heat.

So this is cholesterol is a component of your cell wall. And that is how you protect yourself from these elements. So that is the maximum use for cholesterol. And most people believe cholesterol comes only from animal products. But vegetarians need cholesterol just as much as non-vegetarians because otherwise, they will have heatstroke and the problems we talked about. So everybody needs to produce cholesterol and how do vegetarians get it because their liver has the capability to produce cholesterol.

And what is the raw material the liver uses, it is called the acid dial coin sign which can be produced from glucose molecules, the liver converts that into acetyl coenzyme A, and that can be used to produce fatty acids or cholesterol based on your genetic makeup. So that is how you have cholesterol. Now, everyone gets excited about good cholesterol. Can I ask you? What do you know about good cholesterol? What is it good for?

Steve Washuta: Well, what I personally know and what I’ve been told is that HDL and LDL aren’t even cholesterol that they’re actually just like whoa, transport proteins that bring cleave a piece off of cholesterol when they when a cell needs it. And then the other one, the good cholesterol takes it away from the cell.

Dr. John Poothullil: Now, that is what is in the textbook, that is what we have been told that the good cholesterol will pick up the bad cholesterol and clean the artery right. Now, suppose you take a stick on paper, okay, and you put it on the table, you stick it on the table that represents the bad cholesterol sticking on the table. And you take another poster, post-it note or stick on and put it on top of the first one can the second one by itself pull off the first one from the table be very difficult. It needs energy.

Cholesterol is a molecule it cannot produce energy to pull the LDL cholesterol or the bad cholesterol which is stuck on the cell wall. That is such a thought or misconception. Otherwise, you should be able to demonstrate a combination of cholesterol, good cholesterol sticking to the bad cholesterol and circulating in the blood. Nobody has described that nobody has any evidence for it. It is a concert which is completely wrong. It is the good cholesterol in my estimation is called good cholesterol because it does not do any harm.

Steve Washuta: So you would say and you can obviously rephrase this, but that they’re looking at what they consider correlative relations between people who have high bad cholesterol and who also have plaque buildup and issues but they haven’t proven like a causal mechanistic relationship

Dr. John Poothullil: between good cholesterol and protection. Yes, the other one is obvious because every cell as I mentioned, needs cholesterol to purr to construct a cell wall how Do they get it? The LDL has a receptor cell first that can attach to the cell receptor.

The cell can incorporate that LDL, when the cell the attachment portion is blocked by a protein, then it cannot stick to the cell wall. And that is why it is called good cholesterol. So the good cholesterol is high density, that density comes from the protein cap that blocks the attachment surface, just like the antibody blocks the wires from attaching itself to a cell wall, the protein blocks the attachment of the cholesterol, and it becomes dense or heavy because of the protein attachment. And that is called good cholesterol because it cannot do any harm.

Steve Washuta: And I will say much like you know Metformin issue we talked about before, you know, I face the same issues with clients who are let’s say on lipid Torre, who in we change their diet, we change their lifestyle, they work out, you know, multiple times a week, they start eating healthy.

And yet, although the cholesterol levels whether you know, believe them or not to be good or bad drop past a certain level. It’s because there are multiple variables, there’s the variable of the medication, and there’s the variable of the hard work and lifestyle that a lot of times, unfortunately, the physician say, Well, it’s the medication, so we can’t take them off of it. And then it’s almost as if I’m doing the lifestyle things for no reason if we can’t get them off the medication.

Dr. John Poothullil: Exactly. The question you have to ask is, if you take a lipid draw the blood flow, the blood cholesterol level goes down. Where did it go? Similar to the question I asked about insulin and glucose. Most people will have no clue what happened to that cholesterol, the number went down.

Do you know why? How it happen? No clue, or straw is made from saturated fatty acids in the liver. As we mentioned earlier, even though Tyrians make it they use the raw material. The liver has a factory for using excess acetyl-coenzyme. A coming from food from glucose primarily. In one line, it produces triglyceride or common fact. In another line, this same factory, another line it produces cholesterol. So what Lipitor does is it blocks the worker’s enzymes that produce cholesterol selectively.

The production line is slowed down, he produces less cholesterol. But what people don’t understand is the fatty acids, the saturated fatty acids the liver was using to produce cholesterol, they are still in the body, they are still in the body, they will be converted into fat, or they can be used by muscles to produce energy, in which case, glucose will stay in the blood. So people who use Lipitor and cholesterol blocking or production blocking agents in the long term, they start they start noticing elevation of blood glucose level.

It is one of the contributing causes of elevated blood glucose levels. Then What do the doctors do they increase the dose of insulin or other medications and he has a seesaw then it increases the cost overall level because that production line is forced to reopen, then they increase the dose of the Lipitor or the cholesterol-lowering medication. And in the end, the patient suffers when a simple lifestyle change as you correctly recommend. They could do it and avoid all these medications.

Steve Washuta: In your book, you have numbers. I’ll read them off here 120 20 Excuse me, 122 million elevated blood sugar 34 million people have type two diabetes diagnosis and 88 million are pre-diabetic.

Do you expect these numbers to fall with people like yourself coming out and people taking a little bit more agency and control over their health? Or do you think that are you not optimistic about these numbers and do you think they’ll get worse?

Dr. John Poothullil: Well, the question is how do you get the message out? There are very few people like yourself, who have analyzed it, who have found it necessary to convince people to make the lifestyle changes, but you we are competing against a whole group of people, as you mentioned earlier, those who make a living out of preaching the same thing over and over What we see is what is called the glucose centric way of treating that if you have a number, then you are in control.

What people don’t understand is glucose control is not diabetes control. Glucose Control is only a symptom will high elevated, elevated levels of glucose is only a symptom of the problem. That is not the problem. It is like if you control fever in an infection, are you controlling the infection? No. So if you concentrate on controlling the number, yes, the doctors feel happy because I have done my job. If you get a complication, well, that’s your problem, you do not lose weight.

How can a person lose weight when he is injected with insulin and told that you cannot skip a meal? Because he may have a hypoglycemic episode? How, how is that possible? Yes, 122 million people have elevated blood sugar 34 million types two diabetes.

Now what is already estimated is that in the short term, by 2030, we will have 50 million diagnosed with type two diabetes. So in the short term, no, it will not make a dent. But we have to keep trying. And I thank you so much for doing this. Because it is people like you, you have access to more audience to spread the message. And I’m hoping more people will come forward.

Steve Washuta: Yeah, as do I, and thank you for all of you’ve done with your books and your work both in and out of the medical offices. And again, your book covers a lot of different issues that we did not. So I will say to the audience, we didn’t cover everything, there’s still a lot to be read. It’s well worth getting the book as your health is at risk, how to navigate information, chaos, to prevent lifestyle diseases.

There are a few more things we’re going to be covering before Dr. John leaves us. And one of them is a selfish question that I have that my audience might not care about. But because I know you’re a contrarian, I had read about this a long time ago. And I know you do write about cancer, too. Do you have any thoughts on intracellular hypothermia to treat cancer? Is that nonsense? Do you know anything about it?

Dr. John Poothullil: Well, the question is in there are many new forms of cancer treatment just between cancer coming out? By I don’t know a specific way to explain because I have not studied that in detail.

My message is, what is cancer understand the basic process, then you can evaluate any new treatment, immunology-based treatment. And it’s something like this the physical treatment, the idea is cancer. Cancer is uncontrolled cell multiplication.

Okay. Now, the first question is, how did the cell learn to divide? Who taught the cell? Where did that come from? We know have you ever thought about that?

Steve Washuta: How did that mutation come about? Well,

Dr. John Poothullil: mutation. How did the cell learn to divide? What prompted the cell to divide in the first place?

Steve Washuta: I just don’t the Krebs cycle.

Dr. John Poothullil: Know the Krebs cycle is just the production of energy. But the cell when we have a cell division, one cell becomes two, right? Yes. How does the cell learn to do that? through evolution, right. And what was the in the art was the, in the incentive, what caused the cell to divide in the first place?

The very first cell I call them the ad themselves, that came into being what prompted them to divine because most of the evolution is based on a threat to your life, the survival of the fittest. So what could afford this in the original self, the divine, it cannot be from external pressure, because if the danger was outside, the dark cells will be in the same boat.

Steve Washuta: The danger could be time, I mean, after a certain amount of time, when a cell maybe just stops acting, in the ways it’s supposed to it has to be forced through apoptosis or something. So I guess time would be the answer.

Dr. John Poothullil: Yes, time is a component, but the intracellular environment made it difficult for the cell to survive without splitting. And my concept is acidity because the cell was using glucose to produce energy. And when the glucose is continuously producing produced one of the side products is lactic acid. So acidosis shifted the gene structure because the genes are connected by a hydrogen bond. So the acidosis breaks them apart.

And the way to survive was to divide. In other words, it was an internal signal that cost the cell division. Now, when you get a cut, you produce new cells, and you heal the wound that comes from an external signal to the stem cell. The cell that produces baby cells are called stem cells on the base of your skin, you have stem cells, that get Msh, from the cells that are missing their neighbors because of the curd, and it produces new cells until the need is met.

So healing and organ production is based on need, whereas cancer is based on internal signaling. And so the question is, what makes that possible? Is it the environment of the cell inside or outside? That is what each treatment plan needs to do here to assess any new treatment? We have to say, Okay, how does it work? Where does it work? That’s it. Which message? Is it going to stop? How will it contribute to the cells deciding, okay, I’m not supposed to divide?

Now, if we can have answers logical answers, then that is fine. I have no problem with whatever treatment, somebody is prescribing. But I don’t know specifically about the treatment that you are asking me about.

Steve Washuta: Well, just for the sake of having a little fun here, let me explain it from a layman’s perspective. So I think the thought process is, although these cancer cells typically some cancer cells, if obviously, all cancers are a little bit different, it’s just a, it’s a very generalized word, but kind of evades the normal signals going to the cell.

But most cancer cells because of that are divide faster. And because they’re dividing faster, that means you use more energy. And because you use more energy, that means you use more heat.

But although they’re using more heat, there’s still a level temperature, where they will have you know, a pop ptosis cell death will initiate. So let’s go ahead and say these cancer cells are already at, I’m just making up a temperature 101 degrees where your normal cells are at 98. If you can induce an uncoupling agent into the cell, I think they do this somehow, by kind of forcing protons through the mitochondrial matrix.

It’s basically like, if you look at the cell, like a house, and there’s a chimney in the house, you would cap the chimney off. So you’d heat the cell from the inside out, and that would cause the cells to die. But your normal cells are not working as fast, which means they’re not producing as much energy, which means they’re not producing as much heat, so they wouldn’t die. Does that make sense?

Dr. John Poothullil: Yes, and no, because how can the body direct the medicine or whatever you’re doing to the particular cancer cells and not to neurons, neurons are working very hard, they’re producing energy all the time. But blood cells each eat, there are 200 different types of cells in the body, they all don’t metabolize at the same weight muscle, which is acting, that produces much more energy faster at that time, compared to when it is at rest.

There are so many variables unless you can direct this attack to the specific cancer cell. And by the way, some cancer cell division is slower than normal cell division, some of the normal cells divide faster than some cancer cells. So all these have to be worked out. In theory, it sounds fine that he can produce more heat, and then make the environment uncomfortable.

But at the same time, just like in a car engine, the collagen makes a lot of heat, but you have a cooling system, there is a cooling system, water around each cell, the blood will take away it will not concentrate in that particular area to implement what you want it to do. Because of the heat doesn’t stay there, it will be dissipated almost immediately.

Steve Washuta: Well, that was a good answer. And that’s why you’re the physician, and I’m the personal trainer who just enjoys reading about this stuff. But Dr. John, this has been a fantastic wealth of information.

And again, I really push the readers to go ahead and get this book because there’s so much more that we did not discuss we just really touched on one portion of this. We didn’t touch on pandemics, or we didn’t really get into the cardiovascular disease and all the cancer stuff. So where’s the best place for the audience to find your book at And to locate any more information about you and what you do.

Dr. John Poothullil: First, let me just say something for the last 25 years, I’ve been trying to alert everyone how illogical the concept of insulin resistance is in causing type two diabetes. However, it has not worked. But when I see those I care about losing their limbs losing their organs and losing their life, I feel that I have to keep spreading the message. And I thank you for helping me.

My simple message is that if you are a type two diabetic, by changing your food choices, you can take control of your blood sugar, without having to use medications such as insulin, you are in charge, you have to take in charge, you have to take charge of your own body and have my website is Dr. John on health.com Dr. John on health.com One word. On my website, there are animation videos to explain my concept of type two diabetes and cancer. I do not sell any products or supplements or gadgets, strictly information.

Steve Washuta: Thank you for all of your work Dr. John in this area and your continued push towards you know spreading light on these things. I hope to maybe have you down the road again. I’m sure there’ll be another book in the future.

Dr. John Poothullil: I thank you for your interest. And again I thank the audience for your patience.

Steve Washuta: Thanks for joining us on the Trulyfit podcast. Please subscribe, rate, and review on your listening platform. Feel free to email us as we’d love to hear from you.

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Thanks again!

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