TRANSCRIPT FOR BEH PODCAST EPISODE 6

Dr. Miller:  I just want to talk about the different supplements we use in our basic protocol. We won’t talk about them all today; we’ll do a little talk on each one over the next few weeks.  This leads into one question, where somebody was asking about the AREDS formula.  AREDS is an acronym, it’s a term that refers to the program of supplements that ophthalmologists recommend and it stands for Age Related Eye Disease Study. 

For a number of reasons, I am not really fond of the AREDS formulas.  Almost the entire study was funded by the Bausch and Lomb company, who had bought a brand name vitamin called Ocuvite. Ocuvite came on the market in the 1960’s when there was some research, originally out of Israel that people with macular degeneration tended to be low in zinc.  The other kind of research found that giving some zinc supplementation to people with degenerative eye diseases, especially macular degeneration, seemed to be useful in slowing the progress of the disease. 

And so, Ocuvite was a so, so multivitamin with extra zinc. There was a lot of extra Zinc in Ocuvite.  Patient’s doctors would tell them what doctors tell people now: “there’s really nothing you can do, but here take these vitamins”.  Doctors would hand out samples of it and people would take the multivitamin very diligently.  There was almost 90 mg of Zinc in the Ocuvite back in the 60’s.  After many years of diligently taking the vitamin, their eye doctor had told them to take, people found out, that too much zinc gives you heart failure by damaging your heart.  This damage is mainly because zinc displaces Copper and Manganese and other critical elements.  So a lot of people started showing up in emergency rooms in the 70’s with heart failure, and they  traced it back to their years of taking Ocuvite. That’s why you don’t want to overdo the Zinc, or if you do overdo the Zinc, you need to make sure you’re taking extra Copper and Manganese.

Ocuvite was kind of the brand name for eye disease vitamins and Bausch and Lomb, when they bought the brand, wanted to be able to market it for eye disease, which meant they had to do some studies.  They finally funded this thing called the ARED Study, which a lot of people jokingly call the Ocuvite study. What’s interesting is one of the things about the formula they studied.  First of all, it had higher levels of a lot of vitamins than what most doctors were used to prescribing.  So it had amounts of vitamin E and vitamin C and Zinc and other things that were well over what the minimum daily requirement or the even the recommended daily allowance.  They were far beyond what the minimum was that’s usually recommended.  As a result, one of the things the ARED Study did is proved that larger doses of vitamins are safe because nobody got into trouble with the AREDS. 

The other thing that it did is showed that even a poorly designed, if taken regularly did slow the progression of the disease of macular degeneration.  That’s exactly what it sounds like, it slowed the progression.  Nobody got better, nobody’s deterioration stopped, but people didn’t get as bad as quickly. 

So, AREDS is a standard thing that’s recommended now.  I don’t like the AREDS because, in general, the ones on the market aren’t very good.  If you go back and actually read the ARED Study, what they used in the studies was a far superior product to what is actually marketed as AREDS vitamins. In other words, the stuff on the shelves that you go buy isn’t nearly as good as what they used in the study.  So, it’s hard to even compare results there because they were using a custom formulated thing for research and it’s not what ended up being put in the bottles that are on the shelf.  And I think you can do much better.

Having talked about the AREDS, I just want to say that the next thing we’ll talk about this week are the liquid multivitamins.  The reason we use a liquid multivitamin or the reason we recommend one, is that liquids are far better absorbed.  The protocol brand that we use is labeled as a liquid multivitamin and mineral supplement.  In truth, with any kind of vitamin mineral supplement, there are  generally very inadequate amounts of minerals, but when you mix vitamins and minerals in the same preparation, you tend to see the minerals get bound up to the fat soluble vitamins. These vitamins are, vitamin A, vitamin D, vitamin E and vitamin K.  You really get very little of the minerals out of something like that. 

Manufacturers do that because people like having a one product thing, everything together in one product whether it’s pills or liquid.  But there are some best practices that are recommended for manufactured vitamins and those practices say don’t mix vitamins and minerals in the same product.  There’s no harm in having the minerals there, but there is a separate mineral supplement we recommend and we’ll talk about that next week. 

Coming back to the vitamins we use, the brand in our protocol has worked well, both with eye disease and other things that I treat.  The amounts of things are not too high and the form of vitamin A that they use has some beta-keratin in there, but then the other vitamin A is in the form of vitamin A palmitate.  We’ll talk more on that a little later.

There’s been some research, and a lot of confusion, about the use of vitamin A for anybody with an eye disease, especially Stargardt Disease.  But a lot of that data is, I believe, misinterpreted, so we’re writing more about that.  There’s going to be some things that we’re going to put out in writing so you can read it because it’s a complex discussion.  However, I don’t recommend that people with Stargardt Disease or any other eye disease completely avoid vitamin A.  Some doctors get so radical that they say: “not only don’t take supplements with vitamin A, but don’t eat fruits and vegetables, and the thing that makes the vitamin A dangerous is light, so don’t go out in the light”.  So now you’re sitting eating potatoes in the dark and it’s not a good bit of advice for health.  There is work showing ways to go with this, but I do like the liquid multi-vitamins.  They have everything in them, in some cases more than what’s in the ARED Study.  I think they’re a far better absorbing product and higher quality.  That’s why we go with the protocol liquid multivitamins. It has your basic B vitamins. it’s got antioxidants and that’s the basic vitamin formula that we use.

TRANSCRIPT FOR EPISODE 7

Dr. Miller:  We are talking about DHA, which is part of the basic protocol.  The basic protocol is how we refer to the seven supplements that we recommend for everyone with an eye disease or everyone trying to prevent serious eye disease.  This protocol would also appropriate for anyone who has family members where you’re worried the genetic condition might eventually affect them. 

The DHA is one of the things in the protocol because in the Better Eye Health program it can help your eyes actually regenerate.  DHA is one of the supplements in this category, along with Lutein and the Taurine ].  These supplements are building blocks that are needed if you’re going to try to rebuild cells in the eye, brain or spinal cord.  Around 50% of the weight of the brain is fat and 50% of those fats are DHA.  DHA stands for Docosahexaenoic Acid.  You don’t need to know the chemical name, but Docosa is Greek for the number 22.  So DHA is a 22 carbon long fatty acid, with a substitution at the 3 position, which makes it an Omega-3 fatty acid.  It’s found mostly in fish, but the reason it’s found in fish is that fish are in a food chain that begin with algae.  Algae are the main source on the planet for these long chain Omega-3 fatty acids. 

The Omega-3 fatty acids found in plants, such as things found in borage oil. GLA and CLA are some of the other things with Omega-3 fatty acids that we talk about.  The Omega-3 fatty acids found in plants can be converted in the body to longer chain fatty acids, like EPA, which is a 20 carbon long fatty acid, or DHA which is a 22 carbon molecule.  Which are important, but it takes about 1,000 molecules of GLA to make one molecule of DHA.  The body can do it, but not very efficiently.  So, when you’re trying to regenerate cells in the brain or the eye, it’s a good idea to have enough of the raw material around, so your body isn’t trying to rebuild something, without the brick and mortar that it needs to get things done. 

If you go into the OrganicMD.com website and just search for DHA, there is a multi-page booklet that was put together years ago. It described all of the medical conditions that occur when you are deficient in DHA.  So, DHA is important, not just for the health of the brain, but for the skin, the gut, the organs, and the bones. DHA is a critical substance for the body and it is especially critical for the eyes. 

The product we use from the J.R.Carlson company is made from small fish from the North Sea and Northern Atlantic.  These fish are relatively clean still because small fish are lower on the food chain; they haven’t had a chance to concentrate the toxins and things that larger fish at the top of the food chain contain.  Also, smaller fish are richer in DHA.  A single pill of the Carlson product has the minimum 500 mg per day that we recommend for someone with eye disease.  There are other products on the market, but if you’re not taking the Carlson Super DHA product, you do want to make sure you’re getting at least 500 mg. of DHA per day.  For other products, you may need to take 2, 3 or even 4 pills a day to get that 500 mg, so just make sure you check that.

DHA is mainly incorporated into the membrane of the cell.  Healthy membranes are important, not just for the integrity of the cells, but for the functioning of the cells.  One of the things that happens if you don’t have enough of the proper raw materials, is that if the body’s trying to build a cell, it will insert the fatty acids it can find that will sort of fit, but that don’t really do the job.  The analogy that I like to use is that you’re trying to build a nice solid brick wall, but all you can find are pieces of 2x4 that are about the same size as bricks.  Since you need something to fill the holes in the wall, so you stick those pieces of 2x4 into the gap, and no surprise, you end up with a pretty poorly constructed and fragile wall that doesn’t last very long. 

Trans fatty acids can be even worse than just the wrong material.,  The reason you hear that you need to avoid them is that when trans fatty acids get incorporated into the cell membrane, it is a problem in the brain.  They completely disrupt the functioning of the membrane. They’re quite inflammatory, and the cells end up dying.  If you eat a lot of trans fats, you’ll have a lot of cells with these fats incorporated into their membranes, which means you will have a lot of cells that do not do their job well. 

Remember the cells in the brain are no different than any other cell in the body. Whether you have a degenerative disease or not, the cells in your brain are turning over, just like every other cell in your body.  Now, they are more complex cells. They don’t turn over every couple of weeks, but I promise you, you do not have a cell in your body older than 10 years old.  That’s bones, organs, brain, spinal cord, everywhere else.  And this is rather new information. This notion is not what I was taught in medical school. In medical school, I was taught that you get a certain number of brain cells. That’s what you have for the rest of your life, and if they die off you’re in trouble.  But it turns out, they do regenerate themselves. They do replace themselves, and they can be generated in the face of degenerative diseases, like these diseases of the eye.

So, that’s the story of DHA, and again, if you want to read more about it, go to organicmd.com. In the upper right there’s a search box. Search for “DHA”, and you’ll find that nice booklet that you can download as a PDF.

TRANSCRIPT FOR BEH PODCAST EPISODE 16

IS IT SAFE TO EAT FISH?

Dr. Miller:  Fish is a complex issue, because the oceans are so polluted which makes fish contaminated. They pick up a lot of heavy metals, and things like that.  The general rule is to eat fish lower down on the food chain.  Toxins in the environment and toxins in the ocean get concentrated as you get further up the food chain.  So large fish, such as swordfish, tuna or even dolphins and whales, are the most polluted animals in the ocean.  The same is true of animals on land.  Human beings carry a higher level of toxins than most other mammals on the earth because we’re at the top of our food chain. 

So if you’re going to eat fish, eat small fish.  They’re great nutrition; they have a lot of Omega-3 fatty acids in them, and that’s good.  I would eat wild caught fish from cleaner parts of the ocean, such as the Northern Pacific, Northern Atlantic smaller fish from those areas, and even some of the salmon is not too bad.  I would not eat fish every day, but I would not completely give up fish.  We’ll come back to this question of fish in later talks.  It’s a worthy conversation to come back to.  But for now, I would not tell you to never eat fish again, but do stick with wild, smaller caught fish from cleaner parts of the world.   Just to be clear, the fish oil that we use, Carlson, is from small fish.

TRANSCRIPT FOR BEH PODCAST EPISODE 18

IS LAB TESTING NEEDED WHEN YOU THE PROGRAM?

Participant: Another question I had, is there another kind of body scanning or testing that you would recommend that would help you to customize the program for the individuals?

Dr. Miller: Well that’s a good question. The answer is yes and no.  The reason I say yes is that there’s a lot of testing you can do.  The reason I say no is that, and this is especially true for someone like you, you’ve just been doing the program a little over three months, so you’re doing a lot of things now to take care of your health. You’re doing things with oriental medicine, through the acupressure, the color therapy, the exercises, the microcurrent stimulation, the supplements and being mindful of stress.  All these things can have a huge effect on your health beyond your eyes, just make you overall healthier. 

I would want to wait until you’d been doing the program a little longer, maybe six months, and then when we talk to see where things are at. Are there things in your health overall that you feel need more attention?  Then we can talk about testing that might help us figure out what else you need.  But right now, it would be a little premature, because it’s very likely that if we did testing we might find things that were off, but the things that we’d find that were off might correct themselves from all the things you’re already doing.  To really see what this program will do and what you need, we will wait six months and then talk about testing. 

There are some easy testing with urine that is used a lot in professional sports, just to look at your metabolism. That is a very easy test where we can simply send you a kit and you could do it.

TRANSCRIPT FOR BEH PODCAST EPISODE 27

WHEN TO WEAR SUNGLASSES IF YOU HAVE EYE ISSUES

Dr. Miller: Do you avoid sunlight entirely?  No, and the question of whether you should wear sunglasses or not.  The question of sunglasses is an interesting one.  The approach I take which is like that of Meir Schneider, that was where this question came from, is that we evolved on the earth under the sun.  And so, our body and our eyes are very well adapted to the sunlight.  We have some natural defenses to keep sunlight from being damaging to us—the pigments that form in our skin when we get tanned, those are protective and the same thing happens in our eyes.  There are increased pigments laid down in the eye, which in the case of macular degeneration is a great thing.  Without the stimulation of sunlight, that doesn’t happen.  I would not wear sunglasses every day, every minute your outside.  If it’s midday, bright sun, on water, snow, at altitude where the air is thinner or if it’s really blinding sunlight, then I would wear sunglasses. One of the ways you can tell usually, if you pay attention, if you’re in sunlight that’s actually that bright, is if it’s painful. Pain is something you always want to pay attention to.  If you’re in sunlight so bright that its painful, then you need sunglasses, but during morning, afternoon evening, sunrise and sunset, a lot of time it’s very good to be outside. Just follow the times that we recommend for sunning, that should give good exercise for the eyes.

TRANSCRIPT FOR BEH PODCAST EPISODE 25

WHEN DO YOU RENEW THE CARBON PADS?

Participant:  I just wanted to thank you for recommending that I get new pads for the actual eye micro-current.  That’s something I don’t think that many people know to order new ones about every year.  It did make a difference in some of the flashing I saw.

Dr. Miller: Thank you for bringing that up, we’re re-doing the manual.  The new manual which comes with the microcurrent unit is going to state that a little more clearly.  What she is talking about is the carbon rubber black pads that have the Velcro on them—the things that you put the wet piece of cotton on them and they go over your eyes.  That material, as you pass electricity through it, so it’s a pretty miraculous material—it’s rubber, it’s flexible, and yet it is able to conduct electricity.  What a great thing. But as you pass electricity through it, basically the material begins to become a resister, rather than a conductor.  And you can’t tell that by looking at it, you won’t know it just by working with the unit.  It’s going to feel the same and it’s going to look the same.  Basically the thing you need to do is you have to change those pads about every year.  There are ways that we can look at the pads with an instrument to decide how conductive they are.  And recommend that you change them, but it is important to change them about every year.  So, what were you noticing?

Participant: I was noticing that I had quit seeing any flashing and then once I switched to the new pads I got that again. 

Dr. Miller: You know one of the things, too, that happens is that the microcurrent machine, the MicroStim machine, is pretty remarkable in that one of the things that it’s trying to do is to maintain a constant current output, no matter what the resistance is in the circuit.  If you’re trying to push the current through pads that have become highly resistive, they don’t conduct very well.  It will up the output to maintain a constant output but eventually if those pads become too old, then the machine can’t even overcome that.  And so that’s why we do recommend keeping track of that. 

And so replace the pads every year whether you think you need to or not.  But certainly if you’ve been using them for a while and you’re starting to feel like the unit just doesn’t have the oomph that it used to have or that it, like she says, your used to see the flashing all the time and now you’re not seeing it.  Or you have to turn the unit all the way up before you feel anything at all.  That’s a sign that you probably need new pads.

And I just want to use this opportunity also, it wasn’t her question, but just to say that the weakest link in the equipment, the MicroStim equipment, is the wire.  So if suddenly the machine seems to stop working, 99 times out of 100 it’s going to be because the wires gone bad.  The wires are rather fragile, they go bad, but the reason we use that wire, is that wires that are more robust are also very, very stiff.  And so it’s nice to have a flexible wire.  And that’s why we give you an extra wire with the unit, we recommend you keep one around.

TRANSCRIPT FOR BEH PODCAST EPISODE 24

WHEN DO YOU NEED LARGER LUTEIN DOSES?

Dr. Miller: We recommend 40 to 80 mg of Lutein.  So when should you take 80 instead of 40?  One of the reasons I didn’t do it, is that the answer is a little complex with a couple of parts, but I’ll make it brief and succinct here.  The basic protocol, the reason we start everybody out on the same protocol, is that for many people that’s enough.  They get all the benefits they need. Their eyes and their vision start to improve.  There’s a woman Morganne was talking to yesterday, whose been in the program for not too long, close to a year now taking just the basic protocol.  She just got her Driver’s License back. She was really excited, and we’re trying to get her to come on the call, maybe just as a guest speaker, since she usually is working, and can’t be on the call.

So why add more if the basic protocol is all you need? The answer is that you don’t need any more.  That’s true of dosing too.  A 40 mg dose is kind of the minimum we recommend and that number comes from a huge body of work that was done with lutein.  Looking at the benefits of lutein in people with eye disease, all of the studies that showed benefit had people taking a minimum of 40 mg of daily high quality lutein, meaning the Floraglo lutein. 

If you’re not taking a product with Floraglo lutein in it, then you may need 80 mg of a cheaper lutein.  But we might change things if you’re doing the 40 mg of lutein, and you’ve been doing that for a couple of months, and you’re still having trouble with vision at night, glare is still a problem, or you’re having trouble adapting to normal room light when you come in from bright sun.  Some of these things would tell me that you may not be getting enough lutein., Then we would go to 60 or 80 mg, because you actually have symptoms of not having enough lutein despite taking the basic dose.

In general, if you keep having symptoms, we tell you to take more.  That’s where it becomes personalized. Once you’re into the program for a few months and we’re talking, that’s where you would tell me “I’m still having these problems” or “I’m not seeing the results I wanted”.  Then we would say let’s try larger doses of what you already have before adding anything else.

TRANSCRIPT FOR BEH PODCAST EPISODE 23

BEST WAY TO BREATHE WHEN DOING BEH EXERCISES

Dr. Miller: He was just saying that sometimes people talk about breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth.  Some people say breathe in through the nose and out through the nose only.  Even yoga teachers differ. We tend to say in through the nose and out through the mouth in our instructions.  Could you just give usa brief 30 second talk about these different breathing techniques and which one you think would be best for our exercises.

Participant: Well sometimes which variant is used is based on where the meditation technique is coming from and what tradition.  Sometimes, the variant is connected to how that affects the energies of the body.  I would say that more often than not, the instruction that we’ve used is in through the nose and out through the mouth.  In traditional Buddhist practice there is a connection with that breathing and how it affects the channels in the body from that particular approach to medicine, which looks at the body as a system of channels and energy centers.  That that type of breathing connects with that. 

I guess I don’t know of a better way to breathe than another.  They are just different approaches that come from different traditions.  I think of someone saying where you’re getting information that one is better than the other, has not been my sense, and that’s just been from practicing meditation for many years and studying with a lot of different approaches in teachers.  For myself, I’ve found that in through the nose and out through the mouth, there’s a way where that just regulates something in my energy that can help calm me down pretty easily.  And I would imagine that there’s research and data on that, but I apologize that I don’t have an exact answer of why that would be that way.

Dr. Miller: That’s good and I think we’re going to stick with in through the nose and out through the mouth.  I know there are some specialized meditation techniques which come from different traditions, but the important thing is to breathe.

TRANSCRIPT FOR BEH PODCAST EPISODE 22

WHAT YOU DO WHEN YOU DON'T SEE FLASHING

Dr. Miller: The next question is one regarding a father asking about his daughter.  The daughter is doing the therapies and she doesn’t see flashing when she does the color therapy, but the father and his wife tried the strap on their eyes and they see the flashing with the microstim treatment.  So they are wondering if that’s normal.

Before I answer that, let me first just say something briefly.  The intention of the microcurrent therapy is to attract stem cells to your eyes.  So if you just remember that, it’s attracting those cells that are going to help your eyes regenerate.  So microstim is important to do, but the question here is about whether you need to see the flashing.  You see the flashing if your eyes are healthy.  If your eyes are quite diseased, you may not see the flashing.  And when you start to see the flashing, you’ll know your eyes are getting better.  But, the most important thing and the answer to the question is to remember that the way that you would adjust the current output for the microcurrent unit has nothing to do with the flashing. 

We talk about the flashing because it happens.  We don’t want you to be frightened about it, we want you to understand that it’s a normal thing. However, you don’t adjust the current output based on the flashing.  You set the current based on what you feel.  With the strap on, you turn the unit up, until you first start to feel some tingling in your eyes, and then you back off until there’s no feeling at all. You should do the treatment at that level.  If during the treatment, you start to feel something again, you adjust the current a little lower.  The idea is that you want a sub-threshold treatment; you want to be treating your eyes with as much current as possible, without feeling anything.  That’s important. Resist the temptation to ignore the tingling. Sometimes you feel a little tingling and you think, “oh this helps me know I’m getting something”.  No, you want to feel nothing.  So make sure the unit isn’t turned all the way down.  If the only way you don’t feel anything is you’ve got the unit basically turned off, then let us know that you’re having that issue.  The flashing shouldn’t change how you adjust the machine. If the flashing is there, that’s fine. If it’s not there that’s also fine.  

TRANSCRIPT FOR BEH PODCAST EPISODE 14

CAN I DO ADDITIONAL MCS TREATMENT?

Dr. Miller: A participant also asked, “is it safe to do extra microcurrent stimulation a day?”  That’s a good question, is it safe or is a good idea to do microcurrent stimulation a day? 

The machine runs for five minute cycles. The recommendation is that you do four of those five minute cycles in the morning and four in the evening.  That’s more than some clinicians recommend, but that’s what we recommend in this program.  I occasionally might recommend doing more than those twenty minutes, but if you have a lot of extra time in your life, rather than just doing more and more microcurrent stimulation I would add in other things to support your health.  Do some yoga. Go for a walk. Do some stretching, meditation, or stress management. 

There are a lot of things that will benefit your health in general, but may not be a specific part of the program. So, if you have a lot of extra time I would be doing those things rather than just adding more microstim.  If you’re actually doing 40 minutes of microstim a day that’s enough, unless I tell you differently and nobody on this call today needs more than that.