Transcription
Hello everyone, it's MTor. Welcome to the Ozone000 channel where I have the honor of meeting Dr. Stéphane Résimont today, an ENT doctor focused on functional medicine. If you haven't subscribed to the channel yet, do it, give it a little like, a comment, and don't forget to activate the bell so you don't miss future interviews. Let's go. [music] Hello Stéphane. Hi David. We're having you on to talk about many subjects, and especially about you. Uh, can you tell us first what kind of boy you were, how you came to medicine one day, what your life path was like in your childhood?
Well, as a child, I was a very kind boy, not at all turbulent, who was very polite, who didn't insult people, but that changed quite a bit later. Yeah. So you played sports, how were you at school? At the age of 4, I was in judo and I did a lot of judo at a good level. Uh, well, when I was in judo, they even considered sending me abroad for a training course, and I preferred to go into medicine. In fact, I might have made a mistake, but at 16, I had the choice to either continue in sports or go to university, and I went to university. That's it.
Okay. Well, it's true that sometimes these things are not necessarily compatible, high-level sports and studies, but did you continue to do sports during your studies? Yes. Yes. Already, when I was 14 or 15, I used to go to England. So from Dinan, in the Ardennes, to Ostend, I would take the ferry, the boat that went to England, and then I would stay with a host family where I would spend 15 days to learn English. So I was already doing long bike rides at 14 or 15. Uh, I was already running quite a bit. So I've always done a lot of sports, and I've done quite a few combat sports other than judo. I did French boxing, English boxing, and then I did Brazilian jiu-jitsu. Yeah, very good. Street fighting, you know.
And well, how each time I got injured, after 2 years, I would stop because each time I got a bruise on my face, a broken nose, a twisted finger. So since I was operating a lot in microsurgery, it wasn't very comfortable for me to operate sometimes in the weeks that followed. So surgeons, their hands are worth gold, but then, what made you go into medicine, into medical studies? What were your influences, your events?
Ah well, uh, basically, when I finished school, when I got my baccalaureate, as they say in France, I wanted to be an astronaut. Then I realized it was a childhood dream that didn't make much sense, and so I told myself, "Hey, I'll do medical studies." So I first did a year of dentistry, and then, and then I had the choice, I switched to medicine afterwards, and then that's it. So I did my medical studies quite brilliantly. I wasn't bad at all, and since I was among the top of the class, I got great grades for practical internships in various departments, whether it was surgery, internal medicine, endocrinology, and well, I appeared before a selection jury to specialize. And normally, you choose a specialty and then you appear before a jury, there are 7 or 8 people who question you, they look at your internship grades, your results. Except that I was so undecided at the end of my studies that I appeared before three different juries. Oh really? Whereas normally you have no chance when you do that because you have to show that you are motivated to do it. And I was accepted in all three specialties, and I chose gynecology, plastic surgery, and ENT. And I chose ENT because it involves internal medicine, allergies, infectious diseases, quite a bit of surgery, everything related to the head and neck. And from there, you can branch out into plastic surgery, reconstructive surgery, oncology. And that's why I chose this specialty, it's very diverse. But so you did your studies. And did you have any funny anecdotes from your classes, your parties, that you can tell us about your student life? My student life is not very recommendable. Yes, but well, there you go. [laughter] But it went very, very well. So, I was the type to exercise every day, to go out every day, and to go out every day. Oh yeah, really. Yes. And during exam periods, I still managed to go out in a more moderate way. But I had a capacity to learn things quite well, and what was particular, what differentiated me from not everyone, but from many colleagues, from students, is that I learned medicine not in a vertical way, so basically cardio class, then gastro, then neuro. I was always very interested in making horizontal connections. And so what interested me most was knowing these horizontal connections, so a link between a neurological problem and a cardiac problem, between a digestive problem and a neurological problem. And then we'll get to it right away, we'll get to the gut-brain, brain-thyroid connection, which is very specific to functional medicine. And so, and so, if you want, I wasn't studying for my exams to pass them with the best grade, even though they were very good, but I was studying to understand the real underlying physiological mechanisms. Okay. And unfortunately, I saw many colleagues when we were preparing for exams, they were just studying to pass multiple-choice questions, and then a few days later, they had forgotten everything. And precisely, did you have any problems having this horizontal vision during your studies? Because it was a bit more complicated, but it was much more interesting for me. It's like someone comes because they have, I don't know, a colon problem or an intestinal problem or reflux, and you say, "Hey, is the problem really gastrointestinal, or does it come from a thyroid problem?" which is often the case, you know, reflux problems. It's often an underlying hypothyroidism, gastroparesis. Could the problem be a dysfunction of a vagus nerve that can have psychological links? That's what's interesting. And so you were already asking yourself the question during your studies, and frankly, with the dogma of traditional medicine, you must have opposed professors or in your answers or... But I always respected the law, the conventions. I would say, basically, how to put it? I was always well-regarded by the professors and so on because I did my job, even if I didn't think the same way on the side. Okay. So you told them everything they wanted to hear, but you knew very well that... Yes. So, basically, I was an orphan, you know, on weekends when I went home to the south of the Ardennes, but after the age of 9, I had a lot of trouble, and at 11, I thought for 3 seconds, I said, "What nonsense is all this?" I threw it all in the trash. So it's not because you do things that you agree with what you're made to do or what you're told. So you finished your studies brilliantly and then you went to Paris, to Shanghai, to do...
So I did a lot of things. Basically, I chose ENT, and then I was training in several hospitals, which were Erasme, Saint-Pierre, Brugmann, the big university hospitals in Brussels, affiliated with the ULB. And while I was working in head and neck oncology, in facial surgery, we were dismantling faces, heads, to reconstruct them. Things that sometimes lasted 10-15 hours. At the same time, I was doing acupuncture in Paris. Oh, really? Okay. And what led you to other alternative disciplines? Open-mindedness, that is to say, one day I was a medical student in my final year, and I saw a polytraumatized patient arriving at the emergency room, and the guy was in very bad health, in a bad state. And the anesthesiologist used acupuncture to sedate him and to facilitate the surgery. And I found that magical because he was turning the needles, and we saw the patient falling asleep. And I said to myself, "One day I'll do that." And then, I don't know why, I said, "Hey, I'm going to do acupuncture." I chose a school that wasn't just traditional Chinese medicine, not the passion of the scalpels, that's not our thing in the West. And then I did my studies, and then I did a thesis on acupuncture and facial pain, so everything related to head and neck pain. And at that time, the internet didn't exist, so what happened? I had to contact libraries all over the world, in China, in Japan, and then in the Nordic countries. It took me forever because I had to request articles, pay for them, wait for them to arrive by mail, and then read them. So now we go on the internet, we have everything in 10 minutes. GPT too. Yes, that's it. There isn't. And so, I did my thesis on everything related to the treatment and management of migraines and various pains with acupuncture, and it was very interesting because I compared at the time the different types of acupuncture: pure Chinese, reflexology, more modern acupuncture. Uh, well, it was really very interesting, with pretty much the same result. Yeah. And then, it's also a way to try to go into the more paranormal and to want to make the link between classical medicine and say, "Look, I'm also using a medicine that's not random because it's old and there's a lot of documentation, it's extensive training, but sometimes things that are not necessarily tangible but that work."
Well, I'll tell you a typical example. One day, post-op, there was a patient who had a mandibulectomy for tongue cancer, involving screwing in the mandible. We were left with a large part of his tongue, we did a flap to reconstruct it, well, it's major surgery, dismantling and reconstruction, with bilateral lymph node dissection, of course. And the guy developed trismus, he couldn't open his mouth anymore because his muscles were so tense. And then I asked my chief, one of my department heads, "Can I put some needles in?" "Yes, go ahead, don't worry." And I put the needles in, and an hour later, the patient was opening his mouth without any problem. It's incredible. It's incredible. Yeah, it's great. And so, you launched yourself into... well, you've been doing aesthetic medicine for 25 years. What's the funniest anecdote you have about famous patients you've had? Well, we won't name names, but I imagine you must have seen some. Oh, yes. Well, listen, there was a very famous singer from a very famous group. One day, she came for a consultation, she was in front of me, and I was taking her medical history. So, "How old are you?" I wrote down her name, the name didn't ring a bell. And then at one point, I said, "What do you do for a living?" She said, "Well, you know, I'm a singer." I looked at her. I said, "Oh really? What kind of music?" "Listen," and then she told me the style, and I said, "Oh really? Are you in a group?" "Yes, yes." "What's the group?" She told me the name. I said, "No way, I'm a huge fan of your group. I'm a huge fan!" [laughter] But I didn't recognize her. That was it.
So, another funny thing like that, one day I had a doctor from a very well-known football club in Belgium come with one of the players. And then, because there were ENT problems, and then afterwards I asked, "Hey, do you know this player?" "Well, listen, Stéphane, he's the most famous one currently in Belgium." Oh really? And he was from Argentina, playing here. It was very funny. Yeah. And you weren't into football at all? No, I don't like football. I don't like that stuff. Me, well, there you go, we're two, so it's good we agree on that. You've faced some media storms in all directions in recent years. Do you regret these events, or are you comfortable with everything that has happened? Well, I simply regret that the whole world was so stupid and accepted to be injected with a gene therapy vaccine that has already killed millions of people. So I was what's called a whistleblower. So from the start, myself and some colleagues, we raised alarms saying, "Attention, attention, attention," confirmed by top scientists specialized in RNA or other. And even a Nobel laureate, Montagnier, spoke out about what was happening. And well, now I'm very happy to see that this fight we waged, we were entirely right, everything we predicted has come true. So, basically, well, I just had a catastrophe in consultation earlier, a 14-year-old kid with colon cancer. I've never seen that in my life. And yet, I'm a cancer specialist. Well, vaccinated three times. Uh, I see catastrophes, massive cases in young people, 40, 41 years old, 41 years old last week, with no cardiovascular issues. Well, everything we predicted is proving to be true. But we were vilified, we were insulted, we were summoned by the order of physicians, some colleagues were suspended from their work, and in the end, we were right. But well, the problem is that the world wasn't ready to listen to us. Yeah. Time will perhaps prove you right. It's done, it's done. The publications are there. The proof is that I'm going to speak at a conference next week in Monastir, Tunisia. And it's a conference dedicated solely to the complications of the Covid vaccine. If we had organized that 2 years ago, it would have been forbidden. So now, oncologists, neurologists, cardiologists, immunologists are coming to talk about what they are publishing in their respective fields. And I've been asked to talk about neuro-complications of the vaccine because I'm very knowledgeable about... I know a lot about Alzheimer's, etc. So they're asking me to do this job. Yeah, yeah. But it's true that, in fact, it's also perhaps a source of pride not to have collaborated, to have already said... There were colleagues who were collaborators, you know, you have to know that, and I dare to say it because I worked in vaccination centers. Some doctors were earning between 8,000 and 30,000 euros per month for injecting something experimental, in phase... Yeah, that raises questions. It raises questions. I imagine that must also turn your deepest values upside down, let's say, as a...
So I'll continue on this because it's quite spectacular. I received a complaint 7 or 8 months ago, well, the order of physicians contacted me. There's a complaint filed against me by a French cardiologist from the Bordeaux region. And the guy files a complaint against me because I issued a false certificate of non-vaccination for a 12-year-old girl. And the story is that the mother contacted me, and I listened to her. My 12-year-old daughter, the father wants to vaccinate her. I don't. And the two grandparents of the daughter, on the maternal side, have had post-vaccine complications. One had a pulmonary embolism, and the other had a stroke in the days that followed. So there's something wrong with the vaccine in the family. And so, and so the mother recounts, she says, "Besides, you know, my daughter had a bad Covid 3 weeks ago, she's not fully recovered." And so I refused to vaccinate this girl because her grandparents had complications, and she herself was still recovering from Covid. You should know that in medicine, there's a big principle: you never vaccinate someone who has had the disease. If you get measles, you don't get vaccinated against measles. You get vaccinated against hepatitis, except for Covid. There, we vaccinated everyone who moved. And so I issued my certificate, that was 3 years ago, and the order of physicians is coming after me now. And the guy, they did an investigation on the cardiologist who filed the complaint, he opened a vaccination center near Bordeaux. So the guy made a fortune, a cardiologist, former head of department, and he dares to file a complaint against me because I withheld a victim. Yeah. We're withholding money. Yes, but he lost... 40 euros, perhaps, for not having vaccinated the girl. Yeah, it's... it's dramatic. And so, precisely, you mentioned the order of physicians, how many times have you been summoned? 34. 34. 34. Yeah. Okay. And they announced the 35th soon. [laughter] Soon 40, who knows. I wish you that, but well, there you go. And so, do you have a passage before the order of physicians that you can share with us that you totally turned around, either in a funny way or a totally depressing way, because I imagine that these appearances before the order of physicians must sometimes be... there's something crazy about it. During my last appearance, about a month and a half ago, I had three charges. I had to explain myself on these three things. And at one point, I... well, it's ridiculous, I don't even explain it, but at one point, I talked about the Covid vaccine, and then one of the colleagues present, who was questioning me, there were three department heads, by the way, said to me, "You know, between us, you're entirely right about the Covid vaccine, but we're not talking about that today." Hm hm. Ah, okay. Okay. So even the order of physicians, even though they prosecuted colleagues, prevented them from working, punished them, well, they now agree, and they admitted it to me. But I'll take the liberty of building on a question you asked because you said something interesting. It's basically, you never vaccinate except after having had the infection. What is the real risk of being vaccinated after having had the infection?
Well, in fact, for viruses that mutate a lot, if we vaccinate against coronavirus, which is a cold virus, Covid is a cold, but they really messed with this virus to make something that was very nasty at first. But personally, I'm more afraid of the flu than anything else. But I've had 11 Covid infections, the last one was a bit nasty a few weeks ago, the previous ones had no symptoms. And so, in fact, the risk when you vaccinate against a current or past variant of the virus is that all the immunity is directed against that variant. Hm hm. And the risk is that you have this reaction called ADE, which is a sensitization reaction to subsequent variants. So basically, the military being directed towards the virus that disappears after 3 or 4 months, well, the risk is that you get a much nastier Covid with the vaccine. That's what we're seeing. We're seeing very severe Covid cases in vaccinated people, much more severe than in unvaccinated people. And, and so there was Henri Code, who is an RNA specialist, who warned before the vaccine was on the market. She said, "Be careful, there's a risk like this with strong variation of having this type of reaction." She was entirely right. Yeah. And is this also valid for the flu vaccine? Because I've already heard stories about it, and I had one myself. He never had the flu vaccine, he gets it, and he dies the year of his flu vaccine from the flu. Someone very close, the two worst flu cases he had were the years he was vaccinated against the flu. I'm not anti-vaccine at all. I have all the existing vaccines, but those that don't kill more than the virus. And so, in fact, a very recent study from the United States, 3 weeks ago, shows that flu-vaccinated people get the flu more than others. Yeah, there you go. [laughter] It's a serious study. It's absurd. But I'm willing to bet that the vaccine really protects. It doesn't do more harm than the virus to the creature itself. In this matter of vaccination, especially mRNA vaccines, do you think we can find this mRNA vaccine in the genome?
Well, we often talk about reverse transcription. It's proven. It's proven. It's proven. There are several studies that have come out showing that in cell cultures, for one, and I don't know under what circumstances for the other two, in fact, we found the viral genome in the DNA in the chromosomes of human cells. In fact, the problem is that the DNA of chromosomes becomes RNA, and RNA codes for proteins, including the spike. And the problem is that humans don't have a problem, humans don't have a reverse transcriptase, we can't go back from RNA to DNA. But in our body, we have endogenous retroviruses, like retroviruses and others, which are there, they don't bother us, it's total symbiosis, and they possess reverse transcriptase. And so, unfortunately, it's the virus's fault, and if we get the RNA, well, we risk this RNA integrating into our DNA. So the human becomes modified. And so, and I'm very afraid for young people who reproduce, who have children, because if they have been vaccinated and they have this integration of the viral genome into our own genome, they will have children who are modified. They are no longer true humans. Humans, I won't say augmented, but perhaps they will have more problems because they will start to secrete this spike protein. And we know that as soon as you produce very high antibodies, we know that this process of very high antibodies against a very high protein precipitates, it causes amyloidosis, Alzheimer's, it causes cardiovascular problems, it messes up the whole body. We don't know where we're going. In fact, there's a brilliant book by Henri Code again, called "The Sorcerer's Apprentices." We played sorcerer's apprentices with this thing. Yeah. Especially if we consider epigenetics and the impact of our environment, whether it's food or other things, especially medications and vaccines, it's clear that saying a vaccine is harmless to our genome doesn't make sense. Since epigenetics says that every event we experience has an impact on our... Yeah, absolutely. Our physiology. So, and transgenerationally, we also often say that a woman who is pregnant with her baby is already pregnant with her grandchild. So there is a transgenerational effect, absolutely, and modifications of the mother's genome following pieces of chromosomes from the baby, the future baby. So our genome is really unstable, and to inject a viral genome into our own genome, what a bad idea. So I'm for gene therapy. We have patients in the terminal stages of cancer, they have no chance of finding a vaccine against this cancer, it's great, but we don't give a vaccine that kills to children, teenagers, adults who have no chance of dying from the virus. Hm hm. For example, I've had 11 Covid infections, I'm in great shape. It's not a problem. So, and I'll have 13, 14, 15, 16, like colds, I'll have one or two Covid infections each year. And where's the problem? Where's the problem? Let nature do its thing. It was, in my opinion, a bit too complicated to say, "Let's..." Yeah. I don't want to talk about natural selection, but it's true that generally, this vaccine, for me, as a patient at the time, I asked myself a lot of questions. I said, "Why would I be forced to take something that I don't want and that I don't feel at risk for?" And in fact, there was all this propaganda, let's say, of guilt, especially towards the loved ones of the most vulnerable people, saying, "If you don't get vaccinated, then in fact, you are dangerous to yourself and your loved ones." I find that very borderline as a campaign. Yes, I agree with vaccinating against a dangerous virus, but at a time when Covid kills less than the flu, why vaccinate the whole world with something experimental with no follow-up? So, we're going to change the subject and avoid continuing to talk about young children or adolescents dying from... from mRNA vaccines. You're 65 years old, you're very athletic, you run a lot. Well, or rather, you used to run a lot, but I stopped. Well, I still run a bit, but it's not my thing anymore. So I've changed. I still think I know that despite this athlete image, you have little dietary weaknesses. Can you tell us? I love chocolate, I stuff myself, so I ate a lot today. Milk chocolate, so not dark. So the bad chocolate. And you have a cheat meal, a real cheat meal. The cheat meal par excellence. I don't know, something where you say, "Here I crack." Yeah, it's chocolate. Yeah. Ah, it's chocolate. Chocolate. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Ice cream. Ice cream, sorbet. No major sugar addiction. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Well, as long as I burn it off, it doesn't matter, really. You know, the fuel for a car, there's no problem putting it in, but you have to drive it, otherwise it becomes a wreck. Exactly. So Stéphane, you often say that we can live in very good health without medication until 90 or 100 years old. You talk about four pillars of conventional medicine. Can you tell us more?
Well, the basis of the basis of the basis is to put the right fuel in a car and not diesel. So, diet, clear and simple. The current diet, even if it's organic and diversified, has inevitable deficiencies. Lots of micronutrient supplementation. Second pillar: third pillar is lifestyle, sleeping well, exercising, well, sports, physical activity, but expending physical energy every day. Now, of course, we're not lumberjacks or movers. Obviously, we don't have to exercise every day, obviously, but most jobs currently are non-physical. And the fourth thing is to correct age-related hormonal deficiencies. So someone who is, like me, 64, almost 65, well, I don't have the same hormones spontaneously as when I was 20. However, I want to live like I was 20. I don't want to have less libido, lose my muscles, get osteoporosis, get prostate cancer, or... We know, for example, that these are the kinds of things that are linked to different testosterone levels in older men. Uh, a woman of 50-60 years old, she just needs to have hormonal levels compatible with her age. It's not the same as at 25-30 years old. But if she doesn't want to get osteoporosis, lose her hair, grow a beard, lose her libido, and get blood cancer, she needs to have natural hormone levels at top levels. I believe you've written two books or you talk about all this? Yes, well, I co-wrote a big book on health where I talk a lot about all this. I give a lot of courses, either courses to train doctors or therapists in hormones, and that's it. Yes, absolutely. And what made you want to write these books? Were they projects like that? But I see so many patients over the years, so many patients. I really have over 80,000 patient files, I've gained a certain experience, and I want to share it. And that's why on social media, I publish almost daily clinical cases, like I did one earlier, because they are sometimes exceptional things that will teach my colleagues things they don't know, but also the general public, to show them that their condition, which they may have, and well, some people say, "Hey, I have fibromyalgia, it's incurable," but no, it's curable, fibromyalgia is curable. I say, "Well, listen, I don't know, I have osteoporosis problems that have just been detected, it's irreversible," well, no, we've re-calcified bones. So, you're really attacking this fatality of traditional medicine. They say, "Here, we'll give you a label, and we can't do anything except take the medication we've prescribed for this pathology, and that's it." Medication, I have nothing against medication, since I also practice allopathy, but medication that shouldn't be prescribed so often. I'm talking about PPIs, antacids, statins, cholesterol-lowering drugs, sleeping pills, which really have no business in a human body, absolutely none. Antidepressants that don't work. Yeah, we're not going to go back to the stories of... [laughter] but it's true that typically, typically this statin that is prescribed when there's hypercholesterolemia, it's the best example for me of this arrogance of not wanting to understand why it increases, and especially, why lower something that is reacting. Exactly. Absolutely. So the more you read about cholesterol, the more you realize that it really has a function, particularly for repair, an immune function, a neutralization function, whether it's LPS in the gut, etc., and that passes through bacterial autotoxemia and all that. So in fact, you say, "Why would I want to lower something that... I'm at 270-280 cholesterol, I especially don't want it to go down, and I have 13 LDL, I especially don't want it to go down. I'm fine like this, and it will probably make me live longer." Yeah, I'm... I'm at 273 total. Yeah, well, we're equivalent. We're similar, Stéphane. [laughter] Give me a statin, myalgias, which will give me heart problems, because we now know that we have more heart problems in hypercholesterolemic patients with or without statins. I don't see why I would go and ruin my kidneys with a statin, and I don't see why I would go and ruin my brain, because we know, and I know Alzheimer's well, that one of the causes of Alzheimer's is statins. Hm hm. So, in fact, you mentioned an interesting point, particularly about hormonal health, and especially prostate cancer. Yes. So, there's quite a bit of dissonance, particularly around testosterone, either in the occurrence of prostate cancer or in its treatment. Uh, can you tell us about it?
Well, it's very, very complicated. It's long, it's precise, it's... But well, I'll give you the main lines. If prostate cancer were to occur in our young people of 20-25 years old, they would have it, we don't see it. Except now it's starting at 18-20 years old. When it's prostate cancer, it's starting. I'm not saying what treatments they've had. Why? We understand. Uh, so, on the other hand, grandfathers like...
Normally, I shouldn't have any. Yet, it's all around me. I see it's raining. So, testosterone and studies show that indeed, even with hormonal supplementation of testosterone when it's lacking at 40, 45, 50 years old, there's no issue with the prostate. On the contrary, the cancer is much gentler, less aggressive.
Also, the problem is when prostate cancer is present. So, in short, should we cut off hormones with anti-testosterone treatments? Before the age of 40, they used to remove the testicles and throw them away. Now, we don't do that anymore. We have treatments that block the action of testosterone. And we even sometimes give estrogens to cut off testosterone in these men. And, luckily, instead of dying from prostate cancer, these men die from a heart attack or a stroke. We are just shifting the problem.
And behind this, there's a guy named Huggins who won the Nobel Prize in Medicine in the 50s or 60s because, out of 8 patients, he proved that by cutting off testosterone, prostate cancer metastases significantly decreased. So, we said, "Great, we'll cut off testosterone, we'll cure our patients." Except they don't get cured, and the metastases grow back later. It's simply a matter of receptor saturation, it's a bit complicated to explain, but the greatest urologists, including the Belgians who were at Saint-Luc, like the former head of Erasme, etc., now agree that testosterone can be given back in cases of prostate cancer to avoid complications from deficiency.
There's a lot of study, but it's evident that men whose testosterone was cut off develop a lot of neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's. So, there are many certainties in medicine that change over time.
However, too much estrogen in men causes prostate enlargement. And in men, it's not vitamin D deficiency, it's not vitamin D that causes it. So, perhaps we sometimes need to look beyond this "damn" testosterone, or rather this simple testosterone, in prostate cancer. I actually believe that a low level of estradiol with a high level of progesterone is protective for the prostate.
Moreover, we've seen that when we give aromatase inhibitors to a patient in clinics who has high estrogen levels, they develop less prostate cancer than without this anti-aromatase treatment.
So, this also highlights the importance of having a low body fat mass and engaging in physical activity.
Ah, where do estrogens come from in men, since they don't have ovaries? Well, it comes from their testosterone. And so, we can genetically have a predisposition to produce too much estrogen. But aromatase, the enzyme that transforms testosterone into estrogen, is found in fat. So, the more fat we have, the bigger our breasts, the bigger our prostates, and the more we develop prostate issues. So, in the end, it's about sports and diet.
So, when we talk about hormones, we'll talk about Pillar 1. You say that hormonal collapse begins as early as 30-35 years old. Indeed, in many men and women alike. What are the early signs of this?
It depends on the hormone. So, does it start for everyone at 30-35? In the courses we give, perimenopause starts at 35, and menopause starts at 30. That's when the testicles begin to decline.
So, should we treat? We should treat if there are clinical symptoms. Now, there are hormones like DHEA. Frankly, when it's low in someone who is 30, 35, 40 years old, I give it by default because it only does good.
Also, hormone replacement therapy depends on the patient's age. But no, for a patient who doesn't care about their well-being or health, they don't come for consultations for that. They don't care about being a bit overweight, about no longer having libido, about losing their hair, about losing muscle mass. I mean, we'll be less aggressive than with someone who is asking for it. So, it depends a bit on what the patient requests.
We also need to consider medical history. So, if I have a patient who tells me, "Listen, my mother had breast cancer, my aunt also, there's a family history," I'll be very vigilant about low progesterone. I'll also be very vigilant about the liver's detoxification of estrogens. So, I'll give, for example, broccoli to prevent them from becoming pro-carcinogenic metabolites. I'll also be much more vigilant than with a patient who has normal blood tests, or rather, normal morning urine tests, and normal vitamin D levels. So, I'll be even more vigilant; I might give more than to someone who doesn't have cancer. So, it's case by case.
Yes. So, it's contextualization, in a way. Not systematization or hypervigilance for everyone. But it's true that if, as a doctor, you can already work on known causes of pathologies that someone is likely to develop, it would be a shame not to do it.
And so, here I have a great case today, I'm thinking about it. It's a lady who comes to see me. A very small cancer, so of the breast. She had surgery, then everything went well, no chemo, but she had radiotherapy. And in fact, she comes today because she's starting to decline, she's over 50. She's starting to have hot flashes, gain weight, etc. And at one point, I talk about hormones, and she says, "Listen, I don't want hormones." I said, "You're wrong, because not having enough hormones might be one of the causes of your decline." But I don't insist. At least take progesterone; it really boosts your mood, makes you calmer, more relaxed, sleep better, etc. But I can do a treatment that I call hybrid: I give phytoestrogens and progesterone, and she accepts it. So, in short, there's a way to reach an agreement with the patient when they are being treated. So, in short, this patient who had breast cancer, I give her progesterone, and I have no qualms about doing so.
Because I tell her, if she gets a second breast, and a second breast might develop cancer, the other one would have been removed, everything would have been removed, so to have a third cancer. And then progesterone is very important to avoid that from happening again. Generally, we see... I'm asking you this question because it's true that testosterone, year after year, decade after decade, studies show a very significant drop in testosterone from decade to decade. And it's true that we can ask ourselves why this testosterone is decreasing in young people. Is it the environment? Is it exposure to chemicals? Pollution? Is it, I would say, dietary habits, the phone in our pocket? Do you have any insights to give us on this?
For me, the main cause is what we call endocrine disruptors, estrogen-like. So, in short, plastics. In short, they have effects similar to estrogens, but we can't measure it in the blood. So, we have a patient who experiences premenstrual breast pain, water retention, and we see normal estrogen levels. Well, we have to consider that they are polluted by this. We see a young adolescent, 17 or 18 years old, who already has large breasts, a large prostate, a feminine physique, and whose measured testosterone is much too low, with normal estrogen levels. Well, this guy is polluted by endocrine disruptors that we can't measure, which suppress his testosterone and increase estrogenic effects. And this is something I absolutely did not see 20-25 years ago. Now, I'm starting to see a lot of it. And indeed, a colleague, Thierry, wrote a great article 20-22 years ago on the effects of testosterone deficiency in those under 35. Well, he told me that now he would have to rewrite his article, he would do it for those under 18, because it has changed so much. I never prescribed DHEA until, I would say, 25-30 years old, 25 years old for someone under 40. Now, I prescribe it every day for young people who are 25-30 years old, even adolescents.
Our hormones are really highly disrupted by what we eat, breathe, and drink. Especially since you have, well, especially since you have all these years of experience, you are a bit of a barometer of different eras in terms of what you... You say something interesting: before, you never prescribed DHEA before the patient was 40, and today it's practically systematic because it's so low. So, is it stress? Yes, we can imagine adrenal fatigue related to stress, which lowers cortisol and DHEA. But there is really a problem with the blockage of hormone synthesis or having anti-hormones from food. And we can talk about bisphenols, PFAS, there are so many, so many.
And precisely, we talk about testosterone a lot in men, of course, but it's also important in women as in men. A woman who doesn't have good testosterone doesn't have libido. A man who doesn't have testosterone often still has libido. So, women are more impacted by testosterone deficiency than men.
Now, since women don't have testicles like everyone else... well, now it's starting... [laughter] Where does it come from? I didn't understand at first, but yes, you're right. Where does this testosterone come from? Well, it comes simply from... pardon, where does her testosterone come from? It comes from her DHEA. Simply. In men too, but it's a drop in the ocean compared to what we need for testosterone. And so, the source of testosterone, like DHEA, the source of testosterone in men is the testicles. Yes, of course.
Precisely, all this pollution, endocrine disruptors, how can we get rid of these nasty things, if I may say so? Unfortunately, endocrine disruptors are numerous. It can be the simple plastic that surrounds your steak that you buy at the store. There's a lot of plastic that will pass into the steak, and you, you take a plastic bottle, a plastic water bottle. Unfortunately, you have tens of thousands of plastic particles in the water you drink. So, it's really insidious. And can we remove them from the body? No way. Except to eat healthier, avoid consuming them so that they eliminate themselves a bit on their own.
However, there are persistent endocrine disruptors like PFAS, which are either large or small, and unfortunately, we have no way to remove them from the body. We have them in our bodies forever, for life.
So, it's even more crucial to avoid bad habits, whether in diet or even in the choice of water you drink. So, returning to glass bottles, for me, is still the first step that must be taken for hormonal health, and not only. But it's true that if we don't adopt these behaviors, we'll never be able to limit exposure to these disruptors.
No, now, bottled water, the problem is that we find soaps that were used for cleaning, which also have a toxic effect. So, now, I don't know what to tell my patients, what to drink, I don't know. Before, I used to have patients with selenium deficiency, so I would give them Brazil nuts, two or three a day, and then I would see them again with good levels. Now, I give them 10-12, and it doesn't go up. Brazil nuts are grown on soils outside Brazil that are poor in selenium. So, there's nothing left in them.
Natural progesterone vs. synthetic progestin, why is it a disaster? There's a world of difference, they have absolutely nothing in common. So, in fact, natural progesterone, which we find in, for example, Progestelle or First, which is a metabolite, causes no problem, protects against breast cancer, and significantly increases mood. Mood is this molecule that makes us calm, relaxed. Many women reaching 40-45 become stressed, irritable, sleep poorly, have trouble sleeping, and then take sleeping pills. And this natural progesterone also has a diuretic effect and an anti-androgenic effect.
Now, if we give synthetic progesterone, I won't name names, but there's the pill, which contains synthetic progesterone, and there are really catastrophic progestins for men and women, causing brain tumors, etc. Well, they don't have the mood-boosting effect, they don't have the anti-androgenic effect. So, that's why these women often have acne, hair loss. They have a catastrophic effect on libido, no more libido. They also have a catastrophic effect on bones, since natural progesterone blocks osteoclasts that destroy bone, while these do not have that effect. So, there are no positive effects, except that it's chemical, it's sold in pharmacies, and it makes money.
And precisely, you talk about GABA, I think it's a subject that you are passionate about and that particularly intrigues you, especially since I believe you've given lectures on this vision of neurotransmitters. Yes, yes, it's my pet peeve. Yes. In fact, I'm a former student of David Servan-Schreiber. David Servan-Schreiber was a French neuropsychiatrist who was a professor in the United States 35 years ago, and I took the first psychonutrition course with him. He was the one who initiated it, and he brought EMDR to Europe. A truly extraordinary guy. And it really impacted me at the time because, for example, in his courses, they showed that a good portion of hyperactive children simply had an iron deficiency. With iron, they became calmer, as dopamine increases, it's a co-activator of tyrosine, exactly, exactly, to transform tyrosine into dopamine.
At the time, he did a great study where he took hundreds of depressed patients treated with tricyclic antidepressants. This was before SSRIs. And then he noticed that by giving this antidepressant molecule, only 5 to 10 patients out of 100 improved a little, not cured. And so, he had the brilliant idea of giving high-dose omega-3s, fish oil, to his patients, and he saw that after a month, many were cured of depression. It was the first study on the relationship between micronutrition and depression.
Can you tell us in a nutshell what EMDR is? EMDR is a technique of hypnosis, but it's a particular one. In short, it's for people who have experienced trauma. Imagine a terrorist attack, with two people dying around you. We don't die, we feel guilty our whole lives for not dying with them. We've lost a child, we've been raped, or things like that. And so, there's a problem: mentally, the reptilian brain is traumatized. It says, "I'm scared, I'm scared, I'm scared, I'm guilty, I'm guilty, I can't take it anymore." On the other hand, the cortical brain, where intelligence resides, says, "Don't worry, it's not your fault about the attack. If they died, it's not your fault. It's the fault of the person who planted the bomb. If you were raped, it's not your fault, it won't happen again." And so, you lost a child, well, everyone dies in life, they died a little earlier.
Well, EMDR is a technique for reharmonizing the reptilian brain and the cortical brain. And I call it surgical psychiatry. When I personally benefited from it, it took one real EMDR session to resolve two problems.
And so, in fact, the first... but it's done in three or four sessions. First session, we get acquainted. Second, we test which EMDR simulation technique we prefer. And the third is the therapeutic one. And it's truly what is called surgical psychiatry. It's not psychotherapies that last for decades. It's really going in three or four times, and it's over.
So, you really recommend it? Oh yes, I send many people for EMDR. Yes. Many patients.
Well, that makes me want to have an EMDR session because I have a lot of... But you have to do it correctly. There are psychologists, psychiatrists who do EMDR in bulk, they even do 5, 10, 15 patients. I think that's not good because with EMDR, you have to choose the indication, and when the indication is chosen, it's done in two or three sessions, and it's over.
Let's go back to GABA. Are there any underestimated virtues of GABA? You mentioned sleep, indeed. Well, GABA is for people who are stressed, irritable, who can't relax, who sleep poorly, who wake up, who worry about what's wrong in life, who can't fall back asleep. And in fact, women are more affected than men, but men are also affected. And GABA also has an effect on pain. So, we know that when we don't have enough GABA, we feel a lot of pain, we feel pain quickly, and when we increase GABA, we feel less pain. And indeed, in the United States, GABA is used in high doses for fibromyalgia. But it has other effects too.
Now, of course, they've put patented molecules on the market, I won't name them, but if I did, pregabalin, for example, which has catastrophic side effects in every way. But again, because GABA has no patent, it's not expensive enough, there are no side effects, and so they invent a molecule to replace it, which we then prescribe in neurology and medicine.
Yes, as an athlete, I particularly favor magnesium, of course. And it's true that even a magnesium deficiency is an element that can lead to diabetes, for example. And so, it's interesting to say that GABA also plays a role in this metabolic stabilization, I would say.
Oh yes, absolutely. In fact, I had a conference, I don't remember where, 2 or 3 years ago with a colleague named Sonia Vigneron, who did her final thesis on GABA and type 1 diabetes. And in fact, her studies at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, and she's going to have a final thesis. I said, "Listen, take a more interesting subject, and I told her, go look into GABA and type 1 diabetes." But you should know that type 1 diabetes, which is an autoimmune diabetes, can be cured in some cases, not always, but it's worth it, by taking GABA, 4 to 5 grams per day, four to five times a day, at high doses. And it heals the alpha-glucagon cells of the pancreas, which can transform into insulin-producing beta cells. In fact, it's quite spectacular. There are quite a few studies, about 15 have come out on this. And I've treated three patients with type 1 diabetes in recent years who no longer need insulin.
Ah, that's unprecedented information because I didn't know that was possible. It's absolutely true, but it requires the patient to take 4 to 5 grams four to five times a day. I mean, it's not easy to cure type 1 diabetes. Some people say, "Listen, it's not going to work, I forget, what should I do?" Too bad for you, in a way. Well, it's always easy to say, but it's true that when there are solutions, it's a shame not to implement them.
So, it's still in the research stage, it's not an official treatment, but it works.
Let's talk now about your, in my opinion, favorite axis: the thyroid-gut axis. Well, I wouldn't say it's my favorite, but in '86, I was in training at the RL at the Hôtel-Dieu in Corsica, and my chief told me, "Here, I'll tell you, go write a paper on... there's a congress on..." So, I had two publications at the time on thyroiditis and thyroid nodules, how to manage them. And so, right at the beginning of my career, I was confronted with the thyroid, especially since I learned to operate on thyroids, thyroid cancers, nodules, etc. And finally, we went from a few percent of hypothyroid cases to over 90% currently. So, 9 out of 10 people are hypothyroid, and most of them don't know it.
So, in fact, every patient who comes in, we need to see if they are hypothyroid, because we are hypothyroid, we have too much cholesterol, we are tired, we gain weight, we are sensitive to cold, we are constipated, we have hair loss, dry skin, etc. So, we need to know that 50% of hypothyroid individuals are depressed, and 80% of depressed individuals are probably hypothyroid.
And also, the thyroid, thyroid T3, affects the mitochondria of the gonads, i.e., testicles, ovaries, or the mitochondria of the adrenal glands, steroid synthesis. So, without T3, hypothyroidism means less testosterone, less DHEA, less cortisol, less pregnenolone, less estrogen, less progesterone. So, everything is in hypofunction, in a way. So, we need to treat that first before thinking about the rest.
And you specifically said that for many, at least 80% of hypothyroidism, it's not necessarily a problem of hormone production, but also a problem of T4 to T3 conversion. Yes, that's it. The hypothyroidisms we had were due to a lack of synthesis of T4, conversion, in fact, which causes this problem. So, in short, for T4 to become T3, you need progesterone.
Forgetting [laughter]. Unfortunately, a woman who is 50 years old, perimenopause is not managed, she becomes hypothyroid. The woman gains 5 to 35 kg in a few years, in addition to losing her libido. You also need iron, zinc, B vitamins, selenium, you need to eat well, and so if even one of these things is missing, it creates a problem, and that's why it's tedious to find the causes. But now, the problem might be an old thyroid that's 40 years old and can't take it anymore. So, maybe we need to look at the thyroid.
And you mentioned nodules. We know that quite a few people have thyroid nodules. Does that have an impact on thyroid function? Yes. So, this afternoon, I have a lady who wanted a second opinion because an endocrinologist wanted to remove her thyroid, and I confirmed that it needed to be done. She had a huge nodule of 4 cm plus many small ones, so there wasn't much effective thyroid left. And the problem is that she was bothered when she swallowed by this nodule. And so, well, I confirmed that it needed to be removed because the problem is, if we do a biopsy, if we don't find cancer in it, unfortunately, we can miss the cancer. And I've had a few patients like that who wanted to be monitored without surgery, and then they still developed thyroid cancer.
So, in general, if you walk down the street and take 10 people, you, you, you, you, come here, we'll do an ultrasound of your thyroid, and 9 out of 10, 9 out of 10 will have thyroid nodules, but small ones, from a few millimeters to a maximum of one centimeter. We should leave them alone, we don't touch them. However, as soon as the nodule starts to grow, or is above one or two centimeters, 10 to 15% of them can already be cancerous or become cancerous.
And what do we monitor in functional biology or biological tests? We don't see anything about the nodule in blood tests. There's nothing visible. It's the ultrasound that shows it. So, we need to see a patient in front of this. We need to palpate the thyroid systematically, and the lymph nodes too, by the way.
Okay. Okay. But we don't see anything in blood tests.
And let's go back to the thyroid-intestine link. We know the importance of intestinal health in T4 to T3 conversion. Can you tell us a bit more about why? Because, well.
No, in fact, the thyroid sends T4 into the blood, essentially the active or slightly active hormone, and very little T3. And the T4 to T3 conversion is peripheral. It happens in the brain, in the liver, in the kidneys, in the intestine. And so, this conversion of T4 depends on several enzymes, including one called deiodinase, and we can have genetic variations, so it can be more or less effective. And what complicates things, it can be differently effective in the brain and peripherally, so you can be centrally hypothyroid and peripherally euthyroid, and vice versa.
Okay. And it's very, very complex, this story of deiodinase, and I never dare to use it, I don't use it in my treatments, I don't need it. Okay? Because I rely on the clinical presentation. And so, the problem is that the conversion of T4, which is measured in the blood, which can be very good for T3, is random, depends on many factors: pollution, molybdenum, selenium, this, that, and a lot.
Especially since, I believe, the half-life of T3 is much shorter than that of T4. Exactly. Absolutely. And the problem is that many doctors don't know this. Yet, they learned it at university. TSH, which is the hormone that stimulates the thyroid, and that varies every quarter of an hour, so it's unreliable. And it's T3 that should be measured, but above all, it's by asking the patient 25 to 30 questions that we know if they are hypothyroid or not. Okay?
So, as soon as you have a patient who says, "I'm sensitive to cold," they are hypothyroid. As soon as they tell you, "In the morning, I wake up with fluid retention in my face," they are hypothyroid. So, it's not a question of cumulative signs. There is a typical sign of hypothyroidism. But obviously, if the patient then presents 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 symptoms, then it's confirmed.
Simply being sensitive to cold is hypothyroidism by default.
Yes, because we know that it regulates thermogenesis in the body. And in fact, there are hypothyroid individuals who are not sensitive to cold.
Yes. Yes.
So, that's why it's also important to ask a lot of questions and to have this accumulation of non-specific, but still specific, signs, in a way. And you mentioned cofactors earlier. Well, the importance of zinc, iron, vitamin D, magnesium in this thyroid function. But why is it said that iodine doesn't work without a reserve of selenium? It's logical.
Well, in '48-'49, two colleagues named Wolf and Shick published an article saying that high doses of iodine were very dangerous. They said you absolutely shouldn't do it, it could kill people. And that's bullshit. It's called the Wolf-Chaikoff effect. So, in many cases, it slows down the thyroid. And in '60, Shick wrote saying, "Sorry, I made a mistake, forget my first article." But that first article is the reference, and at university, doctors are taught this, and because of that, the Wolf-Chaikoff effect.
And so, in fact, iodine can indeed oxidize the thyroid. In fact, the iodine that is incorporated into thyroid cells is oxidized iodine. And with too much iodine, we oxidize the thyroid a lot, it destroys itself. We often see an increase in anti-thyroid antibodies, and the thyroid feels unwell.
Okay. Well, to protect against this, you need selenium, because selenium prevents this thyroid oxidation. So, you can only give high doses of iodine if you have a selenium level, but you have to measure that in the blood. You can't know otherwise. And it's often not measured because I think it costs an extra 20 or 30 euros for the blood tests.
Again, we're talking about... I talked about vitamin D, and I think you're a big proponent of the vitamin D3-K2 association. So, can you explain to us why this association?
Well, I wrote a book about it 5 or 6 years ago, which was actually censored in late 2020, because I put "Vitamin D COVID" on the cover of the second edition, and it was censored. And in fact, we already had 25 studies by the end of 2020 showing that patients with severe COVID, who were intubated, had lower vitamin D levels than those who were healthy. So, there's an obvious link. And these are serious studies published in serious journals, but it's forbidden to say it because it could cast a shadow on future vaccines.
And what happens is that vitamin D acts on many things. You might think, until 20-30 years ago, that it only served to build bones and prevent rickets. Well, we gradually realized in the 90s that it significantly reduced the risk of autoimmune diseases like Hashimoto's, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis. And then in the 2000s, we started to see the effects on cancer. And in general, a functional blood level of vitamin D protects against cancers by 30% to 80% less for all cancers.
It's enormous, in fact. It's enormous, especially for colon, breast, and prostate cancer. And so, we say, "Okay, I'll take megadoses of vitamin D." No, it doesn't work like that. With too large doses, we can calcify arteries, cause atherosclerosis, form stones in the gallbladder, and kidney stones. And so, it's essential that vitamin D is accompanied by vitamin K2, which, in fact, directs calcium where it should go and not where it shouldn't, i.e., into tissues. So, you should always take vitamin D and K2, never take vitamin D alone in adults.
And precisely, we talked about it earlier, but there's a very important element, precisely because vitamin D3-K2 is great, but there's an element it's highly dependent on for its hydroxylation, which we don't talk about enough: it's magnesium.
Absolutely. Yes, yes. So, there's a whole enzymatic chain of transformation from cholesterol to vitamin D, and magnesium is very important. And it's also true for the functioning of vitamin D; vitamin A also needs to be good. So, vitamin D is good, but you need to consider its entire environment.
That's it, because taking vitamin D isn't everything. There are really a whole lot of other things to do, because, and indeed, some people take vitamin D, and it doesn't increase their levels.
Because there are many obstacles to its conversion. In the end, it's often the 25 OHD3 that is dosed, whereas in fact the active form is the 125. Yes. And so, there is always this slightly blurred vision. Well, blurred, I don't even know how to say it. Yes, okay. But the problem, I tell myself, okay, this is becoming a detail. Not a detail, it's important, but at least the therapist, the doctor, doses vitamin D, at least the 25 OH, and that's already quite a lot. And then, on the side, they see if the patient doesn't have signs of magnesium deficiency, they increase the magnesium until there are no more symptoms. So, that's good medicine. It's clear. And if they are smart, they would know that magnesium is not measurable in the blood. And besides, we, well, I, in any case, don't really see any protocol for a daily dosage because it's true that it's good to increase D3, but also how can we stabilize the level in reality to have intelligent daily supplementation? Do you have any information on a dosage per kilo to stabilize it? So, at least for kids, I say units per 10 kg is good. So, for a 40 kg child, 44 units is not bad. Now, for infants, you have to give more. We generally give 2000 units of vitamin D to even very young babies. Now, the problem is that for an adult patient, well, like vitamin D, it will hide in the fat. For someone who weighs 120 kg, who is all muscle, it's not the same dosage, they don't need as much as someone who weighs 120 kg with 40 kg of fat. And that's why obese people die much more from many things, cancer, COVID, and others, because they no longer have vitamin in their blood, it's in the fat. And so, I still had a lady last week who weighed 145 kg, and I had to give her 45,000 units of vitamin D per day. Oh wow! Oh wow! To get blood levels that start to be appreciable. Normally, we give 8 to 12,000 units to an adult. Hmm. You talked earlier about omega-3s. Hmm. What can you tell us about the omega-6 to omega-3 ratio? Because it's true that generally we tend to emphasize omega-3s, and it's true, they are protective because they have an anti-inflammatory role. There is also the importance of omega-6s, which have a pro-inflammatory role but are necessary. Yes. Can you tell us exactly what balance this is? Well, it's a bit complex. That is to say, omega-3s are fatty acid molecules that are polyunsaturated, flexible, and basically, they allow cells to be flexible and to let cellular receptors pass through. So, basically, to have a hormone in the blood like testosterone, it's good to have it, and if the receptor is blocked, it's as if there's no testosterone. So, cellular signaling depends on membrane flexibility. Same thing at the neuronal level, having good serotonin is good, but if there are no omega-3s, you get depressed, and that's what David Schreber discovered unknowingly 35 years ago. So, omega-3s are flexible, anti-inflammatory molecules found in fatty fish, in omega oils that contain omega-3s, so very little in olive oil, more in rapeseed oil, which are precursors. Exactly. Yes. And also omega-3s have an anti-inflammatory effect, so we feel less pain when they are low. And current diet means we eat a lot more omega-6s, which can be saturated or unsaturated. There are two types. And finally, the omega-3 to omega-6 ratio can be from 1 to 10, or even 15, or even 20. We should ideally be at 1 to 3, and current diet means we eat a lot of saturated industrial omega-6s or industrial fats, and ultimately this ratio is very unfavorable to health: cellular deficiency, inflammation, and brain dysfunction, dysfunction of all the body's receptors. Yes, because it's true that we often, well, we often do a lipid profile: total cholesterol, HDL, etc., but it's rare, in medicine at least, in traditional medicine, to do a red blood cell fatty acid profile, which is very important, something extremely interesting in diet and especially in inflammation. So, this afternoon, I have a spectacular case. [Laughter] It's a patient who had a bypass, whom I've been following functionally for several years. He had a coronary bypass a few months ago, and his cholesterol is at 175. Perfect. His LDL cholesterol is at 113. Perfect, and his cardiologist absolutely wants to put him on statins. He wants to, and he's not stupid, the patient, he went and read, he informed himself. He has another cardiologist who is very good, a functional cardiologist, who unfortunately just retired, and he tells him, "Absolutely don't take that, don't take it." He asked me the question earlier, and I said, "Did your doctor, your..." I put both cardiologists in copy of my letter, and so I said, "Did he order a panel of other cardiovascular risk factors?" Think about what? Omega-3s? Not at all. I would have asked about fatty fish, omega-3s. I would have asked about apolipoprotein A. Did he ask about risk factors like sedentary lifestyle? There are multiple risk factors, and many doctors are fixated on this cholesterol issue. And besides, I gave a conference a few months ago on cholesterol, and the title was "Cholesterol: Lower is Best." Is it that the lower the better? Because some cardiologists say that. It's completely false. I think there are observational studies that show that the higher the testosterone level, the longer you live. You're talking about testosterone, not cholesterol. Yes, exactly. Cholesterol, which is the bad one, well, the lower it is, the less dangerous it is. And they consider it the bad one. It's incredible. Yes, it's incredible. And so, this patient, I explained about omega-3s and all that we've just discussed, and he was convinced. He said, "Okay, I don't want this statin, period." Yes, and what's more, well, I'm coming back to this with testosterone and cholesterol, we know that cholesterol is of paramount importance precisely in this conversion and in the production of testosterone. And so, what do you have to say about this diet now, which is quite pro-sugar for children, adolescents, young adults, whereas in the past we ate much more fat? In the end, fats are very important. What do you have to say about that? Well, I always say eat a heavy, fatty, and protein-rich breakfast. That's it. And don't eat sugary junk that will raise your insulin, that will do nothing for your brain, that will mess up your neurotransmitters, that will give you diabetes later. Well, it's obvious in the morning. So, now, is it good for lunch too? Yes. Is it good for dinner too? I don't recommend it too much in the evening because there are problems with nocturnal hypothyroidism, there are also problems with excess cerebral catecholamines that will prevent you from sleeping. And people eat in reverse, they eat nothing in the morning, they eat everything in the evening. Yes. And we also know the importance of the liver in this conversion of T4 to T3, and imposing a meal that is very difficult to digest just before going to sleep. It's true that it also, you were talking earlier about cholesterol providing steroids, but it also provides coenzyme Q10, which is vital for life. Q10 drops in almost everyone from 30-35 years old, which leads to more cancer when it's low, which causes oxidation. It's what allows us to burn fat, also in mitochondria when we have a strong physique, and the deficiency of Q10 is the primary cause of heart transplant rejection when it's low. And when we look at medications, especially statins, which block the mevalonate pathway, which itself produces coenzyme Q10 and vitamin D, well, we question it. And besides, Q10 deficiency is a cause of sarcopenia, muscle loss, and also a lack of B3. I'm going to look for it, I'm going to administer it intravenously. Let's talk about the vagus nerve and chronic stress management because, well, it impacts many things, especially hormonal aspects, vitality, and even immunity. Can you tell us a few words about that? Yes. The vagus nerve is not a vague nerve at all; it's very precise because it goes from all the organs to the brain. Let's be clear about that. Whether it's the esophagus, the stomach, the intestines, everything is impacted by the vagus nerve. And the vagus nerve is the parasympathetic. It's a bit the opposite of the sympathetic. Sympathetic: I'm angry, stressed, very dynamic. Vagus: calm, relaxed, not getting angry. And we have a two-way circulation in the vagus nerve. The brain gives information to the viscera, but the viscera also give information to the brain. This is how we can have a vasovagal syncope, for example. We're scared, we faint, and the vagus nerve specifically regulates gastric acid secretion, it also regulates the speed of intestinal contraction, it also regulates the heart rate and breathing. And so, this is how we can somewhat regulate the vagus nerve by using techniques like heart rate variability. So, basically, breathing can make this vagus nerve more effective. We can even stimulate it with electrical stimulation devices to improve its function in the viscera. So, there is really a whole medicine that is opening up based on this vagus nerve, and, and, and that's it. So, it's true that it can be deregulated, malfunction for many reasons, stress, etc. It also regulates hormonal secretions at the adrenal level. It also has an impact on that. Well, it's really a nerve that deserves, well, that we pay attention to. Yes. Especially since it's a nerve that is very, very sensitive, particularly to cold infections like EBV, and when we know that EBV affects 90% of the population, it can already be a good treatment avenue for people who are chronically fatigued and who, well, now we also know that many gut-brain axis messengers travel along the vagus nerve to the brain. And to the point that now, when we study the microbiome, we have signatures that indicate that this patient, with such a microbiome, will develop Parkinson's later, will develop Alzheimer's, and the message passes from the intestine to the brain via the vagus nerve, in fact, it's bidirectional. Yes. No, well, listen, I love talking with you because I learn a lot of things. I wasn't aware of that. And so, neuroinflammation, when we have intestinal inflammation, well, neuroinflammation can occur via the vagus nerve, also via the bloodstream, because there are toxins that EBV can pass into the brain. You told me you weren't great at working on some things. [Laughter] So, strong stance. Burnout doesn't exist. It's a mitochondrial problem. Yes. Well, I don't know if I have patients who come in with burnout, it's clear, the problem is that it's very, very poorly managed. So, we'll give them sick leave, sometimes it's necessary to remove oneself from stressful elements. But the problem is that it's often managed psychiatrically. So, basically, we say, "Oh dear, you're stressed, aren't you?" Here's a little anxiolytic, a little benzodiazepine, a little sleeping pill, a little antidepressant, and three or four years later, the patient is still in burnout. There really needs to be a global approach, not just on one aspect, but global. And it's work that requires knowledge in nutrition, in micronutrition, but also in endocrinology. You have to learn to regulate the adrenal hormones, which are pregnenolone, cortisol, DHEA, and it's a whole process because we know that if we have cortisol, we need DHEA. And if we give DHEA to a woman, if it's a woman, we also need to regulate her estrogen and her progesterone. So, in fact, you really need to be an endocrinologist to properly manage burnout. Yes. Especially since, well, the mitochondrial problem, we'll come back to the subject of pregnenolone. Yes. But it's true that the conversion of cholesterol to pregnenolone, which is the mother hormone, literally depends on mitochondrial health, and it's true that, well, in burnout, we tend to talk about psycho-emotional aspects, whereas there is really a cause. I'm not saying that the psycho-emotional aspect doesn't play a role. It's clear that if we learn to manage our stress better, to cope with problems, it will do a lot of good, but it's not enough for someone in burnout. Even I, I'm very fond of adaptogenic plants like ashwagandha, rhodiola; they will help the adrenals to function better, but they will never cure burnout. Stéphane. Yes. What advice do you give to each of your patients? To move. To move. That's the first advice I give. Someone who is static, who does nothing, who doesn't exert themselves physically, will be unwell. And I have, so I've been telling this story for a few weeks. I have a psychiatrist colleague who I pulled out of burnout in a few days, and when I talked to her during a recent check-up about being more active, she told me, "Listen, I'll stop you. My psychiatric patients, when they come, when I manage to get them back into activity, into movement, they are 80% better." So, physical activity is the best medicine. And then the second piece of advice is to eat well. Yes. So, this importance of sport, you don't need to tell me that because I know it, but it's not even sport, it's moving. Walking briskly for half an hour a day, sweating, is great. Now, going to the gym, cycling, it can be anything, but you have to move. No, no, I completely agree. And the last question, to conclude our super great interview, is there a person you would like to highlight in your vision of medicine, in your philosophy? Is there a person who has truly inspired and positively impacted you? Well, there isn't just one, there are five or six. They are people I trained with. Well, his name is Castronovo, his name is Georges Mouton, his name is Philippe Ard defois, his name is Thierry Tog. Well, these are people who have strongly impacted me. I learned a lot from them, and even if there are disagreements between some of them, I must say, they remain people who taught me a lot and whom I respect. Okay, great. Thank you, thank you Stéphane for coming. Thank you all for following this incredible interview with Dr. Stéphane Résimond. It was truly a pleasure to meet him and to hear what he had to say. Don't hesitate to activate the bell so you don't miss any future interviews. Leave a comment and a like because it gives us the strength to continue creating this type of content. See you soon, it was Mtor. Alright, bye! [Music]