Recently, Solidarity’s Chief Medical Officer joined The BS Show to discuss supplements and vitamins to improve your health as you age. Listen to the interview or read the transcript below.
Bob Sansevere (00:00):
We are joined by Dr. John Oertle, the co-founder and chief medical officer for Solidarity HealthShare at solidarityhealthshare.org. Now, doctor, fourth Tuesday of March, earlier this month was the awareness or diabetes alert day. And I mean, I was diagnosed a couple of years ago with type two pre-diabetic and I’ve been taking a lot of things to help with it, but you know more than anyone does that I know about what the best way to manage diabetes is. And I’m just going to say, take it from there because you know a lot about this.
Dr. John Oertle (00:39):
Well, thanks Bob. Yeah. I mean, before we used to think that once you were diagnosed with diabetes, this was kind of your lot in life and that this was just your disease that you had to struggle with. What’s really interesting is that recently there’s so much that can be done to be able to really make sure that our bodies are fine-tuned, that you can start reversing that diabetes pathology. And so one, catching it early is helpful. So when you’re pre-diabetic states, you can start to be able to do a lot of diabetic diet lifestyle modifications. But even to be able to make sure that you’re doing supplementation or maybe even doing peptide therapies, even in micro doses like your GLP-1s and microdoses, oftentimes this is actually starting to be able to create a reversal or starting to create a metabolic flexibility in that how the metabolism is happening within the body.
(01:31):
So when you’re looking at root causes, you can start to be able to evaluate how do you actually start to fine tune your body to start reversing diabetes that is currently going on?
Bob Sansevere (01:41):
Well, and you and I, we talked to my wife a couple of weeks ago and I mean, she’s got me on her little peptide regimen too, which is supposedly good for that. So hopefully it continues.
Dr. John Oertle (01:52):
You know what? We were talking about a couple weeks ago, a peptide that’s really helpful for chronic inflammation. What’s really interesting is that chronic inflammation can lead to what’s called insulin resistance. And this is what happens with diabetics or pre-diabetics is that your insulin doesn’t work the way that it needs to anymore.
Bob Sansevere (02:13):
Yes
Dr. John Oertle (02:13):
And so, that’s why insulin is what lowers glucose levels. And when it’s not you’re functioning as it should, you need more insulin to lower the same amount of glucose. And so what happens is, is that you have inflammation that’s happening throughout the body, and now inflammation is leading to that insulin not working well, which is leading to higher blood sugar levels. And you can also see this with even nutrient deficiencies. There’s a number of nutrients that actually impact the ability of the insulin to be able to work well. One of my favorites, and I know that this is something that we were just talking before the show that you’re on as well. Alpha-lipoic acid is an amazing molecule. This is a nutrient that actually, one, it helps glucose to be utilized by the cells so it lowers the blood sugar, but it also helps to protect the body to be able to make sure that the damaging of the damage that high glucose causes to the body, whether it’s in the vessels, the kidneys, the eyes, it helps to protect the tissue.
(03:16):
It’s a great strong antioxidant that’s incredible protectant for diabetes complications.
Bob Sansevere (03:22):
Well, and I want to get back to the peptides for a second because you had mentioned the chronic inflammation. My wife has rheumatoid arthritis, and since she started doing peptides, she’s not taking the prescribed medications because she doesn’t need to. And she feels great because she’s lost weight because they had her on a steroid or a corticosteroid. And it’s made a big difference for the last several months and how she feels and how she’s able to basically deal with the rheumatoid arthritis. It is at the moment, and hopefully it stays that way, it’s not an issue.
Dr. John Oertle (03:53):
It’s the power of making sure that you have the right medication or the right treatment with the right disease and the right process because that’s where, again, it’s beautiful. A lot of those rheumatoid arthritis medications, whether they’re long-term steroids or they’re medications, methotrexate or other rheumatological medications that suppress immunity, they can lead to other complications in the future. And so being able to treat it naturally, looking at root causes, removing root causes and supporting with natural therapies like peptides could actually be a great benefit. So I’m so glad to be able to connect with your wife and see that she’s in a complete remission state from rheumatoid arthritis and treating it naturally.
Bob Sansevere (04:32):
Yeah. And I wanted to also mention, because we talked off there about a product that I came across, and I take it every day, actually I take it morning and night. It’s called glucosil, G-L-U-C-O-C-I-L. You looked at the ingredients and it has ingredients that one would want to have in something to help with diabetes. The alpha-lipoic acid is in there. Berberine’s in there. It’s got three types of vitamin B, vitamin D, chromium insulin. Now, is insulina a form of insulin? It’s a leaf ciscycoides. I know I’m butchering that,
Dr. John Oertle (05:07):
But- It’s an herb. It’s an herb, and it helps to be able to support insulin levels within the body.
Bob Sansevere (05:12):
So
Dr. John Oertle (05:13):
Insulina is the name for it, but it’s an herb used to be able to help support your healthy glucose levels.
Bob Sansevere (05:18):
And the other thing, because I see this in a lot of different supplements and people talk about cinnamon, that happens to be in it too. How valuable is cinnamon for diabetics and also for other types of issues people have health issues?
Dr. John Oertle (05:30):
Cinnamon has been amazing. I’ve heard stories of some patients where they go on cinnamon in pretty high doses, especially the special type of cinnamon that’s your good quality cinnamon. And that cinnamon can be phenomenal because it actually helps to sensitize your insulin receptor sites to insulin, meaning that the very thing that that inability of insulin working well, it reverses that so that your body is receiving
Bob Sansevere (05:58):
Oh!
Dr. John Oertle (05:59):
The insulin again effectively. So cinnamon can be really powerful. But one of the concerns I have, if you don’t use cinnamon often or you’re like, “I’ve had it in my spice cabinet,” it may not be as potent because just like medications have expiration dates, the less fresh the herb is, even the spices in our spice cabinets. I don’t know if you’re like me, but I’ve got some of these spices that have been in there. They’re just a decoration now. It’s not actually, they’re not helpful because they’ve been dried-
Bob Sansevere (06:28):
No, you’re right. … been
Dr. John Oertle (06:29):
Used for so long, but get new source of cinnamon, get a good source of cinnamon to be able to actually help support yourself with the insulin resistance because it definitely works.
Bob Sansevere (06:40):
And the cinnamon that supposedly is the best or the good one is the ceylon cinnamon.
Dr. John Oertle (06:44):
The ceylon cinnamon. That’s correct. Ceylon cinnamon.
Bob Sansevere (06:46):
From what I understand. See, since I’ve known you, I’ve done more research than I ever did on things to find out what’s good for you. And you’ve given me a list of things like different types of minerals and different types of good vitamin type things to take.
Dr. John Oertle (07:02):
Well, Bob, it’s so important for our health. It’s so important for our health. And finding practitioners, functional medicine doctors or being able to run tests to be able to evaluate more of these root causes, that was one of the reasons when we started Solidarity HealthShare was to be able to make sure that we could have a system of an alternative to health insurance that actually looks at root causes and is able to evaluate and being able to have supportive doctors within our community all over the … And we’re in all 50 states right there in Minnesota. And so we are always partnering with good docs that have this kind of knowledge to be able to make sure that our members and our patients get that kind of support.
Bob Sansevere (07:44):
Every month or maybe more than that, you put out different essays or you put blogs out about different things. And in there, you mentioned that you have Solidarity Well, I think it’s called, but you have nutritionist people can talk to, which is terrific. So I mean, regardless, whatever your health issue is, I mean, there’s things we shouldn’t be eating. Processed foods is a good example of things that’s not great for our body. I got a friend who’s just diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and they have a nutritionist working with him and that’s one of the things to stay away from is processed foods and anything that would not be, I guess … Well, anything that you would need to whip up to put together, is it more natural, I think is bad for you.
Dr. John Oertle (08:26):
Sure, that’s a good recommendation, Bob. I support that wholeheartedly.
Bob Sansevere (08:30):
But the fact that you now have nutritionists is a great thing too to offer to people.
Dr. John Oertle (08:34):
Yeah. To be able to have nutritionists that we serve our members in all 50 states with diet and lifestyle coaching is a critical thing to be able to get you supported because it’s not even just controlling the glucose level. It’s controlling the glucose level, but it’s a matter of making sure that you’re actually having more energy, that you’re not having to go to a food coma after eating and you have better brain function, you stay healthy during the times of cold and flu season. It’s just a better quality of life when you’re able to actually take hold of your health and make sure that you’re making good choices for diet and lifestyle modifications.
Bob Sansevere (09:11):
Yep. And also-
Dr. John Oertle (09:12):
Bob, I was thinking about this real quick. I was also thinking though, one of the things that’s very unknown that I think is helpful for your listeners to be able to know too, is that some of these root causes of diabetes, it doesn’t have to just be that you’re having processed foods, but there’s also things in our toxins that actually can increase diabetes as well. And this is what many people don’t understand. There’s really good data on mercury that actually can lead to insulin resistance in diabetes. And the other one that I want to say too is Bisfenol A or BPA, that’s your plastics. And so your microplastics that are in our environments as well as-
Bob Sansevere (09:50):
So I don’t like drinking bottled water at my-
Dr. John Oertle (09:52):
Bottled water. Those microplastics can increase the likelihood of the insulin resistance as well for diabetics. So really important, that’s another dynamic. If you can avoid your mercury and avoid your plastics getting into the system, that can be really helpful. And then if you do have diabetes, you may want to go to see doctors that are able to actually evaluate those things to make sure that you can, if you do have them, that you can treat it to be able to make sure that your body is staying healthy and that it’s working for you, not against you.
Bob Sansevere (10:21):
Doctor, that’s great advice. And again, I wanted to mention SolidarityHealthShare, solidarityhealthshare.org. Check it out. A great alternative to traditional healthcare. And I’ve been a member of my family. I’ve been members for about a decade, and it’s worked for us. Matter of fact, the other day we used telehealth, your dial care, to have my son, he had a cough and they had recommended what he’s dealing with is probably viral. He didn’t want to hear that because he wanted some meds, but it is what it is. So you have a lot of good options there and it’s worth looking into. Doctor, thank you, Dr. Oertle, co-founder and chief medical officer for Solidarity HealthShare. We’ll take a quick break. The BS Show‘ll be right back.