YouTube Livestream Q&A Transcript, March 18, 2025 — Tustin Longevity Center

Yes, I would say yes. I have been long before all these YouTubes out on the low carb, long before these doctors talking about food allergies, Sally Norton, doctor… oh, what is his name? The names are going out of my mouth. Maybe God doesn’t want me to name names. But all these doctors talking about the low carb diet, the carnivore diet, how to get rid of diabetes type 2 with a keto carnivore diet, we’ve been doing this for decades. I mean, since the 1990s. So, yes, I have been for the carnivore diet. I’m not 100 percent carnivore myself. I am, let’s say, 90 percent carnivore, and then the rest is vegetables for myself. So, I’m a ketovore. I guess that’s a new term for those of us who eat mostly meat but do have some vegetables, so we call ourselves ketovores. So, yeah, I’m a proponent of it.

“What diet do you suggest?” – Well, our muscle volume mass, our mass of muscles is largely determined by how you can burn your sugars, how you can burn down carbohydrates. And all the studies on anti-aging, the myosins from the trauma of the micro-contractures that were producing these little waste products are signals for growth hormone and repair, anti-aging, anti-cancer, and antidepressive. I mean, the signaling of the breakdown of these muscle tissues with regular arithmetic weight training is remarkable, and the science is now being repeated, replicated very nicely, and it’s very convincing. So, yeah, I think you should do this all your life. The older you get, the more you should become a pure carnivore. 

Now, if you’re a blood type A, you’re going to have to start your higher protein diet, taking digestive enzymes to help you hydrolyze or digest the protein strings into amino acids and your fats into fatty acids. A type of blood doesn’t have this as well. If they would just take a digestive enzyme with every meal they eat, they will see a tremendous long-term benefit and resiliency. And superior health. 

“What ratio of protein/fat/carbs?” – I would say that’s more on a personal basis and age-appropriate. So, of course, for children who are rapidly growing, their needs for protein and fat are tremendous. Unfortunately, our American Dietetic Association, our corrupt government, and CDC, FDA, and HHS have all destroyed the health of America by having the school lunch, the hospital, the military programs, the nursing assistants, and senior centers, all of them have these lousy processed food carbs, and yet we need to be made of protein and fat. So, if you were to say, what do I think is a good ratio, I would say, your diet should largely be fat, then second most protein, and then thirdly, carbohydrates that are real naturally occurring carbohydrates, and no processed food, nothing processed. So, there’s zero percentage for potato chips or cereals or anything that goes through processing. So, if you gave it a percentage and you held me down to that, I would say 60 percent fat, maybe 30 percent protein, and then I would say 10 percent complex carbohydrates. That’s how I would do it.

Question

“I have a total cholesterol of 245. My doctor is trying to push me to take statins. I don’t want to take them due to the many side effects that others have experienced. How do I find a doctor that won’t push statins?”  [0:25:28]

Answer

Pray. You should be praying. You should call (202) 224-3121. This is to the Switchboard Act at the Capitol in Washington, DC. The operator will say, Capitol Switchboard, how can I help you? And you say, give me to the HHS secretary, which is John F. Kennedy Jr. Or give me the name of your congressman or the name of your senator or the FBI or the director of the CIA, whoever you want to talk to, and then you’ll usually get a phone message and you leave your concern there. And if you’re concerned about the healthcare system and it being bought off and controlled by an oligarchy of business and company people in pharmaceuticals and in the insurance companies, this kind of corruption, let them know your feelings on that and get government out and grants out of these schools. Have local fundraising for any college, any university, any medical school, or any hospital. We did it before. All these places were raised by missionaries. The vast majority of the universities in England Europe and the United States were all Christian-based, raised by the heartfelt service ministry of the people that lived in the area, and it served them very well. So, you have local control and accountability, and then tell them what you think, that you want doctors who are not caught up in trying to serve an insurance master and a board master. If a doctor harms you, you take them to court, and if they have been found in a court review and system of peer review, a jury of their peers, then they should pay for it. We don’t need these boards. We need local accountability. No matter systems. Okay. Local control.

Question

“Hi, Dr. Rita. Recently, you said you had a root canal tooth removed. I have never had a root canal because of the toxins, et cetera. Recently, I saw an integrative endodontist who attempted regenerative endodontics (ozone wash among other things.) They advised that if that didn’t work out, they would do a “special” root canal with a sealer. Your thoughts?”  [0:28:04]

Answer

And I agree, but you know, life happens. And in the midst of me being a doctor with children and marriage and patients and responsibilities, and waking up with a terrible sore throat and employees to pay and doctors’ salaries to pay and rental and the supplies and the IVs and the rental of the space and nursing salary and all these medical assistance, I didn’t have the luxury. I was in pain. I went, and they said, we could make you feel better if you let us take care of this right now, and I succumb to it. So, prevention is the best, best way. But you know, I am really disappointed, I have really not had doctors that told me anything about preventive dentistry, but the only reason why I knew about it is I went through the doctorate of integrative medicine from 1999 to 2000 for two years at, Capitol University of Integrative Medicine. It’s now closed, but it ran from roughly 1996 to 2010, something like that. Anyway, in that period of time, we had the dental mercury, root canal, and all these wonderful teachings of how horrible it was. So, I felt really bad that I had that one tooth, and then eventually it bit me in the butt, and I had to have it pulled out. There you go. 

“Recently, I saw an integrative endodontist who attempted regenerative endodontics, and ozone wash, among other things. “They advised that if that didn’t work out, they would do a “special” root canal with a sealer. Your thoughts?” – Well, I have ozone therapy and, you know, here I’m trying to encourage you and motivate all of you to do the right thing. I need to get my own body motivated to walk 150 feet over there to get my own IV or ozone treatment for my own teeth. Fortunately, I got my IV and my high-dose vitamin C. I didn’t get the ozone. I should get the ozone. So, yes, I’m in favor of it. And yes, that knowledge and research has been available for a long time. So, I would do that. I’m going to give it a try. I think that’s reasonable. Go for it. 

Question

“I have had a bulging hernia above my belly button for 5 years or so. I have been keeping it at bay by using gut-healing herbs, probiotics, and bone, eliminating sugars, and flours, and I am careful at Pilates, careful when I’m exercising and doing weightlifting outside of surgery. Is there anything you might suggest to keep or heal the hernia?”  [0:30:34]

Answer

The answer is no. Once the tissue is broken down like that, and you’re left with the own healing of the other tissues that make up your abdominal wall, the rectus abdominis muscles, some of the latissimus that wraps around. So doing abdominal crunches is something that you need to do, and do them regularly. Planks, maybe things like that, would be extremely valuable for your stomach wall health. What they’re worried about is a loop of small intestines working its way in through that hole and then poking out like that and then getting stuck there and then becoming a source of exsanguination, pinched off a bowel and having blockage and then a serious mess to deal with on the emergency basis of surgery. So, I tell all my patients with any hernia to have a general surgeon take a look at them. And I am not an expert in this. So, I say, see the general surgeon, get them to estimate what it looks like, what their experience is. I have often recommended Dr. Andrew Shadid in Newport Beach. He was the head of surgery there for a long time. He’s still doing it. He’s a wonderful doctor because he’s not trying to sell you a surgical procedure to pay off his house or buy another yacht. What he’s trying to do is practice good surgical medicine and remedies, and he likes my patients because he knows I send them there for a true assessment of how impending a problem may or may not be if it can be managed conservatively. So, I would say Andrew Shadid in Newport Beach is who I would see. And God forbid, that it worsens suddenly, you would go to Hoag Hospital where he knows you and his fellow surgeons are there and they can communicate with one another, like our doctors here that worked with each other. We meet monthly the second Tuesday of every month, and we have these discussions on general health and answer questions with one another about patient care and patient reports, new science, whatever. And so, Dr. Shadid has this group there. So, he’s very good. Maybe that’ll help you. 

Question

“Dr. Rita, you look absolutely beautiful today.”  [0:33:33]

Answer

Well, bless your heart. Thank you. Thank you. Thank. You know, I do believe if we take care of our self, we don’t have to have hip replacements, we don’t have to have lenses put in and cataracts removed, and implants or explants or whatever. I think my worst thing was I had a root canal under an emergency situation, praise the Lord, and a kidney stone. And otherwise, I try to do what I’m telling you all to do. I am trying to drink the water, be low carb, do the weightlifting, get to bed reasonably early with the lights out, get up with the sunrise, and ground, and get that infrared light. I have an infrared bath in my bedroom, and I take my supplements very religiously. I’m 99 percent good on that. I take my Juice Plus. I take my iodine. I take my natural hormones. Nothing is replaced on me. No hip replacement, nothing in me. No hair dye, no facelift, no Botox, nothing. And we were designed, with the estradiol, you know, which I put on my face, which helps with elastin collagen to be supportive. So, we’re designed to heal. And you should love yourself and love your neighbors as yourself is what I’m saying in the Bible. So, there should be a healthy respect for caring for yourself, so you can be of ministry to another. And so, I’m trying to do this to care for you. So, it’s very lovely of you to say that. Thank you so much. 

Question

“What are the various ways to lower my blood pressure? I exercise three times.”  [0:35:40]

Answer

There are so many things. I would, of course, say EDTA chelation with microcirculation. We have minerals, magnesium, and zinc in there. We have the vitamin C in there. We have the selenium trace minerals. We have the B vitamins. It helps with microcirculation, and not eating late. If you would stop eating around 3 o’clock in the afternoon, drink half your weight in water, try and get a good night’s sleep, use your natural hormones, especially the progesterone at night to sleep, try and drink most of your water in the day so you don’t have to wake up in the middle of the night and disrupt your sleep, because that’s the only time you heal and repair, so we want good sleep, and that will help with your sympathetic tone. So, I really believe high blood pressure is a function of our metabolism, meaning sugar, and the thickness of the intima, the lining of the wall, the thickness of that wall can get thicker and stiffer if we have too much insulin, starch, carbohydrates. So, having very, very low carbohydrates in our diet is quintessential. “Stand having done all, stand.” Drinking your water, not eating late, taking your enzymes, doing chelation, taking magnesium relaxing minerals, and natural hormone repair, a good night’s sleep, maybe grounding in the morning with the infrared sun, and you should do well. I don’t know what your blood pressure is, but your name sounds familiar, that’s the general advice we give to everyone, and it has always worked. Why it shouldn’t work for you, I think it will work for you. 

Question

“Hi and blessing to you. My healthy 69-year-old husband had a recent prostate biopsy after a PSA of 5.3. Five samples were benign and seven were group 1 lowest Gleason score of 6. It is considered “slow growing.” The urologist said we can watch it for now – surveillance method. In addition to prayer, my husband is taking 24 mg of ivermectin and 222 mg of fenbendazole daily. What do you recommend?”  [0:37:39]

Answer

Absolutely. I wouldn’t touch anything. Well, I recommend all the healthy lifestyles we do. You can listen to the earlier part of this about it, you know, the water, the carbs, the sleep, the grounding, the light, the rich protein, the exercise. All these things are necessary. But there are other things that would be helpful. We would need to look at his testosterone level and his estradiol level. I would tell him to stop drinking alcohol. We need to see his insulin level. The insulin, anything above 4, is going to stimulate the growth of tissue and masses in your body. So, I would have them see a good functional doctor who will look at things like giving him selenium, giving him systemic enzymes, checking his estradiol, checking his testosterone along with the PSA, checking the insulin and the glucose and the triglycerides should equal the HDL and not worry about total cholesterol or LDL cholesterol really, weight lift three times a week and walk briskly at least a half an hour all the other days, and then enjoy service to others, and he should have a good history and physical. There may be unique things. Find out his blood type. If he’s an A, he needs digestive enzymes in addition to systemic enzymes, but try those things. 

Question

“Would there be any risk for someone in their 90s having a CT scan with contrast? I’ve heard that iodine could injure the kidneys.  The same question about the risk of a colonoscopy for 90-year-olds.  Thank you for the benefit of your wisdom faithfully every Tuesday.”  [0:39:56]

Answer

No. In general, the older you get, the more likely you have a decreased function of everything in your body. Kidney function creatinine level would be checked. I think it should be checked before he gets a dye. There’s an iodinated complex that they use as a dye for certain scans, but usually, they use gadolinium complex as another molecule for dye in the other CTs. So, we can get this removed if we do EDTA chelation and John F. Kennedy Jr. is making EDTA chelation, finally someone in the HHS who is going to support these 80 years of us using EDTA chelation to help people, like my patients, get to their 100th birthday party like I went to last week and the 90s parties that I’ve been going to a recent. So, EDTA chelation improves microcirculation helps people detox, and helps blood pressure microcirculation. So, I don’t see a reason why a 90-year-old couldn’t do that unless they had terrible kidney function. But then interestingly enough, EDTA chelation therapy is the treatment for much of this chronic kidney disease, and there are many studies, at least 12 that I know of, on EDTA chelation by nephrologists who have shown improvement in kidney function, getting people off of dialysis and helping them to get a better performance and mobility in life. It may not be restored back to normal but EDTA chelation is part of the treatment for kidney repair. 

Question

“When you are in your 60’s, is testosterone use beneficial for libido and muscle retention? Also, at this age group, what should be the levels? Above 500?”  [0:42:13]

Answer

Absolutely. Yes, absolutely, and you have to remember, in the year, there’s a biannual level. So, January, February, March, and April are the lowest. So, the lowest part is January, February, March, and April. Then June, July, August, September, October, November, and December are the highest. November and December are the highest. So God wants all the little boy animals and men to get all the girls pregnant, but God then makes it the level of production by the universe and electromagnetic impact, so that the production of testosterone drops off somewhere in the wintertime when the babies are in gestation. And so, when the mothers have all their little puppies, then the boy dogs have lower testosterone and the boy bears and all the boy animals, so they don’t eat the pups up. So men have a biannual phase. Low in the winter, high in the late summer and early fall. Girls and girl animals have a monthly cycle. We’re up and down all the time. We’re very labile, impacted largely by the moon, and the geomagnetic impact of the moon cycles as well. So, in the days when I started practicing medicine in the 70s, the men’s testosterone, and certainly when I got on active duty, the men’s testosterone were like 1500-1600. All through the years since then, I’ve been practicing for 44 years now, they have been coming down. And so, men are getting happy over 500, 600, and 700 testosterone today when that would have been the low winter reading of men back in the 1970s. So, relatively speaking, compared to the herd, a 500 for a winter reading today is good. I would prefer it to be 700-800 and then your late summer, early fall, to be 1500, but that’s how that story goes. 

Question

“I’ve had insomnia my whole life. Xanax is the only thing that helps (I take magnesium, cortisol manager, ashwagandha, RelaxMax, cherry juice, theanine, CBC/THC gummies, exercise, morning light, Gaba, melatonin  – I’ve tried everything). Is there another medication that is not as harmful as Xanax (Hydroxyzine didn’t work)?”  [0:45:05]

Answer

I don’t know. Yours is a more complex scenario. I would just hang in there and still do the grounding in the morning with the infrared light and get to bed with the lights out. I would not eat past 3 o’clock. And I don’t know how old you are, but if you are 55 or older, I would flip to eating breakfast rich in protein and protein snacks and a lunch and finish up by 3 o’clock. See if that helps you. 

Are you on natural hormones? You should be on progesterone. Even if you have breast cancer, you should be able to take progesterone. So, I’ve given progesterone to all my post-breast cancer patients and they’ve all done well. There are studies, you know, a retrospective meta-analysis of over 22 studies all the way back to 1980 that have looked at women post breast cancer diagnosis and treatment, and then going back on hormones, and there was no increased mortality or recurrence rate in all those studies that they had to look at. So, I would say natural hormone replacement therapy, both estradiol, and progesterone, but if there’s some reason you can’t take estradiol, if you had a breast cancer or something like that, then I would give you progesterone. But I still give women post-breast cancer estradiol as well. So it depends on the situation. But ask about that. 

Question

“Hi, Dr. Rita. I have heard you recommended certain vegetables that are good to add to a mostly meat diet. These include spinach, Brussels, asparagus, string beans, etc. Please explain why these?”  [0:47:12]

Answer

Spinach, correct, although that’s high in oxalates, but if you have it only once every four days, it’s not much. Brussels sprouts, yes. Asparagus, yes. String beans, et cetera. Well, these are basically low natural complex carbohydrate vegetables, that when they’re cooked, buttered, salted, and peppered, they’re tasty, they’re chewy they help with mastication, signaling of satiation. They provide bulk. They have some soluble and insoluble fibers that help with gut health. So, those are usually very easy to get a hold of. There are others, but those are the simple five that I have used. 

Question

“I have stage 4 metastatic prostate cancer, taking 120 mg of ivermectin daily. I fainted. The emergency room doctor said taking the ivermectin is the cause of this fainting. Do you agree?”  [0:48:20]

Answer

Well, no, not necessarily. What are the side effects of higher-dose antifungals in the body? There can be some liver injuries. There can be some… I can’t recall right off the top of my head outside of liver function issues because I had one patient who took a higher dose of fenbendazole and had a similar thing but also had anemia. I don’t know if ivermectin can lower the red blood cell protection in the bone marrow for a season. Now, this other guy backed off. He’s much better, by the way, with his stage 4 prostate cancer, and his PSAs have been coming down. And I am not treating cancer, I can’t treat cancer, I’m not an oncologist, but those who asked me, you know, I’m aware of the internet information that’s out there on the Joe Tippin protocol and many other protocol blog sites. Most everyone is not on a daily dose. They’re on a 3 or 4-day cycle and then 3 or 4 days off. They’re mostly on 444 mg of fenbendazole. The ivermectin, I have not seen as high as you’re stating at 120 mg. I don’t know how many pounds you weigh. Let me see the highest I’ve seen here on my sheet. And that is, yeah, I think, yeah, I have never seen that high of a dosing. So, I would want to see the rest of your other labs. What was your blood count? What was your liver count? Find that out. And how did you come up with that 120 mg dosing? And that’s the direction I would go. But no, I wouldn’t necessarily pin it on the ivermectin, unless you have a known abnormality in the lab or something like that. But check your blood count, check your liver enzymes. And look at your poop. If your poop is black, then you’re having bleeding intestinally. If you throw up coffee grounds and it looks like coffee grounds, then you’re throwing up digested blood. So, yeah, have that looked at, and find a doctor in functional medicine who is grounded and can understand. And try and work with your oncologist. We have more and more oncologists who are looking to be pleasantly available, and more communicative with the functional doctors working together, both nutritionally. So, there you have it. 

Question

“At 9 months old, my grandbaby has not quite doubled her birth weight and falls below the growth chart. Otherwise, she meets all her milestones.  She nurses 6 times a day and has a 4 oz bottle of breast milk before bed. At 8-ish months, she started eating solids and crawling. The doctor wants a formula supplement. What do you recommend to help her grow? Blessings.”  [0:51:47]

Answer

I want to just point out, that pure breastfed children at 9 months are going to typically have a lower birth weight than these carbohydrate synthetic formulations and the things that these children are given. So, if she’s meeting all her other markers and she is at the low end for the birth weight or just under it, I wouldn’t worry because it sounds like she’s doing very well with all that eating and the breast milk and the bottle that’s even for her. 

I would demand from the pediatrician that he give the mother the scientific articles that show the need for formula supplementation when they’re meeting all their mile markers, everything else on the lab, and the exam is fine, why would just being slightly underweight from a population average, because population averages, we have an epidemic of obese newborns. So don’t compare healthy children with healthy mothers who are feeding them breast milk with the general population of babies that unfortunately we’re having an obesity epidemic of newborn obesity. Okay. So, demand to see the article that shows the risk. And you’ll find he won’t have it. And if he gives you an article, you’ll see them referring to, these are a population of babies whose mothers were prior addicts or had disease problems or the child is showing other signs of slow development. So, if all the other mile markers and she’s eating some, trying to eat some food, and crawling, then I would say I don’t think you have anything to be concerned about. Get a second opinion from another pediatrician. 

Question

“Have you had any experience with neurofeedback?”  [0:54:14]

Answer

I have patients who have done neurofeedback. It’s good. Just like doing physical therapy, post-concussion, post-head trauma, post spinal cord trauma, nerve damage, when they do physical therapy, that’s like neurofeedback. When you constantly repeat the motion or play the piano, you’re giving neurofeedback on how and which things to hit on the cord or in the therapy. So yeah, I think neurofeedback is very good. 

Question

“I am completely carnivore. I only eat beef, chicken, pork, and lamb. I test myself often for ketosis with the Keto urine sticks and the blood finger stick. The results frequently come as not in ketosis. Am I doing something wrong? I eat no carbs and no vegetables! I have Some heavy cream in my coffee but it has no carbs.”  [0:54:46]

Answer

No, your body has come to an equilibrium where you’re generating gluconeogenesis in your liver, and it is producing a stable level of glucose to energy demands of your body. So, don’t trust those things. So, find out what your fasting insulin is and finding out what your glucose is, your triglycerides are, and your hemoglobin A1c. Those are the things to go by. 

Question

“For my frozen shoulder female patients, I recommend all you taught me about diet and lifestyle and then I also mention natural hormone replacement because our joints have estrogen receptors. They ask if there’s a substitute for ibuprofen. Any thoughts?”  [0:55:45]

Answer

Well, yes. The systemic enzymes. I would carry, you know, Vitalzym or Vascuzyme or Systemic Enzymes that have serrapeptase, bromelain, all these kinds of systemic enzymes, and take it on an empty stomach and use like five twice a day for two weeks while they’re regaining their range of motion, and drink that water, take some good vitamin C for elastin/collagen repair and the proteins to rebuild your cartilage and tendons and so forth. Fasting stimulates growth hormone repair. A good night’s sleep helps it. Grounding will help it. Chelation therapy will help it. But there you go. 

Question

“Love you! You helped with my son a while back, and I’m so thankful.”  [0:57:05]

Answer

Well, praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. To him be all the glory. We are here to bring glory to him and pleasure to him. It says in Revelations “for his pleasure, we were created.” And our duty at the end of the Gospel of Acts, talks about, Luke rather, it says, “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, teaching them whatsoever I have commanded you in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.” So we’re to teach about our wonderful Father in Heaven and his plan and his commandments, and we’re to try and be obedient to them so that we’re an example. None of us are perfect, but we’re to try always. And it is a ministry to be a doctor. I hear so many people talking about how messed up medicine science and finance and the church and the education system is. Everything’s all messed up. Well, you want to know why it’s messed up? It is because we’ve abandoned the obedience and the love and the demeanor of what it means to be submitted to the almighty, our father in Heaven, and let the Holy Spirit. If it says, well, you know, read the Bible, find out what he wants, we read it cover to cover and go deep with him and talk with him. He and the word are one. And thy word is health to all my flesh. I tell you, I can’t believe how healthy I am in my 70s with even the marginal input I’ve had for time for exercise, and his grace to me. We are designed to heal. Written within our DNA in Psalm 139 is the DNA for what he expects. 

And you know, it says in Job, “Yea, though he slay me, yet will I trust him.” So when I don’t understand what’s happening in my life and the hurts I have or things that happen, I tell you, I just trust him, and I treat my brothers and sisters that come here like family. I’m supposed to treat his creation. You people are his massively best creation. You’re made in his image. So I get to touch and hear all you people, and I’m very aware of the responsibility. So, to be a doctor, to heal up what this problem is, we’ve got to get rid of this idea of being a fancy star doctor, wealthy doctor, party doctor, vacation doctor, super dressed up bulls are not jewels or, you know. And by the way, I’m a girl, yes. My first goal is to be a good daughter, then a good wife, then a good mother, then fourthly, a good doctor. So the greatest calling in my life was to be a girl. He was pleased to put me in a female container and I want to honor my God by being a good daughter, sister, wife, and mother.  Now, I haven’t been as good as I should have been in those areas. And I was talked into saying, oh, your children will be fine. You’re such a good doctor. Be a doctor. And so, I went with the praise when I should have stayed home with my children more. Fortunately, by the grace of God, things turned out, and God had mercy on me and heard my prayers, but I do not look at my medical degree as anything I’m proud of. The greatest thing I’m proud of is my marriage, my family, my sisters, my mom and my dad, my children, now my daughter-in-law, my grandsons, family. That’s the number one thing I’m proud of on this earth; secondarily is my professional practice of medicine. 

So ladies, don’t look to be a professional of anything. Be a Proverbs 31 woman and be proud of being a woman and the gift of being in a female container. Honor God’s plan. And he did make the men the head. Now, they should study the Bible themselves, the men, to find out what it means to be the head and bear that responsibility, which is a heavy responsibility for men. And so, I said all that because why, she said such a kind thing to me. So I’m so thankful that I was able to help your son. That’s my reasonable service.