Statins, Cholesterol, and Covid: Dr. Elkin's Explosive Cardio Revelations!

In this episode of the Crackin' Backs podcast, we have the honor of hosting Dr. Howard Elkin, a renowned functional cardiologist with over 35 years of experience in the field. Dr. Elkin is not your average cardiologist; he blends traditional cardiology with integrative and functional medicine to provide a holistic approach to heart health. As the Medical Director of HeartWise Fitness and Longevity Center, Dr. Elkin has dedicated his career to pioneering personalized care strategies that address the root causes of cardiovascular diseases.

Join us as we delve into what sets a functional medicine cardiologist apart from the typical cardiologists you might find in a typical medical group practice. Dr. Elkin shares his personal journey, including a startling and unexpected heart attack a few years ago despite his healthy lifestyle. He offers insights into why even those who seem super healthy, such as bodybuilders and endurance athletes, can fall victim to cardiovascular disease.

The discussion gets even more intriguing as Dr. Elkin tackles the hotly debated topics of statins, blood pressure medications, and cholesterol testing. Hear his stance on these issues and how they align or differ from the views of other medical experts like Peter Attia.

We also explore Dr. Elkin's thoughts on the controversial subject of Covid-19 and its impact on heart health, including the effects of the virus and the vaccine on increasing rates of strokes, myocarditis, and heart attacks.

In an era where Artificial Intelligence is revolutionizing personalized healthcare, Dr. Elkin evaluates the reliability of AI-driven predictive analytics in preventing cardiovascular diseases compared to traditional methods. Lastly, we discuss the significant role psychosocial factors, such as stress management, social connections, and mental health, play in the pursuit of longevity and whether they can outweigh the benefits of medical and technological advancements.

Tune in for an episode packed with eye-opening revelations and expert advice that could transform your understanding of heart health. Want to hear more about his personal story, his latest book, “from Both sides of the Table” is available now.

We are two sports chiropractors, seeking knowledge from some of the best resources in the world of health. From our perspective, health is more than just “Crackin Backs” but a deep dive into physical, mental, and nutritional well-being philosophies.

Join us as we talk to some of the greatest minds and discover some of the most incredible gems you can use to maintain a higher level of health. Crackin Backs Podcast

Transcript

Dr. Spencer Baron: 0:00

Welcome to the cracking backs Podcast. Today we're diving into the shocking truth, breaking traditional thoughts about heart health with Dr. Howard Elkin. A leading functional cardiologist. Discover why even the fittest are at risk and getting his controversial take on statins, cholesterol COVID and artificial intelligence in medicine.

Unknown: 0:21

Don't miss it.

Dr. Howard Elkin: 0:24

Welcome to the show, Dr. Howard lkn.

Dr. Spencer Baron: 0:28

cardiologists extraordinaire, well, this is gonna be a great show, because we are so curious about so much that you do in the world of, of health care, because you're really bucking the system here. And we love people like that. So just to start out, while we welcome you, that's number one. And to start out, we would love for you to explain what a functional medicine cardiologist is all about what is what is that and explain that to the audience.

Dr. Howard Elkin: 0:58

Thank you very much for inviting me to speak. Okay, so I kind of describe myself as an integrative cardiologist practicing functional medicine. So functional medicine to me, is going above and beyond. In other words, if you look at traditional medicine, the way I was taught, you have symptoms, and then you have treatment, that's it right. But with functional medicine, you have symptoms, you do have treatment, but in between something very important because called cause what is it causes problem, whereas it causes symptom. So we try to look to locate and we try to get a cause. And that helps us keep give more specific or better enhance treatments. So functional medicine is really going above and beyond that's kind of how I paraphrase it, integrative cardiologist goes outside the box I was traditionally trained, right? And so if you look the way I was trained, I give this example all the time, when I was a fellow in the 80s. Every study, everything we knew how to treat women was based on studies with a middle aged man. So already, we were at a loss. And that's how we treated back in the 80s. And 90s. Things have changed. So integrative, I do specialize testing. So I tell people as an integrative ardaas, I really don't care about the numbers. And then I do but I don't, I don't care how your cholesterol. But what I'm more interested in is figuring out where is what is your wrist? What is your wrist, so I treat your wrist as opposed to your numbers. And like for example, if the cholesterol is elevated, even high and the patient is low risk, why would you want to treat? Why would you need to know. So I do a lot of different testing, including various scans, with no undulator if you want to really help get at the actual risk of the patient. So I'm not just treating blindly, I'm not just putting a bandaid, I'm actually really trying to hone in on the problem because and I treat from there.

Dr. Spencer Baron: 3:01

Well, we love we love what you do. And we're just more more importantly fascinated as to if you could explain why your peers are stuck in the 70s 80s and 90s. In the way they treat.

Dr. Howard Elkin: 3:16

I don't get it. I mean, I have the same training they have. I took it to a different level. That is who I am. I've always been inquisitive and want to learn more. I mean, I had one hour of nutrition in medical school, he knew that one out yet, what am I? What am I right, right? Major interest is nutritions birth, cardiac position, anti aging nutrition, you know, so, you know, I just did an anti aging medical fellowship, the American Academy of anti aging medicine, and one my skills. So I don't know why these guys are stuck forever. I'm doing a new scan now called This Is The introduced called the clearly scan, see out E R L Why not know if you guys have even heard of it? It's not really it's not really appreciated. My brother appears. For the first time in history, we can differentiate between a heart block and a soft plaque. And in between, there's something that's very potentially dangerous called Low Density soft. That's the kind of plaque that breaks off and causes heart attacks and strokes that we can finally eliminate that with a social scan. We do a CT angio and then we add artificial intelligence. And the results are amazing. I've done about 25 of these. I'm becoming an expert at interpreting results. But I tell my colleagues about it. This is the patient you want to stem not just a 90% blockage because that could be there for years. It stenting something that is low density friable, which can cause a heart attack and they say open the blockage on angiogram was only 50% and this is this is the oxymoron part of it. His heart attacks are 50 and 60% lesions that become vulnerable. And then a blood clot happens and you have all of that. So we could possibly we will be able to eventually minimize some of the cardiac events that we see on a daily basis by knowing the composition and the volume of the brand rescan my colleagues don't get it. And I understand because two things are missing. We don't really have guidelines yet. We needed guidelines when we get them. And we need to have insurance reimbursement. A lot of my patients paying out of pocket just to get this done, or the Medicare or PPO who pay the CT angio. And then RBZ lay that we're good to be though, Phil, when clearly are well, no, but not, that's not gonna happen for everybody. So this is just one example. In which I'm taking better or smarter than the average cardiologists have the same training. I just, I want to know more, I want to hone in on the problem and treat the problem not for the number.

Dr. Spencer Baron: 6:03

Oh, no, I think it's fascinating that you are always you must be always questioning what's out there that can be improved upon, whereas a lot of your peers are stuck, you know, they learn one way and they don't question Is there another way of doing things? You know, I, if you don't mind sharing, I would love for you to, you know, talk about your experience with a heart attack. And why would that happen? And what do you, you know, what did you do to help?

Dr. Howard Elkin: 6:38

Whatever that is Cedars Sinai, and they said, you don't fit the profile of a person with a heart attack. But you know what, it can happen to anyone. This isn't several years ago. This is the opening of my book, by the way. Nice. It's in my book. We'll talk about it after. But anyway, I woke up at 3am with like heartburn, which I never get. Went back to sleep. I woke up at 6am the same thing. I need to worry that tiny piece of a Mac intensive meditation went away. Make a long story short, I went to work on Thursday, and I developed a red book about cold sweats. A cold sweat about a lemonade and my said Heidi tickety que GMA, and it was normal. So then I did an excellent, I'm only work half day back then on Thursday. So I said, Okay, I think I'll just go to the west side and go work out at Gold's Gym with my trainer. And that's a smart thing to do when you're about to have a heart attack, right? And I did that and my trainer said that I can allude to the UK, so I'm fine. I swear to God after my training, I did those, you know, those ubiquitous adventures, and all of a sudden, my arm for like, it was 50 pounds. I never felt that heaviness. And it still isn't clicking guys. Okay. I'm a cardiologist, several years. And I say this because I was a typical male. And I went to I went to the firehouse to get something to eat. And then you know day and then sensation came over again. I call my best friend. Very good. Very nice. Really weird having my arm who liked her 50 pounds each. He says power. Your arms are 50 km h becoming your doctor not me. I call my doctor. immediate emergency room right away. Are you sure? He said? Are you freaking kidding me? look really stupid for a cardiologist that dropped dead of a heart attack without being evaluated. That was my story. So here I am this board certified cardiologist with all this knowledge and all of a sudden they came to me, I was clueless. And that's after that event. My daughter came to pick me up says Dad, it's time to write your story. My story evolved a lot since then. That's when I started this 1516 years ago. So So hug I didn't mean to get off topic, but I have a great it's such an interesting backstory, that that was the impetus for me to become my own medical advocate because what happened when the decimal that the cardiologist came to discharge me and and this guy was probably 15 years younger than me and was like 270 pounds and it wasn't muscle. You know, don't Jacqueline. I don't know what to tell you. When it comes to rehab. You're on your own. I can handle that I've got I've officiated cardiac rehab programs is one thing. You have a new stent looks great and everything's gonna go great. Everything's gonna do well. So he left the room I said to myself, this BS is absurd. Because if I'm so great, and this is going to work out wonderful. Why don't I have this to begin with? Right and what's to prevent it from looking back? Now keep in mind, I was bodybuilder I I've never been overweight, I've never smoked. I've always had good cholesterol. I've never been I blood red shirt, no family history. But I had an amazing amount of stress, which is all outlined in my book. And when I wasn't really dealing with at that time was a stress. So then I started dealing with that. And then 19 months later end up in the hospital with for emergency back surgery. And that was much more serious in the chat. Because I was it hadn't permanent nerve damage, it was one clip of a knife, and I ended up with severe nerve damage that I'm still doing with seniors, actually, Friday, the 13th is the 13th visit it was a Friday back when I had that happen. So that's when I really learned that I had to really step up to the plate and take care of myself. And this is when I really became my head a good friend of speaking coaches that you are the medical advocate, that's your brand. Because you had to learn on your own to take care of yourself and step up to the plate. And what you want your patients to do. And I've been doing ever since by doing the testing that I do, by doing the teaching that I do, by doing the encouraging patients, you know, not the literal with with the jargon they don't understand, or I talk to them on their level. I've had great results with patients. And this is the book really is charged with my story. And it's really more about how you are taking charge is all about charge. So that's my story.

Dr. Spencer Baron: 11:45

That's fantastic. No, thank you for sharing. You know, I It's always struck me and my curiosity as to how so many bodybuilders and endurance runners just dropped dead from cardiovascular disease when they are like the image of health and if you can, you know, share some of your thoughts.

Dr. Howard Elkin: 12:08

Yeah, it's called Access. Before I got into bodybuilding, I was doing marathons and I mean, I'm really a strength athlete. That's really my forte, but I was doing marathons, triathlons, and then I think moving on what I'll do next. This is me OCD. I think I'll do the Hawaiian tribe, you know, great, you know, three and a half miles Biden in the marathon. Then I thought leading I started people like go to the finish line. And almost just dropping gab. Some did. Yeah. And they were doing endomyocardial biopsies after the race six weeks later, I think four or six months later, and then after that, there's like permanent scarring on the heart. So when you exercise that extreme, you are really you're, you want inflammation. Inflammation is part of exercise, but not excessive, because we know that excessive inflammation is going to lead to all four major diseases of aging, heart disease, autoimmune disorders, which are on the rise. And Alzheimer's. So excessive bodybuilding is a whole different topic. I actually profile this Instagram post on a blog about I think it was November of that year, there were like 20 professional or very high level bodybuilders dropping dead. Some of its a lot of its drug related. A lot of it is training, excessive training. When I did kofod, had rhabdomyolysis from excessive training and dehydration. It's not a healthy lifestyle. I mean, when I did it, I competed for several years. And I drew the line as to what I would do, but I did crazy stuff. I mean, I would lose 30 pounds and 12 weeks. That's crazy. I would never recommend anybody do that. You know, but when you when you're trying to win, you know, you do those crazy things. So I think it's the answer is access, whether it's endurance, whether it's strength training. It's kind of I pass the benefits of exercise by getting on your body. Yeah, and shorting limestone.

Dr. Spencer Baron: 14:19

So, no, I just wanted to mention, I read that article, I read through your I love your blog, and I don't read blogs. I absolutely. I ate that up you the way you put a couple things and had some research behind and everything. Thank you. That was I just wanted to make mention of that, ya know,

Dr. Terry Weyman: 14:38

as you can tell by the partnership, I'm the bodybuilder of the two and that is my partner. You just nail Him to a tee. I gotta I gotta ask something. Because you mentioned about the stance. You mentioned about what you had in the plaques. But there's another in our world there's another drug is very controversial. We've had Doc's here talking, there are pros, and we're talking stands. There's doctors, pro stands, there's doctors anticyclones. They're skeptical. They're saying they increase muscle problems. Bah, bah, bah, what's your position on stance? Great

Dr. Howard Elkin: 15:15

question. I think there is a there is used for statins in the right population. I think some people that shouldn't be treated aggressively aren't. And the majority of people that are being treated don't need to be, I think it's over utilized. Like I said before, I don't know if you guys heard there was an article that came out of Africa we have to get, I'm going to try to profile it. But there was an article that came out, I think it was the British Medical Journal anyway, a British Heart Journal. So they, they studied all these patients. And they said, the ideal cholesterol or LDL cholesterol should be about like between 99 and like 170. Now, what they carefully said, and that study, which, of course the media did not mention, was that they excluded diabetics, they excluded patients with known heart disease, or anyone within a previous event. So, and I agree, I have never treated people that don't have coronary disease with status. You know, I just said, Hey, we're gonna die, and we can do our supplements. I'm really not worried when the LDL gets over 190, I get a little concerned. Because once you have an LDL of 200 or more, and you're talking about an entity close Emilio hypercholesterolemia, and that can predispose you to heart disease. That's excessive. So, you know, a lot of patients are being treated with standard LDL 130, or 20. You know, why? Because quest says it's out of range. So we should treat it right. But there's no data behind it. So this study, really kind of solidify what I've been doing for years treating the right population. Now, what about those with heart disease like me, okay. The previous art history. Okay, so we know from the forest studies and a lot of studies in the 90s, that people that have had a previous event, and already have corners, or multiple doctors do better with status, okay? They have a less of a second event. And that's important, because we want to prevent, and these people met secondary prevention. And someone like you, not me, it's primary prevention is a difference, because the treatment is different. But what got really, really angry about this article, were on the article about the media, the media took this and said, Oh, well, you know, doctors are prescribing statins when they shouldn't be and it's malpractice. And so the taking out of context. So yes, statins are over utilized, and I don't really use you unless you need to have a true indication. But I don't want to just diss them because a lot of people on social media say doctors wrong. Cardon says the wrong thing. I don't like the doctor bash. And that's I really have to, since I am a doctor, but but I like to give both sides of the story. So I tried to say, the long answer to your question. It really depends on the population. Yes, I do use that. But very selective about, you know, who I use, what I use. And I also try to minimize the dose. And anyone, anyone in my practice that goes on a statin automatically has to take Kokujin because Sanjay have a good job of decreasing LDL production in the liver, but they also decrease Coenzyme Q 10 in your muscles. And that's why muscle aches and pains in my ologists are the number one complaint that you hear from people. So I didn't wait for that they automatically.

Dr. Terry Weyman: 18:38

See, this is stuff I love. And I want to just before I ask the next one I want to emphasize, you'll get these people they're a bad lifestyle habits. overweight, they had a heart condition. And the cardiologist will put them on statins instead of going after the why they got the heart in the first place. They don't work on their diet that work in the lifestyle. And I like what you're saying we're let's work on that first. And then if we after that's done if we still need statins, after our tests and all that now we can engage that and said making it the primary course we'll put it on as a last resort type of thing. Is that correct? Yes.

Dr. Howard Elkin: 19:15

And let me give you a prime example. When a painter I was doing procedures 3737 years I stopped doing I stopped doing on call. April 23. Leon calls a cardiologist. It means anyone that comes the merchant and this one's heart attack, your responsibility is to get fair with your calf empty and do whatever you can to open that artery and put a stent in when should we is is basically it's life saving but it isn't bandaid. We aren't doing anything about lifestyle. And then when they come to my office after the procedure and say okay, now the work begins because this is not going to remain. You know, you got to news and my doctor told me you got a new statue you're going to be fine. I don't say that. You have a said This is how you have to really work to prevent further recurrence. And that's how I started. Now, you know, but other than that I'm not doing numbers agers, I see people coming to me after their heart attack after their set. And I can guarantee they're going to, like almost, it's just like, what's going to happen, they're getting discharged on a highest dose, 80 milligrams of Lipitor, the highest dose statin ad blocker, ace inhibitor, aspirin, and an antiplatelet agent. So they're walking out with five new medicines, and they're probably taking nothing beforehand. It's almost, I can guarantee you anyone that goes to my office, or was just discharged with a heart attack, they're going to be on all those medicines. And on high doses, they feel like crap. And I can understand why. Right? Right. So it's just one size fits all. That's, that's how I look at traditional medicines versus functional one size fits all, but it doesn't work. It can't work. You know, I remember, several years ago, I was discharging a patient in the hospital that had heart failure, the nurse, the nurse did this discharge planner, or Dell, Kubica did something and we mean jivochat to order an ACE inhibitor, or Mr. So and so I didn't do that. And I just didn't do it. Because I didn't think was needed or necessary or even warranted? Well, your charts gonna fall out of compliance, because according to the, you know, the clinical guidelines. I mean, I literally had to go back to that chart, and describe why I didn't want to order a specific drug. Just because it's always done this. I mean, it should be done. This works. All right, on

Dr. Terry Weyman: 21:33

that topic. Let's, let's bring in another one that's overuse, high blood pressure medication.

Dr. Spencer Baron: 21:39

Talk to me about that. Yeah. It's

Dr. Howard Elkin: 21:41

just you know, it's funny, because me was a big month, because I did two YouTube blogs. One was on blood pressure Awareness Month. It's also women's health club. But anyway, here's the thing. When someone comes I always unless your blood pressure is like 200 and something right? Off the Wall hot. It's okay. This is the physical you have to do. We want to work on lifestyle, and I tell them, weight loss and exercise are your two friends here. I mean, this is a known fact, if you move for every pound, you lose, you'll lose point five millimeters of mercury, your blood pressure, both systolic and diastolic. Let's say you lose 10 pounds, but your blood pressure will come down five points. Let's see. Which blues, right? Then you come down 10 points. That's as good as most medicines that isn't employed. No, because doctors. I didn't have any training in this either. It's just my interest. And because I do walk the talk. And I like to be a role model. This is how I do things. But yeah, they go right to meds. They go recommend. I had a gentleman. Interesting. This guy, he hails from new patients doing a great job. He's a film producer. He came in from Trinidad, black, white, diabetes, hypertension, obesity, all that runs in the family. So he goes to the doctor, blood pressure was like that off the wall high, but it was elevated. He said meaning put them on not one, but two medicines. And so when we do that, what we're telling the patient live, we know you can't do this on your own. So we're just going to give you a little help, and put you on some medication. That's not patient armor. That's just and this patient came to me and found out about me and someone some source. And I said, Okay, let's work on lifestyle. Now, several weeks later, he's lost 30 pounds, he's in the gym, four days a week is off both monitors. He's so happy. And so grateful, added early, do anything really encouraging. He had a desire to work on. And that's the kind of patient I want to see. I don't need any more gunky artery syndrome patients have almost 40 years experience dealing with that, you know, like enough already. Countries looking healthier, it's getting worse. And you know, so you know, it's that's really what it's about. So, weight loss, and exercise are probably in that order, but really make a difference and can make a difference. Yes. Or sometimes we do have these medicines, no question about it. I don't go.

Dr. Spencer Baron: 24:28

When you test cholesterol, do you do your traditional cholesterol test, HDL LDL, or do you do the you know, I'll go further. I

Dr. Howard Elkin: 24:38

go way beyond that. So I do what's called specialized lipid testing or a specialized cardiac testing. So it two labs that I really like are Cleveland Art Lab, which is now they were brought out by quest about some eight years ago, and also Boston heart diagnostics. Why do I like them because you get a much more much more broad perspective. First of all, you Get it. You don't just get HDL, LDL triglycerides, and you get the LDL particle number. And what's more important is the particle size. All your audience has to know is bigger is better. Okay, I tell my patients that you remember anything about me bigger is better. Because the larger the LDL particle size, the less likely is to get oxidized and formed plaque in your arteries. But we don't like small dents, we like large fluffy, or large bullion. And you can, you can tell that unless you do a specialized. So these kinds of just treating LDL, they don't even know a particle size and the number or they to look for LP little a, which is a really significant risk for coronary. Besides the more comprehensive limited analysis, it gives me an inflammatory profile, I look for about four or five different markers for inflammation, because inflammation is what causes diseases of aging. It's not just the numbers, it's what's happening at the arterial level. Okay, then that gives me a metabolic profile, which is not just your blood sugar, but your hemoglobin and Wednesday, How well has your blood sugar been over the previous three months? And my insulin resistance markers? About four or five different tests that we look at? Why is it so important? Because 95% of the population is metabolically unhealthy. These are the ones that will eventually become diabetic. Diabetes is on the rise. I think by 2050, they expect to be it's just I forget the numbers. But after astronomical, but don't take my word for it. What do you see outside OBC like we've never witnessed before, and it's not getting better. And I just did. Did some filming a couple months ago, I did my first post on Instagram. And I started saying Did you know The average doctor spent five to seven minutes of the patient in the room and then they send you off? That's true courage of Jonah. I can't imagine spending five minutes. It's just I think in that relationship, your patients you have enhanced communication.

Dr. Spencer Baron: 27:09

And I often mentioned that that's insurance driven, because the doctor has to run through to how do you develop an understanding? It's

Dr. Howard Elkin: 27:19

insurance, insurance runs. Anyone have to be their purveyors of health care in this country? is ridiculous. Yeah. And patients have to realize they're going to have to pay out of pocket to get certain things done. I do a functional medicine testing. I do pen testing I loved renal just wasn't covered by insurance. They aren't. You know, but if you want to, you know, I do a lot of testing. And I will tell you about at least 60 days, if not more people that come into my office with a heart related problem, also known as your test, test, I guess.

Dr. Spencer Baron: 27:58

The they're just for clarification for our listeners that always think that cholesterol that numbers important to get, and then Peter Attia who is now popularizing, get the cholesterol, low fat, you know, as low as poss or low as possible, or as early as possible. Do you feel the same or differently about that?

Dr. Howard Elkin: 28:23

No. Again, I won't treat anyone with cholesterol lowering medication less I've done a full cardiac, like I said, those advanced panels that I mentioned, I want to know that I want to, again, it's I'm interested in the actual list, not the numbers. But most doctors are like me, they're not going to they're just going to treat it most cardiologists don't do the testing that I do. But again, it's insurance driven. And I got in trouble where they want to that got in trouble. So I can't, I used to get these notices from Blue Shield and maybe you're in too many exams tests. Why can't you be like if you're the cardiologist right after write this letter saying, Okay, what I do is functional medicine, and integrative cardiology, and they don't know what that is. I'm dealing with a bunch of idiots, right? That I have to validate what I do. So they'll get off my back. Now, I haven't gotten a letter in about two years. So maybe they just because I order a lot of these tests, and they aren't covered by insurance, but insurance doesn't want to. They don't want to pay for it. So they call the doctor and tell me Hey, stop it already. You think I could give a hoot about from these insurance companies, the money they were making by by basically being the head of health. It's just It disgusts me really. Insurance driven the patients and villages which is why and I tell people of everything that I do. It's your body. You have to you have to be involved and have to make healthier number one articles out there. Health insurance company with the federal government and Caribbean, it ain't gonna happen. So good.

Dr. Spencer Baron: 30:08

So glad you're saying that. That's such an important point that they're not really interested. They're, they're, they're interested in their their numbers and their volume that you know what's good for you or not. But anyway, I do have a curious question about regenerative medicine in your in your tissue regeneration, like in St. Jude for heart disease. And can you comment more on that, please?

Dr. Howard Elkin: 30:36

Yeah, first of all, I really believe in regenerative medicine, I think there's a role for it. Unfortunately, this country, again, is far behind the times, okay? When you compared to Europe and the Caribbean, Brazil, I mean, I'm a stem cell junkie, I've had stem cells and both shoulders, I told both within a couple of years of shoulders, my right shoulder was like, whole thing. And this is close to. And so I decided to the stem cells and follow the PRP versus surgery. Okay, great results. Okay, all right, back in the gym and 10 days, because exercises cause inflammation, actually age with the healing. So how do you know you didn't do another big MRI that said, doesn't matter. I'm not my MRI, you know, I my symptoms were totally resolved. I'm back at the gym, doing certain things I probably shouldn't be doing. But I'm able to do it. And so I really believe in that. As far as the heart is concerned, I've been studying this for years, like 12 years, in fact, at least actually a bit. More like 15 years, I've been very interested in stem cells in the heart. And we have people that have myocardial myocardial apathy, the heart muscle just fails, whether it's a virus, whether it's a vaccine, whether it's just any number of things can cause it. Now, lots of times these will come back to it can repair over time, if a person has made healing abilities, but sometimes they don't, and you end up with poor ejection fraction. And now, there's been so many heart transplants are out, right? But stem cells, you can actually inject stem cells, your own stem cells directly into the myocardium with an ultrasound or not, it sounds crazy. It's been done in Caribbean has been done in Germany, it's been done. But in all these years, I have I finally gave up trying to I was interested in trying to get this done. But you've done a lot of backing with a company that was interested in using this. Why don't you Oh, they didn't pay me. But I still believe there's a great hope there. But there's a religious and moral things here with stem cells. I mean, really, this is using your own, especially because I use my own stem cells, my stem cells were extracted from my bone marrow, my iliac crest is not that difficult to proceed procedure. And, and I had to I was lucky, I had a good population of stem cells. It's like my age. And I think one style, I got great results. But is there a reason why? You know, it's great for shoulders? It's great for ankles, very good for these. Yes, it's not for everyone. But it's something that's worth looking at. It's not reimbursable by insurance. So you know, a lot of people that otherwise would want to go that route, unable to because of that. Yeah, I mean, you look at all the money that's going on STEM, so I'm not going to add cosmetic surgery right now. Because I chose this instead. But I think there's great promise with myocarditis. We have to do something because I have several patients with heart failure. And these people are my photos analysis. That's the way I like to do that. Without these medicines, they would be dead. That's what it is. But, you know, it's not a great lifestyle. So I think we're missing a lot of opportunities. Regenerative.

Dr. Spencer Baron: 34:31

You mentioned earlier that the stem cell are used in cardiac patients in other countries. Instance. Okay, so, Dr. Terry, did you hear earlier that he said about the vaccines? I know you're dying to ask that one question. Go ahead.

Dr. Terry Weyman: 34:51

All right, we're seeing and it's in the last couple of years I've seen people drop from myocarditis. His heart attacks strokes more than I've ever seen in my 35 years of practice, as even. We're at we're asking, we've asked a lot of people on this show about the COVID virus or Coronavirus. I've we've had some people say, Well, it's because the virus weakened the heart tissue and weaken the gut. And it caused is causing this long term. Comorbidity is causing this long COVID. All that. And then we've had other people say, well, let's do the mRNA vaccine that is causing all these issues. And that's the cause. And we have some people that anytime somebody drops dead, they got the jab. And then we have other people that anybody somebody drops dead. Oh, they must have had long COVID We've had people nutritionists going, Oh, we can fix long COVID Just by looking at magnesium levels looking at this level is not that so I want from a cardiologist standpoint. I want your opinion of what's going on these last couple years.

Dr. Howard Elkin: 36:04

Well, actually, so let's go back to home health endemic because I think all of us by surprise there I for one did not shut my office out even for one day, a lot of cardiologists. Okay, so I stayed up for the whole time. My responsibility, I chose the profession. But they scare the hell out of all of us. Because remember, before before vaccines, okay, well, we told to do, wash hands, wear a mask, and socially distanced himself. I think those alone did a lot of damage, especially as social distancing, and all gyms are closed. As expected, you know, I think I mean, close, it's only 30 37% of people gain weight during COVID. And the average weight gain is 26 pounds, that's a lot of weight. In home making bread and brownies, it didn't work out. But more important that what really got me angry is that I said, Okay, if this is really happening, and people are going to die of this pandemic, where we do in about 30 years, it's got to be an immune problem. Right. And, and yeah, you know, it took Fauci like almost an advanced to say, yeah, there is a role of vitamin D. Like a freaking kidding me, I came out with my own supplement, the four weeks after that, pandemic was declared, and it had I got to do something called immuno wise or heart wise. And so it has vitamin D, of course. Consider review vitamin, I have a few sometimes, vitamin C, vitamin D, zinc. cup, a couple other things, but recording, really directing the immune system. And I was being proactive and encouraging everyone to take this. And then I'll find the vaccines came out and actually came out in December of that year. No, I had to get them because at the hospital, right. So I was first and then I would like that whole vaccine attaching to the answer. Because I was tainted by all the graphs and everything that was happening. As doctors we were, you know, it's like we see you aren't taught to be independent thinker in this profession. You're taught to follow through all the rules. And I actually almost did for a while I'm gonna say even get a vaccine, but why not? mental about it, which is not like me at all. So the system was actually encroaching upon me. And then I started seeing problems. And you know, so I had the vaccines. And I had one or two pieces. I'm not getting any more, because I had to, I didn't have COVID twice, even with the my avian vaccines. I didn't have long COVID I have very mild cases and so forth. But so my last one was the Bucha was September of 22. I don't think it I think it virtual. You don't even know what to believe. All these deaths that took place in the hospitals. They really die of color to just test positive COVID from heart disease. You know what I mean? The information that was gathered was very, very cryptic. You couldn't figure it out. So that I see many microcar I saw a couple of young people with myocarditis fortunately, did heal. Now, what's my feeling now? I will believe, he says, I took this vaccine and this is what happened to me. I mean, believe it if it's a low likelihood, if it happens at all, it's a complication. And I'm gonna leave the patient. So I never questioned anyone what they should or shouldn't do vaccinated individuals voice but I think there's plenty to be skeptical about I was very uncomfortable. So the beginning of the pandemic and once a couple of years, and then I had a little bit of long COVID. And I tried a few on COVID nutritional therapy, and so we did a lot of things. So I don't mean each and every convoluted answer, but it's confusing. And I think the average doctor just tells you what the whole thing. I mean, it's government says this, we should do that. And as in charge of health care, you know, we're going to do it. Now I question that.

Dr. Spencer Baron: 40:39

So Oh, yeah. Especially, especially with the fact that, you know, even earlier you were talking about even a vitamin supplement, or, or I think you were talking about a stat and and you you said one size, this one size does not fit all, and I thought, Oh, that is the vaccine. They think that one size fits all. And we know better. That that's that was we you know, as chiropractors we related to that is, so I guess everybody should get their spine, their neck cracked, right? No, we have, you know, we discriminate between conditions that we find after an exam, but now they're, you know, vaccinating everybody with the same thing. Yeah,

Dr. Howard Elkin: 41:23

exactly. So I understand the confusion. I think everyone's can help providers all the way through patience. I think a lot of bad was a whole social acts are ugly people have panic attacks and insomnia. A person arrives, because they couldn't leave the house. Or they couldn't, you know, I mean, or you had to, you know, you had to say hi to your friend, and I had one lady. She and his best friend, they used to walk together every day. Now, they would meet up for a few minutes. Like, she's in one car, she's in another No, we get out of a car. This is what it did. People were living in fear. And I think that's the worst thing. What's

Dr. Spencer Baron: 42:11

interesting, is it Secretary and I were talking about, you know, what you deal with out in California is very different from what we had here in Florida. There was a lot more lenient, I mean, people were allowed to go to the park. And yeah. Jerry was telling me that they had cops at the parks, and you can, you can come in here. Right?

Dr. Howard Elkin: 42:34

You're right. We were there. Because of my, my troubles my sisters have in Florida, and my mother, and my brother was graduating California. So I was already familiar with going on there. So, you know, very different. Yeah, I don't place to manage on people. I think I become a lot less judgment that really started to affect me I was becoming, well, you gotta get a vaccine, you know, what wasn't based on, you know, one size fits all right, or you got to do it or you'll die. But the people that were dying weren't healthy to begin with. I mean, this really struck me was when there was this one African American man, early on, losing intubated for like, weeks. I mean, he barely survived. So here we are. They're taking photos of him outside and getting ready to leave the hospital. Because he survived, right? What's in his lap, a box of Krispy Kreme Doughnuts. I mean, really, will give me words in that. So, and they're publicizing this like, well, he's just a fiver. Yeah, but look what you're promoting. This is what? Diabetic hypertensive overweight, you know. Yeah. I won't go into whether the government trying to depopulate the benefit of exotic which I won't go into but it makes it seems right. I mean, yeah.

Dr. Spencer Baron: 44:03

Well, now, you know, I wanted to ask you that, you know, there's a lot more information or studies coming out now that were censored back then. And it's pretty enlightening. You know, some of the things have you read some of that stuff? Yeah,

Dr. Howard Elkin: 44:19

I have. It's eerie. I mean, I was Suzanne Somers, passed away. Friend and also patient a moment, I'll just say that. But she, you know, she promoted environmental hormones, after the lens movements have finished in 2002. Anyway, so she's at his convention as a keynote speaker, and she's with these people out of bar and drink. And he was from a pretty well known, Big Pharma group. Anyway, she ends up actually out and she had strict poison But she was poisoned and cheated by the by the hospital and she was UNCLOS respiratory arrest. But I mean, she wrote about this in one of her books. So you have to be very careful. I mean, I, I have to be below up to doctors, and they're these mysterious deaths. It was a very well known alternative. Dr. Hansen, Dr. Suzanne knew them quite well. I didn't know him, but I had a couple my patients. And Dr. Gonzalez on the New York Manhattan. And this guy was misusing, did one day go into why or how no autopsy was done?

Dr. Spencer Baron: 45:43

So I've heard these stories if

Dr. Howard Elkin: 45:45

you're too much. They don't like don't mess around with the establishment. So there's a fine line. So I'm careful about I don't try to diss governmental, the FDA that we know the things going on. First, Jerry and I think censorship is the beginning of it all. If they want you to hear it, I'm telling you guys heard about it want you to hear. I think it was last week. So the FT government hired a bunch of scientists that in itself to me it says that government are a bunch of scientists, who are the scientists were they from where their expertise. But anyway, what was the statement? That processed foods? Yes, yes. You guys hear that? Oh, yeah. You got to be kidding me. You know, so let's keep promoting because who is supporting these people? Easily as General Mills, Sara Lee McDonald, you name it. As all these companies that I did. I profiled on Instagram. I did some research on McDonald's french fries, which I won't eat. But I think they very tried to do bad you got oil, potatoes, salt. There's like 26 ingredients. Most of us I can't pronounce words.

Dr. Terry Weyman: 47:12

Yeah, there's a well known newspaper that you've been said. Doughnuts. And so this for kids is not that bad. It's like what? Yeah, so I agree with you.

Dr. Howard Elkin: 47:28

We're perpetuating a very ill society. You know, we're like the number of 35 on the longevity chart. And this country spends more on health care than any other civilized country. And we're like, 35, that's helped. And our lifespan is going down. There's no wonder it's lifestyle, its diet, its lack of exercise. Kids are not, you know, when I was a kid, in school, we went out and played ball on the streets on the streets. until the right time, we'd have dinner, we had to do our homework. And we were lucky, I get 30 minutes of TV time, nobody from channels. Now kids aren't doing anything unless the parents slept. And the both parents are working. I'll see. I see kids, you know, out on a potential visit my daughter, grandchildren, who this kid is on a phone, probably one seven years old. They've already shown that screen time into developing drones is really bad. And the you know, the purchase just isn't well, you know, keeping the client, really. So this is what we're seeing. We're not a healthy country. And that's why see what I do guys, I have to call in. So my book was really about my story. And then it became more what can I do to get more mode health, medical and not trying to stand out? I'm just trying to do

Dr. Spencer Baron: 49:06

so what you touched off on on stress, I know that stress is such a has such a profound effect on cortisol levels, which is such a negative effect on the on the body and you know, what, what do you what else are you doing? Or advocating to reduce stress you actually said earlier that you meditated there other things that you advocate? Yeah.

Dr. Howard Elkin: 49:34

I've done a couple of YouTubes on this. I think I really am become, I'm really into the vagus nerve since we don't need any training in fight or flight right. Now, we're all living a world of sympathetic overdrive. So we're pretty name we're training on how to you know how to run a savage Tiger, right? But we don't know how to relax and so you vagus nerve is even a device that I've used, called, yeah, mcare Thermacore. Mechanically, but, you know, there's exercises to do our CO fathers exercise. But we need to convey to servers the longest of the cranial nerves and that goes beyond the neck. So it goes to all your visceral organs. So when I think vagus nerve, I think, rest and digest, rest and digest. And that's what we are doing. We're eating fashion than ever. And come up with those background. I can tell you, that's how we live. I mean, you know, it takes 20 minutes for the gut to tell the brain you got enough, right? We don't wait. So So I do that. But let me give you an example though. So a woman comes to me, lovely lady, educated. She has all these extra beats be called prematurity that these will usually be not. So she had 30 303,300 like two years ago. So her cardiologist was supposed to be integrative. And Burbank said, Let's do another one. So that she donated for 24 hours. She had like 60,000 votes. I've never seen anybody with these many visas. You got to present a beta blocker. I want you to see electrophysiologists. And she said no. And how she ended up me. So I spent a lot of time with she her husband said five hits. She works full time. Her father, she was the only child passed away of COVID. Two years ago, she was a major caregiver progress. So you go in and read you ever finished yet. And she's so deep into Ellen back and said, your adrenals are probably shot. So what am I doing? I'm doing adrenal testing in her, can you get an idea of what's going on there and also blood testing with I guarantee her microbiome is that much stress and maintain an oral microbiome and that there's a definite heart, a gut heart connection that we're finally getting, I look at the gut when I can't figure out what's going on. Functional Medicine, we're going to keep searching to advisable. We've got as often as she felt so relieved that I'm actually trying to identify a cause for her that just put her on medication. And she she's a blood pressure of 98. She's very healthy. Still feel like crap, when she's put on this medication. And she's seeing another doctor for our electrophysiological study. PVCs are relatively benign. Okay, so you know, more better than to treat but figure out why they're there. That's the approach. And once she comes back, and we figured out it's stress, I will sit down with her and teach her how to breathe. That's one thing I do. I sit my patients down and say let's work on growth. There's box breathing in this alchemical napkin method, which I like better is inhale for four seconds, through the nose, hold for two seconds, you know, one times 1000 steps over four COVID and I put my TV I hear a hissing sound kind of like the audible sound, but more importantly, they do get excited. They forget how to exhale. Well, he's going to inhale because we live without oxygen trapped off in their lungs. So I know I'm probably one of the few doctors that actually teach people how to breathe. But I can't just do a test to say I got good news and bad news and good. hearts find all the testing is normal. That is a little bit more emotional. So I feel like also part of what I need to do. I teach people how to breathe and we do it together. I spend like 1015 minutes going over breathing and they you do it together then demonstrate 10 H the minute you wake up