Ep. 183 - Lupus, Rheumatoid Arthritis, And The Names That Explain Nothing

A listener diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis five months ago writes in, and Dr. Lodi stops on the verb. "We might as well change the word to nailed," he says. A diagnosis, on his account, tells you neither how you got the problem nor how to get rid of it; its value belongs to the diagnoser, because the name lets them "stick you onto the sales algorithm."The longest block of the show goes to a listener asking about lupus. "Lupus looks like a wolf," he says, arguing it records only a red rash someone once saw. What is there instead, he argues, is not an immune system attacking its owner but one out of balance, tilted toward TH2, away from TH1. He asks whether the antibodies on a blood test caused the condition or followed it, and calls them a response, a downstream epiphenomenon. His evidence is a case of his own: a woman with a badly overactive thyroid he says he gave iodine, not the usual drugs. He says her symptoms cleared, her immune markers stayed abnormal for years, and he kept adjusting the iodine until those normalized too, his proof they followed the problem. He wants cleansing and medicinal mushrooms, and says emergencies are different: a broken leg or sepsis is what allopathic doctors are for.Before the mailbag, the chat asks whether his antiparasitic drugs are dangerous. All drugs are poisons, he says. With ivermectin and the benzimidazoles, he says, the liver clears them, so he tells people to check the liver first, and to have someone guiding them if it is already inflamed. Then a son who cannot function on antiparasitics, heart medication during a cleanse, stage four cirrhosis, and a fear that what killed a sister runs in families. Under it all: "There's only one way to get healthy, and that is by living healthy." The last question is from a listener with swollen ankles who has been fainting. Fainting could be dehydration, he says; it is the ankles that sound to him like congestive heart failure, a bad name on his account: it does not mean the heart failed. He adds it is not enough information to say.Covered in this episodeWhether antiparasitic drugs are dangerousAntiparasitics and liver functionA son who cannot function on antiparasiticsHeart medication and a parasite cleanseRheumatoid arthritis and what he says a diagnosis is forWhat he says the name lupus recordsAutoimmunity as a TH1 and TH2 imbalance, he saysWhat he says medicinal mushrooms do for natural killer cellsFainting and swollen anklesSend us Fan Mail Join Dr. Lodi's Inner Circle membership and unlock exclusive access to webinars, healthy recipes, e-books, educational videos, live Zoom Q&A sessions with Dr. Lodi, plus fresh content every month. Elevate your healing journey today by visiting drlodi.com and use the coupon code podcast (all lowercase: P-O-D-C-A-S-T) for 30% off your first month on any membership option. Support the showThis episode is the audio of Dr. Lodi's free Sunday Night Live, where he answers health and cancer questions sent in by viewers.He goes live every Sunday at 8pm New York time on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.Send your question in before the show:https://drlodi.com/contact-dr-lodi/livestream-qa/Follow Dr. LodiYouTube: youtube.com/@DrThomasLodiFacebook: facebook.com/DrThomasLodiInstagram: instagram.com/drthomaslodiTikTok: tiktok.com/@drthomaslodimd