Dr. David and Daniel Root became fascinated with the process of body detoxification when they saw significant results with their patients. But in Daniel’s case, it was the health struggles of a loved one that opened his eyes. In this episode of The Brain Warrior’s Way Podcast, the Roots give their unique and efficient method of clearing toxins from the body. Hint: It involves saunas…
Dr. Daniel Amen: Welcome to The Brain Warrior's Way Podcast. I'm Dr. Daniel Amen.
Tana Amen: I'm Tana Amen. In our podcast, we provide you with the tools you need to become a warrior for the health of your brain and body.
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Dr. Daniel Amen: Welcome back. We are talking about detoxification rescue. I think that's where we should call it. This week we're here with Dr. David Root, his son Daniel, and Marie Principe. I'm just...
Tana Amen: Interesting.
Dr. Daniel Amen: ... Fascinated, blown away. I know what the brains of the people exposed to toxins look like, that's how I got interested. Because I would see these awful looking brains and I'm like, "Oh, maybe they're a drug addict." But they weren't. Then I had to go, "Well what is it? It could be mold exposure, an environmental toxin, maybe an infection."
Tana Amen: Or like they said, painting.
Dr. Daniel Amen: I have great painter stories as well. But lets bring Daniel in. Because I know you're involved in working with your father, but you've actually been an entrepreneur in the field of information technology for a long time, and so switching over to managing your dad's practice must've been interesting. Tell us about your role in all of this, Daniel.
Daniel Root: Well, thank you for having us on. My role really started back in 1985. I was asked by my father to set up a billing system and a practice management system, and back in 1985 we didn't have DOS, we didn't have Windows, we didn't have any of the main things today, but I did find a suitable platform and installed it at his office. Well, as I was the only one who had ever put this particular hardware with the operating system and the medical billing system together, I was the only one who really knew it and I wound up having to support it and I went to work for him. As part of the requirements for working for them, I like to say they volunteered me to go through the detox program, and I actually went 33 days on the program and it was about four to five hours a day back then.
Daniel Root: I can tell you that I have attributed my excellent health, the rest of my adult life, to that program. Throughout the years I was in and out of his medical practice as his IT specialist because I'd started my own IT company. I basically launched from his medical practice. I was in and out of there a lot and I was very, very excited about what that protocol represented, but it was pretty well exclusive in the occupational medical world. What happened was, after the 2003 period where most of the Scientologists that were working with my father went to New York, I wound up taking over as the Interim Executive Director for the medical practice. During that time, we really were no longer actively doing the detox at the medical clinic. It was pretty much exclusively, at that point, in New York. The work they did was phenomenal. They did just wonderful things out there, but we weren't actively doing it in Sacramento.
Daniel Root: Well, around 2012 my wife, Susie, was diagnosed with hyperthyroidism. We just accepted her primary care provider's advice to have her thyroid destroyed with radioactive iodine. After that occurred, she wasn't getting any better. In fact, not only was she getting worse, she was now beholden to the pharmaceutical industry for her thyroid medication and that wasn't sitting well with us. We wound up doing some research that we really should have done prior to the REI therapy, and that's when we discovered two things that changed our world. If we had changed our diet and stop eating these prepackaged, processed, convenience or fast foods, non-GMO, organic foods, eat the organics and also maybe even grow our own food, that would have been one of the two things that would have changed her story and her outcome.
Daniel Root: The second thing was we realized that toxins, or really what are called xenobiotics, the foreign chemicals and heavy metals to the body, these are the ones that are fat stored if they're lipophilic kind, or fat loving, they get sequestered in the fat because the natural detoxification pathways are just not going to be able to process them properly. If you will, to protect the other organs, these toxins are being sequestered away and unfortunately, that includes the brain, which is 60 to 70% fat, as you well know.
Daniel Root: We're seeing a lot of problems like your autoimmune, endocrine, inflammatory, and neurological diseases have a basis in poor nutrition and xenobiotics. What really destroyed my feeling about the medical solution that they provided my wife was the fact that, if we had just put her through that detox program and changed our diet, her outcome would have been completely different. I really made it a mission of mine to see this come to the health and wellness world after that occurred so that others don't have to suffer the fate that she did.
Dr. Daniel Amen: Such a great story. I was actually on a podcast yesterday and the host basically said, "Type 2 diabetes is a lifestyle choice." And I'm like, "You want to rethink that a little bit." Yes, for some Type 2 diabetes is because they're eating toxic, poisonous food, but for other people they've been poisoned. There's actually this fascinating book called The Toxin Solution. If you guys haven't seen it, I love it. It's by Joe Pizzorno.
Daniel Root: Actually, if I may interrupt, I do refer to it in my books on a Detoxification Using Niacin. I actually recommend people go through that. [crosstalk 00:07:08]
Dr. Daniel Amen: Yeah, it's a wonderful book. He basically said both diabetes and obesity is not just a lifestyle issue.
Tana Amen: It's the obesogens.
Dr. Daniel Amen: It's the obesogens that it is involved in toxicity. That's why, for us, if you want to keep your brain healthy or rescue if it's headed to the dark place, you have to prevent or treat the 11 major risk factors that steal your mind. Our mnemonic is bright minds and the T is toxins. Now, it's not the only thing, but it's clearly one of the hallmark things.
Tana Amen: It's a bug one.
Dr. Daniel Amen: If you want to treat your anxiety, your depression, your beginning dementia, your ADD, whatever, and you know a lot about thyroid issues.
Tana Amen: I went down the thyroid road to Hell. Yeah. I get it.
Dr. Daniel Amen: Which of the three of you want to tell us about the program? Now in this podcast, we only have three minutes left, but then we'll spend a lot of the next one on the actual program itself. Who can give us a high level overview of what this is?
Dr David Root: Well, let me just go through the Hubbard detox and I'll let Dan explain the changes that he's put in place with the detoxination program. The way the Hubbard program works, it's based on the methods which he found would mobilize fat and by doing that. One releases that toxic materials and toxic metals and so on, stored there in into the bloodstream. The mechanisms that he used were a niacin, which is a key ingredient because it's a very potent life a lytic if it's used properly. He used exercise, aerobic type exercise, which also is well known to cause lipolysis and also heat exposure in the sauna. Putting those three together with proper replenishment, nutrition and so on is the way that the program works.
Dr David Root: The way it actually shakes out is that the individual comes into the facility, takes the niacin and the ideal is to wait for two hours, but when we were doing it in my clinic, it was usually more like 45 minutes, so we weren't getting the full benefit from the niacin. After about 30 to 40 minutes, the niacin flush hits. Now some people consider this to be a toxic reaction, but it really isn't. It's a reaction which we use because by causing the flushing, the individual is going to sweat at a much higher level. It does encourage sweating. You have that. In the interim, while we're waiting for the niacin flush, the individual would exercise on a treadmill, go out and walk, do pushups, whatever exercise that the individual could do depending on his or her fitness background. Then when the flush hits into the sauna, they would go. Now in my clinic I always used the typical convection sauna because that's all we had for the most part back in those days.
Dr David Root: The flushing is at a maximum about the time they go into the sauna and not only the liquid sweat but the sebaceous sweat, the lipid part of the sweat, is maximize. They'll sit in the sauna up to five, 10, 15, 20 minutes. Up to tolerance, really. There's no maximum time that they have to sit in the sauna. When they feel uncomfortable, they come out, they take a shower, they cleanse off whatever sweat and other materials that are on the skin. Rest, replenish fluids and electrolytes and then go back into the sauna. They may be in the four or five hour period that we had them on the program. They would be in and out of the sauna, maybe five to seven times. Then at the end of the period they would replenish electrolytes for the last time and they would be given vitamins to take when they got home.
Dr David Root: There's a very definite a replenishment program because obviously you're not just removing the toxic materials out through the sweat, you're also removing some of the vitamins and a lot of other minerals that need to be replenished. Without putting those back into the system, the person could theoretically get very, very sick. We did not have a problem with that. There were practically never any problems from the niacin or from the sauna exposure, and we had absolutely remarkable results in probably 99% of the patients we put through the program.
Dr. Daniel Amen: Wow. Well, when we come back, we're going to unpack this a little bit more. Talk about some of the dosages of niacin, other exercise. Stay with us. Fascinating discussion with Dr. Daniel Root, Anne Marie Principe, stay with us.
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