“For Me, I Have My Life Back”
Those were Teresa's words, when she tried what I’m about to share right now.
Her chronic condition was ruining her life, and sapping her joy.
“Dr. Sisskind, I’ve seen four different doctors. They think it’s fibromyalgia, and I’m on all these meds now. But my energy is at rock bottom, I’m always achy… I’m at my wits end.”
Colleen felt isolated, but she wasn’t alone.
My name is Dr. Steve Sisskind, and over the last two decades, I’ve uncovered what I believe to be the root cause of these conditions.
And the early warning signs?
- Persistently Low Energy
- Frequent Brain Fog
- Achy Joints & Back Muscles
Far too many people - and their doctors - merely call these “signs of aging,” but I take them very seriously.
For years, I only discussed this with collegues… frankly, I’m concerned that going public with some of this information could put a target on my back.
That’s the last thing I want. There are some very powerful people and corporations, who are profiting from making their fellow Americans sick.
But this issue has been covered up for far too long. It’s time that someone pulled back the curtain. And what I’ve found is that...
When You Are Tired, Foggy and Achy,
An Overactive Inflammatory Response
Is Often To Blame
It’s also known as a “Chronic” Inflammatory Response. Time Magazine recently named it “America’s #1 Killer,” yet very few doctors talk about it, or diagnose it.
Let me explain how it works, and why it causes low energy, fogginess, and achiness.
You see, whenever the body gets exposed to “foreign stuff” like bacteria, viruses, fungi, bug bites, toxic chemicals, and even some foods, the immune system responds by unleashing little proteins called cytokines.
Cytokines are like the body’s police force. They work together to attack the “foreign stuff.” The affected area gets inflamed, red and itchy while the battle is underway.
This is called an “acute inflammatory response,” and it’s a very good thing. It helps the body defend itself and heal.
But What Happens When The Immune System Goes Too Far?
That’s when it becomes chronic, or an “overactive inflammatory response.”
The cytokines have gone from being an orderly police force, to a marauding group of vigilantes…
…and these vigilante cytokines roam the body… into joints, organs and even the brain… setting inflammatory fires wherever they go.
So the immune system is chronically “at war,” and people start to feel like they’re a little bit sick: tired, foggy, achy, unmotivated.
The immune system is literally the master switch for how we think, move and experience life… so when it’s stressed and overworked, we feel pretty awful.
Now please understand: this condition doesn’t happen overnight - it can take years or even decades to develop.
But make no mistake: low energy, fogginess, and persistent aches are not the normal conditions of aging. They are telltale signs of an overactive inflammatory response, and an immune system that needs help.
And when people come to us with these issues, the first thing we tell them about are...
The Inflammatory Fire Starters In American Households
You see, in the past fifty years, big companies have unleashed thousands of new, man-made chemicals that weren’t around when the human immune systems was designed.
Everything from flame retardants in our furniture, to aluminum in our antiperspirants, to chlorine in our tap water, to parabens in our shampoos and makeup.
Then the moment we step outside, we’re swimming in carbon pollution.
All of these chemicals look like “foreign stuff” to the immune system, so it unleashes a cytokine attack.
Think of it this way: if someone chugged a cup of chlorine, or breathed in a mouthful of exhaust fumes, their body would have an intense, acute inflammatory reaction as it tried to eliminate these chemicals from the body.
And the exact same thing happens when we’re exposed in smaller doses… the only difference is that low-level exposure, causes a low-level inflammatory response.
We don’t feel it at first, but if the immune system is in low-level attack mode 24/7, it really takes a toll over years and decades.
Yet these chemicals are only one of the new, modern inflammatory threats. The other serious problem is…
The Highly Inflammatory
American Diet And Food Supply
Our bodies were not designed for the food that has flooded our supermarkets and restaurants. In fact, our modern diets are radically different from what our ancestors ate.
For example, they rarely ate sugar, since fruit was only in season once or twice a year.
We, on the other hand, often have more sugar in a day than our ancestors did in a week. And what we now know is that too much sugar has a cascade effect, which ultimately triggers an inflammatory response.
In one study, they found that adding just one can of soda per day led to higher inflammatory markers, and that those who drank it tended to gain more weight, too.1
In a second study, they found that a 50-gram dose of fructose causes a spike in an inflammatory marker called CRP, 30 minutes later. And CRP remained high for over two hours!
Now imagine what happens if that’s happening after every breakfast, lunch and dinner. Vigilante cytokines are in nonstop “attack mode”… and inflammatory fires keep growing.2
And in a third study, eating just 50 grams of refined carbs in the form of white bread resulted in higher blood sugar levels, and an increase in the inflammatory marker Nf-kB.3
There are countless more such studies, but we need to move on to the next big dietary problem: the Omega 3 to Omega 6 ratio.
Our ancestors had a balanced ratio of anti-inflammatory Omega 3’s, and inflammatory Omega 6 fatty acids, which came from animals they hunted and fished.
We, on the other hand, eat corn-fed meat, and farm-raised fish, which are fattened up for taste, but dangerously high in inflammatory Omega 6’s.4
In fact, some unethical farmers have gone so far as to feed CANDY to their cows!!
(It also just so happens that the US government provides massive subsidies to corn growers... who are fattening their pockets at the taxpayer’s expense, while fattening our arteries and waistlines).
Even Our Fruits, Vegetables, Grains And Oils Have Been Compromised
Our ancestors ate nuts, berries and vegetables right from the ground.
We, on the other hand, have been spraying our produce with pesticides like glyphosate - you might know it as “Round Up” – that have been shown to make us sick, cause gut and whole body inflammatory responses5, and lead to celiac disease and depressed feelings.6
That delicious breadbasket they serve at dinner? If the bread isn’t organic, then chances are that its grains have been soaked in glyphosate.
And glyphosate is not only sprayed on most of our produce, but also, it’s sprayed on the produce that we feed our animals… making its way into their meat.
Now, how about the way that our food is prepared?
Well, our ancestors didn’t eat fried foods, period, and they got oils in their diet by eating whole olives, nuts and fish.
We, on the other hand, use vegetable and palm oil for everything from frying to thickening. Much of it has gone through a dangerous process called interesterification, which has been linked to an overactive inflammatory response.
Big Food rolled out this interesterified fat when trans-fats were outlawed, but studies are just now being published that expose it for the fatal fat that it is.
For example… in one study, they found that rats fed a diet high in interesterified palm oil had extremely high levels of inflammatory cytokines like IL-1?eta and IL-6… and that their arteries started to develop dangerous lesions!7
(Shockingly, the FDA doesn’t even require manufacturers to tell us when their oil has been interesterified - my rule is, avoid palm and vegetable oils whenever possible)
And let’s not forget the thousands of man-made chemicals that have snuck into our food. High fructose corn syrup, MSG, Red Dye #7...
The fact is…
Our Bodies Just Weren’t Designed For Our Modern Diets
And we need look no further than the skyrocketing rates of adults with erratic blood sugar levels, and childhood obesity, to know that we’re driving into the danger zone, faster and faster every year.
For Americans whose waistlines have grown in response to all of these dietary toxins, there’s more bad news:
Fat cells are like little cytokine factories, churning out more and more of these inflammatory proteins, as fat cells grow larger.8
And remember – the more cytokines there are circulating in the body, the more stressed the immune system is, and the more tired, foggy and achy we feel.
It’s a vicious cycle that has trapped far too many of our great people…
…and the worst thing of all is that it often leads to greater susceptibility to cold, flus and diseases.
With the immune system running on overdrive against the thousands of man-made chemicals and food toxins, it doesn’t have the energy to fight off the really bad stuff like viruses and bacteria.
That’s why people with an overactive inflammatory response often get sick more often.
Unfortunately, neither big food, nor the government, seems to be looking out for us… quite the opposite, in fact.
I believe that this is why millions of Americans spend their days feeling “off,” and it’s why…
We Do Our Best To Find Out What's
Actually Wrong With Our Customers
For example, I always recommend they get a battery of tests - everything from stool samples, to hormones, to blood analysis, to search for the root cause of their issues.
Two tests I always recommend people get are C-Reactive Protein, and Sedimentation Rate. These are the first markers of an overactive inflammatory response.
(And I’d advise anyone who is dealing with low energy, depressed feelings, fogginess and aches to ask their doctor to run these tests.)
Over the years, I’ve noticed an alarmingly high correlation between customers who complain of low energy, moodiness, fogginess and aches… and an overactive inflammatory response.
I still remember Julia, whose lower back issues had completely sidelined her. She walked with a cane, she was addicted to opioids and ibuprofen, and she was considering getting a wheelchair. My heart broke for her, and the tests confirmed what I already suspected: her inflammatory markers were out of control.
Her Doctor put her on a program to get off the opioids, and believe it or not, we insisted that she STOP taking her ibuprofen regularly.
Over-the-counter meds like ibuprofen work by inhibiting two enzymes – called COX-1 and COX-2 – which react to the various foreign invaders in the body, and summon the Cytokine Police.
The problem is that these enzymes are essential to health. And when they’re blocked for too long, people end up with leaky gut, intestinal bleeding, and worse! According to one study9, over 100,000 Americans are hospitalized every year from NSAIDs.
It’s practically criminal that there isn’t more education about this.
Fortunately, Julia responded surprisingly well to the solution I’m about to share, and that awful fate did not befall her. And while her change didn’t happen overnight, these days, her life is bristling with energy and joy.
Then there was Steven, whose first words to me were…
“Dr. Sisskind, I Just Want To Feel Happy and Healthy Once Again”
Steven was on a high dose of SSRI’s. He was spending thousands of dollars a year on prescription meds and therapy, but he still felt like he was “being dragged down by heavy weights.”
Now here’s something interesting: there is a growing body of evidence that shows that in many cases, depressed feelings are caused by an overactive inflammatory response.
How?
Well, the brain has its own cytokine patrol, known as “microglia.” (that’s pronounced mi-CRO-glee-uh).
Normally, microglia remain dormant, only kicking in when there’s a concussion or some sort of brain trauma.
But what we’ve now discovered is that when there are too many vigilante cytokines in the bloodstream, they can cross the blood-brain barrier, and “ignite” the microglia.
In other words, an inflammatory response in the body, can ignite an inflammatory response in the brain.
So for many people with depressed feelings, the problem is not a serotonin imbalance (which is why they still feel awful, even when they take SSRI’s).
The problem is that their brain is “on fire.” And since the brain doesn’t have pain receptors, they experience it as fogginess, moodiness, and depressed feelings.
Eventually, These Issues Become “A Part Of Life”
…an unwanted daily companion that just makes life worse!
Unfortunately, many people accept these conditions as signs of aging, but I see them as bright red warning lights.
Now imagine that someone was driving your car, and a warning light came on. That would tell them that there was a major problem with the car.
So if they pulled out a roll of duct tape, and covered the warning light with it, that’d be the wrong way to solve the problem, yes?
They’d be risking the car, and their own life, every time they got behind the wheel.
Yet that’s exactly what happens, every time someone takes ibuprofen for aches that won’t go away…
It’s what happens when they pump themselves full of SSRI’s, sleep meds, caffeine and other uppers to deal with mood and energy issues…
These Are The Warning Light On The Human "Dashboard"
And every people use surface-level fixes to try to solve deep-rooted problems, the problems just grow bigger and bigger.
No wonder so many Americans are suffering.
For example, Dr. Don Colbert, bestselling author of “Let Food Be Your Medicine,” wrote...
“Heart disease is hidden in more than half of adults over the age of thirty five. About half of the people who have heart attacks have normal cholesterol levels. The root cause of heart diseases is not high cholesterol, but an overactive inflammatory response.”10
And Dr. Floyd Chilton, of the Wake Forest School of Medicine, wrote...
“One of the things that strikes me whenever I’m in a room with a group of inflammatory disease sufferers is how much of their conversation deals not with their diseases, but with managing the side effects of their medications."11
I’ve experienced the exact same, and out of a sense of duty, my nights became an obsessive journey into solving this problem.
I started with journal articles, and clinical studies, and my desk was soon stacked with highlighted print-outs of every study I could find related to energy, mobility, brain fog depressed feelings, and the immune system.
After months of research, I had a striking realization.
Perhaps you’ve heard the saying “all roads lead to Rome”?
That was exactly what I unearthed in the mountains of clinicals on my desk.
Study after study revealed that there are four ringleaders of the “Cytokine Police,” known as TNF-alpha, Interleukin 6, Interleukin 1-Beta, and Prostaglandin E2.12
Now you don’t have to remember these complicated names - that’s my job - but what you do need to know is that these “Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse” trigger a torrent of inflammatory activity.
Joints and muscles are the front lines of the assault, which is where the aches often come from.
Then the cytokines begin to invade organs, and the brain. Interleukin 6 is the cytokine that travels to the brain leading to brain fog, depression, weight gain, and degenerative brain disease.
Prostaglandin E2 wreaks havoc across your body, and can lead to severe allergy, asthma and skin conditions. In fact, the prescription drug Singulair specifically blocks this cytokine.
And can you guess what triggers the release of these four cytokines?
If you guessed things like environmental toxins, and our modern diets and food supply, congratulations: you’ve been paying attention and you clearly care about your energy, your health and your longevity.
Once I had identified these Four Horsemen, my next phase of research was spent looking for solutions.
And let’s be honest....
There Was No Way To Eliminate
Or Avoid All Of The Toxic Chemicals
In The Food, Air, And Water Supplies.
So I knew that any solution had four requirements:
Requirement 1:
First, it had to bring balance to the inflammatory response... to help the immune system run correctly… and not just cover up the symptoms with cellular duct tape.
Low energy, a depressed mood and persistent aches are the early warning signs that the Four Horsemen are on a rampage.
So I had to close the door on them. I wanted people to experience discomfort-free movement, boundless energy, and joy once again.
Requirement 2:
Second, it had to be all-natural. As we already discussed, study after study has shown that synthetic drugs that are cooked up in Big Pharma’s labs often have awful side effects.
Requirement 3:
It had to provide life-changing results. Our customers were struggling.
And I didn’t want to develop another protocol where people feel “hey this might or might not be working but heck I’ll keep taking it because it can’t hurt right?”
No. this had to be a game changer. The kind of solution where you’d look back on the day you started and say THAT was when I got my life back.