Part 2: Dr. Cook Q&A Series with Richard Rossi

 You know, life is so precious and then losing someone, and it's one thing if everybody knew that it was gonna happen and had been coming on for six months and or a year. And there, you know, you, you let a long life. But it's another thing when life is clutched away from you. And then here we're. The possibility of this happening to millions of people.

You're listening to the Bio Reset Medical Podcast with Dr. Matthew Cook. Oh, hey. Uh, well it's great to be here, everybody, and thank you Richard for, uh, being with me in helping to support moderate and ask questions. Um, absolutely. Do you have anywhere where you wanna start or you want me to kind of launch into a couple ideas?

Well, you know, I know you're gonna talk a lot of medicine, but you were a guy who also ran big medical systems and you've seen a lot of people, you've seen a lot of situations, you've seen a lot of pain, you've seen a lot of death, you've seen a lot of scared people. What, what's your take on this country right now?

What, how do you see it? It's, it's never been like this before. How do you compare it to other things you've seen in your life? You know, that's an amazing, amazing question. Um, so I, I actually have more hope than I've ever had at this, at this moment.

I would say if you asked me that question a year ago, I would've said, you know, there's a bunch of interesting stuff going on in hospitals that I'm super supportive of. Cause you know, I used to take care of patients on ventilators in the icu, um, and there's a bunch of super amazing stuff and integrative medicine and regenerative medicine and all of these different facets.

And I think with this is gonna require the all. So yesterday we had like this deep dive with Terry on integrative medicine, which I super enjoyed. Um, and this is probably the first time in our lives, even though you and me have probably been quite interested in, in the whole spectrum, this is the first time where if we're really gonna get people better, we're gonna have to embrace everything.

Um, and so because of that, I think that's factor. Like if I, if Genie came out bottle right now, I don't think it. Well, I would say like I would really like to have like some, a fairly sizeable amount of money. And if you think about it, this is what the Chinese did. They built a couple hospitals to deal with it, and I feel like what we need is a, we needed to build a couple state situations.

Or take a couple places that are treating people and start to incorporate IV vitamin C. Start to incorporate peptides. Start to start, do some very robust trials where we look at the best. That, that, that, uh, medicine at large, uh, has to offer and then start to gather that data. And then what we're gonna be able to do is get data, uh, on an expedited basis, and then publish share, and then have more people doing this.

And then all of a sudden we're gonna.

Growth in terms of knowledge that wasn't, wasn't even available before. And so I'm, I'm kind of like sitting on the sidelines and I'm waiting for that opportunity. And I, I spent today talking to a couple scientists about putting together a little trial of, uh, people who are smarter than me, terms of being.

Actually get, get, get something approved that we can then go out and start to treat people and then, and then see, see how we compare to what else is being done out there. You think? I think, um, oh, I was just wondering if you think there's going to be any, um, any real reform when it comes to. The glacial pace, uh, bureaucracy of medical institutions like the fda.

I mean, this is, I think the president described it as kinda a wartime footing. Do you think it's gonna lead to any breakthroughs in that regard? Well, that's, that's what I'm of, is

they're data driven organization. And so to me that's like, I would love to talk to somebody from the fda. They'll be like, most people are like, oh my God, the fda. But if, if I could talk to some somebody from the fda, it would make me so happy because then we can, I think that there's a lot that we can do from a perspective.

Of, of, um, of getting data and gathering it, you know, so I think there's, we're facing this big opportunity and, and, and maybe we weren't ready. We weren't ready to collect that data. We weren't ready five years ago, but maybe we're ready now and so now's gonna be the perfect time for this whole thing to happen.

Yeah, that's interesting. And what, like, the other thing that occurred to me is that you really saw a lot of the best and worst of human beings when you were in the field. Um, and, and here we are with a lot of people realizing, oh my God, you know, we, we never thought it would be us. We never thought anything like this could happen to us.

And now it's us. Overall, I've been pretty, kind of almost patriotically impressed and with how just everyday people are reacting to this, except for the run on toilet paper that I'll never understand. Well, what, what, how do you, how do you kinda compare it to your experiences in, in the hospital and just like the way you perceive humanity?

Well, overall, I would say I'm just.

Super excited in that sense. Cause it feels like we're at this coming together. We're like, you know, you know the last time that the world was kinda like, let's partner together was like after nine 11. Um, but even then that was a divided par partner together moment. You know what I mean? Because it was a little bit of an us against them, um, and an us ever since.

Whereas now I feel like there's gonna be, it's like there's a sense of the world coming together, but then in parallel to that, there's this sense of this, this sense of urgency of like things going bad. You know, we, I had, um, I had in my life like only like three or four or five people die. The, that I was taken care of, that were, um, all basically some version of someone that had been hit by a truck or somebody fell off a building or, um, Uh, somebody had a ruptured aortic aneurysm.

Um, and then, then what happened is I was called in and I came in to see this person, and I still remember all of them because they were all coherent and totally awake, but they had a, something that had a 0% of surviving happened to them. So then it's like this incredible sense of they're, they're, they come in and fight or flight, but they're talking and they're talking about their wife and stuff like that.

And then it was crazy because then I would intubate them and I, I was in, you know, probably a thousand situations like that. Um, but, um, But I, I, I still remember vividly what that was because you see someone who is, was yesterday, everything was totally fine, and then today something hap happened, they ruptured, uh, an artery in their abdomen.

And so then they have, you know, just Ms. Left. And this is sort of like, what, when you asked me that question, I realized, This is almost what you're facing. And I remember like sitting with family members and like just their wailing and rolling around on the floor crying because it was just such a, you know, life is so precious.

And then losing someone, and it's one thing if everybody knew that it was gonna happen and it had been coming on for six months and or a year and you know, another, when.

Away from you. Uh, and, and then here we're facing the possibility of this happening to millions of people, you know? So it's, it's, it's, there's, it's sweet the coming together, but it's almost overwhelmingly painful. The, the, the trauma, the tidal wave that we're facing. So I'm living juxtaposition.

Juxtaposition. I'm. Navigate like making my judgements about how what I'm actually gonna do, you know? And so my friend of mine, my friend Garnet texted me this morning and he said, on a scale from one to 10, cause I always ask people on a scale from one to 10, and he said, on a scale from one to 10 of saving the world, where are you today?

And I said, I woke up at a two, an eight, right? My scale from seems wavering all over the place. Well, you and I have both been to Burning Man together, and you would think, well, why? In God's name. You take all these people and you put them out in this terrible situation in a burning hot desert with nothing.

And it's because it is the great equalizer. And I mean, that's what I've been kind of seeing on the streets out there, rich, poor, no matter what the situation is. Everybody is vulnerable and everybody in a sense, uh, is in this together. I don't know. Do you see it that way? Yeah. And that's a good one. And you know, like at Burning Man, you can't, if you want like water, you can't just go buy water.

You have to kind, cause it's like you have to negotiate or do some trade or stuff like that, or, or find out. Where, where, where there's water, which is kind of similar to this because you're, you're, you're burning man's, you're living in a, a sense of scarcity and the consciousness of burning man, uh, Richard is to me, actually what's super interesting about, about this, this situation is because there's somebody like somewhere on the, that figured something.

Like they figured out how to get water or do this thing or create this experience. And so then if you wanna understand that, all you gotta do is go over there and then they'll teach you what they know and then you can go somewhere else. And so it's like the ultimate experience of crowdsourcing. And burning me.

Crowdsourcing consciousness is crowdsourcing ways to make things and do things and share information. And this is the social and scientific experiment of our, of our era, of our lives. And I think we're starting to do that. And, and, and that's why what I'd, what I'd like to see is facility. That did everything had had, could bring all resources to bear ICU care, regenerative strategies.

And I think we'd like to, I'm hearing some positive things on exosomes, um, uh, ozone. We, we've got, we've talked quite a bit about that. Um, all of the prophylactic medications, functional medicine, and.

If we band together, kinda like in Burning Man people, band, band together and something miraculous comes out it. And I think that the world has to band together now, and I think we need to lean on the high net worth community to drive investment. And then what's what, because we need to take care of everybody.

And that's been, I've been grappling, I've been really thinking about that the last two days. Like the, the supplement stuff, if we could figure out a way to, to share things, we can go a long ways on that front. We can go a long ways towards crowdsourcing, uh, materials. Like, uh, I, someone just called me and they have a, a large source of hydroxychloroquine that's from outside United.

Try to get applications to bring, bring those type of things into the country, and then share worldwide, uh, intravenous lysine, intravenous vitamin C, uh, and, and some of the protocols that I've been using. I think that may be helpful. And so then when you begin to combine all of these things and then try to look, look and just say, Hey, I wanna have a data driven conversation.

Let's figure out what the most effective. Algorithm is A, that's gonna be good. But then B, we're gonna begin to face things like this again. And once we have really began to crowdsource the knowledge and the wisdom from from these different communities, we're gonna be way health that, that, just like nasa, the science comes, Trump has all of.

Distributive benefits that, that, uh, help us in our lives because the, the technology that to make a rocket's gonna end up making your car safer. And in the same way, my belief is, is that the science that comes out of this experiment is going to make our immune systems work better. And when that happens, it's gonna be amazing because we're gonna become.

That's gonna make us our immune system work better, dealing with the multitude of things that we get exposed to on a daily basis. Mm, interesting. And do you believe, do you, uh, like go along with what Peter Dimond was saying yesterday about. Since this is affecting the whole world, it's one of the first times that thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of doctors and scientists are all hyper-focused on the same thing.

Um, do you feel like that's a special moment or that it could lead to anything? Right? God, yeah, but it's amazing and it's like it's. I'm basically on the phone all day, every day talking to doctors. Like I'm not talking to patients right now because I'm just trying to crowdsource knowledge from other people.

Um, and I've never had an ab like I, I've never had an ability to be on the phone with smart people for six or seven hours a day. And then I'm kind of treating my staff the rest of the time. Um, and so it's just insanely amazing. But then in parallel to that, like my great frustration with this is, and I'm, I haven't exactly decided what I'm gonna do about it is that, I'm now beginning to get phone calls to people who I know who are starting to have symptoms, and so then we've never, as physicians been in a situation.

Normally what happens is I'm just like, if I was talking to you and then yet a symptom, I would be like, oh, okay. You know, your doctor is Gary Kaplan, who I totally love, so I would just go, oh, oh, go see Garrett. And then, cause I'm sure he'll know what to do and, but then now all sudden, all of the medical practices, the amazing is we're all sharing information, but the crazy thing is, All the clinics are closed, and then every doctor has to raise their game because they have to become an immunologist.

They have to become a virologist, they have to understand ICU medicine. They have to understand functional medicine. They have to be able to an integrative medicine and internal medicine and wrap that into a, an, uh, a package. And then they have to be able to. They have to be able to then do all of that medicine by telemedicine remotely without the ability to do anything in, in the setting of nobody being able to get supplements or anything like that.

So it's like, it's both the most amazing thing that's ever happened and the most frustrating thing that's ever happened, like to me. Wow. Hmm. It's interesting. So where is the big opportunity here? Right? In every crisis there is opportunity. What, what is the, what's the, what do you see as some of the big opportunities right now for the, for the world, for medicine, for you name it.

Okay, so let's see. So.

That's good. I love where this conversation's going. Um, the, so then if, if, if we can get to the point where we're sharing information and if, if, and I think our ability to share information as physicians, I talked to a couple people today that are building platforms to start to share information. So,

And then as we're sharing information, like I'm gonna be, I'm sharing my, my protocol of like lysine and vitamin C, um, which intravenously might have at a wholesale, if, if we have someone compounding it at cost, might have a cost of like $10. So then, uh, if, if we can have a democratization of both content and product that gets pushed out, then that's ama that's gonna be amazing because we're gonna take that.

We've had this unfortunate situation where, The, the growth of wealth on the high net worth community has so outpaced the growth of wealth of almost everyone else. And so as a result of that, um, the mass, the, I think the natives are getting a little bit restless and the, and so this is, uh, this is a time when we, we need to take care of the people that have less and, uh, in, in America, but worldwide.

I we're gonna be able to share information and get knowledge out.

It's, I think it's unknown. Like I think what's gonna happen is through the communication and sharing something is gonna happen that none of us could have predicted that's gonna have this enormous, it's gonna have the side effect of an enormous upside in some way, shape, or form for health and, and, and society.

So I think that's one I, um,

General us against them and do do the best job at negotiating for yourself. And I feel like that has been kind the attitude of America in general for, for maybe the last. Long time. And I think that that's just been a pervasive concept in the world. And I think I, I kinda feel a tidal wave of, of uh, of like, let's all get together and help each other.

And so I think that's gonna be, that, that might have long lasting positive, you know, you know, consequences too. What do you think upside? Well, it, it, it really depends on, on how long all of the things that we're feeling now will last. But, um, I think that people will go back to basically being the way they are, um, when this is all over, except for there's going to be, I think, a very long lasting sense of vulnerability.

Uh, instead of invulnerability and that's going to lead, I hope to a lot of policy changes. Um, and, and driving. Uh, all the things you were just talking about, which may not have been on the front burner otherwise. Mm-hmm. Cause people are gonna feel vulnerable. It, it happened to me once, it could happen to me again.

What's coming next year? Mm-hmm. What are you doing to prepare for it? What systems do you have in place? What, what, how are you improving and, and breaking through bureaucracies to help, you know, you know, that's the thing. Sometimes you get lulled in this false sense of. Of, um, the, the, the, it's not gonna happen to me.

And now you walk down the street and, and you can see in people's eyes, this could happen to me, it could happen to you, it could happen to absolutely anyone. It's, it's a complete, uh, equalizer. Uh, and that's, well, I hope that's what's gonna come out of it. And, and maybe that'll even bleed into other things like, When it comes to climate change and things of that nature.

Oh no, that could never happen to us. That could never happen here. And, well, I'm hoping it's, there's gonna be, uh, a basic change in, in attitude of, of folks towards that. But I'm curious, if you were a king, um, would you, and, and let's say that all the billionaires were willing to kick in a lot more. Would you be in favor of like a redistribution of wealth or would you say, no, let's all, let's take that money and put it towards research, let's put it towards other things that will help humanity.

Like where, where would you, where would you go with that additional big whack of cash? Well, it's interesting because I'm, I, I, I, they say never to talk about politics. I try not to talk about politics, but I'm, oh, let's try not to. But, but I'm, I would say that I'm somewhat libertarian in my worldview, and so I don't think that I would, I don't think that I would recommend a, like a, I would recommend some sort of voluntary, Let's say I was king and let's say that.

And, and you know what, you know, you know how much I love music. Tom Petty had this song and he said the world would swing if I was king. Like I love that line, but so if I was king and I could motivate people to kind chip in, um, in this circumstance. I can think of a lot that we could do from a combination of using public health measures, which would be like getting way more people tested and figuring that whole thing out quickly so that we can make a better decision about how to strategize quarantining and that whole thing.

Number two, uh, I would, I would try to, Hospitals across the world to start trying things like intravenous vitamin C and intravenous slicing and things like that. If people reach out to me, there are compounding pharmacies that are, have kilos and kilos of, of vitamin C that they could start to supply to hospitals, and then when they do that, Uh, hospitals could start doing these treatments and, and that's one treatment that you can do extremely cheaply.

The wholesale cost of intravenous vitamin C is like, you know, pennies. Okay. It's just like the cost of compounding it and, and putting it together. So then the same thing with license really. And so then if, and, and then if we could take some of these strategies and some of the integrative strategies and then figure out an algorithm that, uh, where you could test those, basically a database platform and then have that database platform be connected to, uh, an a knowledge distribution tool that would distribute knowledge and implement information to the whole world.

And, and now and interestingly, I, I, I would try to have an open sourced version of this because like the, what happens in, in, in, in these times is, is that there's, there are opinions that I think are, to go back to the, what we were talking about, somewhat political. And so there's a, there's, and there's a little bit of a.

Um, uh, a drug might be considered standard of care and then people might not even be willing to even think about or talk about, uh, something that was not a drug. And so then, and, and so then as we could, as we gather data on this, because it's such a rapidly evolving experiment, uh, there may be patients who, there may be a cohort of patients who don't want the drug.

And a cohort of patients who don't want the, the vitamin. And so then that's okay because then we just start to gather all of that data and then we, that's gonna be super interesting because then we're gonna be able to in, in, in real time. Figure out what's going on and then figure out how to treat it.

And that then is gonna lead to some super interesting, once the da, once the data starts to come out, then that's gonna allow us to, you know, the, the, I heard this thing, um, the definition of insanity. Is doing the same thing again and again and, uh, uh, thinking you're gonna have a different outcome. But then the definition of wisdom is getting new information or data.

Sorry, I'm doing an idea for somebody while I'm talking to you. Uh, the, um, the definition of.

Is taking in new data. And if that new data is true, then that means you may need to let go of some of your other belief systems. And so like you may have a belief system, but if you get like a certain data, that data may mean that that other belief system you used is not valid anymore. Now, interestingly, In general, that's like the best thing in the world when that happens.

Because I even think in my old life, like, you know, we had that wonderful conversation last night with Terry. If, when, if, if I would've met her, uh, on the day that I graduated from my anesthesiology residency and she was telling me about applied kinesiology and how she was using that to determine what medications to give to people or supplements, I wouldn't have been able to handle it.

And so then I had to, but then I had to get information and then change my belief system. And then when I did, I like enjoy my life way more and actually enjoy talking to people that have like different ideas, way more. And, and I think that, uh, that's, uh, that's leads to an ever evolving, uh, process of breaking down the walls of the box that we live in.

And, and that gives, that continually leads to having a better, better and wiser and view of science and humanity. You know, it's interesting that because. Maybe that's what's happening globally now in the science community. It's like, okay, we gotta get out of the box. We gotta blow the box up. Uh, all the stuff we were laughing at yesterday, we're not gonna laugh at it anymore today.

Um, whatever idea you have, I'm gonna take it seriously. We've really gotta figure this thing out. Maybe it's gonna lead to a new paradigm. Yep. I, I, that is, that's my prayer. Like, and that would, if I was king, I guess I would have a twofold thing. My twofold thing would be A, that that would be true, and b, that the world would swing just like Tom Petty said.

Well, I tell you what, um, I think like when you go through a near death experience, You're never the same again. I think the world is going through a near death experience. Um, and it doesn't matter whether you are a communist country or a democracy or a dictatorship or what language you speak, it doesn't matter.

It's like we're all in this together and I don't know what's gonna come out of it, but. Call me. Uh, just a wild-eyed optimist. I think it could be something beautiful. Yeah, me too. And you know, it's interesting is like when you're, when you're a doctor and you're young, you kind of feel invincible and, and nothing bad's ever happened to you.

Like I remember that this anesthesiologist was like, He was like, oh, he was talking. He, he went, I was in a big, big group and he goes, let me tell you what's going on. And then he literally went through 30 people and said like three horrible things that had happened to all of them with patients. And so he was like, he was like, what you have to understand is that this is super dangerous.

And even that me and then even then, Was going through and then I deal, I dealt with this little kid that had like, basically this aneurysms that all ruptured at the same time because of the genetic problem. So it was not a survivable moment, like it was a hundred percent mortality, but I spent a bunch of time with the family and kind of managed the situation and um, and dealing with that was so overwhelmingly painful.

I just can't. I ended up, um, I ended up spending like two hours doing CPR on the kid, on a kid that had just come into the emergency room. And it was, and yet it's almost like I was never the same after that. And I was, I was kind of traumatized by that. But what, as I, as I, I real, I began to realize how precious life was and how, and, and how narrow the line is that we walk.

When we're taking care of people, when people are in ICUs and in that space. And the um, the line that comes to me is the line, I don't know if you read the book, the Razor's Edge by Somerset mom, bill Murray made like just an unbelievably great movie about it. But the line in the book is that the path salvation is narrow and difficult to walk and.

Trying to navigate a path to salvation. And, and it's tricky because we're all sort of out on an island. We're all at home by ourself. And so, but it, it, it may be that for us to come together, we needed to be, we, we needed to come from this point. Yeah. And, and maybe we needed this cuz it's not, it was, we're all on that razor's edge.

Yes. We're all one, just one wrong step. Away from disaster. Yeah. Every human being. Yeah. One piece of bad luck, one wrong step into the street, you know, it's just, and we don't get it. But because of this incredible crisis, this global crisis that, that spares no one, um, maybe now there'll be kind of a gring that will lead to.

Other great things. I hope so. Well tell it. Why don't we talk about what, um, everybody should be doing these days? Like what do you, based on everything you've been seeing up to this moment, what's going on up there for prevention and, and treatment? Well, so I'll, I'll tell you about Yeah, yeah. We've been talking in the last couple days and, uh, the, the study in France that, uh, people talked about, um, uh, was the study where they were, they were using an, uh, antibiotic.

Azithromycin, which is what's called a Z. Um, and they were combining that with hydroxychloroquine. So these are two medications. Um, and so there's been some peer reviewed literature, sort of interpretations of that study. Um, and the study showed. Benefit. It showed more benefit if you combined them than if you treated with, um, uh, just, just the hydrchlor alone.

I think there was 26 patients who were, who registered, but they, they only, um, uh, finished with 22 because a number of, uh, people dropped out. One went to the icu, one died, one had nausea, and one dropped out and left. The hospital. Um, and so normally what happens is, is they say, if, if there's an intention to treat, um, then you have to include all of those people in the da, in the data.

And then, um, Uh, and then the other problem with that trial was that it's supposed to go for 14 days, but it was stopped at seven and we don't know, um, what happened at 14 days. So, and also then w we know that, um, when you combine those drugs together, there may be a risk of an arrhythmia. And here we are trying to give people a drug that may have an electrical problem.

Uh, with your heart and yet all the people who are taking it, a lot of the people who might be taking it with pneumonia at home potentially don't have any way to monitor their heart. So it's, uh, that leaves us with a lot more questions than answers. Um, and then on top of that, you know, we were talking about the hydroxychloroquine as a drug could be used, uh, couple days.

While it, it may be very beneficial, the access to this drug has pretty much dried up. Uh, you can't get a, you can't fill a prescription of it anywhere, as far as I could tell today. So, um, although as I said, people are now calling me and there's, you can get access to it overseas. So, um, so then question.

Some thought of, uh, using the, this, this, uh, medication Cora, which is an antiretroviral, uh, which is a, the same type of drug that's used to treat age PA patients. And there's gonna be some trials of looking to combine that with the hydroxychloroquine instead of azithromycin. So, um, I think that we're gonna have more answers for that.

I, I, my, my gut level is that people are not gonna wanna take. Prophylactically. But I think that we are gonna, my gut level is that we're gonna, and I have a, a two or three scientists that we're, I'm gonna bring onto the, the, the show this week that are gonna help us dive into the science and the knowledge and make a judgment calls about what to do.

But my sense is, is that we'd like to reserve. The use of those medications for people who are sick, and I think as soon as people test positive and then have upper respiratory symptoms, we wanna treat, my guess is that we're gonna wanna treat them with maybe one drug before they get pneumonia, and then if they get pneumonia, add onto two.

If I was just. Common sense speaking and my clinical background. And I could, I may be totally wrong, but if I was betting, I, I would bet that we're gonna do that. Um, uh, and so then we'll, we'll scientifically process that through then, uh, number two. I think we wanna do all of the super obvious things, sleep well.

Try to get some, some low impact exercise, try to avoid toxins, love the people, and, and build the sense of community, uh, uh, with who, who's around you and what's happening there. Um, and then, um, and then to, to engage from a functional medicine or a vitamin supplement strategy. With the tools and techniques we were talking about last, but Sure.

Trying to get, everybody should be taking vitamin, uh, should be taking vitamin, uh, take vitamin at higher levels and vitamin at higher levels. Uh, if you have an, an acute and active infection, but you're, you don't wanna go too high, particularly on the vitamin A. Uh, if you prophylactically, I would just take sort of normal levels, vitamin C, and there's a lot of different ways to get that.

You can get that from plants, you can get that from foods. Um, uh, and so, Getting a good dose of vitamin C and then trying to take some herbs and some natural, uh, uh, products to that that can help stimulate your immune system. And then trying to take herbs and supplements versus that can modulate the inflammatory response that will hopefully minimize some of the.

The inflammatory aspects of our immune system that can create what we talked about, which was the cytokine storm, that that leads to all of the bad things that that happen to, uh, to a small percentage of people. You don't even need to know what a cytokine st