Reverse Chronic Inflammation with Mineral Balance

Introduction and Barton Scottu2019s Background 0:00

Welcome back. We continue our conversation on Crohn's and colitis and how to reverse them. I'm your host Sinclair Kennally and today I am joined by the wonderful Barton Scott. Barton as a dear friend and colleague. And we actually reconnected at a conference recently, and we got into a very passionate discussion about how the fundamentals of healing are getting overlooked as we get more and more obsessed with the very expensive and niche treatments. You know, going jump into things like stem cells before actually asking ourselves where the root causes of our chronic conditions, and what are the basics that can be tackled to help reverse those.

So that's why I wanted to bring Barton on, because he is a wonderful, inventive thinker in this space that really focuses on those fundamentals and what we have misunderstood about them. He is the owner and founder of Upgraded Formulas, and a chemical engineer who has been lucky to enjoy a constantly sharp mind up to this point in his life. However, this shift began to shift rapidly in the other direction, and he began suffering more and more extreme levels of brain fog, memory loss, and mental fatigue.

He was only in his mid 20s then, and to make matters much worse, a massive hole opened up in his life at the same time when, without warning, he lost someone very close to him, to an aneurysm and it was preventable. He knew, and this burned at him. There's nothing quite like watching one of the people you love the most die because no one, including you, could help her. And that is the motivating force of extreme magnitude. And that is the reason why a greater formula exists today in its present form.

After hundreds of iterations. This loss catapulted him into action, and there were so many factors at play. The realization that life doesn't go on forever. The helplessness he felt when her health had started to decline, and the fear and inability to help the surgeries that yet that the surgeries had cost. That's right. Facing the looming health issues and the strong possibility he would lose his job as an engineer. This was the turning point for him. This was the point when he decided he must somehow solve the problem himself.

Using his background as both a chemical engineer and a nutritionist, and through research, Barton realized if you can get mineral particles small enough to absorb into cells, that would be a big part of the winning formula for effectiveness. Here he applied his chemical engineering process principles to minerals along with his knowledge of thermodynamics, heat transfer, mathematics, nutrition, fluid mechanics, and organic chemistry to develop a solution. The mix of minerals like upgraded formulas offered today incredibly effective.

What do you want to share with us, Barton? I'm so thrilled to have you here. Yeah, thank you so much. Thank you so much. Yeah. This is this is great, actually, as we were talking, I realized that my bio didn't include include Crohn's, and it absolutely. it was the most vexing part of my personal part. I mean, there was my mom and all of that that you talked about touched on there. thank you for that. And and then it was also just so many issues like probably some of, you know, some of our listeners have dealt with also.

Crohnu2019s, Colitis, and the Search for Root Causes 3:24

Right, which starts off as you know, just, irregular and bowel movements where you're having diarrhea and then you're, well, now you can't go at all. And now there's failures as a result. as that continues and then there's hemorrhoids and then and you're like, wow, what am I doing wrong? Like, what's happening with my body? And then if it escalates more and more, then you have the colitis where the body is attacking itself, and and you just start to wonder, like, okay, like, what can I actually change?

I wasn't like, I told you before, it wasn't someone that was out there drinking a bunch like a normal college kid. I could not that I didn't drink at all, but it wasn't like, you know, there was no, like, extreme thing. Like, well, like, obviously I need to quit that. Yeah. Like, obviously, I mean, so it was, it was crazy to me because I knew kids in college that had coke habits. I knew kids that were delinquents. They're still making the class. They were like, and they had two jobs. They seemed to be fine.

And here I am trying to do things the right way for the most part at least. And and, and being frankly, too busy to do a lot of things. It's kind of the joke in chemical engineering is like, hey, you have to plan your weekends. You'll be studying. and so I really for most of it, I was, fortunately or unfortunately, but I remember going through that period and being so confused because when I did go to a doctor, it was like, clear they had no idea what was going on and how to actually solve it at the root.

Like, here's the medication. I'm like, well, but the problem and like what? You just kind of blanks. They're like, this year, 21 year old kids asking me like to actually solve the problem. Like how very, you know, like, and you guys don't know anything like, I didn't either at that point, you know, but I that's like, there's someone that obviously this is obviously reversible. And I think so one of the strategies or one of them, the mindset, one of the mindsets I'd like to offer people is it's reversible.

And if you didn't have the problem a few years ago, doesn't it make sense that you could figure out what's changed and then reversed that somehow that really became the sort of like, hope inspiring, belief that I, that I held, all through my 20s into my I was really probably 34. My health really was back to, to the point where I would say I could I was really functioning as a few years into owning what is today upgraded formulas. But, you know, several years beyond and into that, before we could, before my own health was really regained.

Like it, it needed to be. So yeah, I can empathize with everyone, I feel like. But, that's watching. Yeah. I'm so appreciative of you sharing that part of your story because it's true. I mean, Crohn's and colitis are not pretty there. They are exhausting. Both internally. And of course, you know, your world shrinks to the shape of your symptoms, and it's embarrassing socially. And it's painful. And it's extremely frustrating to try to navigate the medical system around this. And I don't think I told you this, but there's a very famous health expert that you and I both know very well, and I actually told him he couldn't come on the at this event because his position is that, Crohn's and colitis are not reversible and he makes money off of people coming to him.

And as part of his following, speaking on these topics. And he's like, oh, I'm sorry, you can't come because we personally have lots and lots of, great results in reversing fistulas and these very difficult bowel conditions and getting everybody's energy back. And it is a process, make no mistake. But it does start with root cause assessment. You know we can't skip those steps right? Right. I feel like to share another part that might be immensely helpful for people that a lot of people wouldn't share is, I had gone to a doctor and got them to prescribe me vyvanse because I heard that that was better somehow than Adderall. And it wasn't.

It was as bad, I would say. So after about a year or a few months of that, probably, I was so stressed all the time that even on days I didn't take it, you know, my half life. It says in your system that that really led to it. in my case at least. And that, you know, so was it the medication? Maybe not. But it led to the level of stress which caused that. So, yes, that's just throwing. Yeah. So so that is that's my thought for everyone. That and why I'm so anti those medication guys I mean they just they hijack you right.

So I've never been more easily upset than in that, that phase, which is if you know me, it's not my personality at all. but it changed my personality. I it really I really regret that because I've spent, I've spent like, ten years rewiring my brain through all sorts of brain training to, to get back to that sort of peaceful baseline that I had before that. you know, you make a really great point about medication side effects is actually the root cause for many digestive issues. And if you look at the literature, it is disclosed, but it's often not disclosed in the treatment room when this actually becomes a part of people's lives, so they don't get to make informed decisions right when it matters the most.

And often new clients into our practice are shocked, and they feel betrayed when they realize that, wait a minute, the symptoms are coming to us to reverse are actually like fit quite nicely in the side effects of the uppers, the downers. The SSRI is that all of these things that they have been put on to become better behaved and easier for other people to deal with, you know.

Medication Side Effects and the Stress-Mineral Connection 9:42

So so that's a great point. Now I'll tell a brief story about my friend Seth, who one of my closest friends. I just was in Dallas for an event, for, a mutual friend of ours. And I saw I saw Seth and, throughout the conversation, he told me he would start taking SSRI. Let's back up a few years. What was he taking before that? He was taking one of the medications we just mentioned for focus, and I told him, like, hey, I've been down this road, you don't want to go down it. It's the most clear. And I'm the most adamant about this that I could possibly be asked.

Ask me any question why here, you know, hear me out. you know, we're we're always busy, but for for certain people, you just you feel obligated. You have to take some time out. Like, look, I, I want us to grow old together. Wants to be friends for the rest of our life. And we will be, unless you keep doing this and that. I'll be honest. Like it's not gonna work. And it it's led to XYZ. And what's the connection between. Well, one lens for sure is that when you're stressed all the time, thanks to medication, your burn rate is higher.

Even if you don't feel stressed. Your burn rate of the precious elements and minerals, which is what I specialize in for people listening. So I'm acutely aware of the connection of that. And I can talk about that 100 different ways until the cows come home. But what you have to understand is that's true. That happens. There's no such thing as, you know, charging a battery and not having some sort, like the energy comes from somewhere, right? And our bodies are batteries. If we're not putting the energy in through, really supplements and great food and great diet choices and it's all tailored to you right now, not three months ago, not three months in the future.

It's always going to be changing. So I know that's it's kind of like all, all around. But what I'm saying is one led to the other. He's on SSRI today because his mood dropped because energy dropped. And a nice little flow chart for for us all to have in mind is that when you lose the this cornerstone electrolyte all these others. So which one is that. That's magnesium. So it's also sodium. It's also potassium. It's also chloride. All all of those. The body's a battery. And we need an electrical charge to be able to go to the bathroom regularly.

And if you don't have regular bowel movements, you're going to have a whole whole list of issues, which I'm sure you're talking you've talked about, some of it already. So, you know, you get backed up, the body reabsorbed, those toxins. Your your blood is now off your body. It pulls those, those minerals from your tissues and your bones, which is something we could talk about. Why blood tests for nutrients like minerals are often not accurate. because we're kind of checking the what I say is we're checking the checking account and trying to determine how much money we have when we realize later at the.

Yeah, hopefully, hopefully never for us. But for a lot of people, the divides and pulling from the savings account this entire time, the tissues and the. Yes. So that's what's happening at an even elevated pace that it's hard to even imagine when you're stressed all the time. So if you're if you're constantly stressed for any reason, your burn rate of all nutrients is higher. And if you're not testing for that in a way that's accurate and reproducible, then you have no idea what you should be supplementing.

You have no idea of the sort of diet changes you could be making, what foods you could be eating more of or less of, you know, foods. Maybe that are high in calcium that you need to eat, less of foods they're high in potassium, magnesium, more of. But even those foods are sort of inaccurate because that, you know, you might look up, okay, so I need to eat foods high magnesium and then you eat almonds. But come to realize almonds are six times higher in calcium than they are in magnesium. So what do you do? You make ratio worse.

So do people need targeted supplement supplementation? Absolutely. The soil is way too depleted. There's too many different, the entire worlds, like vying for your energy, unfortunately, through Wi-Fi and EMF. And and that's a whole nother conversation. You know, we I've touched on it already, but the thought here is when we deplete our nutrients, either by our own, or just through our own natural living, our lives, natural path of living our lives, or if it comes through the added, pressure, you could say, of different drugs than, you know, hello, the stack of drugs, you know, hello, SSRI and then you're taking that that's he's like, yeah, you know, it's it's helped.

And I just said, so I'll just play this out. If you continue to do this here's I'll just give you your next 6 to 12 months. You ready. You're gonna be on sleeping medication. When that doesn't work, you'll be on another medication. And then by that point, you'll probably be diagnosed with something and you'll go, wow, I really don't know what to do. Now. Do you want to be there? Because if you don't change the action, you know you're not going to be able to influence where you end up. So yeah. Yeah, I think that's what you're describing is the journey of so many Americans right now.

It's certainly happened to me in my 20s. I had this slow creep of digestive and, you know, energy issues that were unexplainable. They were they would come and go joint pain, you know, who knows a little mystery things that got worse and worse. And you know what? Flared crash more and more easily. And along the way, sure enough, in lockstep that was matching. That was the medications that I was getting put on. You know, the antidepressants, the vyvanse after the Adderall, which was too upsetting, that that actually is exactly what happened to me.

And, that's a really interesting track that so many of us go on trusting that the doctor knows and all the important points of information to make the decision for us, and we acquiesce without understanding that we're actually handing away our responsibilities either a time and a place for medications. Of course, I'm not saying there aren't. I'm asking, everybody here who's on, you know, on the hunt for deeper answers for themselves to make sure that they're taking the responsibility back for the choices around their health and healing, because I truly think it's fastest way to go.

So I would love not to put too much pressure on you, Burton, because I know this is asking you to distill, you know, a couple decades worth of experience, but can you give us a five minute masterclass on some of the mineral factors that come into play with Crohn's and colitis? If someone is saying, okay, I already have Crohn's or colitis, I understand what you're saying, Burton. I agree with you. I'm totally malnourished.

Why Magnesium and Electrolytes Matter 17:00

I know I'm on the back foot. What are some mineral components they need to understand to test for, to supplement with in order to speed up their healing journey? Great question. Absolutely no. Pressure. We're so first, first thing I'll give you guys a flow chart. So whenever we lose because we didn't close this loop earlier, I my to make another point. So when we lose magnesium, there's a whole cascade of things that happens in the body. When we lose magnesium, we then the body, unfortunately for a lot of different reasons, shed other electrolytes.

So you lose magnesium, you shed other electrolytes. But a whiteboard I draw this out for you guys. And then when you shed other electrolytes, you actually get to cell death. It's like a tree that doesn't have enough water and nutrients. What happens? It's shrivels. Right? So the branches start. You start losing leaves. So cells right. Cell death. And the same thing happens actually throughout the body and brain, which is really scary when you think about it. And as people age you know, all these mental conditions like Alzheimer's.

Come on. What do you think that's connected to? Well, this a story arc here that we're seeing. And they say aging is non-linear. And it's a really important thing to think about because you're like, I'm doing all right. And you're like, whatever age you are. But whatever age you are, it just continues to get the slope gets faster unless you do things about it. So you lose magnesium, you lose your other electrolytes as a result because we're not taking enough. And what I realize is now absorbing enough.

So I figured out a solution there. for all, of all of our minerals that we need. So. Because what we what we really do, what we really focus on is root cause from the direction of we're all elements. So what do we do about that? So how do we test for it? How do we get products to absorb really well. And therefore how do we put healing back in your hands and democratize it so that you don't have to you have to get everyone's permission to order a test. You can just do it. And especially after you've done it once, you know exactly what to do.

And it's easy and it ships to you and so I'll come back to that in a second. We lose magnesium, we lose electrolytes, we have cell death. Then we have inflammation. Inflammation is a cleanup process of cell death. So the body goes all right. Can't have all that garbage laying around the streets. Let's clean it up and we clean it up. And that uses energy to keep in mind inside the mitochondria of every cell, which is almost all cells in the body, we need to have what we need to have magnesium, copper and oxygen to make energy.

So we thought, you know, we should probably figure out how to make those nutrients absorb really well. And probably some others do that. That was my thought. And then we need to figure out a way to test for them. So when we have that inflammation, you know, it gets us on this path of there's a lot of things that are, I mean, the hallmark of disease, right. Inflammation. What it's preceded by though, if we go upstream or mineral deficiencies as a mineral and not just a vitamin. And I want to give people this perspective, it's not.

But some vitamins are very important. but certainly elements build everything on the planet. And when you think of it from the perspective of a physicist, for example, or a chemist or chemical engineer, then what we're looking at, if we're really thinking about it and I would, I would venture to say that we can make this simple enough that anyone can understand that, understand that no matter the background. So imagine this when you're when you're born, when you're conceived, you're just a collection of elements.

According to the Royal Society of Chemistry, you're 59 elements and six make up about 99% of the work. Should we ever test for that? To figure out what's optimal, what needs to be changed, where to go from there? Or should we just kind of look somewhere else, you know? And, surely that's not incredibly important? Well, if it's a building blocks to everything, I would I would guess that a much, much more intelligent race, if they were to visit our planet, they would probably say, where is your list of everything that builds your planet?

And we would say, oh, yeah, we have this periodic table and let's say, are you using it for health? And we'd go, no, not really. And hopefully they still say and still help us. That sounds way too logical. Barton I'm sorry. Yeah, I get it. All right. Yeah, I know right. So so that's that's what we do. That's how we help people. And with Crohn's and colitis, how you know what you're really solving for is inflammation I believe inflammation and regular smooth, happy bowel movements from the body. you're solving for stomach acid, which will help kill parasites and things like H.

Pylori. So, you know, you can't have good stomach acid levels without fluoride in the body. part of the reason we bind our magnesium with chloride and not anything else. First of all, we make it a different delivery system. But the body needs chloride, and virtually everyone needs more of it. There's very few people that have enough actual HCl on their stomach. Should be around the pH of two H pylori gets in there, has a party, pH goes up to six. And now you're wondering why you can't absorb things and digest things very easily.

So what I realized after we, you know, failed to get my mom well, after I was still struggling years later to even be optimal, despite eating a great diet, pretty much having a six pack and working out a lot, and knowing a lot about nutrition and having a chemical engineering degree was absorption is what I got trained in. It turns out that seems to be the problem here, because somehow I'm looking at an early hair test and I'm noticing I'm deficient. And and this was years later after the first one I did with her as well.

And we were both deficient.

Hair Mineral Analysis and Interpreting Ratios 23:30

Then and then also years later, as I'm supplementing the targeted things and the deficiencies are still staying. And I remember thinking like, wow, I'm both like incredibly concerned by this because I don't think I can improve my the protocol. but at the same time, there's a glimmer, there's like a 5% thing that says, this is what to work on. you can solve this somehow. At some point, you'll be able to solve this. And it feels really good today to go. We do that every day for people. So let's go unpack that more for me, because I, I don't think anybody in the audience would argue with you like, okay, I, I do need to understand the building blocks more of my body.

And maybe that's where part of my taking back control of my health can come from. But there's as you know, there's so much crap on the market and there are so many products that, you know, purport to be, you know, the right minerals for the right condition. how does somebody sort through that? We all know that bioavailable minerals are everything. They have to be in exactly the right format for your body to use. How does somebody know what they're looking at when they're searching for these elements?

That's a great question. And I realize I didn't fully answer your others about which element, sort of. So we'll come back to that in a second to, but magnesium is going to play a huge role for sure. Even things like iodine, everything to get your thyroid to work, which if you know, we can come back to that to, if I forget. So really, for us, what I realized after trying in that period from then to Glenn that I was describing, you know, about two and a half years, I realized I tried all the reputable brands or many of for different things.

And I was I was taking different dosages, like very large doses in some cases. And test after test every three months, I would do another hair test and I would see the results barely budged and I was feeling I got a little better, I would say, but not I could tell there wasn't there was a bug in my symptoms also. So interestingly enough, when you know how to read, hair analysis, which our team does now, the a great job of it, you can look at and actually see personality Sinclair. You can see someone that would be labeled manic depressive.

Yes. Bipolar, even or certainly low thyroid in other cases is, looking at other ratios like these are or ranges where we see, oh, someone's below something like that. This is a real problem. And, and we know how to fix it. We know how to reverse it. That's very tantalizing. You have to give specifics just briefly right now before you move on. So share a couple examples. Sure, sure. So when we're looking at, at the ratio of sodium to potassium, if it's below a certain point, then an experienced practitioner with this test will be able to look at that, and they'll be able to look at a few other things, and they'll be able to ask a few questions around that, and they'll be able to identify that.

Sure enough, this person is feeling in their body if if not exhibiting out loud in person, so to speak, they're at least feeling all the symptoms of of sort of the highs and lows of bipolar or manic depressive or it manifests a little differently, but they're they're certainly in that place and they're about a certain a certain number. And then there's other things that we look at too. So is there zinc and copper off? It turns out that if that zinc and copper ratio is off of it, this is essentially chemistry in your relationship.

so if you meet someone and the first, however long in your relationship could be months, could be years is a certain way. And then your zinc to copper ratio changes a lot. It turns out those elements influence testosterone and estrogen, and even progesterone. So so zinc, testosterone, progesterone, copper, estrogen. If those elements are off, good luck making those hormones and making them an adequate supply and making them. Yeah, regularly timely. All the things for your body to function optimally and normally.

Even so, this is why I'm writing a book that should be done this year. actually, it should be done in about a month. but should be out sometime this year. And it's connecting all these dots that we've seen around nutrition becoming personality. so the good news is it's all reversible. You just have to really start and not not waste time, get to it and and then stay with it. Yeah. So yeah. So best method for testing. You mentioned here mineral analysis. What are the pros and cons which does any hair mineral analysis test.

you know cut the mustard in your opinion I know you have very strong opinions about that. So I just want to give you a. Yeah, yeah. Thank you. some are better than the than others. We've partnered with two different labs that are both great. And we ship because we ship outside the US. And to a bunch of different I would say at this point, nearly all countries, we we needed a different lab too. So they're both really great. I can't speak to I wouldn't want to denigrate other lab companies, certainly in every.

And yes, it's definitely hair. I'll talk about why hair is, four elements really great. It's because there there really isn't a better way to sample what your tissue is without doing a biopsy. from. Yeah, like multiple places in the body. So that would be fairly invasive, right. we're going to want that. you know, blood is is you on your best behavior or something? I've said for years. And that thought just came to me because I was I was answering this question like, why? What is it about blood?

And it's just that it it's just that the way the body actually works is what I touched on earlier, which is when your is off and it's off of an, the body has to pull from somewhere and it's going to pull from your checking account, as I call it, or your investment account. So checking account I'm sort of a savings account being tissues checking accounts blood. So that's the immediate right then tissues being like organs and then investment account like retirement account you could say bonds. Right.

So your bonds. Right. how do you think or what do you think all the, all the assets of this and that have in common osteoporosis, osteopenia, which my mom was told she had she was also supplementing calcium. So there's, there's, there's this whole thing about nutrient induced deficiencies. So taking too much of something and it pushing out other things. So it was actually pushing out magnesium.

Testing, Supplementation, and Where to Learn More 31:00

That's part of the reason why she had an aneurysm. Because you're once you start to have a lot of calcium in arteries and blood vessels, they become very stiff. What is. And then you have to be a, brain surgeon to think about what that means for the brain or the heart or the I mean, this is this is really common sense. People like, when you really think about from this perspective, I hope, I really hope this is loud and clear, certain nutrients. If this is why testing is so important. and and yes, by the way, her blood showed very few issues.

Yeah. you know, and so, yeah, yeah, yeah. So here, mineral analysis is, a wonderful window into not just what the body is able to excrete, but what's in storage. Right. and tell me, tell me more about, in your view, how that relates to somebody who's struggling with chronic digestive conditions like Crohn's and colitis, what would you encourage them to look at on that test? Right. I would encourage them to have a consultation with someone that really knows what they're talking about, and by no means try to read it yourself.

I've had a lot of smart friends throughout the years that just were very self-assured and, you know, rightly so in other areas. Right? They're like great, accomplished doctors. And, you know, in these people that even had some experience and, and, and the hair testing, there's a lot of sort of questions to ask when you see certain things. And it's a mosaic of asking questions and reading the results, because you can also have high excretion amounts, too, which tell you a story too. So you can be quote unquote high and magnesium and that can tell you something and you can be low in, say, magnesium and potassium or calcium and magnesium or zinc and copper.

And your ratio, which is ultimately the most important place to look in almost every case. But maybe you're actually very low in both. And your ratio just happens to look good. So rare. So there's a lot of sort of events and but it's so it's really complicated to write an algorithm for so to speak. and yet there's a lot of, in the nuance, if you can understand that. It's, it's sort of like listening to Mozart or understanding how to play piano at that level. If you can do that, there's there's not a whole lot you're missing in the context of music.

and understanding, like the, the language of it. So there's things like hidden copper toxicity. So specifically to answer your question, I would say understanding someone's magnesium level individually is important though. And potassium and iodine and a bunch of different things. yeah. We can list all the minerals for for different reasons. It's going to play an impact. And, and are you, you know, deficient in say, magnesium and then therefore you're getting all the way down to inflammation, cell death and inflammation, losing other electrolytes and processes and it causing that.

But also what about your thyroid and adrenal minerals that make those hormones or play a huge part in those hormones? You could say, you know, it's impossible to have adequate hormones and therefore adequate elimination and consistent elimination. Therefore, reabsorption of toxins when you have mineral deficiencies. So and I do use the word impossible where like just like very matter of factly because unfortunately that's the case. I was crazy deficient when I looked at my first hair test, even though I was in my early 20s and I was fit.

Yeah. So then hopefully that gives some insight for people. I've brought up a lot of really thought provoking points that I can't wait to read your book. You have to finish that order. Yeah. Where can people find you in the meantime and learn more about your work? You're testing your products. In the meantime. The website's a great place. We put out 4 to 6 blogs a week that are all really unique. deep dives into certain little micro, micro niches of things that are interesting and might be the thing that is keeping you from connecting the dots.

Like we've we didn't even touch on something like manganese. Right? What does that do? Why is that important? How is it that that's also important for your thyroid? And if you have cold hands and feet, you know, things like that. So so it's just a treasure trove of things. and we, you know, we have a newsletter. So the website's a great place. You can drop your email in for free. You can take a quiz there for free. we can follow me on, on social. I'll be more active on other channels soon as the plan, especially after finishing the book.

But for now, Instagram is a really good place, especially @upgradedformulas And then ask Barton, ask to you in, But yeah, I'd say the website's the first place to start. And then if you're intrigued, social. It's great to. Thanks for your contribution to the space and for your, I appreciate the nuance and the dedication you bring to this super foundational topic that often gets glossed over. So yeah. Thank you. I appreciate everything you're doing too. And, thank you for having me on. It's it's great to know you.

It's great to be on with you and so many more. Yeah, I it's good to see you, friend. Yeah.