Gordon Medical Forum

Most chronic illness treatment is aimed at stopping what the body is doing, blocking inflammation, suppressing symptoms, quieting signals that won't turn off. 
But what if that approach is missing the point entirely? Dr. Eric Gordon sits down with Dr. Robert Naviaux, MD, PhD, professor of genetics at UC San Diego and one of the most original thinkers in medicine today, to explore the Cell Danger Response, a framework that reframes chronic illness not as damage to be fixed, but as a healing cycle that got stuck.

Dr. Naviaux explains how mitochondria act as the body's primary sensory and communication system, constantly assessing threat and orchestrating the three stages of cellular healing. When that cycle can't complete because of infection, toxins, trauma, or chronic stress, cells become hypersensitive, the alarm stays on, and illness becomes self-perpetuating. The conversation closes with a finding that offers real hope: in ME/CFS patients, the mitochondria are not broken. They are simply responding to the wrong signals in the blood, and that means the system can be changed.

Episode Highlights:

The three stages of the Cell Danger Response and why getting stuck in any one of them drives chronic illness
How extracellular ATP acts as the body's most ancient danger signal and what happens when it never turns off
Why blocking inflammation without completing the healing cycle is like painting over mold
New research showing that ME/CFS plasma can induce mitochondrial dysfunction in healthy cells and what that means for treatment
Why the mitochondria are not broken in chronic illness and why that is a message of genuine hope

Listen in to learn more: 
0:01:31 — How the Cell Danger Response Was Discovered
0:03:18 — The Three Stages of Healing
0:06:58 — Mitochondria Are More Than Energy Producers
0:10:00 — ATP Acts as the Body’s Danger Signal
0:13:07 — When Protective Responses Become Chronic
0:15:52 — Why Chronic Illness Requires a Different Approach
0:19:40 — Salugenesis and the Biology of Healing
0:23:02 — When the Fire Is Out but the Alarm Continues
0:28:31 — What ME/CFS Plasma Reveals
0:29:05 — The Mitochondria May Not Be Broken
0:32:04 — Treating the Body as an Integrated System

About Robert Naviaux, MD, PhD

Dr. Robert Naviaux, MD, PhD, is a Professor of Genetics in the Departments of Medicine, Pediatrics, and Pathology at UC San Diego, where he directs a core laboratory for metabolomics. He is an internationally recognized expert in mitochondrial medicine, metabolomics, and inborn errors of metabolism, and he co-founded the Mitochondrial Medicine Society. He co-authored the landmark 2016 study "Metabolic Features of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome," published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, which helped define the metabolic signature of ME/CFS and advance the science of chronic illness.

Gordon Medical Associates 
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Gordon Medical Forum
Website: https://gordonmedicalforum.com/
Plasmapheresis at Gordon Medical
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Dr. Eric Gordon and Dr. Nafysa Parpia talk with Tristan Harris, co-founder of the Center for Humane Technology and creator of "The Social Dilemma" and "The AI Dilemma," about a subject that might feel far from this podcast's usual territory, but what's unfolding with AI right now felt too timely and too relevant to sit out
Tristan uses the same tool he used in 2013 to predict, with unsettling accuracy, how social media would damage a generation of kids. Look at the incentives, and the outcome follows. That same tool now points somewhere uncomfortable, since the AI industry is organized around market dominance, not curing disease, and the fastest way to win is to build something addictive and worry about the damage later.
Tristan connects this directly to the work Dr. Gordon and Dr. Parpia do every day, arguing AI should work with natural human systems rather than replace them, the same principle behind functional medicine. The conversation covers the "intelligence curse," where an economy's wealth shifts from people to data centers; the water and energy strain data centers already put on communities; and the loneliness epidemic fueled by AI companions built to replace relationships. 
He is candid about how bad this could get, and just as candid about why he still has hope.
Episode Highlights:
Why Tristan predicted social media's harms years in advance, and what that same method reveals about AI
The "intelligence curse," and what happens when an economy's wealth shifts from people to machines
Why AI companions built to replace relationships are fueling the loneliness epidemic
Legal wins protecting kids, including a growing number of countries banning social media for under 16

Listen in to learn more: 
0:00:01 Why AI’s Benefits and Risks Are Inseparable
0:02:30 The Intelligence Curse and an Anti-Human Economy
0:06:55 Learning from Social Media’s Incentive Failures
0:11:40 The Geopolitical AI Arms Race and Safety Shortcuts
0:17:20 Pro-Human Path: Education, Vision, and Policy Interventions
0:22:45 Tech, Capitalism, and the Polluted Attention Commons
0:27:30 Jagged AI Capabilities: Superhuman Hacking and Science
0:32:15 Uncontrollable AI: Real-World Rogue Behavior
0:38:40 AI, Geopolitics, and “Too Big to Stop” Incentives

About Tristan Harris

Called “the closest thing Silicon Valley has to a conscience” by The Atlantic, Tristan Harris is a technology ethicist and co-founder of the Center for Humane Technology, a nonprofit dedicated to aligning technology with humanity’s best interest. 

Tristan gained international recognition when he was featured in the Emmy-winning Netflix documentary, The Social Dilemma. Since raising the alarm on the harms of social media, he has emerged as a leading public educator on the harms of unregulated artificial intelligence. Named to the TIME100 AI list and recipient of the 2023 Tällberg-SNF-Eliasson Global Leadership Award, 

Tristan is “a tech leader committed to ensuring that we get this generation of AI right, because we simply can’t afford to get it wrong.” Tristan is featured in The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist, a new documentary from Focus Features available on demand.
Learn more at humanetech.com and tristanharris.com

Gordon Medical Associates 
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YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@GordonMedicalAssociates 

Gordon Medical Forum
Website: https://gordonmedicalforum.com/
Plasmapheresis at Gordon Medical
Website: https://plasmapheresiswest.com/

💬 Text us your feedback and future show ideas! (Please note we can't respond to texts - email questions to info@gordonmedical.com)

Interested in Becoming A Patient?

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** This information is not to be taken as medical advice. Always consult your practitioner before making any changes to your treatment.

A concussion or brain injury that happened years ago may still be driving chronic illness today, and most patients have never been told. In this episode, Dr. Eric Gordon sits down with board-certified neurosurgeon Dr. Chad Prusmack to explore how unresolved brain trauma, vestibular dysfunction, and dysautonomia underpin some of the most complex and treatment-resistant cases in chronic illness. 

Drawing on his experience with NFL athletes, spine surgery patients, and his own journey through tick-borne disease, Dr. Prusmack brings a uniquely cross-disciplinary lens to why some people never fully recover from an injury and what can actually be done about it.

The conversation moves from how a misaligned neck disrupts the entire autonomic nervous system to the role of peptides in restoring mitochondrial function and endocrine health once the foundation is stable, and how the hardware and the software must be addressed together and in the right order.

Episode Highlights:
Why loss of cervical lordosis on a normal-looking MRI is a key sign of vestibulocervical dysregulation that almost everyone is told to ignore
How unresolved vestibular dysfunction forces the brain to remap itself around a slower visual system, creating brain fog, anxiety, and dysautonomia
Why dysautonomia must be treated before any meaningful rehab or recovery can take place
The peptides Dr. Prusmack uses for mitochondrial support: subcutaneous NAD, MOT-C, and SS-31 and when to introduce them
Three exercise strategies for patients who can barely move: blood flow restriction training, heart rate zone feedback training, and isometric training

Listen in to learn more: 
0:00:00 Brain Trauma as a Driver of Chronic Illness
0:02:30 From Neurosurgeon to Complex Chronic Brain Care
0:05:45 Personal Journey: Misdiagnosis, CVID, and Lyme Disease
0:10:20 Hardware vs. Software: Injury Meets Environment
0:14:40 Dysautonomia as an Underdiagnosed, Treatable Pattern
0:19:10 Neck, Vestibular System, and Spatial Orientation
0:24:00 Structural Clues: Loss of Cervical Lordosis
0:27:30 Chronic Symptoms, Whiplash, and Missed Mechanisms
0:32:00 Dysautonomia, POTS, and Orthostatic Testing Framework
0:37:30 Multisystem Evaluation: Beyond “It’s All Infection”
0:42:00 Peptides for Pituitary and Hormone Axis Repair
0:46:00 Mitochondrial Peptides: NAD, MOTS-c, and SS-31
0:51:00 Timing Peptides: Don’t Fuel the Fire Too Early
0:55:00 Overlap of Longevity, Performance, and Chronic Illness Care
0:59:00 Exercise for the “Can’t Exercise” Patient
1:03:00 Blood Flow Restriction, HR-Zone Training, and Isometrics
1:07:00 Reframing Goals: Daily Function Over Marathons

About Chad Prusmack, MD
Dr. Chad Prusmack is a board-certified neurosurgeon and the only neurosurgeon in the United States who holds a functional medicine certification through IFM. He is the founder of Resilience Code, a personalized health and performance practice focused on chronic illness, complex brain injury, and peak performance. He serves as the primary neurosurgical consultant for the United States Olympic Committee, with a specialty in neurodegenerative disease, concussion, and post-concussive syndrome.

Learn more about Dr. Prusmack at https://www.myresiliencecode.com/

LINKS 
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YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@GordonMedicalAssociates 
Gordon Medical Forum
Website: https://gordonmedicalforum.com/
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💬 Text us your feedback and future show ideas! (Please note we can't respond to texts - email questions to info@gordonmedical.com)
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Interested in Becoming A Patient?

Find out if working with Gordon Medical is right for you. Set up a complimentary discovery call with our new patient coordinator at www.gordonmedical.com.

** This information is not to be taken as medical advice. Always consult your practitioner before making any changes to your treatment.

Computerized Regulation Thermography, or CRT, gives you something far more valuable: a window into how the nervous system is actually regulating the body, organ by organ, system by system, often years before anything shows up in standard blood work. 
In this episode, Eric Gordon, MD, sits down with Sharon Stills, ND, to explore this European-rooted diagnostic tool and why it may be one of the most underutilized maps available to practitioners working with complex chronic illness.

From lymphatic congestion to dental focal infections to early signs of immune dysregulation, CRT surfaces patterns that conventional medicine simply isn't looking for. Dr. Stills explains how the test works, what it reveals, and how it guides treatment, not as a replacement for other diagnostics, but as the eagle's eye view that tells you where to look first.

Episode Highlights:
What CRT is actually measuring, the visceral cutaneous reflex arc, and how the nervous system regulates every organ
Why the lymphatic system shows up congested in virtually every chronic illness patient and what to do about it
How homotoxicology provides a framework for understanding where a patient is in their disease progression
The surprising role of dental health, root canals, cavitations, and meridian connections in chronic illness
Why CRT can detect dysfunction five to ten years before it appears in standard diagnostics

Listen in to learn more: 
[0:00:01] Mapping the Body’s Regulation, Not Just Snapshots
[0:01:04] How European Biological Medicine Shaped CRT
[0:03:26] Why CRT Beats Standard Bloodwork for Chronic Illness
[0:04:31] The Overlooked Lymph System in Every Sick Patient
[0:06:28] Inside a CRT Session: 120 Points and a Cold-Room Stress Test
[0:07:48] Reading the Patterns: Blocked, Paradoxical, Hyporegulated
[0:09:04] Nervous System Overdrive and the Stress-Handling Gap
[0:11:48] Early-Warning Signals: Micro-Changes in Blood Flow
[0:13:22] Homotoxicology: From Suppressed Symptoms to Disease
[0:16:10] Why Fever, Sweat, and “Getting Sick” Signal Real Health
[0:19:20] CRT as a Naturopathic Treasure Map for Root Causes
[0:20:40] Teeth, Meridians, and Hidden Focal Infections
[0:24:44] Cavitations, Toxic Load, and Why Dental Work Comes First
[0:29:44] Beyond the Physical: Energetic Imaging and Colorpuncture
[0:31:30] Building a High-Tech Biological Medicine Clinic
[0:33:37] Bringing Swiss-Level Detox Tech to the U.S.
[0:35:42] Toxin Burden, Individual Tolerance, and Lowering the Load
[0:35:55] CRT as a Bridge Between Energy, Nerves, and Biology

About Sharon Stills, ND
Dr. Sharon Stills is a Naturopathic Medical Doctor providing comprehensive health care to patients worldwide, blending conventional medical training with cutting-edge diagnostics and natural healing. 

A graduate of the Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine, she specializes in European Biological Medicine, having trained extensively with Dr. Thomas Rau of Switzerland's Paracelsus Clinic and later lectured alongside him at the Paracelsus Academy. She's also well-versed in pro-aging therapies and Bio-identical Hormone Replacement, and is widely recognized for her work with cancer patients, having been featured in numerous Oncology Summits. 

Learn more about Dr. Stills and her work at www.drstills.com

Gordon Medical Associates 
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YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@GordonMedicalAssociates 
Gordon Medical Forum
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💬 Text us your feedback and future show ideas! (Please note we can't respond to texts - email questions to info@gordonmedical.com)

Interested in Becoming A Patient?

Find out if working with Gordon Medical is right for you. Set up a complimentary discovery call with our new patient coordinator at www.gordonmedical.com.

** This information is not to be taken as medical advice. Always consult your practitioner before making any changes to your treatment.

Wildfire smoke is no longer just a problem for those living near a fire. It is now the single largest source of air pollution on the planet, surpassing industrial activity, and its ultrafine particles are small enough to bypass the lungs entirely and travel directly to the brain, heart, liver, and placenta. 
Dr. Nafysa Parpia sits down with Dr. Lyn Patrick, a pioneer in environmental medicine, to make the case that wildfire smoke is a silent and largely underestimated driver of chronic illness, one that every patient and practitioner needs to understand.
Episode Highlights:
Why ultrafine particles smaller than 1 micron bypass the lungs and have been found in infant brains, carotid artery plaque, and placental tissue
The NEJM study linking microplastics in carotid arteries to a 4x higher risk of stroke, heart attack, or death within three years
How mercury from Chinese coal plants crosses the Pacific, gets sequestered in conifer needles, and becomes airborne when forests burn
Why glutathione, vitamin C, and cysteine in the lung lining fluid are your first line of defense,  and how to replenish them before and after exposure
How wildfire smoke raises total body burden and why detoxification is non-negotiable for patients with chronic illness

Listen in to learn more :
 
[0:00:34] Framing the Wildfire Smoke Health Crisis
[0:01:11] Why Wildfire Smoke Outpaces Industrial Pollution
[0:03:30] Ultrafine Particles and Whole-Body Exposure
[0:06:20] Global Mercury Transport from Coal to Wildfires
[0:08:10] Particulates, Metals, and Neurodegeneration
[0:09:55] Wildfire Smoke and the Dementia Surge
[0:10:27] A “Second Pandemic” for Complex Chronic Illness
[0:11:03] Microplastics, Immune Activation, and Vascular Risk
[0:13:19] Spike Protein Plus Microplastics as a Vascular Threat
[0:14:19] Radical Plastic Avoidance and Consumer Education
[0:16:54] Before–During–After Wildfire Preparedness Framework
[0:17:54] Go-Bag Essentials and High-Grade Respiratory Protection
[0:19:10] P100 vs N95 for Ultrafine Particle Defense
[0:19:54] Nebulizers and Rebuilding Lung Lining Defenses
[0:22:40] Tyvek Suits and Safe Re-Entry to Burn Sites
[0:24:29] Flame Retardants, Carcinogenic Dust, and Soil
[0:28:06] Reverse Osmosis and Charcoal as Filtration Baseline
[0:28:43] Whole-House vs Point-of-Use Water Filtration Economics
[0:29:40] Budget Filters, Cartridge Changes, and Microplastics Issues
[0:33:31] Why Shower Water Filtration Is Non-Negotiable
[0:36:20] Effective House Cleaning Strategies After Smoke Events
[0:37:10] Mold Remediation and “Mold Controlled” Protocols
[0:38:04] Choosing Air Purifiers That Capture Ultrafine Particles
[0:41:40] Post-Exposure Antioxidant and Nebulized Detox Strategies
[0:45:04] IV Protocols for Nutrient Repletion and Cell Membrane Repair

About Lyn Patrick, ND
Dr. Lyn Patrick is the Medical Director of EMEI Global, an online post-graduate program for healthcare providers in environmental medicine. She also has her doctorate in naturopathic medicine from Bastyr University and has been in private practice as a licensed naturopathic physician for the last 30 years. She is a published author of numerous articles in peer-reviewed medical journals. She speaks internationally on the integrative medical treatment of chronic hepatitis C, environmental medicine, liver disease, and endocrine disruption. 

Learn more about EMEI Global: https://emeiglobal.com/

Gordon Medical Associates 
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YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@GordonMedicalAssociates 

Gordon Medical Forum
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Plasmapheresis at Gordon Medical
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💬 Text us your feedback and future show ideas! (Please note we can't respond to texts - email questions to info@gordonmedical.com)
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** This information is not to be taken as medical advice. Always consult your practitioner before making any changes to your treatment.