The Berman Method
The Berman Method
Episode #200: Number 1 cause of Knee Pain and Poor Gut Health
Milestone alert! In our 200th episode, we're celebrating by getting back to basics and revealing the true root causes behind most modern health problems.
Ever wonder why your "healthy" diet isn't working? Or why that nagging back pain, knee issue, or plantar fasciitis keeps returning despite all your efforts? After years of clinical experience and hundreds of podcast episodes, we've distilled health down to two fundamental truths that most medical professionals completely miss.
First, Jenni tackles the nutrition side, exposing how seemingly healthy foods are metabolically equivalent to ice cream. The issue isn't just carbohydrates but the critical imbalance between carbs and protein that drives inflammation, hormone disruption, and weight gain resistant to conventional approaches. You'll never look at your breakfast the same way again.
Then Dr. Jake drops a bombshell about the real cause of non-traumatic pain: it's your shoes and chairs, not your age. Building on the analogy of a house without a foundation, he explains why addressing foot strength is essential for resolving everything from plantar fasciitis to back pain.
The solution turns out to be refreshingly simple: balance your carbs with adequate protein and spend more time barefoot. This back-to-basics approach challenges billion-dollar industries while offering a clear path to addressing the root causes of what ails us rather than merely treating symptoms.
Ready to transform your health with these fundamental insights? Listen now, and share this episode with someone who drinks orange juice for breakfast while wearing their favorite cushioned shoes. Here's to 200 more episodes of cutting through health misinformation and getting to what really matters!
This is the Berman Method podcast, featuring Dr Jake Berman and physician assistant Jenny Berman. We are here to treat problems and not symptoms. Disclaimer this podcast is for entertainment purposes only and not to treat anyone or to give medical advice. If you are interested in any information that we are giving and would like to use this for yourself, we recommend that you contact your primary care physician or reach out to us and ask us questions about yourself specifically. Enjoy.
Speaker 2:And we're rolling baby rolling, rolling, rolling, rolling on the Berman Method podcast focused on treating problems and not symptoms. Dr Jake Berman here, my beautiful co-host.
Speaker 1:Jenny Berman, physician assistant.
Speaker 2:Episode number 200. 200.
Speaker 1:Can you believe it? Discipline Dedication this is insane. I mean discipline and dedication of our listeners, not of us.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this is fun for us.
Speaker 1:Putting up with us.
Speaker 2:Holy guacamole. 200 episodes of us talking about the Berman Method. Yeah, who would have thought that there would be so much to talk about? It's really simple, or at least we thought it was.
Speaker 1:Treating problems and not symptoms.
Speaker 2:Yeah, apparently it's not.
Speaker 1:There's a lot. There's a lot.
Speaker 2:How many hours have we recorded?
Speaker 1:I don't know, a hundred, I guess Right, because every episode is like 30 minutes. Yeah, I don't know, it's half an hour.
Speaker 2:We're talking about a lot of minutes of talking about treating problems and not symptoms, and here we are still talking about more stuff.
Speaker 1:It's a lot of education. It's always something new. We don't know everything.
Speaker 2:We don't know everything, and one of the things that we're trying to do on this podcast is avoid the curse of the provider, meaning that Jake and Jenny, we know, I'll humbly say we know so much that sometimes it's difficult for us to remember that the listener doesn't know the basic fundamentals. For example, eating pancakes and drinking orange juice to start your day is not a good idea.
Speaker 1:It's like having a bowl of ice cream for breakfast. It's like.
Speaker 2:What episode was that where we said what's healthier a bowl of ice cream or a glass of orange juice?
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it was the bowl of ice cream.
Speaker 2:The ice cream was more healthy quote unquote I'm doing air quotes right now than drinking a glass of orange juice. So if you didn't listen to that episode, go back and find it. I wish I knew which number it was so that I could quote it real quick.
Speaker 1:We can link it in the show notes probably.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So here we are, 200 episodes into it today and we're David going against Goliath, goliath being the corporate medical system, big pharma, health insurance companies, the pharmaceutical companies. The country is starting to catch on. America is starting to catch on. We're making some big moves not to be political, but I'm gonna be anyways. Rfk is out there making some serious noise and waves, trying to make america healthy again yes, yes every time I do something political, you just kind of get quiet.
Speaker 1:Shake my head.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's like wait a minute, let's get loud, let's scream on the top of the mountains Okay, go on. So here we are, episode number 200. And what I thought, what we thought would be a good idea, is go back to the basic fundamentals of what is the number one cause of non-traumatic musculoskeletal pain, and all that means is there was no accident.
Speaker 1:No accident, no specific injury.
Speaker 2:Right. My back just started hurting for no reason. My shoulder just started hurting for no reason. You blame it on old age.
Speaker 1:I was just going to say that that's not the reason.
Speaker 2:That's not the reason. I was blame it on old age. I was just gonna say that that's not the reason. That's not the reason I was gonna say old age, yeah. So we'll talk about that and then we'll talk about the same exact thing. In jenny's world, what is the number one cause of the vast majority of the problems that you see, or symptoms that you see? What you want me to tell no, I don't want you to talk. Oh, I didn't know actually why don't you go first, ladies first.
Speaker 1:You want me to tell them no, I don't want you to tell them oh, I didn't know you were ready yet.
Speaker 2:Actually, why don't you go first, Ladies first.
Speaker 1:You want me to go first?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So should we talk about the symptoms first?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean the most common symptoms over the years. You let's start back at the beginning. When you first started, you were primarily helping people with weight loss.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:Weight management. Yes, yeah, so primarily women in their 40s, 50s and 60s. That just couldn't get rid of the spare tire. I don't know why I'm eating less, I'm working out more and I'm still not losing weight. That's what you started all specializing in.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:And then over the years it kind of evolved into, not kind of it did. So we're niching down, you're niching down, you're getting more specific on what it is that you're treating and it really comes down to one fundamental cause that's leading to all these symptoms that people are coming to you with.
Speaker 1:Including the spare tire.
Speaker 1:So, the spare tire, meaning the weight around the midsection in a male or female it doesn't have to be female, but the weight in the midsection, the poor gut health, the abnormal cortisol response, meaning the stress control of your body, meaning mood is being affected, sleep is being affected, energy is being affected. We all want to blame it on hormones changing. I'm getting older and I just have no hormones. I need to have hormone replacement and that's really not the answer. The cause, the number one thing leading to all of these symptoms, is your simple carbohydrate intake, meaning the bad carbohydrates that we're consuming. Going back to that pancake and glass of orange juice and maybe it's not that blunt I have so many women say I don't eat bad, I'm not eating pancakes and donuts. However, we're having milk or we're having orange juice, or we're having the rice or the sweet potatoes, but we're just not eating enough protein. So it's the balance of the protein with those carbohydrates is the ultimate problem.
Speaker 2:And knowing exactly what it is that you're eating. I mean, how many times have people told us that I'm being healthy? Look at what I'm eating. I'm eating this protein bar. Right, I'm drinking this protein shake and you go oh my gosh, that is filled with carbs and sugar, but the marketing of it is saying that it's amazing.
Speaker 1:Right, right, or the bowl of oatmeal for breakfast. I'm having a bowl of oatmeal for breakfast. Or if I don't have the bowl of oatmeal with the fruit, then I'll have the fiber cereal. What's that fiber? That everybody, the fiber.
Speaker 2:I'm blanking on it.
Speaker 1:The fiber cereal that they'll have in the morning. So they're either having the oatmeal, they're having the fiber cereal. I'm going to throw some berries on it, because berries are healthy. Right, I'm going to throw that on there and then I'll eat again at lunch, where I might have a salad, and then for dinner I'm going to have my chicken, broccoli, brown rice and just one glass of wine and then maybe a couple of slices, pieces of dark chocolate after dinner. But here we are no protein at breakfast with the oatmeal, no protein on the salad at lunch. Or maybe you do have a couple of ounces of protein at lunch on your salad and then your dinner has a protein, a vegetable, a carbohydrate, another carbohydrate and another carbohydrate between the brown rice, the wine and the dark chocolate.
Speaker 2:It sounds good.
Speaker 1:before you classify everything as a carbohydrate Well, and the oatmeal or the fiber cereal plus your fruit is a carbohydrate and a carbohydrate. So here's the issue these all might be healthy carbohydrates, but there's no protein there.
Speaker 2:Right, so said simply fifth grade reading level. There's nothing wrong with the carbs that you're eating, other than the fact that you're not augmenting it or balancing it with protein.
Speaker 1:With the right amount of protein. And then you know there are areas where, okay, those are really healthy carbohydrates, even though we think that they're healthy carbohydrates.
Speaker 2:Those are not really healthy.
Speaker 1:Well, not the ones I was just mentioning, but things like orange juice, like you said, where we have so much, you know, we think so much that orange juice is healthy or that having fruit, a fruit serving at every meal is healthy, when really fruit, at the end of the day, is sugar and that's going to break down into glucose.
Speaker 2:The glass of orange juice is the biggest thing. I mean how I can't help but to do it. Every Sunday morning we go out to breakfast and I have to look around. I can't help but to do it. Every Sunday morning we go out to breakfast and I have to look around. You can't turn it off. Once you see it, you can't turn it off.
Speaker 1:Orange juice, apple juice, grape juice, a glass of milk, a glass of fat-free milk. Even skim milk has 13 grams of sugar in it.
Speaker 2:But that's helping me with my bone density and my osteoporosis.
Speaker 1:Except that the sugar is actually doing the opposite of that, in hurting your bone density and osteoporosis. And at the end of the day, you know, you're like, okay, well, I've got issues. I don't have weight issues. How is sugar affecting me? But sugar is inflammatory and that is affecting our cortisol level, which is breaking down the gut lining, which is breaking down our muscle. So, at the end of the day, yes, your carbohydrates are still affecting you, even if it's not a weight issue or a diabetes issue.
Speaker 2:Oh boy.
Speaker 1:All right, is it your turn?
Speaker 2:Do you want me to go? Yeah, let's wrap yours up with this one statement. Do you want me to go? Yeah, let's wrap yours up with this one statement the next time you're at breakfast, look around at all the tables around you and tell me that you don't see table after table with plate after plate of pancakes, french toast, waffles, muffins, toast. What am I missing? Orange juice, juices yeah, count all the glasses of orange juice and then just picture those same items as ice cream. Right, because it's reacting the same damn way in your body.
Speaker 2:You're so angry about this. Well, we got to start getting louder. Like it's still happening, right. Like we've got to get louder. Pancakes and ice cream are the same thing, it's true. Hopefully by now our audience would agree that it's not a good idea to have a bowl of ice cream for breakfast.
Speaker 1:Right, yes, like, hopefully our audience agrees, unless it's your ninja creamy protein ice cream.
Speaker 2:That's a whole other topic there. We still have it for breakfast, though. Creamy protein ice cream that's a whole nother topic there we still have it for breakfast though. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Okay, fair.
Speaker 2:Good yeah, okay.
Speaker 1:So you? The number one cause of non-traumatic pain is not old age.
Speaker 2:It's not, and I'm talking about non-traumatic knee pain, non-traumatic foot pain, plantar fasciitis, especially back pain, hip pain, shoulder pain, neck pain. The number one cause of all of these things is twofold Shoes and chairs. Okay Well, unless you're our toddlers who, for whatever reason, love wearing shoes on their hands On their hands, when they first start crawling, when they first start crawling both of them. Walker's not done it yet because he's army crawling.
Speaker 1:I think that's true.
Speaker 2:But both Stella and Vera, as soon as they could start crawling, they go straight for the shoes. The shoes go on their hands.
Speaker 1:And they would crawl around with shoes on their hands. I forgot about that. Yes, shoes go on their hands.
Speaker 2:And they would crawl around with shoes on their hands. I forgot about that.
Speaker 1:Yes, shoes on the feet.
Speaker 2:Uh-huh, especially supportive ones, especially hokas and on clouds. Holy cow, you could not pick a worse shoe to wear than hokas and on clouds.
Speaker 1:On clouds.
Speaker 2:On clouds Because you're walking on a cloud. It's so comfortable and so supportive. It feels like you're walking on a cloud. Walking on a cloud, it's so comfortable and so supportive. It feels like you're walking on a cloud. Wow yeah, don't act surprised.
Speaker 1:I knew about hokas and brooks. I didn't know on clouds were so bad. They're horrible.
Speaker 2:They're horrible. The only thing worse than an on cloud is a hoka, and then that's augmented by chairs.
Speaker 1:Yes, as soon as you're school age and you start sitting more than not. Yeah.
Speaker 2:So I watched this with our own kids. So Stella, as soon as she could walk, she could walk to a toy and squat down and play with it, walk to another toy, squat down and play with it. As soon as the class that she was in at daycare started having them sit in chairs, she stopped doing it. She would walk to a toy and then, sit on the ground and play with it.
Speaker 2:And I saw this happen and I knew it was going to happen. I knew it and as soon as this happened, I pivoted and I did this strategic plan to have Stella do squats for rewards, right, right, so it wasn't a punishment. It was for rewards. You want a treat? Okay, give me 10 squats, and she just bang out 10 squats. Right, it's my attempt at helping her keep the mobility.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:You know same thing with Vera. Now Luckily she's not at daycare anymore, so she's not sitting in chairs, or ever.
Speaker 1:She doesn't sit ever.
Speaker 2:She doesn't sit period, but now she's doing squats. The reason why shoes are the number one cause if I had to choose one between shoes or chairs, I'm going to go with shoes. Shoes are the number one cause. If I had to choose one between shoes or chairs, I'm going to go with shoes. Shoes are the number one cause of non-traumatic pain period in America. It's because they're essentially casts. So your foot is a very, very sophisticated piece of machinery. I mean it's just amazing the way that it should work. There's over 100 muscles, tendons and ligaments in the foot alone, foot and ankle alone. You put your foot into a shoe and you lace it up real tight with some orthotics or hokas or on clouds. You've got 16 muscles in the arch of your foot that no longer have to do anything.
Speaker 1:Right, it's just not working.
Speaker 2:Yeah, those 16 muscles' job is to move all the joints in your foot.
Speaker 1:Right, and then you make it so they don't have to work, and then you go to sleep and they tighten up on you, and then you wake up and you have plantar fasciitis.
Speaker 2:The plantar fasciitis. But, more importantly, you put your foot into a shoe. Those muscles don't have to work and they immediately start getting weaker. You don't use it, you lose it. Right, it's no different. Right, you lay in a bed, a hospital bed, for a week. Your whole body gets weak. You put your foot into a shoe, you strap it up real tight, lace it up with an orthotic. Those muscles get weak and then you think that you can just take the shoes off and walk down the beach and everything's going to be okay.
Speaker 1:It's not, it's not okay, it's not okay at all.
Speaker 2:So now the thing that's supposed to connect you to the ground, your foot, is not working the way that it should. Your foot is what connects you to the ground. Right your foot is your first base of support.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:If your foot is not working the way that it's supposed to be working, everything above it has to work differently, has to compensate, has to figure out some other way to achieve its job.
Speaker 1:More stress through the joints, through everything.
Speaker 2:Because the foot's not working. The way I like to use the analogy is how would you do a squat or a lunge or walk if you were on slippery ice? You walk very stiff, right, right, yes, cautiously, because your feet don't have a good grasp, a solid foundation, fair. So this is an exaggerated example, but the same thing's happening at a microscopic level of that when your foot is laced up in a supportive shoe.
Speaker 1:And so this is leading to the back pain, the hip pain, the knee pain when the feet become weak and inefficient.
Speaker 2:Correct. The feet are the most important part of the entire kinematic chain, because it's what connects you to the ground. Right, you have to have it. It's like trying to build a house on a beach. You build this beautiful house on the beach, but you forget to pour a two-foot thick concrete slab.
Speaker 1:You just put the stilts right into the sand. I mean the sand.
Speaker 2:You put the walls right on the sand oh the walls. So the first tropical storm that comes through is going to blow this beautiful house right over Versus in Naples. This should resonate with everybody that lives in Naples. If you put that same house on a too thick piece of concrete slab, it can withstand. Irma Got it.
Speaker 1:Or Ian.
Speaker 2:Hopefully that doesn't bring up too many bad memories, but you get the point you have to have a solid foundation, you have to have a concrete slab. Before you build a house. You have to have an active, functional foot in order to walk, do a squat, do a lunge, go up and down stairs, in and out of a car, play a sport. But then we got Dr Scholls, spending billions on marketing every year, saying that no, you actually need orthotics, you need these supportive shoes, you need hokas, you need on clouds. Then go play your sport. It's not true, just not true.
Speaker 1:Tell me more.
Speaker 2:How much more do you want me to tell you?
Speaker 1:It's just not true and you know it makes sense. That's why I have had this hamstring issue going on, and when I work with Les here at the physical therapy area, he is constantly going to my feet. I'm working on my feet and my ankles. Does that make sense? That's true. I not only I mean I grew up pretty much barefoot. I was barefoot majority of my life doing gymnastics right, so I only really wore shoes at school. Outside of that, I was barefoot. However, I had a surgery on my lower leg when I was seven years old and then again at eight years old and have some serious scar tissue on my shin which has affected how my feet have been able to work and strengthen, and that's been a big contributing factor to a lot of the injuries that I've had, which I now know. I didn't know that when I was 79, 10 years old doing gymnastics on a scarred down leg.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I didn't even know this stuff 12 years ago when we first started dating. When we first started dating, you had this chronic recurring Achilles injury that ultimately led to you being in a boot for months, and here I am trying to fix it. I'm like working on the Achilles. I'm doing all sorts of soft tissue and everything that I could try to do, and nothing helped. I didn't know then what I know now. There was a lot more that needed to be done in those little tiny muscles in your feet, mm-hmm, mm-hmm, it's true.
Speaker 1:So there we are, yeah.
Speaker 2:Your feet. So the number one cause of most of the symptoms that Americans experience are carbohydrates.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:That you think are healthy, that are really not.
Speaker 1:Lack of protein. See, that's kind of twofold too right it's the carbohydrates, but it's also the lack of protein, and then for non-traumatic pain.
Speaker 2:Shoes and chairs.
Speaker 1:Shoes and chairs. Stop sitting and take your shoes off. Stand up at your desk barefoot, yes like.
Speaker 2:I do.
Speaker 1:On one leg and then switch to the other leg. Yeah, you don't stand leg and then switch to the other leg. Yeah, you don't stand. Well, if I'm not here, you stand at my desk.
Speaker 2:Yeah, stand at your desk, yeah, and you're not here a lot.
Speaker 1:I'm upstairs a lot.
Speaker 2:You're not at your desk a lot.
Speaker 1:Downstairs. I'm not at my desk. I'm upstairs at my desk.
Speaker 2:You're not downstairs at this desk.
Speaker 1:Stop arguing. Okay, so arguing Okay.
Speaker 2:So there we go, 200th episode. 200th episode we finally revealed the secret to health and longevity.
Speaker 1:Eat your protein and go barefoot.
Speaker 2:It's so simple Balance your carbs with protein and go barefoot Right. Think about it, though.
Speaker 1:It's really true.
Speaker 2:So thank you so much to all the listeners that have been with us over the years. It's been a ton of fun. If you would have asked us four or five years ago, whenever we started this, if I thought that we'd make it to 200 episodes, I don't think that I even considered it at that time. I thought it was just something that we should do because everybody else was doing it. But it's funny how attrition occurs and so many people don't even make it past the 50th episode. Here we are at 200.
Speaker 1:Awesome High five.
Speaker 2:Air high five Good. Where are we going to be at another 10 years from now?
Speaker 1:That's the question. Where do you want to be a year from now, let alone 10 years from now?
Speaker 2:Yeah, All right, Like subscribe. Share this episode with somebody that you know drinks orange juice for breakfast every morning, that you know eats pancakes covered in syrup at breakfast and loves their hokas on clouds.
Speaker 1:Awesome. Ciao for now, bye. Thank you for subscribing on your social media and podcast platforms to the Berman Method Dr Jake Berman with Berman Physical Therapy and Jenny Berman, physician Assistant, with Berman Health and Wellness. You can find more information on our website wwwbermanptcom for physical therapy, wwwbermanptcom forward slash wellness for the health and wellness. You can also find us on social media Facebook, instagram and on your podcast platform, so be sure to follow us, like us, subscribe to us and, if you would like any further information, definitely visit our website and reach out to us. You may also find our free reports on the websites as well, where you can download this free information for yourself. Have a great day.