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Transcript to SHR # 2365 :: A New Way To Treat Uterine Fibroids

[00:00:00] Hey, hey, welcome back to another episode of superhuman radio. We have a really good show plan than this one is for the ladies and the guys who have women in their lives because if if your wife or partner suffers from uterine fibroids, You realize how tough your life will become because her life will become tough.

[00:00:54] And it's a much bigger problem. Then I thought it was until I started doing [00:01:00] some research for today's show. It's. It's amazing. I'm going to go ahead and bring my guest right on because I want I want to get right into this my guest today is dr. Bruce Lee. How you doing? Dr. Lee I am well, thank you very much for having me on the show.

[00:01:13] Yeah, my pleasure. My pleasure. You know, I love doing these types of shows where I can get the news out about a cutting-edge approach to deal with the problem that critically needs a new approach. And so so first of all depending on which government statistics you go by. It looks like as many as 80% of women will develop some type of uterine fibroid the severity varies by the time they're in their 50s that's astonishing to me.

[00:01:45] That is that is such a huge number of women. That's that's absolutely correct. The majority of women by far will develop these tumors and about 40 percent of them will have [00:02:00] significant symptoms requiring treatment. Actually. It's a little bit based on ethnicity. In that about 70% of Caucasian women by 50 have these tumors and over eighty percent of African-American women have them by age 50, is that because okay so I don't mean to segue but I love to pull from strings in conversation.

[00:02:22] So, you know darker skinned people they scarred different than lighter skinned people, they'll keloid and because of the higher amounts of fibrinogen in their bodies, is that play a role in this and this. Geology of the the higher rate of fibroids and African American women not really the fibrinogen issue, but the development of fibroids is a little bit different in the African-American population in that the occur earlier in age.

[00:02:53] They are more numerous and the tumors that they develop are much more aggressive and cause more [00:03:00] symptoms and interesting. Is there a is there a hormonal influence that you've. Well to correlate in the development of uterine fibroids and women. Well, not so much the development. Although there's indirect evidence that hormones certainly can do have a role in the development in that fibroids don't develop until women start to menstruate.

[00:03:28] And they stopped developing when women go through menopause, which is the time when ovulation no longer occurs in hormonal levels fall. We do know that the hormone progesterone not estrogen because those are the two main female hormones estrogen and progesterone. We do know that progesterone is the primary stimulus to fibroid growth and that estrogen augments that effect.

[00:03:58] Wow, so it [00:04:00] certainly does have a role in the growth of these fibroids and I can see why menstruating. Influence that because as a woman goes through the cyclicity of the menstrual cycle you have periods of time where progesterone Ebbs and flows where you have higher progesterone levels and lower progesterone levels.

[00:04:21] And so I would imagine that those periods of higher progesterone creates an environment where the the fibroid can actually start to grow faster again, Okay. So where did you get your medical degree? Because because most people don't know this. I've been doing the show for 14 years and I get to talk to brilliant people like you I'm basically a parrot.

[00:04:44] I'm like a parrot. You tell me a word and I repeat it back to you. So there you go.

[00:04:51] Well, you're very correct because there's a common misconception out there that that women who develop fibroids have this [00:05:00] estrogen dominance kind. Thing where they have too much estrogen in their body. And so they change their diets. They do all kinds of things to try to bring this estrogen down.

[00:05:10] The reality is estrogen while again complementary to fibroid growth is not essential for it progesterone is that is so fascinating. Okay. So let's get back on track here when women do develop fibroids and some are more aggressive than others. There's some women out there who have fibroids. And they can go to their entire life and not really be bothered by them other than in the back of their mind.

[00:05:38] They're afraid that because this thing is a tumor, right? We call it a fibroid, but it is a tumor. Yeah fibroids are benign solid muscle cell tumors that develop in the wall of the uterus. The wall of the uterus is called the myometrium and that is made up of muscle. So these tumors develop between the [00:06:00] muscle cells much like a pebble inside of a sponge and then they grow and they compress that sponge and they become much larger than the original.

[00:06:10] Okay, and now but what happens with these is that they can cause problems when women are still having periods because they can cause a lot of pain they'll have much much heavier flow during their periods much more discomfort and depending on their size. I know what a girl who had. A fibroid the size of a large grapefruit and she had a terribly distended stomach, you know, a lower abdomen was pushed out they can get really really big.

[00:06:45] Oh, they definitely can I just yesterday I was operating on a. A nice doctor's wife from Florida who flew into California and had the procedure [00:07:00] that I do and her uterus was the size of a six-month pregnancy. Oh, how terrible that's a man. Just one of her fibroids was the size of a cantaloupe. Oh, that's and obviously she's probably had really high progesterone levels at some point in time for it to fertilize and grow that big that's amazing to me.

[00:07:20] Well, the progesterone levels again are very essential but each fibroid that develops has its own genetic makeup. So we all doctors included tend to think of fibers as kind of one entity in reality. There are diverse type of group of tumor were were each fiber. It has its own genetics. So therefore it has its own behavior some fibroids wish to.

[00:07:49] And grow and grow and other ones just a very small sum will cause very heavy bleeding and some will not and it's not all of us the location of the [00:08:00] fiber that determines that it's actually much dependent upon the biology of that particular tumor that happens to develop interesting and so so. Are there any in any correlating Hallmarks that we that you know about that seems to be get the more aggressive larger growing tumors?

[00:08:24] No, not really because we find the very large ones in every ethnic group in the world in every country of the world. And in every environment fibroids are fairly ubiquitous. They've been around as long as mankind has been around they've been written about in medical and non-medical literature for many many hundreds of thousands of years.

[00:08:47] They've found fibroids and Egyptian mummies. So so it's just a condition that. And kind has always had but interestingly enough does not really get addressed or get talked about. [00:09:00] So there's lots of interesting research coming out on PCOS and its relationship to the onset of type 2 diabetes. So we know that women who suffer from PCOS they also tend to.

[00:09:18] Have a certain degree of insulin resistance. This insulin resistant Factor seems to lead to the increased production of androgens. They develop hair on the face. They develop certain characteristics and do we see any correlation with any metabolic things that we see Pete women who have certain metabolic disorders develop fibroids more frequently.

[00:09:43] There is a slight correlation with women who are diabetic and more obese, whether that's you know, etiologic or just. Coincident right now is really not really well understood but [00:10:00] we do interesting things. We do find fibroids and really every kind of situation women who have no medical problems commonly have fibroids women who have a lot of medical problems commonly have five words.

[00:10:12] The bottom line five words are common. So I found the stud. I actually about two years ago. I found the study that we talked on about on the show just briefly. That that linked semen ejaculation to suppressing the growth of fibroids. Have you ever seen that research at? You know, I have not and we talked about it just because we were doing a show one day about you know about the importance of of Sex and the healthy human and whether or not healthy people have more sex while having more sex keeps you healthy, you know, we can argue about that, but I found this study that indicated that that it seem like women who tended to be [00:11:00] ejaculated into more often tended to either not.

[00:11:09] Because as my good friend, dr. Loren cordain once said if you follow epidemiology, then fire trucks cause fires because every time there's a fire there's a fire truck there. So you really don't know right and and and along with that that may really apply to this situation, right? Cuz. Women with fibroids often have pain with intercourse, which is called right?

[00:11:31] So they're not exactly so they're not having as much sex. So it's like, oh, maybe that's what's causing it. But no, it's it's the opposite way around at the Chicken and the Egg type thing. Yeah. Exactly. Absolutely, right? So so usually the only option for a. Well, there's two options, right there's a myomectomy and then there's obviously a hysterectomy there are two options but they're both surgical procedures that require some sort of radical invasive changes of [00:12:00] the reproductive organs, right?

[00:12:03] That's correct, but there are really more options than just those two and unfortunately, it depends upon where the particular patient is and and. Who that patient sees as her physician? That will determine really what options she is given but you're correct many women are only given the option of myomectomy or hysterectomy or even just hysterectomy.

[00:12:33] I've had quite a few patients who are young in their 20s and who have come to me and we're told that their Physicians only. Said that hysterectomy was the option and the only option for them. And and and this is this is a big deal for women because you know, everybody realizes now, you know with the boom and bioidentical hormone replacement therapy.

[00:12:55] Thanks to Suzanne Somers exposure of a lot of this good stuff and the growth of [00:13:00] awareness that hey, you know, these hormones play a role in. In Health and Longevity and and the Cavalier attitude that like old just going to take everything out. You know, a lot of women want to keep as much as they can.

[00:13:13] They realize that this is not a just something to be Cavalier about so this type of surgery is probably the last thing they want to hear about and we're going to talk about your solution in a minute, but I but the reality is that in pretty much the United States overall if a woman walks in with a debilitating.

[00:13:34] Fibroid uterine fibroids. She is really only going to be offered surgery at some point in time. Right most likely that is correct. But to your point about what women choose or how they feel about the options that they're given uterine fibroids are present in such large numbers in. The world but also in the US the [00:14:00] data suggests that there are over 12 million women who have symptomatic fibroids right now in the US and how many of those women actually proceed?

[00:14:12] To have a therapy for their fibroids usually less than 400,000 per year. Wow. So what are the rest of them? Just live with the pain and the anguish? That is absolutely correct. And so the women are telling us that they are rejecting the standard options that are offered to them. Right? Right, and I and you know, and I have to say I know that modern medicine has been reshaped because of the access of information the internet websites like the NIH is PubMed and others.

[00:14:50] Where people in search of information and a willingness to get a medical dictionary to look up certain terms that they don't understand can now be endowed with [00:15:00] as much information about their unique situation as the physician that they're seeing and I guess some of these women just don't want to have that surgery and I can understand that I put off.

[00:15:13] Surgery on my left foot for two years and suffered with unbearable pain for two years because I didn't want to go under I didn't want at general anesthesia. I had done a show eight years ago nine years ago that general anesthesia does to the brain with blunt force trauma does to the brain and so you want to limit the times that you have to be put out under general anesthesia, and I just kept putting it off because I didn't want to have surgery so I can understand women's.

[00:15:42] Angst with this idea that I have to go do this and they just I bet they live with it and it makes them miserable. It makes them miserable and makes their family miserable and it has significant repercussions to. [00:16:00] The patient socially and economically and it has great economic impact on the US for example, five words cost is country.

[00:16:09] Well over thirty four billion dollars per year. Oh my goodness that is breast cancer colon cancer and ovarian cancer put together. And see because it's not quote-unquote life-threatening. It takes a backseat to these other. Cat2222 cancers that may actually metastasize or something like that.

[00:16:31] That's really really interesting. Now when women develop fibroids in their breast is that an indication that they will probably end up with fibroids in their uterus as well or these two very very different situations. No, these are two separate entities. However, they are commonly found together because both are very very common.

[00:16:54] Right but one is not really related to the other and the the breast [00:17:00] masses. They're called fibroadenomas Mmm and they have really a although they feel very similar to fibroids and have similar appearance. They are actually histologically separate. Okay? Okay. Now I'm assuming are you of Chinese descent?

[00:17:18] I am okay. So traditional Chinese medicine treats uterine fibroids with increased intake in Burdock and seaweed because of the iodine and the theory behind that is that when women don't have adequate iodine. They tend to produce more fibroid type tissue any reality any accuracy and. Chinese medicine has been very effective in treating the symptoms of uterine fibroids.

[00:17:49] My sister happens to be a very well-recognized herbologist acupuncturist. She also has a master's in public health in is a physical. Very talented woman who spent much [00:18:00] of her time studying in China. She used to accredit a various programs for biology and acupuncture here in the US and we tried to work together to find a solution for uterine fibroids.

[00:18:16] And in fact, we could influence the symptoms, but we could not reverse the tumor itself. So so it is possible to help the symptoms of fibroids with supplements and herbs. If one knows what they're doing it's also. Possible to make them worse because many of these herbs and supplements have hormone-like effects and if they happen to have progestin like effects, well, you're going to make the fibroid growth.

[00:18:46] Yeah, you're basically putting fertilizer on it. I want to I want to take a commercial break and when we come back, I want to talk about how you decided to invent something and actually the procedure that you [00:19:00] offer. I think you just make a tiny little incision. There's no real quote-unquote surgery.

[00:19:08] Am I correct on that? It is a surgery but it's a minimally invasive one, right? And and that allows for a faster recovery much less pain, but you're all but you're also you're also addressing just the problem. It's almost like you're pinpointing the the surgery to address the fibroid and leave everything else intact in the woman, right?

[00:19:37] That is crap. And that's it. That's a wonderful thing. Let's do this. We'll take a break and when we come back, we'll be talking more with dr. Bruce Lee. Stay tuned. Welcome back. If you didn't catch yesterday's show you really need to listen to We had the brilliant Joel green on yesterday, and we were examining, you know, all of these nicotinamide Rai besides supplements out there [00:20:00] guaranteeing to keep people from aging and nad+.

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[00:21:04] I wear them every single night and the occasional times. I don't put them on. I don't sleep as good and I track my sleep three different ways. So check out blue blocks.com show them some love. They are a sponsor here at supremum Radio at talking today with dr. Bruce Lee. He is a an obstetrician-gynecologist with talking about fibroid tumors, which is really a big problem for women.

[00:21:28] It's kind of a silent problem except the people who live with women who suffer from them. They probably know how tough it is and the women who suffer from them but in the past it was just about to pretty much radical surgery, but dr. Lee saw an opportunity. So talk about this doctor Lee what what made you say?

[00:21:49] There's got to be a better way to do this because let's face it. You're a trained surgeon. This is what you do, right? You got to hammer. There's a nail you hit the nail and that's it. That that was how I was trained [00:22:00] most definitely Carl, but I was never happy doing hysterectomies or major surgeries.

[00:22:08] Particularly with having to perform what we call a laparotomy meaning opening the abdomen that makes the recovery much longer much more difficult for patients. I was never happy seeing the patients go through what they had to go through paying wise and Recovery wise and risk wise for for benign tumors of the uterus as one patient asked me directly if I had a problem on my big toe.

[00:22:35] Would you chop off my foot? Yeah, right, and I said well no, I would think ideally we would just treat that particular problem on your big toe and leave the foot and the toe they're intact and she says well, how come we can't do that with uterine fibroids? And I said, well we can to a limited extent we can do that with a myomectomy.

[00:22:57] Unfortunately with a myomectomy [00:23:00] there is damage to the uterus in order to get to the tumors because we have to cut through the wall and then we have to suture the defect where that fibroid was once we remove it and then we have to get the fiber out of the body which is a problem. If we're doing this laparoscopically or through the scope so and then.

[00:23:21] We didn't know before but we are actually leaving many fibroids behind when we do my Mech tamizh. I remember one particular case where I exhaustively removed about 42 fibroids from one patient. Wow, and I thought okay great. At least this vacation is going to be fine for a long long long time.

[00:23:43] Well in three years she was back with fibroids again very numerous. And very symptomatic so that really made me scratch my head said, okay, we're doing something wrong here. Well, I'll let me ask you a question on that note. So there's a phenomenon when [00:24:00] people have polyps removed from their colon, and then they and then they usually, you know, they send them off to the lab to see if they're cancerous or not.

[00:24:11] But there's a phenomenon that a lot of oncologists know about now cold seeding. So when they snip that polyp there are cells left behind, you know tissue left behind and that tissue can actually kind of like pollen falling from a plant stopped new growths of many many more of these grow these these polyps is seating a problem when you're actually going there and snipping these fibroids out in the myomectomy.

[00:24:40] We don't believe that to be the case in the overwhelming majority of cases. However, it has been found very rarely that when one operates and removes a fibroid laparoscopically meaning through the scope and then in the past where [00:25:00] these fibroids were. Morse elated or ground up into strips so that the small strips can be removed through small incisions and avoiding a large incision for the patient that tissue can be seated and rarely.

[00:25:18] The nine fibroids can be spread this way, but the overwhelming majority of times when patients have numerous fibroids. We believe that each fibroid developed independently essentially of the others and obviously if a person has the propensity to develop them. If unless you change the conditions that they developed under there's a high probability that they could develop them.

[00:25:44] Absolutely, and in cases where they have poor patients have very numerous fibroids. It's important for patients to understand that they do have that propensity and and we do not have the knowledge to change that or alter that. So therefore we can [00:26:00] treat the fibroids or tumors that the patient has at the time and the goal would be to remove as many as possible to leave a longer fibroid free period and that was one of the problems of the moment.

[00:26:13] We didn't realize that we were leaving so many farmers behind right but but now thanks to the Advent of something called laparoscopic ultrasound, which is what I use on nearly a daily basis. That's an ultrasound that goes inside the abdomen not through the skin or a transvaginal e but actually into the abdomen at the time of ace.

[00:26:37] We place that right on the surface of the uterus and now I can identify fibroids literally 1.5 millimeters in size. Wow, that's amazing. Yes, it is. And I find so many of these small little fibroids, but I was going to say but holy mackerel that turned that turns this particular procedure into a whole day thing.

[00:26:57] I mean if you've got to go out and start getting these out [00:27:00] which basically are like clusters of cells on that level of size. I mean how many incisions do you have to make and then that's a big job. Yes, if you if you're trying to remove those with a myomectomy becomes impossible, right because you don't want to make so many incisions into viewers because you're damaging the you guys right and if you kept doing that, well there wouldn't be a viable uterus left exactly.

[00:27:26] I mean the the removal of it would leave more collateral damage and just leaving it in place and waiting for it to grow. Yeah, exactly and and can lead to actually reach the requirement for removal of the uterus at the time of the procedure. So that's why this new procedure really avoids that and allows the patient not to have to worry about having to have a hysterectomy and it allows for the treatment of many many more fibers.

[00:27:57] So when did the light bulb go off over your head? And [00:28:00] how did you proceed to. To work on this to see if it was it was viable. Well this occurred in 1999. Wow. Okay. Yes. I've been doing this procedure for actually a little over 20 years now. Okay, and it has a number of events that were seemingly unconnected.

[00:28:28] Occurred and those events led me to develop this procedure and where we are today as I look back on it a lot of. Unlikely things happened and those together brought about the the creation of this procedure. One of them was that I was in an area Monterey County Los Angeles in California, where.

[00:28:56] There weren't a lot of Physicians performing prenatal [00:29:00] testing for women who were pregnant and wanted to check the genetics of their child or needed to so, I began to perform that procedure for Monterey County. And so I had a lot of experience performing ultrasounds and Performing this procedure, which is placement of a needle.

[00:29:21] Ultrasound guided into the small sack where the embryo is not expedient right correct removal of amniotic fluid and sending that for testing right? So I developed the skills and experience to place needles where they need to be to do that with the usage of ultrasound delicately and precisely okay that but what and when did when did the idea of radio frequency?

[00:29:50] Ocean is used in a variety of different areas in medicine from to kind of kill off. Let's say Rogue nerve [00:30:00] that are causing her brain. And and when did you think to yourself? I wonder if radiofrequency ablation would actually work in this well it I would like to say that. You know, I came up with this idea and the light bulb went off and I thought well, this would be a great procedure for for medicine and that I all.

[00:30:21] And I really just came up with the idea. Well, it didn't happen that way instead again a series of events occurred the chief one being I was on the board of our Surgery Center in medical in Monterey County and a new physician wanted to come in and perform radiofrequency ablation of liver cancer.

[00:30:42] No one at that time knew much about it because it had just been cleared by the FDA and and so. The board said, okay. Dr. Lee your our Tech Guy figured this out. Should we is this a good procedure? Is it safe should the surgery center allow this procedure [00:31:00] to be done? And so I performed a very thorough literature review on it literally read everything ever written about it brought the equipment into my office tried it out on various roast during my lunch hour really causing my nurses great consternation, haha.

[00:31:20] And they would say what's he doing now? Anyway, so I did all that and then as I was researching this it occurred to me, you know, this works. Okay for liver cancer, but liver is a very vascular kind of organ there and it rejected regenerates itself like a starfish. So yeah, it does but and that's partly because of the vascularity and vascularity is the enemy of radiofrequency ablation because it takes away the heat radiofrequency ablation is nothing more than.

[00:31:50] Treating something with temperature right and being able to deliver temperature and have developed defined rights precise way. [00:32:00] With fibroids. Well, the vasculature is peripheral. It's only on mainly on the outside with very few feeder vessels penetrating the mass of the tumor. So therefore it's easier to maintain temperature throughout the body of the tumor and the peripheral circulation acts like a cooling blanket.

[00:32:22] So it helps to decrease. Any heat that might stray out of the tumor and and really it shouldn't happen that way but the in case of the case of new Physicians doing a procedure, you know, you might get a little too close to the surrounding tissue, but the surrounding peripheral vasculature is kind of like a safety blanket keeps that tissue safe.

[00:32:44] So as I was thinking about that occurred to me, this could really work well for fibroids coincidentally again at the same time. I was doing that three. Just came in during the same week. I thought it was kind of a plot or something and refused [00:33:00] hysterectomy myomectomy, which were the standard options of the time and they said dr.

[00:33:04] Lee find us another way. I said find you in anyway, see ya find us another treatment for fibroids. You're a smart guy come up with something and I thought that's crazy. But then again as at that time, I was investigating re frequency ablation. I thought you know, this could really work for five.

[00:33:22] So that's the moment when it really kind of dawned on me that you know, there could be a better way, but when I did the literature research again, nothing had been published on the treatment of fibers with radiofrequency ablation. Little did I know it had been attempted already. There was a series of three in Canada.

[00:33:44] They just hadn't published it yet because they failed there was a series of 10 in at in Palo Alto California under CT guidance that also had some serious side effects and complications. [00:34:00] So everything came to a halt what what what all of those complications and failures of. Of not being able to precisely Focus the RF energy and the right place.

[00:34:16] And not begin with a place the needle appropriately gotcha. Would you a skill that now, right? Exactly. Right? Right, right. So fortunately I didn't know about it or else again. I would have never proceeded but I did not know about it. So I spoke to these patients about another option I said, but it's never been done and they said well, can you do this?

[00:34:41] I said well, I'm. I've had considerable experience placing needles under ultrasound guidance and I I feel confident I could do that. But we don't know if it'll work and my very first patient who by the way happens to be a very prominent attorney. That's how smart I was in the time. [00:35:00] Yeah, I would be shaking if that was the case.

[00:35:02] Oh man. Wait a minute. I don't know if I want to do this. Yeah. She said Bruce come on, you can you can do this and worse comes to worse. It doesn't work and I need to have a. Right, and I said, well that's that's correct. As far as I know and so I went through the legal issues and medical issues to perform a study and you actually have to get an IRB number and everything or for you to do that and it's one patient initially.

[00:35:31] No because it was already approved for soft tissue tumors soft tissue tumors. Well fibroids are a type of soft tissue tumors so I could do it. Call off label, right but still I had to get a board to approve it. I had to go through various committees so that check the safety, etc. Etc. And eventually we are Surgery Center allowed us to do this with the correct [00:36:00] and appropriate oversight.

[00:36:02] And so I started doing the procedure and lo and behold these patients did amazingly well much much better than I would have anticipated. Um, I was just trying to basically destroy the tumor and I knew there would be some reabsorption of the tumor which after treatment is no longer tumor. It's broken down protein, right?

[00:36:24] So I knew that there would be some shrinkage but what I didn't know. Was that not only did we get tumor shrinkage? But before we actually got much shrinkage, we actually started to see resolution of the symptoms not just Improvement but resolution so so so which leads me to a question. I failed to ask before do these tumors produce anything inflammatory cytokines or any type of hormones that they I was going to ask that before but I forgot but now's the time to answer do these tumors produce anything?

[00:36:59] [00:37:00] Absolutely. They do Carl you're on you're so intelligent about this stuff. I tell you you're asking all the appropriate questions and I'm very impressed with that because very few people on this planet understand that fibroids are not just rocks. They feel like rocks because they are hard and the extracellular Matrix is like a resin so it's very dense.

[00:37:23] But once we treat it with radiofrequency ablation that. Is broken down into like a joke gelatin kind of substance, but and the five words do excrete a number of bioactive materials of various categories, including cytokines, by the way, and those act at the level of the lining of the uterus to increase bleeding during menstrual periods.

[00:37:52] They also act to increase. Contractions and pain. So yes fibroids are more than just [00:38:00] rocks. They are biologically active and much more research is needed in this area. So is the is the probe that emits the RF the size of a needle, is that why it's so important for you to be able to place a needle exactly where you want it to?

[00:38:15] That's correct. It is a needle that's all and there's the other do you have to just touch the tissue or you aim at the tissue? You have to make contact? Yes, you have to actually place the needle through the muscle wall and into the tumor itself. And then the device that I developed has an array inside the shaft.

[00:38:38] It's an electrode array that will deploy. In a radial fashion into the tumor and now you have seven electrodes protruding into the tumor and those electrodes allow you to have a larger field of ablation so we can basically like a 360 degree. Directional antenna [00:39:00] it Credit Credit transmitting once it's in the center of the tumor.

[00:39:02] It's transmitting all out. That's the idea. Yes. So you get an ablation that person that proceeds distally or away from the tip, right? You also get an ablation that goes left and right and backwards. Wow. That is so cool. And man. What frequency are you using just curious? It's about 480 480 megahertz.

[00:39:26] 044 .8 buttocks kilohertz. Oh, okay. Oh, yeah. Okay. That's that's a that's interesting. Okay, I so I want to take our last commercial break and when we come back, I want to tell people how they can find you. I also want to tell Physicians that are listening to the show if they want to because you've developed an FDA-approved.

[00:39:48] Machine now that fit that OBGYNs or anybody who wants to is that's a medical doctor who wants to provide this procedure can purchase and you train them as well, right? [00:40:00] That's correct. Okay. Okay. So let's do this. Let's take our last commercial break, but we'll be right back with some very very valuable information for anybody suffering from uterine fibroid.

[00:40:09] Stay tuned. Welcome back. We're talking with dr. Bruce Lee about an amazing Innovative approach to helping women. Who suffer from fibroid uterine fibroids now your practices in Los Angeles. Where is your practice? I have an office in Beverly Hills, and I also have an office in Orange County in Newport Beach.

[00:40:30] Okay, and obviously if someone is close to their they can fly in or drive in and they can see you right because you can you get can you give your office number on the air sure. It's. 003650965. Okay, but let's say a physician is listening to this show and he's in Pennsylvania New York boss wherever and he thinks wow, you know, I feel the same way.

[00:40:56] I don't want to do a radical hysterectomy on a 30 year old woman [00:41:00] because she has fibroids. I would like to do this procedure you have developed and received approval from the FDA for a device called assess a CES essay, right? That's correct. And and that is the radiofrequency ablation device made specifically for treating uterine fibroids and you will train Physicians on how to navigate and use this process.

[00:41:27] That is correct. Just yesterday. I had a physician from Alaska here and he is returning back to Alaska and will be performing this hopefully shortly. That's exciting. That's it. That's also how many Physicians around the US are currently doing this. Do you have like a physician locator on your website where if people got and your website is dr.

[00:41:49] Bruce Lee. I'm d.com. No, just a scrape Bruce Lee and right Bruce Lee. M.com. Very easy. Do you have a locator where you can find people who have already been trained and have this [00:42:00] device? Not on my side but on the company website the company that manufactures the equipment is called us Essa health and they have on their home page a physician locator where you just put in your zip code and you find Physicians nearby who can do the procedure.

[00:42:20] I'm going right now to their. Yeah, that's that's going to be valuable. So, so if a woman is listening to this show you've had fibroids or you have them and you're worried and and you're not doing anything about it because you don't want to have surgery and so you just kind of sitting on the fence waiting for something to change and nothing's going to change.

[00:42:38] You can go to a set acps sa Health, which actually redirect you to assess a procedure.com and you can find a physician near you. Providers clinical study scientific Publications. I mean so they have they have everything you need right there find a doctor. There's a button right on the homepage this find a.

[00:43:00] [00:43:01] How many Physicians around the country now are up to speed on this? Dr. Lee? Well, it's changing very very rapidly literally in the last six months. We've had a bun in popularity of the procedure among patients and Physicians alike. So we probably have around a hundred Physicians now performing the procedure procedure spread across the country and there are other physicians in Europe Canada and in Latin America, so it.

[00:43:29] Enter South Carolina, North Carolina. It looks like New York. It looks like they may be a couple days a cluster of physicians in Illinois and the Chicago area. Let's see, Oklahoma Texas quite a few physicians in Texas. And so yeah, this is great. This is really amazing and hopefully Physicians who listen to the show will reach out to you.

[00:43:57] and want to become. Involved because this [00:44:00] is really the future of treating uterine fibroids. I think, you know, we're gonna look back at the Inception of this procedure and think my God, we were you know, we were so barbaric before this. This is amazing because this allows you to go in. Leave the ovaries and uterus intact and just Zapped and I'm using that word specifically.

[00:44:20] I spent a long time in radio frequency world and just Zapped the tumor and let it let it disappear. I mean, it's brilliant. It's. Brilliant. Well, it really does work. And the nice thing is that their patients recover very quickly. My patients generally fly in and in 48 hours. They fly back home and they're back to work the following day.

[00:44:47] So it's a very fast recovery. It's very very safe because it's so minimally invasive and and I do they they have a little tiny little belly button type scar. I mean, is that what it is just a [00:45:00] little half inch type of incision. Right. There's actually it's a little smaller a five millimeter incision for the scope and a 10 millimeter incision for the ultrasound transducer and then one needle puncture site.

[00:45:14] I just use one needle puncture site like getting your blood drawn and that's it. And then from there you navigate the tip of the needle around the uterus and hit the tissue that you want to hit. Absolutely, because I'm looking at two screens as I perform the procedure one monitor shows the laparoscopic image which again goes the scope goes through the five millimeter incision.

[00:45:38] And then the other screen shows the ultrasound image. So I am simultaneously seeing the outside of the uterus and the pelvis and the abdomen and the ultrasound image shows me the interior of the uterus and in the interior of each fibroid, you know, I. I want to thank you for the women out there for Having the courage [00:46:00] to look for a different way and all the roasts that you had to zap to see how it worked because you know as well as I do even on the science side research is never done with female rodents because of the pesky hormones that they have most research is done on male rodents and and women's issues by and large.

[00:46:25] Take a backseat to everything else and you can bet if men had fibroids on their penis and the only option was to have their penis whacked off. We would have found this procedure about a hundred years ago. And I mean, so thank you. Thank you for doing this for all the women out there who will have an alternative now, I think it's brilliant.

[00:46:43] I think I think that you're a hero. Well, that's that's very kind of you, but I'm just so grateful. To be able to do what I do. It has become my life's work and really the patient's got me to do this. [00:47:00] I didn't all of a sudden as I said earlier think that, you know, I need to create a new procedure or something like that.

[00:47:06] The patient's convinced me that I needed to help them by trying to come up with a different method and initially. I thought that was a ridiculous idea and then it. Sic, the situation just fell into my lap and I said, okay, so I went with it and then the results were so good that I couldn't ignore it.

[00:47:26] And so I presented the data at various conferences and doctors were impressed. But nothing the world didn't change until I figured out that you really need to. Create the system and the environment for a new procedure to take off by creation of a new company. So we created a company to make the equipment to perform all the studies to get the FDA clearance and the clearances in Europe and Canada and Central America.

[00:47:55] And that's how this actually came about wonderful one last [00:48:00] question. I know you explain that the fibroids in breast in the fibroids in the uterus very very different. But could this procedure be used on a fibroid that is aggressively growing in breast tissue. Carl you are pretty amazing actually.

[00:48:15] Yes, it can be and that is actually one of my projects where we will treat fibroadenomas as an outpatient. Meaning you just come in you have it and and then you don't have to have the breast incised. And so that is definitely something I am currently working on. Excellent. Excellent. Excellent.

[00:48:36] Great great, great interview great stuff and. You for taking the time to come on my podcast my great pleasure. And I really thank you for having the foresight and in interest in this very significant medical problem, and it's been certainly my pleasure to be on the show. Have a wonderful day you to cry.

[00:48:59] [00:49:00] Yeah, that's exciting stuff right there. And that's going to change a lot of lives. I can tell you that right now because there's a lot of women out there who are probably putting off addressing their fibroids because they don't want to go under the knife and now there's a solution and if you go to that website, It's assess acps sa health.com and click the physician finder.

[00:49:20] Holy mackerel. They've got they've got physicians in Albuquerque New Mexico that are trained in this now. It's really there's a lot of Physicians equidistantly placed around the country that are within driving distance from where you live most likely they don't have a lot of Physicians up in Montana North Dakota and that area.

[00:49:43] So if you're a doctor or an OBGYN up in their Wyoming South Dakota and Nebraska, this is an opportunity for you to fill a need but if you go south from there, Texas, I mean, like I said Chicago looks like the West the East Coast me to see let [00:50:00] me see something. So yeah, they got one injury and Washington DC.

[00:50:07] It looks like one in Pennsylvania. The one in DC looks like it's actually it's not DC. It's looks like it's Atlantic City. Wow, excellent Detroit. There's a couple doctors in Detroit. There's one two three, four five six doctors in the Chicagoland area one out in Aurora. I mean, so they're around there.

[00:50:29] If this is this is a procedure that you can have done and read yourself with the grief and the worry. of having uterine fibroids. That's it for today. I'm off tomorrow and hope everybody enjoyed the shows. We did this week share them around. Please share shows share them send them to friends make them listen make.

[00:50:49] Learn will see everybody Monday with more superhuman radio. Thank you for listening [00:51:00] today.



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Super Human Radio is the world's longest running broadcast dedicated to health, fitness & anti-aging with an emphasis on exercise, nutrition, and hormone management. This one of the most progressive podcasts for preventative & regenerative techniques designed to increase longevity. More

2908 Brownsboro Rd Ste 103
Louisville, Kentucky 40206

(502)-690-2200

SHR Logo

Super Human Radio is the world's longest running broadcast dedicated to fitness, health, and anti-aging with emphasis on exercise, nutrition, and hormone management. The most progressive source of information for preventative & regenerative techniques... More

2908 Brownsboro Rd Ste 103
Louisville, Kentucky 40206
United States of America

+1 502-690-2200