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Welcome to "This is Health, Wealth, and the Pursuit of Happiness" your source for insightful discussions with economist and author, Dr. Murray Sabrin. Join us as we challenge convention, expand minds, and pursue truth.
Murray Sabrin (00:01.418)
Welcome to Health, Wealth, and the Pursuit of Happiness. I'm Murray Sabron, B A, A, Ph D. There's No B S in My Background, Never Has Been, Never Will Be. On this Podcast, we explore the ideas, people, and principles that shape healthier lives, greater prosperity, and human flourishing. In each episode, we'll challenge conventional wisdom on healthcare, economics, politics, and personal freedom so you can think independently, make better decisions.
And pursue your happiness. Thanks for joining us today. It gives me great pleasure to introduce our guest, Dr. Alita Eck. Dr. Eck is an internist in private practice in Piscataway, New Jersey, with her husband, Dr. John Eck. She graduated from Ruthgrows College of Medichar, I'm sorry, Pharmacy and St. Louis University Medical School. She did her residency in internal medicine at Robert Wood Johnson Hospital in New Brunswick, New Jersey. She served as president of the Association of
American physicians and surgeons. In nine in twenty fourteen, she ran for the US Congress from New Jersey, motivated by her opposition to Obamacare and the government takeover of the U.S. medical system. She is in no insurance networks as she believes that patients need to know that her doctor, that their doctor works for them, not a huge medical complex or insurance company. She's the mother of five children, one in private practice in San Diego.
She and her husband John have seven grandchildren. Welcome, doctor Alita Eck.
Alieta Eck, MD (01:34.63)
thank you so much.
Murray Sabrin (01:36.257)
It's great to be with you. I haven't seen you in ages since we moved to Florida in 2021. So you're looking well and hopefully the whole family is doing well. So let's get to it because we have a lot to cover because you've been in the forefront of telling the truth about medical care, insurance, and a whole host of issues. Let's start with something that occurred once in a century pandemic. What can you tell us about how this pan
got started. Where did Covid nineteen come from?
Alieta Eck, MD (02:08.462)
January of twenty twenty is when things began and we we learned that there was a virus that had had hit the the world and we learned that in Italy people were dying and something was very, very frightening that was going on. so where did it come from? There was a great debate as to where it's coming from, but it's pretty clear by now that we know that it was from the Wuhan lab in China and it
was partly paid for by the United States as we funded the gain of function research that led to it. And it's very clear that that virus has certain that there's there's areas in the virus that could not have come by nature. It had to be inserted by the scientists who who do things to viruses. So we know that it is a definitely a man-made virus.
Murray Sabrin (02:52.92)
Okay.
Murray Sabrin (03:02.69)
For us layman, what is the what's gain of function?
Alieta Eck, MD (03:07.298)
Gain of function was they wanted to learn how to make viruses more powerful so that the idea was that then they could maybe come up with an antidote that could could counter it. So it just seems crazy the the idea of making a a virus more powerful and sure enough it just got loose and it got out there and they really didn't know what to do about it. So gain of function research is something that should be banned.
Murray Sabrin (03:12.546)
Mm.
Murray Sabrin (03:34.666)
Interesting. Interesting. Now you were in the forefront of dealing with patients in in central Jersey. How did you deal with your covet patients during the pandemic?
Alieta Eck, MD (03:44.664)
Yeah, we never closed our practice. We didn't think doctors should close their practice when patients are sick. So they came and we just listened to what they were telling us to do. They were telling us to wear masks, but the virus was a whole lot smaller than the holes in the mask. That didn't make terrible terribly much sense. And they told patients to just stay home until you get too sick and then go to the hospital. But we tried to intercept that and said, no, come to our office. We listened to there was a Dr. Zelenko.
in he was in New York State and he said that he found out that hydroxychloroquine would wipe out the the virus and that they could also use the antibiotic azithromycin, those two two medicines would would kill it. So we started to use hydroxychloroquine and it was a safe medicine. It had been around since 1965, so we weren't afraid of it. And Fauci then tried to say that it was dangerous.
Which was I said, Wow, I know he's lying now. So now what else is he gonna lie about? And anyway, our patients did very, very well.
Murray Sabrin (04:48.012)
So you so b given your background in pharmacy, what was in your so called toolkit to deal with this sub besides the hydrocl hydro hydroxychloroquid?
Alieta Eck, MD (05:00.364)
Hydroxychloroquine? it was that. And then we told people they needed to be high in vitamin D. And then they could take bromolane and curcumin were just two supplements that were also very helpful in fighting the virus and preventing it from making people very sick. So I I like I say our patients did very well. And we started the word got out that we were given the hydroxychloroquine. Pharmacies would say no, you can't give it. If it's for COVID, you can't have it. They would tell the patients that. And I that was
Very, very bizarre. Lots of bizarre things happened with this pandemic. but then we found pharmacies that were willing to pr to dispense it.
Murray Sabrin (05:33.896)
Yeah.
Murray Sabrin (05:37.686)
Wha why do you think pharmacies didn't allow patients to take medicine that you as a physician and a pharmacist were prescribing?
Alieta Eck, MD (05:45.454)
I'd never saw anything like that before, where they would tell us that no, it's dangerous. or pharmacies would just second guess us and say, No, you can't have it. They were listening to the government. The government was telling them what to do and telling them they were empowering pharmacies to counter what doctors were doing. And so th that's what started to happen. They would just hand the prescription back to the patients, as you can't have this. but then we found good pharmacies that did.
Murray Sabrin (06:10.199)
It i is that unethical on the part of the pharmacist not to fulfill a prescription that
Alieta Eck, MD (06:15.466)
I think so. I think so. I just find it it's a perfectly safe, FDA approved medicine. So why in the world and we we repurpose medicines all the time where it's it's made for a certain illness and then we find out there's better ways to to treat it. So better ways to use the medicine and we do. So th the fact that they were telling patients no, that was bizarre. Lots of things were bizarre.
Murray Sabrin (06:41.631)
Now you were also using other off label items, weren't you?
Alieta Eck, MD (06:46.562)
Well yeah, then then along came Dr. Pierre Corey from up in I think he was Wisconsin. he came he testified before a Senate hearing in December of twenty twenty and he talked about ivermectin and he says it should be over. If everybody would just get ivermectin, they would not get very sick from COVID, and that would be the end of it. And interestingly, when he did the hearing, as he started to talk.
All the Democrats in the the hearing left. And he was shocked. He says, I'm a Democrat. Why in the world are you all leaving? He just was really incensed. But he gave a tremendous testimony about how the patients, as they used ivermectin, they would get better very quickly. I listened to him and I said, Ivermectin, I'd never really used it before. I I had looked it up and I found that it's extraordinarily safe. And it's an antiparasitic. It was developed by Merck back in the eighties and
Merck was very philanthropic and gave it to the comp the countries in Africa, wiped out river blindness and it wiped out elephantiasis. And so when that happened, I I said, Okay, this is a very safe medicine. I looked the side effects, it was almost nothing. So I said, I'm gonna start using it. And we did. And the patients they just f it was like a miracle, they said. They got better so quickly. And I said, We're just gonna keep using it.
Murray Sabrin (08:10.411)
Why do you think there was so much pushback from the not only the medical establishment but politicians? Wouldn't they want to see their constituents getting better and not being going to the hospital or emergency rooms intubated with the w which from what I understand harmed a lot of people.
Alieta Eck, MD (08:28.588)
It was the wrong it was the wrong thing to do, yes. there's a lot of reasons. I I don't know what it was. It seems like all the countries were in lockstep. The the politicians and the governments were in lockstep. What was it? I know that they were preparing the vaccine and they wanted everybody to get that this vaccine. And so you can have an emergency use vaccine if there is a medicine that can treat the the virus. Therefore
Murray Sabrin (08:53.503)
Mm.
Alieta Eck, MD (08:56.926)
That's why I think they were just so opposed to it. Why I don't understand why they just had bad they had bad advice from their advisors.
Murray Sabrin (09:00.586)
Interesting.
Murray Sabrin (09:05.705)
So from your perspective, was the lockdown necessary? It started first as a national lockdown, and then each state this decide whether we're gonna lock down or not. And New Jersey, as you know, had very severe lockdowns. Did that make any sense to you as a as a practicing internist?
Alieta Eck, MD (09:20.66)
No. I mean they closed the churches, they left the they left the liquor stores open, they closed all the small businesses, they left the big stores open, the supermarkets, the social distancing, Fauci admitted, he had no idea where that came from. This six foot rule that that that was a a crazy thing. There were so many crazy things that happened with that pandemic and I can't explain it other than it was almost like they were trying to make people afraid and obedient. And
Murray Sabrin (09:47.381)
Mm-hmm.
Alieta Eck, MD (09:50.146)
By and large, it really did work.
Murray Sabrin (09:53.058)
Okay, next question, which I think a lot of people have on their mind, because the vaccine came out, I think, in November or December of 2020. It was Operation Warp Speed, and people were lining up to take it. We moved down to Florida in June of 2021, and not far from us, people were lining up, even though they had no symptoms. They were getting the shot, they were getting boosters. Tell us about the vaccine. Is it safe and effective, which we were told?
Or are there side effects that people should be aware of?
Alieta Eck, MD (10:23.95)
I I was very interested in the idea of the vaccine. I thought, well that would be good if we could prevent it. Of course, it's just like the cold virus, for the the common cold. They can't make a vaccine for that because the virus keeps on mutating and keeps on changing. And I was sus I was suspicious that it wasn't gonna really work. I happened to have COVID in December of twenty twenty and therefore I had to wait. I wasn't supposed to get a vaccine for say six months.
Murray Sabrin (10:38.974)
Mm.
Alieta Eck, MD (10:53.538)
But by the time six months came by, I was already starting to see people who had adverse effects of that vaccine. I said, Whoa, I'm not gonna get that. Just stay away from it. And I wound up losing my hospital privileges in two hospitals. They wouldn't let me come if I didn't get the vaccine. And I said, Why would in the world would I get a vaccine for a virus I already just had? And they didn't answer. Nothing was logical about this. So I so but then we got so busy in our office, I was actually grateful I didn't have to go to the hospital anymore.
Murray Sabrin (11:00.663)
Mm.
Murray Sabrin (11:14.774)
Right.
Murray Sabrin (11:18.337)
So the the
Murray Sabrin (11:23.969)
So basically th the medical bureaucrats, if you will, told you as a practicing physician who already had covet that you need to take a vaccine. Does that make any sense scientifically?
Alieta Eck, MD (11:34.894)
No. It made absolutely no sense. I mean, if you have titers for measles, you don't get another measles vaccine. If you have titers for for chicken pox, you don't get a chicken pox vaccine. Why in the world would they do that with COVID? And again, it was so illogical. Everything that they did just didn't make any sense.
Murray Sabrin (11:47.52)
So the
Murray Sabrin (11:51.799)
So these boosters that people have been getting, does that make any sense for people to protect themselves from covet?
Alieta Eck, MD (11:55.486)
No. Well I'm telling you that the the virus is smart. It keeps on mutating. And fortunately it gets it gets weaker and weaker. So it's not a it's not a killer anymore. if it ever really was, and that's that it makes me wonder. But yeah, because it was so easily treatable as far as I was concerned, my patients have all got better very quickly. boy, if they had just every if we had been allowed to have grand rounds in a hospital where we could all get together and say, Hey, look, here's what I did and this worked. Excuse me.
Murray Sabrin (12:04.299)
Hmm.
Alieta Eck, MD (12:25.452)
Then everybody could have maybe followed what we did, but we were all silenced. And we were told this is misinformation. You're not allowed to say that. And some doctors who did get outspoken saying what they were doing lost their licenses for a while. So we stayed under the radar. We said, I want to take care of patients. I don't want to get into trouble where they're going to try to take away my license, especially in a blue state like New Jersey, and managed to stay in practice.
Murray Sabrin (12:29.792)
Mm.
Murray Sabrin (12:51.252)
So during covet, y were you allowed to keep your practice open during this whole period of the lockdowns?
Alieta Eck, MD (12:57.038)
Yeah, they never s they never stopped us. I think they were surprised that we were. Lots of doctors they did close the practice and said, you know, we're not gonna take care of these people who are too sick. We don't wanna get sick ourselves. And that's why they told them, just go to the ER if you get real sick. And in the ER they'd be all gowned up in masks and and hoods and you know, they i it it was very frightening for people. But we said, No, just come to our office. We would wear a mask at that point to make the patients feel better. I didn't think it was doing anything.
Murray Sabrin (13:24.894)
Mm. Right.
Alieta Eck, MD (13:26.114)
But and then we would just treat them and get them better.
Murray Sabrin (13:29.236)
Great. L let me ask you about something that is in the news constantly, especially with Robert Kennedy Junior as head of the health and human services the cabinet department. your view on vaccines. Are they necessary? should every w should young people get vaccines? in New Jersey there's a what, dozens of dozens of vaccines they have to get as infants. Is is that good medical practice?
Alieta Eck, MD (13:54.6)
No, in fact, I really started researching vaccines as I watched this whole scenario play out. And I said, let me look into the rest of the vaccines. Well, why are we given so many vaccines? We give 73 vaccines to kids by the time they're ten years old. And in it is mercury and aluminum and other medicines that make the vaccine work better. But what are we injecting into these little infants, babies? And why are
newborns getting hepatitis B vaccine. Every single one, like without question. now more and more patients are getting very skeptical and they're saying, and you're not gonna give it to my kid. And the medical establishment is getting very upset and thinking that there's gonna be a huge epidemic of all of these diseases that the vaccines are supposed to get rid of. And I don't think it's gonna I I think that the children will be healthier. In fact, RFK just
released a study that kids who are unvaccinated, completely unvaccinated, are actually healthier than kids who've gotten all those vaccines.
Murray Sabrin (14:52.342)
Interesting. growing up in New York City in the nineteen fifties, the polio vaccine came out in the mid fifties. We got the polio vaccine. We didn't need any boosters. We didn't need anything else. So it was one and done. is that the way vaccines should be working?
Alieta Eck, MD (15:11.466)
If they work properly, I suppose that that would be a a good way to do it. polio is an interesting one because as water you know, a lots of the kids got polio because they went in the public swimming pools and the water wasn't properly treated with chlorine and so that's how it spread. now that we have better water, better food supply, cleaner air, cleaner sewage treatment, all of these diseases are probably they wouldn't be there.
Murray Sabrin (15:28.394)
Yeah.
Alieta Eck, MD (15:40.84)
If and and we don't need vaccines against them because children are just not dying from all those vac all those diseases that the vaccines are supposed to prevent.
Murray Sabrin (15:49.45)
Okay, you have a unique perspective, I guess, as a physician, that you're also a pharmacist. so let me ask you the sixty four thousand dollar question which people have been talking about for a while. Are the American people over medicated?
Alieta Eck, MD (16:01.964)
Yeah, they definitely are. Statins. I remember statins came as I was finishing my residency and supposedly that was gonna you know end heart heart disease because they found out people with very high cholesterol were more likely to get heart disease and the people with very low cholesterol were not. And so they figured in between must be something that you need to to work on. So everybody they decided and they kept on lowering the amount the the cholesterol level at which you needed to be on a statin.
Murray Sabrin (16:04.19)
Alieta Eck, MD (16:31.968)
And so every cardiologist was putting everybody on a statin. I listened to a doctor Asim Malhotra, he's a cardiologist in the UK, and I learned about him through this the whole pandemic. I I learned to meet meet all these wonderful doctors who kind of thought like I did. And he gives a great talk about the statins. So that's one thing we're over medicated. And you know, you need a certain amount of cholesterol for good brain function. So to take a statin,
Murray Sabrin (16:55.22)
What's right.
Alieta Eck, MD (16:58.376)
maybe is increasing the chances of getting Alzheimer's. there's a lot. And then there's all these protein pump inhibitors that we give for people with acid stomach acid. That's probably not a good idea. so that you know we we recommend to use a pepsid instead of the other protein pump inhibitors because Pepsi's an antihistamine. It's safer, much safer. Are we over medicated? Definitely.
Murray Sabrin (17:18.152)
Interesting. I mean what about these advertisements we see on T V we're bombarded every day w no matter what station we're watching with ads. It seems that every other ad is a pharmaceutical ad. and many country many countries outlaw them. So should should the United
Alieta Eck, MD (17:32.066)
Yeah, and for for Yeah, for to take this ten thousand dollars a month for most of those medicines. If you look at what they cost, and so no wonder for eczema, for for a rash you're gonna take something that's gonna cost ten thousand a month. You know, I suppose some people are really, really suffering hard, but you gotta think long and hard before you take something like that. Because what it does is totally su suppresses your immune system. And then what else are you might be doing to to cause harm down the line.
Murray Sabrin (17:52.501)
Yeah.
Alieta Eck, MD (18:02.402)
So I I I'm very skeptical of those. And there's other ways that we could modulate the immune system that are much, much safer.
Murray Sabrin (18:09.055)
Well, isn't that the key to better health? Is is your immune system has to be as optimal as possible. So let's let's talk about that. How how do you as a physician get your p get your patients to increase their immunity?
Alieta Eck, MD (18:14.968)
That's right.
Alieta Eck, MD (18:25.186)
immune systems. There's lots of really good supplements that they should be taking. this food supply isn't necessarily very very healthy. It's it doesn't have as many nutrients as it should because the s the soil isn't as as strong in nutrients as it should be. So I w they should take supplements and vitamin D vitamin D level was we started to test people for it and found out that those who were low were much more likely to suffer from
Murray Sabrin (18:54.175)
Mm.
Alieta Eck, MD (18:54.542)
COVID or other illnesses. So vitamin D. And we were checking for just just in general, the nutrients. There are d there are just other medicines. There's there's something called low-dose naltrexone. Now naltrexone that we use to help people get off narcotics, but very, very low. What it does is it modulates your immune system. It keeps them from getting overactive, which was another thing that happened with all these vaccines.
Because the the whole immune system became overactive. And we've had so many different autoimmune diseases that have popped up since all the vaccines were introduced and especially since the COVID vaccine was introduced. so people are just struggling. They had blood clots and neurologic problems and cardiac problems with the COVID vaccine, myocarditis, they had pain, neuropathy, loads of problems have just come up.
And diabetes has increased, cancer has increased since this vaccine, because again the immune system is just not able to fight off the cancer cells that inevitably arise and usually our immune system can just knock it out. And now they it's just it's harder for the immune system to work.
Murray Sabrin (20:06.197)
Mm.
Murray Sabrin (20:10.195)
Th there's another controversial issue that has been around for for literally decades and that is the increase in autism. w do you have any thoughts on to why this is happening? Because I've met parents in New Jersey and they they are convinced that the vaccines are causing them. What's your perspective on this?
Alieta Eck, MD (20:27.18)
Yeah, listen to the moms. Just you have to listen to them. And they'll say that they took the child in for a well visit, got some vaccines, and the next day, if the kid had this high pitched scream, and then the next day the light went out of their eyes. And there was just something something went wrong. and then they started to deal with the fact that they regressed, speech regressed. And you can't tell me that that wasn't related to getting the vaccine that time.
So I think we just have to either delay those if you're gonna give vaccines, wait be like Japan and don't give any vaccines till a child is two. you know, which would then eliminate about twenty of them. but don't give any. because I just don't think. And if you look at the Amish, they're so healthy and they get no vaccines. And there's one doctor up in Washington State, Dr. Thomas, and he wasn't he didn't have a strong opinion on vaccines. So if parents wanted the vaccine,
Murray Sabrin (21:08.873)
Hmm.
Murray Sabrin (21:16.648)
Interesting.
Alieta Eck, MD (21:25.272)
Sure, you can have it. If you didn't want the vaccine, you don't need it. So he then looked at his whole population of children and found that they were much healthier, those who got no vaccines. He lost his license for a while because he said that. It was so controversial, but I think it's gonna bear out that he was right.
Murray Sabrin (21:42.521)
So so effectively, are there legal mandates in each state about vaccine schedules that th that parents have to follow in order to get their kids into the public schools?
Alieta Eck, MD (21:53.506)
Yeah, the the CDC has now tried to back down on all of the the the mandated vaccines. And New Jersey, our new governor, has said, no, no, we're gonna not follow that. We're following the old schedule. And so they're trying to keep people from getting the vaccines. I have written loads of vaccine exemptions because I'll hear, you know, you got one vaccine and this happened. So I said, it's probably the polysorbate 80 that was in that vaccine, shouldn't get any more. If the parents don't want
Murray Sabrin (22:19.242)
Mm.
Alieta Eck, MD (22:21.624)
child to get a vaccine, I don't think anybody should force it. So I I just have become very annoyed that the the government thinks it can mandate something like that. Especially if the parents are pretty convinced that it's just not a good idea.
Murray Sabrin (22:36.211)
Okay, so let's get into some of the other issues that I know you're you're interested in and I'm sure the audience is interested in because and I'm interested in because well we all go to the doctor with aches and pains and we try to make sure that those aches and pains disappear. And there's one physician on Substack who calls himself a the Midwestern Doctor. He writes the Substack The Forgotten Side of Medicine, and recently he wrote a very extensive essay about DMSO.
Can you tell us what DMSO is and and how it can help treat a lot of illnesses?
Alieta Eck, MD (23:11.064)
Since you brought this up, I had not been known much about DMSO, so I started reading up on it. And I know it's a solvent and it makes medicines that if used topically get absorbed better. so you can use it for joint pains and that kind of thing in a in a cream. I haven't used it as a an oral medicine to take. And yeah, he's it's very interesting because he's got all kinds of things that that he's seen help neurologic.
again, I have a feeling it's got to do partly with the immune system that is being enhanced or being yeah, enhanced by the the DMSO. so I need to look into it more. I really can't make too much comment on it.
Murray Sabrin (23:49.885)
I know Sixty Minutes did a stu did a a segment on it, I think thirty, forty years ago, about the benefits of DMSO. I first heard about it when we visited my wife's aunt and uncle in Vancouver back in the early eighties and people were using it up there and it seemed to be very effective in treating a whole bunch of
Alieta Eck, MD (24:07.916)
Yeah, for Parkinson, multiple sclerosis, lots of things. Yeah.
Murray Sabrin (24:11.174)
So again, th this is another very inexpensive way, a non patentable way to treat illnesses that really
Alieta Eck, MD (24:18.144)
It's it's over the counter. That's right. It's it's it's it's yeah, it's over the counter.
Murray Sabrin (24:21.632)
for for full disclosure I've been using it for my back, occasionally have some pain and it seems to work quite well. also my ankles have been swollen recently, so I use it there, it's calmed it down. I guess sitting too much doesn't help either. So anyway, let's go on to another issue which is very near and dear to your heart. Medical insurance. You don't take any medical insurance. So the question first are are we overinsured? We're over medicated.
Are we overinsured as well?
Alieta Eck, MD (24:51.95)
But the the the flaw of Obamacare was that they wanted to give first dollar coverage, meaning that you need to be covered for any time you go to a a doctor. and that didn't make a whole lot of sense. It's kind of like having your homeowner's insurance cover leaky faucets. Can you imagine what that insurance premium would be if every leaky faucet was covered by homeowners insurance? And that's what they did with Obamacare, and it made it wildly expensive.
Murray Sabrin (25:09.838)
Mm. Yeah, yeah.
Alieta Eck, MD (25:21.298)
And it it just was a dumb way. Insurance should be for the catastrophic. It should be for when your house burns down, not for the leaky faucets. And so they used to call it hospitalization. And that was a smart way to do insurance, so that should you go into the hospital, those big bills could get covered. But the routine medical care should be the people just save up for it, get a HSA, or just pay pay it.
Murray Sabrin (25:34.793)
Right.
Alieta Eck, MD (25:46.85)
Like when we were kids, you know, it was seven dollars for a a doctor visit. There was no insurance for that.
Murray Sabrin (25:50.964)
I'm older, it was five dollars for for me really to
Alieta Eck, MD (25:53.344)
Okay, I remember seven. But yeah, I just it's crazy that that they try to have insurance cover every little thing. That's why it's so expensive and it it and then the people go in and they they only get to see a doctor half the time because they want to go to a doctor in their network, that's gonna be cheaper, and they wind up seeing a nurse instead of a doctor. And doctors are patients are seeing that, which is why our b our practice is very busy because people recognize there's a difference.
Murray Sabrin (26:06.611)
Yeah.
Murray Sabrin (26:11.812)
Right. Right.
Murray Sabrin (26:18.804)
So basically what you're saying is cash cash for routine medical procedures, visits, and then have a catastrophic policy for the big ticket items. And even those big ticket items can be reduced substantially. And next week we're gonna disc discuss that with Dr. Keith Smith, the founder of the Surgery Center of Oklahoma. And he's just wonderful. he he
Alieta Eck, MD (26:43.214)
he's a he's a good friend of mine. Keith Smith is a great doc great doctor.
Murray Sabrin (26:48.392)
He's in the forefront of free market medicine and we'll get we'll get a take on what he's done in Tulsa, where people from what I gather come all over the country. So let's finish up here and talk about something that I didn't do in the introduction, which is you and your husband John founded a nonprofit medical clinic in central Jersey. Tell us about the Zarafat Health Center.
Alieta Eck, MD (27:09.218)
We opened in 2003 and the reason why we opened it was that we didn't want to take Medicaid. Medicaid was the government insurance to pay for the poor. The trouble is that they gave something like twenty-three dollars for an office visit and which wouldn't even pay my staff. And so every time I would see a Medicaid patient in my office, I would lose money. So there was a little building on the campus of our church that was empty, and they let us fix it up into a a clinic.
And so we just started and I thought was if we see people for free there, all I'm giving is my time. And then people can donate to pay for the electric and for medicines we buy and for for and any other expenses, but they wouldn't have to be paying the doctors. And the federal government interestingly gave us med practice insurance for what we did in that clinic. That really freed us up. I thought that other doctors would be really happy to come and donate their time there.
Murray Sabrin (27:44.198)
Mm.
Alieta Eck, MD (28:07.084)
It was harder than I thought to to get doctors to join up with us because most of them are becoming employed by their by whoever employs them, their big health plan or whatever. And so they're not paying malpractice insurance anyway. So that was not a much of an incentive. And it's been it's been tough. The government really doesn't like it. I testified before Bernie Sanders and Rand Paul back in two thousand eleven.
Murray Sabrin (28:17.852)
Right.
Alieta Eck, MD (28:35.116)
And I told about the Zyrapath Health Center. They wanted to know why too many people were going to the ER for non-urgent things. And it's because if they have Medicaid, it's free. You just show up at the ER and nobody's gonna stop you. And I said it would be much more efficient if you had you had clinics like ours where it costs the government nothing other than covering us for malpractice, which wouldn't wouldn't cost anything if we didn't have a malpractice case. and we that's what I I
Murray Sabrin (28:47.101)
Right.
Alieta Eck, MD (29:04.78)
I told Bernie Sanders, he just said, Well, I think doctors should be paid. And that was the end of his discussion. He didn't wanna I just I really couldn't get anywhere. And then Ram Fall gave a great response. You can listen to it on on in it was two thousand eleven, a Senate Health Committee hearing. just Google my name and you hear it. It was great.
Murray Sabrin (29:20.308)
Fantastic. And the other thing and y you don't take any federal dollars or state dollars to run your health center.
Alieta Eck, MD (29:27.476)
Nothing. Nothing. Only because what they do is they would control us. And when you take government money, you've got little bureaucrats that are just chasing you down and and telling you what you can and can't do. And we don't want to do that. We want to just be able to be doctors. And so we don't take any any federal money.
Murray Sabrin (29:43.73)
Right. Right. Let's close with with with the key question. What can individuals do to optimize their health during their lifetime? What is what is the Dr. X prescription for optimal health?
Alieta Eck, MD (29:57.316)
man. Just live right. just don't smoke. Just be at a ideal body weight. Exercise, get out there and move. I don't know if you have to go to a gym, but just move. you know, don't baby yourself and just get those muscles going. Take vitamin D and take other vi other supplements to enhance your immune system. kind of like we brought up. There's a couple like resberatrol is a good one. There's a lot of good good supplements to take.
but that's it. You just gotta and then live a healthy life.
Murray Sabrin (30:29.128)
And what about and and what about mushrooms? We were hearing a lot about mushrooms, how that is a protective food s food item for people to increase their immune system.
Alieta Eck, MD (30:34.221)
Yeah.
Alieta Eck, MD (30:41.506)
That's right. Rustrooms there's loads of you know, God when he developed when he designed all the plants out there, knew what he was doing. And if we would pay attention to a lot of the good nutrients that are in the plants, and and take advantage of them, we'd be healthier.
Murray Sabrin (30:58.032)
Thank you. This is great, Alita. We're gonna have to have you back because this is an ongoing battle between out-of-the-box thinking regarding medicine and the medical establishment, the political establishment, and anyone else who wants to intervene between the doctor patient relationships. So thank you for being with us. Say hello to Dr. John. Say hello to your kids and grandkids and I want to remind everyone, thank you for listening to Health, Wealth and the Pursuit of Happiness. Until next time.
Keep questioning conventional wisdom, keep pursuing truth, and keep striving for a healthier, freer, more prosperous life. And please visit mafieusa.com so you can join the movement to complete the unfinished agenda of the American Revolution, making the American people financially independent. Thank you. Until next week with Dr. Keith Smith.
Alieta Eck, MD (31:49.582)
Thank you.