Q&A #20 with Dr. Rhonda Patrick (2/6/2021)

Hello everyone, welcome to round 20 in our Crowdcast series. For those of you who are attending for the first time, we, we start off with, um, questions that were top, you know, upvoted the most, as well as questions that I sort of pick out that I think are interesting or haven't been addressed often, or a question that I've gotten quite often and I, and I think that it's good to answer because the majority of people will be interested in hearing the answer. I also, if I don't get to your question, I often go back through previous Crowdcast questions and choose ones that I have not answered yet. So if you don't Continually post the same question on each new Crowdcast, don't worry, I do go back and answer questions from previous Crowdcasts.

Um, for those of you that are attending live, if you want to listen to this Q&A again at a later time point, make sure that you have downloaded your private podcast feed. You can find that on your dashboard. At foundmyfitness.com/dashboard. You can also watch a replay of the video, which is also available on your dashboard. I also answer chat questions throughout the Q&A, so I'll check back from time to time without being too disruptive. So I do answer questions live, which is a benefit of attending live as well. And just as a reminder, as always, this information is really information that I've, you know, my team and I have gathered from doing scholarly work, looking and reading the scientific literature. It's sometimes my opinion, but it's certainly not medical advice.

And any sort of change that you're going to make, make sure you can run that past your physician first. So with that, I will get started with the first question. Which is actually me circling back to a question from, um, a previous Crowdcast, which is basically, can you from time to time update us on your, your supplement routine, what supplements you're taking? And so I'm going to go ahead. It's been a while. I think it's been a few months since I've updated you guys. So I'll go ahead and, and give you guys another update. I am still taking my multivitamin called One by Pure Encapsulations. It has zinc and other micronutrients. Um, it is missing magnesium, so I do also supplement with magnesium glycinate from Pure Encapsulations as well, and that's 125 milligrams.

The reason I like the Pure Encapsulations Multivitamin One is because it's one capsule, which because I take a variety of supplements, it's easier if I can find something that's good but in in one capsule rather than having to take six. Now there was a question in this crowdcast. Someone mentioned that the one multivitamin by Pure Encapsulations was not available. I looked online. I did find it available, but for those of you that don't find it available. I do think other there are other good multivitamins. However, I just don't like taking six pills to get the same dose I could get in like one pill. Thorn has pretty good ones. They have like an AM PM one where you take. I don't remember how many pills. It might be three during the day and three during the evening or something like that.

I've never taken that one just because again, I just it's too many pills for me on top of all the pills I'm taking. But it does seem like it has some good. Micronutrients in, in that option as well. By the way, I do not have any affiliation with any of these supplement brands that I'm mentioning. I just, I like Pure Encapsulations because they, they've been validated by friends of mine in science before. Same with Thorne. That's another one that I like as well. Most of the supplement brands that I take have either been validated by science, science, science, science, scientific specific people that are friends of mine or that have been validated by third-party organizations as well. The reason I take the magnesium only 125 milligrams is because I'm not treating any sort of illness.

Like, there have been studies that have shown, and we've talked about in previous Crowdcasts, you know, magnesium at a higher dose, for example, 800 milligrams a day, can improve cardiac function in patients with chronic heart failure, it can improve depression, something around 600 to 800 milligrams a day as well. So there, you know, there is something to be said for taking a higher dose of magnesium. The RDA, the recommended daily allowance, or RDI, recommended daily intake, they're sort of interchangeable, for females is around between 300 and 350 milligrams a day, and for males, it's 400 milligrams per day. And about 50% of the US population does not meet that requirement. They have insufficient magnesium intake. So it's not a bad idea to supplement with magnesium.

Magnesium's, the food sources that are high in magnesium are dark leafy greens, which most people are not eating enough of. As you guys probably have heard me say 1,000 times, or maybe more than that, magnesium is, it's at the center of a chlorophyll molecule. Chlorophyll is what gives plants their plain green color. So it's really easy to remember, oh, plants, dark green plants are gonna have magnesium because chlorophyll makes the plants green and magnesium is found in chlorophyll. So that's an easy way to remember it. Some of the other foods that are high in magnesium as well happen to be nuts like almonds, for example, and also oats. So those are the foods that are pretty good dietary sources of magnesium.

Most most people, when I think about magnesium, they're also thinking about taking it for muscle, preventing muscle cramps, or for sleeping well. Personally, I think about it as as a long-term investment because magnesium is a cofactor for over 300 enzymes in the body, and many of those enzymes they have to do with energy production and energy utilization. So it makes sense that you you would want it for something like preventing muscle cramps and. Stuff like that, but it's also very important for repairing damage to your body. DNA repair enzymes need magnesium. And that's something that's not going to acutely show up like a muscle cramp where you go, oh, I have a muscle cramp. Maybe I need some more magnesium or some more potassium. Maybe I'm not getting enough.

That's something that's acute that you can sort of maybe sort of make a prediction or a hypothesis that you might require more of that micronutrient. DNA damage is something you'll never know about until decades later when you come down with cancer or, you know, your stem cell pools are being depleted. So making sure you get enough magnesium is extremely important for the aging process as well. So I try to get most of my magnesium from dietary sources. It helps me eat a healthier diet. But for example, my mother, I know she doesn't eat as many greens as I do. And so I'm definitely giving her a higher dose of magnesium than I take. Let's move on. So I also take vitamin D. I take right now, I'm taking around between 4,000 to 5,000 IUs a day. My multivitamin has 2,000 IUs of vitamin D in it.

And for many people in the summer that are living in, you know, that are, you know, outdoors a lot, perhaps 2,000 IUs would be adequate. But the only way to really know is to get a vitamin D blood test and measure your blood levels, which All-cause mortality studies have shown levels somewhere between 40 and 60 are really optimal in terms of the lowest all-cause mortality. My levels often are around 50 nanograms per mL. And again, I usually take around 5,000 IUs a day. Ubiquinol is another one I'm supplementing with. I'm supplementing with a pretty high dose. 200 milligrams a day, and I'm getting that from Pure Encapsulations. It's pretty expensive.

Um, just as a sort of a, a little FYI for those of you that have a higher education degree, a nursing degree, doctor's degree, doctorate, um, perhaps, yeah, chiropractor and doctorate, and also I think perhaps even nutritionist or dietary, um, dietitian as well, you can sign up through Pure Encapsulations for a, a sort of 50% discount, um, on your products that you order. So instead of having to order them through like third-party vendors on Amazon or like other supplement companies that are online that are selling Pure Encapsulations at a high markup, you can go directly through Pure Encapsulations encapsulations and get it for a much cheaper price. But that aside, the reason I take ubiquinol is because I've found convincing evidence.

Ubiquinol is— it's also known as coenzyme Q. It's a critical, you know, protein that's in our bodies that's important for producing energy and in the mitochondria. It's very important for mitochondrial function. And there have been some studies that show randomized trials that have shown that it really improves heart function, may also improve brain function as well. So I do take that. I also take vitamin K2. I take 50 micrograms a day, MK-4 version of it, and I take that from Life Extension. There haven't been— I haven't seen any studies so far. My team and I have really sort of combed the scientific literature and we haven't found any evidence that taking a dose higher than 50 micrograms has any added benefit over 50 micrograms.

Um, it doesn't seem to be harmful either, but you might just be paying more money for, um, for something that you can just, you know, get the same benefit with, you know, for 50, for, for a lower, at a lower dose basically. I also take my omega-3s, as you guys know, and I'm going to talk about this in a little more detail because there was a Tangential question that was very related to this, but I do take N Pure 3, which is Norwegian Pure 3, which is still not widely available. Unfortunately, I have a pretty large supply of it in my refrigerator, and so I'm quite lucky to kind of be able to continue take that right now. But I do take the the Norwegian Pure 3 separates their omega threes into a high. EPA version and a high DHA version.

Not every fish oil brand does that, and it's not necessarily required. So I take 4 EPA pills in the morning, and that totals 2 grams of EPA. And there is a little bit of DHA in the high EPA, so I'm getting an additional 500 milligrams of DHA in that In the in the high EPA pills that I'm taking, and then I take four high DHA pills in the evening, which is two grams of DHA, and those also have additional EPA. So I'm getting a total of 2.5 grams of EPA a day and a total of 2.5 grams of DHA a day. And I will I will I will go into a little more detail as to to why I take them at different times in the next question that I address. For those of you that are looking for a reliable brand, and I'm not sure, I think this is also another related question, but I'll go ahead and answer it now.

Some of the sources that I have used or would use if I did not have my stash of N-Pure 3 would be the International Fish Oil Standards website, IFSO. You can click on their website and they have a product reports tab in their toolbar at the top of the page. If you click on that, they rank a variety of supplement brands that sell fish oil, and you can— it's alphabetized by brand name. And I think there's also a search option, although I was having a hard time finding the search option. I don't know if that's changed recently, but I was on there the other day and I really had to kind of go through each brand and find You can you can even just go through the brands and look at their product reports, and really what you want to look at is a low oxidation number.

It's it's also important to have a good you know relatively good concentration of the actual omega threes EPA and DHA in those pills. But I think the most important thing is because you can always take more more of them. The most important thing is a low oxidation number. You know ideally something. Around 5, 6, definitely below 10. So, so that is what I would look for. And then there's another third-party testing site I've mentioned before called Labdoor. They don't give you the raw data numbers, but they have a ranking system, which is kind of okay. And they have— if you, if you just Google Labdoor fish oil, you'll find their ranking system. I'm sure many people use them. And so their top brands are probably Sold out as well.

So as an alternative, check out the International Fish Oil Standards. So F International Fish Oil Standards program that that basically is a really good source for looking at oxidation, contamination of mercury, and other like you know contaminants as well. So you know that would that would be my suggestion for finding a good. Reliable fish oil brand. I also take 2 prostafane per day in the morning after breakfast. I take that with my high EPA. You can buy prostafane with an online pharmacy, and I can put that link in the show notes where we are. I'll put it in the email summary we send out, but the site is called I'm not exactly sure how to pronounce it. MoncoinSante, it's French. So, it's M-O-N-C-O-I-N-S-A-N-T-E.co.uk.

And, if you search on their site prostaglandin and pull it up, you can buy prostaglandin and it'll be shipped to you internationally within 2 days. I have a stash of that. And so, I'm still taking my prostaglandin, but I also take moringa powder. And I think that I've now been convinced by Dr. Jed Fahey that the moringa powder has very similar effects as sulforaphane, and it's cheaper and readily available, and it's really easy to use, and it totally lowers my blood glucose levels, like, very consistently. And in fact, Dr. Jed Fahey said that they're testing this in clinical studies because they've noticed the same thing. So the, the moringa powder is a really good alternative to prostaglandin, in my opinion. And, um, the brand I use is Kuli Kuli, K-U-L-I K-U-L-I.

That's been validated by Dr. Jed Fahey. I see here Lila is posting in the chat that prostaglandin is now sold in the US under Brock. Um, yes, I've heard that. I have not— it's not been validated. Allegedly it's the same. Um, So, you know, it's up to you. I'm personally, it's easy enough for me to just get Prostafane, so I'm going to continue to do that, but it's supposed to be the same thing. Isabella is asking any benefit to Prostafane over Avmacol. Prostafane has per capsule or per, I guess Avmacol's tablets, but Prostafane recently switched to capsules. They used to be tablets. Per serving, per supplement, there is a higher dose of prostafane in each. So, Avmacol has also been very— it's been used in clinical studies.

It's been published peer-reviewed studies that it has a clinical benefit. It's been validated by Dr. Jed Fahey countless times. They definitely are a reliable source. But they don't have as much sulforaphane as prostaphane, for example. So that is, if you're looking to kind of take fewer pills or you want a higher dose, it seems easier to take the prostaphane, but you could also just take, you know, more of the Avocall supplements as well if you want a higher dose. So that's sort of the breakdown.

And again, as Lila mentioned, prostaphane is, is, um, now being sold in the US under Brock, which it should be the same thing, but I'm kind of one of those people that until someone I know validates it or I really, you know, have a, a really strong reason to use it, then I kind of stick with what's already been validated and what I can continue to use. Um, but it should be the same thing. And then also, um, people are asking, Diego's asking about prociphing You know, upsetting the stomach. If it's taken on an empty stomach, absolutely. And that is why I take it only after I eat a full meal. So it's that—that is something to keep in mind.

In fact, I've also had people that can tolerate Avmacol much better than than prostafane, presumably because each Avmacol supplement does have a lower dose of the sulforaphane, and so they're able to tolerate it better. I have I have family members that take up to six prostaglandins a day, which is quite a lot. But it's really had a dramatic effect on their lowering their PSA levels, which for those of you that are men or perhaps aging men or have fathers or grandfathers, it's really they're kind of obsessed with lowering their PSA levels. So prostate stimulating stimulating antigen is a it's a biomarker for prostate cancer. And, as men age, that level goes up quite significantly. So, that's something to keep in mind taking it with food.

I also take PQQ, 20 milligrams a day from Life Extension. And, I take that because there have been a couple clinical studies that have shown it improves cognitive function. It's improving mitochondrial function. As well, I also take at night. I take ten milligrams of melatonin. I've definitely upped my dose, and it really—it's 100%, really almost. I guess I should say maybe 95%, because once in a while I will still have a night terror, but I don't have them anymore. Things I also take, but not quite as consistently, are I take curcuma zorb from Pure Encapsulations. Which is the Meriva. So it's a curcumin phytosome, which is more bioavailable. Meriva has been shown in multiple clinical studies to lower inflammatory biomarkers, blood biomarkers in people.

It's been shown to lower, you know, pain. Um, it's also been shown to improve like motility, joint function in people with osteoarthritis. Um, but there's probably other Good curcumin supplements as well. I'm I'm blanking on another one that was also pretty good, but I still I still take Mariva because I've I've read you know quite a few studies that have shown that to be beneficial. I also inconsistently take Cocoa Via. I'll take four four capsules a day and definitely in the morning because there's some caffeine in in the cocoa, and clinical studies have shown that to improve cognitive function, blood flow to the brain. It's also been shown to improve skin wrinkles and wrinkle depth and skin elasticity as well.

The other things that I sort of take inconsistently, and this is really sort of pandemic-related, are quercetin, so 250 milligrams a day, and vitamin C. I'll usually take between 500 milligrams or 1 gram, and I take that in the evening. Well, well, after I have exercised, long time out, you know, I make sure I'm waiting several hours after exercise just to make sure I don't blunt any hormetic effects from the exercise. And that's pretty much my current supplement routine. Mary's asking for melatonin, which brand I'm taking right now. I'm taking Pure Encapsulations. I do take a lot of Pure Encapsulations. For, for, for, for the reason again, uh, that I've, you know, I've had, um, their products have been validated by former colleagues of mine. And, um, also I have my, my discount.

So I'm like, oh, stuff I used to buy from Thorne, which is also a pretty trusted brand. And it's just as similarly as, as expensive. I can now get it as discount from Pure Encapsulations. So that is— that's another reason why I've sort of shifted some of my supplements that I used to get from Thorne to Pure Encapsulations. Some supplements I don't really find on either of those, you know, using either of those brands. And so, for example, I take vitamin K2 from Life Extension because the Thorne vitamin K2 comes along with vitamin D, or it comes along with something else, and I just don't want that because I'm getting enough of The vitamin D. Same goes for what else do I take from Life Extension? Oh, PQQ. I haven't found from either of the other brands as well.

So life extension is okay, in my opinion. It's I've seen some I've seen some data from it that's kind of like some of their like I would never take their sulforaphane supplement, for example. Like it's just it's just not good. Evan's asking about my latest feelings on NR and NMN. I'm currently not convinced to take it. I'm actually going to go into that in a little more detail later on as well. So let's kind of talk a little more detail about the omega-3, because there was a question that was very related to the dosing of it. And this question was from Alyssa, and Alyssa asks, could you talk about dosing omega-3 supplements and how to decide on the ratio of EPA and DHA? Also, is a higher dose worth it? Or necessary.

So, as I just mentioned, I do take high doses of the omega-3s, DHA and EPA. Let's talk about why. So, for the heart, there have been randomized controlled trials, supplementation with omega-3, 4 grams a day of the purified EPA version, reduced cardiovascular-related death by 25% in people with high triglycerides. On statins compared to those taking placebo. This was a large randomized controlled trial, over 8,000 people. A similar study in Japan found that 4 grams a day of, of purified EPA showed a 19% reduction in cardiovascular-related death. Another study showed, again, highly purified EPA 4 grams a day. Sorry, this wasn't purified. This was 4 grams a day of both combined EPA and DHA that was able to lower patients' triglyceride levels by 30%.

When given DHA and EPA in a high dose, DHA can increase, slightly increase the large buoyant LDL, which is not a bad thing. It's certainly the most dangerous LDL is the small dense LDL particles, but it is something to keep in mind. But treating high triglycerides with combined EPA and DHA, or even alone with EPA, does affect you, does reduce triglycerides. So doing one or the other. The reason I like to take both, EPA is a very powerful, it's very powerful in decreasing inflammation, inflammatory effects as well. DHA also can lower inflammation through a different pathway. I'm not getting into all the molecular details right now, but it also, DHA is very important for what's called membrane fluidity.

And so every cell has a membrane and Every membrane has receptors on it and these receptors are what bind to things that transporters, for example, transport nutrients into the cell or in the neurons, you have receptors that are neurotransmitter receptors like your dopamine receptors or your serotonin receptors. And, these things bind to neurotransmitters or glucose transporters, for example. And, it's been shown that in a DHA-deficient Scenario, the structure and function of these receptors is altered in such a way that, for example, glucose transport is reduced, so glucose doesn't get into your cells as well, which is a terrible thing. And this has been shown in neurons. It's been shown that serotonin receptors aren't binding to serotonin as well; they're not binding to dopamine.

I mean, it's affecting brain function. So DHA is also extremely important, and. When I talk about some of the studies right now about when I get into brain. So there've been— I'm just kind of— there's been much more evidence, but I'm kind of just giving you a sampling here. There have been 2 randomized controlled trials, placebo-controlled, that have shown 1.2 grams of combined EPA and DHA a day can improve mood, it can improve cognitive function, and reduce psychosis in high-risk adolescents compared to Placebo. There's also another study that showed that fish oil, high-dose fish oil, can you know prevent and delay the onset of psychotic disorders, which is extremely important.

Antipsychotics are the the standard you know go-to treatment, and when you when you're talking about let's say your adolescent child, I mean, of course you would want to exhaust everything possible that is safer before having to, you know, go to something like that, which ultimately may have, you know, be the case. But I think that it's very promising that omega-3 has such a profound effect on the brain. There's also, you know, many studies that have shown that fish oil supplementation can reduce inflammation.

So there was a double double-blind randomized controlled trial that showed almost 3 grams, so it was 2.9 grams of omega-3 fatty acids per day could, for 6 months, could reduce inflammatory biomarkers by 50% and increased anti-inflammatory markers by 100% in boys with Duchenne muscular dystrophy. So Very profound effects on inflammation, also depression, anxiety. And this is kind of where the 2 to 1 ratio of EPA to DHA comes in because there've been some early studies that, you know, just even just over a decade ago where looking at, you know, when researchers were looking at the effects of omega-3 on depression, They noticed that there may be some competition for the desaturase enzymes with EPA and DHA when they're taken at the same time in terms of a clinical benefit in depression.

And so it was— and that might have to do with the fact that there's a huge inflammatory component responsible for depression. But DHA is also important, you know, so I don't want to like— I don't want to minimize the effects of DHA on brain function. And so, but this is where the sort of 2:1 ratio comes in for, you know, 2:1 ratio of EPA to DHA comes in. And there's been studies, for example, fish oil supplementation, 2 grams of EPA and 348 grams of DHA has been shown to decrease anxiety by 20% and decrease inflammation by 14% compared to placebo. So, This is kind of where you know the high dose in my supplement routine comes in. I just think there's overwhelming evidence in every category: the heart, inflammation, brain. Of course, these things are all linked, right?

Inflammation is linked to everything, every organ, and and you know so that's that's kind of where my high dose comes in. I think that not enough re you know there's there haven't been enough well-designed clinical trials. showing the profound therapeutic benefit of high-dose fish oil. And I think that if you were to ask me, what's the one— if you could only take one thing, what would it be? It would be fish oil. I mean, vitamin D is a big one too, but I could at least somehow go out in the sun and get that. Whereas the fish oil is just— I think it is hugely anti-aging, hugely important for mood, for brain function, for behavior.

I mean, there are— we can go into this in another episode, but there are just such phenomenally interesting studies that have been done on people in prisons where they were given omega-3 and how it had an effect on their behavior and they were less likely to engage in recidivism. So basically, they were learning not to go back to negative behaviors. I mean, I just think that There is such a huge, you know, area of study that hasn't been tapped into yet with omega-3 and brain function. So, Lila's asking in the chat, would you need less total omega-3 if it was all in phospholipid form? Um, so, so phospholipid form does increase bioavailability.

So yes, the problem with that is that there's just not enough empirical evidence showing exactly how much omega-3 in phospholipid form is needed to, uh, elicit all these beneficial effects. There just haven't been studies investigating that. So it's really kind of guesswork. So Andrea says fish oil raises my LDL, so I am ambivalent to take it. So you might want to get a full lipid panel where you're measuring particle size because it— the DHA— okay, there's a couple of options. One, it's the DHA specifically that can raise the large buoyant LDL. EPA does not do that.

If you are afraid of DHA raising large buoyant LDL, I mean, that's, you know, that's something that, you know, just, I guess you have to discuss with your physician, but it, it does not raise the small dense LDL, which is the, the actual dangerous form of LDL. So that's that's why I actually you know take high dose DHA, and I'm not worried you know that it slightly raises my my large point LDL. And also, by the way, there are a lot of SNPs single nucleotide. Polymorphisms, as they're called. They, these are variations in, in the sequence of DNA in genes that alters their function in some way. I mean, everyone's different. So we all have these different variations in our genes.

And there are certain genes that are involved in converting the omega-3 fatty acid that's predominantly found in plants, ALA, into EPA and DHA. And a variety of individuals do not do that very effectively. And there's actually been studies showing those people require a higher dose of marine omega-3 fatty acids to have a beneficial effect. They actually do require a much higher dose. So I'm going to move on to the next question. Which is also somewhat related. This question was submitted by Sean Cutula, and they ask, I think most of us are taking a lot of supplements. There are probably some cautions that we should take. What should we be wary about? So as I mentioned, sort of, I guess I alluded to it. I didn't really elaborate.

Brand is important because supplements are not regulated, and there's pros and cons to that. I'm not sure I want to have the FDA required, you know, to regulate all of our supplements because we may not be able to get. They may decide no, you don't need you. You don't need to take resveratrol, or you know. So I mean, there is a. There's definitely a benefit for these nutraceuticals that don't have to get FDA, you know, aren't regulated by the FDA. The drawback is there are a ton of supplement-making brands out there that are not high quality. And in some cases, even there are bad brands that are putting things like filler or cloverleaf, things that are cheaper to manufacture. Um, and they're putting them in supplements and saying it's something else.

Now, this is really a big problem for herbal supplement, herbal supplements like echinacea and elderberry and, you know, all that stuff. There have been, there have been peer-reviewed studies. Many at this point now have shown that a lot of these herbal blends, like if you just walk into any standard CVS-like, Walgreens-like store or grocery store and get something off the shelf, it's likely going to have like a little bit of what, you know, like a percentage of what it says it has in it. And there's going to be a lot of clover leaf or some other thing.

In some cases it can be harmful for, for example, I am terrified of buying powdered turmeric because most of it comes from countries like India, Bangladesh, where it's— multiple studies have shown they're adulterated with lead chromate because it has this brilliant, bright, brilliant sort of yellow, orange-yellow color, which is what turmeric has, and it's much cheaper. And so they're putting all this lead chromate in the turmeric and you're getting a, like a toxic dose of lead, which is very bad, um, for, for health. So I'm really just at the point now where I just buy the turmeric root and cook with it rather than getting any sort of powder. High dose vitamin E or really high dose N-acetylcysteine, um, long-term is something I'm a little concerned about.

Because they are very powerful antioxidants. And there have been studies that have shown— particularly animal studies have shown that high dosing with those supplements can allow cancer cells to bypass pathways that would be activated to kill them, kill the cancer cells. And so it ends up promoting cancer growth. So that that is something to be concerned about. You do want to make sure you are getting a your your recommended daily intake of vitamin E, but it's really the thing to really be concerned about is the high dose alpha tocopherol, which is like you can you can find people they'll supplements out there like 400 IU.

You really don't want to go more than you know 30 IUs a little maybe a little above that's okay you know of the vitamin E. But when you start to get into like the 100 200 then, you know, I think you're, you're kind of going into, you know, territory that's possibly risky. So that's kind of my, I, I, you know, I kind of think that getting, finding a validated brand is important. And there are a lot of testing, third-party testing services. Another one that I use often is ConsumerLab. You have to pay an annual fee. I don't remember how much it is. It's not very much, maybe $30 or something. I don't like ConsumerLab for fish oil, um, reviews because they don't measure oxidation, which is like the main thing.

So I don't use them for that, but they are, they are very useful for other things like looking at cocoa supplements, looking at turmeric, for example, or curcumin. Ed and Twilla are asking thoughts on tocotrienols. Those are— so there's like 8 different forms of vitamin E, the tocopherols and the tocotrienols. They're important, and you certainly can— there's great dietary sources of them. Nuts is one. If you're taking a vitamin E supplement that has like the mixed— it's a lower dose and it has the mixed everything, the 4 alpha-tocopherols, the 4 tocotrienols, then I think that's probably okay versus, you know, the just high-dose alpha-tocopherol. Omar is asking, any supplement recommendations for muscle building?

Believe it or not, both vitamin D and omega-3 have been shown in clinical studies to increase muscle mass. And I know there's like creatine, we have a topic page on it as well. Um, you know, there's some sort of trade-offs to that with the water retention and, um, finding a reliable source of it, of course, but I take vitamin D and omega-3, so I'm pretty happy with that. It's probably not not going to be the kind of muscle building that you're you're looking for though. So I'm going to move on to the next question that was submitted by Kenny, and Kenny asks, "Hi Rhonda." Is a big blood sugar spike once per day worse than many slower rises? For example, if I eat 1 cookie every 2 hours for a total of 6, my blood sugar never goes over 120 milligrams per deciliter.

If I eat all 6 cookies at the same time, it spikes very high. In either situation, I've consumed the same amount of quote-unquote bad food. Clearly, there is more to something being healthy than if it spikes your blood sugar. Correct. But now that I have a Dexcom continuous glucose monitor, I am trying to understand how to use it to evaluate if what I'm consuming is bad. Yes, there's definitely more to healthy food than just blood sugar, although I think everyone's obsessed with that right now, including micronutrients. Very important.

These are essential vitamin minerals that you need to get from your diet and large, you know, there's a large percentage of people in the world that are not getting adequate amounts of these micronutrients and they're important for not only preventing acute disorders and diseases, but they're important for preventing diseases of aging as well. And of course, fiber is also very important for microbiome and gut health. But anyways, let's talk about these glucose spikes. So yes, generally speaking, one very, very large glucose spike is probably worse than a few smaller ones, and it's it's thought because a very large spike in glucose will cause more insulin resistance and inflammation than. The smaller than multiple smaller spikes.

This is why foods that are low in the glycemic index, like apples, so which have sugar, but they're also complex with the food matrix fiber. They're less likely to cause— those foods are less likely to cause type 2 diabetes than foods that are, you know, very high in the glycemic index, like cookies, which don't have fiber. The mechanism is that insulin secretion Goes up exponentially and not linearly with increasing blood glucose levels, and that's really important. And it helps you sort of understand because this puts a lot more work on the pancreas to produce more insulin for the same amount of overall sugar. So the body eventually develops resistance to these high. Very high insulin spikes, which happen again. Insulin goes up exponentially with increasing blood sugar levels.

And so eventually the pancreas cannot keep up with the growing demand of insulin and it fatigues, resulting in type 2 diabetes. So that's, that's pretty much, I think, my short answer. The next question was submitted by James, and James asks, what is the difference between antibodies created from a previous infection and defenses created from a vaccine? Are vaccines superior to antibodies? Are antibodies one person creates for a virus the same as those another person creates? Can antibody donations be received without rejection issues? Can antibodies be cloned in a lab? So let's address these questions one by one. The mechanism of how vaccines work is very similar to how natural immunity is developed. They both result in antibodies.

One distinct difference though is that vaccines commonly only contain part of a virus or bacteria. Hence, there are less types of antibodies developed from vaccines than from natural immunity. So for example, in the COVID-19 mRNA vaccine, the The vaccine only contains the genetic material for this spike protein, which is found on the outside of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. So vaccinated people are only expected to have antibodies to the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein. Someone who recovers from COVID-19 will have antibodies to other parts of the virus, in addition to the spike protein. In general, immunity is stronger from natural immunity than from vaccines, but it would not make sense, of course, to intentionally get the disease just because of that fact. Please keep that in mind.

Also, getting vaccinated for a disease that you have already recovered from can actually still increase your immunity to that that disease. Antibodies that one person creates, uh, are not the same as another person, but they are similar enough that they can be donated to someone else. This is called convalescent plasma, and it was a pretty effective treatment in early parts of the COVID-19 pandemic. It's also been used in previous pandemics, you know, centuries ago as well. Antibodies can also be cloned in the lab. However, it is very expensive and it's, it's really hard to produce the amount of antibodies that are required to really be able to be used clinically. So there's, there's certainly a bottleneck there when it comes to producing antibodies.

The biggest shortcoming when giving antibodies when giving someone else antibodies for an infection is that it, it only provides— and this, this also is the case for, you know, the, the convalescent plasma, but also for monoclonal antibodies, for example— that, that only produces what's called passive immunity. This means it protects the person as long as those antibodies are circulating in the body, which usually is only a couple of days. When you have vaccination or when you have natural immunity, that creates a much longer lasting immunity because they form memory B cells, which then can continually mass produce antibodies. So if the body ever sees that infection again, it will produce the antibodies. So I'm going to move on to the next question.

There is an unrelated question in the chat from Omar. Omar asks, what immediate dietary interventions can be taken if one suspects his 1-year-old child to have autism spectrum disorder? This is obviously something that needs to be discussed with your pediatrician, your child's pediatrician. You can give them— there is evidence that vitamin D, omega-3, and even sulforaphane can improve autism spectrum disorder. I'm not sure any of those have been tested. In fact, I'm almost certain they have not been tested in children that young, although vitamin D drops are suggested to be given to all infants and toddlers. And omega-3 as well. So that is something that I gave my son when he was, you know, 1 year old and is safe.

The sulforaphane has not been tested, but it has been shown in school-aged children to be effective in improving symptoms of autism spectrum disorder. But that is something you might want to discuss with your physician, and in the short term, There are what what I did when my son was one, because I wanted him to have enough omega three. My son does not have autism, but I I did give him omega three. He has had omega three since conception. Basically, when he was one, I would put it in his in his supplemental food. So he I was still nursing him at one, and I was taking a high dose. I was taking 6 grams a day, sorry, 3 grams a day, 6 pills a day of high DHA. And that has been shown to be transferred in breast milk, through breast milk to the children.

But also I was opening up my fish oil capsules and putting it in his food, mix it up, whatever food you can put it in. I was doing it in his oatmeal. There are also gummies that I give him from Pure Encapsulations. They're the omega gummies, and they have 250 milligrams of DHA per gummy. And the gummies are, they're pretty safe. I would probably start that at around 2 years of age, but that's also something to keep in mind and talk with your child's pediatrician about. So the next question was submitted from Scott. Scott asks, what are your thoughts on the use of white noise for infants and children? A study from UCSF theorizes that their findings could aid in explaining the increase in language impairment developmental disorders over the last few decades. And Scott provided a link.

So in the study, in the link that Scott provided, this was an animal study. Rats were exposed to constant background noise that drowned out most environmental noises. But it was not damaging to the rat's hearing. They found that the brains of the animals that were reared in the noise took 3 to 4 times longer to achieve the same auditory developments as the normal animals. However, even though they were delayed, the rat's auditory development eventually did catch up. So this wasn't like a lifelong, you know, impairment. But a couple things to keep in mind. First, it was done in rats, so really you need to take that with a grain of salt. It does raise an interesting question, and, you know, the question is, does white noise negatively affect the language development of infants?

I would say with my N-of-1 anecdote, I used white noise throughout my son's— when he was an infant, and he has phenomenal— he had phenomenal language development skills. So there's certainly no impairment with his language impairment skills. But there's really, there's not, there's no studies that have specifically looked at white noise machines in babies. There was one prospective small study that was done in neonates in the ICU, and they developed faster with less noise. So newborns that were hospitalized for extremely low birth weights were randomized to either receive earbuds or no earbuds while being admitted to the ICU. And the newborns that wore the earbuds ended up gaining more weight and had faster mental development.

But this may be because much of the baby development is during sleep. And, you know, these ICUs can be very loud. And so maybe that helped inhibit the constant noises in the ICU. There was another study done in preterm babies who were in louder ICUs who had better language development outcomes. And this was a retrospective study. So it's, you know, it's kind of hard to really say, but I think that caution should be taken when generalizing these results because they were done in newborns in ICUs. and not in healthy older infants at home.

So it's really difficult to say what— it's not— I think that, you know, it's not something I'm too concerned about, particularly if you're using the white noise, you know, to drown out street noise or dogs barking or other things that could disrupt a baby from napping throughout the day or even sleeping at night. As long as you don't have the white noise on all the time, like 24 hours a day, you know, you want to have periods where it's off. Um, that, that's, that's kind of my, my, my 2 cents. The next question was from Meredith, and Meredith asks, supplement— it's a supplement-related question. What do you think of the claims of some companies that suggest in order to increase absorption of many minerals, you need to take them in nanoparticle form or liposomal form? Form.

So nanoparticle or liposomal forms often do have better absorption and bioavailability, but they are rarely necessary to achieve adequacy for vitamin and minerals supplementation with vitamins and minerals. One reason they do have better absorption is because the gut is not designed to absorb compacted minerals and vitamins in pills. The gut's better at absorbing minerals and vitamins in the context of them being in complex with a food matrix. So, and you know, in a meal, with a meal, uh, this is also particularly true for, for fat-soluble vitamins. Another reason they have better bioavailability is because they are being encapsulated in the liposome protects them from the acidity of enzymes in the stomach and the intestines.

Additionally, liposomal forms can bypass the liver's metabolism by being absorbed through the lymphatic system rather than the portal vein system, portal venous system. I think that generally speaking, liposomal forms are superior for certain supplements like xenobiotics, things that are not typically found in the body. So those would— those with not vitamins and minerals, but things like curcumin, because they— the liver is, you know, does try to get rid of— get rid of the xenobiotics. It's also good for things that do get destroyed, like glutathione gets destroyed in the stomach and there's no transporter for glutathione to get into the cell. So liposomal sort of bypasses that because the liposomal form can fuse with the cell membrane and get, get stuff into the cell.

But it's not always, you know, liposomal vitamin C, for example, you can get a higher blood dose of vitamin C with liposomal particularly with really higher doses of it. But again, it's really, it's not on a day-to-day basis. Like if you were, if you were exposed, if you knew you were exposed to a virus and you were trying to really rapid— rapidly boost your, your vitamin C levels, liposomal would be the way to go. Um, but I don't think that you always have to take vitamin C in liposomal form. I don't. The next question was submitted from Leticia, and Leticia asks, if access to saunas is limited, what, if any, benefits would hot tubs have either post-exercise or in a rested state? Is there a specific frequency, duration, or water temperature?

So, let's talk about— there's been a lot more studies looking at hot baths in the context without exercise. So, let's talk about those. Studies have shown that immersion in hot tubs for— at a temperature of 104 degrees Fahrenheit for at least 30 minutes improves blood pressure, blood circulation, depression, and sleep. Blood pressure and circulation. So hot water immersion for 8 weeks reduced arterial stiffness and thickness. It decreased blood pressure and improved blood flow in healthy sedentary men. This was a hot water bath protocol for 1 hour in 104.9 degrees Fahrenheit water 4 to 5 times a week. And, I think this frequency is quite similar to, I mean, to get the maximum sauna benefits, he was starting at 4 times a week for frequency.

So, this is something that you would find in taking a hot bath. Our hot tub, we usually set that to 103 if we're going to use the hot tub. But my— I often feel like I should probably take my water thermometer and put it in my bathwater. I haven't done that. It's stuck in— it's stuck out in the pool. But because I feel like my hot baths are so much hotter than the jacuzzi. And so I'm like, wow, my jacuzzi is 103. I wonder— I wonder how hot my baths are. I'm actually going to do that next time. And so— so that's— that was with blood, you know, basically heart-related effects, blood pressure and circulation, arterial thickness. So there's improvements in that. Again, that was 104.9 degrees Fahrenheit for 1 hour. That's definitely not easy to do 4 to 5 times per week.

There was another study looking at depression and sleep. So this was an 8-week randomized controlled trial involving 36 adults who had moderate depression. They used 104 degrees Fahrenheit water bath for 30 minutes. This led to clinically significant improvements in depressive symptoms that lasted up to 4 weeks after the baths were discontinued. They also exhibited improvements in sleep quality. There was another study looking at type 2 diabetes. So people with type 2 diabetes sat in a 100 to 104 degrees Fahrenheit hot tub for 30 minutes a day. And this was 6 days a week for 3 weeks. And those patients, their weight decreased by an average of 3.7 pounds. Their fasting blood glucose decreased from 182 milligrams per deciliter to 159 milligrams per deciliter. Wow, that's pretty good.

And, and wow, that's high for fasting blood glucose. Their mean glycosylated hemoglobin, so the HbA1c, decreased from 11.3% to 10.3% after 10 days. And one patient reduced his His dose of insulin by 18% to prevent hypoglycemia. So apparently he was having such good improvements with blood glucose regulation that he had that he had to reduce his insulin. So there was also self-reported improved sleep and a general sense of well-being improved improvements as well. And another study again this was at 104 degrees Fahrenheit for one hour showed that. Heat shock proteins increased by 50% in humans. And also there was extra calories burnt, uh, 140 calories. So quite a few benefits from hot baths. And most people do have bathtubs, access to a bathtub.

So I do think a minimum of 30 minutes a day, I think that is a good start. Anywhere between 100 to 104 degrees Fahrenheit, at least 4 times a week. If you could do that, I mean, who doesn't like to take a nice hot bath at the end of the day, especially in the wintertime, right? Omar's asking in the chat, do you supplement with VSL number 3 or VisBiome on a daily basis? I use regular and found good results. I used to. I don't, I don't find the need to need to, to take it on a daily basis anymore. I, I find that I take it if I drink alcohol. Alcohol has really negative effects on the gut, and so I do think that I find an added benefit if I, if I, if I do drink alcohol. I also do try to take it like weekly if I remember, but I don't, I'm not always great about that.

So maybe that's something I will improve. I have sitting on my shelf a Viome intelligent gut test that I am planning on doing. And so once I get those results, maybe I'll look and see whether or not I think I should be supplementing more frequently with this vinyl. Let's move on to the next question, who it was submitted by Arvid, who asks, if my goal is just to get stronger on in terms of weightlifting in a fasted state, and fast is fasting Is doing weightlifting, weightlifting in a fasted state, or fasting for some additional hours afterwards a bad idea? I'm not sure that weightlifting in a fasted state is a bad idea.

There have been 3 studies in men and 1 study in women that have, that have looked at this, and none of the studies found a statistical difference in muscle mass between when eating, you know, time-restricted eating versus ad libitum. And 2 of those studies found that time-restricted eating caused a significant decrease in body fat, while the other 2 found a trending for less body fat. Not eating 4 to 6 hours after a workout should also not affect strength gains. There have been meta-analyses that have shown it doesn't matter when you eat protein in terms of a workout, as long as you eat it within a 24-hour period with respect to the workout.

And so I think the resistance training in a fasted state, you may, you may find that your intensity and perhaps the performance or the length of your, your training session may be affected. I know mine is. Um, there are benefits to training in a fasted state with respect to mitochondrial adaptations that occur. They're somewhat blunted if you are training in a, in a fed state. However, performance can be affected if, if this is a long endurance type of training session. So, um, that's also something to, to keep in mind. So, I promised we would get back to the NMN, NR question that was in the chat. So, a question was submitted by Courtney, and Courtney asks, hello, Rhonda. I know last year you addressed NAD precursor supplementation such as NR, NMN.

And possible risks associated with acceleration of tumorigenesis. Is there any more information on on this? I know there was a human trial that had begun last year. You mentioned when you addressed supplementation of NMN. Is there any new information on safety? So first of all, nicotinamide riboside, also known as NR for short, and nicotinamide mononucleotide is also known as. NMN for short. There have been several human studies now that have shown that NR, nicotinamide riboside, is safe for people to take. I have not been convinced that there's a beneficial effect yet, but I'm also not unconvinced. So I'm still sort of on the fence whether or not I'm going to supplement with that.

With respect to NMN, And there's been a lot of animal research and a lot of interesting data suggesting it may improve the way we age. There's just no human data to suggest that it's going to improve the way we age. It doesn't mean it won't, just no empirical data yet. There was a very small phase 1 clinical study that assessed short-term safety of nicotinamide mononucleotide. There was a single, literally a single dose of 100 milligrams or 250 milligrams or 500 milligrams. And that was shown to be safe, a single dose. Okay. Again, just, just to emphasize, this is really kind of, in my opinion, Not very informative, but nonetheless, it was published. It was shown to be safe in terms of looking at liver function.

So bilirubin was increased, which is sort of weird because that could imply that may affect the liver, but it was still within a normal range, and the other biomarkers of liver function were normal. So AST, ALT—they were—they did not change. There was also, um, it was also safe for the eyes, liver, kidney, pancreas, immune system, and other vital signs. But again, it was extremely short, one-dose study, very small. So I think that there needs to be larger studies done to look at safety. Of course, larger studies, any studies need to be done to look at whether or not there will be any clinical benefits to taking NMN.

The cancer study that we discussed, you know, last year or a year ago or 2 years ago, I don't remember how long it's been now, but, um, you know, it's, it's something to have in the back of your mind, but it's not necessarily something that's directly translatable. And for a couple of reasons, and this is always the case with animal studies, in this particular study's case, the The administration of the NMN was intravenous. It was, you know, a very high dose, not something that's necessarily going to be orally achievable in in humans. So it's unclear how relevant it is other than the fact that in a very specific type, and also this was a very specific type of cancer that. NAD can help fuel the growth of.

So it's just one of those things to keep in mind but not necessarily isn't a reason to not take it. I would say for me, the reason I'm not taking it is because there's just no clinical evidence addressing safety first and foremost. And there's no clinical evidence. I mean, the study I just talked about to me is sort of, okay, well, it's safe for one dose. Well, that's good. I'm not going to die if I take one dose. But that doesn't really address long-term safety or even moderate-term, you know, like, you know, after a month, you know. So like what happens after a month of taking it every day? And also there's been, you know, there's just no human evidence that there's any clinical benefit. But that doesn't mean that there won't be. I'm just being cautious. I'm just being cautious.

So that's, that's kind of my nature. Brian's asking in the chat about metformin versus berberine. Um, please go to our topics page on berberine. Foundmyfitness.com/topics/berberine, or just go to foundmyfitness.com and on the menu, on the tool tab on the, um, on the menu bar on the homepage, you'll see topics. Click on topics and scroll down to berberine. They should be alphabetized. We have a phenomenal page on berberine. We've, we've gone through and combed through the, you know, all the literature. And so You know, I think, I think a lot of questions can be answered by looking at that topic page. The next question, and I've heard this question in some form or another, I just keep countless times. So I'm happy.

I, I've always, I've always kind of disregarded it because I didn't, I didn't find, I didn't, never took it seriously, but I've had it enough times now that I realized people are getting this information somewhere, so I should address it. This question was, was submitted by Heather, and Heather says, I'm a big smoothie drinker and have been for many years now. I usually don't use a ton of fruit, but are— but it's more— but I'm more heavy on the vegetables. I know it is important to retain fiber. 2 questions. One is, I have heard that drinking smoothies makes the pancreas lazy, and hence It's better to chew your food. I do try to chew the smoothies a bit. Do you think less nutrients are gained during a smoothie instead of chewing food?

Second question, I use raw— I use fresh moringa leaves in the smoothie, not powder. Is this a good way to get my, my rosinase, or is powder better because it's more condensed? So let's talk about this chewing of the food thing. I'm not exactly sure what a lazy pancreas means. Maybe you're talking about not secreting insulin or something. I'm not sure, but the pancreas is an it's an endocrine organ. It's also it's an endocrine and exocrine organ. It secretes hormones into the blood and also digestive enzymes into the intestinal tract. It's it's not like a muscle or a bone. It doesn't get stronger the more you use it, so I wouldn't worry about not using it enough. But let's but let's talk about the chewing.

So one study evaluated whether chewing in and of itself contributed to any of these phases of pancreatic or gastric. Stimulation. They did their best in measuring stomach and pancreatic digestive enzymes when people chewed food and then spit it out. So, so they're chewing the food and then they spit it out compared to chewing on plastic tubing. So the idea is they're comparing— the chewing is consistent. So in both cases, it's— they're chewing, but in one case, they're tasting food and they're smelling food. In the other case, They're not. It's just chewing. And there's— in the case where they were chewing the food, they immediately spit it out, so they're not actually digesting it.

And as expected, um, the control group that chewed their food and then spit it out, there— that caused the stomach and pancreatic release of digestive enzymes. However, chewing on the plastic tubing did not. So this study suggested that the cephalic phase of pancreas and stomach stimulation is not dependent on the chewing, but on other factors such as taste and smell. So I find that to be a very interesting and informative study. Another study looked at solid Versus homogenate. Homogenate is mixed, you know, the blended up. In one study, 22 healthy volunteers who consumed roasted chicken and vegetables with a glass of water, or they consumed the same exact meal blended into a soup. The soup meal was associated with reduced hunger, slower gastric emptying.

And increased hormonal responses to feeding. With respect to nutrient bioavailability, it's really unclear if there's any difference in the amount of nutrients that are being absorbed between, you know, food that is chewed versus food that is blended. On the one side, blended food is better absorbed in the intestines, and it produces less acid secretion, meaning less nutrients that are denatured by the acidity of the stomach. So there could be an argument that blending the food may actually increase the absorption of some of these nutrients, but that's, that's pure conjecture. All right, it's that time, rapid-fire questions. Alyssa asks, what could be the reason for waking up regularly after only 3 to 4— after only 3 or 4 in the morning, um, and being unable to go back to sleep?

I have no problem falling asleep in the beginning of the night. I already have good sleep hygiene in place. For example, early bright light exposure, no blue light in the evening. I'm physically active, not stressed, whole foods diet, time-restricted eating, no food late in the day, cool dark room. What directions could I look for or look in particular to see, or any markers to test for? I would, I would say probably one of the main things that comes to my mind is, are the morning larks SNPs. There are a variety of single nucleotide polymorphisms in different genes that cause people to wake up extremely early in the morning, and it's just totally genetic. There, I know that we have in our genetic report, we do, we do talk about a few of these.

So if you have done a consumer-available genetic test like one from 23andMe, you might want to run your genetic report through our genetic tool, which should be free for all members. You can also talk to a geneticist on some of the SNPs that are associated with sleep and get tested for a whole panel of them as well. After the 14-day waiting period after a second COVID-19 vaccine, what is the likelihood that you may be able that you may be able to be contagious to others who have not received the vaccine. As long as you haven't been exposed to COVID-19, it's unlikely you would be contagious from the actual vaccine, but it's, again, even if you're vaccinated, it's best to stay socially distanced and wear a mask in groups of people that are not within your household.

Oh, I answered this question already. This was the fish oil question. Please clarify the vitamin K2. You said, you said there was no benefit for more than 50 micrograms per day. What K2 form do you take? Also, the blueberry extract you mentioned briefly last Crowdcast for Alzheimer's disease, can you provide any guidance on the amount? Or other considerations, thank you. So I so I did kind of answer the first part of this question. I'm taking MK four fifty micrograms a day. The studies that I that we have analyzed have not found any additional cardiac related improvements in taking a in taking a dose of vitamin K two above fifty micrograms per day, and that's that's why.

The the second part of this question with respect to blueberries: one study found that just one cup a day of blueberries had a beneficial effect. So, Lydia asks, hi, Rhonda. I remember you mentioned you might do the MyDNA— MyDNA biological age test in the last Steve Horvath interview you did. If so, what did you think of it? I did do the MyDNA biological age test, but I will say this. I think the name of this test is misleading because the MyDNA test is based on the original Horvath Epigenetic Aging Clock, which is very accurate at measuring chronological age. It is not as accurate for measuring biological age.

Dr. Horvath, along with other colleagues, including Dr. Levine, I can't remember her first name, but Levine, they developed a much better clock at measuring biological age called DNA phenol age. And this this marker of biological age is available from Elysium. It's called Index. So, I have not tried— I have tried the MyDNA and it was spot on on my chronological age. I have not tried Index yet. It's very expensive, but it is on my to-do list to try. I am interested in trying it. And again, that was developed by Dr. Steve Horvath and Dr. Morgan Levine. Is taking vitamin D in liquid form better? Not that I'm aware of. Kyla asks, my parents don't pay attention to expiration dates on canned foods or vitamins.

I'm curious to know if there are any studies that show consuming expired pills or canned foods is bad for you. For example, I found an iron supplement dating back to 2000. Yes. There are a variety of problems can, can arise. For example, with iron, I mean, oxidation, oxidation of supplements occurs. Um, and also, you know, also food and with respect to canned food, you know, bacteria is a, is a major point of concern, um, in terms of expiration dates. So I do think there is evidence showing that Both of those things can occur as time goes on. Claire asks, can you let us know some of your favorite high polyphenol olive oils? So one of a really great brand that they will even, um, they even provide data sheets on some of their, um, polyphenol content in their olive oils.

Is from a brand that it's, they're located out in the Berkeley area in Northern California, and they're called Amphora Nueva, A-M-P-H-O-R-A, Amphora Nueva, N-U-E-V-A, and they've got really great high polyphenol olive oils. Another rapid-fire question was also submitted by Claire, who asks, a while back, I think you mentioned the use of banking placenta after birth. Is this something you think is still worthwhile, or have we developed something else since then? Banking placenta. I use LifeBank USA, and I still think if you can, it's a really great, it's a really great thing to do. Placenta is a really, really rich source of what are called pluripotent stem cells. These are stem cells that can form any type of tissue in the body.

Until we make really large progresses on induced pluripotent stem cells from, for example, a sample of skin. We're making huge progress now, but it's still not something that's very clinically used and it's certainly not consumer available. So until then, I think that banking the placenta is a great thing to do. And the last rapid-fire question that I'm going to answer today is from Alyssa. She says, can you speak to feistin for for the purpose of being a senolytic? I know I know that you had talked about quercetin in the past. Would it be beneficial to take? So for those of you that don't know what feistin is, it's I'm actually saying it wrong. Fisetin. Fisetin. Sorry, I had it typed wrong. Um, fisetin is— it's found in the pigment of a lot of plants.

It's been shown to reduce senescent cells in multiple tissues in mice that have, um, a progeria syndrome. So they're— they've got premature aging. And this was a very, very high dose that was shown to be used in these animals. So it was like 8.1 milligrams per kilogram body weight, which if you look, if you think about a 130-pound woman, that would be 477 milligrams. Most supplements you find of the fisetin is 100 milligrams. So I'm just not, I just think there's just too little evidence in terms of it being a real senolytic in people, particularly at a dose, or even being safe. So it's not something that I'm jumping the gun to take for myself yet. Great. With that said, this wraps up our Crowdcast for today.

Super excited to continually see a lot of the same people around For those of you that want to join a little more of an exclusive group, I have an exclusive Google Hangout the first Sunday of every month, which happens to be tomorrow. We chat for a few hours, and it's a discussion between me and you and some other people, and we're all on camera and discussing. You don't have to discuss if you want to sit quiet. Some people do that as well, and I send out a summary after each Hangout, but it's a really, it's a really exclusive and great hangout where we, we talk about all sorts of interesting— we talk more in detail about all the things that we talk about in these Crowdcasts as well as some other personal questions as well. So thanks again for another great Crowdcast.

Thank you for submitting your questions, and more importantly, thank you for all your support. I hope you guys are enjoying the Aloquat. That is our our members-only podcast where you can find these monthly Q&As. You also can find our À la Quad episodes, which we have been releasing weekly. They're curated episodes of the best of the FoundMyFitness podcast. They're excerpts of things that I think are very interesting, and I add a little extra curation around those episodes. I also— we also release mashup episodes that are longer and are sort of theme-based. We have one coming out on my supplement routine. We have one coming out on all the omega-3 related stuff that I've talked about. So those are coming out as well.

So if you haven't checked out the Aliquot, make sure you go to your member dashboard, foundmyfitness.com/dashboard, and download it on your podcast player because you're missing out otherwise. And I will talk to you guys next month. Please submit all your wonderful questions, the earlier the better. And I will be sending out a summary email with a timeline of this episode sometime this coming week. Thanks again, guys. Talk to you soon. Bye. Bye.