Hi everyone, welcome back to another Q&A episode. This is number 24 of our Crowdcast series. Excited to be here today. I love doing these once, once a month. Learn a lot from the questions. From those— for those of you that are new, um, and this is your first time, typically What I do is I will scroll through the questions and I will choose questions based on a variety of factors, including some of the top voted questions, as well as questions that I think are very interesting, or I'm personally wanting to dive into a little bit deeper, or questions that I've, I've had quite often from multiple people. And I feel that the audience would be You know, it would be beneficial if the audience heard the answer, or at least my opinion on it.

So what I do is a few deep dives where I kind of go a little deeper on a few questions. And then towards the mid and end of the Crowdcast, I will do rapid-fire questions, which is— which are questions that I can answer in one or two or a few sentences. So That's kind of the format. I see a lot of people have submitted questions in the comment section. And just as a reminder, I don't choose the questions in the comments. We look through the Ask a Question section. So you need to click on the Ask a Question tab at the bottom of the screen and submit a question there that can be upvoted. I use during our live crowdcast, and that's that's when I you know I'll take time and answer live questions.

That's sort of the benefit one of the benefits of attending these live is that you can chat in the comment section and ask a question either off topic or something relevant to what we are discussing at the time. And remember, you guys can always. Rewatch or listen to this podcast episode again, you should have your own private podcast feed. We have a private podcast called The Aliquot where we post little clips from podcasts that I've— that I think are important with a little extra curation and information from myself. We generally post those once a week.

In addition, I post the Crowdcast Q&A audio on that à la carte, as well as early releases of podcasts coming up, which you guys will have an early release this Monday of a new podcast with Dr. Michael Snyder on all things continuous glucose monitors, wearables, and personalized medicine. So if you haven't downloaded that podcast feed, private podcast feed, go to the dashboard, foundmyfitness.com/dashboard, and make sure you get that. All right. So I'm going to go ahead and get started. So last month I said I was going to answer a question about levels of uranium in some sparkling waters, including Pellegrino and Gerolsteiner. I'm not sure how to pronounce that mineral, mineral water. Gerolsteiner.

Um, so the question was that, you know, they've, they've heard that those types of mineral waters have had high levels of uranium and if that's something to, to be concerned about. So trace amounts of uranium are really inevitable. They're found in both bottled water, tap water, mineral water. Pellegrino does have a little bit higher levels than than most. So Pellegrino has 6.8 micrograms per liter. The Gerolsteiner mineral water has 1.9 micrograms per liter. Both of these concentrations are below the EPA's and FDA's International Bottled Water Association threshold of 30 micrograms per liter. The WHO has set stricter guidelines. So for a 0.5, their guidelines are 0.5 micrograms per kilogram of body weight per day. So based on those guidelines, for example, let's talk about a toddler.

A 20-pound toddler should drink no more than 750 mL of Pellegrino per day, which is quite a bit for a toddler. Obviously adults weigh much more than that. So according to the WHO guidelines, it doesn't seem to be much of a problem unless you're, you know, pounding those like 750 mL an hour. You know, the uranium exposure guidelines are probably safe because the data they use to figure out safety, first of all, was animal data. And as we've talked about many times in this Crowdcast, there's— it's very difficult to translate animal data to human data. And with, you know, because there's lots of factors to consider. Um, so it was based on animal data and also there was a huge correction factor. So the— to allow for like a— it's like a safety factor they use.

And they basically looked at the lowest dose of uranium that caused harm in rats, and then they reduced that dose by a factor of 100 and said, okay, that should definitely be safe for humans to consume. So you can imagine there's a huge, huge safety factor, particularly considering the massive difference between a human equivalent dose and a rodent dose. So my Final take is Pellegrino does have higher levels of uranium, and— but they do have lower levels of these polyfluorinated carbons and stuff, which are a big problem in other mineral waters like Topo Chico. So, um, but unless you're like drinking, you know, 10 750-milliliter bottles a day, it doesn't seem like it should be much of an issue. Okay. So, the first question from this month's Crowdcast was the top-voted question.

And, this question was submitted by James. And, James asks, what are the most promising supplements for memory and thought processes? Myself and friends who are also about 40 seem forgetful like Like closer to, to double our ages? Is there anything proven to work? So I'm going to go through a pretty extensive list here, and I, I know most people are interested in what I do and, and why I do what I do. So I'm gonna sort of have a little personal spin on this, this question, and talk a lot about What I do and what I take for improving my memory and, um, and sort of the rationale behind that. I know a lot of you are interested in that, and that's sort of the benefit of coming to these Q&As.

Uh, so, and, and there's like, there was another question that also had to do with like long-term and short-term cognition and if there's, you know, any difference between things you do for those. I will say the number one thing that I do for my memory is exercise. And I know you probably are like, oh, I don't want to hear that. I already know exercise is good. But what you may not know is that it's one of the key things for not only preventing and staving off age-related cognitive dysfunction and brain atrophy, But it also plays a big role in short-term and long-term memory recall. And so, you know, it— this is something that for me is really important.

If I have a lot of material I'm going to cover on, let's say, a presentation I'm going to give, public speaking event, or a long, you know, podcast I'm going to go on, I need to be able to recall facts in my mind. And, you know, I need to be able to do it quickly and shuffle through them and have, you know, a lot of different ideas juggling around there. So for me, I've, I've, it's something that's really important. And I've learned through experience and also through reading the scientific literature that, so exercise before learning something. So let's say I'm covering some new material, doing even just a quick 15-minute high-intensity interval session on my Peloton bike. It helps boost short-term memory recall.

So if I'm going to do a public speaking event or a podcast, I absolutely 100%, no matter what, will exercise before I do that event. And because it absolutely helps with my memory recall. When I'm, when I'm studying things for, for, you know, long-term memory, things that I want to, you know, sort of have this long-term potentiation and things that are solidified in my brain, I also do exercise after I do all my studying because that has been shown to boost long-term memory recall. And I just, I just can't emphasize it enough. And I think that we all, I mean, I can tell you that I get into this scenario constantly in my, in my brain. There's a fight where it's like, you know, I'm, I'm a mother and that is, and it takes an incredible amount of time.

But in addition to that, I have work to do. And so, you know, I've got days that I'm working and times that I'm working, and I feel pressure to maximize that. And even, believe it or not, in my mind, I'll say, oh, this 15 minutes where I have to get on the Peloton, and then, you know, the getting ready to get on it, and then the cleaning up after, and all that takes time, right? And I think, oh, but I have so much work to do. I really need to work. But the reality is, is that every time I do it, my work, I'm more effective, I'm more efficient, and I feel better. And so it's just a constant reinforcement why no matter what, even if I don't want to do it, even if I think I'm losing work, that it's totally psychological.

And the reality is, is that I'm going to work, I am going to be more effective, I'm going to be more efficient, and I'm going to feel better. After I get even just 15 minutes of exercise in, and you know part of the reason for that is there's increased blood flow to the brain, and that is very important because blood flow to the brain is you know plays a huge role in cognition and in also in preventing brain aging. And the other thing is that exercise causes an increase in tryptophan transport into the brain, and this has immediate effects. And I was talking about. Why I do any type of workout before I'm doing a public speaking event or a podcast. And that is because the tryptophan gets transported into the brain and it has to be transported into the brain in order to form serotonin.

And tryptophan is a precursor to serotonin. Tryptophan competes with other branched-chain amino acids that we get in our diet that are much more abundant in foods. Leucine, isoleucine, these types of amino acids, they use the same transporter as tryptophan and they outcompete it. And so, what that means is that if you have X number of tryptophan molecules and X number of leucine molecules floating around and they're trying to get into the brain, the leucine molecules are going to get in there first and better unless you exercise. Exercise causes those branched-chain amino acids to be taken up into muscle tissue where you want them to form muscle, right? So that alleviates that competition.

Tryptophan gets into the brain, and tryptophan then in the brain is the precursor for serotonin production. And the benefit of having the serotonin production is manifold. One is that studies— and studies have shown this in animal models— that serotonin production After exercise is absolutely essential for neurogen— the neurogenesis that occurs with exercise. If you get rid of the enzyme that produces, that converts tryptophan into serotonin, and you cause rodents to exercise, they don't experience that increase in neurogenesis. Fascinating research. But so serotonin, most people think of it as a neurotransmitter, and it is, But it's also a very powerful growth factor. And so it plays a role in neurogenesis, which is the growth of new brain cells.

And that is important for staving off brain aging. And, you know, James alluded to this in his question talking about, you know, being 40 and getting older and, you know, getting more forgetful. Neurogenesis is one of the ways to combat that. And it also is important for— neurogenesis is important for neuroplasticity, which is basically as you get older, being able to have that kind of intelligence that you've sort of learned from behavioral experiences and environmental experiences and things like that. So that's one reason. And 2, serotonin itself as a neurotransmitter is extremely important for memory, for learning, executive function. And also for mood.

So bottom line is next time you're feeling unmotivated to exercise because you have so much work to do, or whatever factor, you're feeling lazy, whatever, just remember that exercise, it's not about just— it's not just about burning fat and looking great. I mean, it's about— it is about your brain. It is about getting smarter. It is about maintaining your intelligence and staving off brain aging, pretty much. So another thing that I also have from experience, basically, I've learned that if I— again, I use a lot of analogies to a presentation I'm giving or a podcast, you know, where I'm basically— it requires a lot of brainpower. And I've noticed that if I am in ketosis, I absolutely 100%, no doubt, perform better. And so I will counter to what you might intuitively think.

So for example, I just recorded a 2.5-hour podcast, a few weeks ago with Dr. Mark Mattson, who is like basically the intermittent fasting guru. It was like discovered in his lab, basically. And, you know, I totally, you know, knew that I had to go into this podcast in a fasted state because I wanted my mind to be clear. I wanted it to be working better. I knew that this was going to be a long podcast. There's a lot of ground to cover. And so, you Ketosis is something that I try to do when I'm when I'm when I've got you know taxing mental mentally taxing projects, and the best way for me is to be in a fasted state. But you can also try a ketogenic diet. You can also there are some exogenous ketone esters that you can try, and I've I've experimented with those.

I will say that they're very short-lived, and the problem is— the problem I have found continually with using ketone esters for the brain boost effect that I'm looking for with ketosis is that once they wear off, and they're really like, I would say, like about 2 hours, you don't— most of the time you don't have— you're not producing enough ketones. Endogenously to sort of sustain that ketosis level. And so when the ketones wear off, your blood glucose, by the way, drops down dramatically. And so you end up experiencing a big dip in cognition because you don't have enough ketones around for the brain, and you don't have enough glucose around.

And so it's like this, yeah, it's a little hack you can use, but unless you're chugging it every 2 hours or something, It's it's it's not going to have the same effect, and in fact it'll be so short-lived that you'll then experience worse cognition. And I've had that has happened to me several times. So I prefer to be in ketosis endogenously, and like I said, my preferred way is is through fasting. But I am going to be experimenting with ketogenic diet, and that's another question that I'll address. Pretty soon ketones. Okay, so oh I'll just tell you one of the studies. There was a study showing that ketone now these were ketone ester supplements and a ketogenic diet have been shown to increase blood flow to the brain by 30 to 40%.

Interestingly, and they've been shown to improve cognition, but interestingly, people with ApoE4 don't respond as well to at least the exogenous ketones. The one of the other main things I do is I do high-dose fish oil. I do about 2 grams of EPA in the morning and about 2 grams of DHA in the evening. And the reason I— it's— it absolutely is important for cognition. And, um, I've had several people that I've— like friends that I've, you know, suggested to take high-dose fish oil and they've been doing it and then they'll stop because they run out. And kind of like forget to get more for a while. And then multiple people have told me this, like friends, that their cognition— I mean, it's like a night and day difference. Um, I don't ever stop taking it, so I don't experience that.

But, um, you know, many studies have shown that it's, that it's important, that it helps improve cognition, particularly in, um, people that are experiencing like mild cognitive decline. I personally do it for 2 reasons. One, both DHA and EPA through different mechanisms are very potent anti-inflammatory compounds. And inflammation can have a really negative effect on brain function and on cognition, both acutely and also in long-term. Acutely, every you know inflammation is basically when you have low level, you know your your immune cells are being activated at low levels for a variety of reasons. Perhaps you're you're you know well you're just getting older, and I mean inflammation just happens. I mean it's just part of you know biological processes you can't you can't avoid.

But you know just little types of Yeah. Gut dysfunction, where you get endotoxin into your bloodstream and it causes little low levels of inflammatory inflammation and immune cells to be activated. Immune cell activation is a very energetic demanding process. It requires a lot of energy. And even at low levels, it's taking glucose, it's taking energy away from the brain. It's a triage basically. And so the brain sort of gets the short end of the stick there because it's one of the reasons why when you're actually sick and you have a lot of inflammation, you have a high level of immune activation, that's one of the reasons why you've got brain fog. You're so tired. Your brain isn't working because your energy— and that's why you also don't feel like you have a lot of energy.

The energy is being sucked into immune cell activation so that they can fight off the, the pathogen. You know, when you're actually sick, you want that because pathogens can kill you. So you want your immune system to get that energy to fight off a bacterial or viral infection. But when you don't have an acute infection and it's just low-grade inflammation, it's just sucking energy away from your brain. So that can cause what people like to quote unquote call brain fog and lethargy, you know, The other reason is because DHA— oh, and by the way, inflammation itself, inflammatory molecules cross the blood-brain barrier. So these cytokines, they get into the brain, and in the brain, they've been shown to disrupt neurotransmission, serotonin production, for example.

I mean, this has been experiment— empirically shown in animals. They disrupt dopamine transmission. I mean, these are things that affect cognition, period. So inflammation will affect your thinking acutely and also long-term. I mean, inflammation leads to brain aging. It's another topic. But so keep that in mind. And the other reason I take the fish oil is because DHA is a component of cell membranes. And cell membranes, you know, make up your neurons. And it's all your receptors and transporters are in that cell membrane. And when your when your DHA level is off, it causes the cell membrane to become rigid and stiff. It's not as fluid. The fluidity is is off, and that affects the structure and function of receptors: serotonin receptors, dopamine receptors, norepinephrine receptors.

Like these receptors have to have a certain structure, and when when a neurotransmitter gets released. Then it needs to bind to that receptor. But if the receptor isn't structurally correct, it's not going to bind correctly. And therefore, you're not going to get as good of a neurotransmitter signal as you would if you had the right, the right amount of DHA in the brain. So I also keep that in mind when I, when I'm taking my fish oil. The other thing I've noticed that really has improved my cognition is lion's mane. And there's been just a real small, I mean, like, one clinical trial that I know of and a handful of animal studies showing that 3 grams of lion's mane per day can improve cognition in people with cognitive decline.

And it does this, and it's been shown in animal studies, by increasing nerve growth factor, which is a growth factor that can help grow new neurons, so neurogenesis. And it does so in a similar manner that, you know, brain-derived neurotrophic factor, BDNF, and even serotonin can do. And what I can tell you, and there's also been, I think there's been some studies showing that it also helps with blood flow. But what I can tell you is that I, I absolutely like adding it to like my coffee, and I like Laird's Mushroom Performance Blend. Um, I don't have any affiliation with it. Laird is a friend of mine, but, um, I don't, you know, have any affiliation with his, with his supplement company. Um, I do really like his Mushroom Performance Blend.

I find that it does kind of give me some extra oomph with my cognitive function. I also like to mix it. So I only like to drink 1 cup of coffee in the morning. And after that, I'm pretty much done with coffee. So I will like sometimes in the middle of the day. And I also like to fast like during the day when I'm working because I'm more, like I said, I'm more cognitive, cognitively, you know, robust. And so I'll mix, I'll take some CocoaVia, which is a a packet of it, which is a really high polyphenol cocoa drink. And multiple clinical studies have shown that CocoaVia improves cognition in both elderly and young people. It increases blood flow to the brain. And this is through the polyphenols and flavanols that are in chocolate.

And so I'll take the CocoaVia, which does have a little bit of caffeine, by the way, because chocolate has Naturally has caffeine, but it's not—it's not like drinking a cup of coffee. So, so that's so I try not to do it too late in the afternoon. But I'll take the Cocoa Via and I'll mix it with the layered performance mushrooms, and I'll mix that with some coconut powder. Don't ever put dairy in your anything with with cocoa because the there's a protein in dairy called salivary protein A. That binds to the polyphenols, the flavonols, the things that you want, and doesn't allow you to absorb them. So if you're going to do— if you're going to make like a hot chocolate drink, make sure you use non-dairy creamer. So I like to use the coconut powder and then a little MCT powder.

I'll do like a 50/50/50/50 mix, and then I'll add a little bit of stevia, otherwise it'll taste terrible, and, and a little bit of cinnamon. And this stuff is dynamite. I mean, dynamite for the brain where I'm just like on fire. So I use that. And some of my other sort of more obvious things, I also do sulforaphane. Sulforaphane increases the antioxidant glutathione in the brain. This has been shown in human studies. And that— what that does is basically lowers oxidative stress and inflammation in the brain, and it does improve brain function. So those are some of the sort of things that I— the main things that I do. And then some of the other things are obvious.

So time-restricted eating, I make sure that I stop eating 3 hours before bed because it does affect my cognition the next day if I eat late. Good night's sleep, super obvious. I mean, the things that you need to do to get a good night's sleep, I would say do not drink coffee. Like, stop drinking coffee in the morning. Like, don't drink it in the afternoon. Like, I know people and like my in-laws included, they all claim I can drink coffee and go to bed. You know what? It's not true. They wake up multiple times in the middle of the night and it does, it affects your sleep. So that's one of the main things you can do. And then early bright light exposure, super, super important. I do this every single day. I'm outside eating breakfast. It resets your circadian clock that way.

You need that bright light exposure to reset it so that your body knows This is morning, you know, and it's on, it's on this timer. And so, you know, 15 hours later, you're going to be sleepy, you're going to want to go to bed, you're not going to have insomnia. Granted, you need to make sure you're not having every light in your house on and being exposed to the blue light so that your brain doesn't think it's still daytime. I have dimmers all across my house. I used to do Philips Hue lights, but we moved to a much bigger place and it's just not feasible. So, um, Philips Hue is an option, particularly if you have like a smaller apartment or something, or dimmers. Dimmers really work well. And, you know, there's no lights on like after sunset. It's, it's really dim.

The other thing that I've noticed that really helps my sleep is the hot tub. Doing the hot tub actually like later in the day, like no matter what, it like, I'm just like, I an earlier sleep latency. And I go to bed, I go to bed earlier without, you know, any more challenges. The other thing is having— I use a Sleep8 mattress, using, having a cold room or a cold mattress, it's really improved my sleep as well. And then of course, dark, you know, so and quiet. So those things are all pretty obvious, but like they matter and just sort of optimizing those little things like are going to improve your sleep, and that's going to make your brain function better. Guaranteed.

I know I'm going on and on, but this question I know a lot of people are interested in, and I really kind of wanted to give you guys a personal take of mine. People are asking in the chat, so VC is asking about my fish oil brand I take. I do take a brand that's not available right now, and it is N-Pure 3. But I have looked at the International Fish Oil Standards site, and I've scrolled through some of their products, which I've I've told you guys about before. And the the best way to do that is just to look at their product sheets and look at maybe some brands that you're familiar with. And one that I found, and make sure not every product is the same. So for example. Carlson's Fish Oil, a lot of you may have heard of it.

Not all of the fish oil supplements they make have the same quality as the other ones. And so one of the ones I found from Carlson's that's pretty good is their Carlson's Max 2000, I think it's called. And they have a really, a pretty good oxidation profile. Um, Labdoor I think is just sold out, and they also do a pretty good ranking I mean, it's okay ranking, but they usually sold out because people use them quite often. I think there's a lot more work that has to be done on the International Fish Oil Standards website. Like, you have to like search the products, you have to do some work, whereas like Labdoor does it for you.

But if you're willing to put in that effort, you can find a variety of fish oil brands that are pretty high quality, like the Carlson's Max 2000 that I just mentioned. Which I don't have any affiliation with, by the way. So we'll mention just on the brain cognition, you know, topic that, you know, Dr. Dale Bredesen, who I've had on the podcast a few years ago, he wrote a book called The End of Alzheimer's Disease. And he talks about a variety of factors that improve cognition, including the sort of ketogenic-like diet or a low-carbohydrate diet. And again, I— you can, you can get that function by being in ketosis through fasting. And ketogenic diets may not work for everyone.

And that's something we're going to kind of dive into deeper in the next Crowdcast, because that was a question that I did not get to dive deep into this time, but someone did ask about it. But keeping, keeping your fasting and insulin level, HbA1c levels low, eating within, you know, a 10 to 12 hour time window, minimizing emotional stress and anxiety, getting good quality sleep, at least 8 hours, exercise 30 to 60 minutes a day, 4 to 6 days a week. And I would even say again, sometimes I'm unable to do that and I just do 15 minutes and it's absolutely keeping all my blood work in check. I'm feeling great and You know, all those things. So, and lowering inflammatory biomarkers as well, and homocysteine.

There's been a few other studies showing that like lutein and zeaxanthin can improve cognition. And those are— lutein is really high in dark leafy greens. I get a lot of dark— I drink my smoothie. And, but it's also in my multivitamin. But there's been some studies showing that that helps with with cognition as well. And then there's obvious things like, you know, don't excessively drink, don't smoke. I mean, those things, they're pretty obvious. There's been some, some research to indicate possibly resveratrol and pterostilbene can help reduce brain inflammation. But I haven't really— that hasn't been like my protocol yet. So the stuff that I mentioned was, is really kind of what I, I feel is pretty solid based on the science. And that's why I decided to do it.

Mark is asking in the, in the live chat, what is a good water immersion protocol? Is there evidence of this, um, time in the water and temperature? There is. And I don't have this study, uh, on, you know, in front of me, but it was something like 104 degrees Fahrenheit for 20 minutes. Something that, you know, so like we have a hot— we have a jacuzzi, we have a hot tub, and that's pretty much— it's usually at 103 Fahrenheit, and, um, I'm in there for like 20 minutes basically. So, um, that's, that's typically what I do, and it is an exercise mimetic. And someone did say that it disrupts their sleep if they do it right before bed. Um, when I, when I do mine, it's usually around 5-ish, and I go to bed around 9:30.

So it's not like right, right before bed, but it's, it's, it's definitely like, you know, evening time. Rachel's asking if I still take PQQ. Um, I, if I, if I remember, it's not like one of my like staples. I haven't, I haven't, you know, like when I do the the mushroom cocoa via concoction, there's like a noticeable effect on my cognition where the PQQ, it's more of like, okay, this is good for my brain kind of thing for long term. So Mark's asking about cold water immersion, and I think I, I talked about— there's an— there was a question about this, and, um, I am currently In the process of finishing some revisions on a manuscript that I'm submitting for publication. And we've also written a topic page, which I've kind of been holding on to.

I didn't, I didn't want to post it, um, until submitting the paper because lots of people copy our material and don't attribute it. Um, so, so I can't, you know, right now we're sort of in the process, but I would say this with the cold water. Um, The brain benefits, and I have, I do have a cold plunge here. My husband uses it like every day, and he, he really loves it for his mood. I, the bare minimum, I would say 20 seconds, at least, you know, 58 degrees Fahrenheit, and that, that has been shown to increase norepinephrine twofold. But it's really transient. I stay in probably for about a minute or 2. Dan will stay in 49 degrees Fahrenheit for like 12 minutes. And because he's really, he's really become adapted.

So for the mood, the norepinephrine effects, you know, at the bare minimum, you know, 20 seconds, but I would say more, more reasonable dose would be like 1 minute. And I will sort of Reserve the right to change this as I continue my edits on our manuscript. But I wouldn't do it— I would not do cold water immersion within an hour after resistance training because it can blunt the inflammatory signals that are required for muscle hypertrophy. And that's been shown in a couple of studies. So, you know, the cold water immersion is something that should not be done immediately after exercise. And the other thing is, it can, it can also, like, I dipped my head. So in the wintertime, I was using our pool for cold water immersion.

And the pool was about, at the time, it was like, I would say about 54 degrees Fahrenheit. It was pretty cold. And I would dunk my head underwater and stay in for like 5 minutes. And I had like really scary vertigo where, I mean, I, I was spinning and I also felt like I had really low blood pressure. I mean, I felt it was, it was quite frightening and I stayed out of the cold for a long time. But it turns out like getting cold water in your ears can, can give you vertigo. And it's why like a lot of these cold water swimmers and stuff, they, they always wear earplugs when they swim. So I no longer dunk my head under the water. And I also Yeah. I'm very cautious about going— so going from the hot tub or like a hot sauna to the extreme cold.

If I'm going to do that, I'm not going to stay in the cold for that long because of blood pressure changes. Like, I'm pretty prone to low blood pressure. And so I can, you know, it can really affect me where, you know, I'm— the low blood pressure, I'm very dizzy and it's it doesn't feel good. So typically, I'm cautious about going from the extreme temperatures and doing a long cold session. So that's sort of my little, my personal take. Wellness 10 is asking in the live chat, sauna, which one would you recommend buying for home that can get a high heat. So it depends on what you're looking for. If you're looking for something indoors or outdoors, if you're looking for something that can just plug into a regular outlet, I use Nordic Sauna.

And they— I previously used— they had sold me a Finlayo sauna, but then I went and changed that out for one of their brand saunas, which has like more like wood that lets off less fumes and stuff. And so Nordic Sauna is really good. That's, that's who I use. And I like them because they just plug— you can plug it into like a regular outlet. You don't have to get an electrician to come out and all that kind of stuff. And they're— the sauna that I use gets up to, you know, 1— what I use it at is like 189 or 190. By the way, sauna you can do directly after exercise. And in fact, it's been shown to improve like muscle mass and things like that. So sauna actually is really— is not something that you need to worry about doing directly after exercise. I always do it right after I exercise.

The cold is different because the cold, you know, sauna is mimicking exercise. Cold is not. Cold is doing something completely different. So make sure you don't— you're not worried about doing sauna after exercise because I mentioned the cold. Okay, so I'm going to move on to the next question, and this question was submitted by— Daniel. And Daniel was asking about single nucleotide polymorphisms that are associated with short telomere length and having multiple of them with a shortening of age by, like, 3 years, one by 2 years, another one by 2.7 years. If you would combine all those and, like, would it, you know, would be, like, massive accelerated aging? : I would say, so really, you can only add the effects if there's no interaction between different single nucleotide polymorphisms.

So, for example, if you look at the study where they look at these different SNPs, then, you know, you need to know whether or not they're independent of each other. And the SNPs could be related physiologically or they could be close to each other on chromosomes. So the more these SNPs interact with each other, the less of an additive effect you're going to see. So, for example, you know, instead of it being 3 years, you know, associated with 3 years shorter life, it would— or sorry, 8 years shorter life because you're combining them all, it's additive, it would just be 3 because they're all interacting in a way. This study didn't say anything about whether or not they interact.

I would say that it's very very— it's unlikely that they're additive and that most likely would be something like a combined effect of 3 years maximum. So, so that's pretty much my answer to that. Bobby asks, do you have an opinion on the supplement Matter by Elysium? The ingredients in Matter are vitamin B6, B9, B12, and omega-3 fatty acids and some antioxidants. A clinical trial in elderly individuals with cognitive impairment showed that supplementing with vitamin B6, B9, and B12 reduced brain atrophy in areas of the brain involved in Alzheimer's.

However, the effects were most robust in individuals with higher homocysteine levels at baseline, which implies these people were already sort of deficient in vitamins B6, B9, or B12, which would coincide of course with Del Bredesen's protocol, but also B6, B9, and B12 are involved in folate metabolism and can lower homocysteine. Another study gave 6,000 physicians either a similar multivitamin or a placebo for 12 years every day, and they did not find a difference in cognitive function between those who received the multivitamin to those who received the placebo. And the reason why this study did not show a difference is probably that those individuals were not deficient in those vitamins at baseline.

So really, you know, people that have high homocysteine, people that are not getting enough of those B vitamins may benefit more than people that don't. With respect to the omega-3 fatty acid content in that supplement, it seems pretty, pretty good. It's very pricey. You know, I think there, there are other high-quality fish oil supplements as well that you can, that you can also find that may not be quite as pricey. So it's really kind of up to you. It does seem like a pretty high quality. I do have a friend that used it and used N-Pure 3 and compared their omega-3 breakdown, their omega-3 levels, the breakdown of like EPA and DHA and the omega-3 index and stuff like that in their blood. And the N-Pure 3 performed better.

But I do think that it seems like a pretty solid supplement if, if you can afford it and don't want to do the work to find another high-quality fish oil supplement, which could be much cheaper. And again, the B6, B9, B12, that stuff is I mean, it's, it's a dime a dozen. It's in every multivitamin. And, you know, so I don't necessarily think that of itself, that's, you know, like some kind of concoction that's going to make, make anything better than just getting a normal fish oil supplement and taking your multi that has it would do, you know, so. Marley is asking about her genetic report, how some, some of them show she's got SNPs for shorter telomeres and others show SNPs for longer telomeres and whether or not they cancel each other out.

You know, the telomere biology is so— like, we're learning it's, it's, it's not black and white at all. And in fact, in some cases, like some of the SNPs with shorter telomeres actually reduce your cancer risk. And so in the grand scheme of things, you may actually have a longer lifespan because you're less likely to get cancer. So it's just not black and white. And a lot of times you will find some of these, they will cancel out where it's like, oh, this one's a shorter one, but this one's longer. And, you know, so they do sort of in some ways cancel each other out. And I wouldn't, I wouldn't focus too much on the telomere stuff because it is just so incredibly complicated and we don't understand enough of it right now to make well-informed decisions based off of it.

And certainly, we don't know what it all means in the context of these— the interactions between these SNPs. So Luke asked a question that I've been getting a lot lately, and it has to do with time-restricted eating and even a more robust intermittent fasting protocol for women that are healthy and active like myself. And he's asking because there have been some MDs in the blogosphere that are, that are basically stating that intermittent fasting studies are geared towards men. First of all, that's not true. Most intermittent fasting studies conclude both in men and women, but, and that there's negative, negative health consequences for women. So I will say, I just covered this topic in great detail across 2 podcasts.

The first one will be releasing quite soon with Dr. Sachin Panda and The second podcast with Dr. Mark Mattson, we went into great, great detail on that. But I will just sort of topically tell you that what the general consensus was from these fasting experts was that based on their data, unless women are severely limiting their caloric intake, and performing extreme endurance exercise at the same time, there should not be a problem for certainly not for time-restricted eating when you're eating within a 10-hour window and fasting for 14 hours.

And not even for, you know, doing some form of, you know, so that would be, or, you know, a 16:8 intermittent fasting, which is also time-restricted eating, or even doing an occasional 24-hour fast or even an occasional more prolonged fast of 48 to 72 hours. And I'll tell you, so Mark talked about some data in his lab and what can happen if you do the severe caloric restriction, you know, where you're not only doing time-restricted eating, but you're eating just a little bit of food in that time window and you're exercising, What you can end up doing is skipping ovulation and you can become amenorrheic. In other words, you will not cycle, you will not get your period, you will not ovulate. But when you bring your caloric intake back to a normal level, then this completely reverses.

And so I'll tell you, Mark, some of Mark's data. He talked about a postdoc in his lab that took rats and put them on either ad libitum feeding, which what they call basically they have round-the-clock exposure to food and they can eat and snack and do whatever they want, kind of like, kind of like humans do now, right? I mean, we have like 24-hour around-the-clock food exposure in our refrigerator cabinets. We can snack when we want. Um, so she did that, or she did 20% caloric restriction. So they're eating 20% fewer calories She did 40% caloric restriction, so that's a little more extreme. They were eating 40% fewer calories daily, which is a lot. Or she did every other day fasting.

So this is called alternate day fasting, and it's a popular type of intermittent fasting where you fast every other day. She did this in both males and females, and these were rats, and she followed them over time. And what she found is that the female rats with a 20% calorie restriction, there was no change in their estrous cycle. So if they ate 20% fewer calories, they were fine. They were still, you know, menstruating normally. If the rats were under— undergoing 40% caloric restriction, this was able to basically shut down their, their ovulation. So they stopped cycling and they also lost a lot of body fat. Over over those months that they were eating 40% fewer calories.

The rats that were on the alternate day fasting, so they were fasting intermittent fasting and they were doing it every other day. They kept cycling, so it didn't shut down their cycling like the 40% caloric restriction did. Their cycles were a little more irregular, so like the timing between their cycles wasn't quite as. You know, normal as, as like the 20% caloric-restricted rats were, but they were still cycling. When, when they like looked, did a little bit of a deeper dive, they found that basically when they put the mice back on normal diets, like the 40% caloric-restricted mice went back to a normal cycle. And not only that, some other studies showed that this actually delayed reproductive lifespan.

In other words, while they were shutting down their cycle and not ovulating and they were amenorrheic because they were eating so few calories, they basically were able to reproduce later in life. So it shifted their whole reproductive lifespan to later in life. The other thing she found was that the animals that were, that were 40% caloric restricted, so that's a lot, you know, you're talking almost half of what you usually would eat on a daily basis gone, right? Those mice, or sorry, rats were much more physically active. They were running around their cages looking for food. And that, so that had this byproduct of them being, I know it's sort of mean, but the side effect was they were much more physically active.

So not only were they eating 40% fewer calories, they were much more physically active than both the other rat groups were. And this was enough to cause them to basically stop their cycle. So I would say here, there was another, there was another study from Mark Mattson's group, actually, it was all women, it was 100 women. And they were randomly assigned to what's called the 5:2 intermittent fasting. And so they had, they would eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner, but each meal had 25% fewer calories than they would normally take in. And over 6 months, the both groups lost their so so so one group was five two intermittent fasting; the other group was 25% fewer calories. Both group growth both groups lost 8% of their initial body weight.

They both had improvements in their glucose regulation and other health biomarkers. But the women on the five two intermittent fasting had greater improvement in insulin sensitivity and lost more belly fat compared to the group that was counting calories. Their cycles were normal. Everything else was normal. So much more details in this podcast. My take is that you know there are women that that will do intermittent fasting, and they're sort of prone to you know eating fewer calories, and they they're kind of prone to like calorically limiting their their themselves in addition to that. And in combination with extreme exercise, you you can cause you know amenorrhea. Is that necessarily a bad thing? I don't know. I was amenoretic. I was doing. I was when I was in my early twenties.

I was running about eight to ten miles a day, five days a week. So I was running about fifty miles a week, and I was mostly. I was mostly plant-based with protein at dinner. And I was limiting my caloric intake to, to, you know, I would say one meal, and then my snacks would be like some carrots and hummus or just something not very substantial. And I did, I did become amenorrheic. And for, for several months while I was, while I was doing these trainings, and I was training for marathons. And then I, of course, stopped doing that and cycled normally again. I'm not concerned that, like, you know, did anything negative to me. And I certainly wouldn't, you know, I wouldn't suggest women to do that either.

I mean, yeah, there's this whole potential field to be explored about extending your reproductive lifespan, but that hasn't really been studied in detail. And it's not something that I would recommend a woman to do. Although we do know, at least in animals, you can extend your reproductive lifespan by delaying the estrous cycle. But I think that this has become a little sensational. You know, sensational headlines get you attention. And I think some of these quote-unquote influencers, you know, are using the sensationalism to get attention because influencers like attention. And I think the devil's in the details. And I don't think intermittent fasting is bad for women.

I certainly think severely calorically restricting in combination with fasting in combination with extreme endurance exercise can affect hormonal hormones and and and can affect ovulation. But I don't think that's the the standard. Okay, so another question was submitted by Michelle, and Michelle was wanting to know whether or not hair dyes have a higher likelihood of getting cancer, and also Brazilian blowouts have been associated with increased cancer risk. So, um, She wants me to talk a little bit about the association between hair dyes and cancer. So, um, I will say this. So there was— there's been— if you look at the history, um, there— the hair products before the 1980s had ingredients in them that were known to cause cancer. So they had carcinogens in them.

And in fact, my mentor Dr. Bruce Ames is the scientist that is responsible for not only discovering that women's hair dye had carcinogens in them through his famous test that he developed called the Ames Carcinogenicity Test, but he also went on a campaign to all the regulatory committees in power to have these carcinogens removed from all hair dyes, which he was successful in doing. So because of my mentor, Dr. Bruce Ames, we can thank him because those carcinogens are no longer in hair dyes. And if you look at the literature, the association between hair dyes and increased cancer risk is present with hair dyes used before the 1980s.

So meta-analyses have shown that people who use permanent dark-colored dyes often, particularly hairdressers who worked with those products daily, have a small but increased risk or had a small but increased risk of bladder cancer. But since then, a lot of the carcinogens have been removed again since the 1980s. And so if you look at the The data now, again, so everything that I've seemed to find, even if a study was published, let's say in 2002, if you look at the data that publication was looking at, that's what's important, right? So 12 studies found no association between bladder cancer and hair dye if the hair dye was used after 1977. So again, Um, you know, towards after the carcinogens were removed.

Another meta-analysis found no, no increase in lymphoma incidence when hair dyes were used for less than 10 years, but those who used hair dyes before the 1980s for more than 10 years did have a 20% increase in lymphoma. So again, the increased cancer incidence was only from hair dyes before the 1980s. Uh, those again who used it before the 1980s for more than 20 years actually had a 34% increase in lymphoma. So since 1980s, these carcinogens have been removed, and I really— it seems as though there's no increased related— no increased risk for blood-related cancers for, for hair dyes used after the 1980s. So I would say that I feel pretty safe with the current hair dyes. They're much more safer. It seems as though the cancer risk may be mostly gone.

There might— there have been some associations with breast cancer, but it's really inconsistent. So I would say that it really, again, a lot of that, a lot of those claims are being made from, from, um, from hair dyes that were used before the 1980s. I'm going to move on to some rapid-fire questions. I didn't— I'm not getting to all the deep questions, but if I do have some time, I'll get back to them or we'll use them next time. But so some of the rapid-fire questions. Dimitri asks, I've listened to all your interviews with advocates and researchers of the keto diet. Oh yes. Have you considered giving it a try? If not, why not? I'd be keen to hear your thoughts. In particular, I'd be keen to know what biomarkers you would track in order to determine whether or not it's worth it.

So I for the longest time was— so basically, I was considering doing a keto diet. And then I got pregnant. And I think that the data is pretty clear that you should not do any restricted diets when you're pregnant or breastfeeding. And so, so I, which I did a very extended breastfeeding protocol. So for the longest time, I really was not just— I couldn't do it. You know, because I was pregnant and breastfeeding, and then once I stopped breastfeeding, I just you know just everything life got in the way, and so I hadn't really done it. But now I've sort of been gathering all the the recipes and the type of ketogenic diet that I would like to try, and so I will be doing that. And the ketogenic diet I'm going to start with trying is one that is not.

Heavily saturated fat based, and that is because I have a genetic makeup where I do not do very well with a super super high load of saturated fat. So I'm going to get most of my fats from polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fat. And when I say polyunsaturated, I do not mean vegetable oil. I mean salmon, which is high in omega-3. I mean nuts, which have you know ALA and other polyunsaturated fatty acids that are not prone to oxidation because they're not being heated at a high heat and they're not processed. So I'm going to be eating you know I'm going to be trying lots of salmon and some probably like fatty cuts of like lamb, and I'll be doing. The, the type of keto vegetables with a lot of olive oil and avocado and, um, a lot of nuts. So I'm gonna see how that works out.

And I track— I obviously, I wear a continuous glucose monitor. I do have keto strips to, to track my ketone levels as well. But the other markers I will be tracking, um, I think I'm gonna just do a full performance test from Wellness FX, which is quite expensive, but I think for something when you're making a pretty extreme dietary change, it's worth dishing out a little extra money to test a variety of things, you know. So I'll be doing a full lipid panel breakdown, you know, the small dense LDL, just the full lipid breakdown, the full inflammatory, you know, breakdown for inflammatory biomarkers. And you can look this up. Well, NISFX puts their breakdown on their, on their website of what the tests are.

And then they go, it goes into a lot of the insulin sensitivity and glucose regulation biomarkers and also hormones. I want to just see if there's any effect on any hormones like thyroid. And also I will be measuring omega-3 levels as well. So I think, I think that's pretty much, I'm gonna, I'm gonna just stick with the Wellness FX Performance. That way it's all like a one-and-done thing. You know, I just go and give many, many vials of blood. But I don't recall off the top of my head how many vials it is. I've done it before. It's like 13 or something like that. But, but it's not too bad. And of course, you guys will be the first to know my insights on diet I try. And a related question, which I will address next month, which was from Latimir.

They asked, can we categorically say that a higher fat diet is better, safer, or more healthy than a higher carb diet? In any case, what What are the issues and considerations for deciding what's best for the individual? And that, I find that to be a very interesting question that I will sort of talk about some of the SNPs and other biomarkers and things like that that I think is interesting. What about eggs? Yes, I will probably also eat eggs. I do eat a lot of eggs. Lisa's asking if I would cycle with keto. Yeah, I might experiment with cycling with keto, keto as well. I want to see what, how easy— there's a few things I'm looking for: sustainability, which is important, and, and also like, I don't want it to totally disrupt my life, you know.

I mean, I like to have friends and family over and have barbecues, and you know, there's There's things to consider just socially. And I want to see what— how much, if any, it changes my biomarkers. And if it changes them in a positive way, how robust is it? Is it worth doing, you know, doing it all the time or can I just cycle it? I want to see how it makes me feel energy-wise, cognitive, you know, athletic performance-wise. I want to know how it affects my sleep. I mean, there's Excuse me, a lot of factors that I want to look at. Okay, so the next rapid-fire question, I guess that wasn't super rapid-fire.

Becky was talking about the Viome Gut Intelligence test and she said, That her test results told her foods to avoid were broccoli and Brussels sprouts due to TMA production pathways and protein fermentation, which were not optimal. They also stated that Brussels sprouts contain glucosinolates, which have been shown to impair the absorption of essential nutrients if not degraded by specific microbes. Does this mean that it would not be beneficial for me to supplement with broccoli sprouts and/or prostaglandin? So I would say here, unfortunately, the health recommendations from Viome are not good. I have—I think I've said this before in a couple of crowdcasts—they're actually terrible. I've seen them.

I've seen them many times, and they're often pulled from in vitro studies with like no relevance. It's really disappointing. I would not. I think the Viome can be interesting. You can see some of the species you have that are predominant and others that are not, and. But I think their actual recommendations are are just not they're just they're crap, and I would I would just not for the stuff where you start to it starts to raise the red flags where it's like the the healthy stuffs that you need to avoid. I mean, it it's just it's really not based. It's not grounded in a lot of science. So I would I would be very cautious about following their health recommendations. Lisa's asking how often I take collagen powder. What are my thoughts on whey protein, bone broths, etc.?

I actually take collagen powder like every day. I'm not aware of it having any heavy metals, so I use Great Lakes or Vital Proteins. I have both, and I put it in my smoothies and coffee. Sometimes in my tea, I drink some tea with it. So I actually consume it every day. And my son also likes— I put it in his smoothies as well. And it's really great for the skin and hair for sure. And also for the joints. But I'm not concerned about the collagen powder. I think whey protein, you know, for people that are really doing a lot of resistance training and exercise can be good, but not for people that are not. you know, doing that because it does contain a very large amount of branched-chain amino acids and in fact can outcompete tryptophan for transport in the brain.

It can affect brain function if you're not utilizing those branched-chain amino acids to be taken up into muscle. So I would say that, you know, whey protein would be the kind of thing to take on days that you're, you're doing some, some exercise. Gal asked about, and this comes up, there was another person chatting about mRNA vaccines in the chat as well, about mRNA vaccines, or let me see, let me pull up this question here. So Gal was saying there was a recent publication from the Salk Institute that the spike protein itself on it, you know, all by itself, can result in damage to the lungs and arteries in animal models.

And there was actually another study that showed the spike protein itself can damage endothelial cells in the blood-brain barrier, and they're speculating that's why COVID could be causing a lot of neuronal damage. And then Vinder was asking in— or Vlinder was asking in the chat, in the live chat, what my opinion are on mRNA vaccines being able to enter the circulation and move to the ovaries, brain, liver, etc. So let me say here that this is very important because, first of all, I am not concerned with the mRNA vaccine entering tissues, organs, or getting into the bloodstream. So one of the reasons I chose to get vaccinated was because the coronavirus, the SARS-CoV-2 virus, and the spike protein itself was showing to cause so much damage.

And, you know, when you're infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus, when you get it, you know, through the nasal cavity, it has access to the brain, it has access to other tissues, to the circulation, it's getting— it can get to other organs. Whereas when you get a vaccine an mRNA vaccine that is injected into the muscle. The muscle cells take up the mRNA and build the spike protein in the muscle cells, which is then expressed on the surface of the muscle cell. The spike protein is, as far as we know, science hasn't shown that it's a secreted protein. In other words, it should not leave the muscle cell.

So what happens is immune cells react to the spike protein expressed on the surface of the muscle cell, and they make antibodies against the spike protein, and, you know, you build immunity, et cetera, et cetera. But the spike protein itself should not leave the muscle cell, should not get into your circulation. It certainly shouldn't get to any other organs. And I don't think people— I think people— I know people don't have an understanding of science and how that works because they just think, oh, you get the vaccine injected and then it gets everywhere. That's just not how it works. Um, you know, so, so that— so, so, you know, as far as we know, this spike protein is not secreted and it should not be getting into the circulation at all.

And if anything is getting in there, it should be extremely negligible. Whereas if you're infected with SARS-CoV-2 virus, uh, that stuff's getting everywhere. So, um, that was one of the major reasons I decided to get vaccinated myself. And again, the mRNA itself does not get into the nucleus of a cell. It is not— so it is not able to, you know, get inside of the cell nucleus and change your DNA or any of that stuff. So my thoughts are, I read the study from the Salk. I read this other study that showed that the spike protein itself can disrupt endothelial cells in the blood-brain barrier. And I was like, oh, wow, that's crazy. I do not want this. You know, I'm getting the vaccine.

So if anything, it's actually data that strengthens the argument for actually getting vaccinated and not being infected with SARS-CoV-2 virus. So people don't, unfortunately, understand that. They think, oh, this— you're making mRNA against the spike protein and you're making spike protein. I want spike protein in my muscle. Where it stays and your immune cells make antibodies against it, you know, and that's kind of like the, you know, obviously there's people that are going to have side effects to vaccines, you know, through immune-related mechanisms, and so it's not a zero risk. But with over 400 million people getting vaccinated, we are going to know of the rarest of rarest side effects, which we have been, you know, learning about.

There are, there are, there are some rare side effects, but what's interesting is that this— the rare side effects that we see with the vaccines are much more prominent and much more common in COVID-19. So for example, blood clots and myocarditis, you know, the inflammation of the heart, which myocarditis is a much more common feature of viral infections in younger adults, in children and younger adults, And it does seem that there's potentially some link to mRNA vaccines. And it's not the vaccine itself that's getting to the heart, it's the effect of the immune system being activated, which can cause inflammation that, you know, is inflammation that can damage the heart.

But again, there's much more heart damage and myocarditis that's been shown in actual people that have COVID-19, and certainly a lot of the long haulers are showing up with myocarditis and heart— I know I have several friends, you know, we're talking, you know, more than 3 that are healthy young individuals that have had COVID, mild cases of COVID that have had long hauler effects where they've got rapid— one of the common ones they've got is rapid heart palpitations where their heart rate heart will just start racing and they have no energy and can't like work out like they used to. Um, a lot— some of them have gut issues. But it was just like, I'm like, these are people I know that are healthy that have got these long-term effects.

You know, the, the long-haul effects from COVID are extremely well known. A lot of, a lot of people have had them. Um, whereas we're not seeing that with the, with the COVID vaccines. And so I, I made the personal decision to get the vaccine. I understand People that make a personal decision not to get it. What I don't understand is people making a decision to actively spread misinformation. That I don't get. All right, I need to move on to another Rapid-fire question. This was submitted by Jesse Schmidt, and he asked about wearable vibration therapy like Apollo. I would say in theory, so their theory is that you have these tuned vibroacoustic stimulation at low frequency. It's an inaudible sound wave that is supposed to boost parasympathetic nervous system tone.

In theory, this could reduce emotional stress and anxiety. There are some data that's available on the Apollo website, but I would say that none of the research is published, and so it's, it's mostly just marketing at this point. I'm certain there's a placebo effect. If you think it's going to happen and you try it, you might, you might feel better, but that doesn't mean that it's actually doing what it's supposed to do or says claims that it does. Another rapid-fire question was from Bobby. Bobby asks about my opinion on a study. The study title was Genome-Wide Association Study of Fish Oil Supplementation on Lipid Traits in 81,000 Individuals Reveals a New Gene-Diet Interaction.

All right, what the study's— what the study's showing is basically, um, it found a 4%— that 4% of people have a gene associated with higher triglyceride levels. However, if those people took fish oil supplements, it was associated with lower levels of triglycerides. So there was a gene-diet association. In other words, people that were genetically predisposed to these high triglycerides, if they took fish oil, it lowered their triglycerides. Another question, rapid fire, from Tammy. Tammy asks, hi, Dr. Patrick. I've listened to all your podcasts on the sauna and wonder if you can give more specifics on the time needed for those of us with a far-infrared sauna. Mine only gets to 130 degrees Fahrenheit. I'm using it 45 minutes a session, 4 times a week. Is that sufficient?

So many of the benefits that I've discussed Refer to— so for maximum benefits, it's 104 to 179 degrees Fahrenheit. Sorry, 174 to 179 degrees Fahrenheit for 20 minutes, 4 times a week. For the minimum benefits, it would be the same temperature and time, so 174 to 179 degrees Fahrenheit, 20 minutes, but that would be 2 times a week. Um, If I had an infrared sauna that only went up to 130 degrees Fahrenheit, just from experience of using like my, my in-laws, I usually have to stay in there at least 45 minutes, usually an hour. And that's after it's warmed up significantly. And I, I would probably do that about 4, 4 or 5 times a week. Can you talk a little about probiotics? What strain is best for anxiety and depression? How can you time probiotic regarding to time-restricted eating?

Are you supposed to— when are you supposed to have them, 2 hours before or after food? So the main strain of probiotic or commensal bacteria that has been associated and/or causally shown in small randomized controlled trials to improve anxiety is Lactobacillus rhamnosus, R-H-A-M-N-O-S-U-S. And as far as I know, you can take that strain and other strains with food, with yogurt. You can, you know, mix it in your yogurt. So I don't think there's really a concern with having to take it on an empty stomach. Okay. And lastly, Roman asks, what was your— you and your husband's pre-pregnancy routine? What are the things to consider for the optimal outcome for the baby? Exercise, diet, supplements. What else would you consider? So, so let's kind of start with.

I'm kind of going to rapid fire answer this, but there's certain sections. So let's start with women and before conception. So before conception, being at a healthy body weight at least six months. I would say probably more like a year before conception. This is because, you know, epigenetic regulation, also because there's a lot, there's a lot more negative outcomes that, that are potential with, or probable with women that have a higher BMI when they get pregnant. So healthy body weight, 6 months to a year before, I would say 1 year before conception, is a good time to start taking a prenatal vitamin, and which would give you your adequate folate requirement. And it's really important to have good folate stores about a year before conception.

I would say that starting, starting before conception, I would, I would start with about 2 grams of DHA per day. It stores up in adipose tissue, which is, which is good. So I would also, about a year before, I would start doing— I would absolutely, if not already, do routine endurance and resistance exercise and eating within a reasonable time hour. So doing time-restricted eating within a 10 to 12 hour window. Definitely measuring vitamin D levels prior to conception. Ideal ranges that I found for myself were somewhere between 40 and 60 nanograms per milliliter. So figuring out what it takes supplemental-wise to achieve those levels without going too, too high or without being too low. So that's something ideally to figure out before conception.

And then while trying to conceive, I would say limiting refined and processed foods to little to none while trying to conceive, limiting caffeine intake. So caffeine, caffeine can lead to a really early misconception and miscarriage. So so before you would even have any idea you were pregnant, like just like the implantation process, implant implantation of the blastocyst. You know at that stage you could lose you could lose the the potential. embryo. So limiting caffeine intake while conceiving and substituting coffee with herbal teas or smoothies. Certainly, while trying to conceive, I would limit alcohol consumption to little to none while trying to conceive. And also, of course, any recreational drugs as well.

And while trying to conceive, so eating a healthy diet and, and, you know, taking the prenatal, all those things. So everything that you were doing before conception, while trying to conceive, you continue doing that. Getting pregnant, adding on to that would be— so adding on to the prenatal and the DHA supplement, along with knowing the vitamin D levels to take, smoothies with dark leafy greens and lots of fruit. You want a wide variety of micronutrients, eating a lot of greens and vegetables, both cooked and raw, and just giving yourself some variety in the way you prepare them. Eating a lot of salmon. So actually salmon, I was eating that 3 times per week. Eggs for the choline, very, very important. Choline is extremely important during pregnancy. It improves IQ.

It's been shown in randomized controlled trials. So, so having choline as well. And then, of course, the DHA supplement, 2 to 3 grams, certainly during pregnancy, and taking the iron as you, as you, as the doctor recommends, you know, certainly as the— I think after the first trimester, I forgot exactly when, when iron levels start to go down, but they, but they do. And iron is really important for for brain development of the, of the baby as well. And, you know, salmon roe is something to do, to do at your caution because, you know, again, it is a raw fish and I chose to eat it. But I think that doing the salmon 3 times a week and then the, the 2 to 3 grams of DHA supplements are— should be sufficient. Exercise during pregnancy, also very important.

You know, low-impact things like walking, doing a stationary bike, doing yoga as well, but exercise is really important. Increases blood flow to the placenta and has been shown to improve a variety of outcomes for the baby as well. For the father, for the man, I would say being at a healthy body weight at least 6 months, preferably 1 year before conception. Again, that has to do with epigenetics of the sperm, which has been shown to dramatically change, you know. So sperm from overweight men that then underwent a weight loss, you know, well, in this case, their weight loss was through bariatric surgery, but there was huge changes in a variety of genes in the sperm DNA. When they were— had a high BMI versus healthy weight.

And these were genes involved in metabolism and cognition, brain function, you know, important stuff. So being at a healthy body weight is important. Also, exercise is important because epigenetics, again, you know, lots of epigenetic changes in genes that are important for cognition and metabolism and things like that. Studies have shown micronutrients are also really important for sperm DNA, limiting sperm DNA damage. And getting enough, for example, like getting your vitamin E from nuts and vitamin C from your vegetables and fruits in a multivitamin, it lowers DNA damage in sperm. And that's important as well as taking a good DHA supplement. DHA accumulates in sperm. So you want to— so And it's important for mitochondrial function as well.

So you want to make sure you're you're getting the the two grams of DHA along with your your partner. I think men should stop doing the sauna at least six weeks prior to conception, perhaps twelve weeks prior to conception. That way, the effects of the sauna on sperm motility are reversed, which has been shown to be reversed after 6 weeks. And limiting caffeine intake, again, during conception is also important for males. Once conception happens, then caffeine intake can go back to normal. But believe it or not, caffeine intake in males affects the miscarriage rate as well. don't know the exact mechanism. You know, obviously things are changing in the sperm, but it does seem to make a difference.

So having the male take a micronutrient, a nice high-quality micronutrient multivitamin supplement along with the DHA and vitamin D during conception is important and before conception as well. Uh, Sharon's asking in the, in the live chat, DHEA or DHA? DHA, um, it's a— DHA is one of the omega-3 fatty acids. There's ALA, EPA, and DHA. So I'm referring to DHA, which is something that you could find in a fish oil supplement, or if you're vegetarian, then you'd have to take a much many more pills of a microalgae-based DHA supplement. But microalgae does— is another source of DHA. But again, to get the 2 grams, you'd have to probably pop a lot of pills. So that's it for this Crowdcast.

And I do have some questions I'm going to highlight that I did not have a chance to get to this time around, which I will address next month, as well as any additional new questions that we have. Make sure if you're wanting to listen to this podcast or watch it again that you check back. We will be sending out a summary email with some of the time points and highlights of this Crowdcast, along with a link To the dashboard where you can replay the YouTube video. You can also replay it if you, if you just log into Crowdcast, they have a replay there. Um, but we do upload it to YouTube and you will be able to access that on your dashboard, foundmyfitness.com/dashboard.

Again, that's also where you can download your private podcast feed player if you haven't already, where you can listen to that on the, on the Alaquat. We'll be posting that as well. And for those of you here that are going to be in our monthly Hangout session tomorrow, I have one on the first Sunday of every month. We, we go into great detail on a variety of questions, personal questions, and it's a discussion. It's a Google Hangout where we can all see each other and everyone can talk. So if you're interested in looking into that, you can find out more about that. on the, the member— the members benefit section, um, on the premium members benefit section.

Um, but mostly it's just you get everything, but you also get the, uh, once a month hangout where it's a little more of a personal interaction and a little longer with me on the first Sunday of every month. So I look forward to seeing some of you there. And as always, you guys are awesome. Thank you so much. We have a lot coming coming out in the pipeline. Your support is helping. We've got a new podcast. I said we're releasing the podcast, a pre-release on Monday with Dr. Mike Snyder. We'll be releasing it to the wider world on Tuesday. And we've got Satchin Panda coming out probably either the week after or 2 weeks after that. And Mark Mattson to follow shortly. So a lot of exciting stuff coming out. And I look forward to next month's Crowdcast.

Please submit your questions in the right area, ask a question. And also thank you guys for attending live. It makes it more fun to have the live questions and to know people are here listening. It's just, it's a lot of fun for me and hope you guys enjoy it as well. And I will talk to you next month. Until then, Have a great Fourth of July because it'll be the weekend after the the holiday weekend that I that I talk to you. So have have a have a good jump start on your summer. I hope you guys have lots of vitamin D and not too much DNA damage, and I'll talk to you soon. Bye.