Q&A #32: Protein, mTOR & IGF-1—Plus Rhonda’s Skincare Routine

Hi everyone. Nice to have you guys all here for episode 32 of our Crowdcast Q&A series. So typically the way this goes is people submit questions in the ask a question section. Those questions are upvoted and reviewed by myself. I look through them. I try to get through all of them. There's often many pages and you have to keep loading more pages. And so I choose questions based on interest, based on upvotes, based on novelty, whether or not it's something that's been asked before. All of those factors come into play. I like to do a couple of deep dives in each episode where I kind of go into more detail. There's been some literature review, analysis, things like that. And then I also like to do some off-the-cuff, rapid-fire questions, answers that only are a sentence or 2 or 3.

So, that's kind of how we're going to roll. And kind of on a related topic, one of the first and most upvoted questions was by Leechy P. Turner. Interesting name. And they ask, is it possible to give 1 or 2 line answers to all the questions and then post them on your website? That way the folks who never get their questions covered don't feel left out. A database of your answers would also be helpful in eliminating repeat questions that you have already answered. Thanks for all you do. So, um, I love the idea of a database for questions, and that is something that we've, we've talked about internally and would like to move forward with. Sometime in the near future. Can't promise a date, but I think we can probably do that pretty easily.

So that'll be something I think that we will be addressing soon. That way there's a database of the questions that were answered and perhaps a link to the Crowdcast that they were answered in. With respect to answering all the questions, there's no way I would be able to answer 200 questions in one Crowdcast. So, you know, I think juggling between some Crowdcast, I'll choose a lot more rapid-fire type of answers where I'm hitting more questions, but not as in-depth. So this episode, I kind of will have a couple of in-depth ones, but I do have a lot of questions that I'm addressing, and they are a lot of rapid-fire questions. So we'll see how you guys like that and how it goes. I usually start out with the deep dive questions. There was a question I promised I would get to from last month.

I believe this was submitted by Gal. And the question was, given that we've learned the downsides of metformin, do you have any new thoughts on berberine beyond what's on the topics page? After reading the topics page on it, from it I got that berberine is pretty safe, but I wanted to double-check that my non-scientist brain didn't miss something. Thanks. So for those of you not aware, we do have a topics page. We have many different pages that cover topics in depth. It's very much like a review article that is not paywalled. And so we have one on berberine. You can go to foundmyfitness.com/topics, T-O-P-I-C-S, or you can just go to foundmyfitness.com and on the top of the toolbar, you'll see topics and you can click on that. They're alphabetized. So you go to B and you'll find berberine.

Pretty in-depth, but We did look at a few more studies to see if there was anything else to add. And there was a couple of studies that I had not— that had not been added to the berberine topics page, which are now— it's now being updated. By the way, these topics pages, we actually do continually update them. So weight loss was one. And so there was a group of scientists that conducted randomized controlled trial in about 113 patients that were taking 600 milligrams a day of berberine for 12 weeks. And they wanted to see if it could reduce metabolic dysfunction in individuals that start antipsychotics. So antipsychotics are really well known for causing metabolic disease, basically. It's kind of a really bad trade-off and side effect.

So after the 12 weeks of taking the 600 milligrams of berberine compared to placebo, those who received berberine lost an average of 2.4 pounds. They had better cholesterol profiles and they had better glucose regulation. So that all sounds pretty good. Another group repeated this study, but they actually used a higher dose of berberine. They used 900 milligrams a day and found similar improvements in lipid profiles and glucose management. After only 8 weeks. Now, the reason I'm mentioning these 2 studies, particularly the first one, is because 12 weeks is a pretty— it's one of the longer-term studies that I've seen with berberine.

So there was no negative side effects that were documented in taking berberine, 600 milligrams of berberine daily for 12 weeks, which— so that was also encouraging to see that. So I think we've previously talked about berberine in another Crowdcast, and we mentioned, we talked about a 2012 meta-analysis where 1,000 participants who had diabetes showed that actually supplementing with berberine was pretty effective, and in terms of glucose regulation, it was as effective as some of the conventional anti-hyperglycemic drugs. antihyperglycemic medications, particularly if participants taking the berberine also combined it with lifestyle modifications, dietary changes, exercise. So it was like there was an additive effect with the berberine on top of the positive lifestyle changes.

There was a more recent meta-analysis. So that was 2012. So 2015, there was a larger meta-analysis. So this was involving about 2,500 participants with diabetes, and it showed even stronger effects on a variety of metabolic factors in terms of berberine. So berberine, along with lifestyle interventions, again, it seems as though that, you know, it's not like taking metformin. You know, people mostly take metformin, they don't make any lifestyle modifications, and it helps them to control a lot of metabolic dysfunction and glucose control and stuff like that. But it seems like berberine in combination for people who are you know, wanting to make lifestyle changes, which are, in my opinion, much better than I think taking metformin, that there's a really strong effect.

So the HbA1c was improved, lipid profiles were improved, blood pressure was improved, and this was better than lifestyle changes alone, and also better than placebo. So again, there's— I don't know if it's an additive effect or synergistic effect between berberine and lifestyle changes, but they do seem to be working together in a positive way. Another study. So this— most of these studies that we've been talking about have been in, you know, an unhealthy participant population. These are people that already have type 2 diabetes, for example. So there was a large phase 3 clinical study. This was 1,380 participants. And these were non-diabetic participants. So they didn't have diabetes, but they did have elevated lipids.

And they were given a supplement concoction that did contain berberine, and they were given it for 8 weeks. After 8 weeks, HDL cholesterol was increased, blood pressure improved, waist girth was lowered, triglycerides were lowered, total and non-HDL cholesterol improved, and The prevalence of metabolic syndrome, so all these you know combinations of all these biomarkers were reduced after taking the berberine cocktail for eight weeks compared to placebo. So I think you know my sort of top line summary here is that so far it seems like berberine is a pretty safe supplement to take, particularly effective in combination with lifestyle positive lifestyle changes. I'm considering giving it to my mother.

So that's something, and we'll talk about another question that was asking about supplements that I give my mom, but I'm considering giving it to my mom. I think what I'm going to do is a baseline test, have her do a baseline test in a variety of biomarkers measured, a lot of the lipids and metabolic biomarkers and also liver enzymes. I think the liver enzymes are a good marker to sort of track with berberine to make sure nothing things, you know, out of place there. So those are kind of my thoughts on berberine. Evan is asking in the live chat if berberine affects the microbiome. I'm not aware of those studies. In fact, I'm wondering if it's even on our topic page. Someone can go check, but, you know, a lot of nutraceuticals can affect the gut microbiome.

We have a podcast we'll be releasing next week with like a huge expert on the gut microbiome and he talks about some compounds and polyphenols and how they positively affect the gut microbiome. So sorry, I don't know. I don't have a straightforward answer for that question. Okay, so the next sort of deep-ish dive question was submitted by Elise, and Elise asks, Dr. David Sinclair mentioned a key to longevity is making sure mTOR is downregulated. Eating protein is known to upregulate it. People who lift and work out obviously eat a lot of protein. I do CrossFit, coach and personal train, and I also aim to eat around my body weight or a little more protein in grams, which for her is around 150 grams. Should I consider less protein?

I'm a hard muscle gainer, so protein is very key for my amount of lean mass. Thanks so much for doing what you do. So before we get started on, you know, I've covered this topic in some shape or form quite frequently over the years, and I think it's important to not make really large generalities when you're talking about anything. And, you know, even with longevity, saying something like, you want mTOR downregulated, that's the key to longevity, to me is— there's a lot of nuance. There's a lot of nuance with longevity. There's a lot of nuance. And aging is multifactorial, lots of, lots of factors that are contributing to the aging process. And lots of points of improvement that can be made. When it comes to saying mTOR should be downregulated, I mean, obviously, that's not true.

And I know David doesn't— like, it was probably just sort of a sentence taken out of context because, you know, you want your mTOR upregulated in your muscle. You want lean muscle mass. Like, that is hugely important for aging. And I know David knows that. Yeah. You know, so it's really easy to take a little statement out of a big picture and pull it out and think, oh, is this little statement like, am I supposed to not eat protein for longevity? And it's just not true. A lot of the studies coming out of that field are coming from 2 different types of studies. One is rodent studies where you, you know, You can restrict dietary protein and look at how it affects, you know, the aging of rodents, which is, by the way, also very different than the way humans age.

And the other one is from epidemiology or observational studies where you look at people and the foods they consume and you make correlations and, you know, correlations meaning, okay, well, these people that eat less protein, they seem to get less cancer incidence and less heart disease and they live a little bit longer than people that do eat protein. So those correlations are often what, you know, people make these bold statements from. And as we've talked about many, many, many, many times, you know, correlations, they're very important and I think there's a hypothesis to be made from observational data and also, you know, Yeah. You know, looking at the totality of evidence is important, but also understanding that like there's a lot of confounding factors there.

And in fact, many studies have now started to streamline and correct for all these confounding factors and have found that actually, you know, people that eat a lot of animal protein, for example, aren't necessarily unhealthier or they don't have a shorter lifespan than people that are vegetarian unless they have another unhealthy lifestyle factor that is piggybacking along that. So people that are CrossFit trainers, people that are exercising, that are not sedentary, that are not smoking, people that are, you know, getting a good sleep and not obese, like there's been studies that have shown that, you know, those people that eat animal meat and more protein, you know, have the same all-cause mortality as people that— Yeah.

So, you know, it's important to keep all these things in mind when you're making an observation that it's an association and that other factors are at play here, and that when you remove some other factors, things change, the data changes. So with respect to mTOR, you know, there is a concern that too much upregulation or increase in mTOR is linked to cancer. I mean, mTOR and IGF-1, they kind of go hand in hand. I've talked a lot about IGF-1 as well. You know, these are important growth factors and you do— if you're working out and you're eating protein, you're activating mTOR in the right tissues. You're activating it, you know, in your muscle.

And the problem is when you're eating tons and tons of protein and you're sedentary and you're overweight, And you just— you're not leading a healthy lifestyle because then you're giving potentially damaged cells, which, you know, obesity increases— you know, DNA damage is increased with obesity. That's a fact. And so, you know, you're allowing damaged cells rather than dying, being killed off by your immune system and undergoing other sort of genetic programs to die, mTOR and IGF-1, you know, can say, no, don't die, you know, keep living. And you kind of, you know, have this perfect storm of a recipe for, you know, a cancer cell, which then can clone itself and form a tumor, etc. So that's one situation.

And I think that for anyone who is sedentary, obese, smokers, people who are not interested in like a healthy lifestyle would be better off decreasing their protein intake and decreasing the activation of IGF-1, which is largely activated by— Protein. Amino acids, particularly the, like, particularly ones that are found in animal protein. So, you know, that's one thing to consider. But when you're talking about someone who's lifting and working out and doing aerobic exercise and not obese, and, you know, like, it becomes a different ballgame, in my opinion. And the data kind of shows that. So I think it's probably not a huge concern for someone who's very active to be worried about the fact that they're compromising their longevity because they're activating mTOR.

You're activating it in your muscle and you're gaining lean muscle mass. And lean muscle mass, in so many studies, has been shown to be a very, very important component for longevity, for, you know, protecting against frailty, for improved cognitive function throughout life and even later in life. So, you know, I think that's really important to keep in mind. And Natalie is asking in the live chat about people that are perhaps overweight and/or obese and are on the path to losing weight and also work out while you're still obese? I mean, you know, I think that's a really good question. And people that are on that path, obviously, you know, there's a certain amount of limiting food intake that's probably a good idea when you are obese and overweight, generally speaking.

And so in combination with exercise, you start to really shift your metabolism. And, you know, to be honest, fasting is a big part of that as well. And so I think even in the case of Elise and the question she was asking, you know, there's a lot of evidence that doing a prolonged fast or, you know, starting with a fasting-mimicking diet is a good thing to do on a, you know, certainly on an annual level, but perhaps even, you know, twice a year, maybe quarterly for someone who is obese. You know, those things all are combined together to help, you know, reset metabolism and to help kill off damaged cells. I mean, we know apoptosis, which is the death of a cell, dramatically increases with a fast that's greater than 48 hours.

And particularly, we know a lot from Valter Longo's data that You selectively start to kill off damaged cells. So I think these things in combination, again, there's so many factors here at play. It's not just as simple as if you cut— if you stop eating, you know, if you cut down your protein or become vegetarian, you're going to live longer. I mean, that's just not always the case. Now, perhaps someone who's obese and a smoker and sedentary, if they cut out their protein, they will live longer. I think that probably is true. But not all of us are overweight and obese and sedentary and smoke, right? So there's a lot of factors here to consider. And sort of just to follow up on that, there was a related question from Chad.

And Chad says, I was listening to your podcast from 2014 about the trade-off of IGF-1 and how too much IGF-1 Could potentially increase cancer risk, while too little could also be bad. We know that the sauna increases IGF-1 and HGH, yet studies do not show increased cancer in sauna users. Could it be that increased IGF-1 is not as bad as once thought? Thank you. So a couple of things here. One, growth hormone does increase with sauna. Growth hormone increases with exercise, and growth hormone increases with fasting. Growth hormone, all, by the way, things that are good for you, lifestyle factors that are well known to be good for you and associated with longer life and lower incidence of disease.

IGF-1, while the 2 are sort of like IGF-1, typically, you can think of as, you know, it's a downstream factor that's, you know, can be activated by, you know, growth hormone. The major activator of IGF-1 is actually Dietary protein, whereas stress, stressing the body, like this eustress, this good type of stress, is a major activator of growth hormone. So fasting, a type of stress, exercise, a type of stress, sauna, a type of stress. These are all stress factors. They are really— that's the major signal that activates growth hormone. The sauna, I haven't seen any evidence the sauna actually increases IGF-1. And, again, IGF-1 is a very important growth factor aside from development, which, you know, let's talk about adults here. During development, it's key for growing.

But talking about adults, you know, IGF-1 is critical for growing new neurons, for the survival of existing neurons. It's important for learning and memory. It's in the brain. You know, it crosses the blood-brain barrier and gets in the brain and does really important things for cognition and memory. But also in muscle, it's, you know, much like growth hormone, it's important for the growth of muscle. And so, you know, again, like, it's definitely something that you don't want to get rid of, but you want it to be activated in the right tissues. And we do know that from some preliminary data.

I'd love to see more follow-up studies on this, but we know that exercise does cause IGF-1 to be— you know, the problem is when it sits around in your circulation and it's going to these other tissues other than the brain and other than the muscle. And we know exercise actually causes IGF-1 to cross the blood-brain barrier, get into the brain where you want it, and also into the muscle. So, um, again, it's one of those things like when you're eating dietary protein and activating IGF-1, you want to combine that with exercise. And that's, that's the key. It really is. Brian Da Silva is asking in the live chat if sauna increases growth hormone even in the elderly. I think it does. I'm not sure there's large amounts of data to really back that up.

But, like, you know, it may not be as robust as in someone who's younger, but, like, with anything, right, elderly people, like, there's a threshold that they can get to and that things just don't work as well. So I'm almost certain that the sauna does increase growth hormone in elderly. I know that it preserves muscle mass. So, you know, I think the sauna is a great thing. Okay, so there was another question that I'm not sure how much it was upvoted, but I thought it was kind of interesting because we hadn't really touched on this topic before. And it has to do with vitamin B supplementation. So Alyssa asked, could you talk about vitamin B supplementation, please? How much of like what we need in terms of absorption, how bad it is to be deficient in vitamin B12 and other B vitamins.

My B12 levels are low despite not being vegetarian. So first of all, vitamin B deficiency is very rare because it's so abundant in so many foods. The RDA for vitamin B12 is about 1.5 micrograms a day, which is really easy to achieve if someone does eat meat, dairy, or eggs. But there's also a lot of processed foods that people eat, which aren't necessarily great, like cereal, interestingly, like energy drinks. They're fortified with vitamin B12. They're fortified with other B vitamins as well. On top of that, the liver is able to store a remarkable amount of vitamin B12. So if you stop eating vitamin B12 altogether, the liver has enough to substantiate you for about 1 to 3 years. So it's really hard to get deficient in B12. There are signs and symptoms.

Usually, blood tests can start out showing you're anemic. As deficiency progresses, then the anemia becomes more apparent, like you start to notice fatigue. Your decreased exercise capacity, and when you start to get severely deficient, nerves are affected. It can be present as like a loss of balance, difficulty walking, loss of smell and taste, and other things like that. So, again, it's just not very common. Because of how ubiquitous B12 is and how it can be stored in the liver, it should— you know, obviously, B12 deficiency is rare, but like it should be evaluated by a doctor. So there's a few things that can lead to deficiency, and the first one is being a strict vegan for many years.

And so that's actually now becoming less common because, like, of the awareness, and, like, a lot of vegans are supplementing with B12 now. The second scenario is an alcoholic that really doesn't eat much. And so, you know, so that's another potential scenario. But interestingly, even certain types of alcohol, like wine, has B12 in it. So, they'd have to be like an alcoholic that like doesn't— that drinks like vodka or something. And then the last scenario is where people have difficulties absorbing B12. So, B12 has to be conjugated into these, you know, different intrinsic factors in a very acidic environment like the stomach in order for it to be absorbed by the intestines.

And people who have surgical resection you know, in their stomach or intestines, they could have difficulty absorbing B12. People who take antacids or proton pump inhibitors could have difficulty because they don't have the acidity needed. And elderly people also, this is a problem with— more problem with elderly people, but there's sublingual vitamin B12, which sort of bypasses this. So sublingual B12 is a good form of supplementation for people with any of these, you know, stomach acidity problems for whatever reason or the cause. And then the last And then the last is pernicious anemia, which is an autoimmune destruction of the cells that produce the intrinsic factors that leads to poor absorption of B12 in the gut.

And now people can get routine B12 injections, and there's also, you know, again, the sublingual vitamin B12 does help. There are different forms of B12. There's methylcobalamin, hydroxycobalamin. Mm-hmm. cyanocobalamin, and then 5-deoxyadenosylcobalamin. Generally speaking, they kind of work all the same, more or less-ish. I mean, you can get into the whole genetic factor. People that have MTHFR homozygous mutations or polymorphisms, to be more accurate, might do better if they take hydroxycobalamin. or methylcobalamin, but, like, it's not— I wouldn't say the difference is some sort of exponential difference or anything like that.

So, you know, I think, generally speaking, you'll find on the internet all these different forms are, like, better, and there's definitely a lot of marketing involved in some of that, looking at the data, in my opinion. So, you know, I wouldn't freak out too much about the type. you know, as much as the internet will tell you you should. I just haven't seen a lot of data to back that up. Okay. Next question was submitted by Rebecca. And Rebecca asks about more or less skincare, anti-aging products that work and ones to avoid on your skin, talking about evidence if they work. There's things like retinoids, vitamin C, hyaluronic acid. Niacinamide and other factors. So, the topical retinoids are definitely the first line of defense for treatment against skin aging.

There's a lot of evidence showing that they're efficacious, you know, in terms of randomized controlled trials. It's just, it's like, it's been well studied. So, there's a lot of data. They can increase collagen and epidermal production. But there's a lot of side effects with them: skin irritation, redness, scaling, you know, peeling, burning, stinging, all that stuff. And so those side effects can be prevented somewhat, obviously, by moisturizing like insanely, but also just like in pulsing the retinoids. So not doing it every day, like doing it once or twice a week would be something that I would recommend doing and that I have done in the past. I haven't been doing my retinoids of recent, but when I do do them, I do it like once or twice a week.

The Environmental Working Group score is 9. All the other topicals, they don't have like as robust evidence for being, you know, quote unquote anti-aging for skin, but they are safe to use. You know, vitamin C, Helps prevent UVA-induced oxidative damage, which is something that we're constantly exposed to if we walk outside. Vitamin E also reduces UVA-induced erythema, so like redness and stuff. Hyaluronic acid, like it kind of gives you a plumping effect that is transient in the sense that it's not like correcting a problem. It's not like correcting a problem of fine lines, but it's, but it's basically making you look better because it's filling them in. So you have to keep using it, you know, which is fine. But, you know, so I particularly like using hyaluronic acid on my face.

Then there's the niacinamide, and that increases skin hydration and collagen formation. CoQ10 also protects against UVA-induced oxidative damage. And then there's some of the hydroxy acids like salicylic acid, glycolic acid, lactic acid, citric acid, and malic acid. And they reduce the corneocyte adhesion and they increase exfoliation and they improve the stratum corneum hydration. Some of my favorites that I use on my skin every day are aloe vera leaf juice, panthenol, willow bark extract, cucumber flower extract, witch hazel, sodium hyaluronate, And sodium lactate instead of the lactic acid. And the lactate, just from friends of mine, scientist friends of mine that have done studies, it is a really easy way to get an energy source into mitochondria, and it gets in really well.

And so, it's another potential mechanism where I think it's helping skin cells, like, make enough energy. So those are some of my favorites. I saw there were some add-on questions to that about what I use. And so that's the stuff that I use on my skin. And I do it twice a day. It's a serum called Neutralizer. And it's made by Cellbone, C-E-L-L-B-O-N-E. They, in the directions, it's sort of marketed for someone to put on their face after they do some sort of hydroxy acid peel, like I was just mentioning. And they don't necessarily tell you to like keep it on or use it as a serum or any of that. But I've looked, I've used it for 10 years. I've used it since 2012, twice a day. And I've looked at the ingredients and I've just like, they're so great.

I'm like, why is this not being marketed as a serum? So, so that's what I use. And I, your face is like pretty sticky for like 10 or 15 minutes after applying it, but after that, it soaks in and it has a plumping effect. I mean, it's so hydrating. I mean, it's like, it's just the best thing I've ever found, to be honest. And then the factors that increase skin aging, obviously sun exposure, obviously smoking, low protein diets could do it, high sugar diets, diets low in antioxidants and polyphenols, sleep deprivation, Not a lot of water, lots of alcohol, things that can dehydrate you, chronic stress, diabetes, all those things can contribute to skin aging. Sun exposure is like a really, really big one.

So using sunscreen and preventing excessive sun exposure to your face, at least on the face and neck, is important for preventing premature skin aging. Wearing a hat, big hat, is all the stuff that I actually do. So, J Dubbs is asking about the effective CoQ10 dose. For skincare, I don't know, but I actually take— I think this is one of the questions. I take ubiquinol, which is the reduced form of CoQ10. I take a large dose of it. I take 200 milligrams a day. Okay. There was another question. I think this is now probably the top voted question, and this question was submitted by Sam. Hi, Susan.

And Sam says, Dr. Longo has just stated on Facebook that getting more than 0.5 grams of combined EPA and DHA daily has the opposite effect on health and is easily achieved by eating fish twice a week plus daily walnuts and olive oil. That sounds like he doesn't recommend omega-3 supplementation at all. How is this contradiction possible? Please help. First and foremost, for omega-3 science, I turn to the expert, which is Dr. Bill Harris, who I've had on the podcast. He is just the leading, one of the leading world experts on omega-3 science. And I don't know, you know, why Dr. Long was making these statements. But if you look at the data, it's really not based on data.

So, I mean, one of the major studies that was published by Dr. Bill Harris was looking at the omega-3 index, which is the I mean, we're talking about quantifying here omega-3 levels and red blood cells. And these omega-3 levels are DHA and EPA and correlate— and then looking at all-cause mortality. So, you know, this isn't just looking at a dietary recall of how much this person thinks how much fish they ate or what they're— you know, like this is real data. Like this is biomarker, okay? And red blood cells are— are real biomarkers of omega-3 because most tests that measure your omega-3 levels are looking at your phospholipids. And that's really just a marker of like what you ate the night before or the week before.

Like it's not a long-term marker of— it's kind of like measuring your blood glucose levels versus measuring your HbA1c, which is a long-term marker of your blood glucose levels. So that's kind of how you can think of the omega-3 index, the red blood cell content. And red blood cells take about 28 or so days to turn over. So it's like, it's, you know, if you're doing any kind of tests and you're trying to change your omega-3 levels, looking at your omega-3 index, you have to wait a month at least because otherwise you're not going to see any data change. So we know from a couple of studies that's been done by Bill Harris and his collaborators that People with the highest omega-3 index equivalent to what you would find in Japan, which is 8%. Most Americans have an omega-3 index of 4%.

Japan's omega-3 index is twice as high. Unfortunately, Americans are not eating nearly as much fish as the people in Japan do, and certainly they're eating more than twice a week. And so people with the highest omega-3 index have about a 5-year increase in life expectancy than people with a lower index. And in fact, what blew my mind from this data was that they looked at smokers, and smokers, regardless of their omega-3, just smoking in general, there was a 5-year decrease in life expectancy. Big surprise, right? Smoking is bad for you. But this is what blew my mind. That people that didn't smoke, but that were at the lowest end of omega-3, had the same life expectancy as smokers that take in omega-3, like with a higher omega-3. Like, that blew my mind.

Like, you're telling me omega-3 deficiency is equivalent to smoking? Like, that's crazy. So in order for a person who is who has an omega-3 index of 4%, in order for them to get up to 8%, they would need to take in between 1.75 and 2.5 grams per day of EPA and DHA. And the reason there's a range mostly is because there's a lot of different forms of omega-3. If you're taking a form of omega-3 that's ethylester, unfortunately, the prescription forms of omega-3 like Vascepa or Lovaza, They're ethyl ester. You have to take it with food. You have to take it with food. If you don't take it with food, it's like not getting absorbed. So very important. The other thing— so the other form is triglyceride form, and triglyceride form is absorbed much better.

So people taking in triglyceride form, it's about 1.75 grams a day of combined EPA and DHA. If they're not taking in triglyceride, it's about 2.5 grams. And this again is to get 95% of the population from a baseline of 4% omega-3 index to 8%. We just released an aliquot last week on this. It's aliquot number— I think it's 51, I believe. We just sent out an email this morning. And yeah, it's aliquot 51. It's a 50-minute aliquot where I And I sort of narrate and give you little, you know, I give you some context in between this and throughout the aliquot. It's a 50-minute aliquot, but it really goes into the high dose of omega-3 and what the best dose is and how to achieve that. And, you know, how the FDA came up with 4 grams of EPA and all that stuff.

So I really recommend you guys listen to that. If you haven't already, you can listen to it on your dashboard on foundmyfitness.com/dashboard. You can listen to it on your private podcast player. Player that you've downloaded already, you can also download that on your dashboard as well. So there you have it. That's my answer to the omega-3 problem that was sort of brought to mind from Dr. Longo for whatever reason. So Bobby asked about in the live chat is asking about what about the association between high levels of omega-3s and AFib. So we talked about this in the podcast with Dr. Bill Harris at the very end of that podcast episode. And I really, it's a really good episode.

And, you know, I think the conclusion from what I gather with Dr. Harris, and what he says is that We do need to understand the potential link between atrial fibrillation and high-dose omega-3, particularly like 4 grams of EPA. These have all been shown in people that do have existing heart conditions. You know, from what I gather, I haven't really seen it in healthy people. It's a very minor effect, but also the whole problem with AFib is that it increases stroke risk. And that's why AFib is concerning. It's not pleasant to have, but the worry is that it increases stroke risk. And all the data shows that omega-3, high-dose omega-3, reduces stroke risk. So it's actually reducing the health outcome that's a concern with AFib. So on the one hand, it's kind of like, well, that's a relief.

But on the other hand, it's like, okay, well, we still need to understand this more. So that's my sort of short answer, but I do recommend you listen to the episode with Dr. Bill Harris. You can go to the end of it. That's where we discuss the AFib stuff. Could you list the supplements that you have your mother taking? You mentioned resveratrol a while back, and I'm curious if you still have her taking this. Also, what are the implications for it in breast cancer? There was also a related question about— An update on my supplement routine as well, and that was from Alyssa. So the resveratrol, there's kind of a 2-part resveratrol question. And with respect to the breast cancer risk, we're doing a more deep dive on that because it actually required a much more deep dive than I thought.

So I don't— I'm not— I will get back to that next month. I'm currently taking resveratrol, like, once or twice a week. I take it in— it's a powder form. It's microionized. I take it in the morning. Your resveratrol absorption is on a circadian rhythm, and the bioavailability of it is increased in the morning. I also take it— I put it in my kefir yogurt because a pretty modest fat meal also increases the absorption of it. And, um, yes, I am giving it to my mom. Again, it's only— it's pretty much like once a week, uh, that, that we're taking it right now. And so, um, if I find any reason to discontinue it, I will let you guys know next month. Also, um, on the list that have been added to our supplement routine, both my mom and I, is luteolin.

which is a compound found in— it's pretty high in celery. And, it's been shown to have anti-inflammatory effects in the brain and in general. So, we're taking that and we're supplementing with lutein and zeaxanthin also that's been shown to improve cognition and fluid intelligence in elderly people. And also, it's been shown to improve cognition in younger people as well. It's It's a carotenoid. It's high in kale. My mom doesn't eat kale like I do, so I'm happy that she is getting that supplement. It's also increased in the rods and cones in the retina. I mean, it's important for protecting against oxidative damage in the eye and macular degeneration, but it's also found in the brain. Super interesting.

And so it's kind of like a, you know, hit 2 birds with one stone thing where I'm going for the eyes and also the brain. And then, we take our multivitamin. I'm currently doing 1 month of the One multivitamin by Pure Encapsulations, and then the next month, I do the 2 Basic A Day by Thorne. So, I'm alternating those. We're doing our ubiquinol, 200 milligrams a day. We're doing magnesium. Magnesium. citrate, and it's like 135 milligrams, and that is by Thorne. Oh no, is it? It's Pure Encapsulations, or— no, it is Thorne. It's Thorne. But I also have a Pure Encapsulations form in my pantry. So, uh, so we're doing that. And, um, I'm giving my mother vitamin C. She gets about 1,000 milligrams a day. And What else? CocoaVia. So, she's getting CocoaVia, 3 capsules a day. I'm also taking it.

I either do it, I either take the hot cocoa form and make a hot cocoa with it, sort of gives me that nootropic effect, or I'll take the capsules as well. And, my fish oil. So, I do 4 EPA, I do 2 grams of EPA in the morning, and then I do 2 grams of DHA in the evening. For my mom, I've been giving her 4 grams of EPA a day to help with her triglycerides. And let's see, I'm not supplementing with probiotics right now. I'm getting my kefir instead. And then I do the resveratrol in the morning, like I said. I think that's pretty much it right now. I think that's pretty much it. Lisa is asking why mag citrate instead of glycinate. No reason. I actually, I do glycinate as well. I do both. I like— so a good friend of mine, he was a former colleague. He was a gut expert.

He is a gut expert, Mark Shigenaga. He's done a lot of research on some of these like organic acids, as they're called. So this is citrate, malate, lactate. And like, he's just shown when you take them, they're like good for the gut. They get into the gut cells, goblet cells, and mitochondria use them for energy, and it like improves gut function. And this is— he's shown this with citrate, he's shown it with malate, he's shown it with lactate. So I always, whenever I see an organic acid, I always like to take it. But glycinate is good as well. I think I'm going to— there's a related question about NMN. Here we go. Yeah. Let me get to this related question. This was a rapid-fire. Christian submitted it.

Christian says, is there any reason you don't take NAD supplements like nicotinamide riboside or nicotinamide mononucleotide? So NR and NMN. A member said you answered this, but I couldn't find it. So I have talked about this in previous Crowdcasts in a lot more detail. So currently, there was some new data that just came out within the last few weeks, and this was from ChromaDex. And they analyzed about 22 different supplements, NMN supplements sold on Amazon, and they found that virtually almost all of them did not contain the active ingredient NMN, nicotinamide mononucleotide. I mean, one had it and the other ones were like less than like 1%. And so, it's just like finding a quality product with NMN is like extremely difficult. So, that's problem one.

Problem two is I'm just I'm not convinced yet that taking NMN is going to increase my NAD levels anywhere except for perhaps my liver. And so that's another issue. And then the last issue is that I was just— there's like a little blip, you know, there's like a little thing in my head. And it's that study that showed It was a mouse study and, you know, it showed that supplementation with NMN increased the secretion of pro-inflammatory molecules made by senescent cells. And, you know, as we age, we accumulate more and more senescent cells. And those pro-inflammatory molecules, one, they accelerate the aging process of nearby tissues. Two, they can increase tumor growth. And that's what the study showed. It was a specific type of...

Of cancer cell that was sped up by the growth of— by the secretion of pro-inflammatory factors secreted by senescent cells. And that kind of just like gave me pause. So those are the reasons I don't take NMN. I'm not saying I won't, but I'm just not convinced yet. And then nicotinamide riboside, it has the same issue where there's just not evidence showing that it's going to increase NAD in tissues like the brain or the heart or you know, anywhere other than the liver, perhaps a little bit in your circulation. And there could be a positive benefit for that, an argument to be made. I think if I were going to start to supplement with nicotinamide riboside, I'd find a reliable supplement brand. Elysium is a reliable brand, in my opinion.

And I know that they do make— they do have a nicotinamide riboside supplement. So, So if I decide to start supplementing with it, I probably would go to a reliable brand like that. And sort of another related supplement question was submitted by David. And David says, you mentioned that some foods and supplements which might prevent cancer could also promote the growth of an existing tumor. Could you give a list of— foods or supplements in which you would stop taking if you discovered you had cancer? So, you know, supplements are the main problem. You know, cancer, everything that's good for you, cancer is such a little tricky beast. It's like, it's just, it's terrible. You know, everything that's good for you, folate, you know, getting your carotenoids, vitamin E, these things can Yeah.

Can basically accelerate the growth of tumor cells for many different reasons, like, you know, folic acid, for example. Supplementation with folic acid can accelerate colon cancer tumor growth, but not getting enough can cause cancer. So, you know, I think it's not like you want to, like, stop taking folic acid altogether, but you want to just make sure you're getting it from your leafy greens and, you know, not taking large doses of folic acid that you would find in like a multivitamin. Same goes for vitamin E. And this is generally speaking, vitamin E is a very, very potent antioxidant. And it can sequester any reactive oxygen species that are being made, even ones that are being generated in response to exercise.

And it can, you know, blunt the positive benefits of exercise because The generation of this burst of reactive oxygen species is what is activating all these anti-inflammatory and antioxidant genes that we have in our body that are orders of magnitude better and more powerful than a supplemental antioxidant is. And so the same goes for, you know, reactive oxygen species are generated from, you know, metabolism, but also from exercise. And if, you know, these things are killing cancer cells are They're really screwed up in a lot of ways, and they're not able to activate their stress response pathways like normal cells can. And so, a normal cell will activate NRF2. It'll activate you know a variety of these antioxidant pathways when you exercise, and that's good. You want that type.

You know that helps you with aging. But a cancer cell can't do that. And so, what happens instead when you exercise and you have a pre-cancer cell in your body? It it it's so sensitive to the reactive oxygen species that it undergoes apoptosis or cell death, and so it ends up dying. And that's a good thing. And it's one of the reasons why exercise is recommended for cancer prevention, but now also for cancer treatment. And it's been shown now in multiple studies to improve the rates of basically going into remission and not relapsing with cancer. So exercise is really important for that matter. And that is why Taking large amounts of supplemental vitamin E is just not a good thing, generally speaking. And the RDA for vitamin E is something around 25 or 30 IUs a day.

I can't remember off the top of my head, 25 or 30. And, you know, you'll find these supplements with alpha-tocopherol that are like 500 IU. I mean, that's just so crazy, or 400 IU. Like, that's something you shouldn't be taking. Like, what you're going to find in a multivitamin is fine. That's RDA level, you know. But when you start to get into, like, the hundreds of IU, you're talking about potentially, you know, sequestering reactive oxygen species that are being made in a good way in your body from good things like fasting, time-restricted eating, exercise. And, you know, you just don't want to do that. Is asking in the live chat if I take N-acetylcysteine. I do not. I do not take N-acetylcysteine. I was— there was a short time when the pandemic first hit that I was taking it.

There was some evidence that it really could improve a variety of lung function factors and stuff like that. And I took it for a short term. And then once we learned more about SARS-CoV-2 virus, I didn't think it was necessary. And I didn't think it was worth the risk of— there's been a variety of animal studies that have shown that N-acetylcysteine supplementation can increase tumor growth. Growth in normal healthy mice, like not mice that already have existing lung tumors. Like that was scary to me to see normal healthy mice, like lung tumors are not like, can't mice typically, they have an average lifespan of around 2, 2, 2 years. And they, they don't get the same type of cancers that humans get. They don't get a lot of epithelial type of solid tumors.

Mice are more prone, if they're going to get cancer, they're more prone to blood cancer. So they get a lot of lymphomas, a lot of lymphomas actually. Lymphoma is like the main one, but leukemia as well. But lymphoma is like the main cancer you'll see naturally aged mice come down with. So seeing naturally aged mice getting lung tumors was really alarming for me just because I know that is not a normal— like, you just don't see normally aged mice getting lung tumors. Like, it's not a normal thing. So, um, that was a big flag for me. And, you know, N-acetylcysteine, a lot of the benefits supplementally taking N-acetylcysteine, a lot of the benefits is that it's a precursor for glutathione. And I know that the best way to increase my glutathione would be to activate the NRF2 pathway.

You can activate the NRF2 pathway for From a variety of factors, including exercise. And I think one of the main ways I like to do it is through a dietary form of sulforaphane. The sulforaphane is the most potent dietary activator of NRF2, and it's been shown in multiple studies now to increase glutathione in the plasma and also in the brain of people, not mice, people. So, I just don't see a real necessity for the risk of supplementation with N-acetylcysteine. Michael's asking in the live chat what brand of resveratrol I take. I take RevGenetics, and it's the microionized form, M98. And it comes as a powder, so I do like a little quarter of a teaspoon in my kefir. And I don't have any affiliation with this brand or anything like that.

It's just what I have found through conversations with experts and scientists to be the most bioavailable and best form. of resveratrol. Okay. So those were all these related questions. There was some— I'm going back to some of my other rapid-fire questions. Hi, Rhonda. What is your understanding of the literature on Bacillus probiotic strains, what some of us refer to as soil-based organisms or probiotics? These include B. subtilis and others. I've read some smaller studies on the potential benefits on SIBO or small intestinal bacterial overgrowth as well as IBS compared to other traditional probiotic strains. So you're right. I think, you know, there are some studies that have found, for example, B. subtilis to be— or other soil-based bacteria may help with IBS.

I think the open question was safety. So, you know, with me, if it were me, I would try like a low dose of these types of strains of probiotics to see how I handle it first and sort of titrate from there. My wife would like to know what cleaning products you recommend and why. There's lots of kids in our house, you know. So basically, I use a lot of diluted white vinegar, about 50%. Another good brand, White House Foods Cleaning Vinegar. Their vinegar is nice because it has lavender in it, so it smells better than just typical homemade diluted vinegar. I use some multi-surface cleaners from Honest Brand, and then from Mrs. Meyer's, they have multi-surface cleaners as well. For dish and laundry soap, I use Seventh Generation clear and unscented. And that's pretty much it.

Window spray, window and mirror cleaner, Attitude window and mirror cleaner spray is a pretty non-toxic one as well. Myrick asks, hello, do moringa and broccoli sprouts work synergistically together? Is it worth combining them? We don't have empirical data that They work synergistically. However, theoretically, they should because you're providing, you know, some of the enzyme, myrosinase enzyme, for the other one, for the other. I think there's a good hypothesis that they might, but I can't say for certain without the data. I'm doing a bunch of rapid-fire questions in case you haven't noticed. Rolando's asking in the live chat about consolidating previous lab blood work results into one place to see if there's any patterns or trends. That's cool.

If anyone knows of an app or spreadsheet service you can do that, please let us know in the chat. Rapid fire. I'm convinced that being in ketosis Part of the time is healthy, but I have heard conflicting opinions about staying in ketosis. Can you explain why you're interested in maintaining ketosis rather than just being in mild ketosis after a 14 or 16-hour fast followed by exercise? Thanks. By the way, Dom D'Agostino is coming on the podcast later this month. We are going to talk so in-depth about ketosis. I am super pumped. So more on that very soon. Personally, I am interested— and by the way, I will be addressing this question in another, like, a little bit of a different— I'll, you know, frame it a little bit differently, but we will be talking about this in the podcast.

I personally am interested in the brain and anti-inflammatory and antioxidative effects of beta-hydroxybutyrate. So in order to get that— I think a little bit more of a continuous supply is something that I'm interested in, but I'm also interested in doing like cyclic ketogenic diet cycles. So maybe I do it like every other month or every other 2 months. I don't know. I haven't figured it out yet, but more on that soon. Chad asks, your thoughts on vitamin K2, MK-4 versus MK-7? Oh, by the way, I'm sorry, I forgot to mention vitamin D. I take 5,000 IUs. My mom takes 10,000 IUs. I can't believe I I blanked on that. I just talked about it so much. It was like an obvious, right? So my mom takes twice as much as me because of her body weight.

So her bioavailability is about 2 times less than mine, and she needs twice as much to maintain blood levels of around 50 nanograms per mL. I also take vitamin K2, MK-4, and it's 45 micrograms, and so does my mom. So we take those as well. The— so, the question about vitamin MK-4 versus MK-7 was that you needed— that MK-7 could be taken once per day, but that MK-4, there was more of a frequent dosing effect that was needed. No, I don't think this is necessary. If you look at all the studies, the maximum longevity benefits were about 45 micrograms of vitamin K2 and You know, this was not something that was needed to be taken throughout the day. I mean, this is—I just—I don't—I think that's—you're creating more worry than necessary.

Leechy P Turner asks about thoughts on boosting body mechanisms to accelerate healing joint cartilage injuries. In I would say that based on some of the science I've read and also personal experience. Definitely check out our hydrolyzed collagen topics page. We do talk about the joint cartilage injuries there. There's some evidence for supplementing with hydrolyzed collagen for that. In addition, I would say that N-acetylglucosamine, MSM, and vitamin C as well. Those seem to work for me. And then also Meriva. Which is the liposomal curcumin. Actually, it's phytosomal curcumin. There's a small difference, but that's also been shown to really improve the inflammatory process and biomarkers of inflammation in people with like arthritis, for example.

And inflammation can accelerate to some extent, you know, the injury. So like I think normalizing that as well is a good thing. Roman asks about diets during pregnancy and recommendation to avoid high glycemic index foods starting in the 32nd week of pregnancy. I would— and all this other stuff. I would say, first of all, I would not at all start to follow a really restrictive diet during pregnancy. There's a lot of fruits that can be considered high glycemic index, and fruits are really, really good, really, really good for you during pregnancy. So the stuff to avoid are the high glycemic foods that are refined sugars, like refined sugars, you know, candies, cookies, cakes, like that stuff, ice creams with the sugar, all that stuff. That's the stuff to avoid.

But like, if you're just going off of glycemic index, I think that's really not a good idea, because then you're going to start to limit your fruits and stuff. And that, you know, for someone that's not pregnant that's trying to experiment with the ketogenic diet, that makes sense, but it doesn't make sense for pregnancy at all. Another rapid-fire question was from Gal about arsenic in foods. Gal says, you had mentioned that you used to give your baby sweet potatoes. I've avoided them because I was concerned with arsenic. Now, as a toddler, I give it to her. What are your thoughts on sweet potatoes and regular potatoes? Do you recommend eating the skin for the nutrients or not eating the skin? Thanks so much.

I'm not super concerned about potatoes as a potential, like, as something that's really increasing arsenic in the body. I'm a lot more concerned with brown rice and brown rice products. So there's a lot of refined crackers and this and that out there that are even geared towards toddlers and children. that have brown rice, and the brown rice is like— the rice is what's a pretty big concern for me. Potatoes, particularly sweet potatoes, which are really high in some of the carotenoids, I think they are really good. You've spoken about the benefits of sulforaphane for a while, but I don't see many longevity experts such as Dr. David Sinclair mentioning it. Thoughts on this? Yeah. Yeah. So, look, sulforaphane hasn't been well studied in the longevity sphere.

Like, there aren't longevity researchers out there trying to look at the effects of sulforaphane on longevity yet. For me, understanding mechanism and connecting the dots, it's pretty straightforward in that respect that it should affect longevity. But it hasn't directly been tested except for in, like, a worm study, so, which it did. there was benefits, and it was unpublished data from a colleague of Dr. Jed Fahey. So, you know, take it with a grain of salt. Rebecca asks about CGM, or continuous glucose monitors, and a ketogenic diet. I'm wondering if continuous glucose monitors can help customize a keto diet. Did your continuous glucose monitors give you insight into whether or not you're in ketosis, or maybe a glucose level that will kick you out? Absolutely.

Like, the continuous glucose monitor was so paramount and, like, important for me modifying my diet and figuring out what was really kicking me out of ketosis and what to keep, you know, in my diet. I would say that they're key for someone that wants to try a ketogenic diet. Jacqueline says, there seems like a lot of longevity research or discussions about it are often aimed at helping midlife populations. As a— she says, as a 76-year-old female, I'd love to read or hear more about longevity studies or recommendations that apply to my age group. Can you suggest any podcasts or books or blogs or specific research dealing with seniors? Thank you for sharing your many important finds in an accessible and useful way.

I would say to Jacqueline that, like, almost— I would say at least 50% of the studies that I cite, that I talk about with respect to, like, improving cognitive function or, you know, increasing mitochondrial biogenesis, things like that, or in elderly people, you know, over the age of 70. There's been a lot of studies looking at catechins from green tea, at the catechins from chocolate, like CocoaVia is one specific one, the one I mentioned that I supplement with, and I also give it to my mother, that's improved cognition in elderly.

There's been a lot of studies looking at exercise, high-intensity interval training in elderly And how it increases mitochondrial biogenesis in elderly people, how it improves cognition in elderly people, how supplementation with, you know, zinc and vitamin C improves immune function in elderly people, fish oil improving muscle mass in elderly women. So, I mean, there's a lot of studies out there and a lot of times that I specifically refer to evidence in elderly people and in improving longevity. So perhaps you missed the participant population, or maybe I need to emphasize the age group better. Rebecca, she has a question about COVID booster and aspiration of injections.

Rebecca says, are there any blood tests a patient can order without a doctor's permission to test for COVID vaccine effectiveness and whether or not a previous infection has occurred? Debating on whether or not to get a booster shot and And do you recommend requesting the injection to be aspirated? I can't give you any medical advice on this, Rebecca. I can tell you that I've personally ordered an antibody test from LabCorp without a physician that you can measure your antibody levels. And so that, you know, before Omicron, anything below 500 the international units they use, like 500, was not really protective against getting an infection. With Omicron now, even like high levels of antibodies will not necessarily prevent you from getting infection.

You know, higher antibodies are associated with lower severity. Nucleocapsid test, antibody test, is also something I've done. that needs to be ordered by a physician, and the nucleocapsid antibody test is something that can differentiate between whether or not someone has had a SARS-CoV-2 infection versus has antibodies from a vaccine. So a person that's interested, like doesn't know if they've had COVID, but they've also been vaccinated and they think they've had it, a nucleocapsid test would be the antibody test to do to differentiate those. With respect to aspiration, So aspiration, you know, there, there, these vaccines are given intramuscularly. There's not a lot of veins in the deltoid muscle tissue.

However, there are, you know, there are a couple, and on a rare occasion, vaccines can be injected into the vein, which is not good. And the way to prevent that from happening would be to aspirate. And if you aspirate after you you know, put the needle in, then there should be no blood that comes up after aspirating. If it does, it means you hit a vein. So, uh, the trade-off there is that aspiration can increase local pain at the site of injection, and that's kind of one reason why it's not commonly practiced anymore. Um, it is, again, it, it's kind of a personal decision to make. It is rare that a person's going to hit a vein because there's not a lot of veins there. Very rare, but it does happen.

So, you know, it is something that you can sort of decide whether or not if you want to have a little bit more local pain in your arm or, you know, your arm region. If you're okay with that, then asking for an aspiration would be a logical thing to do. Sarah Smith would like to know about antibody immunity from vaccines versus B and T cell immunity. Wasn't the vaccine developed with a certain spike protein in mind? If that spike protein changes, are antibodies from our immunity going to protect us from severe disease? And also with B and T cells. So antibodies do depend on epitope and largely to prevent infection, but the antibodies do have some, you know, there is some neutralization against, you know, severity of infection as well.

T cells do not necessarily, they don't need the— they don't depend on the epitope like the antibodies do. So T cells that are generated from a vaccine or from a previous virus, SARS-CoV-2 virus strain that's different than the circulating one, both of those will still have protection against severity of disease to some degree because there's, you know, there's no epitope, you know, involved in that. Respect. Rayanne is asking a rapid-fire question. Thoughts on indole-3-carbinol supplementation for hormone health? Also, she's wondering if I was going to address my thoughts on pediatric vaccines in ages 5 through 11. So there's not a lot of solid evidence for supplementation with indole-3-carbinol for hormone balance.

It's come from something I think it was like there was some in vitro stuff that was done, and it's just really not strong evidence. That doesn't mean that it doesn't, it just means that the evidence is lacking at this moment. And so I really can only speak to that. My personal thoughts on pediatric vaccines right now with the current Omicron strain, which is relatively different virus in a lot of respects to both the Delta variant as well as the Alpha— Beta variant, the Beta variant. So there's a lot of differences there. This is sort of a different virus in a way, and also the vaccines are no longer, for the most part, preventing a person from being infected, even if they had a booster shot, even if they were recently vaccinated.

You know, they are still preventing severe COVID-19, but most 5 to 11-year-olds don't have severe COVID-19 in the first place. So I'm not sure. It's my personal opinion that, you know, I don't see it necessary to vaccinate a 5 to 11-year-old, but I think that's a personal decision that every parent can make. Some parents may feel that they would like to have their 5 to 11-year-old vaccinated. Perhaps they're overweight or they have diabetes or high blood pressure or they have a comorbidity that would put them at a higher risk, and I think in that case, it would make sense for a parent to want that.

But for parents of young, healthy children that don't have any comorbidities, don't have any elevated risk factors that are known, then I think it really is a personal decision that the parent can still make, but in my opinion, it doesn't seem to be a necessary one. About sulforaphane and says some experts say to never take any direct-acting antioxidants like vitamins C, E, and acetylcysteine with sulforaphane or within 24 hours as these direct-acting antioxidants will prevent the release of NRF2. I'm not sure I understand the mechanism of this. So the way sulforaphane activates NRF2 isn't through production of pro-oxidants or anything like that. So I'm just sort of trying to understand exactly where the basis for that is. So I just— I don't know of any evidence of that.

But next time I talk to Jed, I'll ask him. Owen asks about supplements, if any, that can potentially slow age-related hearing loss. First and foremost, you know, preventing noise-induced hearing loss. The more, the older you are, the more you've been exposed to loud noises. So I would say that is number one. You know, like, I used to live in the Bay Area and I used to ride the BART like a lot. And that thing is loud. That BART train is loud. And I know that the subway in New York City is every bit as loud. And like my husband and I were the only people on the train ever wearing earplugs, which kind of blew my mind. So, you know, earplugs are really important for if you're in any kind of noisy environment. I wear earplugs.

I mean, I haven't gone to a movie in the movie theater since like becoming a parent. And certainly, I think the pandemic sort of changed the way we watched movies in a way as well. But like movie theaters are loud. So I always would wear earplugs in movie theaters as well. I mean, I just like avoiding like something that's like, you know, a little bit louder than it should be. It accumulates over time and it causes damage. It leads to age-related hearing loss. Okay. Anyways, with respect to vitamins, Getting, you know, trying to not have insufficient micronutrients, something that I've talked about over the years, a big, big, big passion of mine, is important. It's important for everything, including age-related hearing loss.

I mean, folate, vitamins A, C, magnesium, B12, like these are all important. So eating a well-balanced diet, taking a multivitamin, you know, those things, those things, making sure you're getting, you know, half the country doesn't get enough magnesium. So there's like this accumulation of this insidious types of damage that happens in many tissues, including in our ear, that leads to aging, accelerates the aging process. So it should be a goal to just, you know, not have insufficient micronutrients. And eating a well-balanced diet is one way, in addition to taking your multivitamin and supplementing with some things as well, vitamin D. You know magnesium. Aaron asks, I'm pondering getting a temperature regulation system for my bed. How impactful has the chili pad been for you?

I haven't had a chili pad for the last two years. I've been using Eight Sleep, and it is orders of magnitude better. Chili pad. I had so many issues with it leaking, and I mean just over and over and over. And like, who wants mildew in their bed? Like, that's not a good health, like, you know, healthy, healthy lifestyle habit to be sleeping with mildew, breathing in mold and stuff. So, um, and this is like, this was a recurring thing, and I actually know a lot of other people that had the same problem. So, um, Eight Sleep, they have a couple of options. They make something similar to a chili pad, which is more affordable, or they also have a smart mattress as well. And I really, really, really like Eight Sleep.

Zygomatticus is mentioning in the live chat about returning back to our N-acetylcysteine topic. He says, I've read several studies on pre- or immediate post-exposure N-acetylcysteine supplementation for loud noise exposure, studies done in army recruits. Helping with that. So, I mean, you know, there's a preconditioning thing. I mean, if you know you're in the army and going to be exposed to some loud noises, perhaps you have a reason to supplement with N-acetylcysteine very transiently. And again, what I'm talking about is like a daily supplementation with N-acetylcysteine. And like I told you, I did transiently take it early on during the pandemic. And I'm not concerned that I increased my cancer risk or anything like that.

But You know, there possibly can be situations when you are going to transiently take it. You're not going to take it every day, but if you're going to be exposed to like, you know, loud guns or whatever, I mean, you know, perhaps there's rationale for that. Okay, a couple more rapid-fire questions we can pack in here quickly. Let's see. Aaron asks about time-restricted eating. He says, in your interview with Dr. Satchin Panda, it was explained that drinking coffee during the restricted period of time-restricted eating can blunt some of the positive effects. Is this due to the ingredients in the coffee or tea specifically, or would a caffeine pill on its own have the same effect?

I'm on a stimulant medication for ADHD, and I'm wondering if the stimulating aspect alone is causing reduction in the positive benefits. I would, first and foremost, I think in that same interview, we talk about not discontinuing any medications that are prescribed by your physician. Like, you always should take whatever's prescribed by your physician and continue taking it and always, always, always talk to your physician before you're going to even think about stopping something that they have prescribed you for. So barring any prescription medications, let's talk about coffee and tea and caffeine in coffee and tea. Caffeine itself does shift the circadian rhythm, and there's these, you know, like you can get into the complicated effects of that.

Polyphenols in the coffee also metabolized by the liver can start clocks and reset the clocks in the liver. But I'm really not that concerned with black coffee anymore when it comes to time-restricted eating. I mean, it's like, it's, you know, you can be a real you know, like just hardcore fanatic about it and like, you're like, I am not going to do anything. It's water only until I want to start my clocks or reset my clocks, restart, I should say. But I'm not sure that it's really necessary and it might cause unnecessary suffering. Like if you need your coffee in the morning, black coffee in the morning, then drink it. You're going to be okay. It's not going to negate all the positive effects of time-restricted eating. Do you recommend any choline supplements?

And if so, About what dosage? I see claims that 90% of the US population consumes inadequate amounts of choline. And then he mentions TMAO, which choline can be converted into TMAO and may contribute to heart disease. What are your thoughts? This is a rapid-fire answer. TMAO, it can be formed from choline and it really depends on a person's microbiome makeup, which is why— so eggs, egg yolk is a really— it's one of the best dietary sources of choline. It's where I choose to get my choline from. And you might say, well, if choline is so bad for you, then why are eggs not leading to heart disease and stroke and problems like that?

And the answer lies in the fact that, you know, actually eggs for healthy people, decrease stroke risk and are not associated with increased risk for cardiovascular disease or heart disease. But they can be in people that have metabolic syndrome, in people that are type 2 diabetic, and people that are obese. And so I think it's, you know, obese combined with metabolic syndrome. So basically, you know, perhaps there's a microbiome interaction here where Yeah. The TMAO is being made because people that have metabolic syndrome have certain species in their gut, species of bacteria in their gut that are, you know, more prevalent that are converting the choline into TMAO. And so, you know, it's one of those things that it's not an, you know, an if and then.

It's, you know, or it's not like X causes Y. You know, X causes Y if Z. You know, so it's a little more complicated. Personally, I don't— I supplemented with choline during my third trimester, and I did, if I remember correctly, it was organic sunflower lecithin that I was taking. I think the dose I was taking was like 950 milligrams a day, but that was based off of evidence on increasing intelligence of my child. So that's a little bit different. So I really, you know, again, I like to get my choline from egg yolk. And so I think that getting a dietary source of choline is a good way to get your choline. Rachel says, hi, Rhonda. What are your thoughts on the carnivore diet?

I'm considering carnivore as a temporary elimination diet for treatment-resistant narcolepsy, but I am concerned about how extreme it is and lack of studies on it. Okay, Rachel, I went in depth on the carnivore diet in JRE episode number 178. And there's a timeline on my website that links to the Spotify episode that goes right to where we talk about— where Joe and I talk about the carnivore diet. So go to foundmyfitness.com/jre. And you'll see the 10 different episodes that I've been a guest on Joe's podcast. Look for JRE 1178. It'll expand a timeline and then you can look for the carnivore stuff. You'll see my thoughts. I personally think a good diet to start with if you're going to start with more of an elimination diet would be a ketogenic diet.

It's a lot more well studied and a lot safer in my opinion. Okay. Let's see. I've got just a couple more rapid fires. Let's see. Again, what is your opinion on Akkermansia for intestinal health? For those of you that aren't aware, Akkermansia muciniphila is a type of bacteria found in the gut. It's inversely associated with obesity, diabetes, cardiometabolic diseases, and low-grade inflammation, among others. It's been shown to extend the life of mice with ALS. Interestingly, fish oil increases Akkermansia muciniphila and ketogenic diet does as well. So there are lifestyle modifications that can increase it. I think it's a great probiotic. What brand of bottled water do you consume? I consume Mountain Valley. Peter asks, when I consume bottled water, by the way, I mostly don't.

I mostly get my Berkey water. But anyways, that's just an afterthought there. Peter asks, do you have any information about increasing brown adipose tissue? There are some supplements touting brown adipose tissue promotion. Do any work? I know one that increases brown adipose tissue. That would be Fish oil. Fish oil is a supplement that's been shown to do that. Obviously, cold exposure is the best way to do it, and that would be that would be the most robust. Okay, Myrick asked about creatine since it's so important. Okay, says since it's so important in your body, could you look up some research about the different forms of creatine? I'm He's been following that. There's all this contradictory research. Anyways, we have a topic page on creatine.

So again, go to our topic pages, foundmyfitness.com/topics. Click on the C, you'll find creatine in depth. We talk about the different forms of it. It's a really good article. Check it out. Again, foundmyfitness.com/topics or foundmyfitness.com and go to the toolbar at the top. Click on topics, that'll take you to the topics page. Okay, last rapid-fire question. Dr. Brad Stanfield has been talking about the benefits of feistin on YouTube. Have you found— are there any benefits with health or lifespan or side effects? I would say, first of all, like, there's very limited evidence on it. It's been shown to help perhaps with, you know, senescent cells. There's just such limited evidence that it's not something I would start supplementing with yet. We just don't know about side effects.

We don't know about anything. So I would say it's kind of one of those putting the cart before the horse, in my opinion. Okay, this is the real last question, rapid fire. Chris says, how safe and effective is TA-65? TA-65, also known as— it's It's derived from the astragalus root, is thought to perhaps extend telomeres by working on the enzyme telomerase. So, as a lot of you know, telomeres are caps on the end of our chromosomes. They serve a very important function of protecting our DNA, which is wrapped up tightly in combination with proteins inside of our chromosomes. And the telomeres are sort of taking the hit in terms of DNA damage. Their job is to protect our DNA so they don't acquire mutations that can lead to cancer. And so oftentimes, telomeres will take the hit.

In other words, they take the DNA damage, which accelerates the shortening of them. Each time your cell divides, they already shorten anyways because of this funny mechanism I'm not getting into, but it has to do with the structure of the telomeres and how DNA is replicated. And most of our cells do not have telomerase activated. Most, not all. Stem cells do have active telomerase. But most adult cells don't have it. And the reason for that is because activating telomerase in a damaged cell or precancerous cell could allow that cell to become immortal. In other words, not die. therefore, lead to cancer, you know, precipitate tumor formation. So there's sort of a double-edged sword there when it comes to activating telomerase. On the one hand, oh, you might want to lengthen your telomeres.

And why is that important? Well, because, you know, each— with each cell division, your telomeres get shorter and shorter. And when they reach a critically short stage, when they become a certain length or a certain shortness, your cell sort of goes into a crisis and it's like, oh, what do I do? What do I do? It either becomes a senescent cell, which are not good. Senescent cells are, you know, they're not dead, but they're sort of just metabolically active enough to, like, create a bunch of inflammatory molecules. We've talked about this earlier in the Crowdcast. It accelerates aging, basically. And then, or the other thing that happens is the cell will just will die. In which case, you know, if it's an already differentiated cell, that's great, you make a new one.

But it can also happen with stem cells, and that sort of depletes your stem cell pools. You know, stem cells are really important for making new cells in each of our organs. And when those stem cell pools become depleted, we get a— we have a problem. We're not able to make new cells. And so that is also a cause of aging. TA-65, I think, again, is a double-edged sword. I think that it could potentially it's one of those things where you're taking a risk. It's like, well, you might have enough precancerous damaged cells around that you're allowing them to now become immortal and you're going to dramatically increase your cancer risk. Or on the other hand, you might be doing some benefit. So, you know, I personally am not willing to take the risk.

You know, it's one of those flip the coins in my opinion. So— For the riskier types, they might try to take it and they might get a good result or they might not. So, I think that— I think we need a little more of a targeted approach with respect to affecting telomerase. And with that said, I think I've covered a lot of ground today. And I hope you guys enjoyed this Crowdcast. I know I did. It was a little fun going into a lot of questions and doing a lot of the rapid fire. So let me know what you guys think. And you guys can do it in the comments here. And we'll be sending out an email summary with time points this episode. We'll be linking to the dashboard where you can rewatch it, relisten to it.

Or also you can listen to it again on your private podcast feed where we release our aliquots. And you can also rewatch it again here on Crowdcast as well. But we will release it on a private YouTube as always. And you can watch that on your dashboard as well. Thank you so much everyone for all of your support. I really, really, really appreciate every single one of you guys. I can't thank you enough. You are allowing me and my team to do what we do. I've got some awesome podcasts lined up, one coming out next week with Dr. Eran Elinav. He's the guy who discovered that the bacteria in our gut are on a circadian rhythm and sort of contributes to a lot of Dr. Satchin Panda's research on why when we eat is so important because the bacteria in our gut That's right.

That are on a circadian rhythm and the food that we eat and the timing of it plays a role in our metabolism and that at the level of our gut bacteria. Expert on Gut, we go into quite a few things including TMAO in this podcast. It's a long podcast. I think it's about 2 hours. It's a long podcast. And we're releasing that this week. I'm recording a podcast with Tony Robbins and Dr. Peter Diamandis. Next week. And then a week after that, I'm recording a podcast with Dom D'Agostino, a friend of mine who I'm excited to see. So those are upcoming. And then we have one shortly after that with— about a week later with Dr. Morgan Levine, all about epigenetic aging, followed by Dr. Satchin Panda again.

He's got a new book out and he's got some new insights on the timing of exercise and stuff like that, which will be exciting to talk about. So lots of new stuff coming out. Hope you guys enjoyed everything. We got some new aliquots Yeah. And I'll talk to you guys next month. Please submit all your questions in the Ask a Question section. You guys know early bird gets the worm, but, you know, I really, really made an effort to try to go and get to the end of these questions this time. And I'm really glad I did because there's a lot of interesting questions there. So everyone be safe, be well, be healthy, and talk to you guys next month. Thank you so much.