Q&A #48: Are Sunflower Oil and Soy Foods Harmful?—Plus Restoring Gut Health After Antibiotics

Hi everyone, welcome to Crowdcast number 48. Happy to see everyone here in the chat. For those of you who are new to this live Q&A, the way it generally works, as you can see, you submit a question up to a month beforehand. Pro tip, the earlier, earlier you submit, the more likely my eyeballs will see it, um, first and it will get chose for this Q&A. I typically do choose the questions I'm going to address on a variety of, you know, factors. So I try not to cover the same thing over and over again. So I look for new questions that cover information that I think people in general would be interested in, that I myself am interested in. Or that I think is really important. I also do a variety of rapid-fire questions.

So we do some deep dives where we're looking in the literature, really trying to get to the bottom of nuance and figuring out, you know, conflicting data and all that sort of stuff. But I also do a lot of rapid-fire questions. So these are answers I can give in, you know, a sentence or 2 or more, maybe even a yes or no. So those are usually at the end, towards the end of the Q&A. And then throughout the Q&A, I also like to answer questions live from the chat. And that's sort of one of the benefits of getting, getting here on the first Saturday of the month to be live is that you get to, you get to ask questions live.

Also, these replays will be at your disposal via— you can always go on Crowdcast and watch it again, but we send out an email summary generally within 1 to 1.5 weeks after the live Q&A. With the YouTube video link. And also you can, you can listen to and watch the, the podcast, the Q&A in your podcast player so that you find that on your dashboard at foundmyfitness.com/dashboard. And also you can, if you've already downloaded your private podcast player, where we have our members-only podcast called The Aliquot. I hope you guys have been enjoying the episodes we release almost weekly. Then you can also listen to the Q&A replay there. So, um, those are all resources for you guys, and that's generally how it works. And with that, I'm gonna get started.

I do see a few questions in the live chat that just started this morning about histamine allergies, and I see even Liz kind of, um, was touching on something that I was gonna say, which people were asking if there was any If, you know, if I knew about any, you know, anything that could potentially help with histamine or allergies. And, um, I, I agree with what Liz says. So I have on hand both quercetin and luteolin, um, with the major one being quercetin. So we have a topic page on this. You can go to our topic pages and you can see that we have one on quercetin and there's a section on allergies and, um, Uh-huh. So that's— that's if I like— if there's a lot of pollen or there's something going on with me, I typically do the quercetin.

It works for me, but I don't really have— I don't really have allergies. I mean, it's super, super, super mild for me. But there's been also a lot of anecdotes I've heard from people as well as some research supporting it. I would say the research, you know, is scant. We need more evidence to make a really definitive conclusion. I, I think it's worth a shot. I get the, the quercetin, I get the phytosomal quercetin because it actually increases the bioavailability of it. Quercetin is not a very bio— bioavailable nutrient, so I buy mine from Thorne. Again, I don't have any affiliation with them, but that's where I get my phytosomal quercetin. Okay, so today, um, I see someone asking in the, in the chat about what app do you guys use to listen to your aliquot.

I guess you guys can all answer that, um, because everyone has different— I mean, there's a variety of different ways that you can, you can, uh, you can do that. But the first sort of deep dive question that we're going to address today was actually left over from last month. And, um, it's a— it was a question, so I'll read the question. Factor 8 says, hi Rhonda, what are your thoughts on sunflower oil? As a vegan, so many alternative foods have sunflower or safflower oil. Is this a worry? Secondly, I take sunflower lecithin as a choline supplement. Is this different than sunflower oil? Okay, so there's 2 questions there. With respect to the first part of that question, um, the seed oils is probably what most of you guys are familiar with, have heard about.

Certainly, I would say within certain nutrition communities, like mostly carnivore, but also very, very low-carb communities, you'll hear a lot of the seed oils, the seed oils are killing us, the seed oils are bad, they're so bad, they're omega-6, and it's inflammatory, inflammatory, inflammatory. And I have really, really tried hard to look and see and prove that. Like, I, you know, I think, oh, vegetable oil, in my mind, it's not very stable. It's prone to oxidation because of the high polyunsaturated fatty acid content. However, time and time again, every time I go back and revisit this, I keep finding evidence of the contrary where it's Showing that people that take in more, you know, sunflower seed oil, even vegetable oil, I mean that they have like improved health outcomes.

I don't understand it, but let's let's cover it. So we'll start out with sunflower seed oil and oleic. So sorry, sunflower seed oil differs from the safflower in its. Omega-9 content. So, so that would be oleic and also the linoleic acid, which is an omega-6. So there's omega-9, which is oleic, and omega-6, which is linoleic. Both of those are actually important. We need both of them. So that's sunflower oil. So sunflower actually has a higher omega-6. So it has a higher linoleic compared to omega-9. Whereas the safflower oil So that contains about 6 to 8% palmitic acid, which is a saturated fat. And then it has, it has about 70— sorry, 16 to 20% of oleic acid, and then a very, very high linoleic acid.

So sunflower, sunflower oil, I think is better than safflower oil, in my opinion, because it doesn't have— it's it's still got like a lot of linoleic acid, which you need, but it has more of the omega, omega-9 as well. So that's like the major difference between the two. With respect to the oxidative, you know, stability of it, and this is really surprising to me, there was a study that compared the oxidative stability of coconut oil, canola oil, olive oil, cottonseed oil, soybean oil, sunflower oil, and corn oil. And when they're heated, sunflower oil was actually the most stable of these oils. And the reason for that was because of the oxidation was actually tied more to the smoke point of the oil. So the higher the smoke point, the less prone to oxidation. Now, I will say this.

There's also been a variety of other studies that have looked, for example, at like cooking olive oil, which does not It does not necessarily have a very high smoke point, and there are a variety of metabolic quote unquote oxidative byproducts that are formed. But clinical studies in humans have shown that when people are given those metabolic byproducts from olive oil, there's no there's no harmful biomarkers. It doesn't increase inflammatory markers. It doesn't increase you know LDL. It doesn't increase. There's no there's no it doesn't seem to have bad consequence, at least with respect to olive oils. You know, metabolic byproducts from cooking and heat.

But I was kind of surprised that sunflower oil was pretty stable because of the high, you know, the high polyunsaturated fatty acid content. I thought it would be a lot more unstable. There's a lot of concerns about negative effects from both sunflower and safflower oil that really, again, stem from the high omega-6 fatty acid content. And I covered this in Q&A session number 22. If you go to an hour and 14 minutes, I go into that, or also Q&A session number 21. I go into it about 1 hour and 8 minutes in. So if you're, if you're interested in diving a little bit more into that, also Q&A number 46, I go into it. As well. And ultimately, you know, we don't know that having the omega-6 component is necessarily bad.

We know that you need omega-6, like, like your cell membranes require an abundant amount of omega-6. I think the best way to get omega-6 is from whole food sources. There's been tracer kinetic studies. So when you, you can basically label You know, the metabolites that are formed from metabolism, from cooking and heating. And linoleic acid, the big concern with that omega-6 is, oh, it forms arachidonic acid, which is believed to be— it is involved in inflammatory processes. Like, you know, there's no doubt about that. However, some of those processes are important, right? Like, I mean, blood coagulation. I mean, it plays a role in that.

But tracer studies have shown that actually when you're taking in oral like linoleic acid through food, only 0.3, somewhere between 0.3 to 0.6% of that linoleic acid is converted into arachidonic acid. So really, it's not like a huge, huge source of, of the, of the linoleic acid is being converted. I think other factors come into play, other diet and lifestyle factors, other genetic factors. But, you know, when you're, when you're talking about a person who is perhaps in a more chronically inflamed condition, like being obese, for example, metabolic syndrome, metabolically unhealthy, there's probably more inflammatory processes going on that could lead to, I would say, greater conversion of that. Also, omega-3 having more omega-3 helps balance that as well.

You're less likely to form as much of that arachidonic acid from the linoleic acid as well. So, so that's that. Also, with respect to just looking at outcomes, so there was a pooled analysis of about 30 different prospective cohort studies. And this was like 13 spanning 13 different countries that looked at circulating and adipose tissue levels of linoleic acid and arachidonic acid to examine the link between omega-6 and cardiovascular outcomes. And higher levels, not lower, higher levels of linoleic acid were significantly associated with lower risks of total cardiovascular disease, lower cardiovascular-related mortality, and lower ischemic stroke risk.

That to me says, look, you see these YouTube videos, you see some influencers like demonizing omega-6, and yet I don't see the data to show that. So, it's a little bit of a conundrum. On the one hand, maybe it's not. I think the bigger problem is actually, and you guys know this, not getting enough omega-3. And this whole ratio between omega-6 and omega-3 is more I know everyone likes to focus on the fact that you're eating too much. People are eating too much omega-6. They're getting too much of it from their vegetable oil.

They're getting too much from— and I think that really what vegetable oil and stuff is biomarking is that people just eat out and you're getting all the processed foods and it's not necessarily the omega-6, but it's everything that goes along with when you are eating, when you're not cooking your own food at home. You know, I think I think the fact of the matter is is that people are not eating enough omega three, and that is the that's the big elephant in the room. That that's what's most important, and that is absolutely true. People do not eat. I mean, it's like ninety nine percent of the United States doesn't get enough omega three. Essentially everyone. So it's it's a bit it's the bigger problem, and and and it comes down to the way I think I like to look at food.

And eating and nutrition a little bit different than a lot of other people, a lot of other influencers. And instead, I think that the way to think about nutrition is to focus on what you should be eating, rather than what you should not be eating. Because when you focus on what you should be eating, you think about nutrition in a different way. You think about what components do I need to run my metabolism? What vitamins, minerals, essential fatty acids, What macronutrients? Protein. How much do I need? When you think about, like, I'm physically active, I need to get 1.6 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight. That means you're going to be focusing on getting protein and not focused on avoiding all this other stuff. And when, guess what?

When you're focused on eating protein, you end up not eating all that other stuff because there's no space. Like, you can't, you can't eat everything. And so when you focus on what you should eat, It's a much better way, I think, to think about nutrition because then you're going to actually get the nutrient, the micronutrients and the macronutrients that you should. Because when you're focusing on what you should eat, no one's going to say, oh, refined sugar is going to run my metabolism. Well, clearly no. Like, no one's going to think about that. So refined sugar already goes away without even having to think about the fact that I need to avoid it because it's not doing anything. It doesn't run— it doesn't— it's not running your metabolism. It's not a cofactor for anything.

So, um, I know that was a little bit of a tangent there, but it kind of goes back to this omega-6 issue where I think there's a lot of popularity in sort of, uh, making it the villain when again, um, I don't know that it necessarily— I time and time again find the opposite. And it's like, you know, I, I think people have latched onto something, but they've latched onto it looking at it through the wrong lens. So another study found that higher arachidonic acid levels were not associated with a higher risk of cardiovascular outcomes in comparison with lower levels of arachidonic acid, which were associated with a higher risk of cardiovascular disease. Again, I think there's something else going on here where, you know, the cardiovascular disease isn't necessarily linked to omega-6.

It's probably linked to like all the other stuff that goes along with eating out, right? There was a meta-analysis of 6 randomized controlled trials that found that replacing saturated fat with mostly omega-6 had no effect on major cardio or major coronary heart disease events. So in that way, you could look at that as, oh, maybe saturated fat's not that bad. But you could also look at it as, oh, omega-6 isn't, isn't that bad either, because it's not making it worse. And then there was pooled— actually, there was pooled— there was no effect on major coronary heart disease events and no effect on total mortality.

But when you pooled the results together from all the trials, omega-6, replacing saturated fat with omega-6, actually did reduce the risk of total coronary heart disease events, but not major ones. So there's all this nuance again. So it seems like there was a little bit of benefit, but not like super beneficial and certainly not worse. So that's kind of my wrap-up on the sunflower oil, safflower oil. I think mostly people are thinking in the context of omega-6 seed oils. It's really bad, really bad, really bad. And I don't know that it's great to— I wouldn't go out and start cooking with seed oils like at home and stuff.

And I certainly wouldn't worry about sunflower oil or safflower oil in a supplement or in a little bit of whatever your vegan food is, as long as there's not other bad processed things in it. So I think that's kind of the take-home here is, is that time and time again, the literature is showing that omega-6 is not the villain that some nutrition gurus like to make it out to be. Now, the major difference between lecithin and sunflower oil— so in order to stable stabilize vegetable oil, sunflower oil against sedimentation and also to enable it to be able to kind of undergo further refining steps, the phospholipids and glycolipids must be removed. So there's several processing steps that result in like this sludge, which is like a lecithin sludge.

And that basically is made up of water, phospholipids, and glycolipids. There's some triglycerides, a little bit of trace sterols and free fatty acids. Also some carotenoids, which are beneficial. But so the, the, the lecithin is mostly a lot of water and phospholipids and glycolipids. And the phospholipid content of lecithin from crude sunflower oil is anywhere between 0.5 to 1.2%. And that is kind of the major difference between, between those 2. Ed and Twilla say in the chat that they had very low arachidonic acid levels, caused hair loss on the body and changed hair color, and then they started eating more omega-6 through nuts and it started coming back.

Again, I think that, you know, the omega-6 is particularly when you have people like not eating it because like They hear all this bad stuff, and so they stop eating nuts, and they stop eating seeds, and they stop eating. I mean, it just you don't realize how much omega six is important inside of your body for your cell membrane content, which affects transports transporters. It affects nutrient transport across the cell membrane. It attracts affects receptors. It it affects in your brain the way neurotransmitters are being you know trans transduced and received. It's affecting a lot of things. It's affecting inflammatory processes that are important for everyday function, for immune function.

Obviously, the inflammatory process when it's out of control, in most instances, it's not because people are eating some canola oil. So there's a— inflammation and chronic inflammation is a very, very complicated, you know, there's lots of things going on there. And, you know, I would say that it's not— I would— I have— I've yet to find evidence that it's all coming down and can be pinpointed to people are eating too much, you know, vegetable oil. And I do think that people kind of are eating too much vegetable oil, but I think they're eating too much vegetable oil because they're not eating it. They're not cooking at home.

They're eating out and every— like all restaurants, fast food places, anything you buy packaged foods, if you're buying stuff from Costco, and it's a prepared meal, because let's say you don't have time, you're a busy parent, that stuff's all made with vegetable oil. But like, what else is in that stuff? Like, there's now been so many studies that have come out that some of these emulsifiers and all these these processed, you know, the things that are involved in the processing and stability of foods are really actually inflammatory. So, you know, it's one of those things where it's like, well, is the fact that some of these people are eating the omega-6 biomarking something? Or, you know, or is the omega-6 really bad?

And it seems like the omega-6 itself is not really bad, especially because we actually— omega-6 is essential. We need it. You know, emulsifiers are not essential. Like, that's not something that we need in our body. It's not something that's endogenous to our body. Okay, enough on that. So get more omega-3. All right, so the next question was also left over from last month. And this question, I'm always interested in kind of circling back to it. It's very similar to the omega-6 one in that It covers, it covers the, the soy, tofu, tempeh, phytoestrogen sort of world where, you know, there's, there's definitely some evidence that soy products do have phytoestrogen properties, right?

And so, Leone asked the question whether what my thoughts were on eating tofu or tempeh And if I have any of any concerns with it being estrogenic, I did cover. I did touch on soy back in Q&A session number twenty-one. This was early in the session, about sixteen minutes in. I'm not going to go into all of what we talked about there. We talked a lot about cancer risk in that in that Q&A. There was a meta-analysis of thirty-eight different clinical trials. This was. Published in 2021. And the research did not receive any, you know, specific grant, but one of the authors of the study did consult for a company that manufactures and sells soy products, which— so, so another one was on the scientific advisory board of a soy nutrition institute, which receives funding from the United Soybean Board industry.

Always, that's sort of like the disclosures, you know, when you're reading a paper and you see if there's any conflicts of interest, that would be a potential one. I'd hate to think that authors become so biased that they ignore, you know, evidence of the contrary, but it's always something to keep in mind. So with that in mind, these 38 different studies, they found there was no effects of soy or isoflavones on total testosterone. Free testosterone, sex hormone-binding globulin, estradiol, estrone levels in men.

And there was also a sub-analysis done that found neither the study duration, either less than 12 weeks or greater than 12 weeks, nor the dose, so less than 75 milligrams of the isoflavones, which are thought to have the estrogenic activity, or greater than 75 milligrams per day, had any impact on hormone concentrations. So, so that was again in men. Now within that study, they were talking about some Asians. So eating, eating tofu is a lot more common in, in Asia than it is in the United States. Relatively few Asians, like less than 10%, actually consume more than 75 milligrams per day. Which is the amount that's like 3 servings of traditional soy foods.

So again, that level of greater than 75 milligrams per day is likely even more than what we're seeing, you know, people in like natural, like living communities where they eat a lot of soy products eating. So it really went— some of these studies really went up to a high dose. The lack of effect of soy intake on, and also the isoflavone intake on the reproductive hormones in the men doesn't necessarily mean that there's no hormonal effects. So the isoflavones could basically be exerting any sort of biological effects independent of actual hormone levels. So this is where I would say this is the biggest point to make because the estrogenic activity in the isoflavones that are found in soy products are thought to really act more by acting on estrogen receptors and androgen receptors.

So, they sort of mimic what estrogen or androgen would do rather than necessarily increasing estrogen. And so, the study could be a little misleading in a way because they're measuring direct hormone levels. And, and, and the isoflavones are not necessarily working that way. They're— they've been shown to bind to the estrogen receptor and to the androgen receptor like estrogen would do, right? So, it's more of when we say estrogen-mimicking activity, it means not that it's increasing estrogen, it means that it's binding to the estrogen receptor. And, it does so very weakly. It's not anything like estrogen. So, I think that's a very important thing to keep in mind.

Clinically relevant endpoints can, you know, I mean, they can inform, I think, they can inform us about the effects of the soy isoflavones, but looking necessarily directly at the hormones isn't always going to, you know, tell us everything. Now, there are also clinical studies that show no effect of soy on sperm and semen parameters. And soy protein supplementation also leads to similar gains in muscle mass and strength among men who engage in resistance training compared to animal protein. So there was a study that compared animal protein, including whey protein supplementation, to soy protein supplementation. And when both groups of men were doing resistance training, they, they had similar gains in, in muscle protein synthesis or muscle mass. So that's also kind of important to know.

All right, let's continue going through some of the data. There was a systematic review and meta-analysis of 47 randomized controlled crossover trials partially funded by the Soy Nutrition Institute. So again, one author was also the same author above was consulting for companies on this, you know, Soy Nutrition Institute. So again, not necessarily saying that it's negating everything, but always something to keep in mind when there's a potential conflict of interest. So these 47 different randomized controlled trials included 11 studies of premenopausal women, and 35 of postmenopausal women, and then one of perimenopausal women. 19 studies found the effect— looked at the effect of isoflavone extract versus control. Some of them looked at isoflavone extracts.

So isoflavone extract would be like concentrated, right? You're— it's not the same thing as even just eating soy or like tofu, which is what the question was about. But, you know, it's concentrated isoflavones, which are in soy. Also, also, there was, you know, eating isolated soy protein versus isolated isoflavone-depleted soy protein versus control versus whole soy foods. So there's lots of different, you know, different, you know, treatments going on in these, in these trials, everything from isoflavones to soy depleted of them to actual soy foods with them, you know, so every everything under the sun, basically. So in premenopausal women, consumption of the isoflavones, so the soy isoflavones, more like an extract powder, more like a supplement that you could buy.

Had no effect on circulating total estradiol, estrone, or sex hormone-binding globulin. There was a significant reduction in follicle stimulating hormone, which is FSH, by about 22%, and luteinizing hormone by about 24%. And there was an increase in menstrual cycle length of about 1.05 days. So, Just for those of you that don't understand this, so estrogen typically has a negative feedback on luteinizing hormone and follicle stimulating hormone. But I would say there was no change in the estrogen, right? But the thing again comes back down to was the isoflavone binding to the estrogen receptor and acting mimicking estrogen in a way? This would suggest that would be a plausible hypothesis because the downstream hormones changed.

Follicle-stimulating hormone changed and luteinizing hormone changed. They both went down. And those usually go down when estrogen goes up. Now, estrogen did not go up, but I think what needs to happen in some of these future studies is they need to measure the activity of the estrogen receptor because that could be a potential way that the phytoestrogens are affecting luteinizing hormone and follicle stimulating hormone. There was a sensitivity analysis that went on further that got rid of the low-risk bias. So only studies that were low-risk bias. So they got rid of the high-risk bias studies. And then they didn't— those results of lower luteinizing hormone and follicle stimulating hormone were no longer significant. They were only trending. You know, grain of salt, who knows?

I mean, maybe the study authors, because they consult for soy companies, thought, oh, we need to we need to continue, you know, let's, let's get away any other study that could potentially be showing this. Like, I don't— like, I would take that with a grain of salt, right? In my, in my opinion, looking at the data, the 22%, 24% lower hormones for follicle stimulating and luteinizing were— I thought it looks, it looks real. So that was premenopausal women. Postmenopausal women, there were no specific, no statistically significant effects of soy or isoflavones on circulating estradiol, estrone, or again, sex hormone-binding globulin. There was a non-significant increase in estradiol, which was interesting, following soy intake.

But the soy had no effect on the follicle-stimulating hormone or luteinizing hormone in postmenopausal women. Another study, so another randomized controlled trial, that was— that had no conflicts of interest found that postmenopausal women that were given the soy isoflavones for like 8 weeks, they had their luteinizing hormone and follicle stimulating hormone both decreased. Yeah, and it was significant. It decreased pretty significantly, like 20%. That kind of goes in line with what the premenopausal women— what was found in premenopausal women. And also, there was a— the level of estradiol increased after intervention with soy, which is a little different than some of the other studies we were talking about where they didn't see any increase in estradiol.

And in these postmenopausal women, the soy isoflavone supplementation did have a major effect on the severity and intensity of postmenopausal symptoms. So the intensity of their symptoms decreased by almost 30%, and which is pretty significant. So, you know, this is probably why some, some postmenopausal women supplement with soy isoflavones, because it helps with some of their postmenopausal symptoms. Okay, there was another randomized controlled trial with no conflicts of interest that found So it was called the BEAN trial. There was like a BEAN 1 and BEAN 2 trial. And they did, they did a variety of different randomization intervention with a high soy diet. So this was actually just eating soy foods like, like the tofu, or a low soy diet. So they did either both.

And really what they were looking at was like estrogen, estradiol levels in breast tissue, So the first study found— it was a 2-year randomized controlled trial study, and there was really no increase in urinary or serum estrogen. There was no increase in excretes from the breast and stuff, no difference in mammographic density in the women taking The soy, so suggesting that it was not having a negative effect on breast cancer risk because that that was the concern. So I would say in conclusion, it's possible. I think that the effects of the soy isoflavones on actual estradiol levels seems to be dependent on an individual's menopausal status, with postmenopausal women having a greater effect. So, studies in premenopausal women have shown really mixed results.

Some studies suggest that soy isoflavones have little or no effect on circulating estradiol, while other studies suggest it may actually decrease estradiol levels, which is kind of weird. It might be like one of those feedback loops where the isoflavones are working on the estrogen receptor and therefore you're making less estradiol. But I think there's a lot of factor— individual factors, dietary, lifestyle, genetic differences in metabolism. And so, my concern, if any, would be that the isoflavones, again, are binding to the estrogen receptors and that they— while they do exert a very much weaker action than estrogen itself or estradiol, it might decrease the overall estrogenic effect in premenopausal women.

In postmenopausal women, it seems like some studies suggest that soy isoflavones might slightly increase estradiol levels. Other studies have not found that effect. The increase, if it is true, again, also could be like, you know, due to the estrogen-like activity of the isoflavones. And, you know, the hormonal milieu of postmenopausal women is very different from premenopausal. There may be some sort of funny interaction going on we don't really quite understand. You know, at the end of the day, you know, do I think like like men and developing boys and stuff should be eating like tons and tons of tofu and stuff and soy. I don't think they should, particularly during development when, you know, some of these hormones could change things.

I also think, you know, perhaps there is a role for postmenopausal women. And if you go back and you listen to some of the Q&As that I mentioned at the start of this question where I covered it before, It seems as though actually that that women that are consuming soy isoflavones, postmenopausal women that are consuming, have a lower they have a lower risk of like uterine cancer and some other cancers that I talked about in in those previous Q and A's. So it'd be kind of worth worth it to go back and and and listen to those if you're kind of interested in in that. You know, diving into that a little bit further. You know, it's interesting, maybe relevance for some postmenopausal women with respect to helping with, you know, postmenopausal symptoms.

But then the question also arises, well, where does hormone replacement therapy come in, right? And that is a whole other ballgame. And we've talked about it somewhat. Peter Attia is coming on my podcast next week. He'll be here in person. And that's one of the, that's one of the subjects I plan on deep diving with him on is, is the hormone replacement therapy, actually both in men and women. I want to, I want to dive into that a little bit more. So be looking forward to that. Lisa says, is it important for the soy to be organic? Probably. I think some of these, there's some pesticides that are used, that are used on soybeans and stuff. And the soy, they'll just take them in and soak them up to prevent the insects from eating them up.

And so, you end up then when you process them down, you're potentially getting a concentrated amount of pesticides. So, I would opt for the organic. Now, we're going to cover a question that was from this Q&A from Adam about caffeine. Adam says, hi, Rhonda, the study on caffeine is very concerning to me. The conclusion is that caffeine consumption decreases gray matter volume in the brain. I can't find further studies that confirm or contradict this conclusion. Can you please give me your take on this? So, for those of you interested, the study that Adam was referring to was published in 2021 in Cerebral cortex. It was an extremely small study. Okay, it was 20 people. And it was a double-blind randomized crossover study. So there were 20 young, healthy men.

It was a very short study and not replicated. I mean, this is sort of a one-off here. Let me give you my high-level summary. So I think this study only shows that caffeine may cause temporary changes in gray matter volume. Which is really caused or confounded by the fact that there's changes in cerebral blood flow. And so, the caffeine causes, I think, vasoconstriction, which is basically causing a temporary change in cerebral blood flow, which then could temporarily lead to the change in gray matter volume. The study results do not show whether these changes are beneficial or detrimental. There's a poor performance on a cognitive test, but that was not associated with any changes in the gray matter volume. And actually, some other aspects in cognition of the test actually improved.

So, they're suggesting that there's probably differential effects of caffeine on different types of cognitive processes. Just kind of like diving just a couple of steps further into that study, Okay. Again, the cerebral blood flow was significantly reduced in the caffeine condition. And this was what was correlated with the reduced gray matter volume. The treatment amount of caffeine was 3 times 150 milligrams per day, which is a lot of caffeine. That's quite a bit of caffeine. So, So 150 milligrams of caffeine 3 times a day. And yeah, I mean, look, so that study was that.

I mean, really, to me, it just comes down to, like, there's probably so much vasoconstriction going on with all that, so much abundance of caffeine, that it's restricting blood flow to the brain, which is what they showed. If you look, if we look at another Q&A session I did, number Q— number 8, about 2 minutes in, I talked about some studies showing that higher lifetime intake of caffeine was associated with lower Alzheimer's disease risk. And then there was one study that looked at 282 cognitively normal adults. And then they looked at 129 with mild cognitive impairment.

And they found that people that had no coffee or less than 2 cups a day versus high coffee, which was either 2 cups a day or greater than, the participants with the high coffee intake had A significantly reduced Alzheimer's disease risk reduction. They also had lower amyloid beta reactivity. And unfortunately, the study did not look at the difference between caffeinated or decaf coffee, but that would be sort of counter to, you know, if caffeine was having a negative effect on the brain. Many studies have shown that it also improves cognitive function. There's been randomized controlled trials with that as well. There's another cross-sectional study. So this was— these were not healthy subjects.

So these people, there's about almost 1,000 people, they had type 2 diabetes, and they were aged 65 and older. So they were elderly. And the higher caffeine intake in those individuals was, was associated with improved cognition, improved attention, working memory, improved executive functioning. And also, the relationship was strongest in the older group. So these are people that were at least 71.5 years old. It was— so that was where the caffeine was significantly associated with improved overall cognition and working memory, attention, executive function. There was no significant associations between caffeine and any other— any cognitive factor in the younger age group. But there was an interaction with caffeine for gray matter.

So So people that were 71.5 years or older, the same group that had all the beneficial cognitive effects, also had higher gray matter. So it was like, the caffeine intake was associated with greater gray matter volume and improved cognition. But it took a while because that wasn't seen in individuals less than 71 years of age. So that would be sort of counter to what that other really short, small, high-dose caffeine study showed. And I would say, like, generally speaking, I'm not super worried about it. I think that there's something was funny going on probably with the, with the blood flow with the extremely high dose of caffeine. So that's kind of my take on that study. So I'm looking in the chat here and I see people talking about CGMs.

And I will say this about the CGMs, they need to be calibrated daily. They can be way, way off. Like even the really good ones like Dexcom, which is what I used to use when I wore it for years. I don't wear CGMs anymore, but they really need to be calibrated because they can be way off, like way off. And so, just keep that in mind. Like, if you're just taking it like gospel, that it's likely not. Okay. The next question was about EMF exposure. And, I've had this question a couple of times. So, the most recent question was submitted by Liz. And, Liz says, hazards of EMF exposure? Seems like we're bombarded and with all the cell phone, earbuds, Bluetooth use, Is proximity to the brain a concern? I do like to revisit this question as well.

Mostly, I like to revisit questions where I keep finding negative data because, again, the negative data doesn't necessarily mean that nothing's going on. It just means we haven't found the right conditions to empirically show that it is. So, um, I covered this question before in Q&A session number 9. My general impression in that session— this was 20— in 2020— was that, um, you know, the, the— there was, there was some financial incentives of people in the, the World Health Organization that, um, that were making statements that cell phone use had possible carcinogenic effects. Again, so these were people that had financial ties or were incentivized to make that claim.

And when you actually look at the studies, it seems that all of the studies that showed an association between cell phone use and which— what— and what was head and neck cancers, They all had recall bias, and the only study that did not have recall bias, like through this you know questionnaire about like years and years and years ago, they actually there was no association. So so that was that was that was the conclusion that I came to in in 2020, where it was just the the studies were just terrible that even had any association. I mean, it was like. Almost laughable. There was some additional information from Q&A number 9 that I'm not going into.

But if you really want to dive into that, we covered a lot of like neurodegenerative disease and, you know, dementia and Alzheimer's disease and all of that. So let's talk about some new data since then. So there was a review article published in 2021. And I would say the conclusion mostly having to do with the brain and looking at neurodegenerative disease, it seems like Alzheimer's disease, the relationship between electromagnetic exposure and Alzheimer's disease has not really been confirmed. There's some clinical studies reporting an increased risk of Alzheimer's disease among people with occupational exposure to electromagnetic fields. So these are people that are working in them with high concentrations of the EMF daily.

And in that specific population, which is nothing, I would say not even at all relevant to what any of us mortals that are just using a cell phone are being exposed to, some studies found an increased risk of Alzheimer's disease. Other studies found no increased risk with the occupational exposure. Now, there's preclinical studies in animals with also opposing results. So some studies have found that chronic and repetitive pulse exposure to EMFs can induce beta amyloid accumulation and cognitive deterioration in animals, while other studies have said actually there might even be a neuroprotective effect. So nothing really to conclude from that.

My conclusion is that That if you're not really even— if you can't even find consensus with people that are being exposed to high, high doses, much higher than people are on a daily basis because of their work, then it's hard to make a conclusion from people that are exposed to a much, much, much lower level. So that would— that's for Alzheimer's disease. For ALS, There's been, I would say most of the epidemiological studies have reported there is a positive correlation between EMF exposure and ALS, probably some kind of genetic interaction going on there. It seems to be more pronounced in men. And also there's some animal research that suggests that EMFs might increase You know, some of the some of the core features of ALS.

You know, I would say that that research is still sort of in its infancy and ongoing. If there's any concern that I any anything that I see that's a little more consistent, it's an association between ALS and EMF exposure. But again, ALS is not a very common. It's not like. Alzheimer's disease, or Parkinson's disease even, which is even less common than Alzheimer's disease. So clearly some kind of other possibly you know gene environment interaction, maybe hormone environment as well, because you know men seem to be more susceptible to it as well. With Parkinson's disease, I would say that you know the the vast majority of epidemiological studies. Including meta-analyses, have not found a significant association between EMF exposure and Parkinson's disease.

Now, there have been associations between other environmental factors and Parkinson's disease that are much more significant than EMF. This would be certain pesticides like rotenone, certain like heavy metals, like people that are involved, you know, in like the manufacturing processes and they're like using, you know, like they're breathing in some of the heavy metal dust and stuff, like that's been quite consistently associated with Parkinson's disease. I'd say EMF exposure, really not really convincing. So overall, I think the biggest risk factors for Alzheimer's disease, you know, is being sedentary, is obesity, metabolic syndrome, metabolic dysregulation, excessive alcohol intake. These are things to worry about.

When it comes to environmental factors, air pollution is probably the biggest thing that is pretty, I would say, consistently linked to Alzheimer's disease, not EMF exposure. So if there's really something to be concerned about, it's actually air quality. And then it comes down to choosing your battles. It comes down to choosing your battles. I know there's a lot of You know, there's influencers out there that will hone in on EMF mostly because it, I think, feeds on the fear, a fear that we have. We don't have conclusive evidence of EMF, you know, really being that bad. And so it's kind of one of those things where it's like, well, is it? Do we just not have the data?

And while you can't rule that possibility out, I would say that there's overwhelming data that air pollution is absolutely negatively affecting the brain. And I would be way more concerned with the quality of the air that I'm breathing in more than wearing some earbuds, earbuds, you know, that's, that's kind of my take. Courtney's mentioning something about a gum base in most chewing gums being a blend that has questionable ingredients. If you could post that into the, in the ask a question for next month because I haven't heard about that and that is of interest. I would like to know what kind of proprietary blend that you're talking about. So the gums that I use, I use Epic Gum and Xylachew, and they're both xylitol-based gums, and I, I like both of them a lot.

So those are my, those are my 2, um, go-to gums, and it's, it's really, uh, great for, for, for dental health and preventing cavities. So the next question was submitted by Kristen about inositol. And Kristen says, I've seen research supporting its usage for hormone health, blood sugar control, and mental health, wanting to know if there's any validity to it. It seems as though there's not. So inositol is— it's often referred to as vitamin B8. It plays a critical role in a variety of biological processes. Everything from fat metabolism, there's, you know, it's a cell signaling molecule. The— it is, it's not a true, like, it's not an essential micronutrient because our body does make it, we synthesize it, it does have important functions in the body.

And there's a couple of randomized controlled trials where I see it helps with, for example, with polycystic ovary ovary syndrome, so PCOS. So, there was a study showing that myo-inositol, which is one form of inositol, can improve insulin resistance. It can improve hormonal imbalances and ovulation in women with PCOS. There was also a meta-analysis suggesting that inositol may improve pregnancy rates in some women with PCOS undergoing ovulation induction. So, That, that, that meta-analysis may be where all the blood sugar hormonal health stuff is coming from, because there's not a lot outside of that. So it does, at least in the context of PCOS, seem to improve hormones, improve insulin resistance, which is a problem with women with PCOS.

And then also, it seems to improve fertility as well. So that might be of some interest to some women. With respect to mental health, there have been some randomized controlled trials suggesting potential benefits of inositol supplementation for the treatment of depression, panic disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder. However, other studies have found no effect. So there's sort of conflicting data. I don't know that supplementing with it is necessarily harmful. So in, in some cases, it could be worth a shot. You know, again, it seems to be pretty safe as well.

And then there's also some evidence suggesting that perhaps gestational diabetes, so, so pregnant women who are obese or metabolically you know, have— are metabolically unhealthy, and are at high risk of gestational diabetes during pregnancy, there have been some randomized controlled trials suggesting a potential benefit. There's more, more evidence and more research is really needed to confirm these findings because they're pretty preliminary. You know, and, you know, again, interesting. I'm always cautious when it comes to supplementing during pregnancy. But so that would be something to speak about with the OB-GYN, a person's OB-GYN physician if they are at risk. I wouldn't supplement with it if, you know, if you weren't at risk for gestational diabetes.

But maybe even going into pregnancy or early in pregnancy, if you are someone that is at risk, you could potentially discuss it with your OB-GYN to see if it makes sense. I think what I found the most interesting was the the PCOS because I know a lot of women with PCOS do have fertility issues and hormonal imbalances and metabolic imbalance as well. And so, there have been at least a few studies looking at the myo-inositol supplementation improving that. And so, I think that seems to be, in my opinion, the most sort of encouraging with respect to the inositol supplementation. Stephen's asking if I'm still using the RevGenetics resveratrol M98. I am not. I'm currently not supplementing with resveratrol, but let's talk about something I am supplementing with that I've added.

So the first, I mean, these are rapid-ish fire questions. I would say actually this one's not really rapid fire, but the ones after this will be. So Joanne talks about, asks about berberine. So Joanne says, I enjoyed your lecture on berberine last Q&A. However, there was no mention of its broad-spectrum antimicrobial action. I'm concerned about Berberine, taking berberine for more than 3 months, as I've been led to believe, it can significantly change the microbiome, resulting in dysbiosis, which may end up aggravating an issue needing to be resolved. So for those of you wanting to know what she's talking about with respect to my last Q&A, so in May, I went in depth on the new data on berberine.

By the way, we are adding all this to our berberine topic page, which we have on foundmyfitness.com. If you go to the topics and go to the B section, there's berberine. We have a really comprehensive topic page on berberine. Since we made that topic page, there's been new data. And so there was a new meta-analysis published in 2022, covering a lot of aspects of berberine on, on lipids and cardiovascular health and clearing away arterial plaques. It was so convincing to me that I decided not only was I going to give it to my mother, but I was going to start taking berberine and do an experiment myself, which I have now started. So for those of you interested, go back and listen to Q&A number 47, where I talk about the berberine. I think it's even maybe at the beginning, very beginning.

And we go into quite detail on a lot of the randomized controlled trials. Where it's, I mean, it's not only having a profound effect on, like, you know, in some cases even equal to what, you know, statins are doing with respect to changing LDL, lowering LDL particle number, but also clearing away plaque. And also, when given in combination with statins, was basically making statins more effective, effectively lowering the concentration needed of the statins to do the same, have the same effect that it was having at a higher concentration whilst also lowering the side effects. So there were a lot of side effects that were also not there when people were taking the berberine plus statin. So it was, it was a very interesting, you know, deep dive for me.

So let's talk about this microbiome thing. So berberine's beneficial effects appear There is a dependent interaction with the gut microbiome. And so the composition of the gut microbiome obviously varies greatly among people, and this variation can lead to variations in efficacy and toxicity and things like that. Our understanding of the microbiome is still very limited. It's, it's very difficult to make definitive and final conclusions about the effects of berberine on the microbiome. Also about the effects of other pharmacological and phyto medicinal treatments, right? Because again, we only know what we know, and what we don't know is a lot.

So I would say based on the current knowledge, the scientific body of literature looking at berberine and the effects on berberine on the microbiome, berberine appears to be safe for most people. There are some cases it can cause, you know, temporary adverse abdominal effects, including diarrhea and constipation or even abdominal pain. So I would say there's more long-term research needed on safety for, you know, especially with respect to people that are— that do experience some sort of GI effects. It's probably advisable to start out with a smaller dose. But let's talk about Let's look into the microbiome and what the studies show with berberine and microbiome.

So there's been a lot of studies looking at berberine modulating the gut microbiome and its effects on metabolic function and how that's influenced by the gut microbiome. So the oral bioavailability of berberine is very low. And so this, this means that it's not the intestine, it prevents the intestines from absorbing it, a lot of it. It's actually less than 1%. Bioavailable. The low plasma concentrations following oral administration of berberine, both in experimental and clinical settings, are not sufficient to achieve a lot of the observed effects. So it's kind of challenging. So we get these clinical studies where there's pretty diverse sort of therapeutic effects, you know, happening with berberine. And the question is, how is it happening?

There are studies that show berberine can increase, you know, that when the oral bioavailability of berberines increase, it also can improve metabolic, you know, disorders, it can reverse the changes, and also the quantity of the gut microbiome as well. So the gut microbiome : Cuts down berberine to an absorbable form, which is dihydroberberine, which then converts to, you know, berberine and enters the blood after absorption. The metabolic effect of berberine improvement is dependent on the structure and function of the gut microbiome. So, to some extent, there could be inter-individual differences in berberine's efficacy there because everyone's microbiome is different. Yeah.

But what's important, I think, is that berberine has been shown to induce the death of actually pathogenic and harmful bacteria in the intestines. And it's been shown to increase the number of beneficial bacteria. So it seems as though the antimicrobial effect is very similar to something like garlic, for example, where it's actually decreasing the number of pathogenic bacteria and increasing beneficial bacteria. Berberine's also been shown to improve intestinal barrier function and reduce the inflammation of metabolism, you know, metabolic-related diseases by regulating gut microbiome.

I would be really— so like the whole like lipopolysaccharide link, so lipopolysaccharides released from the gut And this plays a major role in, you know, affecting lipoproteins and cardiovascular disease and atherosclerosis risk. Well, it appears as though berberine can basically affect lipopolysaccharides and short-chain fatty acids and bile acids in a beneficial way. So it seems to be lowering lipopolysaccharide, increasing short-chain fatty acids, It seems to have this beneficial effect on the gut. So if anything, I'm a little more convinced that not that berberine is acting like an antibiotic, but that berberine is actually acting like a probiotic. It's interesting.

You know, and this kind of leads to there's another question we're going to get to about you know gut microbiome stuff and gut issues. But it comes down to oh well. You know, I'm do— I've done a— I'm doing a baseline lipid test. Maybe I should go and do a baseline gut microbiome test through my— I think American Gut Project is the, the best one to— the best place to, to do it. Um, forget Viome. I think they're— I think their, um, their marketing has gotten so far ahead of science that I just— I find it hard to swallow, um, swallow what they're— what they're prescribing. So I haven't— I did not do a baseline gut microbiome test before starting my supplementation with berberine. I could just go ahead and do one after and just, you know, kind of see. Perhaps that's probably what I should do.

But to kind of circle back to the original question, I'm not super concerned with berberine being so bad on the gut, but I am There's always the question of, well, do I cycle it? Do I need to take berberine every day? Should I take it three times a week? Like, and those kind of things, like, like there's just not empirical data on that, right? I mean, for someone that may be trying to use it more like a statin, then you you think maybe daily is the way to go. But maybe for someone that doesn't necessarily need you know that concentration of it, I mean, you don't know until you start measuring things, right? And so that's kind of what I'm trying to do. I want to see what my what my lipids are going to look like after. You know, taking, taking the berberine for, you know, 2 to 3 months.

Lisa is asking about the berberine brand and dose. The brand I'm taking, I believe, is Thorn. And I don't have the dose, but whatever their, their dose is, they only have one berberine. And so that's— I'm only doing, I'm only doing one. So I'm not like, I don't, I don't believe it's as high as some of the clinical studies that I covered in the Q&A last last month is. But when I do a sort of summary of the supplements I'm taking, next time I will have my dose in there. So if someone wants to add the question about, can you give us an update on your supplements? If you add that question to the next month's Q&A, I will address that question because I have added a few supplements. So the next rapid-fire question was from Hillary.

And Hillary asked, you had Dr. Bredesen on your podcast some years ago. I'm wondering if you agree with his protocol. My friend's neurologist says he's a scam, but would love your point of view on his Alzheimer's disease protocol. I think that there are components of his protocol that are very beneficial. You know, I don't— I think, I think Overall, you know, he's trying to get people to make lifestyle interventions that are generally healthy. I don't know that it's necessarily the end of Alzheimer's disease. I do think that there are components of it that are definitely better for prevention than anything else. But also, if you already have someone with mild cognitive dementia or mild cognitive decline, I think also making any positive, you know, lifestyle interventions are good.

So at the end of the day, it just all comes down to he's just trying to get you to make, you know, positive lifestyle interventions. Heidi asks, hi Rhonda, varicose veins run on one side of my family. So far I have some spider veins on my legs and feet. Besides collagen, keiko, exercise, cold heat exposure, is there anything else for healthy veins? Um, this is interesting that you asked this question because my mother-in-law has a really big problem with varicose veins and she started doing photobiomodulation or red light therapy, and has had some pretty astonishing results, at least by the photos she sent me. I've, I've now been getting more into— so we have a red light therapy topic page that we're going to be publishing very soon.

We're right now we're looking at what I'm trying to do is application. And I think in the past, my biggest concern with red light therapy has been the marketing ahead of the science, as always, companies claiming this and that and this and that. And the biggest problem is that like the most important things with these studies have to do with the protocol, they have to do with the wavelength of red light, they have to do with the device use, how close it's being used, is it like in contact with the skin, and they have to really do with the irradiance. The irradiance is so important. And I see companies not listing their irradiance. And, and so I recently bought a— it's like omni luminescence. It's like a mask that I'm gonna put on my face.

And I reached out to the company and I asked them, they had all the red, red light wavelengths that were accurate for improving collagen production for actually improving, like dark, like age spots and sunspots. But they didn't have the irradiance. And that was what was most important for some of these studies. And so I had to email them and ask them their irradiance. Turns out the irradiance was within the range. I don't remember it off the top of my head, but it was within the range that I was looking for from the studies. And so, I'm going to be trying that out. And, my goal is with the topic page in addition to having all of the science and what the science shows is to evaluate some of the commercial products available so that you guys can find some use there as I am trying to do.

James is asking if there's labs that can test exact output of our IR device. I don't— not— I mean, there might— I haven't seen— I haven't come across— I haven't searched for it, so I don't really know. I mean, you know, when you reach out to the company and you ask them, if they're lying to you about that, I mean, they can get in some trouble for that. So I would be hard-pressed to think that they would lie. I think they'd be more likely to just ignore your email if they didn't want to tell you. So I mean, I think the best way is to reach out and ask for You know, what the specs.

I think with the topic page, again, what I'm trying to— I'm getting my team to do, they did it like there's a good job with looking at this science, but I want them to go back and I want to— I want, you know, for each designed outcome, okay, let's say we're looking for varicose vein reduction, we're looking for collagen increases in the skin, we're looking for hair. That's another one I'm looking into. There's hair regrowth. And so I'm looking, I'm just reaching out to the company that makes this, basically this like cap you can put on your head. And I want to know what their irradiance is because they don't put it on their site. You know, if the irradiance doesn't match what the, what the, what the science is showing is required, then it's really kind of like pointless, you know.

So I want to get those, um, the irradiance and the wavelengths, like the most important you know, I would say parameters that are used in these studies that show benefits for each because they differ for each outcome you're looking for, right? It's not just one irradiance for all for improving my varicose veins or— and also, you know, making my arthritis pain go away. Each one has a different parameter. And this is also why there's so much conflicting data within the scientific literature itself is because like everything, there needs to be a consensus where scientists come together and they like, this protocol works, these parameters don't work, and let's come together and start using the same parameters because that's the only way you're going to start to get repeatable data.

If you have someone using a higher irradiance than the other ones, and then it's like, well, the irradiance is important because that's going to make it penetrate, you know, past the skin barrier and down to where you you're going. And, you know, there's so many different things that are important there. So that's the, that's the age-old problem, though, with, with any type of clinical study. But I am becoming more convinced in the power of photobiomodulation and red light therapy. I do think that it all comes down to finding the commercial device that has the right irradiance. And I also like, I don't like At the time that I was initially asked about red light therapy, people were asking me a lot about one specific company. It was Joovv at the time.

And there was like, you kind of stand in front of this device and I was very skeptical. I think some of these other devices that are coming out where it's like you put it on your face, put it on your head, they're a lot more similar to what you're finding in the research studies as well. That's not to say that juve isn't going to work for anything. Again, it all comes down to the protocol, the parameters, and knowing those are what's key. Mimi asks about C-reactive protein. Can I discuss the C-reactive protein biomarker and how one might come to have a very all of a sudden high number despite other good biomarkers? Obviously, so C-reactive protein is a biomarker of inflammation. Any type of illness.

I'll tell you one thing, one illness that really keeps it elevated for like months is COVID. Anyone that's had COVID-19 might find suddenly their C-reactive protein much higher than it usually is for a couple of months after. So keep that in mind. Illness, any illness in general does, does, you know, acutely raise C-reactive protein. But it seems as though COVID-19 seems to raise it for a longer period of time. The other thing is menopause. So from a woman, like, you know, a standpoint from being a female, and if all, you know, all of a sudden your C-reactive protein, which has almost been undetectable for years, and then perhaps you're going through perimenopause and then menopause, That could potentially also lead to higher levels of C-reactive protein.

Interestingly, there have been, I would say, too few, but some evidence that magnesium supplementation—so this would be about 350 milligrams a day—can lower C-reactive protein in people that have higher C-reactive protein. Not necessarily just women with menopause, but like I'm just saying in general. 350 milligrams a day. And, and, and 3— and by the way, 350 milligrams a day was no, was no worse than taking 500 milligrams a day. So it seems as though if someone was taking 350 milligrams a day and they already had a high baseline C-reactive protein, 350 milligrams a day seemed to lower that C-reactive protein pretty significantly. So that, that's something to consider as well. Joe says, what is your thought on taking collagen supplements? Do you believe in its efficacy?

Do you still take Great Lakes collagen peptide? So I— we have a hydrolyzed collagen topic page. It's very good. And I put it together and, you know, with my team, and after doing so, It just confirmed my already, you know, the reason why I was supplementing with hydrolyzed collagen powder. I used Great Lakes hydrolyzed collagen powder. I don't use their marine one. I'm using just their regular, their bovine one. But I do believe in its efficacy. And I do still use it, still use Great Lakes. I think that that's a pretty reliable brand. So, there's a question from Lee Chip Turner. They said, I finally got a Freestyle Libre 3. My workout plan has been sauna 4 days a week, weight and cardio. However, these super expensive sensors work for 14 days and say do not use in the sauna.

How do you, you, how do you use your sauna and use your CGM? Well, I used Dexcom and I always brought it, I always took it in the sauna, and it was, it was, it was fine. It kind of gets a little funny in the sauna, then goes back. On the German Freestyle Libre website, they have a facts page, and it says that what happens to the sensor when it's worn at warm temperatures above or below the recommended temperature range, for example, in a sauna, is that the sensor stops working due to the extreme temperatures, but— and the user will receive an error message like glucose reading not available. But then after returning to normal temperature range, the sensor, the sensor becomes functional again and then can work.

So I would suggest calling the company and asking if that is the case, if you can just wear it in the sauna and then, you know, it'll not work while in there, but if it'll go back to normal, because that's what it says, at least on the German facts page. I'm not sure why they don't have it on the American one. Okay, Christian says, I've heard your body can only process 30 grams of protein every 2 hours for the sake of building muscle. Is there any benefit at all to exceeding 30 grams per sitting? I've heard Dr. Attia and others talk about getting 40 grams per sitting. Also, I'd imagine someone who is 250 pounds would need to exceed 30 grams per sitting to get their sufficient daily protein.

So the, the quote unquote 30 grams of protein in one sitting, that idea sort of comes from the concept that the body's protein synthesis rates, so the process by which cells build new proteins, begin to plateau after around 30 grams of protein in a meal. However, I think it's crucial to understand that this does not mean the body cannot absorb more than 30 grams of protein in one sitting. The body can absorb and process significantly more than 30 grams of protein per meal, but the efficiency with which it uses that protein for muscle building or muscle protein synthesis does decline.

So the idea that consuming protein beyond 30 grams— so I guess the idea is that if you go beyond 30 grams of protein in one meal, Some of it might be oxidized for energy or even converted into glucose or fat rather than for muscle protein synthesis. That is definitely possible. Also, the study behind the guideline that was done by the researchers that, you know, they found that 20 grams of whey protein consumed every 3 hours was more effective at stimulating muscle protein synthesis than either larger, so 40 grams or smaller, 10 grams consumed in the same pattern throughout the day. But I think there's other factors that can affect optimal protein intake in one setting. So one would be physical activity, right? So the physical— this is where the physical activity comes into play.

So I mentioned, okay, let's say you're eating more than 30 grams in one setting. Is some of that protein now being used as energy? Is it being converted into glucose or fat? Well, that may be dependent on your physical activity. So if you are physically active, then your body is very efficiently using utilizing protein. So if you're doing strength and you know and endurance training, I would say the protein needs are higher. Also age, right? So older adults may need more protein per meal to stimulate muscle protein synthesis because of the anabolic resistance, right? They become more resistant to the effects of amino acids on stimulating skeletal muscle. Protein synthesis. And then there's also, there could be a slight difference in the type of protein.

So different protein sources have different digestibility and different amounts of essential amino acids, which can affect protein synthesis. So, you know, the animal, you'd have to probably take in more of the plant-based proteins than animal-based proteins, right? Because there's, there's more essential amino acids in the animal-based Proteins, and then also there's the distribution of protein intake. So spreading the protein intake sort of evenly throughout the day might be more beneficial for muscle protein synthesis than doing it all in like you know one or like a couple of couple of meals. So I think that the the bottom line is really you know the body can absorb more than thirty grams of protein in one setting, but for maximum protein synthesis.

You know, obviously, adding in that, like, with resistance training is key. It might be more beneficial to spread it throughout the day. There's more research needed on this to really fully understand everything. And the inter-individual needs obviously can differ as well, depending not only on age and activity level, health status, but also perhaps even there's some genetics we don't, we don't really know. So I think I think that sort of answers that question about the the thirty grams in one meal. There was a question from Lauren about, so Lauren says, "Can you give some suggestions for tests to find out details of gut health and as well as treatments for dysbiosis?" My fourteen-year-old son was on antibiotics for three months following a case of.

Chronic osteomyelitis, which was following a wrist fracture with temporary— a temporary pin. He's been taking Visbiome, and I try to keep his diet clean, but it's hard for a 14-year-old. So obviously, given the prolonged antibiotic use, that would be a concern. I can't— I'm not a physician, so I just can't recommend anything. But like, I can— there's some tests and stuff that like I would do and some lifestyle changes that are, I think, pretty, pretty, pretty healthy that, that seem pretty, pretty benign. So for stool testing, I mentioned the American Gut Project. I think that they're the best out there for stool testing, looking at microbiome composition in the gut. There's the hydrogen breath test as well.

I mean, this, this measures the amount of hydrogen, like your physician could do this. It measures the amount of hydrogen in your breath, and it really is a test for indicating whether or not there's overgrowth of bacteria in the small intestine. So that would be small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, or SIBO, as it's called. There's definitely all kinds of problems with the hydrogen breath test, but it is something that you know the SIBO could come come into play with prolonged antibiotic use, and it could be something to. Potentially measure. Another one is an organic acids test. So this is a urine test that measures byproducts of metabolism that could provide indirect information about gut health. Genova Diagnostics is who I've used in the past when I've done an organic acids test.

So that again, it's one of those things where you get an abundance of information. And I don't necessarily prescribe to this whole more information is better. I think, I think that when you get all this, like, you get all this data, and it's like, oh my gosh, what do I do with it? And it's not necessarily— so don't, you know, it's something to kind of like the organics acid test, like, if there's a couple of things that really are on the spectrum, where they're dysfunctional or different, That's what I focus in on. I don't just look at everything or little things. It's like when you see something that really stands out, I think that might be something to look more into, look into deeper, not every little thing that is a little different, if that makes sense.

So those are some of the tests with respect to the gut health. Obviously, lifestyle factors, you mentioned VisBiome, that's a really good high-potency probiotic medical food. There's other probiotics that are also really helpful, like Bio-K yogurt. So the Bio-K Plus yogurt is really, really— you can mix it in with smoothies. Mix the— what I like to do is I mix the Bio-K yogurt with the VisBiome with some like berries, you know, which have beneficial prebiotics, prebiotic fiber, which is the next thing I was going to mention. So prebiotic fiber feeds beneficial gut bacteria. So that would be, you know, things like that are berries that are high in it— raspberries, blueberries, strawberries. But there's also— they're also found in oats.

So you do— you could soak overnight, you could do overnight oats in yogurt with the Bio-K. And then, you know, that's also very beneficial as well. And then You could— there's some prebiotic, you know, there's some prebiotic supplementation, you know, that's also optional, optional as well. So you can supplement with prebiotic fibers as well. And then there's diet, you know, a whole food varied diet. You know, things like the yogurt I mentioned, kefir is another one. I don't think 14-year-olds are really going to eat much more than those. I mean, sauerkraut and kimchi are probably off the table. Hydration is important, obviously, you know, making sure the 14-year-old is drinking a lot of water because the mucosal lining of the intestines really, they need, they do need a lot of water.

So that helps balance the beneficial bacteria in the gut. Stress management as well. Physical activity is super important for gut health. There's now been a few studies looking at, you know, how physical activity itself can change the gut microbiome in a beneficial way without you know, any, you know, necessary, like, prebiotic or probiotic supplementation without any dietary changes. So, you know, in the, in the case of a 14-year-old, you know, whatever their, their favorite sport is, making sure they're doing that. For all of us out there, just making sure that we're physically active, it really makes a big difference on the gut microbiome.

Adequate sleep, stress management, you know, you know, doing hobbies, things like that that help because stress also negatively affects, affects the gut microbiome as well. There's a question from Francis about medical-grade Botox or hyaluronic acid fillers crossing the blood-brain barrier, if there's any, you know, long-term effects on the brain. I haven't seen any scientific evidence suggesting that Botox or any of the hyaluronic acid fillers like Versa can cross the blood-brain barrier when used in typical cosmetic or therapeutic dosages. There was a question also about choline deficiency and altered choline metabolism and showing up in genetic report and whether in addition to eating eggs, you know, if there's a supplement that is that is good.

Also, because choline has been shown when supplemented during pregnancy to improve, you know, IQ and neurocognitive outcomes in children. So the brand that I like is Pure Encapsulations. They make a good sunflower phosphatidylcholine supplement. It's 550 milligrams in 2 capsules, which is, you know, a pretty good dose. The next question was from Corey asking about some future research and technologies that I'm excited about. I would say that I really got excited about some of the technologies that George Church was talking about. So baseline editing, this is a really, really— it's a form of CRISPR gene editing that is pretty precise right now.

There's a clinical trial looking at the doing baseline editing in the liver of people, altering the PCSK9, which is kind of like preventing people from having to take PCSK9 inhibitors, which are, you know, doing beneficial things, lowering ApoB, lowering LDL particles number, and also even lowering the Lp, which is what statins do not do. So, Baseline editing is an excitement of mine. And then also, gene therapy, that some of the gene therapy treatments that George Church is doing right now, he's doing them in canines, he's doing them in dogs. But I think that for those of us that are really interested in longevity science, that's the future, and that's probably where it's going to be.

So, I'm pretty excited to see what his dog study is going to show us because dogs are a lot more like humans in their in, like, environmentally, you know, they're not just like in a little cage, a little sterile environment. They're— they live much more like humans do. And so I'm excited to see what the gene therapy results show in that study. Courtney asked me about how I handled fluoride at the dental visits with my son. She says, I have a 7-month-old that's got their first upcoming dental visit, and I use a xylitol toothpaste right now. So I waited for the xylitol treatments that the dentist does. I waited till about the age of 4 and a half before I, uh, before I did that.

Um, and my son has like, like the teeth are perfect, no cavities, no, no, like never any problem with plaque or anything. And we do xylitol toothpaste. Kristen says, I would love to hear all your insight on constipation, natural solutions or ways to stay regular. I think smoothies are a really big important one. I really have been adding them back. I kind of like slacked on them for a while. And now I've got them back. I'm like doing the like, the hardcore green smoothies that like, don't taste good. So right now what, what I'm doing is like I do chard, kale, romaine lettuce, and avocado and, and sometimes like just a few berries, and I just mix it up and I just down it.

And so what the idea is to get like a big salad in just like a really easy, like without sitting there and have to eat the whole salad. So I'm getting, I'm getting the, the, all the nitrates and stuff and just all the important things that are in the greens. So I really think that's important. Also, I've heard a lot of really great things from people that have constipation issues and gut issues. With psyllium husk. And this kind of goes back to the question from the mother, Lauren, about the, you know, person that her son taking antibiotics for 3 months. I think that psyllium husk is a really great option for people as well. And that is a prebiotic fiber.

And it is, it's really It's really been, like I said, I get so many anecdotes from people that it really improves their regularity with their, you know, constipation and stuff issues. So I think those are all great things to kind of have in your tool chest. Okay, everyone. Well, thank you so much for another great Q&A and Please submit your questions for the next Q&A early. I look forward to reading them and doing some deep dives, also for doing some— lots of the rapid-fire questions. So, AG is mentioning in the chat about psyllium husk may be irritating for some people. There's always inter-individual differences for sure, and making sure you drink lots of water is very important with the psyllium husk as well.

So I hope you guys enjoyed this Q&A, and I, like I said, I really appreciate all the support. We have a great podcast coming out with Dr. Chris McGlory on omega-3 and how omega-3, high-dose omega-3 supplementation improve basically can negate muscle disuse atrophy. I think this has huge relevance not only for people undergoing you know a surgery or injured or elderly people who don't exercise, but I think just for all of us like. You know, we think of disuse atrophy as this thing that happens when we're undergoing an event where we're being severely immobilized. But like, there are times when we just go through periods of activity where our activity declines a little bit.

Maybe we're sick, maybe it's colder outside, maybe we're really busy with work or our kids, and we aren't as physically active as we usually are. Like, that's also a type of, I would say, you know, immobilization. It's much less severe, but disuse atrophy also occurs there. So that's coming out hopefully next week. I hope you guys listen to the sauna, um, the sauna sleep podcast I put out, which actually included some clips from our last Q&A where we covered the effects of heat therapy on slow-wave sleep. This has been a great Crowdcast, and I look forward to next month. I will talk to you guys all really soon. Have a great month. Bye.