Q&A #7: How Long Should You Breastfeed?—Infant Nutrition & Vitamin D

Happy New Year, everyone! I'm super excited to start 2020 with this Q&A round 7. Before we get started, I wanted to just tell you guys that first of all, thank you for all the great questions. I have looked at all of them. Some of the questions require a little more deep dive. So for example, a question, a top voted question was what my thoughts are on dairy consumption. So those types of questions that really require a pretty comprehensive literature review, I'm gonna hold off on and get back to at a later date, perhaps even dedicate an entire session to that. question itself. But with that, I just wanted to let you guys know that I do see all the questions, and I am actually downloading them after each Crowdcast.

So sometimes I— if I don't get to your question, I may even go back to that question in a future Crowdcast. Again, these are happening once a month. So I see someone asking in the chat how old I am. I guess I might as well tell you I'm 41. So let's jump on in. First question was from Tony. And Tony says, your talk with David Sinclair made me wonder, is taking supplements like PQQ, CoQ10, creatine, and others actually bad for you in the long term? They produce more short-term benefits for training, I assume more energy for the cells, but actually make you age faster? So that was sort of a long, multi-part question because Tony mentioned a variety of different compounds. So let's kind of start with talking about creatine.

I think creatine is very interesting because about 40% of all of the methyl groups, which are epigenetic factors that are generated from precursors like folate or choline, and they're used in changing gene expression, so changing the way genes are activated, turned on or turned off. Well, 40% of those methyl groups actually go to make creatine. So it's a really— creatine's a really big sink for methylation. Uh-huh. And so, there's been a variety of studies showing that taking supplemental creatine can actually free up some of those methyl groups that are usually taken, you know, to make creatine. And, you know, so there's some— some thoughts that maybe creatine supplementation may be useful for people with genetic polymorphisms in genes like the MTHFR gene.

Creatine stores phosphate groups, which then can later be used to generate ATP. And so this really creates an energy reserve that is available during times of stress, for example, illness or injury or even exercise. So it's been shown that exercise does stimulate the activity of the creatine kinase enzyme. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. And creatine is also very important for brain function. Uh, it— you know, creatine does cross the blood-brain barrier through a transporter. So, um, I think that's all pretty, pretty, uh, useful information to know. Probably one of the most effective types of creatine supplements is creatine monohydrate. Um, it's about 80% more bioavailable. And what— one potential side effect may be water weight gain though.

Also, if it's not taken with enough water, then there could be possible negative impacts on the kidneys, but that's really everyday use of it. I'm not sure that creatine monohydrate is something that should be taken every day. Prolonged high levels of creatine can actually suppress creatine uptake into cells. So, you know, if you're thinking about supplementing with creatine, It may be something to consider cycling like 2 to 3 days a week. The main place it's stored is in skeletal muscle. Let's see what else. Protein intake can actually stimulate creatine transport into cells, and that's because mTOR activation, which is activated by a variety of different amino acids, stimulates creatine transport.

So for those trying to increase muscle mass, pairing it with amino acids and taking it, you know, around the period of time when you're working out maybe give— may give you the best results. So for me, you know, it's something— there hasn't been really, really long-term studies on creatine supplementation. So there's, there's not— it's not really known, you know, long-term if this is having a negative effect. Like I said, you know, possibly with the water retention and The effect on the kidneys if you're taking it daily may be something to consider, but there's just no data to know either way. CoQ10 is another important compound that's— it's made in the body. Ubiquinone, it's the oxidized form of CoQ10, and that needs to be converted into ubiquinol, which is the reduced form. Yup.

Ubiquinol, the— and you can find supplements of CoQ10 either in ubiquinone or ubiquinol form. And ubiquinol is superior. You actually need about 3 times more ubiquinone to equal the same dose as ubiquinol. And that's often why you can find ubiquinol is more expensive in terms of buying supplements. I personally have Yup. I've on and off taken ubiquinol, a higher dose, 100 milligrams from Pure Encapsulations. I have no affiliation with them. I just like their— many of their supplements. The thing that's really, I think, important to know about supplementing with ubiquinol is there may be a certain population of people that should be supplementing with that. And that population of people are people that are taking statins.

So statins are drugs that, you know, lower blood cholesterol levels by blocking the— an enzyme in the liver called HMG-CoA reductase, which is responsible for making cholesterol. Statins also block the production of something called mevalonate, and that's a precursor for CoQ10. So what happens— what ends up happening is people can become they can have inadequate levels of CoQ10 if they're taking statins. And, you know, that can have a variety of effects on, you know, energy production, on muscle, muscle mass, you know, muscle wasting and muscle issues are also a big problem with many people that are taking statins. So I do think that that is something to consider.

Also, there have been There have been some very small clinical studies looking at the effect of taking ubiquinol in people with Parkinson's disease. So Parkinson's disease, it causes a loss in dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra. And a lot of this has to do with dysfunctional mitochondria, and CoQ10 is very important for mitochondrial function. And so there's been some very small but promising clinical studies showing that Supplementation with a high dose, even up to 200 milligrams a day of ubiquinol, can improve Parkinson's symptoms. And so that's also very sort of an interesting thing, you know, where there might be a couple of subpopulations that really do benefit from taking CoQ10. Again, I think ubiquinol is superior than ubiquinone.

That would be people with Parkinson's disease and also people that are taking statins. PQQ is another interesting supplement because, well, it's actually— it's made by several species of bacteria. It's actually a cofactor for their metabolic enzymes. So bacteria in the soil make it and plants take it up from the soil and then that's how it enters the human diet. So humans eat a variety of plants and so we get PQQ from the plants. It's actually really concentrated in breast milk, interestingly, like very, very concentrated in breast milk. Yeah. It has unusual antioxidant activity. So it seems to be really specialized for mitochondria, but it can undergo like 20,000 catalytic cycles.

So if you compare that to something like vitamin C, which undergoes 4 catalytic cycles, meaning it, it has antioxidant activity and then it gets oxidized. When it's oxidized, it can be reduced again and have antioxidant antioxidant activity, and that can happen 4 times with vitamin C. Well, PQQ, it can happen 20,000 times. It's really huge difference there. There have been a couple of clinical studies that have shown that supplementation with PQQ, about 20 milligrams for 12 weeks, 20 milligrams a day, can improve cognitive function and improve blood flow to the brain in people. Another clinical study has also shown that it, again, 20 milligrams a day, it was able to decrease biomarkers of inflammation and oxidation and also improve mitochondrial efficiency. And these were in humans.

There's been a variety of preclinical studies in animals showing it improves mitochondrial biogenesis, which is the production of new, healthy, young mitochondria. Just huge benefits in terms of mitochondrial function in lots and lots of animal studies. Again, no super, super long-term studies out there. And that's something that's a very common denominator in these randomized controlled trials because they're so expensive to do. We often have to rely on biomarkers of health as opposed to long-term studies looking at disease outcomes. I personally do supplement with PQQ. I don't particularly see any reason why it's going to be bad for you in the long term. But, you know, it's— so far, I've been convinced that the evidence is that it's really good for mitochondrial function.

Clinical evidence showing that improves, you know, blood-brain flow and cognitive function and mitochondrial function, all that stuff is pretty convincing as well as just the plethora of animal data out there. And, um, I personally take— so people are asking in the chat what brand of PQQ. So I take Life Extension. And Life Extension is kind of, you know, I've got a few supplements that I like, Thorne supplement brands I like. Thorne is one, uh, Pure Encapsulations is one, and then lower down on the list, Life Extension is pretty reliable in my opinion. I don't have any affiliation with any of those companies. I just take their supplements. So I want to move on to the next question, which is sort of a new topic. It has to do with scar tissue.

So James asks, is there a natural mechanism in which the body eats up scar tissue? Fasting is the only thing I have heard of that might help with that. I read an article suggesting that ultimately 40% of all human death is related to scar formation. Is there a way to make the body break it down, particularly on the retina, face, and vital organs? So it is important for wounds to heal quickly and in order to prevent infection, but you don't want it too robustly, right? Because that can promote scarring. So overly fibrotic wound healing can lead to excess scar information, formation. And there's 4 stages of wound healing. There's hemostasis, inflammation, proliferation, and tissue remodeling. And within these 4 stages, they often overlap— there's often overlap between them.

There are numerous interactions between the fibrotic and anti-fibrotic growth factors. So, you know, there are growth factors that are saying, you know, promoting the fibrosis, but there's also sort of other growth factors that are kind of keeping that in check so it doesn't Go out of control. When it does go out of control, it can lead to the scar formation. What's really interesting— there's— before I get into the interesting stuff is there's really no super effective gold standard for the treatment or prevention of scarring. I'll just say that upfront.

But what I found really interesting in reading about this, and it relates to another question which I'm going to get to right after this, which has to do with senescent cells and their role in wound healing, is that a compound called quercetin, which is— it's found in a variety of foods. Onions are high in it. It's found in berries and in tea. Well, it's recently been identified as being a senolytic compound, which means— senolytic compounds are Compounds that can actually get rid of senescent cells. And quercetin has actually been shown to, in multiple studies, get rid of the formation of scars. And so, for example, there's been— quercetin has been shown to increase the time of wound closure so that process isn't taking so long.

When that process isn't taking so long, perhaps then you're not having, you know, the out-of-control fibrotic tissue formation happening. Topical application of quercetin promotes wound healing, and this has been shown in preclinical studies and also in clinical studies, and it effectively sort of modulates the growth factors and cytokines and all that stuff that are being produced. It doesn't stop them, it's just sort of, it's kind of keeping them in balance like I mentioned earlier. And there's lots of mechanisms of action that have been proposed. All these signaling pathways have to do with collagen and a variety of inflammatory molecules that may promote fibrosis and things like that.

What's interesting is that the quercetin, probably one of the most popular scar topically Topical scar treatments that are out there is called Mederma, and it's a combination of quercetin and silicone. Silicone's also been shown to improve scar formation when applied topically. Now, there have been some preclinical studies looking at oral quercetin and the prevention of scars and treatment of scars with, with some modest You know, efficacy. But you know, quercetin is one of those things where it's a xenobiotic. It's you know metabolized pretty pretty quickly, so you're not getting a huge amount of absorption of it and things like that.

There's a variety of other natural compounds that have also been shown to improve the scar formation, scar in the treatment, and also the formation, and also help treat it afterwards. And these are things like apigenin, which are found in onions and apples and parsley. And galangin, which is found in honey, EGCG, which is found in green tea. And so these are all things that have been shown in— mostly those have been shown in preclinical studies, in animal studies, to help with treating scars and also prevent the formation of scars. So the reason I think that is just so interesting is because Uh-huh. Again, quercetin is a senolytic compound, and that means it's able to— to clear away and get rid of senolytic— senescent cells.

Well, James asks, you know, are the senescent cell subtypes that cause inflammation responsible for most of the symptoms of aging also those that are needed for wound healing? And if so, if we wipe out all of our senescent cells, then are we going to have a problem with wound healing? So, the interesting thing is that— so, senescent— some senescent cells are actually, again, you know, they are secreting cytokines and things that are promoting and accelerating aging of nearby cells. And— but at the same time, some of those senescent cells that are doing that are really important for the wound healing process. There's a mouse study that showed that senescent cells are really important for wound healing, and it helps to accelerate the wound healing process, things like that.

In aging though, senescent cells are chronically present. So, with wound healing, a senescent cell is transient. So, it only transiently appears, and that's a very— that's very interesting. It's not— it's not— the same senescent cell type that is responsible for aging, so to speak. So it's a senescent cell that kind of is very transient, kind of appears only for the wound healing process and then it disappears. More research needs to be done to sort of investigate that whole process. I know Dr. Judy Campisi, who I interviewed on the podcast a couple of years ago, is is very interested in looking at the role of these weird senescent cells in wound healing.

But again, I don't exactly understand the link between the quercetin, which gets rid of these, you know, these aging senescent cells and how quercetin actually also seems to promote wound healing. There's a link there. There's gotta be a link there for sure. It's just sort of a big unknown. So great question. I hadn't even thought about, you know, those things. All right, let's move on to the next question from Brad. Brad says, Mercury! Can you please discuss the types of fish to avoid that contain higher levels of mercury, if frequent sauna use will detox mercury, and what steps you would take yourself if you were exposed to a lot of mercury.

So first of all, probably one of the best rules of thumb is that larger fish like sharks, swordfish, tuna have much higher levels of mercury than smaller fish. Probably— so the way I go about it is looking at the ratio of omega-3 to mercury in the fish. So like Atlantic salmon, wild Alaskan salmon, sardines, these things all have— oysters, tilapia, they have about 2 micrograms of mercury per 4 ounces of cooked fish. And whereas albacore tuna has 40 micrograms of mercury per 4 ounces of cooked fish, and swordfish has 147 micrograms of mercury per 4 ounces. So I would say that you should probably never eat swordfish.

I remember I was— when I was pregnant, I went to get some, some fish tacos at this sort of local place that has fresh fish that I like, and their special of the day, you know, I got their special of the day. And after I ordered it, I thought— I was like, wait a minute, what kind of fish is in that? I was just assuming, you know, salmon, because I always get these salmon tacos. And then he said swordfish, and I was like, no, you can't serve swordfish, especially not to pregnant women. So, um, I definitely would avoid the swordfish. It's just got so much mercury in it. Fish with the highest omega-3 is, um, wild salmon, wild Alaskan salmon. And interestingly, I looked, and I, I will link to this in the timeline that we put on the Supercast podcast feed.

I'll link to some of these, these sites. The FDA has some good sites on advice about, you know, fish with the lowest mercury levels and things like that, and also fish with the highest omega-3. Interestingly, farmed Atlantic salmon has pretty comparable levels of omega-3 as wild Alaskan salmon. That doesn't mean all farmed salmon, like from other places, but farmed Atlantic salmon. And that was actually a surprise to me because there were some other publications looking at farmed salmon. I believe it was Norway where their omega-3 levels were just plummeted. But apparently that is not common for all types of farmed salmon. So sardines, anchovies, herring, Atlantic mackerel, oysters, rainbow trout, black cod.

Sort of in that order-ish is like the highest omega-3, and all those are also low mercury fish. So mercury. Methylmercury is probably the— it's the major form that humans are exposed to, and it actually binds to sulfur compounds, sulfhydryl compounds in proteins. The half-life of methylmercury in humans is about 70 days. So with approximately about 90% of methylmercury being excreted in humans through feces, so in the stool. Bodies, you know, our bodies will naturally get rid of it through liver, kidneys. Obviously, it's best to avoid too much exposure. There's some interesting studies showing that sulfur peptides like beta-mercaptans found in garlic, for example, Uh-huh. Can bind really well to methylmercury and help excrete it. There is some evidence that mercury is detected in sweat.

It's not the major form of how mercury is excreted, but it has been detected in sweat, which means that yes, exercise and yes, sauna, things that are making you sweat will likely also help you excrete mercury. Um, there's also, you know, some, some chelation therapy that's been shown. There's different compounds like DMSA and DMPS that, that can also bind to mercury and increase the mercury excretion through urine. Um, I have never really looked into that sort of chelation therapy that extensively, so I don't know how much You know how much of it's really legitimate. It seems like it—it seems like it could be, particularly because the methylmercury does bind to those compounds.

But for me, I actually another really interesting thing is that the cooking—the way the mode of cooking has been shown to reduce methylmercury in fish before you consume it. So eating raw fish, for example, has like sushi would have. much higher levels of methylmercury than if you were to roast your fish, for example, roast your salmon. So another related question has to do with salmon roe. And I don't have the name of who asked this question, but they asked— they say, my salmon roe article talks about the importance of phospholipid DHA. Particularly from wild salmon roe, but wild salmon roe costs a fortune here in Sydney, Australia. So fresh mullet and flying fish roe are less expensive, but I can't find the phospholipid DHA content of these. And mullet are bottom feeders.

Does this negate the nutrition of the roe? I would love to get your perspective. So first off, I will tell you that we I will be. I'm gonna put together a table with the omega-3 content of a variety of roe species. But the flying fish roe, and I'm not sure about the mullet, but the flying fish roe does have phospholipid DHA. So, you know, that is another option. What I'll do is link to the, in the, again, in the SuperCast, Timeline that we post, we'll— I'll link to it in, in the SuperCast feed so you guys can, you can have that information in your podcast feed. So people in the chat are saying that consumption of selenium, which is also actually very high in fish, also can help to chelate mercury. That's interesting. I was not aware of that. It's something that I would like to read about.

But it's also interesting that, you know, selenium is also high in fish. So in a related question, Jared asks, if you don't have the means to only buy wild-caught, grass-fed, free-range, organic, are there any food products you would not recommend buying unless it has one of those labels? So I would say, generally speaking, you know, if you're talking about like free-range, you know, free-range eggs, they have higher levels of certain micronutrients like lutein, which is very highly concentrated in dark leafy greens like kale and Swiss chard. And, you know, so I'm not sure it's like a huge, you know, if you're, if you're buying eggs, if you have to get the free-range.

I mean, they can be, or they can be much more expensive actually than, you know, just regular, even regular organic eggs, which generally Uh-huh. Organic doesn't necessarily mean grass-fed or free-range, but most of the times what it means is that they're not being fed antibiotics, growth hormones. And I think that's probably the most important thing to avoid. You know, the grass-fed meat, uh, free-range chickens and all that, you know, there's been a few publications showing there— the animals have higher levels of omega-3 and lower levels of omega-6 fatty acids. Uh-huh.

Which generally, I think if you're eating enough, if you're getting, um, enough omega-3 from eating fish, the, the fish that's low in mercury and high in omega-3, or supplementing with fish oil, then, you know, getting the omega-3 is the big deal. And if you're not eating a bunch of foods that are high in omega-6 like vegetable oils, that's one of the really major sources of omega-6 in, uh, at least in, in, in the United States. Anytime you're eating out, for the most part, most restaurants are using one form of omega-6 to— to cook, you know, vegetable oil. But generally speaking, I don't think— you know, it's nice to have the grass-fed because you're— you're getting a— a better nutrient profile, but I don't think it's the sort of make-or-break deal.

What I do think is— is good is to get— get those— those meats and stuff or animal products that do not have antibiotics because antibiotics can make their way from animal products into humans, and that can have, you know, a chronic effect on things like the gut microbiome. And also growth hormones that are given to animals can also exert effects in humans as well. So I would say that that would be the main thing. That doesn't necessarily have to be grass-fed, but you can get meat that is not given antibiotics, you know, or hormones. With respect to organic produce, there's— and I'll link to this in the Supercast feed— there's a Dirty Dozen list and a Clean 15 list.

So like the Dirty Dozen list is sort of like, you know, certain foods that really, really retain the pesticides that you should probably Try to get organic, and those include things like strawberries, spinach, kale, apples, nectarines, grapes, etc., tomatoes, celery. Where, and then there's you know there's a list where you know some some foods that have the pesticides on them have much much lower levels. Things like avocados, onions. Eggplant, asparagus, cabbage, cauliflower, cantaloupes, broccoli. So those, so those are sort of some of the foods that may not be so essential. Bananas, to get organic. So I'll link to that in the Supercast. George says, so surprised that Rhonda is recommending farm salmon. Very disappointing. I'm not sure you quite understood what I was saying, George.

What I was saying is that I went on to the FDA website and looked at a variety of fish species that were— they looked at DHA levels. They looked at EPA levels and they looked at combined DHA and EPA levels and comparing the wild Alaskan salmon to one particular type of farmed salmon, which was the Atlantic farmed salmon. The both the DHA and EPA and combined DHA EPA levels were very, very similar, which was surprising to me because I had previously read studies where farmed salmon had much lower levels of. DHA and EPA. And I believe the farmed salmon was from Norway, and I'm not sure exactly what type of farmed salmon. So with respect to that one type of farmed salmon, looking at the data only, it was comparable, which again was shocking to me.

So Laura is asking, where do we find the Supercast for the links she's mentioning? So you on your members dashboard, there's a link to, to the private podcast feed, which is called Supercast. And you can find that at foundmyfitness.com/dashboard. And you can then download that podcast feed to your mobile device, and then you will have access to it. So the next question is from Nick, and he says, in an earlier Crowdcast, you addressed sodium intake for athletes. I'm curious about sodium, potassium, and magnesium supplementation For those who are on a ketogenic diet and exercise daily like CrossFit. He says, I've read the Keto Gains material and tried to supplement 5,000 milligrams of sodium and 3,500 milligrams of potassium and 500 milligrams of magnesium.

It cured my morning calf cramps, but that's a lot of salt. What are your thoughts? So the Keto Gains post that Nick was referring to on the electrolyte balance while on a ketogenic diet cites a study that involved around 100,000 people that where sodium intake, sodium and potassium intake were measured by excretion. So the people with sodium excretion between 3 grams and 6 grams a day, those people had the lowest risk of cardiovascular events, whereas people with excretion that were lower than that, 3 grams, or higher than 6 grams, in both cases, either lower or higher, was associated with a higher risk of different cardiovascular events. So the other thing they found was that potassium excretion was associated with a lower risk of major cardiovascular events. So Yeah.

The question is— the interesting thing is that it seems as though at least if you look at some of the studies with electrolyte balance in the refeeding phase after a fast, eating a super high-fat meal after your electrolytes sort of are imbalanced from fasting can actually aggravate it more. Whereas, of course, a carbohydrate-rich diet can help you retain those electrolytes. I'm not sure if that's related at all to to to what's going on with the ketogenic diet, but there was a relatively recent—I believe it was 2018—study that was looking at athletes that were put on a ketogenic diet. What was interesting is that they were.

They were advised to increase their sodium intake and to maintain adequate hydration to prevent any types of orthostatic symptoms, types you know cramping and things like that. And the people so so the people that were on this this low carb ketogenic diet with a you know salt intake, they were they were actually guided to take around one to two grams of sodium and from either bouillon. Bouillon cubes or homemade broth. So that's a little bit lower than the 3 grams, 3 to 5 or even 3 to 6 of sodium that was mentioned by Keto Gains. But again, the way that study assessed sodium intake was through excretion. So it's not necessarily clear that people were eating 3 to 5 or 3 to 6 grams of sodium a day.

They were excreting a lot, but again, it's not a direct measure of how much sodium they were taking in. I think that historically people on a ketogenic diet do have lower potassium levels. In fact, most people aren't getting enough potassium. A great thing to know is that you can get potassium from avocados. Avocados are a great source of potassium, and that's also very, you know, a ketogenic diet-friendly food. I would say that 3 to 6 grams of sodium a day does seem like a very high level, particularly because there are a lot of single nucleotide polymorphisms in genes that interact with salt intake. So some people that either have one of these alleles, so they're heterozygous, or have 2 of these alleles, can have much, much higher blood pressure with salt intake.

People without these alleles don't seem to be so affected in terms of salt intake and blood pressure. For anyone that has a 23andMe or AncestryDNA data, we do measure those salt-sensitive SNPs in our genetic report. So make sure you guys run your data through our genetic report so that you can see if you have those SNPs. Uh-huh. So I think ultimately, you know, trying something where you're getting sodium from some bouillon cubes or homemade broth and, you know, increasing your potassium from getting— eating a lot more avocados and pistachios are also really high in potassium. I think that sounds like a much better winner to me. That might be something to try. So the next question is a— I'm just going to briefly mention this.

It's from Jennifer, and she's asking about specific genes that can make metformin or Variety— variety of NAD boosters like NMN more or less effective? So, um, I will say first of all, I'm, I'm not a big fan of metformin for healthy, physically active individuals. But for people with type 2 diabetes, yes, there are poly— gene polymorphisms in metformin transporters OCT1 and OCT2 that may alter a person's response to metformin. There's also been some study, clinical studies looking at delayed metformin delayed release, which has been shown to have much greater efficacy in terms of lowering blood glucose and also having less side effects like high lactate toxicity levels compared to metformin non-delayed release. There's also some SNPs with respect to NAD boosters like NMN or NR.

There's There's SNPs in the NAMPT transporter which has been shown to affect a variety of different factors with respect to metabolism and hyperlipidemia, et cetera. But I'm not too sure about, you know— How relevant those really are in the grand scheme of things. So Alex asks, in your previous Q&A, you mentioned that you are using multivitamin— a multivitamin. What do you think about nutritional yeast for vitamin B supplementation? Is there any downside to using nutritional yeast daily? So there are downsides could occur if nutritional yeast is introduced too quickly or at too high of a dose. So excessive yeast can cause digestive issues like bloating and pain. Tyramine can trigger migraines in people that are sensitive.

Also, facial flushing can be a side effect due to really high niacin content. People with IBD also may be really sensitive to yeast and their symptoms can worsen. Yeast themselves aren't making B12, but some brands of nutritional yeast, not all of them, are fortified with B12. So, um, something— just something to keep in mind. But that's all about— all I have on the nutritional yeast. Okay. The next question is also related to supplementation from Mark Dittman. He asks, is calcium carbonate a a bar thing to supplement with. So should you not supplement with it? There have been— when you take excessive calcium through supplements, there have been risks associated with that, cardiovascular disease, dementia, and prostate cancer. I would say the evidence is not definitive.

It's mostly from epidemiological perspective studies, so more research is needed. Um, there's also some, some evidence that calcium carbonate supplementation may increase the risk of kidney stones in some individuals. Uh, too much calcium can compete with other minerals like magnesium, zinc, and iron for absorption. Uh, so it could exacerbate other deficiencies in people that are getting low levels of those, those minerals. Um, the other thing is that lead has been found in some calcium supplements from natural sources like oyster shell, uh, shells. And calcium carbonate and calcium citrate are the most common supplements. They're the cheapest. It's the most elemental calcium form. They're also most constipating and require stomach acid for absorption.

So for best absorption, it's best not to take higher than 500 milligrams. Take it with food. Also, older individuals that have low stomach acid, that may not work well, as well as people that are on proton pump inhibitors. I think that, you know, if you look at the NHANES data, about 43% of the U.S. and about 70% of older females actually take supplemental calcium. Personally, I don't take supplemental calcium. I choose to try to get my calcium from food. You know, that's that's my major source. Calcium is actually high, believe it or not, in a lot of plant sources too, like greens. But it's also obviously found in, in nuts and in dairy as well. By the way, one of the top voted questions was whether or not I think dairy is healthy or not, and that will be a question I will be addressing.

It's one of those deep dive questions, very comprehensive, requires comprehensive review, that I will be answering in a future Crowdcast. Okay. So Alex is asking in the chat to avoid breaking a morning fast and to meet the increased circadian bioavailability of resveratrol. Do you recommend with a small dose of fish oil, or does that break the fast and/or represent too high a level of fat? So the reason Alex is talking about taking it in the morning and taking it with fat is because both of those things have been shown to increase bioavailability of resveratrol. I would say that the evidence that that higher fat. Improved the bioavailability of resveratrol was from actually food that was from a more balanced— it wasn't just fat.

In fact, the really, really high, high fat lowered the bioavailability. It was a sort of a moderate fat along with some protein and carbohydrate. So it was really more of a balanced meal. So I think food that contains fat is kind of more the important factor. Uh, so I'm not sure the, the small dose of fish oil, how that really will affect bioavailability or not. I would say that, you know, the amount of fat in fish oil, I'm not sure it's necessarily gonna break your fast. You know, it's, it's probably not a huge deal. Honestly, I wouldn't, I wouldn't sweat too much. So Alex asks, Rhonda, in one of your articles, I mentioned taro— you mentioned taro stilbing. Several sources compare it to resveratrol suggesting that it is superior. What is your opinion on this?

So I would say that there Pterostilbene has a— what's called a methoxy— methyl— methoxy, uh, oxidation at one of the— through 2 of the positions, um, of resveratrol, which kind of leads it to pterostilbene. So it's a very, very similar compound. It's structurally different, um, but it has been shown to display higher bioavailability and bioactivity compared to resveratrol in animal studies only. There are way, way, way more clinical studies looking at the effects of resveratrol compared to pterostilbene.

There have been some interesting sort of concerning studies with pterostilbene showing that it can increase LDL cholesterol levels, and that's also been shown in a study with the the supplement Elysium, which, uh, the Elysium makes a supplement called Basis which has nicotinamide riboside and pterostilbene in it. That was also shown to have a small increase in LDL cholesterol in people that took, took that supplement. Um, so I would say that I, you know, it's really not known if pterostilbene is a replacement for resveratrol, particularly with the LDL cholesterol thing, because resveratrol on the other hand has been shown to do the opposite. It really improves improves lipid profiles.

So I would say for now that it's safer to go with the greater body of evidence in terms of clinical evidence, and that would be resveratrol. So for you guys wanting to learn more about resveratrol, I released a podcast, an audio-only podcast on that. You can find that on your SuperCast podcast feed. I also released it on iTunes as well. But I recommend you checking that out. It was a— a really good podcast. Stefan asks about the MTRR and MTHFR polymorphisms. He said he recently ran his DNA report through our website, found that he has MTHFR and MTRR which both affect homocysteine and choline metabolism.

He said that his serum folate and B12 levels appear normal on a blood test and he's wondering what other tests he should do to figure out whether or not he needs to supplement with various types of, you know, B types of vitamins. I would say probably the major, major thing to do for people with any type of MTHFR or MTRR polymorphism is to measure homocysteine levels because that's really the— really the indicative factor of whether or not You're you're getting enough the precursors to perform methylation, you know, effectively as well. So that would be that would be the the first step is if if your homocysteine levels are okay, then you know it seems like all should be okay. All right, so here's a new topic. Lance asks about phytic acid. Said is phytic ax acid a concern?

It seems to be conflicting and heavily opinionated via theory. Do you have any thoughts on how to guide choices relative to this, or do you even have any concern with phytic acid? So phytic acid is found in a variety of plant foods. It's thought to be an anti-nutrient because it can lower the absorption of different minerals like iron, zinc, calcium, During which, you know, if the meal is eaten. So it's not like, you know, eating something that has high phytic acid and then eating, you know, taking a supplement, a magnesium supplement later on in the day. It's not gonna affect that. So it's within the meal that you're eating. Foods that are high in phytate are grains, nuts, and legumes.

There are methods of preparation that can lower phytic acid like sprouting, soak— Soaking, fermenting—these things all can reduce the phytic acid content. Cooking also as well. So you know a cooked, for example, cooking your vegetable will lower the the phytic acid content versus eating the vegetable raw. I would say people that are following really restrictive diets like vegan or vegetarian diets. may pose a problem if they're not eating a really balanced— if they're not balancing everything and perhaps not supplementing. It's mostly a concern in people like in developing countries. You know, people that are, you know, in Sub-Saharan Africa and they're not eating balanced diets and they're getting a lot of rice and, you know, the rice is bound to the zinc and stuff.

And so you're not— they're not getting all the zinc and so zinc deficiency becomes a an issue. I don't know of it being a huge issue in terms of causing mineral deficiencies in the US. In fact, people that are eating higher levels of vegetables, leafy greens, nuts, legumes, those things actually seem to have better levels of things like zinc and— or sorry, things like calcium and magnesium. So iron and zinc are inhib— they are not very well absorbed in the presence of phytic acid. Now heme iron and heme zinc are well absorbed in meat, and even actually in the presence of phytic acid, it's a little different, whereas the non-heme iron is affected by phytic acid. So you do need a lot more of iron from spinach, for example, than if you were getting your iron from meat.

But I would say that right now there is little evidence from nutritional surveys that in well-nourished populations like in the United States that phytate has a real negative effect on absorption of minerals. And interestingly, there's some in vivo evidence in animals and some in vitro evidence, which I find much less convincing. The only time I would like to mention in vitro evidence which essentially means dumping something on cells in a Petri dish, is in the context of a larger story where things have also been looked at in animals and ideally in humans as well. But there have been studies showing that phytic acid can have cancer-killing properties, and so it may even help kill cancer cells.

So I would say, for the most part, I, I don't, I don't see convincing data that phytate is a problem for most people in, you know, industrialized nations. I worked, you know, a friend of mine, Dr. Janet King, she's like the world's leading expert on zinc. Um, you know, she's a variety of clinical trials she's conducted. Um, you know, several, several friends of mine have been involved in those studies where they were trying to find ways to increase zinc absorption And this was all because of people in developing countries that were eating, you know, rice and things like that and grains, and they're not preparing them properly. And so they're not getting a lot of the zinc, they're not absorbing it.

So it can be a problem for people that are, you know, not eating a nutritionally balanced diet. And I think that That's about all I have to say on that. So Andrew asks on a related note in the chat, he says, what are your thoughts on oxalates? I massage my greens in water, specifically kale, very well before putting it in smoothies or eating it raw. He wants to know if oxalates are a worry. So first of all, oxalates are not very high in kale. Oxalates are high in spinach. So raw spinach would be a major source of oxalates. Cooking the spinach can, you know, change that. But Uh-huh.

I think that if you're eating tons and tons of raw spinach or doing tons and tons of raw spinach in your smoothies every day and you're not getting enough magnesium with that, magnesium can sort of change the solubility of that, which is interesting because magnesium is also very high in spinach. I'm not sure it's a huge problem in most people. But again, kale is not something that's really high in oxalates. Spinach is. I think that's a common misconception. But I do personally like to cook. I generally— so my go-to smoothie, and I think this was a little— this was another question as well, if it's changed. And generally right now my go-to smoothie is kale, avocado, and just a little bit of blueberries.

And I So a lot of you know that I've been wearing a glucose, a continuous glucose monitor, and so I've been measuring my response to a variety of foods. And so I've basically, you know, I like to keep my blood glucose level definitely below 120 when I'm eating a meal ideally. So I've actually been sort of even, you know, for the most meals, I like to have it, it really stays around like 100. Okay. You know, 100, maybe sometimes up to 110. But so I've optimized my smoothie where it doesn't get me above 120. So, and that's nanograms per deciliter. I'll get to some of the broccoli sprout questions later since that's a topic I cover a lot. I wanted to kind of start with some of the new stuff. So Andy asks about TMAO and choline supplementation and should we be concerned?

So there was a study in animals in 2019 that was published that showed high intakes of dietary choline or TMAO supplementation did not influence atherosclerosis. In mice that didn't have the ApoE or LDR receptor. There's been an updated review on the gut microbiome and its impact because the gut microbiome plays an important role in generating TMAO. TMAO has been associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular outcomes. But dietary trials have not associated choline-rich foods or circulating TMAO levels with cardiovascular risk. Animal data has shown mixed results. So that updated review concluded that TMAO plays a role in atherosclerosis, although it's not very dramatic.

And as such an effect, it may actually be masked by genetic factors and, and, you know, types of microbiome species. Fish might contain elevated choline levels and TMAO, but that's balanced by omega-3 as well. So there's recent research that have suggested that choline, phosphatidylcholine, L-carnitine, and betaine are metabolized by gut bacteria to produce TMA, and again, depending on the gut bacteria and things, it can be converted into to TMAO. I would say that further, really there's there's got to be more research done on you know whether or not choline supplementation is a concern. So far, it's, it's really not clear that it is.

And what's interesting, there's been a variety of studies looking at different forms of choline supplementation and how it improves brain function in young people and also in elderly people, elderly people with memory problems. So there's definitely some randomized controlled trials showing at least, at the very least, short-term benefits. Yeah. In terms of supplementing with various types of choline, phosphatidylcholine, alpha-G6, which is another type of phosphatidylcholine. So, I'd say that the jury is still out and I will continue to do a deeper dive on that topic and we will revisit it probably in a couple of months just to see if there's some more evidence that was overlooked.

Dean asks, with regards to genetic testing for ancestral or genetic-based diets, it seems like a lot of genetic tests are only testing for SNPs, whereas companies, other companies like The DNA Company, are going a lot deeper and testing on a deeper level. Would just love some clarity surrounding the current state of the genetic health test and if it's best— what the best tests are in terms of giving us clues about diet and things like that. So I will say that right now we're really in the infancy in terms of understanding the interaction between our genes and our diet and other lifestyle factors. Yeah. Growing field. Often it's referred to as nutrigenomics.

Whereas I think looking at more than just the SNPs and going deeper and looking at even non-coding regions and stuff of DNA is very interesting, we don't even right now understand what these SNPs are doing. And the SNPs are the most frequently studied in the scientific literature. So I would say for right now, it doesn't seem really worth it to kind of go deeper just because we don't understand what it all means yet. Doesn't mean that's not going to change in the future as technology is advancing and our understanding of, you know, the human genome is advancing and things like that. I think that will become more relevant. But as for right now, I think we're even having a problem understanding what the SNPs are doing. And those are frequently studied.

So I would, I would save the money and not, not go on the deeper level just yet. So Beth, Marchitelli is asking, what are the benefits of including animal protein in your diet since animal protein increases IGF-1 versus sticking with plant protein and elevating IGF-1 intermittently from exercise? And I think this, this type of question is an excellent question that requires deep dive, comprehensive literature review. that I will be covering in future Crowdcasts. You know, I'll have some more of these deeper dive topics that'll take up much more time to talk about 'cause they're extremely nuanced and complex topics and require looking at comprehensive data, everything from epidemiological reviews to randomized controlled trials to animal studies, just looking at the broader, you know, and comprehensive literature out there.

So there were some broccoli sprout questions, and I'm gonna kind of answer some of, some of those questions now since I got through some of that new stuff. So the first question on this broccoli sprout topic was, are you still consuming broccoli sprouts regularly? How much do you consume and how often? Do you still follow the protocol of heating them for 10 minutes? Is there any further research on the topic? Any concerns with negative consequences or effects from their consumption? Any concerns with consuming too much? Am I heating them as you suggested, freezing them, and then put— he says, I am heating them and freezing them and then putting them in, um, about 70 grams in a smoothie. And that was a question from Jason. Nap.

So, um, let's start with the, the question on any further research on that. I would say, um, I'm— there's been tons of animal studies that have come out and showing benefits like, you know, improving Alzheimer's disease symptoms and all sorts of stuff, but I'm going to stick to the clinical research since, uh, that's the most interesting and relevant. Um, Last year, well, actually now 2 years, it was 2018 since we're now in 2020, there was yet another clinical study that found taking close to around 20 milligrams of sulforaphane a day for a week increased blood glutathione levels and this correlated with an increase in glutathione in certain brain regions and this was in healthy people.

And this was, in my opinion, A very interesting study because it's the first time to show— it's the first study to show that something supplemental can increase glutathione levels in the brain in people. They used a very specific type of MRI imaging to look at that, and that correlated with increased levels of glutathione in the blood. Glutathione is one of the major endogenous antioxidant systems in the body, hugely important in the brain. And so I think that was a really great study that was done. And again, that was in 2018, it was published. And so that was probably some of the best newest research that has come out clinical-wise. In terms of concerns with consuming too much, well, for one, there's always the GI concern.

And you'll— anyone that's eaten large quantities of broccoli sprouts will know what I'm talking about. If you're getting GI problems, that's probably too much, I would say. But the other concern— there's been a concern that sulforaphane may be a goitrogen, which means it may compete with iodine for transport into the thyroid. And then Uh-huh. You know, that's— that's the concern of it being a goitrogen because then it's thought, well, if it's a goitrogen, it may disrupt the production of thyroid hormones particularly for people that are iodine deficient or have hypothyroidism.

So first of all, there's a clinical study where healthy people given an amount of isothionates that's roughly equivalent to what you would find in 70 grams of broccoli sprouts Didn't have any negative effects on their thyroid hormones, or they didn't they didn't demonstrate any liver toxicity. So the question is, okay, well that was healthy people. What about in the context of even higher doses and in the context of iodine deficiency, which by the way is a very rare thing, particularly in the United States where most people are eating iodized salt. So there was a study in 2018. This was a long-term animal study. That gave rats very large quantities of broccoli sprouts. And there were 2 groups of rats. One group was fed large quantities and they were iodine deficient.

And the other group of rats that were fed large quantities had— they were hypothyroid. So they were given a compound that caused them to have hypothyroid. And what this study did was confirm the other studies done in healthy— which is— what's done in healthy rodents that found broccoli sprouts even in very, very large daily quantities do not have any harmful effects on thyroid homeostasis even in the context of iodine deficiency. So TSH, T3, T4, they were all unchanged in these animals. And in the animals that had hypothyroidism, broccoli sprouts actually had a beneficial influence on the antioxidant balance in their thyroid gland.

Now, I would say that those two things—the humans, the healthy humans, and then the animal long-term animal study where the animals were actually even iodine deficient and there was no effect—to me says that it's probably extremely difficult to consume amounts of broccoli sprouts or sulforaphane that's going to basically. Uh-huh. Cause you to have thyroid problems. And as Dan is mentioning in the chat, I was recently a guest on Kevin Rose's podcast and I talked in great detail on this topic, and I'm actually going to repost this podcast on the FMF podcast very soon. Kevin gave me permission to do that, so you guys will get to hear much more about sulforaphane and the amount of sulforaphane in broccoli sprouts.

Since I don't have all those calculations off the top of my head right now, another part of that question had to do with the heating the sprouts to a certain. Degree. I don't do that anymore. In fact, Dr. Jed Fahey said that was not necessary. So actually right now I've been supplementing with prostaglandin and I've increased my dose to 20 milligrams a day. So I take 2 tablets. I'm going to get back into sprouting, but I've also found a nice farmer's market little place nearby that sells the broccoli sprouts and other microgreens that I really liked. I got them last weekend and I made, you know, put them in my salad and I was eating them. So until I get back to the sprouting, that's also something that I'm going to be doing.

And this isn't— this is related to another question from Donald who says he's very— he does not like blending the broccoli sprouts and drinking them. they have a very pungent taste. It's definitely an acquired taste. Um, and so he's asking for recommendations to sort of help with that. And I would say, um, for one, you know, adding lemon to it is— does help for sure after, after it's blended up. Um, there's also supplements like Prostafane and, and the, uh, Admicol. Um, Uh-huh. Another thing that's really interesting, and this was, you know, my husband Dan had a long conversation with Dr. Jed Fahey, I don't know, about a week or two ago, and he was asking him about Moringa and how if Moringa has, you know, it's another isothiocyanate and it's— Jed has referred to it sort of as the broccoli sprout of the East.

It's commonly found in Asia, India. So there is a moringa powder that has been tested by Jed and his colleagues. And the powder is called Kuli Kuli, K-U-L-I, K-U-L-I. And he says that That actually seems to have similar activity to sulforaphane. I have no affiliation with the brand at all, but I'm going to try it. So this is something that you can add to your smoothies as well. So it's something I'm interested in trying. I have not tried yet, but that's another potential option that I'm pretty excited about diving into. Ken Adler is asking if he would get the benefits of broccoli sprouts if he took them on an intermittent basis, say 2 to 3 days a week instead of, um, or 1 week out of a month. Um, I would say so.

Many of the biological effects that are exerted from sulforaphane have to do with the activation of the NRF2 pathway. At least in animal studies, that's been shown to be activated for at least up to 48 hours, so it's possible that taking it every couple of days may you know you may still have lasting effects. One week out of the month, I'm not sure that's you know personally I like taking it every day. Alan says I have read several times that sulforaphane inhibits telomerase, which is an enzyme that helps rebuild telomeres. I understand that with cancer, that could be a benefit. However, if it is true that sulforaphane inhibits telomerase in healthy cells, would it not result in shorter telomeres in those healthy cells if a person were to take large amounts of it?

So, Alan, um, all of that evidence, 100% of the evidence, is from in vitro work where sulforaphane is being dumped onto cells in Enormous, enormous concentrations that you would never, ever, ever, ever be able to achieve, even if all you ate was broccoli sprouts all day, all night, constantly. So I don't see really any relevance of that type of data. Not to mention, in addition, human studies, clinical studies have shown that eating broccoli sprout extract or Brussels sprouts or sulforaphane in some form or another lowers oxidative DNA damage in lymphocytes by like 30%, increases glutathione levels significantly. You know, these are things that are associated with longer telomeres. Um, you know, lower oxid— DNA damage is one of the major things that decreases telomere length.

Most cells don't even have active telomerase with the exception of stem cells and sometimes you know, lymphocytes and a few other cells. So I would say that what's much more likely is that sulforaphane is actually helping you maintain your telomeres based off of human studies where it's lowering, significantly lowering oxidative DNA damage. The reason DNA damage is one of the major sources of telomere shortening is because one of the main purposes of telomeres is to protect your DNA so that your DNA doesn't acquire a mutation that could potentially lead to cancer. And so telomeres, they take the hit, so to speak. They're— when there is oxidative damage around, they take the hit so that your DNA doesn't. And as a consequence of them taking the hit, they get shorter.

But what they're doing is ultimately protecting your DNA from acquiring a potentially oncogene-producing mutation. Chris asks, will dairy consumption deactivate sulforaphane compounds? Not that I'm aware of. Oh, Jed's on this call. Awesome. All right. So the next question has to do with the NAD increasing benefits. So the question was, Improved vascular health, improved muscular health, improved cognition, improved sleep, DNA repair, all these things, insulin sensitivity, all suggested by Dr. David Sinclair in the podcast he did with him, have been verified as true in animals. And, and so the question is, is there a case that this has also been shown with other animals that are more relevant to humans like non-human primates or humans in general?

Have there been clinical studies showing these benefits? Because I would like to make a case with my doctor to take NAD boosters like NR and NMN. I would say that generally speaking, the NAD boosters NR and NMN have only shown benefits in animal studies. in mice. I'm not aware of any non-human primate studies. And the clinical studies that have looked at NR and NMN, there's no published clinical studies on NMN, but the NR studies, what they've virtually shown is that NR supplementation can raise plasma levels of NAD+. There was one study with nicotinamide riboside and pterostilbene where blood pressure was lowered. Interesting. But it's unclear whether or not that was due to NR or pterostilbene because pterostilbene has also been shown in other clinical studies to lower blood pressure.

So I would say that right now it's really unclear whether or not NAD boosters are gonna have any clinical benefits in humans. I really recommend you go back and listen to the podcast I did, the NAD podcast I did, a solo cast, which was sort of a research summary of the existing data. Because I talk about reasons why there's some hurdles to be overcome in terms of these NAD boosters having clinical effects, mostly relevant to dose. In animal studies, very, very high doses are used and it's ubiquitous because when high doses like that aren't used, the nicotinamide riboside and nicotinamide mononucleotide don't get transported to other tissues.

Now, that doesn't mean they don't form NAD in other tissues 'cause they can form NAD in other tissues, but there's a feedback inhibition so they can only raise NAD levels to a certain amount. Whereas when the nicotinamide riboside or nicotinamide mononucleotide themselves are transported to other tissues, they bypass a certain feedback inhibition and can actually raise NAD levels much, much higher, and that's when you start to see clinical benefits in terms of improved memory and vascular effects and cardiovascular effects and endurance effects and all those things that are published in these animal studies. We are getting ready to release a video.

This audio podcast that I put out, my team and I put together a video with all these slides so you can learn much more from that video that's going to be coming out really shortly. I'm excited to share that with you guys soon. All right. I'm going to end here with a little bit of the toddler breastfeeding topic. So India asks, can you tell us some of the things that you did to optimize your son's health or development since he was born? I'm a new mom and I would love to know how you've approached diet, supplements, routines, etc. Thank you. And there are also some tag-along questions here that have to do with what the common deficiencies are in toddlers. So I think Andrew asked that question. So I'm going to talk about that right now.

I would say one of the main, main things that I have done is omega-3, DHA, high DHA supplementation, both during breastfeeding, during pregnancy— well, starting during pregnancy, but pregnancy, breastfeeding, and then getting preformed DHA to my son. Uh-huh. And— and the way I do that is I— I take one of my high DHA capsules and I cut it open and I put it in his oatmeal with lots of butter and he just eats it up. So, whereas during fetal growth, calories can help promote fetal and, you know, growth, they're not sufficient for brain development. Brain development, appropriate neurodevelopment requires a sufficient intake of protein, zinc, iron, choline, folate, iodine, and the omega-3 fatty acids, as well as vitamins A, D, B6, and B12.

And if you— failure to provide those key nutrients during that critical period can actually result in long-term, you know, brain deficits. So the common toddler deficiencies, omega-3. So consumption of DHA and EPA from foods contributes, you know, so mostly those are found in marine sources. It's a very small amount, you know, in children. Children are only getting about 40 milligrams of the preformed DHA and EPA. In 2015, there was a really big study that, you know, showed eating fish actually even fish that, you know, the fish that has particularly fish that was high in omega-3 and low in mercury is still even protected against toxic effects of mercury in a developing fetus, which is the most sensitive to mercury.

And there was another study that was published, huge, huge meta-study looked at looked at not only prospective studies, which are associative, can't really establish causation, but they also looked at randomized controlled trials in children. So the studies looked at pregnant women and also young children that were either given fish or eating, having a high intake of fish or not. And it was found that the mothers And children, even in randomized controlled trials that were given fish, had improved intelligence scores, like significantly improved, even up to like 9 points. And, and these children also had higher levels of mercury as well, but they had higher levels of DHA, which superseded whatever, you know, minor effects the, the mercury had.

Again, we talked about early in the conversation, there are fish that are high in omega-3 and lower in mercury. that you can eat, things like salmon, wild Alaskan salmon, or like I mentioned, the farmed Atlantic, at least that's the only one I know of that's farmed salmon, sardines, herring, mackerel, those fish that are fatty also are high in omega-3, and those ones are lower in mercury. Smaller fish are lower in mercury. Uh-huh. So I try to give— I try to get my son to eat salmon in some form or another, and he'll eat little amounts of it. And like I said, I also supplement him with fish oil. I was also taking— during breastfeeding, I was taking, you know, 3 grams a day of DHA, and that, you know, was being delivered to him in breast milk. I'll get to that in just a minute though.

Iron is another one, particularly infants between 6 and 11 months. They have a low— about 10% of those— Infants have a low intake of iron. Of course, iron's high in meats. You know, fish is another one that you can find iron in. I was actually giving my son when he was doing solid foods, like when I was— when he was— when I introduced solid foods at around 6 months, I would blend up some salmon. I would cook the salmon and blend it up with either cooked cherries or blueberries and I would blend that all together. So it kinda gave the salmon a sweet taste. Uh-huh. And he really liked that when he was young. Vitamin D is a really important one.

Only 21% of infants and 74% of toddlers— sorry, 21% of infants actually met the adequate intake for vitamin D, and 74% of toddlers were below the estimated average requirement. So vitamin D drops are what I do. I use Carlson brand. I have no affiliation with them, but I usually give him— so the Carlson brand is about 400 IUs per drop, and I usually put like 3 drops on my finger and stick it in his mouth. And I do that daily. Vitamin E is another one. 82% of toddlers are below the estimated average requirement for vitamin E. A really great source of vitamin E are nuts, particularly almonds. Mm-hmm. Almond butter is a great way to get it. Um, you know, toddlers obviously— um, my son eats nuts. I chop them up. I cut them.

Um, but my son has a very— he's had a very good, you know, mastication where he can chew things very well. So I think, you know, it depends on what stage of development your toddler's in. Um, but nuts are obviously a choking hazard, so they need to be cut up. Um, again, almond butter is really high. If your child has a nut allergy, um, another great source of vitamin E is olive oil. Also fatty fish. Magnesium, only about 36% of children have— sorry, 36% of children have intakes below the average, estimated average requirement for magnesium. Dark leafy greens like spinach. Again, almonds are high, so almond butter is a great source. Lima beans, oats, avocado. Uh-huh. Um, those are also great sources. Um, those are things that I also give my son. Um, potassium is a big one.

So, less than 1% of toddlers met or exceeded the average intake of potassium. So, good sources of potassium that at least my son seems to like are, uh, baked potato with skin on it. That's a really good source of potassium. Uh, yogurt. He likes yogurt. That's also a good source of iodine, fat, protein, calcium. Avocado is a great source, bananas, pistachios, and lima beans. Again, pistachios, you know, depending on what stage of development your toddler's in, you may have to cut them up really small, or maybe they're still unable to even chew small pieces, so you would have to either do a pistachio nut butter or choose an alternative food like an avocado or lima beans. The thing about the lima beans that are great is Fiber is another big one that toddlers are really deficient in.

Less than 1% of toddlers met or exceeded the AI for fiber, AI being adequate intake. So lima beans, lentils, navy beans. So lima beans have the other micronutrients I mentioned like magnesium and potassium. They're also a great source of fiber. Butternut squash is a great source of fiber. It's also high in one of the forms of vitamin A. Pears, raspberries, those are great sources of fiber, and almonds. So in general, fruits and veggies are pretty good. And then fat, about 1 in 4 toddlers has lower than recommended fat intake. And so, you know, most toddlers are reaching their fat intake. But again, nuts and nut butters, olive oil, butter, avocado, fatty fish, olives, those things are great sources of fat. Eggs, which are also a great source of choline, which is really important. Uh-huh.

for brain development. So these are things that I try to give my son. My son does a lot of eating of nuts and nut butters and almond butter, and he eats a lot of butter and eggs. So as a related question, I'm not sure I can pronounce this person's name. C-V-E-R-D-U, Sverdu, or Kverdu. They ask the duration of breastfeeding for optimal infant health and breastfeeding effects on mothers and child's long-term and long-term health and longevity. Like, what's the best? So I like to go with the World Health Organization and the American Pediatric Association, they both recommend at the very least 6 months, but optimally at least 1 year. World Health even goes to say extended breastfeeding for 2 years. I actually have done the really extended breastfeeding, a little over 2 years.

But I am going to just talk a little bit— I'm going to touch a little bit on some of the breast Milk benefits. I'm going to go into this in much, much more detail. I have an article we're getting ready to release and a video we're going to put out and a podcast we're going to put out on this. But breast milk really is is just really ideal for for feeding infants. You know, there's there's over 200 different what are called human milk oligosaccharides that have been identified. They're the third most abundant factor in breast milk and human breast milk after lactose and fat. And these human milk oligosaccharides, or HMOs as they're called, seem to have co-evolved specifically with the purpose of feeding the beneficial bacteria in the infant gut.

And really, this helps set up the immune system through a variety of production of what are called short-chain fatty acids, which are signaling molecules that play a role in immune cell production and function. And also recently it's been shown that these HMOs can help break down biofilms that bacteria create to protect themselves from being killed. So, you know, there's just so many important antimicrobial agents and HMOs that are in breast milk. It's also been shown that infants with low levels of these types of good bacteria which are fed by the HMOs, they have a 3 times higher risk of allergies by the age of 2.

Again, because, you know, the gut microbiome plays a major role in immune system, immune function, and, you know, allergies are associated with, you know, dysfunctional immune, you know, cells. Yeah. So the other thing that's very interesting is that breast milk actually contains stem cells, the type of cells that are called mammary stem cells. And there's been some interesting animal studies that have shown that these stem cells actually seem to help establish other organs in terms of like other cell types in those organs. And in mice, they've been shown to even help to get into the brain and help form neurons. Uh-huh. Super, super interesting stuff.

Um, there's also just immune cells that are in breast milk, and what's really interesting is that depending, you know, if the infant gets sick or even if the mother gets sick, the amount of immune cells that are produced in breast milk just amplifies enormously. And I'll get into this into great detail in the video I put out, but, um, that plays a role in helping fight off virus and bacterial infections and things like that as well. And there's even been some animal studies showing that, in fact, it doesn't seem like even after breastfeeding is stopped that there's benefits that these immune cells have that are lasting against different types of infections. And so I thought that was a super interesting thing.

One of the things that's also very cool about breast milk is that it's— there's a double-edged sword because what you take in shows up in your breast milk. So you can, you know, you can chalk yourself full of great things. Like I was talking about how I supplemented with 3 grams of omega-3, high DHA every day, you know. And like there's been studies showing that women that lactating women that supplement with 400 milligrams of DHA in their breast milk contain 123% more DHA in their breast milk than women who took a placebo. And, you know, again, there's— there's those other studies, both prospective and randomized controlled trials showing that DHA is, you know, associated with not only proper brain development but higher IQ as well. Uh-huh.

There's also studies showing that mothers who took a DHA supplement had lower plasma levels of omega— the ratio of plasma omega-6 to omega-3. So they actually had a higher omega-3 to omega-6 ratio, which is what you want. You know, so taking— taking good things, you know, also taking a prenatal. I took a prenatal throughout my— throughout the time I was breastfeeding. As well. But there's a double-edged sword to this because other things that you take in can also end up in your breast milk, like drugs or antibiotics if you're taking.

You know, some— I know some women that are smokers that quit during pregnancy but then pick it back up even while they're breastfeeding, which is not good because nicotine ends up in breast milk and it can have negative effects, which I will cover in this video as well. Uh-huh. There are certain vitamins that don't show up really high in breast milk, things like iron. You know, breast milk is incredibly low in iron and infants up until the age of about 6 months do have iron stores that they rely on, but at about 6 months, those iron stores are depleted. And that's why it's really essential at 6 months which is when you start to give supplemental solid food. to your infant that you make sure they're giving them iron. And like I said, what I was doing was I was grinding up meat.

I was actually grinding up salmon, cooked salmon, and even cooked chicken as well, and giving it to my son. Vitamin D is also very low in breast milk, with the exception, there was one clinical study that showed women that supplemented with a very high dose of vitamin D, about 6,400 IUs a day, They were actually able to increase vitamin D concentrations in their breast milk to a level that was able to provide sufficient levels of vitamin D to their infants. I personally did supplement with around 7,000 IUs of vitamin D a day during breastfeeding, but I also gave my son vitamin D drops as the insurance. So vitamin K is also very low in breast milk, which is why infants are given a vitamin K shot. Vitamin K is essential for normal blood clotting. It's extremely low in breast milk.

So, so that's something that I also did. I had my son get his vitamin K shot. Okay. All right. So, that's it on the breast milk. And, I'm going to cover that topic in great detail very, very, very soon. Just on a related question that someone asked on this thread as well, Andrew asks, what's the minimum age for kids to start using the sauna? So, one thing to keep in mind is that children have a less efficient thermoregulatory mechanism. Compared to adults due to their differences in anatomy and physiology. In particular, they have lower sweat rates, which can compromise their ability to dissipate, you know, body heat through evaporation.

So there's been a couple of studies that have looked at cardiac output and Those have increased in all the children that were older than 5 years old, but in children that were 5 years or less, you know, they're basically— that wasn't happening. And this was due to a decrease in stroke volume in children that were less than 5 years old. So I would say that you probably want your child— I will wait. personally for my son to be at the very least 5 before I start doing that. And even at that, it will be a very minimal, you know, maybe a 5-minute at the most sort of, you know, sauna session. Just a couple— just another quick, quick question before I have to hop off here. So someone asks, they say, you mentioned that you go for runs regularly in San Diego, which is very sunny.

Are you using any sun protection when you were outside? Sun damages your DNA and can make you age faster. I know David Sinclair said that the sun is your worst friend for your DNA clock. I also know sunlight has other health benefits. What's your opinion on this topic? So my opinion is that I also don't want a variety of UVA and UVB rays damaging my skin. And so I do use a mineral sunscreen called Coola. Q— sorry, C-O-O-L-A. Sorry. And I also wear a hat when I go running, a big hat. I use a mineral sunscreen, not chemical ones, because there have been studies that have shown these chemical sunscreens like things like avobenzone, those things can end up in the bloodstream and it's sort of unclear what effects they could have.

Whereas things like zinc, you know, zinc oxide, titanium oxide, those things that are minerals are much safer. So I use that and it is filtering out UVA, UVB rays, which are damaging. The only drawback is also it blocks vitamin D synthesis in the skin. which is why I supplement with vitamin D. Um, there are other benefits to the sun that don't necessarily include being irradiated. So, for example, um, you know, nitric oxide benefits, um, circadian rhythm benefits. You know, being outside and bright light exposure helps to establish and set your circadian clock. It also has benefits— um, bright light exposure has benefits on, on, uh, preventing myopia, which is nearsightedness. Uh-huh. Uh, so, so I do think there's a variety of benefits of being outside.

Uh, I just don't necessarily think you need to, to be constantly damaging your, uh, your DNA and your skin cells, and it certainly causes skin aging. Now you can probably at certain times of the day go out for like 15 minutes and get some, get some of the UVA, B, you know, and vitamin D synthesis, but I still think that a supplement in combination with that would be ideal. So Dan asks, hi Rhonda, I work with people who have acquired or have a traumatic brain injury to help them regain their balance and brain function, etc. Would you be able to speak to the proper nutrition and supplementation for those patients trying to recover from a brain insult? I know APOE4 gene can, can be central to their prognosis.

For example, people with APOE4 can respond a lot less favorably than people without it. But I would say some of the main things that, factors I have seen to improve TBI, and not only improve, but to protect against the damaging effects. Now, there have been animal studies showing that sulforaphane intake, what it's called is conditioning. So giving animals sulforaphane before inducing a TBI in them protects them from having as bad damage as animals that are given the TBI that were not given sulforaphane.

But I think in light of the human evidence where it's been shown now that sulforaphane can increase glutathione in plasma and also in the brain, I think that's also really strong evidence that there may be even a place for sulforaphane not only preventing bad damage but in treatment because there have been other, many, many other animal studies showing that increasing glutathione in the brain immediately after a TBI can dramatically improve the outcome, like really significantly. So I think that, you know, is something to consider. Of course, there's no— there has been no published studies yet showing that sulforaphane consumption in humans treats TBI. So I'm sort of connecting the dots there, but there have been animal studies showing that it helps.

And again, the fact that human studies show that sulforaphane increases glutathione in the brain, and there have been animal studies showing that glutathione in the brain can help treat TBI and improve outcomes, I think those things sort of logically makes sense. Um, the other thing is I think there's, there's been a variety of studies, both animal and human, showing that high-dose omega-3, both DHA and EPA, can help with TBI outcomes. Um, and, you know, looking at some of the literature, clinical doses range anywhere from 3 to 6 grams a day, which is a pretty high dose. Um, I also think taking the DHA in phospholipid form like the the roe, um, either salmon roe or other type of fish roe, also can help because oftentimes TBI can lead to a blood-brain barrier, uh, compromise.

And, um, the— my, my publication back in October of 2018, um, basically provided a bunch of evidence that suggested that the, the transport of DHA in phospholipid form through a transporter called MFSD2A still gets DHA across the blood-brain barrier even in the face of a compromised blood-brain barrier. So if your blood-brain barrier is, for example, leaky as it happens with age or it happens with ApoE4 or it happens with even TBI. So I would also suggest salmon roe or other type of fish roe as well. Last question I'm gonna get to before I have to leave is from someone who asks, any recommendations for pain relief for those suffering from chronic pain who do not want to take pain meds? So I would say from published literature as well as from personal experience what I do.

So there's been some published studies, not the best of all, you know, smaller studies. So I would say that, you know, these things need to be confirmed with larger placebo-controlled trials. But there have been studies showing And that people taking a phosphatidylcholine curcumin supplement, which is called Meriva, um, it dramatically increases the bioavailability of curcumin. They experienced pain relief either greater than that is associated with taking 500 milligrams of acetaminophen, which is Tylenol, which can cause, you know, liver damage with long-term use, or equivalent to taking 1 gram of acetaminophen. Another, another study showed that people with osteoarthritis in their knee experienced similar pain relief taking either 1 to 2 grams of, of Moringa a day.

They experienced similar pain relief as, as those people taking 800 milligrams of ibuprofen a day. Personally, I usually don't get really bad menstrual cramps. They're pretty mild, particularly after my pregnancy. But, you know, sometimes I'll have a little discomfort. And if I take about 2 grams of Mareva, which is 4 capsules of my Thorne extended release, it knocks out the pain for me. But again, it's a very mild pain that I get. Okay, and with that, I am going to say goodbye. And thanks again for a really great Crowdcast, really great questions that were submitted. And again, I am seeing all of your questions, and I will be addressing— don't worry if I haven't gotten to your question yet.

These are things that I am downloading, and some of these questions will will get to in future Crowdcasts. I do these once a month. For those of you that are submitting questions, it would be great to have you submit them the earlier the better. So, you know, the more time, you know, I have to see the questions, the more time I can actually prepare and actually, you know, dive in and read about some of the ones I don't know off the top of my head. So I would say, I'd love getting the questions Well in advance. That would, that would be a tip I would, I would say for you guys that are submitting questions. Please, please submit them early. It's not— you go right on Crowdcast and submit the next one. That, that'd be great. Thank you so much. I hope you guys are enjoying these podcasts.

And the next Crowdcast will be on the dashboard and ready for questions within this next week. So again, you can, you'll be able to get the code to register for the Crowdcast. on the dashboard, which you can find at foundmyfitness.com/dashboard. Happy New Year, everyone. I look forward to this great new year with you guys, and I'm super excited to share a lot of new and exciting information with you guys soon. Bye.