Isothiocyanates
Episodes
In this clip, Dr. Jed Fahey describes the beneficial effects of sulforaphane in modulating the symptoms of autism and other brain disorders.
In this clip, Dr. Jed Fahey rebuts popular claims that an all-meat diet is healthful.
Dr. Jed Fahey describes the chemical reaction that produces isothiocyanates and cautions against preparation techniques that might inhibit their production.
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In this clip, Dr. Jed Fahey describes the beneficial effects of sulforaphane in modulating the symptoms of autism and other brain disorders.
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In this clip, Dr. Jed Fahey rebuts popular claims that an all-meat diet is healthful.
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Seeds of cruciferous plants contain the highest levels of isothiocyanate precursors | Jed Fahey ClipDr. Jed Fahey describes the chemical reaction that produces isothiocyanates and cautions against preparation techniques that might inhibit their production.
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Sulforaphane Nutrition Brain Diet Nootropics Inflammation Heat Stress Autism Isothiocyanates NRF2 Moringa SupplementsDr. Jed W. Fahey discusses the health benefits of isothiocyanates, including sulforaphane and moringa.
Topic Pages
News & Publications
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The brain's vagus nerve controls fat absorption in the intestine—a possible pathway for managing obesity. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Fat is a vital energy source, but when consumed in excess, it can promote obesity. However, the amount of fat the body absorbs may be more related to the brain than the gut. A recent study in mice found that signals from the brain’s vagus nerve regulate fat uptake in the intestine, offering a potential means to moderate obesity.
Researchers manipulated the dorsal motor nucleus of the vagus (DMV), which plays a crucial role in digestion. They inactivated DMV neurons that connect to the jejunum (the middle portion of the intestine), shortening the length of the microvilli in the gut and reducing fat absorption. However, stimulating DMV neurons increased fat absorption and promoted weight gain. Finally, they injected mice with puerarin, a bioactive compound derived from the kudzu plant, and found that the compound mimicked the effect of DMV suppression, further reducing fat absorption.
These findings suggest that controlling the DMV-vagus-jejunum pathway could provide a novel approach to managing fat absorption and weight. They also highlight yet another way the brain-gut axis influences human health.
Puerarin is an isothiocyanate, a class of sulfur-containing compounds known for their potent anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer, and anti-obesity effects. Sulforaphane, another well-known isothiocyanate, shares many of these beneficial properties. To learn more about the health effects of sulforaphane, check out our overview article.
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Urinary excretion of isothiocyanates – bioactive compounds derived from cruciferous vegetables – is associated with a lower risk of breast cancer, a 2003 study found. Women with the highest levels of isothiocyanates in their urine were half as likely to have breast cancer, compared to women with the lowest levels.
Researchers measured isothiocyanates in the urine of 674 women, half of whom had breast cancer. They also collected information about the women’s demographics, lifestyles, reproductive histories, and dietary intake of cruciferous vegetables.
They found high urinary isothiocyanate levels reduced the women’s risk of having breast cancer by half, even after considering age, menopausal status, and other factors that influence breast cancer risk. This protective association was true in pre- and postmenopausal women.
Isothiocyanates are bioactive compounds derived from glucosinolates, a large class of precursor molecules found in cruciferous vegetables. Robust evidence demonstrates that isothiocyanates switch on the activity of cellular protective mechanisms that reduce the risk of many chronic diseases, including cancer.
Assessing isothiocyanate exposure via dietary reports of glucosinolate intake is often inaccurate due to reporting biases as well as differences in plant glucosinolate content, which varies across species and cultivars. In addition, inter-individual differences in how people metabolize isothiocyanates and their precursors may influence exposure. Measuring urinary isothiocyanate metabolites likely provides more accurate measures of habitual intake and metabolite-specific exposures that positively influence risk.
Sulforaphane is an isothiocyanate with potent antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and anticancer properties. Learn more about sulforaphane’s effects on cancer in this clip featuring Dr. Jed Fahey.
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Gut microbial conversion of glucosinolates to isothiocyanates is highly variable in humans. cancerpreventionresearch.aacrjournals.org
Glucoraphanin, a precursor to sulforaphane, is a type of glucosinolate found primarily in broccoli and kale. Its conversion to sulforaphane requires myrosinase, an enzyme co-located within the leaves, stems, and other components of the plants in which it is found. Cooking temperatures inactivate myrosinase, effectively preventing isothiocyanate conversion and allowing unhydrolyzed glucosinolates to pass into the gut. In humans, myrosinase-producing gut bacteria can convert these glucosinolates to their cognate isothiocyanates. Findings from a 2012 study indicate that microbial conversion of glucosinolates to isothiocyanates is highly variable.
Previous research has demonstrated that sulforaphane administration promotes uniformly high urinary excretion of dithiocarbamate metabolites, accounting for as much as 90 percent of the administered sulforaphane over a 24-hour period. Dithiocarbamate levels in urine serve as a biomarker of glucosinolate intake.
The study involved two dissimilar groups of people: rural Han Chinese and racially mixed Baltimoreans. The participants abstained from cruciferous vegetable consumption for three days prior to the beginning of the study. They had not taken antibiotics for two weeks prior. Each of the participants kept a food diary, provided their medical history, and kept track of their bowel activity. The participants took a glucoraphanin-rich broccoli sprout extract that provided 200 micromoles of glucoraphanin in water. The authors of the study collected urine samples from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. and from 4 p.m. until 8 a.m. on the following morning.
They found that microbial-induced conversion of glucoraphanin to sulforaphane is highly variable (ranging from 1 to 40 percent of dose) and subject to interindividual differences in gut bacteria populations. As such, conversion is distinguished by “high converters” – people with high elimination profiles, and “low converters”– those with low elimination profiles. The authors of the study identified no demographic factors that affected conversion efficiency, but they did note that conversion of glucoraphanin to dithiocarbamate was greater during the day.
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Sulforaphane from broccoli sprout extract improves fasting glucose and HbA1c in obese patients with dysregulated type 2 diabetes. www.sciencedaily.com
Type 2 diabetes is a metabolic disorder characterized by high blood sugar and insulin resistance. Long-term complications from poorly controlled type 2 diabetes include heart disease, stroke, diabetic retinopathy (and subsequent blindness), kidney failure, and diminished peripheral blood flow, which may lead to amputations. An estimated 500 million people worldwide are living with type 2 diabetes. A 2017 study suggests that sulforaphane may be beneficial in treating the symptoms of type 2 diabetes.
Sulforaphane is an isothiocyanate compound derived from cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, Brussels sprouts, and mustard. Sulforaphane is produced when the cruciferous plant is damaged by insects or eaten by humans. The compound activates cytoprotective mechanisms within cells in a hormetic-type response and has demonstrated beneficial effects against several chronic health conditions, including autism, cancer, cardiovascular disease, and others.
The authors of the study identified sulforaphane out of more than 3,800 drugs and natural products as a potential therapeutic for type 2 diabetes based on statistical analysis that showed that sulforaphane’s protective effects (called a drug signature) had the potential to counteract diabetes’ harmful effects (called a disease signature).
They then conducted a randomized double-blind placebo-controlled study involving 97 adults with type 2 diabetes. All the participants were of Scandinavian ethnicity and had diabetes for less than 10 years. Sixty of the participants had well-controlled diabetes; the remaining 37 had poorly controlled diabetes. Of those with poorly controlled diabetes, 17 were obese, and 20 were not obese.
After undergoing blood tests to check their fasting blood sugar and HbA1c (a measure of long-term blood sugar control) and taking an oral glucose challenge, the participants took either a placebo or powdered broccoli sprout extract (containing 150 µmol sulforaphane per dose) every day for 12 weeks.
At the end of the study period, the blood tests and the oral glucose challenge were repeated. The participants who took broccoli sprout extract and whose diabetes was well-controlled experienced no changes in their fasting blood sugar or HbA1c levels. The participants who were heaviest and had poorly controlled diabetes saw the greatest benefits from the broccoli sprout extract. After 12 weeks of treatment, obese participants’ fasting blood sugar levels and HbA1c levels decreased, but the participants who received a placebo experienced slightly increased blood sugar and HbA1c levels.
The researchers also measured the amount of sulforaphane in the participants’ blood and noted that the levels varied from person to person. The higher the blood concentration, however, the greater the change in the participants’ fasting blood sugar.
Although very few of the participants experienced any negative effects after taking the broccoli sprout extracts, the authors of the study cautioned against prescribing it to patients because more testing needs to be done to understand how sulforaphane works and who would benefit most from it.
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Epithiospecifier protein activity in broccoli: The link between terminal alkenyl glucosinolates and sulphoraphane nitrile www.sciencedirect.com
Please take note of the graphs and timeline, these can provide valuable information on how to optimize your processing of broccoli sprouts for sulforaphane content.
Abstract The chemical nature of the hydrolysis products from the glucosinolate-myrosinase system depends on the presence or absence of supplementary proteins, such as epithiospecifier proteins (ESPs). ESPs (non-catalytic cofactors of myrosinase) promote the formation of epithionitriles from terminal alkenyl glucosinolates and as recent evidence suggests, simple nitriles at the expense of isothiocyanates. The ratio of ESP activity to myrosinase activity is crucial in determining the proportion of these nitriles produced on hydrolysis. Sulphoraphane, a major isothiocyanate produced in broccoli seedlings, has been found to be a potent inducer of phase 2 detoxification enzymes. However, ESP may also support the formation of the non-inductive sulphoraphane nitrile. Our objective was to monitor changes in ESP activity during the development of broccoli seedlings and link these activity changes with myrosinase activity, the level of terminal alkenyl glucosinolates and sulphoraphane nitrile formed. Here, for the first time, we show ESP activity increases up to day 2 after germination before decreasing again to seed activity levels at day 5. These activity changes paralleled changes in myrosinase activity and terminal alkenyl glucosinolate content. There is a significant relationship between ESP activity and the formation of sulforaphane nitrile in broccoli seedlings. The significance of these findings for the health benefits conferred by eating broccoli seedlings is briefly discussed.
Graphical abstract We measured ESP activity over 15 days of broccoli seedling development and correlated these with myrosinase activity and the levels of terminal alkenyl glucosinolates and sulphoraphane nitrile. We show ESP activity increases to day 2 before decreasing to imbibed seed activity at day 5. Terminal alkenyl glucosinolate and sulforaphane nitrile content and ESP activity correlated closely.
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[TIMELINE] Joe Rogan Experience #502 with Dr. Rhonda Patrick www.foundmyfitness.comOmega-3 Depression Insulin Fatty Liver Vitamin A Isothiocyanates Antioxidant Protein Dairy Blood Sugar Metabolic Syndrome Myrosinase
This is the full minute-by-minute timeline for JRE #502. Click here to watch the video on YouTube.
- 00:02:42 - Starts off by talking about kappa opioids and dynorphin and how you feel stress right before important events
- 00:04:24 - Joe talks about how great you feel after a competition (fight)
- 00:05:35 - Talks about how capsaicin in spicy food also induces a release of endorphins via dynorphin agonization
- 00:06:22 - Briefly mentions sauna/hyperthermic conditioning article featured on 4-Hour Workweek
- 00:06:45 - Description of hormesis and how this is part of the mechanism of action for things like EGCGs in green tea and polyphenols in fruit.
- 00:07:50 - Joe brings up that Rhonda suggested mycotoxin might be hormetic previously, Rhonda clarifies this was entirely and highly speculative. Includes jazz hands.
- 00:08:45 - Joe mentions that his best decisions are made after a good workout. He does not trust his judgment if he has not got a good workout in.
- 00:09:15 - Discussion of exercise and how it grows new brain cells (neurogenesis) via the BDNF pathway and how the growth of new brain cells allows you to forget other memories.
- 00:11:20 - Joe mentions how people in highschool that never left your small hometown sometimes remember stuff you don’t. Get out of the small town, highschool friends. Make new memories.
- 00:12:00 - Talks about how amygdala activation from either extreme excitement or fear increases episodic memory.
- 00:12:15 - Talks about her new paper and how serotonin plays a role in brain function/dysfunction, behavior, and episodic memory.
- 00:13:38 - Joe brings up MDMA burnout and suggests serotonin’s role in episodic memory may be why the MDMA/roller burnout stereotype exists
- 00:15:00 - Explanation of what receptor down-regulation is and why it adds enormous complexity to understanding the effects of drugs, like SSRIs.
- 00:16:27 - Discussion of “Serotonin Syndrome.”
- 00:17:22 - Most serotonin is actually made in the gut, not the brain.
- 00:17:44 - Discussion of how the genes that convert tryptophan to serotonin found in the gut (TPH1) and in the brain (TPH2) are show a characteristic nucleotide sequence known as a “Vitamin D Response Element” that seems to indicate, for the most part, that Vitamin D represses the production of serotonin in the gut (TPH1) and increases serotonin in the brain (TPH2). This is the subject of Rhonda’s most recent academic paper: “Vitamin D hormone regulates serotonin synthesis. Part 1: relevance for autism.”
- 00:18:45 - Serotonin made in the gut has been shown to cause gastrointestinal inflammation by activating T cells and causing them to proliferate. Knocking out TPH1 in a mouse model of colitis ameliorates the inflammation associated with the disorder.
- 00:21:55 - Theoretical vitamin D mechanism may play a role in the development of autism by depriving developing foetus of serotonin that serves as an “early brain morphogen” when mothers are deficient in vitamin D.
- 00:23:45 - Autism appears to be developing early in utero (during pregnancy) and seems to show indications of being at least partially related to environment.
- 00:24:00 - Estrogen can activate TPH2 in lieu of Vitamin D and thus may explain why autism is predominantly found in males.
- 00:24:30 - Gut inflammation is common among autistics.
- 00:24:45 - Explains 5-HTP bypasses the normal tryptophan hydroxylase (TPH) conversion, and because of that it can be converted into serotonin more rapidly… but (hypothetically) too soon and in the gut instead of the brain.
- 00:25:35 - Tryptophan gets transported into the brain in order to be converted into serotonin by tryptophan hydroxylase (TPH2) but competes with BCAAs for transport into the brain, which are transported preferentially.
- 00:25:55 - Tryptophan is less abundant of an amino acid than branch chain amino acids like leucine in protein.
- 00:26:55 - Joe asks Rhonda if T cell activation/proliferation in the context of TPH1 has relevance for AIDS.
- 00:28:00 - Joe relates how “New Mood” (Onnit’s product) was originally called “Roll Off.”
- 00:30:30 - Joe quips that it was recently experimentally validated in mice that DMT is produced in the pineal glands of mice during sleep, goes on to talk about speculation that near death experiences relating to altered perception from endogenous DMT release.
- 00:35:10 - Plays a video of a jaguar eating hallucinogenic plants.
- 00:37:20 - Talks about monoamine oxidase
- 00:38:40 - Merits of “theoretical papers” (like “Vitamin D hormone regulates serotonin synthesis. Part 1: relevance for autism.”)
- 00:39:37 - 70% of population is vitamin d deficient. Segways to awesome infographic created by @tjasonwright which covers a ton of the basic facts about vitamin D.
- 00:43:02 - BaadBobby’s Dad turned Joe onto TA-65. TA-65 has been shown to increase telomere length, but theres a guy who sued the company producing it. Anecdotally, BaadBobby’s dad had improvements in eyesight.
- 00:45:00 - Explanation of what telomeres are.
- 00:48:50 - Special enzyme telomerase rebuilds telomeres, but it’s found mostly only in stem cells… and more importantly: cancer cells. Cancer cells hijack this telomerase normally reserved for stem cells to live forever. Strangely… Mice, unlike humans, actually express telomerase in all of their cells and don’t have telomere shortening.
- 00:50:10 - Werner’s syndrome involves excessive telomere shortening.
- 00:53:33 - Explains how aging is a function of DNA damage and discusses DNA damage assay (test) that Rhonda performs.
- 00:55:30 - Obesity link to increased DNA damage.
- 00:56:50 - Talks about TA-65’s active ingredient in a study was shown to genuinely increase telomerase activity and length of telomeres.
- 00:58:22 - TA-65 study showed a 40% increase in telomere length in white blood cells in some humans studied.
- 00:58:44 - Second study on TA-65 using special mouse model from well-known lab also showed re-activation of telomerase, and even began reversing aging of their tissues. Mice notably did not get cancer. Reinforces findings of first study.
- 01:01:30 - Still concerned TA-65 could encourage the growth of pre-cancerous cells.
- 01:02:00 - Joe brings up alkalizing diet for cancer prevention (he’s a skeptic).
- 01:03:05 - Bad bacteria in gut is affected by pH.
- 01:06:20 - Joe brings up argument that sugar consumption affects growth of cancer.
- 01:07:50 - Explains because cancer cells become glycolytic which is why people fixate on sugar as a potential cancer cell.
- 01:08:40 - Rhonda mentions that taking away glucose, but allowing continued presence of glutamine allowed cancer cells to keep growing in vitro.
- 01:09:50 - Folic acid needed in the absence of cancer because you need it to build new DNA – but this is a problem if you do have a cancer because it can be a bad thing for the same reasons (folic acid needs to produce DNA because cancer cells are highly proliferative).
- 01:12:00 - Glucosinolates are cleaved into isothiocyanates by myrosinase which is de-activated by heat. Isothiocyanates are potent anti-cancer agents. Recent anti-kale stuff is, in a way, anti-isothiocyanates. Additionally, if you boil kale and de-activate myrosinase you’re actually decreasing the amount of isothiocynates by removing myrosinase.
- 01:14:00 - Kale thyroid stuff is probably only relevant if you’re very deficient in iodine – probably better to continue getting your isothiocyanates for cancer preventative reasons rather than sweating this stuff.
- 01:16:35 - Rhonda mentions tumor suppressor genes, which are activated by hormesis (good stress triggered by things like isothiocyanates).
- 01:19:20 - Joe brings up Dave Asprey’s take on boiling kale to remove oxalic acid.
- 01:20:10 - Spinach that was either raw, boiled, fried, or frizzled and found that raw and boiling doesn’t affect absorption, but it did very modestly affect minerals in kidneys if raw… didn’t seem to cause kidneys stones (in mice). Probably requires absurd amounts of spinach to cause kidney stones. Just not convinced that it’s bad to eat spinach or kale raw.
- 01:20:20 - Vegetables do make compounds that are sort of “bad for you” but have a net positive effect because they induce hormesis.
- 01:24:33 - JRE consensus of #502 –eating raw spinach and kale is good for you.
- 01:25:10 - Joe throws a curveball by bringing up a documented case of presumed oxalate induced nephropathy (kidney disease) from 1985 to 2010 – only 36 patients documented by paper. Only three patients really suspected that it was caused by raw juicing.
- 01:27:30 - Discussion of vegetable smoothies begins here – specifically using these powerful blenders which leave the fiber in, not juicing.
- 01:28:45 - Brock Lesnar allegedly ate nothing but meat, got diverticulitis.
- 01:29:07 - Putrefying bacteria make nasty smelling hydrogen sulfide farts, use sulfate as source of energy. Needs heme from red meat as a cofactor for creating hydrogen sulfide. Hydrogen sulfide prevents human gut cells from making energy (ATP), and thus causes break-down of gut-mucus barrier.
- 01:32:25 - Brings up episode with Dr. Offitt on Bryan Callen’s podcast. Offitt claims vitamins and antioxidants cause cancer.
- 01:35:20 - Beginning of general debunking of Offitt’s claims.
- 01:36:05 - Randomized double-blind placebo controlled trials are awesome, but using them for nutrition research and expecting the design to perform as effectively is misguided.
- 01:37:30 - Everyone has different levels of vitamins & minerals in their body, but baseline for drugs is always the same: zero. This is an important fundamental difference.
- 01:42:20 - Years of research has to be published even if results aren’t great, and this requires salesmanship. This affects some of the misleading presentation of research.
- 01:43:04 - Joe brings up highly publicized and contentious “Enough is Enough” editorial which was covered at length in podcast #459.
- 01:46:28 - Begin discussion of Vitamin E prostate cancer study (the SELECT trial).
- 01:47:35 - Comparison of Alpha Tocopherol & Gamma Tocopherol forms of vitamin E. Alpha tocopherol serves predominantly as an antioxidant, gamma tocopherol serves as an anti-inflammatory agent by reducing reactive nitrogen species (also an anti-oxidant activity). Alpha tocopherol doesn’t serve the same anti-inflammatory behavior, and this is important because inflammation is a cancer initiator (among other things), and excessive alpha tocopherol consumption depletes gamma tocopherol from tissues.
- 01:50:45 - Study on prostate cancer found that alpha tocopherol and selenium didn’t affect cancer incidence at 5-year followup but at 7.5 year follow-up cancer risk for prostate cancer shot up from taking 400 IU of alpha tocopherol (vitamin E) per day. Importantly, what was found at the 5-year followup was that (relative to baseline) gamma tocopherol was depleted from the tissues. Those who weren’t deficient selenium (& were supplementing) that took the 400 IU of alpha tocopherol didn’t experience the increase in prostate cancer incidence.
- 01:52:05 - One of the proteins selenium is for is important for preventing damage from reactive nitration products. Nitration damage can cause cancer. This is an interesting novel mechanism by which a depletion of gamma tocopherol through a combination of inflammation and an increase in reactive nitratition products might be responsible for the increase cancer incidence found in this study.
- 01:54:00 - Discussion of vegetable smoothie as a good source of vitamin E, and also natural magnesium (from chlorophyll molecules – this was mentioned in JRE #459)
- 01:54:45 - Mixed tocopherol Vitamin E supplements exist which aren’t quite as high dose as 10x the RDA (400 IU) like used in those studies.
- 02:01:18 - RDA for Vitamin D is 600 IU a day. One study showed that 4,000 IU was more appropriate for actually adequately fixing without toxicity in deficient populations. 2000 to 4000 IU of vitamin D is probably a good range except for in cases of severe deficiency.
- 02:03:18 - Offit lumped omega-3 in with “antioxidants that cause cancer”, but this is misleading given the fact that randomized controlled trials have shown that omega-3 supplementation actually reduces all-cause mortality.
- 02:03:39 - 1500 IU of vitamin D a day has been correlated to a 17% reduced cancer risk (overall).
- 02:04:15 - Study based off of self-reported questionaire found that women who took vitamins (supplements) - on a daily basis had the longest telomeres.
- 02:05:45 - She tries to get all her micronutrients, as much as she can, from her diet including vegetable smoothies, fish, etc. However, in addition to her diet she takes: omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin D, a multi-vitamin which has selenium and other trace elements, iodine, B-complex.
- 02:06:30 - B vitamin deficiency is less common due to fortification. However, she supplements B vitamins anyway because changes in mitochondrial membrane rigidity that occurs with age alters the binding affinity (as represented by the constant kM) of important proteins needed to generate energy in the form of ATP which are embedded in the mitochondrial membrane. The Ames lab has partly demonstrated, however, that increasing the concentration of B vitamins compensates for these age related changes caused by changes in the confirmation (shape) of the proteins.
- 02:08:00 - Rhonda increasingly prefers Swanson brand vitamins, but gets omega-3 from nordic naturals.
- 02:10:00 - B vitamins are probably less dangerous because they’re water soluble (excess is more readily excreted, similar to Vitamin C)
- 02:11:00 - Plant form of omega-3, ALA, converts to EPA (normally found in fish) fairly inefficiently at a rate of about 5%.
- 02:12:13 - Microalgae oil is a good alternative to flaxseed oil if you’re trying to meet EPA/DHA needs and avoiding fish oil for one reason or another.
- 02:13:30 - Omega-3 EPA is a potent anti-inflammatory, and DHA is a really component of your cell membranes – and makes up about 40% of the brain.
- 02:13:54 - She takes about 6 pills of her omega-3, which amounts to ~3 “servings” of 800mg of EPA, and 600mg of DHA. (2400 and 1800 mg respectively)
- 02:15:28 - Omega-3 EPA, which can be bought more concentrated for its particular effects, interacts with the arachnidonic acid pathway to reduce inflammation. The arachnicdonic acid pathway is responsible for creating prostaglandins which activate the COX pathway.
- 02:16:05 - 2 grams of EPA per day has been shown to reduce C-reactive protein (CRP), which is a generalized systemic marker for inflammation but is most well known for its use to asses risk of cardiovascular disease.
- 02:17:45 - Omega-3 fatty acids are prone to oxidation. Refrigeration helps with this, however. Also check if they go rancid by smell, if smell bad then probably rancid.
- 02:20:00 - Talks about krill oil. Joe lists off a bunch of points from a Mercola article, and Rhonda points out it’s talking about ordinary effects of omega-3 and suggesting they may not be unique to krill oil.
- 02:27:29 - Recommends Linus Pauling Institute for good, objective source of supplemental micronutrient reviews.
- 02:28:35 - Brief mention of WellnessFX as a useful tool for getting a broad spectrum blood test checking for relevant markers for vitamins, minerals, inflammation, etc.
- 02:31:00 - Whackiness of homepathy discussed. Homeopathy makes use of official sounding measuring system that measures an absurd amount of dilution that actually guarantees that what you’re taking doesn’t actually include the active ingredient the supplement is being marketed for.
- 02:33:25 - Discusses how emerging research showing wisdom teeth has dental pulp stem cells in them and they offer promise for eventually being used as a source of cells that can be differentiated into things like brain cells. You can bank children’s teeth or adult wisdom teeth. Usually like $625 to “process” a tooth, and around $125/year to store it.
- 02:36:16 - They can now take fibroblast cells from skin, the sort that you slough off everyday, and add transcription factors to turn them into “pluripotent” stem cells which can turn into brain cells or liver cells.
- 02:37:35 - Joe brings up study where they took blood of young mice, injected it into old mice, and found the older mice experienced tissue regeneration. Inverse was also true: injecting young mice with old mouse blood increased rate of aging.
- 02:38:54 - Human “methylome” now being studied which is revealing a specific pattern of methylation in DNA that can be used to actually identify the chronological age of people. Since epigenetics is obviously playing an important role in age, this is another promising area of new inquiry that may eventually reveal how to reprogram our cells to “be younger”. Cancer cells show a methylation pattern that is ordinarily associated with old age and are clustered around areas related to DNA repair, mitochondrial metabolism, antioxidant genes (all areas associated with aging).
- 02:43:12 - Scientists are now able to take renal cells excreted in urine and turn them into pluripotent stem cells
- 02:43:45 - Rant about lack of funding in science reducing room for creativity/moonshots.
- 02:48:40 - Joe brings up new studies showing its possible to create artificial blood for transplant.
- 02:50:06 - Inactivating insulin growth factor in c. elegans worms doubles their lifespan from about 15 to 30 days.
- 02:52:40 - Joe asserts (reasonably so) that by age 200 he will most likely be a wizard.
- 02:55:42 - Joe relates the fact that he’s actually been evacuated twice due to large fires in his neck of the woods of L.A.
- 02:57:45 - Rhonda begins plug of iPhone app, website, Twitter, and podcast.