The basic health/nutrition guidelines most understand are not formed for optimal human function, performance and longevity. All the numbers bellow are for optimal performance and longevity. Not for basic human survival.
Note: About 7% of the soil in the USA is prime. What that means is that about 93% of food grown in soil is lacking in vital nutrients that the soil used to give. Which is one reason why there is so many nutrient deficiencies.
Healthspan / Chronological Age vs Biological Age
Everybody has different goals but extending one’s healthspan – ‘number of years a person is able to live in good health free from disease’ is a priority for most, I know it is for me anyway. Maybe you’re not necessarily going to live to 130, but when you reach 80 or 90 years of age you want to feel biologically 20, 30 even 40 years younger. There’s a chronological age, and there’s a biological age. You want to be biologically younger – who cares what your chronological age?! How do you feel everyday and is your body diseased?’
The Main Biomarker To Drive Aging
A study in 2015 was published by this Japanese group ‘Yasumichi, et al. (2015) Inflammation, But Not Telomere Length, Predicts Successfull Ageing at Extreme Old Age: A Longitudinal Study of Semi-supercentenarians. EBioMedicine 2(10), 1549-1558.
Where they looked at a variety of biomarkers that are age related: telomere length, markers of senescent, glycated hemoglobin, blood glucose levels, insulin sensitivity, inflammatory cytokines, biomarkers of all the inflammatory pathways. They looked at all these markers in 3 different populations of people:
The Elderly: 85-90
Centenarians (100-105),
Semi-Supercentenarian’s (105-109)
Supercentenarian (110-115+)
In 2016: The average lifespan in the USA is close to 80. UK: 81~. Australia: 82~.
So if we know right now that humans are physically capable of living to 115 years old that’s almost (rounding up) 40 years longer! That’s about a 50% increase in lifespan. This is right now in 2016 without any special organ transplants or nanobots to regenerate muscle tissues and cells. It’s already designed in our biology that those types of biological age’s are possible.
Of course some are outliers, but some other’s are fully functional cognitively and physically.
The only biomarker that was identified to drive the aging process in all age 4 categories was…
Inflammation
Inflammation was inversely related to age. When you think about the human body’s physiology the number one driver of inflammation in humans, is the gut. The gut is where we have the highest concentration of immune cell and the highest concentration of bacteria. What has been shown countless studies is that the gut thrives in fiber. More to come once I find more info from there.
Define Inflammation:
“Part of the complex biological response of body tissues to harmful stimuli, such as pathogens, damaged cells, or irritants. It is a protective response that involves immune cells, blood vessels, and molecular mediators. Chronic inflammation is characterized by simultaneous destruction and healing of the tissue from the inflammatory process.”
mTOR Pathway
(Mechanistic target of rapamycin)
“mTOR is the unequivocally the most dominant player in regulating metabolism. What does that mean? You think of nucleotide synthesis, lipids, how you make DNA, how do you make amino acids – all of that stuff mTOR controls. Also mTOR itself is sensitive to changes in amino acids, growth factors – it has a lot of different inputs. mTOR is really an integrator of ‘nutritional things’ to keep it simple. It is clearly the most dominant player of metabolism. Understanding metabolism is the key to understanding many dieases including diabetes and cancer.” – Navdeep S. Chandel [22:58]
mTOR definition 2: David M. Sabatini
“It senses whether there’s nutrients in the environment, and it decides whether our body is catabloic or anabolic. It makes that decision.”
Which brings up, how should be people define metabolism:
“Metabolism is the sum of anabolism (growth) and catabolism (break down). Either taking food and making stuff (muscles), or breaking food so you have enough energy for those muscles.” – Navdeep S. Chandel
Metabolism
Defined as “the thousands of biochemical processes that run all of the various cellular processes needed to sustain life.” – Dr. Rhonda Patrick
OR
‘The net sum of respiration of the body’s cells” – Ray Cronise
(Respiration: Cellular respiration is the process by which O2 is utilized to generate energy inside of the mitochondria).
Everybody thinks ‘I need to increase my metabolism. I’m eating this meal – it’s going to make my metabolism go faster’.
“It turns out I’ve not measured a single broken metabolism in 3 years in my lab. 100+ people – no one has a broken metabolism.” – Ray Cronise
Your metabolism scales with your mass. Everybodies talking about slow/fast metabolism yet no one is measuring it. Do you know of anyone that has measured a metabolism.
It is measured by the amount of CO2 exhaled, the O2 that is inhaled and O2 that is expired.
The ratio of Co2 to O2 is called the respiratory quotient. (RQ) = CO2 eliminated / O2 consumed. Used in calculations of BMR when estimated from CO2 production.
It tells us like a thumbprint what fuel we’re burning.
Carbohydrates of all kinds (glucose) = RQ 1. / Fats or lipids = 0.7 / Amino-acids = 0.84 (average among all 9 amino acids)
By knowing RQ we can see the ratio of glycogen to fat in burn real time.
“We used to eat to support our activity – because food was rare. Today, we’re active to support our eating. You can’t out exercise your mouth. It’s thermodynamically near impossible because you can swallow way more than you can move.”
Cancer / Chemotherapy
“With 19 billion capillaries in our bodies, on average, virtually 100% of us have microscopic cancers by the time we’re 70 years old, more than 40% of us by age 40. There’s a good chance you have pinhead-size cancers in your body right now. These “cancers without disease” aren’t typically a problem, as they can’t grow larger than 0.5 mm without a blood supply.
But if cancer cells get constant blood and glucose? Well, that’s when you can end up dead.”
Also
“It’s also important to realize that killing cancer cells isn’t hard. Doctors have known how to do this for 100+ years. The real questions is: how do you exploit a weakness in cancer that is NOT a weakness in normal cells? Killing cancer is easy. Killing cancerous cells while not killing non-cancerous cells has proven incredibly difficult.” – Dr. Peter Attia, MD.
Dr. Valter Long, Ph.D. recalls oncologists often tell their patients during chemotherapy to consume a lot of calories. They may mean well but cancer cells evolve and thrive in high nourishment environments: cancer cells have a preference for sugar and the amino acids, especially glutamine. It depends on sugar and amino acids. This is when a fasting mimicking diet has been shown to be a great intervention in conjunction with chemotherapy. Combining the alternative and traditional medicine. [Source]
“A clinical trial Dr. Longo was involved in that combined fasting with chemotherapy which showed that cancer patients that fasted for at least 24 hours and up to 72 hours prior to undergoing chemo had their IGF-1 levels (which promote cancer growth) decreased, and also found preliminary evidence that normal lymphocytes had lower DNA damage in those individuals that fasted prior to chemo compared to not fasting. In other words, fasting prior to chemo was associated with an overall reduction in toxic-sides effects on the immune system, including chemo-associated
Time-Restricted Feeding (TRF)
“Eating within an 8-12 hour time window that begins with when the first food or non-water drink enters your mouth. Dr. Satchin Pand’a research has demonstrated that TRF has health benefits such as” (Source)
People always thought it’s what and how much these mice ate determined the disease. What Dr. Panda’s team found was that these mice were not all eating at the same time. So maybe when they eat also matters. So they took two identical groups of mice, one group ate a ‘high fat / sugar’ diet with 60% of calories from fat (~32g), 16g maltodextrin (starch), 8.8g sucrose, 6.5g fiber per serving of chow. This is equivilent to the average western diet people getting their calorie intake from cheese, nachos, ice cream etc.
The other group of mice got the exact same number and type of calories but they had to eat all their food within 8-12 hours in this time-restricted feeding fashion. The mice that ate within these window did not become obese or diabetic, they had normal cholesterol and liver function etc.
DID YOU CATCH THAT?
“The mice that got the unhealthy chow, which normally creates obesity and insulin resistance, were able to avoid these conditions if they were fed in a time-restricted feeding window in spite of consuming the same amount of calories as the ad libitium feeding group, which is Latin for “at one’s pleasure” and refers to “free-feeding”
These mice within the time-restricted feeding window had 28% less body mass in total, that change in body mass is mostly due to fat because they had 70% less fat. Which is amazing because they’re eating the same crappy food, but they’re eating it when they’re liver and body can process it the most effectively within that 8-12 hour window.
Micronutrients
Magnesium
Is a precursor to 300+ enzymes yet about half with about 56% of the US population being deficient in it.
This includes all the enzymes that use and produce ATP, the energetic currency of the cell, ATP must be bound to a magnesium ion in order to be biologically active. These functions of magnesium are required for short term survival, and if you can’t make ATP you simply can’t live, which means any magnesium the body has is going to maintain energy production (2). But enzymes needed for energy protection aren’t the only enzymes that require magnesium to function, unfortunately, DNA repair enzymes do too. That means if you’re not getting enough magnesium because your diet doesn’t have enough green leafy vegetables then you’re forcing your body to choose between meeting your immediate energetic needs and keeping your DNA from accumulating damage, a well-known initiator of diseases such as a cancer.
Magnesium Correlation to Exercise Performance
“One important way to improve exercise performance is by increasing oxidative capacity: ‘the ability of your mitochondria to produce ATP’ / the ability of your muscle cells to consume oxygen. Oxidatative capacity not only depends on the availability of oxygen, which is what most people focus on, but also critically relies on your mitochondria, which are the tiny units inside of the muscle cells that are consuming oxygen to produce ATP – the energetic currency of the cell. At the level of the mitochondria there are two ways which you can increase your oxidative capacity. One, is by increasing the total number of mitochondria, two, by increasing the efficiency of your already existing mitochondria.
But in order to make mitochondria this requires your existing mitochondria to copy their genome, and this is done by enzymes that require magnesium as a cofactor. The magnesium ion sits inside of the enzyme and activates, it so it can do it’s job. What this means, is that if your magnesium levels are low than your going to have a difficult time making new mitochondria during exercise, therefore compromising your performance.
The second way to maximize your mitochondria is by making your existing mitochondria more efficient at producing ATP. It is well known that during exercise oxidative stress damages your mitochondria and dampens their ability to produce ATP. BUT, your mitochondria have the ability to repair this damage using the same magnesium dependent enzymes previously mentioned.
Bottom line is that you want to make sure your magnesium levels are in the adequate range in order to maximize your mitochondria, by A) the ability to produce new mitochondria and B) making your existing mitochondria more efficient at repairing damage.” [Source]
What type of supplement?
There are 2 basic types of supplements: salts and chelates. Salt forms typically have names like magnesium oxide (essentially magnesium rust) and are very cheap to make. On the other hand, chelates are elemental magnesium bonded to amino acids, these are more expensive.
Salt forms are hard for the body to actually digest, after all the body doesn’t want rust in it! The chelates are recognized by the gut to be the same as the amino acid they are bound to, as a result they are far easier to be readily absorbed.
Little bonus fact, the salt forms of magnesium are used in powerful laxatives ahead of medical procedures. The most common are magnesium oxide and Stearate (a lubricant). The reason being that they are cheap, soften the stool and make your bowels evacuate in a hurry.
Don’t believe me? I challenge you to read the label of pharmaceutical laxatives or take a few grams of magnesium oxide supplements. Or take my word for it and take higher quality form like glycinate, malate, citrate, taurate and threonate.
Magnesium Deficiency
“Magnesium is involved in virtually every metabolic process. It is the second most abundant intracellular cation and a cofactor involved in the modulation of glucose transport as well. A magnesium deficiency interferes with the tyrosine-kinase activity of the insulin receptor. A deficiency also increases calcium concentration within the cell, which is associated with impaired insulin sensitivity. Hence, it makes sense that a deficiency could play a significant role in the development of insulin resistance, as well as metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes. [Source]
Magnesium can be found in most leafy green vegetables as it is at the center of a chlorophyll molecule. Chlorophyll is what gives plant their green pigment.
Supplementing with magnesium can help, magnesium citrate has been shown to be the most bioavailable form of magnesium supplements. But make sure you don’t take enteric coating (a polymer coating barrier applied to tablets that prevent its disintegration in the stomach) magnesium supplements as they can decrease the bioavailablity by 67%.
“FYI a good way to tell your taking to much magnesium is that you will usually have loose stools.” – (Dr. Tom Biella)
Testing Magnesium Levels
“With this in mind, the question is: how much magnesium is enough? Unfortunately, we do not have a great way to measure its status. For example, serum magnesium represents only 1% of the body’s stores. Magnesium is homeostatically controlled in the serum and measuring serum Mg levels provides many false negatives. By the time serum magnesium levels are low, a person is very deficient as the body cannot maintain the serum Mg levels. Looking at serum magnesium is not the answer. Red blood cell magnesium is definitely a better indicator of Mg status. In addition, it can be tested by most labs and all functional medicine labs. I test RBC magnesium levels on all my patients. It’s surprising to see the large number of patients who are deficient.” [Source]
Kale
Aside from the magnesium mentioned earlier, kale is also good source of lutein and zeaxanthin, two carotenoids that are taken up by the retina in the eye in very high concentrations. They serve two important functions in the eye: they filter out damaging singlet oxygen that is produced from blue light from the sun and they have antioxidant activity. This is how they protect the rods and cones in the eye and from from macular degeneration. Lutein and zeaxanthin have been shown to slightly enhance visual performance and the long-term benefits have been shown to prevents several types of age-related macular degeneration. Lutein and zeaxanthin are present in high amounts in kale.
Spinach
Avocado
Vitamin D3 + K2
Majority of humans are deficient in Vitamin D3. A lot of research is showing that in order to absorb Vitamin D it should be coupled with Vitamin K2. The combination of the two help take the calcium out of the blood and put it into your bones. BUT you also need adequate stores of Magnesium to make sure the Vitamin D3 can be used efficiently.
Vitamin D Optimal Blood Marker: 60-90 (especially if you have immune dysfunction or autoimmune disorder)
Previous research has demonstrated that vitamin D helps regulate the conversion of tryptophan to serotonin, the neurotransmitter that affects a variety of cognitive functions including mood, decision-making, social behavior, impulsive behavior, and social decision-making. Many brain-based disorders, such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD), ADHD, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and depression commonly have low brain serotonin. Vitamin D controls approximately 1,000 genes, many of which are in the brain. [Source]
Vitamin D Deficiency During Pregnancy Linked to Autism [Dr. Rhonda Patrick]
“A new study finds that vitamin D deficiency during pregnancy significantly increases the risk of having a child with autism.
The study measured blood vitamin D levels from 4,200 pregnant women during two-time points during pregnancy and found that those women that were deficient during both points measured were more likely to have a child with autism. This suggests that vitamin D deficiency throughout pregnancy may increase the risk of autism and that pregnant women should measure their vitamin D levels and supplement with vitamin D accordingly.
I’m particularly excited about this research because it confirms my 2014 publication where I proposed that vitamin D regulates serotonin, which is a brain morphogen that shapes the structure and wiring of the brain during early brain development, and that maternal vitamin D deficiency could disrupt fetal brain development and lead to autism.
Here is my vitamin D, serotonin, autism publication.
Fish Oil / EPA / DHA
“Eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) helps increase the release of serotonin from presynaptic neurons by reducing inflammatory signaling molecules in the brain known as E2 series prostaglandins. These inflammatory prostaglandins inhibit serotonin release, and thus negatively impact serotonin in the brain. Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) also plays a role in the serotonin pathway. This essential fatty acid helps make several serotonin receptors more accessible to serotonin by increasing cell membrane fluidity in postsynaptic neurons. Both DHA and EPA can be found in fish oil.” [Source]
Charles Poliquin’s Recommendations:
ATP-Lab’s Omega-3 Liquid / ATP-Lab’s Omega-Blast (rich in DHA) / Designs For Health OmegAvail / Designs For Health OmegAvail Ultra DHA
Australia: (James Westhorpe): Melrose Liquid Fish Oil with Vitamin E
The Science of Anabolic Fish Oil For Muscle Building
The muscle-building properties of omega-3 were explored in two studies. The first one was performed on a group of 25-45 year old males (1) who were supplemented with 4 gr of fish oil a day for 8 weeks. This study was conducted by researchers from the Washington University School of Medicine in Missouri. This dosage provided 1.50 gr of DHA and 1.85 gr of EPA, and the researchers looked at its effects on protein synthesis. In layman’s term, this is called muscle-building, as proteins are the building blocks of muscles. The results was a significantly enhanced anabolic response to amino acids and greater insulin sensitivity. These have been shown to be derived from an increased activation of the mTOR pathway. This pathway is one of the most important signaling mechanism in the body for protein synthesis and cell growth.
The other study (2), performed by the same group of researchers, applied a similar protocol to a group of older adults, with the same results. So it appears that fish oil is anabolic no matter how old you are. This is good news for elderly folks, who often lose muscle mass to the point of being frail. Omega-3 supplementation could thus be a way to fight against age-related muscle catabolism, a phenomenon called sarcopenia.
Although there is little conclusive evidence at this point, some clues point to the fact that other mechanisms may also play a role in this fish oil/muscle anabolism connection, such as fatty acid concentration a in the cell membrane. As this phenomenon also affects insulin sensitivity, it lends credence to my personal belief about insulin sensitivity. In order to start gaining muscle mass, you must first get lean (which increases insulin sensitivity).
Zinc
Chromium
Really important to transporting glucose to the cell.
Raw Vegetables
I like to be able to argue both sides of the coin and understand each camp’s perspective. I’ve eaten many raw vegetables and eaten many cooked.
“If you’re a plant you’re not looking to get eaten – that’s not a good outcome for you. You cant run. So you do all sorts of things to evolve some protection against all these predators trying to eat you. Hence evolving some type of chemical weapon system that works when some type of pest tries to gnaw on your roots or leaves you’re going to try and poison them.
Such as father beans, a small number of people die every year from eating to many raw father beans. Apple seeds have trace amounts of cyanide. Not enough to be a big issue for a human but obviously for a bird or rodent it can be.
There’s this general census that believes eating raw vegetables is inherently pure healthy act of eating. But in fact we’re often exposing our body to a number of toxins and poisons. They may not have much noticeable effect in the short term because we’re pretty large heavy mammals and plants evolved to protect themselves against much smaller wild animals. But mostly they’re not that great for you.
E.G. Spinach. People think of the cartoon Popeye where we learnt spinach gives you all this iron. Raw spinach contains a large measure of oxalic acid which binds to iron.
Kidney and father beans are best cooked instead of eaten raw as well. (Throwing out the water they were cooked in too). 1. you’re going to far a lot less becuase your dilating down a lot of the oligosaccharides that you cant digest. 2. You’re ridding many of the water soluble compounds that aren’t very good for us.” – Chris Young
Jeffrey Steingarten wrote about this as well:
Micronutrients vs. Plant Hormetic Compounds
[Source: Smoothie #2: Prebiotics, Phytochemicals, “Anti-Nutrients” & Hydrolyzed Collagen]
Plant Hormetic Compounds:
Such as polyphenols, are biologically slightly stressful and trigger beneficial cellular stress response pathways that are actually beneficial because the cell over responds to the otherwise slightly toxic insult. This is quite different from,
Micronutrients
Which we must obtain from our diet in order to run the chemical metabolic processes that are necessary to sustain life. A diverse array of vegetables and fruits is pretty obvious, what may not be as obvious is that these vegetables and fruits also have a multitude of plant hormetic compounds which are slightly toxic to humans, therefore activate a variety of genetic pathways such as; phase II detoxification enzymes, anti inflammatory genes, antioxident genes, inactivation of phase I biotransformation enzymes, inactivation of pro-inflammatory genes. These all help the body and the brain deal with stress more efficiently.
Isothiocynates AKA Eat More Broccoli & Kale
(Made from glucoinsolates in cruciferous vegetables such as kale)
Are one class of plant hormetic compounds.
Isothiocynates (found in these cruciferous vegetables) have been shown to have very potent anti-cancer properties. Specifically they’ve been shown to inhibit a class of enzymes known as ‘phase 1 biotransformation enzymes’ which are responsible for converting a pro-carcinogens into their active carcinogenic state.
Additionally, they’ve been shown to activate a class of enzymes known as phase 2 detoxification enzymes, some of these enzymes like glutathione reductase are responsible for decreasing damage to DNA (and to cells in general) by reducing the amount of inflammation and reactive oxygen species. They also play a role in inactivating pro-carcinogenic agents and prevent them from becoming carcinogens.
Generally speaking, we want to have less than the phase 1 biotransformation enzymes and more of the phase 2 detoxification enzymes. For this reason, isothiocynates have been shown to be very effective at preventing cancer initiation both in animal and humans studies.
Broccoli sprouts contain ~50x more of these important isothiocynates known as sulforaphane than mature broccoli.
Luteolin AKA Celery & Parsley
A flavanoid that has been shown to decrease inflammation because it decreases the expression of genes that are involved in inflammation.
A study involving 66,940 woman
(Gates MA, et al. (2007) A prospective study of diertary flavaonid intake and incidence of epithelial overian cancer. Int J Cancer 121 (10), 2225-32,
those woman with the highest luteolin intake had a 34% decrease in cancer incidents compared to those woman with the lowest luteolin intake. It’s important to keep inflammation at bay because damaging DNA serves as a very potent cancer initiator. Additionally, luteolin has been shown to slow cognitive decline in older mice. Older mice that were fed a diet high in luteolin had brains that cognitively functioned much like their young counterparts.
(Jang, S, Dilger et al. (2010) Luteolin inhibits microglia and alters hippocampal-dependent spatial working memory in aged mice, Journal NUtr. 141 (10), 1847-1854.)
The other plant hormetic compound present in parsley and celery is,
Apigenin AKA More Celery & Parsley
Is a flavanoid that causes neural stem cells to form new neurons and also strengthen the connections between neurons, which is a vital function for learning and memory. Apigenin has also been shown to kill cancer skills.
Anthocyanins AKA Blueberries
Include a cornucopia of plant hormedic compounds. Most people think the antioxidants in the blueberries are responsible for a lot of the beneficial effects. Dr. Rhonda Patrick believes there is something more to the importance of blueberries. Anthocyanins are very high in blueberries.
There was a study were mice were genetically engineered to get alzeihmer’s disease and were given blueberry extract. The blueberry extract prevented these animal’s from getting the cognitive and behavioral deficits that normally occur in these mice that are genetically engineered to get alzheimer’s disease.
The anthocyanins activates a gene called NRF2 which activates genes with antioxidant response elements. NRF2 is a master regulator of many genes involved in inflammation and antioxidant activity.
Blueberries contain another compound called,
Pterostillbene
Which is chemically related to resveratrol and has been shown to activate the gene PPAR-α, lower triglycerides and lower blood glucose levels in mice. Pterostillbene has also been shown to more potent than resveratrol in improving cognitive function in mice that have been genetically engineered to prematurely age.
Ursolic Acid AKA Apples
A compound present in the skin of apples. It has been shown to increase muscle mass by 10% and muscle stregnth by 30% in mice that were fed a diet containing 0.27% of ursolic acid. The mechanism by which ursolic acid improves both muscle mass and strength is by inhibiting a gene called ATF4, which normally prevent’s protein synthesis in muscle.
Ebert SM, et al. (2015) Identification and Small Molecule Inhibiation of an ATF4-dependent Pathway to Age-related Skeletal Muscle Weakness & Atrophy. J of Biological Chem.
Assuming a person eats about two kilograms of food per day (4.4 pounds), he or she would have to eat 2.8 grams of ursolic acid to reach the 0.14% level described in the paper. Now, let’s that an apple’s peel is five percent of its total mass, and that ursolic acid makes up five percent of the composition of an apple peel. (Note that both of these estimates are probably high.) Adding up all the numbers, and taking an average apple to be 100 grams, one would have to eat 11 apples a day to hit that mark.
Glucaric Acid AKA Apples
Glucaric acid has been shown to inhibit the activity of an enzyme that is present in certain bacteria in our colon that are responsible for converting the pro carcinogens that were exposed to from a variety of environmental and dietary factors into their active carcinogenic state. Glucaric acid prevents this from happening.
Pectin & Sulfoquinovose (Prebiotics) AKA Berries, Apples & Green Leafy Vegetables
Pectin: present in berries and apples. Sulfoquinovose present in green leafy vegetables.
Both pectin and sulfoquinovose feed different types of beneficial bacteria in the gut, thereby protect the gut.
Fibre Intake Levels
The Mayo Clinic recommends men get at least 38g of fibre per day and woman get at least 25g of fiber per day. (more than double the US average)
Juicing vs Food Processor
Note: Dr. Rhonda Patrick prefer’s to use a Blendtec or Vitamix instead of a juicer. Why?
Fiber. When you use a juicer you remove the fiber.
Uptaking a diversity of fiber is highly beneficial and something that modern diets lack. The average American’s fiber intake is only 10-15 grams per day.
In contrast, our ancestors got quite abit more. Present day hunter gathers in Tanzania, for example, have been shown to get 100 – 150 grams per day.
Many types of fiber are fermentable by the microorganisms that make up the gut microbiome. These fermentable fiber types are often called prebiotics because they feed beneficial bacteria that reside in the gut. The best way to increase the microbial diversity in the gut is by eating a wide variety of fermentable fiber types. This can be accomplished by eating a diverse array of vegetables and fruits because they contain various different prebiotics that feed different types of microbrial specifics.
Hydrolyzed Collagen
Contains not only essential amino acids but non essential amino acids like glycine and proline which are necessary to make collagen.
Around 35% of collagen is made up of glycine. Proline (together with hydroxyproline) constitutes more than 25% of the collagen in the body.
Collagen makes up 25-35% of the total protein in our bodies. It is abundant in ligaments, tendons, cartilage and skin, but it also concentrated in blood vessels, muscles, the gut, and dentin in teeth. Our bodies are continually manufacturing new collagen to repair connective tissue loss to daily wear and tear.
What happen’s to the hydrolyzed collagen powder after ingestion?
There is a study Dr. Patrick refer’s to about radio labeled hydrolyzed collagen that was fed to mice in order to answer the question of whether the collagen is degraded into it’s individual amino acids, or whether or not it’s actually absorbed intact. The answer? A little bit of both.
The hydrolyzed collagen fed to mice ended up being broken down into amino acids, but some of it was also absorbed fully intact and shown to accumulate in the cartilage long-term. Which seem’s pretty promising. In addition to being used to make collagen, proline can also be used to make energy by the mitochondria.
Proline, which is very abundant in hydrolyzed collagen can be converted into glutamate and α-ketoglutarat, which is then metablised in the mitochondria in order to produce ATP.
When glucose levels are low, proline is released from connective tissue, converted into α-ketoglutarat to serve as a secondary source of energy.
Proline may also serve a special place in wound healing as well.
10 days after a wound occurs, proline levels at the site of the wound rise 50% higher than plasma levels, suggesting that proline may be actively transported to the site of the wound where it facilitates wound healing.
Glycine, also very abundant in hydrolyzed collagen.
Glycine has been shown to be an anti-inflammatory signaling molecule and an inhibitory neurotransmitter in the brain. Whether the glycine found in hydrolyzed collagen powder is doing any of these functions is unknown at the present time. But it’s a positive possible indicator.
Anti-Nutrient’s
Many people have undue anxiety about consuming raw uncooked kale due to the supposed anti-nutrient content. One of the anti-nutrient’s present in kale that is often talked about are isothiocynates. (the same beneficial plant hermetic compounds that were talked about above that have very potent anti-cancer properties)
Isothiocynates, sometimes referred to as goitrogens.
Isothiocynates can compete for iodone transport into the thyroid gland. High levels of isothiocynates from exposure to large quantities of cruciferous vegetables have NOT been shown to to increase risk of hyperthyroidism UNLESS accompanied by severe iodine deficiency. Which is actually quite uncommon. Similarly, studies have shown that humans tolerate very high doses of isothiocynates without toxicity as well.
Another anti-nutrient’s that has gained a negative reputation is oxalate, present in higher quantities in spinach.
Some have expressed a concern that oxalte can increase the risk of kidney stones, unless you boil the spinach to reduce the oxolate concentration. Which is true, it does decrease the amount of soluble oxlate. Which is the type of oxalte which can be absorbed by the human intestines and has been associated with kidney stone formation.
However it has been shown that magnesium and calcium ions cause oxalate to become insoluble which is NOT able to be absorbed by the intestines.
Both magnesium and calcium ions have been shown to dramatically decrease the amount of oxlate absorption in healthy human volunteers down to less than 5%.
Dr. Patrick’s smoothie is loaded with calcium and magnesium which substantially reduces the amount of soluble oxalte. Although if you were at risk of kidney stones, you might occasionally play it safe and leave out the spinach or boil it as an extra precaution.
After Dr. Patrick has been consuming the smoothie for several days a week for the past 5-6 years there has been no kidney or thyroid irregularities seen in her blood tests. Obviously this is anecdotal, but coupled with the animal studies, you should feel relativity confident the benefits outweigh the theoretical risks.
Size & Strength vs Longevity
“The pursuit of size and strength really contradicts what we want to go after for longevity.” – Dominic D’Agostino
What is it like for Dom to be an academic who makes serious weight training a big part of his life, and how do these two pursuits complement (or complicate) each other? [1:01:06]
“For longevity we want to eat the minimal amount of calories to sustain function, whereas a surplus calories can lead to the activation of certain pathways and genes (IGF-1) that can contribute to aging and an accelerated path to age related chronic diseases.
It’s important to titrate the level of CHO to the individual. It shouldn’t be an ‘all you can eat free for all’ after your workout no matter how intense – that’s not going to be optimal or productive. You want to prevent your postprandial (after a meal) glucose levels from getting to high. You want to prevent your glucose levels from getting above: E.G. Dominic aims for 120-130mg.
When your glucose levels get above 140mg/dL that can cause irreversible beta cell loss (cells that produce insulin). Thus if you routinely get your glucose levels above that you can have ‘beta cell burnout’ over time. (Studies published to prove that). The cancer rates increase if glucose spikes above 160mg/dL over time. So if you’re getting 160mg/dL spikes in your glucose by doing these big refeads (i.e. after workouts) you can potentially increase your rates of cancer. Stroke risk is increased by about 25% for every 1 millimolar rise in post meal blood sugars (18mg/dL). Using lower glycemic CHO to refead would be a smarter safer option.”
Comprehensive Tests | How Do We Measure Micronutrient Level’s:
Find your functional medicine practitioner anywhere in the world here: https://www.functionalmedicine.org/
Food Deficiencies: SpectraCell Test
MRT Food Sensitivity Test
Vitamin & Mineral Test
Attempting To Slow Aging & Prevent Disease
NAD
NAD is “an essential molecule for life.” Without NAD our bodies can’t produce energy. As we age, our body’s ability to produce energy through our mitochondria decreases. They’ve discovered that NAD levels control how many mitochondria you have in your cells.
NAD enables the transfer of energy from the foods we eat to vital cell functions. It is also required to “turn off” genes that accelerate degenerative aging processes.
As NAD levels decline, mitochondrial function is impaired, resulting in fewer mitochondria surviving. This vicious cycle of mitochondrial depletion results in many of the physical symptoms of aging. [Source: Life Extension]
When your young in your 20’s/30’s you have high levels of NAD and over time it decreases to about 50% of what was once had.
By adding a supplement to the drinking water of older mice researches could artificially raise levels of NAD in cells. They’ve notice changes as drastic as a ‘age reversal in the muscle’ in a week. Running almost twice as far without having exercised before and protection from cancer and diabetes.
Recent research suggests it may be possible to reverse mitochondrial decay with dietary supplements that increase cellular levels of a molecule called NAD (nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide).
While there’s promising data and animal research on mice regarding NAD boosters, no human clinical results on them have been published.
Metformin
Metformin is a common drug that has been around for many decades. But it’s also been shown to make worms and mice live longer.
“When you give metformin to people with diabetes in a very controlled way it significantly prevents cardiovascular disease. People who have diabetes who are treated with metformin have significantly less cancers”
You must be logged in to post a comment.