Podcasts about my bmi

Episode #199 In this Fasting Q&A episode, Megan Ramos answers some of your fasting questions: I've heard Dr Fung mention that he doesn't recommend fasting for people with a BMI under 20. My BMI is under 20. I've recently lowered my A1C from 6.2 to 5.5 but would like to lower it further or at least maintain it. Would IF or OMAD be OK to do? (Beth from North Carolina) [01:40] I have been doing some therapeutic fasting to address my PCOS and hopefully get my period back. Do you have any recommendations for a preconception plan for fasting and nutrition? Is there anything else I should be doing before TTC? How will I know when my body is healthy enough? [10:12] Can you wreck your thyroid by fasting too much? Or is this not true and you can heal it with fasting? Mine was subclinical hypo but returned to normal when I stopped fasting, without meds. I am back to ADF now because I love fasting so much! (Miggy from The Netherlands) [20:46]  I've been on a night shift schedule at the hospital for the last 30 years working 7pm to 7am. I'd love to know the ins and outs of how to stay as healthy as possible on nights and the best way to fast with that schedule. (Suzy from South Carolina) [26:37] Please Submit Your Questions here: https://bit.ly/TFMPodcastQs   Sign Up to the Self-Sabotage Workshop here: https://www.thefastingmethod.com/masterclasses-and-live-workshops-2025/#Self2 Discount Code - PODCAST10   Transcripts of all episodes are available at www.thefastingmethod.com on the Podcast page.   Connect with us: Learn More About Our Community: https://www.thefastingmethod.com Join our FREE Facebook Group: https://bit.ly/TFMNetwork Watch Us On YouTube: https://bit.ly/TFMYouTube Follow Us on Instagram: @fastingmethod   Chapters 00:00 Intro 01:40 Can I fast with a low BMI? 10:12 Healing PCOS and the Best Preconception Plan 20:46 Does Fasting Wreck Your Thyroid? 26:37 How Best to Eat and Fast for Night Shifts   Disclaimer This podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional care by a doctor or other qualified medical professional. You should always speak with your physician or other healthcare professional before doing any fasting, changing your diet, taking or adjusting  any medication or supplements, or adopting any treatment for a health problem. The use of any other products or services purchased by you as a result of this podcast does not create a healthcare provider-patient relationship between you and any of the experts affiliated with this podcast. Information and statements regarding dietary supplements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration and are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

Please Subscribe and Review: Apple Podcasts | RSS Submit your questions for the podcast here News topic du jour: are covid vaccines causing persistent covid? Podcast Questions: 1. Sodium Nitrite [18:20] Dana says: Good morning! I just listened to your episode from 12/23. I have had a long-standing, perplexing question about sodium nitrite/nitrate, and it relates to the recent episode. Since I was 14, I've had a sensitivity to processed meats that contain sodium nitrite/nitrate (ham, lunch meat, salami, hot dogs, etc). It creates a vascular migraine headache with a aura of visual disturbances and sometimes hemiparesis. I can stop the progression with aspirin, so I'm confident it's vascular. The perplexing part, is that it never happens if I eat vegetable high in nitrite/ nitrates, or meats that are cured with celery powder that is high in nitrite/nitrates. Any thoughts on how these are different?   2. High fasted blood glucose/high cholesterol [20:56] Jackie says: Hey there! Long term listener, first time e-mail-er. I've been low carb for the better part of the last 5 years and had some success in maintaining a 40lb weightloss with those eating habits. However, after 2 surrogate pregnancies accompanied with IVF and exogenous hormones over the last 3 years, I'm struggling to get back to my pre-pregnancy weight. Looking for answers I had some labs done, expecting a thyroid issue, to find high fasted glucose levels (99-101) and elevated bilirubin. I'm fine after eating, my glucose sits at about 74-84 2 hours after eating pretty consistently. I'm just not sure why all of a sudden I'm showing poor insulin management in the mornings on an empty stomach? My BMI is 34- which I know isn't ideal and I'm working on it- but after hormones the weight doesn't seem to want to come off. I'm 30 years old. My doctor said “make some lifestyle changes and we'll keep an eye on it.” So much help there! Wondering if that might be attributable to my dis-regulated blood glucose levels. Would appreciate your insight on the matter! Any thoughts as to what I can try to get my blood sugar back to normal before it spirals out of control? I'm debating on a CGM but not sure if it would be of help? Also, my cholesterol came back high at 212. LDL/HDL ratio of 3. Triglycerides are 66. In the low carb world what does this mean, as in the standard medicine world it's not great- not sure if it's the same. Thank you for your time and all the knowledge you bring to optimizing health! You're truly changing the world.   3. Keto Breastfeeding [26:55] Juliana says: Hi Robb and Nikki, I've been listening to your show for about a year now and I love the breadth of topics you cover. I know sometimes you joke that people my age are not interested in what you have to say, but I want to let you know we are very interested. I share your podcast all the time and people my age love it. With my second baby I was diagnosed with GDM and was on my way toward type 2 diabetes post partum. My blood sugar levels were out of control and I kept adding on weight. I found keto and completely changed my life. I lost 40 pounds before getting pregnant with our 3rd baby. With our 3rd baby I was very strict and ate less than 50 carbs/day and had an extremely healthy pregnancy with no GDM this time. I am now 10 weeks post partum of my 3rd baby. After having the 3rd baby I gave myself a ton of freedom (ie any/all carbs). It was a celebration of all my hard work for 2 years. Now at 10 weeks post partum I tried to go back to my very low carb way of eating and within 48 hours I got soo soo soo sick, it very much felt like keto flu. I would like to note that I had an LMNT each day and salt my food generously with redmonds. I got scared because breastfeeding is the most important thing for me. I went back to having carbs to undo the sickness, but I would prefer a low carb way of eating if I could get there. I take magnesium and dessicated liver and vitamin D and LMNT. I also did not restrict calories, I am very familiar with the keto diet and I made sure I had plenty of fat and calories. I'm curious as to what ketosis does to our overall hydration levels and possibly breast milk supply? I know you recommend LMNT for breastfeeding moms, so I was hoping you might have some insight on low carb diets and breastfeeding. I'm willing to suffer through the keto flu but I'm terrified of it hurting my milk supply. I also read that breastfeeding lowers glucose levels and am curious if that may have had an interaction and intensified the keto flu. I forgot to take my morning fasting numbers. I'm a 33 year old female and my weight is totally irrelevant because I just had a baby Thank you for any insight you might have! Thank you, Juliana Sponsor: The Healthy Rebellion Radio is sponsored by our electrolyte company, LMNT. Proper hydration is more than just drinking water. You need electrolytes too! Check out The Healthy Rebellion Radio sponsor LMNT for grab-and-go electrolyte packets to keep you at your peak! They give you all the electrolytes want, none of the stuff you don't. Click here to get your LMNT electrolytes Transcript: You can find the transcript at https://robbwolf.com/2022/12/30/nitrite-sensitivity-trouble-after-hormones-keto-breastfeeding-thrr136/

If you want to lose weight you want and need ways to measure fat and body composition. Not tracking, tracking too little, or unnecessary information can lead you down a path where you might lose muscle, and ultimately regain more weight because of it. So this episode of Flipping 50 lays out many methods either believed or used to measure fat.    This is the good, bad, and between. You may find an additional tool you want to use, and you will find some resources to make it easy to do. You may find you want an upgrade to what you're doing now.    Let's dive into the 9 ways to measure fat and body composition I've included here.   00:00  4 Ways to Measure Fat: Most Common   Traditional Scale  05:06 Tells you your weight Pros – the convenience of at-home, affordable, tells change even if not calibrated  Cons – doesn't measure body composition – your muscle and fat, calibration can be wrong   Girth Measurements 06:19 Typically taken at calf, thigh, hip, waist, chest, shoulder, triceps Pros – convenient, affordable, combined with weight-only scales gives insight into the composition Cons – inaccuracies can occur from pre to post, subjective errors pulling tighter/loser hold, placement variations   Body Mass Index (BMI) 09:45 Using your height and weight, a BMI rating places you in the ‘ideal of 19-24 or too low or too high. Pros – simplistic requires no tools to do – online BMI calculators easily accessible  Cons – zero indication of body composition, there are outliers – frail older adults/thick-framed muscular but shorter in height will never have “healthy BMI” ranges, not a good indication of overall health   My BMI currently is 22.3 while I'm at the lowest body fat I've been. At a lower weight, yet higher percent body fat my BMI is 21.6, falsely giving the impression I was healthier with those numbers. (The calculator is below for you to try. If you've lost weight). This measure alone could have you chasing the wrong goal line.    Waist-to-Hip Ratio 12:41 Measures your waist and hip each at the smallest point. As it says, this is a measure of your proportions. You divide your waist measurement by the hip measure. Poor scores are indicative of a greater risk for heart disease. (.8 or lower is desirable for women and above .85 is classified as abdominal obesity by the World Health Organization). Pros – convenient to measure, easy to calculate, tells you not just how much fat but where you carry it  Cons – there's room for error with the tape measure placement (parallel to the floor, at the right spot, and at the right spot pre and posttest).   Tip: in labs for nearly 18 years, here's how we did this. When you measure, take the first measures. Then repeat for a total of 3 times. Take the average of your measure to record.  3 Ways to Measure Fat & Body Composition that Require Equipment Underwater Weighing  14:56 Called hydrostatic weight, this was known as the gold standard or one of the most accurate ways to measure body fat until newer more advanced ways were developed. I've been in that deep tub numerous times and have tested hundreds if not thousands of students, faculty, and staff this way.  The number of times I've shouted, “blow it out, blow it out” to a submerged student.. and lost my voice doing it… brings back memories!    It was never foolproof. You and I don't like to have any air in our lungs underwater. So, it's very difficult to get a true measure. With antiquated scales, the needle was bouncing on the scale and you're trying to read it while someone is wanting desperately to take a breath.    If you ever have a chance to do this, take a pass. It's based on Archimede's principle. The amount of liquid a submerged object displaces is equivalent to the volume of the object. We take a measure on land, underwater and we measured with an elaborate calculation, your body density. From that, we calculated body fat. The heavier you are underwater (relatively), the lower your body fat.    Pros – It's safe, can be used if you have a pacemaker. Can be more accurate than many available methods of measuring  Cons – it's never going to be accurate if you can't get the air out of your lungs (you'll measure more fat than you are)    The range of error was always about 2-3% plus or minus.    Skinfold calipers 19:54 This is known as the “pinch test.” In labs, we'd do this one most commonly. I've pinched thousands of skinfolds in my career, and yet few in the last 10 years since I left the university. I no longer teach students to use them, pre and post-test students each semester, or work in the exercise clinic at the university. We also, however, did them selectively for people in fitness centers. If you're of a certain size we're simply not going to get an accurate reading. And often if your skin is too taught due to weight and inability to separate fat and muscle when attempting to get a skinfold, your posttest may be bigger than your pre simply because it then becomes easier to get a reading.    Pros - relatively accessible in fitness centers, university settings Cons – it all depends on your administrator's skill level. It takes about 5000 practices to be an expert in anything. If you have a new trainer testing you, chances are accuracy is lower than the 3-4 percent accuracy possible.    Dexascan (or MRI, CT scan)  22:08 When you get that bone density test, your technician can tell you various tissues including not only bone but muscle and fat. So be sure to ask if you've recently had a bone scan, you've also had one of the most accurate ways to measure your body fat). Pros – non-invasive, accurate measure existing, you may already have or be in need of a bone scan  Cons- expensive, not something used for the public for body composition testing    Newer & Accessible Ways to Measure Fat & Benchmark   Bioelectrical Impedance (handheld) 23:20 Based on the fact fat is a poor conductor of electricity, and water is a conduit, you store water in muscle, hydration is important to the accuracy of your reading. Handheld tools used in fitness centers are probably less accurate than many methods of testing. That said, there's more to consider.   Pros – easy, non-invasive (no dunk tank and no bruises from skinfolds) Cons – accuracy is based on hydration, and handheld are less likely to  be as sensitive, error messages are common for large-sized individuals   Smart Scale   25:15 Pros – affordable, convenient, non-invasive, ability to measure and show change over time Cons – dependent on hydration (still bio-electrical impedance), accuracy is lower than other methods    Why are these ways to measure fat so important and beneficial?   Measure Fat to Optimize Habits that Influence Body Composition Your measures all tell you the sum of your daily habits. You know when you measure not if, but how they're working. You know something isn't working. You may not know exactly what but you have a measure so that you can look at whether you are: Eating enough high-quality protein  Exercising to keep and gain lean muscle and avoid losing it Sleeping enough  Not allowing catabolic hormones or lack of anabolic to sabotage you For help with all of those, if you have 20 or more pounds to lose, check here. I've gathered all the science of fitness and fitness nutrition after menopause for you.     References:  BMI calculator       Waist-to-Hip Ratio tool     WHO'S Waist Circumference and Waist-Hip Ratio paper      Resources:  Debra's Top 3 Smart Scales (one for every budget) Join the Flipping 50 Insiders group   Other Posts You Might Like:   Fat Loss in Menopause: It's Not What You Think #515 The Cardio for Fat Loss Myth and Other Menopause Fairytales     

The period when I was consulting with a dietician on a regular basis was a good learning time for me. That was really what it was about, so after a while, I really felt like the sessions were not as valuable to me. If you're taking lessons on doing anything, there comes a time when you have to evaluate whether you're using your time valuably -- is that a word? I think I may have just made it up. I am still using smart balance and olive oil mayonnaise. Every now and then I find a healthier food alternative that costs me nothing in flavor at all, these are 2 examples. Recently I tried some sugar-free Reese's peanut butter cups. And they taste just as good as the real thing. I haven't checked the calorie difference though, so need more research. One valuable thing I have learned from this episode is another exercise I can do at home. I think at this time I still did not have a gym membership, so it's a good point in the series for that. So I'm going to try some of the ab exercises. UPDATE 9/25/21. This week I have missed exercise a few times and also not counted calories or weighed myself every day. These are foundational keys to success I think, and binding them all together is the power of habit. That's why it's important to just get on the stationary bike no matter how long I use it, and to pick up the weights on my resistance training days no matter how much lifting I do. Today I am 281 pounds, significantly heavier. But my weight has fluctuated wildly this week. One day I was down 8 pounds in the 4th week, 2 pounds lost per week. And today I am 7 pounds up, almost 2 pounds gained per week on average. It's a long trudge to a healthy weight, and I need to keep putting more weeks into the average to get a good trend going. So today I weighed myself and got back on the bike. And I'll count my calories and trudge on. In other news, I had my annual biometrics measurement at work this week, the main significance of which is that I know some stats about myself. My BMI is 38, almost 10 points over the allowed level, so I will be paying the fat tax this year. I haven't been calculating my BMI and my scale still is not giving me that info. But based on what happened in 2018 I have a pretty good idea of what my weight should be. No doubt I have lost some of the muscle mass gained back then, but I'm not too concerned about it. And I plan to increase my resistance training. There is still much work to do! Finally, we've reached our 4-year anniversary! Thanks for listening and making this a fun, and enlightening, and valuable exercise for me. http://RunningAFEVER.com/282 Photo by Andres Ayrton from Pexels

Photo by Nathan Cowley from Pexels   It could be digital retail. You know, or social media platforms. You know, I'm gonna have to move on to some entertainment. Alright, can you hear, can you hear me? Alright, you good? Yeah. Alright. Cool. Cool. Just keep talking. Yeah. So I'll just like saying my house. How there are so much different things that we could be able to consume. Coming from the entertainment industry. Coming from the. Food industry. Yeah, the history, you know, I mean, we start consuming, like once we wake up. Pretty much, like what are you guys start doing? Once you wake up for me, I start, I'm going to send to either a podcast or a motivational video. Or a Bible or a Bible verse. Extremely productive dentist, part of my daily ritual when I'm being extreme. Productive when I'm not I get up in. I consume like nothing. Well, I just go straight to the TV, and if I cut on the TV and I laid down on that couch, isn't a route. Assuming that for the whole day. So. Yeah, I think. I think that is important. You know it sets up everything he does. For me when I don't listen to my when I don't listen to any of that stuff, the motivational video. Like, I'm not as positive throughout the day. If someone says something that ticks me off, I can't, I don't seem like I can get back to my center as quickly. Just because I didn't like for me, like if I didn't listen to either the word or. I didn't pick up some motivational from Les Brown or Eric Thomas. Alright. Oh, wow. Oh, you went today. yeah. Yeah. If I, if I don't like start my day with, with them, like, My normal, like my day is just, it's just thrown off whack. Right? Is this like, Something's like. I just have like more negative. I feel like I have more negative thoughts. What kind of straight is actually does. It reminds you of what you're trying to go at. And what are you aiming for? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Definitely. That's the first thing. Cause like whatever you consume it I would, I would say it is. It's pretty vital of like, what's the first thing you're going to be putting in your body and starting out your day. Right. You know Cause for most, most people, I feel that they have the negative type of that that are created inside their head. Do you know? And so if you keep on running through and not having the type of. You know, motivation to keep you out of those negative thoughts. That's, what's really going to be able to beat you down. No. And not having what you say a productive day. So I think having something, something very vital for, for me that I'd like to try to consume as, you know, gaining some type of daily. Daily. Readings, you know, right. You know, if I'm able to, to get some good information off of a, of a great author that, that speaking on some, something that. On looking to try to improve in my daily life. Think that could be able to start my day off. Right. And get him, get him everything, you know. Put together, you know, Oh, yeah. I'm like how you say It makes, it's hard for you to find your sentence when you don't digest some summer and in the morning. If you don't have anything positive, then it causes a disruption. Right? I like how you said that because I was thinking about that. I noticed that if I get up in the morning if I wake up, what I, what I eat. What I listened to him and what I read is extremely important at first, like the hour of the day. Right? That first 30 minutes a day is so crucial to like eight determines I, without a doubt. The course of my date. And not only does. Turn me into a different relationship, like when dealing with other people, but also with dealing with myself and dinner with internal problems. Right. Do you know what I mean? Like. Really important. Like if I get up and I eat, I eat right. Like, I don't know, eat a nice little breakfast or whatever. Get my nice little smoothie. I try to you. Yeah. Do you know what I'm saying? Like, Well, yeah. At like in the morning time. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Or drinking or even drinking water. As soon as I get up without, brushing my teeth before speaking to anybody. Before checking. Here's another thing. Social media we'll come back to that. Before checking social media, do you know what I mean? Like it's extremely important that I feed my body correctly and feed my mind. Cause when I feed both of those, then sitting down at dinner with my spiritual center and my spirit to be winding, to be it. Makes it easier. Because it's following suit. Right. The rest of my body. I mean, the rest of my being, I guess that's the best. way to say it. So health being healthy and being conscious and got extremely aware of what's going on is an extreme standpoint. I know I appreciate awareness. All the time, but it's, it's the key to being sunset. It's one of the keys to being successful. Right. If you're aware of how you want your day to go, if you if you're aware that the things that I couldn't get I do when I first get up, can determine the rest of my day. You're aware that you move a little bit differently. All right. I mean, like if I. Get up in the morning. I noticed this when I get up in the morning if I go straight to social media. And I hop on. It's not always going to be positive stuff in my social media, in case I have you know, certain people that just don't post positive stuff on social media. I might go through the news and, you know Who knows anything. Like if it's some names and stuff in there, That's what's being put into my day over it. Hmm. And that's not that that causes not that. Oh, well. Cause I see somebody's having a bad day. I'm going to have a bad day now or. No, but it prints a C for the possibility of that to happen. Do you know what I mean? It gives you that it's like a fine or weed that's a place in, in your deck. And the garden and your life, right? A gardener, your date. Do you know what I'm saying? Like I just, I don't know. It's, it's extremely important. I think what you consume you are what you consume. Right. You are, as they say, what you eat. So. That goes in every direction. Right? I don't know, I'm just, and it's very important to live. Always. No, what you need, as you said, you brought up self-awareness. For me, it's not always like, just. Just list listening to motivational videos. Sometimes I actually have to switch it up because. I can find myself in the rat race. And sometimes I get in a position where I'm realizing I'm working too hard. All right. And I'm not, I'm not enjoying the finer things in life. Sometimes I just need to sit in the car and just be alone with my thoughts. Right. I'll switch it up there. And there are other days where I just like, I listen to the VK VK, Jay show. Okay. That's something I listen to just for, I find them very funny sometimes. I just need you to come to call me. Do you. Really comedic relief. It depends on the day that you structure an actual date. Cause like another thing for me is the channel. Now I know we talked about this a little bit, but not really good. I went into detail about it, but I also want to bring it up too, because it's not just what you. Ingest is also with you play some paint loss. Produced. So the first thing that you produced is your thoughts, you are correct. And your thoughts on a paper that's important as well, because now you also structure not your thoughts at the same time. Your personal thought was not what everybody else is thinking is, okay, this is where I am right now. This is why when I got up this morning, this is what, this is what my mindset was at. That's why I want to go away. That's also that that creates a direction for you as well. So all these things matter. It's, it's, it's how they say original. I think it is a ritual, a habit. Place, once you place that positive spin on your daily rituals. It creates. I don't know, you know what I mean? That's important. Yeah, no. Yeah. If you gotta buy, you gotta buy your own virtues. Do you know if you'd be able to get, if you? You ain't want. To set down some personal virtues that you believe in, you know and be able to, to not stray away from it. Get right on track with having, you know, what you believe in to, to never be able to. Fear away from it. You guys are in the health field. Right. I guess you could say you're going to have field. Cause, you know, when you're into the wellbeing of food. Right. Right. So as, as a coach, what are some recommendations as far as like diets and your recommendations? Like, what, what do you think is important by West? If you got D what's the best move when it comes down to you're getting up in the morning, is it necessary to have something that's gonna shoot your energy all the way up? Is it. You know what I mean? Like, what is that like a. Balance that need to be like, for me, I've always liked preached balance there. I mean, everyone goes about it a different way, but. They say like the balanced diet is like between like 45 to 55%. Carbs. Okay. And then. Alright, between 10 to 15% of fats and 25 to 30% of protein. Okay. And. It does. So, so what I deem as you evens you out, or is it by. Yeah, it's more just to help you feel good. Is it dangerous? Is it, is it dangerous to like, say like say somebody adjusts the sugar early in the morning and they. Shoot up more like coffee. Cause, you know, coffee is a hell of a standard release. Yeah. Right on a regular basis. Is that, is that a dangerous thing to do? If you're taking more than the daily dosage. Yes. The recommended daily dosage. Oh, it's It depends on, it depends on a person. If you could, if you're using it or like it becomes a crux. Like, that's all you that's. all you use to get yourself throughout the day. Right? Then I would see, I could see it as a deterrent. Yeah, I think, yeah, I think most people won't go too crazy with the red bull. That's the problem. It's okay. If you just take like one of them, but if you're going like five cans, deep five to six cans deeply, I knew a guy. No lie. No. Yeah. He was like, when I come in in the morning this was when I was working that the, so I get up in the morning we get up into, when I get there, I could do work. You still are done, Chuck. He's like, where are the choke down one? He's on the keto diet. He was on the kill. Died at time. Right? Chill out. One of these rebels already off my second one. Lady's nine o'clock. You're doing? What do you mean? Checking out another one it's only got a cat, like me only been here, like. Wait two hours, two and a half, maybe. What are you doing? He's like, yo damn. Before, like she been getting ready, not show down, let's do it. We'll go through like four red bulls rug and be like, All monsters. Switch it up from time to time, but energy drinks. And I'm like, you know, how do you not crash? Right. It's like, man, it's the only thing that keeps me up. That will tell you, I wouldn't be able to do nothing. I'm like. I don't know how you're functioning right now. I don't understand. Right. Nope to the, bring it back around. I'm sending it as a desk. Other ways. That's it's. It's ways that you go about it being unhealthy, you would consume unhealthy things. And it can destroy your date. Cause someone, some healthy stuff and you know, your body is so used to a day. That's what it craves. And that's what he uses is phew. Possibly, but it's also still breaking down your body. You're not seeing it. Right away, but it's going to catch up to you down the line. Alright. Thank you for that. It's a kind of push her, like being aware of your health is extremely important. So I'm not talking about consuming information and consume it. I'm having a good diet. That's extremely important input success. Like there is that when you're dealing with self development, you're not just developing yo you're mental. You're not just developing your vocab. Ew. Ew. Or your business, you have to develop your body as well. Right? I have to prepare for things to get harder. You gotta be your bias and Todd's, can't even deal with distress. If you only, you don't want to, if you don't release some of that stress is going to cause you to crash. Right. You know what I mean? Like it's. That's a lot more. It's a self development then just. Reading. No. I mean, that's why some. Some of the big Leaders CEO company to start their mornings. Why are we going to bed at 5:00 AM to go work it out? Yeah. It just, it just gets their blood flowing. Yes. Our blood flowing you release endorphins. There's just so much that can be gained once you get you get up and move. When you actually actively move. Yeah. It just, it sets everything up. Like. Your mind's wired. Once you have to remove. You get your feeding, the oxygen to your brain and you learn about it. You can function more efficiently. Yeah, you're right. It makes like, I know the difference between when I get up at five and I'm at the gym at five o'clock. And how my day's going to go down when. I gotta be at work at eight. And I get up. I sit there. Hmm. That's another thing, getting enough sleep. That's also because. Consuming asleep. I don't even know if that's the right word to say. That is important to being a baby sleeping. Sleeping is extremely important in. Getting up ahead of time. So underrated. Yeah, absolutely. So many people would say necessary, man. So many people who just do not take care of their sleep. I agree. But like I told you, that was one of my big struggles in college. Yeah. That's sacrificing sleep. But now, but now being older and realizing how much sleep helps me. The process things quicker. That's one of the things I've liked, turned around to make sure like I can help my clients. If I'm more on the ball. If I get enough sleep. So do you recommend, do you recommend getting up at five o'clock in going to the gym and then eaten. Like after you come from the gym, do you recommend eating before you go to the gym? What is better? What is a better. We have a better result. One we'll pause there. I've eaten before the gym, when he knocked that issue. I mean, it all depends on the, it all depends on the person because. Like with the, with the keto diet or keto diet, intermittent fasting diet, people are able to. People are able to get to a state where they can work or tell without having food. Because their body, after a while it gets used to it. Right. But if it's, but not everyone responds to it. Well, right. So it's basically learning your body, learning what works best for you. Me personally, I have to eat life two to three hours before I go work out. Because I just, that's just the way like this playing sports, that's just the way I've always operated. I'm just, I am much more energy when I eat before. My workout, my muscles, my muscles. It's so much easier. I already got a full stomach and. Because I got a, I don't know if we call her fat and tablet. Isn't that like, Eat a lot. It takes a lot for me to gain power. You know what I'm saying? Put on any type of muscle, then I would take some time, you know, so like for me, I have to eat beforehand. And not be hungry as hell afterwards. So I have to do both happy beforehand after. It can't be two hours before he had come. Be hungry at the moment out off the sedation would be hungry, but there's focus. There's also, there's also a mental aspect of working out when you don't eat that most people that some people use their benefit, would you mean. Like it's like your body's still in that survival flight mode. Okay. So they're using that to their advantage, right? You're so hungry, but you're like, you're. If you're lifting heavy weights. Let me see. If you're lifting heavy weights and like in a stressful situation. Your body's still gonna try to find the energy it's going to take it. Like they'll probably, they'll probably take it from your fat sources. So that helps you lose weight more efficiently. Which for me personally, it's not a good idea. Alright. Cause I only got 20% body fat. So I need that little bit. Data. And that's actually accurate. I might actually only 20% body fat as accurate as all I know. It's crazy. Ah, Yeah. Wait. 20% body fat as it. Wait, wait. I want to say is. Wait. Yeah. You got 10% better, but. You don't believe you're looking like your own beliefs. No, it isn't no like, yeah, Tony. 20% body fat, like, you know, That was pretty good. No. Pretty good. My BMI. I know the last time I, the thing is last. I had to check with Paulie and maybe about. 2017. No. Yeah. Whoa. Yeah. What about you? Mommy your minds around like 12.5. Yeah. That shouldn't be there. Yeah. I was 20. I was 23%. Body fat. Wait. Five months ago because we had to do a health checkup. And then I was just like, okay. I notice all the damn time. So I started, I started, I got like a dis Really expensive scale. That tells you everything from the exact weight, how much how much of bones, wait, this is crazy. It tells you how much body fat you have. It says, how many calendars do you need to consume in order to remain in it? Right? Yeah. So, yeah. So when Andy and I shifted into CUNY and I was at 20%, I was like, Wow. Yeah. Wait, according to my height and the rest, my weight, like that's by your shrimp, we did it. What I was told when I went to doctor was talking to me. I actually waited a little bit less than I was like at 23%. He's like, yo, that's crazy. That's really good. I'm like, yeah, I don't do that. Is it, they only eat when I was wa I was walking and running during that time I was exercising, but not to, not to the. Tensity, not at the same intensity that child guys work on. You know what I mean? Yeah. Everybody's body's different than at all. So it depends on your goal. Would you try. Right. So. What that knowledge is knowing, knowing your body. Knowing how it works, what it needs. No things are extremely important when dealing with your wellbeing. When dealing with yourself, like you need to know that, right. It's important. Like, did you have high blood pressure? What is your family? Hates me all this information and stuff that you should know. So that you can make more accurate. Assessment of yourself, so that you'll be able to, like, you can actually kind of look into the future, like see what it is that you need, like actually be, actually be healthy and not just look healthy because that's people that look healthy at work out all the time and internally Def messed up. And don't even know it right. There was this guy. See, he was around, he was around the same way that I was, but like a little bit shorter. And the doctor told him he was obese and I'm looking at him like, bro, this dog's skin and bones, we meet OBT say internally, his Oregon is a messed up. He asked a claw like not clogged arteries, but like it's like bat around. It spikes that ain't supposed to be in and I'm looking like. No, I wasn't even aware that that was the thing that you can actually be skinny and be obese, you know? What I mean, or be fattening. I don't know. I don't know about opposite. But it is, you can be skinny and be obese. You know what I mean? Like. It's important for you. Yeah, things that I'm trying to say, that it's extremely important for you when you consume that knowledge and trying to understand yourself in, when it comes to self, develop me to really understand your history, understand your health history. That's extremely important, right? Yeah. People are people like the sweet things on the road. Yeah. Part of part of the problems when a diet, like most of them themselves. Yeah. I want to do also get professional help. I gotta say that. Get up, get a doctor who do not know. I'm not even going to advocate health insurance, anything. Of that nature, but that is something like most people don't think about health insurance, most. I'm from don't think I'm back. We don't even think of it as important at all. Right. He's like going to, going to the DOP name and actually finding these things out to Reno, having a conversation with your moms and your pops about past history or by whether you're. You know what I mean? These things are. Extremely important room. Messenger to diseases prevention. Yeah. Absolutely. I agree with that. If you just stay, if you stay on top of things. No. You don't have to, you don't have to worry about the, the big thing. I think most things you gotta stay on top of, you know, the research and everything out there too. Yeah. What's going on because I think there's so much different type of information that, that they fight well, especially when you've got the internet and so forth like that. So we gotta be very. A particular on information that you ingest. Can you remember when they said that? I think it was like 2005. We had came out with a study where it was talking about how eggs are bad for you. And then they turn right around 2008. I don't know these dates aren't actually accurate, but then it was like, Hey, it's a good for you again. No, no, no, no, no. Just in whites. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The fitness center. She's like one of the biggest contradictions. There is. Yeah. There's so many theories testing being done and not everything works the same for everyone. That's why it's more important that it happened, doctor your own doctor that you deal with. You know, so you can find out about sheep. And not just go away, as B was saying, just whatever's on the internet. Actually having that, I didn't real real knowledge from a medical professional. It's extremely important as well. I want to make sure I advocate that because this isn't, I don't, I don't have a medical degree. Yeah. So let's say that we're not giving you medical advice. So get advice from your doctor. Yeah. When it comes to health, you gotta have a, like a healthy paranoia things. Yeah. I see my doctor, like three, four times a year. Do you exercise all the time? I'm not trying to stay on top of it. It's funny that you say that. Cause it was talking about. The last podcast was talking about how Nene, the healthy, a healthy amount of fear and a healthy amount of hope. Right now, how does that apply with your health? How does it apply what you consume information?     As far as the, as far as the fear aspect, like I said, Discuss not wanting to get any serious disease. I'm always on more. It's looking after always checking with the doctor's, seeing what I need to do. Always exercising, making sure I'm getting enough sleep because I want to be at peak condition. Normally As far as, from a hope aspect. Aspect. I'd use it. From a hope aspect. I just want to make sure I'm around to see the fruits of my labor. So staying fit making sure I'm. I'm going to be around for when I have my kids one day when my great grandkids I'll be able to see what they've come up to as well as the kids of coach. See what the men and the men and women that they've all become. So, okay. That's dope. What we're actually doing. Yeah. So, yeah, that's, that's a good one. For me, it was just the, the fact that. If you're up for for training and how flies. Of seeing the hope. Always look at, I kind of want to be able to get my best. I want to be, be the best version of myself. You know, I saw a look at, I look at myself as you know, who am I. 25, 30 years down the road. And, and that's the reason why I'm able to go, go up and, and, and do the things that I do if I'm working out. If I'm able to go read a book in the morning. I'm just trying to be able to. Develop myself to be the better version of myself. The fear the hand on the other end would be the fact that man, I'm just a failure. You know, I was enabled to accomplish the goals that I set myself for it to doing that. You know, so it kind of gets me I mean, that's the, that's the fact that that lack because people stop when When they're going towards their goal or I would say they're a delight. Yeah. But I think when you do stop, you have to find something that gets you right back on. I think with that fear aspect. Just like, all right, this is the. The the end result of when, if I don't get this thing done, you know, Zach, I'm gonna fail. That's what's gonna help me get right back on track and get going again. You know, having that fear aspect. And so that's how I see. With Getting the the fear of being hopeful. As well. I say for me as a measure of both and. It has to be extremely healthy measure. Both. It has to be a balance. And to kinda like for me, it's like we have to be grounded in reality. No. Like, so having that, having a healthy part of fear, as far as my health declining. In the future. That far motivates me, but also happened that hope that that for me, it's not really hope. It's more like this is the goal. But it is kind of a hope. This is like, you don't know if you're going to, I'm trying to see a century. There's a lot of phase you can do in essentially. That is a lot of stuff you can learn in the century. Oh yeah, no, I'm down. We learned that I'm like Freaking theme when it comes down to knowledge, if you can't tell, you know, so like for me, trying to see that century, China. Live to see that century. Right. Pass down as much knowledge as I can. To those around you as extreme name for it. So for me, it's having that grip, that graphs of reality, right. I mean, it has to be grounded in reality for me.

Esther Blum is an Integrative Dietitian and High Performance Coach. She has helped thousands of women permanently lose weight, eliminate the need for medication, lose stubborn belly fat, and reverse chronic illness. Esther teaches her clients how to get clear and decisive about what to eat while healing their relationship with food and their bodies.CHECK THIS AMAZING WEBSITE BY ESTHER BLUM FOR MORE INFO.https://estherblum.com/JOIN NOW!! AND BE PART OF MASTERMIND PROGRAMlearn how to activate yourself for a better future!https://createanewtomorrow.com/master...CHECK THIS LINK FOR A FREE GIFT FOR YOU!https://www.createanewtomorrow.com/giftDO YOU WANT TO BE OUR NEXT SPECIAL GUEST?Book an appointment now and let's create a new world together!https://booking.builderall.com/calend...CHECK THIS OTHER WEBSITE FOR MORE INFORMATION!https://www.CreateAnewtomorrow.comhttps://www.Achievehealthusa.comCreate a fundamental change in the global community from a strictly reactive system of medicine that focuses on symptom and emergency treatment to a proactive system based on whole-being health as well as illness and injury prevention. Personally teach and influence at least one million people.We are a multifaceted Health and Wellness company that specializes in Corporate Wellness and Culture Consulting, Industry Speaking engagements and Continuing education for the industry.We Help corporations by solving the most costly problems they have with Productivity and Health Care while creating a culture that thrives on accomplishment and community.We help organizations think outside of the box and gain tools that allow them to be nimble and strong as tides and markets shift.We Up level the skills and tools of other practitioners by providing them continuing education that actually leads to greater success and standing in the business community.+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++Ari Gronich 0:00  I'm Ari Gronich and this is create a new tomorrow podcast.Welcome back to another episode of create a new tomorrow I'm your host Ari Gronich and today with me is Esther blum. She is an integrative dietitian and a high performance coach and her goal and she what she's done is helped 1000s of women permanently lose weight and eliminate the need for medication Lose Stubborn Belly Fat and reverse chronic illness. She teaches her clients to cultivate a warrior mindset when it comes to healing their relationship with food and unconditionally loving their bodies. Esther is the best selling author of cave women don't get fat. I like that title. Eat, drink and be gorgeous secrets of gorgeous and the eat, drink and be gorgeous project. She currently maintains a busy virtual practice where she provides 360 degrees of healing with physical, psychological, emotional and spiritual support. Esther has appeared on Dr. Oz the today show and Fox News Live. Welcome to the show. Esther I really appreciate you coming on and taking out time. I know you have a very busy schedule. So thank you so much for being here.Esther Blum 1:25  Thanks sorry for having me.Ari Gronich 1:28  So tell us a little bit about what got you started in the world of dietitian and then what kind of transitioned you from dietitian to integrative dietitian.Esther Blum 1:42  Um well I grew up in a medical family. My grandfather and father were both physicians. My grandfather was actually an ears nose and throat doctor and an incredible surgeon. He was the tonsil, King of Brooklyn, and that he trained my grandmother to be the anesthesiologist and the two of them took my tonsils out in their house in Brooklyn. My grandfather had an operating room, a treatment room, a consultation room and 12 bed pediatric recovery room on the first floor of their house next to their kitchen and dining room. So you know, I grew up just thinking it was very normal for my grandfather to operate on me in his own home and my grandmother to put the ether mask over my face. Um, so I was never even in the hospital really until childbirth.So my father also was a gifted dermatologist who was a wonderful healer and I saw the two of them making house calls. You know, we would go up to my grandfather's farm house in Ridgefield, Connecticut on the weekends and the phone would ring and you know, they answering service would said like, speak to Dr. Blum. And we were like, Well, which one you know and so and they were just kind, compassionate people who did house calls and real country doctors. Even though my grandfather was in Brooklyn, and then my mother was a nurse. And we had lots of pharmacists in our families. So I grew up around medicine, it was comfortable around it was discussed at our dinner table for better or for worse. And I knew that I was interested in it. I always did well in school, but I didn't want to go to medical school and my my grandfather said what are you what are you thinking? I said, I think I want to be a dietitian, because it's all the pre med requirements. Basically, it's a little less physics, but it's all pre med. But none of the, you know, residency. I mean, I had an internship but it wasn't like this intense residency. And my grandfather said, What are you doing? That's like the biggest mistake, you're never going to be a success or make any money. And I was like, Oh, it's on it is so on right now. So I obviously have made money and been a success and said, proved him wrong. And he became my greatest champion, you know, so it was all it was really great. So then I worked in hospitals for the first five years of my career and loved it loved clinical dietetics but there's only so much impact you're going to make on an 85 year old after they've had a heart attack and you have five to 10 minutes to give them diet instruction and absolutely no follow up or continuity or accountability for them at all. So um, I began to you know, I was building a private practice even while I was working at the hospital and I went to a cocktail party at my parents house and one of that one of her friends said what are your nutritionist like? What do you know about vitamins and minerals and I said truthfully, I'm embarrassed to say if two degrees of Clinical Nutrition and I know nothing about vitamins and minerals the the class we took in college or a grad school called vitamins and minerals, the professor basically said, Well, everything you need, you know, you can get from food, like, why am I here? What What is happening? So I said, I'd really love to learn more about supplements, I don't know about them. And she said, Oh, well, my, my strength coach is taking a functional medicine course you should talk to her. So I did. And my grandfather at the time had wanted to give me $2,000 to pay off some of my grad school loans. And the course, of course, was exactly $2,000. Because that's what the universe does, laughs and plays tricks on us. So I said, You know what, I'd really love to parlay this money into more education, he was like, go for it. So took that functional medicine course. And I've never looked back, I left the hospital within the year, and worked for a functional medicine doctor for a couple of years, and then was out of my own full time. So and it's a much better way to serve people. I mean, clinical dietetics is an amazing education. And it's an important one, but it's an incomplete one, and it doesn't address, you know, you learn and look at very specific research studies. But you're only seeing about half the picture, you don't look at supplements, and there are emerging programs on new functional nutrition. I don't want to disparage those at all. But a clinical dietetics track doesn't look at all the research studies on vitamins and minerals and nutrients and how you know, supplements can be an adjunct, it doesn't take into account like a keto diet or hardcore, autoimmune AIP diet or gluten free, you know, and I to this day, I get two different nutrition journals, right, I get journals from Clinical Nutrition side and journals from the functional nutrition side. And it is like, two completely different worlds. It's two completely different parties. And it's it's fascinating to me, what is not addressed, especially when, like, on my bookshelf behind me, I mean, one of my books, nutrition and integrative medicine, you know, it's an 800 page textbook, I read and studied and took an exam on this year, all on functional medicine. Like, how is that not made it into the dietetics curriculum yet? So it's, so what?Ari Gronich 7:15  So why do you think what's what's, what's your reasoning? Having been on both sides of the industry? Why do you think the language is so completely different between the two, and the studies, the research, the science, the everything that we look at, you know, I've, I've been trained in functional medicine and have an immense amount of pain when it comes to seeing how much is missed in translation. And I'll give you a quick example, I had a family member who sent me all his labs. And his doctor was a traditional doctor basically said nothing was wrong with him. And I started going through on a functional lab level. And I kept looking at all these different numbers that were in the normal for the pathological numbers, but completely outside of functional. And as I looked through this, I was going, I basically figured out that this person was in liver failure. Like, with, through the combination of things that were off, it was pretty clear picture. But the doctor said, Oh, you're perfectly fine. And so that's kind of the thing that bog bugs the crap out of me. So why do you think that it's so lost in translation between functional medicine and Western medicine?Esther Blum 8:55  Yeah, I don't have all the answers on where the gap lies. But I will say money is a big piece of it. You know, there's big Ag and Big Pharma. And, you know, for dieticians, the food guide pyramid is sponsored heavily by you know, at the dairy board, the grain board, not so much the meat board, right me gets all this horrible press, even though pastured meat is the most sustainable practice that we have in supporting agriculture and regenerative farming.Unknown Speaker 9:31  So,Esther Blum 9:32  yeah, I think there's a lot more money behind that or there's money behind drug companies saying, you know, oh, you're not you're your mortality rate is much less when you take Lipitor every day or you take a stat and every day and your cholesterol needs to be lower and lower and lower and lower when cholesterol used to be 200 plus your age. We need cholesterol to support libido to make testosterone, estrogen progesterone. be fertile. You know, feel goodAri Gronich 10:03  brain function,Esther Blum 10:05  function healthy hair, skin, nails fight depression, ADHD, gut health, all those things. So, yeah, I think it's money, even though it's silly because there's play money to be made and supplements too. If people are smart, they jump on that bandwagon. But yeah, it's a lot harder to say, you know, eat a serving of blueberries every day for brain health, right? versus like, well, you can just take this drug or you know, so it's, I think you're constantly battling many This is this country puts the health of the pocketbook or the wallet way ahead of the health of the people, profits over people's what I'm trying to say.Ari Gronich 10:44  Right. So I heard a saying recently, and it went something along the lines of you eat vegetables to detoxify, and then you need to heal.Unknown Speaker 10:56  Oh, I love that. Oh, that is brilliant.Ari Gronich 10:59  Yeah, what do you think of that?Unknown Speaker 11:00  I mean, that's brilliant.Esther Blum 11:04  Yes, I mean, but me helps detoxify, too, if you don't have enough protein, it's really hard to get your liver to conjugate, you know, essential amino acids and heal and detox your body. So, but you know, it is interesting, um, I do have, there is a caveat to this. And I do have some clients that when I increase their meat, they gain weight, and they can't process all the fat. So some people actually have to go on the plant based route for about four to six months sometimes to really clean up their liver and do a good detox that's more plant based, and then go back to the Paleo it depends on someone's starting point, if someone is super, super obese, and their cortisol is off the charts, you know, it's we we tried different approaches there at the high meet doesn't always work. It depends. Right? Yes, for a healthy normal, you know, reasonable weight, someone's within their target range, then yeah, I believe that I think you do need a balance of meat and poultry, and fish and vegetables to really detox the body and, and organ meats, and build muscle support bone density,Ari Gronich 12:24  right? You know, when I look at human beings and how we used to eat, then I look at animals and, you know, they talk about vegetables and how you can build muscle with with just eating vegetables and being a vegetarian, but I look at at animals that are on a plant based diet. And they're typically very large. And then I look at animals that are predator animals, and they're typically very small but muscular, and powerful. Yeah, and, you know, so you have slow and large on a plant based diet. But yet, we get told all the time lately, especially about these plant based diets being the healthiest thing we could do, and then now they're coming out with all these plant based meats that are I don't know what you think of them. I'm like aEsther Blum 13:28  chemical shitstorm I mean, I was talking about this with my son, you know, he's he's almost 14, I'm like, stay the hell away from that crap. He's like, Mom, I would never be vegan, I just wouldn't do it. You know, again, it goes back to money. Like it's, um, you know, Bill Gates is taking over a lot of our farmland that is producing GMO based crops that the beyond burgers and the pea proteins, any time there is, you know, that type of plant based versus actual clinical research. It's, there's money behind it, people have money to gain from it. And there's a tremendous amount of clinical research on the importance of protein for longevity for bone density, you know, muscle, Dr. Gabrielle Lyon, she's my doctor and my, my sister, my friend, but she always talks about how, you know, muscle is the organ of longevity and, and there's so much clinical research on, you know, how we actually need to increase the guidelines for the RDI for protein that it's under what it should be and Case in point, you know, if if I do the math and give a healthy individual point, what is it I think it's like, point 6.8 grams per kilogram of protein. They're getting what my renal failure patients used to get in the hospital for the amount of protein They're recommended, what you really should do for those of you who are new to all this is a gram per pound of body weight, or your ideal body weight, if you're overweight, then you would use your ideal or adjusted body way, if you're 250 pounds and you want to weigh 150, you know, you start at your protein, at least 150. And go up 170, there was a great study recently done on navy seals, who were given very low calorie diets under harsh conditions of high physical demand. And 100 grams of protein a day. And that was the baseline minimum that they could get away with eating and still maintain their muscle mass. So you know, I have a lot of clients who actually really struggle to get their protein intake up. And I'm like, just make your baseline threshold 100 grams per day, if you can get to, they usually can't get up to like 150. But I'm like, if you can get to 120. You know, it's still can change your body composition, but I don't want just adequate and that's what the RDI is, it is like, adequate to not waste away. I really want people to have optimal.Ari Gronich 16:11  Gotcha. So I had a dietician Tell me one time as she was drinking a diet soda in my presence. He said something along the lines of I like to eat my calories, not drink them.Unknown Speaker 16:26  Uh huh.Ari Gronich 16:28  What do you think of that statement? And people who think that diet sodas are so much better, or diet foods in general are so much better than natural foods?Esther Blum 16:39  Yeah, well, that's I mean, your body your choice. So you want to put crap that, you know, interferes with proper neurotransmitter function in your brain, knock yourself out. But you know, and yes, you you don't want to get your calories from orange juice or, you know, necessarily sodas or anything like that. But sometimes drinking calories can actually be nutritious. If I can get someone to get a protein shake, where they're getting 50 grams of protein. Instead of eating two eggs where they're getting 14 grams of protein, I am going to say drink your drink your calories and put some fiber in there, put some flaxseed and put a low glycemic fruit and some veggies if you want and drink it all at once. Don't like sip it over hours of the day where you're messing with your blood sugar so much. So it's really time in place. I mean, hypocrisy abounds, and diet and Dietetics professions. I remember going to so many nutrition conferences, and there were so many obese dietitians. And then I would go to the functional medicine conferences and where you know, the wacky, wacky people and like everyone was pretty fit. Tell me, I don't know. And you go to the strength coach conferences when Charles poliquin was alive. I've did many of his conferences and talking guys, six to 12% body fat so and they were eating By the way, one to 1.5 to two grams of protein per pound of body weight. So and they were like the leanest humans on the planet.Ari Gronich 18:22  So let's talk a little bit about lentils and lectins and night shades and inflammatory foods. Yeah, and, you know, even like tomatoes, I had a, I had a client one time, paid me for a six month package. And after going through everything at the very beginning and doing all the testing and all that stuff. We were putting her on an elimination plan. And she was Italian. And she said, keep your money. I can't not eat tomatoes. And I said it's only three weeks, and she wouldn't she couldn't not eat the tomato. But, you know, let's talk a little bit about that kind of unpack this because everybody's getting their information from Dr. Google right now. And and I'm not sure Dr. Google has all of the correct information, you know, readily available in a way that search.Esther Blum 19:25  Yeah, well, when it comes to elimination diets, you know, it's it's tricky, right? Because if somebody has a lot of people who cheat for example, have h pylori or like real active h pylori, or were they having symptoms, or they have parasites or they have leaky gut or cebo. So under those circumstances, right, you're you with an inflamed gut wall and you're adding gasoline to the fire when you put those inflammatory foods into your system. Right. Foods that you're sensitive to. And often the foods that you're the most sensitive to are the ones that you're eating every day already anyway. So you can do food allergy testing during those times, but it's going to show up, you know, you're going to show up with 2030, even 40 allergies, that's how you really know you have a leaky gut. By the way, the more allergies you have tells us a lot about your gut. But that being said, um, you know, some people, so I like to do elimination diets by trial, you know, there's no one set thing and yes, if someone's more autoimmune, and I have an autoimmune protocol, then yeah, I take them off nightshades and lectins. But at the same time, I have plenty of people I treat, who have absolutely no problem eating those foods at all. And so I really only try and take away what has to be taken away and what people can stick to because, you know, I just don't find people are going to adhere to things long term. They really if they're too, too, too restrictive. The people who do I, the ones who get really sick from eating those foods and have immediate reactions, like severe, I have a client sasmar and she's like, been eating my inflammatory foods. I couldn't even get out my minivan. Like, I couldn't put weight on my right foot. I was like, well, then don't eat that stuff. But other people, you know, can eat it and or they take the lectins way and don't really notice much difference. So I kind of it's a combination of testing, right? I certainly do gi gotten stool testing, but I will also just say How are you feeling as your energy, your craving, your bloating, your stool habits? You know, how's your thyroid function? What are your blood works looking like? So? I don't know if that's the exact answer you're looking for it. The food allergy piece is really tricky.Ari Gronich 21:50  Yeah, just unpacking I think, for people. What, you know, they hear all these fad diets and fad things and not know how to navigate. Yeah, yes. And so they end up you know, you'll end up Okay, we're on the keto this week and intermittent fasting that week and paleo the other week, and we just keep switching because we're not getting the answer we want. And, and, you know, with with my patients always said, well, in functional medicine, we test Yeah, so that we're not, you know, throwing darts at a dartboard. But, but people don't really understand what all of these things are. They just look I mean, I still don't know if anybody knows if milk is good for you or bad for you. You know what I mean? Like, you have both sides of the equation. So I wanted toEsther Blum 22:47  Yeah, well, and so much of your your food can be it. There's so many factors, right? Okay, fine, you can find out what your genetics are, you know, you see people in certain Nordic cultures eating attended dairy and are very lean and healthy. But were the cows given hormones were the cows fed GMO grains? Are they exposed to a lot less pesticides and GMOs in our food that are creating the leaky gut? You know, I think if we had if we all have better gut integrity, we tolerate a lot more foods to your point, like is milk good or bad for you? To me? It's it's what you're eating. It's what you're absorbing. That is far more important to me than worrying about the semantics, right? In theory, you know, dairies got it's got sugar, but it also has a lot of protein. I mean, cottage cheese, to me is a is a power food for a lot of people. So if my people tolerate it and say, Yeah, I tell her dairy fine, and they're not having gut issues and like, go for it. You know, it's it's a lot more fun and easier to work with someone who has that much flexibility in their diets for sure. But yeah, once you start introducing external toxins, or parasites or stress or trauma, and that changes the integrity of the gut wall, and the microbiome, then yeah, then all of a sudden, you've got to start saying, Alright, let me just pull some things out my diet, let me simplify it. Let me stick to real food, we manage my stress, let me pull up gut healing nutrients in there and see if I can kind of return to you know, I can tell you personally for me, I mean, you know, my 20s up through my 20s I ate like gluten and dairy. And, you know, once I cut it out, I was like, it's really hard for me to go back. My gut doesn't want it at all, at all.Ari Gronich 24:38  Yeah, that's one of the interesting things. I find that when you eliminate something like I don't eat sugar things and I don't drink juices and stuff like that. And every now and then if I even go for a sip of orange juice or apple juice or something like that, I need to dilute it by like 10 to one. Oh, yeah, with water, I mean, like literally this much juice to the rest of the glasses, water, because otherwise, it's just too sweet. And it's ridiculously too sweet. And so, you know, here's a figure, and I don't remember the exact figure, but I think it was somewhere around one gram of sugar, or one and a half grams of sugar in your bloodstream naturally is about the 90, you know, that the 75 to 95, or whatever blood sugar ratio. And so the amount of sugar that we're eating in our diet, I mean, if you could imagine, a gram and a half is what your blood sugar should be, how many grams? Do you put into one cup of coffee? And then how many cups of coffee? And then how many, right? things that you're eating, that you wouldn't necessarily think have sugar in them have sugar added into them. And that that goes along with the genetically modified foods, because as you probably are aware, an apple 50 years ago, had about a 10th of the amount of sugar that an Apple has now. And you have to have about 10 apples to get the equivalent nutritive value as an apple, you know, in the 50s. So how does somebody, you know, navigate this entire world of what we've done, to our health into our environment and to the way in which we consume?Esther Blum 26:48  I know ignorance really was bliss in this in this a couple ways. Okay. One is try and look at the big picture, because at the end of the day, you know, there was a great study mercola published years ago about how like, even if you're eating non organic veggies, you're still getting benefits, okay, and the nutrient content is far less than what our grandparents had, our parents had even we had growing up, but if it runs, flies, swims or grows from the ground, it's still real food, and I see people healing their bodies eating in perfectly, not everything's organic, but if they're eating a lot of fruits and veggies and real food, compared to their starting point, they're gonna heal much better. Okay, that's number one. Number two, a really cool thing to do to see how food affects you is to wear a continuous glucose monitor for two weeks. That is a great way to really understand, right? How is that juice affecting me, um, I did it recently, a month or two ago, I wore one just because I was you know, my clients wear them. I'm like, go get one look like, especially for my diabet clients, but my non diabetic clients, like, you really want to figure this out and you're and you're trying to lean out and what you're doing isn't working. Let's throw in a glucose monitor. And my postprandial range was like 110. I started out in like the low 90s and got to like 110. And that's like me eating protein, some carbs, veggies, right. But I had an afternoon and I was like, Alright, well, that's so unexciting. If anything, my sugar was too low at night. So I started one afternoon I had to clementines on an empty stomach, my sugar shot up to 150. And I was like, I'm metabolically healthy. My BMI is good. So what hope is there for people eating like donuts? It's so does and all those things. But people can't argue with the numbers, right? Like your Italian clients that I can't give up tomatoes, like people rationalize and bargain and play games, right? Like, well, I just want my daughter chocolate every day. And I believe me, I do that too. I still want a little chocolate every day or the option to have it right. Because it's such a tiny amount, right? So that's how I justify it and that really didn't affect my blood sugar but the two oranges on an empty stomach sure as hell did. So you really have to you can argue with the numbers right? And now I'm like, Well, if I have fruit I always have it with I mean, I did this before to typically have it with a protein and or a fat app. It was some nuts have some turkey or you know peanut butter, whatever. So I think those two things I was focusing on the big picture because you can get really afraid of food and and paralyzed like well, doesn't matter. Anyway, I'm going to hell for eating, you know, not non organic strawberries. So I may as well have the bag of Lay's potato chips, sour cream, and you still say I'm still doing good, I'm still gonna get results. Great. That's a B if you want to tighten things up, like slap on a glucose monitor for two weeks and see see what your numbers are, then you'll kind of know, Oh, dang, I have to really tighten things up.Ari Gronich 30:12  So I'm gonna go a little bit different location with the rest of the conversation. Because there are people like Gaya like me who have underlying conditions. So in my case, brain tumor that is a pituitary tumor, it's hormone secreting, and it messes every working functioning hormone in my body. So, so with food, I have to be so extremely careful to not have estrogen making foods and things that will cause my body to swell and bloat and go into hormone, you know, hormonal conditions more. So, eating for hormonal health is something that I know you teach. And I wanted to get into that a little bit because there are so many people right now suffering from hormonal and autoimmune disorders because of what they're eating, and they don't even and nobody, you know, nobody's telling them what it is that's going on. all they're doing is giving them pills. So,Esther Blum 31:24  right. And are you aromatizing your testosterone to estrogen?Ari Gronich 31:29  Yep. My estrogen. So when I when I was a kid, I had I started getting hot flashes and migraines when I was seven. I had had to be injected into puberty when I was 12. And I had breast reduction surgery when I was 14. Because I was my estrogen was I think it was triple at the time a man a man's, you know, numbers and so yeah, so the the testosterone was like, even with injections and, and bio identical it's never gone above like 300 or 350 which is way too low. But I also produce no human growth hormone and my cortisol levels and C reactive proteins are out of whack.Unknown Speaker 32:17  SoAri Gronich 32:18  But again, it's not about me I'm just using as an example Yeah, sure. Sure. No hormonal health is is very important in my world And so yeah,Unknown Speaker 32:29  yeah.Esther Blum 32:31  So so is your question how to how to balance or if your man how to clear out excessAri Gronich 32:36  estrogens or man or woman how to clear out excess estrogens because women are suffering from the same kind of things. I mean, puberty at I think I heard the earliest one now is four years old for a girl was going through that physical and five. It's not that it is because they're being estrogen ated with all of all of the plastics and sois and stuff.Unknown Speaker 33:03  Yeah. Okay,Ari Gronich 33:04  so people are suffering from these hormonal options.Esther Blum 33:08  Well on fertility issues too, for sure. Okay, so let's talk about lifestyle management first, right, which is your home cleaning up your home because like you mentioned it like a lot of chemicals are mimicking the effect of estrogen and really disrupting our own biochemistry so simple things okay, like having a metal reusable water balls just better for the earth or drinking out of glass glasses not not plastic. Um, years ago I went to like homegoods and Walmart and you know, Amazon and I cleaned out all my plastic Tupperware 's and switch them out with glass top wires and glass top wires are great because they go from the freezer to the refrigerator to the oven to the dishwasher. Assuming you have a dishwasher, so those are great because plastics can leach into the food. So it's better to put things in glass which are inner chemically or metal containers as well. Um, and you know, like kids have like plastic lunchboxes, but you can get metal containers or like metal bento boxes style for kids. Okay, and then like your shampoos, your lotions, your makeup, shaving cream, you know, you deodorants you can get natural forms of those and they can be a little more expensive but it's to me it's so worth it. It's a cheap hospital bill. So do what you can afford and you know, I buy my husband and send their skincare products and stuff. You know Whole Foods has a really good line. or excuse me really good amounts. Now in terms of diet. You want to make sure that you are eating a lot of fiber flax seeds in particular are grab flax seeds are great for men and binding estrogen and pulling them out. pooping is a form of estrogen detox. So you want to make sure that you're pooping everyday if you're constipated. Yeah, eat, eat a lot of veggies, but also drink a lot of water. And you can take some magnesium, that will, you know, as a simple over the counter product called natural calm can give it to kids, it's powder, stir it and water, drink it down. So pooping every day is really important. flax seeds, broccoli, and cruciferous vegetables are also really important for helping support detox pathways in the liver, for getting the estrogen out. Now, in terms of whether or not like, I use a lot of supplements, also in creams, topical creams to help bind estrogen. But in order to do this, I test people with the Dutch test. This is a dried urine test for comprehensive hormones, because one person might need to get dim, which is standard methane, it's not support to estrogen detox, and another person might need, you know, topical test annex or calcium D glue. Great. So I really have to understand how much estrogen you're making, how it detoxifies, and moves through your body and if it's going down the right pathway. And if it's not, then you know, we have to it's complicated, right? You have to support your methylation patterns and all that but certainly, you know, again, getting a diet if you want to simplify this and say, oh, that already feels overwhelming, scary and weird. And you're not sure about testing a you would work with a good practitioner if you think you're estrogen dominant, but be you know, packaging your food in glass. Or if you get meats that are wrapped in plastic, when you come home, wash them, rinse them and dry them with paper towels before you start immediately cooking with them. Get plenty of green vegetables, do not do soy, soy suppresses thyroid function and can suppress testosterone production, even though it's temporary. Once you stop eating, it goes to normal. But those effects can be cumulative and can make girls developed breasts and pubic hair even at a very young age. So you want to be super careful with soy and the volume and amounts of soy milk or you know soy cheese or any of that. But other than that real foods, sweet potatoes you can do lots and lots of veggies, protein, chicken, poultry, fish, none of those are estrogenic and all this can help you support good liver function.Ari Gronich 37:59  So the only question I have is that non estrogenic for the meats, is that true if they are pastured you know, grain fed hormone and antibiotic given meats because or, you know, even farmed salmons, and things like that, that I mean, all of those from all the research I've looked at, tend to cause hormone disruption and neurological disruption. So,Esther Blum 38:32  you know, it's so crazy to me, I have seen studies that say there's really no difference between pastured and conventionally raised meats on that. So I'm, there's a good book called sacred cow. It's written by Rob Wolf and Diana Rodgers. And even they say like, nutritionally, there's not necessarily a difference, it's just better for the planet. So I can't make a claim one way or the other I simple sides of the research, I don't know, okay,Ari Gronich 39:03  because all the research that I do, the fat is completely different omega is, you know, so one is a very inflammatory, creating fat, and the other is not so though, if a cow say is raised and is grass fed, and free range, kind of fat is very much more omega three versus omega six. And, therefore, that inflammatory response causes of hormonal response. That's at least the studies that I've that I've seen, so I just kind of want I want to get people yes, it's better to have something than nothing at all. Yeah, but at the same time, it's better to spend a little bit more, eat a little bit less like you didn't eat massive amounts of meat, three meals a day, growing up, you know, in the case Right, it was as it was, once in a while when we got, you know, the when we hunted, that we got him. So I would just say, eat less, but eat better quality of it, and you'll find that you're actually more satisfied anyway. And so, cracked,Unknown Speaker 40:20  cracked.Ari Gronich 40:21  If you're scared about money, you find that if you're not eating in the middle of the store, like all the processed foods, food goes a lot further a lot, you know, more economical, even when you're eating healthier organic foods.Esther Blum 40:40  Yes, correct. Correct. And you know, when you find foods in season two, they're a lot less expensive, too. So the price does go down. But to your point, yes. I mean, I wrote a Paleo Diet book for women called cave, women don't getUnknown Speaker 40:53  fat. AndEsther Blum 40:56  I have all those studies in there published and I write all about the grass fed meat. So I was surprised when more recent research came out and said, it's actually not that different. So I was like, What? How is this possible? Okay, it blew my mind.Ari Gronich 41:09  Yeah, I wonder. Yeah, I wonder how much of thisUnknown Speaker 41:13  is cooking it?Esther Blum 41:14  I mean, grass fed me is much more difficult for me to cook because it is it's so lean, and it's tougher. And, you know, it's hard to find the same cuts of meat that I get from a conventional butcher. So it is a little trickier. But yeah, we kind of do a hybrid, we do both, depending on where because the grass fed butcher is nowhere near us to hike to get to. So we can do a mix of both. I'll be perfectly transparent. Say I'm not perfect with my eating either. But I look at the big picture. I'm like, Okay,Unknown Speaker 41:48  yeah, you know, me the enemy of done.Ari Gronich 41:52  None of us are perfect with our eating. You know, sourdough bread is still one of my, my, my curses along with with sushi, is it's one of the things that I love, and I don't care about the mercury, because I'll eat it once. And I'll, you know, enjoy every little bit of it. And then I just won't eat it for a while.Unknown Speaker 42:15  Yeah. Yeah.Esther Blum 42:19  balance, you have to live, you know, and I cringe at that word, because to me, it's like on par with moderation, which every dietitian is like, taught moderation till the cows come home. But, but there is balance and you know, pleasure is a nutrient to, and,Unknown Speaker 42:36  you know, I stillEsther Blum 42:37  have a cocktail every now and then I still have, you know, things I enjoy. And don't don't stress about too much, because I'll raise your cortisol more than anything else.Ari Gronich 42:48  And it's true. Yet the stress that we put on ourselves with eating disorders, and trying to fit into an image that we think somebody should, you know, has of what we think they should have of us. You know, it's like, most of the time, people aren't noticing anywhere near the same things that you think that they're noticing about you.Esther Blum 43:16  I always say, you know, nobody's noticing the size of your thighs, they're too busy worrying about the size of their own thighs. SoAri Gronich 43:24  absolutely. So tell us just, you know, to kind of close up what are a few of the things that people can do immediately to shift and change their own health in a way that that's powerful, but simple and easy.Esther Blum 43:43  Yeah, so I'm picking up investing in a couple of sets of dumbbells is really important right now.Unknown Speaker 43:50  Um,Esther Blum 43:52  you think I would say food would be the first thing out of my mouth. But you know, this pandemic has taken its toll obesity is a whole nother level of a pandemic right now and people may not be going to gyms for a while longer origins may not be open I God willing they are but you know, don't sit and wait for the perfect conditions to arise to invest in a little bit of home workout equipment. So you have you could start with your own bodyweight, a furniture sliders, that is a couple bucks and can make lunges and squats really dynamic and challenging.Unknown Speaker 44:32  But youEsther Blum 44:33  want to make sure that you are doing some kind of strength training because you don't want to lose, you know, be so sedentary this year that everything's going to pot you want to make sure you're maintaining you know, so a kettlebell set of weights, trs, make sure that you're investing in some kind of strength equipment and you can get free videos on YouTube for strength workouts, even using your own bodyweight to start Okay, so Don't build excuses for why you're not going to the gym right now find ways to make it work for you at home. And you don't need a lot of space. You don't need a lot of equipment, but you need some you need some resistance training, it's really important. So number two is sleep. Sleep reigns Queen when it comes to being your metabolic mistress or metabolic master. So sleep is really, really important. If you're not sleeping, it's really hard to heal your body and fix your adrenals and fix your cortisol and stay insulin sensitive. So make sure that your sleep hygiene is good. It's one of the hardest things I think sleep habits are harder for my clients to change than giving up booze or coffee. And my clients who are going to bed past 1231 132 are struggling with their weight loss, they're struggling to see results far more than people who front load their sleep and get to bed closer to 10. That's when you're producing the most those are the golden hours tend to when you're producing the most growth hormone, repairing your blood glucose mechanisms in your receptors. So make sure you're getting sleep. And three, of course, I'm going to say protein ra because we need more protein as we age, not less. So make sure you're getting you know 3040 grams a meal, this will sustain your blood sugar for up to six hours, it will promote mental cognitive health, it will boost neurotransmitter function, it will prevent the 3pm crash, it will prevent cravings and make you a nicer person. And if you are listening to this and you're a menstruating female, the second half of your cycle, you're even more insulin resistant and less insulin sensitive. So make sure you double up your protein that second half and it will offset your cravings, your bloat your weight gain all those things.Ari Gronich 47:02  And I'll just add to add iron iron to that mix cuz you don't want to ever get to a place of anemia.Unknown Speaker 47:10  That's correct. That's correct.Ari Gronich 47:14  So awesome. So how can people get ahold of you?Esther Blum 47:17  So you can go to my website, Esther blum.com and for the first seven callers, I or people who respond to this by me going old school here, you can get a free 30 minute consultation with me. This is a laser focused coaching call for people who are serious about moving the needle with their health. So you go to Esther blum.com forward slash call that cll. And you can get in my appointment book and you and I will talk and you will leave with three strategic customized tools to help you move the needle, whether it's you want weight loss, you want to sleep better, you want to balance your hormones,Unknown Speaker 48:01  we willEsther Blum 48:02  have you leave with a written instruction list ofUnknown Speaker 48:05  what you need.Ari Gronich 48:07  Nice. Thank you so much for being here. You know, every episode I like to to leave the audience with doable things so that they can create a new tomorrow today and activate their vision for a better world. So thank you so much for activating your vision. And not just that, but coming out into the public. You know, I like to say silence is a bully's best friend. So let's get loud. And I appreciate everybody who comes onto the show getting loud. And going up against the bullies like big agriculture, big pharmaceutical, big medicine, and general and, and saying, Hey, here's, here's the truth. We don't know about this science, because it's been paid for and bought. But we do know that based on these 1000s of years, and what we can say is if you eat this amount of food, you're going to be healthier, and if you get about this amount of walking in and this amount of movement, so I appreciate all of your wisdom. Thank you so much for coming on. I know you're busy. So thank you. And this has been another episode. So thank you so much for listening. And hopefully you have gotten an amazing amount of things that you can do right now to create your new tomorrow today. We'll see you next time. Thank you for listening to this podcast. I appreciate all you do to create a new tomorrow for yourself and those around you. If you'd like to take this information further and are interested in joining a community of like minded people who are all passionate about activating their vision for a better world. Go to the website, create a new tomorrow.com and find out how you can be part of making a bigger difference. I have a gift for you just for checking it out and look forward to seeing you take the leap And joining our private paid mastermind community. Until then, see you on the next episode.

By Shagen Ganason My name is Shagen and as far as I can remember, I have always been overweight. My BMI normally borders on obese. Over the years, I have tried very hard to lose weight but to little effect. I do cardio at the gym 7 days a week but it didn't help. I have tried all types of diets, again to no effect. When I was in my 30s, I over 110kg. I am in my 50s now and I need to bring my weight down before I get health complications. A friend of mine suggested that I do IF. I tried it once last year but not eating breakfast did not appeal to me and I gave up. But late last year, when I did a health check my doctor told me that if I didn't bring my weight down, I am likely to have other health issues. That was a wake up call. So, I tried it again in November last year. I started 16:8 initially for almost 2 months and felt my clothes becoming loose. I then increased my fasting by an hour gradually to 20:4 now. I feel better, have more energy and find that I am now more alert. My goal is to reduce my weight to 70kg so that my BMI shows that I am in the healthy weight range. News My book The Fasting Highway is available on Amazon in both paperback and kindle. For Australian and New Zealand residents, you can buy the book direct from me at www.thefastinghighway.com. For the rest of the world Amazon is your best option. Thank you to the many who have bought a copy of my book much appreciated. The link below will take you to my book on Amazon. Amazon.com : the fasting highway Follow me on Instagram or my web page or join my Facebook group. Graeme Currie (@graemecurrie_63) • Instagram photos and videos The Fasting Highway with Intermittent Fasting Advocate Graeme Currie The Fasting Highway -Intermittent Fasting Podcast And Book | Facebook Enjoy the Show Graeme --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/graeme-currie/message

God does have good plans for us. What He says in Jeremiah 29:11 is not just a cliché, it’s a solid truth. “For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.” God said this and we say we believe it but do we really. Do we really think God has good plans for us? Because right now everywhere we look there seems to be disaster. Let’s unpack this verse a little and try to understand the context and what God was saying.When God told them this the children of Israel were in captivity in Babylon, which is present day Iraq. In the verse before this one, God tells those who had been exiled to Babylon to build homes and plan to stay. Plant gardens and eat the food they produce. Marry and have children. Find spouses for the children so that they would have many grandchildren. He said, “Multiply. Do not dwindle away. And work for the peace and prosperity of the city where I sent you into exile. Pray to the Lord for the city, for its welfare will determine your welfare. “Then, God promised them that after 70 years He would come for them, bring them home again and do all that He had promised for them. That’s when He tells them He knows the plans He has for them. God knew exactly what the exiled children of Israel were thinking. Why has God done this to us? Why isn’t He taking care of us? It surely doesn’t feel like we are God’s chosen people. This is not fun. I want to go back home. I want to go back to what’s familiar. I want to go back to what I know. In Jeremiah 29:12-14 God tells them what He wants them to be doing:  “In those days (the days they are in captivity not knowing what else to do) when you pray, I will listen.  If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me. I will be found by you,” says the Lord. “I will end your captivity and restore your fortunes. I will gather you out of the nations where I sent you and will bring you home again to your own land.” Then in Jeremiah 30:10-11 God tells His people: “Israel will return to a life of peace and quiet, and no one will terrorize them. For I am with you and will save you,” says the Lord. There’s a lot going on here in the history of Israel, but the important thing is God has a plan for His people. Christians are included in this plan because when we accepted Christ as Savior we were grafted into the kingdom. (See Romans 11:17-24).  There have been so many times in my life when I have thought I was headed towards disaster. One of the biggest times was when I gained up to 430 pounds. At that point in my life, it wasn’t that I was headed for disaster, I was a disaster.  I totally own the fact that I enabled myself to gain such an enormous amount of weight that I was beyond the highest category on the Body Mass Index (BMI) scale. Overweight is those whose BMI is 25-29.9, obese 30-39.9, morbidly obese, over 40, super morbidly obese over 50. My BMI was 71.5!  It so felt like I had woken up in a very bad, no good, horribly disastrous nightmare of my own making. To top it off, I had no future and I had no hope. I was in captivity to my own appetite. It felt like I was in a prison, but I knew it was a prison I had created.  It’s a stronghold, like is mentioned in 2 Corinthians 10:3-5. Strongholds are mental mindsets, lies that we buy into. The word stronghold can actually be translated as a prison, a strong place where someone is held captive and they cannot get out.What happens though when you have exiled yourself into captivity? How does this whole thing work then? Where is the good in this? Well, first of all, strongholds are not what God wants for us. He came to give us freedom, freedom to follow Him. God gave the children of Israel the way through their captivity in Jeremiah 29:11-14. Did you catch it? I see three steps to getting out captivity and three things God will do when we complete those three steps.  The three steps to getting out of captivity are: Pray Seek God wholeheartedly Find God Then He promise to do these three things. End your imprisonment Restore you Bring you home Jeremiah 29:11 is what God wants for us: good and not disaster, a future and a hope. That’s His plan. However, if we don’t do our part, it’s going to be really hard for God to do His part.  First step is prayer. This is not just a short prayer in the morning and a quick thanks for the food God. This is continual prayer, prayer without ceasing where we talk to God like He is our BFF. We tell Him everything and we listen when He talks to us. We seek Him wholeheartedly. This looks different for everyone. For some it’s on your face in His presence. For others its joyous praise dancing. For others its fervent prayer for extended times. For others its intercessory prayer on your own in your prayer place and for still others it’s staying in constant touch with God throughout their day. However, we pray it must be with sincerity and commitment. We pray and seek God wholeheartedly in order to find God. What does God mean here when he says,” If you look for me wholeheartedly you will find me. I will be found by you?” The Message says it so we can understand it a little better. “When you call on me, when you come and pray to me, I’ll listen. When you come looking for me, you’ll find me. Yes, when you get serious about finding Me and want it more than anything else, I’ll make sure you won’t be disappointed.”  If we want to get out of captivity, especially if we are in a prison of our own making, we need to be diligently looking for God. He’s the One who can help us. Many times, though, God may be the last one we want to find us. If we have put ourselves in a prison of our own making that means we think we have to set ourselves free. But stop and think for a minute. If you put yourselves in prison, it’s going to be difficult for you to get free without help. God is the first one we should be looking for. Instead we try to figure it out on our own. The prison I put myself in was eating foods made with sugar in order to placate my negative emotions. I had allowed the thought that I couldn’t survive without these kinds of foods to become a stronghold in my life. It was a lie felt exactly like a solid truth. The only One who could show me the way out was the very One I was avoiding. I didn’t want to find God because I knew He had already told me my freedom would be found in giving up those foods. I wasn’t praying about this. I wasn’t seeking God wholeheartedly. I knew if I sought Him, I find Him. And when I found Him, He’d tell me the same thing. The Message says, “I’ll turn things around for you. I’ll bring you back from all the countries into which I drove you. I’ll bring you home to the place from which I sent you off into exile. You can count on it.” Where is home? It’s the place you were at before you went into captivity. Before you stepped into the prison of your own making. For me it was in the security of following God with all my heart. I longed to return there, but I felt I couldn’t because I had strayed so far away. What God was asking me to do was to follow Him wholeheartedly. But I was doing it in a halfhearted flippant kind of way where I’m following Him one day and off somewhere else the next. That won’t work. He wants all of me. The part of me that was eating myself into oblivion because I thought that was making me feel better had to stop, turn around and get back on board with what God wanted for me.  When I finally put all my eggs in God’s basket, He will bring me home. Until I’m off on my own doing my own thing following after my own desires, He can’t bring me home. When I finally saw what I’d done to myself and how far I’d strayed from what He wanted for me, I prayed. I sought Him with tears of repentance and I found Him. Why? Because He wanted to be found by me. It can feel like God’s hiding from us when we aren’t following Him, but the opposite is true. We’ve walked away from Him. He’s there waiting for us to surrender whatever we’ve put between us and Him. For me it was foods made with processed sugar and flour.  For others it can be fried foods, fast foods, processed foods, chips and snack foods. For others it’s binging or overeating. For some it might be anger, shame, rejection, people pleasing, over achieving, over working, overspending, gambling, alcohol, cigarettes, drugs, pornography or any number of things.Whatever it is, it is keeping you from your future and has dashed your hopes. You feel like you are living in disaster and you long to taste of the good plans God has for you. God hasn’t torn up His plans for you. God is the author and finisher of your story. He’s got a plot twist just waiting for you.  He had one waiting for me and I’m so glad He did. My life changed dramatically when I got on board with His good plans for me. I lost the equivalent of two people or 250 pounds, but that’s not the biggest change. I got rid of tons of emotional baggage and came running home to God. I found Him again. You can too. Overcomers Academy link: https://www.teresashieldsparker.com/overcomers-christian-weight-loss-academy/

My most recent visit with Angela saw her happy with my progress. I have only lost one pound since my last visit, and have gotten my caloric intake up to 2500 calories. She is pleasantly surprised that I have recovered my metabolism so quickly. She is also pleased with my diet. For some reason, she keeps suggesting avocados to me, even though I have told her several times that I do not like them. That’s worth a laugh every time. Angela said that the fluctuations I experience in my weight, sometimes four of five pounds, are unusual. My BMI is about 28, but I’ve not really budged from my previous target maintenance weight of 212 (I am a couple of pounds over today) even though, at least in my mind, the goal is to ease down from this just a bit. I’m still learning about my new iHealth scale and the relationship between body fat percentage and water. I am in physical therapy for some arm pain due to a neck condition that is pinching a nerve. The therapy is designed to strengthen the muscles that are weak on the back side of my body in proportion to the front side, to correct the imbalance that is contributing to my condition. It started with an assessment using some pretty high-tech weight machines that can measure strength as well as provide resistance and range-of-motion exercises customized to an individual workout plan. I am adding some whole fruit and nuts to my diet to account for some of those extra calories that I now have to spend. I also have a new dehydrator that I’m hoping to use to make more convenient fruit snacks. Weight (change since Jan 2018): 214 (-60) Workout time: 113 Minutes (not measured) Total Distance (total since Nov 2017): 4.64 Miles (136.11) Steps: 14,828 Goals: (1) Run 10.5 miles in one day by 11/18/18 (2) Lose 100lbs by 12/25/18

Welcome back to our weekend Cabral HouseCall shows! This is where we answer our community's wellness, weight loss, and anti-aging questions to help people get back on track! Check out today's questions: Hayley: Hi Dr Cabral, I would love an opinion about vasectomies. I have read many men suffer side effects following the procedure, which isn't really talked about. Are there longterm hormonal implications from interfering with the normal flow of things down there? Thanks so much!   Lizbeth: Hi Dr. Cabral, Thank you for all the knowledge that you keep sharing through your podcasts. I will forever be grateful to everything I am learning through your podcast! I finally decided to purchase the CBO protocol! What made me make the final decision was getting a skin reaction after a dinner at a work-related event that I had to attend. None of my co-workers had it, and so I figured my body is definitely asking me to take care of this situation once and for all. I have always had a weak digestive system, but never had I experience rashes because of food consumption. These rashes also made me feel hot in those specific areas where the rash was happening. It did itch but I was not able to see any type of bump caused by it, only red skin. And I still get the itchy sensation after eating most meals. I do follow a very healthy diet, organic produce and meats, and Mediterranean style as you have suggested in other podcasts. Also, after that meal I suddenly gained a couple of pounds, and I can tell I am inflated because of how my watch and rings feel. I do have to say your team was extremely helpful in helping me make a choice to start at least with the CBO, and they suggested I contacted you as well to have a better idea of whether there are more steps I need to take besides the CBO Protocol. I have had h pylori in the past, and I have been concerned whether I have it again or no. I have listened to your how to leak a leaky gut in the past, as well as the one on food poisoning and H pylori, but I still can really put down the proper timeline of the products that I need to heal my body because I think I may need the intestinal cleanse. I know your upcoming book will have this info, but I would much rather not wait. I would think (for what I have heard you say) that I need the Healthy Belly, digestive enzyme, the intestinal cleanse and the CBO protocol, but for instance the CBO protocol already has the healthy belly and I have no idea if that bottle is all I need. Could you help me and guide me on whether or not I need an intestinal cleanse to heal my gut and the timeline on how to heal my digestive system? Thanks for your advice!    Anonymous: Stephen, thanks for your uplifting and informative podcasts! I get a lot of value from them. First I need to add a testimonial to your “super-nutrient of the week,” zinc, that you discussed on the March 2, 2018 podcast: I had extensive plantar warts on my toes for decades. I tried virtually all OTC remedies and liquid nitrogen at the MD’s office and none of these worked. Finally a dermatology PA suggested I try oral zinc along with my OTC topical remedy. Having decided by experience the OTC topicals were useless, and the zinc dose she suggested was high (400 mg) the literature cites up to 600 mg/day, I took (only) like 200 mg zinc per day for several weeks. My decades-long infection with plantar warts went away. I went off the supplemental zinc and the infection did not recur. This personal nutritional medicine outcome is why I listen to your podcast. You can find scientific studies showing effectiveness of Zn on Pubmed for example, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11952542 “Oral zinc sulphate in the treatment of recalcitrant viral warts: randomized placebo-controlled clinical trial.” However you won’t find Zinc supplement in the plantar wart department at your drug store. Despite its effectiveness its use doesn’t seem to be widespread. Zinc may have some special properties for viral infections, for example production of antiviral interferon. See http://piel-l.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Zin-en-verrugas-virales.pdf (You might be interested in the authors’ acknowledgement of the limitations of blood trace element analysis in diagnosis) Now, on to my question. (I’m hoping a naturopathy based therapy might help for my other medical problems) I’m 64 and suffered a heart attack about 12 years ago and had a stent implanted in my right coronary artery, Then I immediately changed my diet to a healthy plant based one, and also do a moderate exercise program 5+ days a week and often do mindfulness meditation. For 95% of the 12 years since I have taken statins, blood pressure medicine and aspirin. My BMI is good, all blood based testing is good, except lipids if off the statin. I drink alcohol moderately. Since the heart attack I also have ED and pain/stiffness in calf muscles when walking. I also get some swelling in my ankle sometimes if walking or standing for a length of time. I also have some degree of plantar fasciitis Conventional medicine has me diagnosed with peripheral artery disease, based on ankle/wrist blood pressure ratio. I’m a little skeptical of this because many people show similar patterns in these pressures and are asymptomatic. My cardiologist doesn’t think I am at a high risk for another heart attack. Generally I feel great. I’ve recently gone off my statin to see if my calf stiffness problem will go away. So far no luck. While they were OK with an experiment, the MDs highly recommend staying on the statin. I think the literature overall indicates statins help reduce the likelihood of a second cardiovascular event, but it’s not like a silver bullet. My blood pressure is not terrible without the medication so I could go off it temporarily, or permanently if a natural method would give adequate reduction. Could you recommend a course of action that might help identify and treat the underlying cause(s) and symptoms? Are the symptoms all the result of a systemic vascular disease? What would you recommend? I did hear you mention cayenne, ginger and argenine that might help my condition but you didn’t mention how much. I am sure there are many people with a similar set of symptoms. What do you think of Nobel prize winner Dr. Ignaro’s recommendation of argenine, citrulline, Vitamin C, E, folate, and lipoic acid? (published in “NO more heart disease” 2005) Thanks so much for any comments and keep up the great work!!! Peta: Hello, My name is Peta, I'm 28 and live in Australia. I'm wondering if you would recommend I do a lab test first or go straight to one of your detoxes. My main concern was acne, and being tired a lot of the time. Acne is at it's worst before my menstrual cycle (so maybe hormonal?) It is a lot better when I eat good fats and reduce sugar intake. However the past few months my bowel movements have changed - constipation and then diarrhoea and acne has worsened. My DR ran a blood test. Results say A mild thrombocytopenia (not sure what that is). Stool test detected Dientamoeba - the doctor said they are not sure if this is causing my symptoms and has prescribed antibiotics. Is this the best option? I am yet to take them. Thank you, Peta  Kathryn: Hi Dr. Cabral, I listen to your podcast every week after someone from my yoga teacher training told me about it. I find myself relating strongly to the questions from your house calls that deal with digestive issues. You always have the same advice, do the Candida & Bacterial Complete Protocol. My question is when is the best time to start this? for some back ground information about me (I'll try to keep it short) I'm 33 years old and have had digestive issues for the better part of 5 years. For the first two years of this I would get sick almost every time I ate, I was advised by doctors and dietitians to only eat what I didn't have a reaction to which was almost everything. I was also told to eat chicken and eggs to get nutrients I might have been missing. for most of 2 years I had every medical test done to check my gallbladder, my stomach, and intestines but the only thing found was legions on my stomach and an increased number of mast Cells in my stomach. my Doctor theorized I had an over active immune system called Mast Cell Activation Syndrome. I was put on medication and told again not to eat anything that I had a reaction to. I mostly ate potatoes and eggs for a year but saw no improvement. I eventually took my health in my own hands and became a plant based vegan eating mostly fruit. This helped a lot and the occurrence of my digestive problems reduced dramatically. I did this for about 6 months and started training for ironman triathlons which had been a dream of mine. My coach said I needed to eat a mostly high fat diet, I tried this for a a few weeks but my symptoms returned. in the last 2 years I've stayed plant based vegan, but now I eat a more balanced diet consisting of fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, and starchy vegetables. it comes out to about 10-15% protein, 25-30% fat, and the remaining carbohydrates in the form of fruit or starchy vegetables. I've been seeing a naturopath for the past year and have done an organic acids test and food sensitivity test. As well as numerous blood tests to check nutrient levels and hormone levels. I never eat foods that I have a severe or moderate reaction to according to the food sensitivity test and very rarely eat foods that I have a mild reaction to and when I do it's in very small amounts. The organic acids test showed that under yeast and fungal markers Arabinose, Carboxycitric, and Tricarballyllic are high being 50, 35, and .76 respectively. Under Bacterial markers Hippuric and 2-Hydroxyphenylacetic were high at 575 and .76. My naturopath suggested Candida and SIBO but instead of advising on how to treat it because I was in the midst of Ironman Training has instead been trying to correct my low nutrient levels with supplements even though I'm not absorbing them well despite sticking to my whole food lifestyle. I literally never have a cheat meal or day. I experience diarrhea and nausea about once or twice a week still and would really like to put my digestive problems behind me for good. Right now I'm taking a Heart Burn medicine for inflammation in my stomach, St. John's Wort, HPA Stress Adapt, 10,000 IU Vitamin D3, Iron, and Liquid Vitamin B Complex, and probiotic. I'm again heavy in ironman training so I'm reluctant to start the protocol while training 12-15 hours a week. what amount of exercise do you recommend while doing the protocol? Is it an violable option for me during training? or would I need to reduce my exercising until I finish the protocol? I really appreciate your podcast and will be bringing this up to my naturopath the next time I see her. Thank You, Kathryn Thank you for tuning into today's Cabral HouseCall and be sure to check back tomorrow where we answer more of our community’s questions! - - - Show Notes & Resources: http://StephenCabral.com/848 - - - Read Dr. Cabral's New Book: https://amzn.to/2H0W7Ge - - - Get Your Question Answered: http://StephenCabral.com/askcabral  

Thank you for joining us for our 2nd Cabral HouseCall of the weekend! I’m looking forward to sharing with you some of our community’s questions that have come in over the past few weeks…  Let’s get started! Cristi: Dear Dr. Cabral, I am a fairly new listener to your program, and I have been slowly catching up on all of your past episodes as they are both fascinating and helpful. I am in my early 40s, live a healthy, busy (two kids, full time job) active lifestyle with daily exercise (yoga, weight training, interval training, stretching, foam rolling) and an anti inflammatory diet similar to what you recommend. My BMI is optimal. Recently I have been able to feel a tendon or something (maybe my IT band) snap over a bone in my hip. At first, I thought it was happening only as I walked up hill and up stairs, but now it is there as I walk as well. From what I researched, this seems to be "snapping hip syndrome." It doesn't hurt, but I do not want it to progress to a point where it does. I do not know what caused it--maybe jumping on a cheap rebounder or doing full range of motion squats with weight (though it wasn't much more than 60 pounds, and I know I used correct form). I went to a chiropractor a couple of times, and that may have started to help, but I had previously used up my other visits in the allotted 12 my insurance allows per year, so I could not continue. I tried to go to a PT, but they wanted a written "diagnosis" from a medical doctor before they would see me. It seems to make sense to avoid motions during which this occurs, but it occurs even walking! I do not want to cut down on my activity level, but I don't want this to progress. Do you have any suggestions? Thank you!  Amber: I’m on several different medications. I’ve had three failed back surgeries. I have fusion in my lower back. I’m in pain everyday even with the medications I’m taking, also severe anxiety/panic attacks, and nerve pain down my left leg. I had a csf leak after second surgery which caused me to have a PICC Line in for three months. I had to hav Vancomyocin and Cephapine IV in high doses twice a day. That stuff was brutal. The medications I’m on is Dilaudid (2mg 3x day), Gabapentin (900mg 3x day), Klonopin (1mg 3x day), Zoloft (200mg 1x day), and Birth Control (1x day), plus they are currently adding Propanolol (10mg 3x day prn). I feel so sick and toxic inside every day. I’ve been in bed for three years straight except to get up to eat, shower, go to my appointments. I’m 28 now and hate feeling so sick and in terrible back pain. I was wondering how I could cut down on medications and what natural medications I can use. If I had the money to come see you, I would. I think one of my neighbors with chronic pain is going to fly from Tampa, FL to come see you. I’m on workers comp and living with my parents. I don’t have any money coming in and can’t work or even sit because of severe tailbone pain(which could be related to the metal rods and screws in my lower back). I would like to get that taken out, it’s been a little over two years since fusion surgery. Anything you can suggest, even a back surgeon I can see for a second opinion would be great. I really appreciate the your time in reading this. I hope you can help. Btw- I do take your cbd oil. It helps me to sleep, and sometimes helps my anxiety. My pain management doctor wants me to start medical marijuana vapor as soon as he gets his license to prescribe it. Plus, after my emg, I’m going to try acupuncture (workers comp is starting to do more natural things. I’ve been through a lot. Over 250 nights in hospitals since January 2015. I could keep going and tell you more, but the most important aspects are written to you here. Again, thank you so much!!! Amber Anonymous: Hi Dr. Cabral, I am a 34yo female who is 5’4.5” weighing 120lbs. I have been lifting heavy weights about 4x per week where I alternate days of upper and lower body weight training. I also take a gentle yoga class on Wednesdays. My cardio has been inconsistent 30 minutes here and there of the stair master or an occasional hour long step class once a week. I have also been on a completely vegan diet for over a year with very limited amounts of soy and gluten. Although I am small in stature (size 0), I feel like I am too soft for the amount of heavy lifting I am doing. I really want to see more definition in my arms, legs and abs and change my shape. Do you have any recommendations on how I should change my weight/cardio routine and what foods I should eat to ensure I get enough protein for my goals? Is it possible to get the right kind of body building protein on lentils/beans and vegetables? Should I consider soy? I used to eat tons of chicken breasts, egg whites and Greek yogurt and I do notice that I don’t have as much muscle definition but I wasn’t healthy either and had major digestive issues. I am trying to find a balance and at a loss on what is the best diet for my health as well as physique. I appreciate what you do each and every day. My husband ordered me your candida cleanse and 21 day detox and I cannot wait to begin.  Teresa: Hello, I would like to know if you have ever treated a child diagnosed with pandas or tics. We have seen tics go away with clostridia treatment but it rises again. Thanks. Judy: Hi Dr. Cabral, I have just received your 21day detox and your candida cleanse protocol. Which do you recommend I complete first? I noticed that I can have berries in the shake on the candida protocol but not the detox, so I am assuming these protocols should be completed separately. I am a 34yo female with hormonal acne issues and dealing with hypothyroidism and likley adrenal/cortisol issues based on what I have heard on your podcasts. I look forward to completing these protocols and eventually taking your tests to come up with a longer term game plan to achieving health and happiness. Merry Christmas to you, your family and staff! :) Mary: Hello Dr. Cabral. Thank you for your passion of getting your knowledge out to the masses. I very much appreciate it, as you have kickstarted my return to wellness. I recently got the results of a Genova GI effects test which came back relatively normal aside from a moderate microbe diversity (Euryarchaeota present and high E. Coli) and high Beta-glucuronidase. I know this is incomplete knowledge since you don't have all my labs/symptoms as I am not a patient, however, if only given this information would you consider this a possible dysbiosis that merits the use of your bacterial and yeast overgrowth protocol? Thank you. Also, what are your thoughts on calcium-D-glucarate to lower Beta-glucuronidase levels? Moderate microbe diversity ((higher than normal Euryarchaeota Phylum), (high Odoribacter spp., high anaerotruncus colihominis, high faecalibacterium prausnitzii, high lactobacillus spp. high pseudoflavonifractor app. high Veillonella spp. low collinsella aerofaciens, high E coli.)) low fecal fat cholesterol, low inflammation and immunology levels, high Beta-glucuronidase (9,000). Negative parasitology, non-pathogenic candida and sccharomyces levels. Thank you for tuning into this weekend’s Cabral HouseCalls and be sure to check back tomorrow for our Mindset & Motivation Monday show to get your week started off right! - - - Show Notes & Resources: http://StephenCabral.com/695 - - - Get Your Question Answered: http://StephenCabral.com/askcabral - - -    

In over half of all cases of hospitalization for a cardiovascular event, the first symptom is the event itself. So anything we can do to get any early indicator that something is going wrong in the cardiovascular system can have a huge impact. Erectile dysfunction is one such early signal. According to cardiovascular health expert Daniel Chong, ND, identifying sexual dysfunction is essential for improving cardiovascular outcomes.  Approximate listening time: 30 minutes About the Interview It may seem counterintuitive to interview a cardiologist, and not a urologist, on the topic of erectile dysfunction (ED). But we now know that ED is a result of endothelial cell dysfunction and ED can be an early warning sign of systemic atherosclerosis. Looking at ED from a cardiovascular perspective is essential. That’s why we invited cardiovascular expert Daniel Chong, ND, to talk to us about ED’s connection to heart health. In this interview, Natural Medicine Journal’s editor-in-chief, Tina Kaczor, ND, FABNO, asks Chong about the complex interplay between vascular function and sexual function. According to Chong, cardiovascular disease always has some degree of contribution—potentially a major one—in ED. That’s in part because blood flow is the key facet to obtaining a full erection. Cardiovascular dysfunction, including plaque in the arteries that regulate that blood flow, can therefore have an impact on ED. Even before plaque development becomes a problem, endothelial dysfunction in the inside walls of the arteries can play a role in erectile function. In this enlightening interview, Chong explains the different issues that can contribute to ED, including anatomical, physiological, and psychological problems. It’s an important listen for any practitioner who sees men, since beyond being a problem in and of itself ED can be an early signal of other serious health concerns. About the Expert Daniel Chong, ND, has been a licensed naturopathic physician, practicing in Portland, Oregon, since 2000 and focusing on risk assessment, prevention, and drug-free treatment strategies for cardiovascular disease and diabetes, as well as general healthy aging, and acute and chronic musculoskeletal injuries. Chong has also completed certificate training in cardio-metabolic medicine from the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine and is an active member of the Society for Heart Attack Prevention and Eradication (SHAPE). In addition to his clinical work, Chong serves as a clinical consultant for Boston Heart Diagnostics Lab. Transcript Tina Kaczor, ND, FABNO: Hello. I’m Tina Kaczor for the Natural Medicine Journal. Today, we’re going to be talking about erectile dysfunction and cardiovascular disease with Dr Daniel Chong. Dr Chong is a naturopathic physician with a private practice in Portland, Oregon for the past 17 years. He specializes in what he likes to call "vascular wellness optimization." He’s also the founder of the web-based consulting company, the Healthy Heart Project which offers a number of educational and direct consulting options for both the general public as well as healthcare practitioners on how best to assess and reduce risk for cardiovascular disease. Dr Chong also lectures and serves as a clinical consultant for Boston Heart Diagnostics Lab. Thanks so much for joining me today, Dr Chong. Daniel Chong, ND: You're welcome, Tina. Good to be here. Kaczor: As I mentioned, our topic today is erectile dysfunction. At first, it may seem odd to our listeners that I’m talking to a cardiology expert and not a urologist or men’s health expert but we now know that erectile dysfunction is a result of dysfunction of endothelial cells and in fact, this can be an early warning sign of systemic atherosclerosis. Dr Chong, can you start us out with a brief overview of how erectile dysfunction and cardiovascular disease are related? Chong: Sure. I can do my best there. There’s definitely going to be different circumstances that can contribute to erectile dysfunction. Some of which may not be actually anatomical, so to speak, or physiological from the cardiovascular perspective but I would say the majority is at least indirectly affected because even if we’re talking, for example, about a psychological contributor which we may touch on later, if somebody has dysfunctional arteries down there in the penis, they’re going to be more vulnerable to effects from psychological aspects than they would be otherwise. In other words, a young teenager may get stressed out in an early sexual experience but that’s not going to affect function as much as it could a 50-year-old man. Anyways, in general, we could just say that cardiovascular disease is going to have some degree of contribution and potentially major. Obviously, blood flow is the key facet to obtaining a full erection and certain arteries are going to be more vulnerable to impacts from the development of cardiovascular disease but even so, the arteries in the penis may or may not actually have plaque in them but they can still dysfunction. Typically, we know, and we’re going to talk about this later, in cardiovascular disease, the preceding step prior to actual anatomical change or plaque development is endothelial dysfunction or dysfunction in the inside wall of the arteries and even that going on without any actual plaque having developed yet can affect erectile function and not to be noticeable by the person. All in all, I guess you could say they’re intimately intertwined because you have to have good blood flow. It may or may not have plaque. Plaque may or may not be actually playing a role yet but it will in some cases and cause really significant dysfunction, but even minor dysfunction is going to be at least the partial result of the arteries starting to misbehave for various reasons that hopefully we’ll touch on. Kaczor: Yeah. I actually came across some mention of erectile dysfunction in that whole idea of plaque formation. One author said that it could signify in some patients, or at least it should be followed up to see if it signifies subclinical atherosclerosis. Chong: Correct. Kaczor: Yeah. Atherosclerosis being pretty much asymptomatic in people until there’s larger consequences. On that note- Chong: Right. Yeah. Sorry to cut you off. Sadly, it’s been shown that in over 50% of cases of hospitalization for a cardiovascular event, the first symptom is the event and that’s over half of all of them, so anything we can do to get any early indicator of something in this, so to speak, before, for example, erectile dysfunction, is hugely important for us because we are not doing a very good job at least conventionally in identifying early on what’s going on with people. Kaczor: Yeah. I look forward later in this discussion to talk to you about how to assess it, to find early markers besides just the symptom of erectile dysfunction but let’s start with the larger picture in conventionally recognized erectile dysfunction and cardiovascular disease risk factors. Can you talk a little bit about like when we’re, as clinicians, who walk into our office, who we should suspect it in or at least engage in the conversation because many patients won’t bring it up themselves unless they're directly asked? Dr Chong: Yeah, absolutely, so, certainly age. The older a man gets, the more potential there's going to be for all kinds of different changes going on physiologically. Some people are well aware of testosterone production, how crucial that is and that certainly begins to change as a man ages. But certainly, very standard, interestingly enough, it’s the same standard risk factors you might consider for cardiovascular disease in general in terms of high blood pressure, diabetes, certainly, smoking. Conventionally, you're going to see high cholesterol as a stated contributor but we can certainly talk in more detail about that because I know that some people out there in the functional medicine world, naturopathic world, et cetera, consider high cholesterol as a past tense risk factor for cardiovascular disease which it really is and it’s just more complicated than that. Obesity, lifestyle factors in terms of exercise and then certainly, psychological factors, depression and anxiety, et cetera are all going to be key things. I also want to make a just brief mention even though this is kind of a topic in and of itself, when we talk about erectile dysfunction, obviously, we’re talking about men but it should be very clearly stated that the same potential processes are going on in women as they age. Women with difficulty with sexual activity or orgasm, et cetera, may in fact be having their own version of “erectile dysfunction” with the clitoris as essentially an analogous structure in a woman and all of these blood flow issues can occur in women as well. It’s important to really kind of make mention to that. I say men, I keep saying men, as men age, blah, blah, blah, but it really should be looked at as both sides of the coin, so to speak. Kaczor: That’s actually an important point. Thank you for mentioning that. Chong: Sure. Kaczor: I want to do a follow-up on that cholesterol thing that you just mentioned because I think that that’s kind of top of mind. I think it’s important to give voice to any new data on looking at cholesterol because I'm with you on it being much more complex and it’s more complex than I understand. I'm happy for you to kind of flesh it out for us. Chong: Yeah. I mean, I guess anybody that says that cholesterol has nothing to do with cardiovascular disease is not really thinking about the fine details of the situation. You can't have a plaque form without cholesterol and lipoprotein particles being involved because they are what are the sort of primary components to the development of the plaque. What I don’t agree with conventionally is the idea that high cholesterol, in and of itself, is just going to definitively contribute to cardiovascular disease because obviously, there are many people out there who have relatively “high cholesterol” who don’t get cardiovascular disease. There's certainly something else going on that’s playing a role as to whether or not high cholesterol is going to lead to that issue in some people versus others. Long story short, I consider cholesterol and related markers to be secondary factors. They are absolutely involved but they are not … There's going to be other things that help sort of determine the likelihood or lack thereof of the high cholesterol sort of turning into cardiovascular disease. That’s a really fun discussion in and of itself. It could be another hour or so by itself but hopefully, that kind of answers your question, at least preliminarily. Kaczor: Well, it brings up another question which is- Chong: Certainly, keep going with that. Yeah. Kaczor: Yeah. If cholesterol is considered a secondary factor, and I see what you're saying, cholesterol is not … needs to be present but can't be causative because there's not a cause and effect 100% of the time. Chong: Correct. Kaczor: If it’s secondary, what are you looking at as primary? Chong: Well, to me, the absolute most important thing that’s going to contribute to the potential or lack thereof of eventual cardiovascular disease development or i.e. plaque, development is the health and vitality of the walls of the artery and how well they're functioning. In other words, the healthier, more nutritionally replete the walls of the arteries are themselves and the better they're being sort of manufactured in the first place by the body, are going to be the primary factor that leads to vulnerability or not. If you imagine like … I would like to use analogies. On a coastline, you may have, let’s say, in Hawaii versus somewhere else on the mainland. Hawaii is made up of volcanic rock which is, tends to be a little bit more brittle and it can sort of erode more easily. If you have waves crashing into the wall, into a wall of rock in Hawaii, it may erode more quickly. Then, an analogous wall somewhere else in the world that’s made up of a different, harder, more resilient material, the waves are still crashing into them with the same potential force but one’s going to erode more quickly than another. If we then relate that to the vascular system, somebody who has poor nutrition and tons of inflammation, oxidative stress, et cetera, and especially long-term poor nutrition, they're not going to be able … especially if we’re talking about collagen production, they're not going to be able to manufacture the sort of strong, resilient vascular walls that they should which will inevitably be, if they are stronger, will inevitably be more resistant and resilient to the impact of the turbulence of the flow of blood. There are certainly other things that are going to impact that as well especially the turbulence itself and the viscosity of the blood. That’s going to make for essentially like stronger waves crashing in which obviously, the stronger the waves is crashing into the area, the more potential there is for erosion as well. To me, long story short, the primary situation that’s going to lead to the potential development of plaque is a combination of two primary factors. That’s the vulnerability of the wall of the artery and the stress that is being placed on the wall of artery. Kaczor: By- Chong: If you look at every single risk factor we know of, they are impacting one or both of those factors. Kaczor: Okay. When you say stress, you mean mechanical forces, as well as chemical? Chong: Chemical. Absolutely. Kaczor: As in oxidative stress? Chong: Correct. That would be one of them. I mean, even environmental toxins, different types of infectious organisms and certainly mechanical stress as well or what we call blood viscosity which is impacted by a variety of factors. Primarily, probably the main ones for blood viscosity would be hydration and like even iron levels or high sort of … basically, concentrated solid substances in the blood and then also, cloudiness of the blood, how high is fibrinogen levels and things like that are going to impact the viscosity of the blood. Then, the classic risk factor of high blood pressure is going to be too, more or less, stress on the wall of artery. Kaczor: Let’s- Chong: Sorry. One other thing. I mean, one of the ways that high cholesterol may be contributing to things is it’s known that the higher the cholesterol is, the stronger the impact on the vascular wall is. It actually causes … High cholesterol itself can contribute to endothelial dysfunction or stress on the function of the wall of the artery. Kaczor: Doing mechanical forces, you're saying, to the viscosity of the blood. Chong: Right, and more technical reasons, like it literally messes with certain aspects of how the wall, the endothelium is supposed to be functioning. It’s not just that it gets into and becomes part of the plaque. The higher your cholesterol goes, the potentially worse the endothelial function initially. Kaczor: Okay. Let’s switch gears a little bit. If we’re talking about endothelial dysfunction as the commonality between erectile dysfunction, atherosclerosis, cardiovascular disease, it’s all about a healthy endothelium. Chong: Right. Kaczor: It’s interesting, in that same paper I mentioned before, I came across a term that I had not seen before. It was the endothelium as a single organ which I thought was a really interesting concept like, “Oh,” thinking, “I'm sure it’s different, in different tissues,” but just the idea of overall health of it being a singular thing was interesting to me. Chong: Right. People look at the blood vessel as like these tubes that are just allowing for the passage of blood flow. There's so much going on at the wall of the artery physiologically. It is absolutely an entire organ. Kaczor: Let me ask you this. As far, for us as clinicians, what are either biomarkers or assessment tools, how do we gauge endothelial function in a patient? Chong: Well, technically, when we’re specifically talking about endothelial function, there's only a few ways to directly assess that. Clinically, they're going to involve some way, shape, or form of actually testing, in-office, the function of the arteries themselves. There's a general … There's a few … There's basically two main machines that I'm aware of. One is called an EndoPAT and one is called the EndoTherm that are designed to directly assess endothelial function. The way they basically work is they … You have your fingers in some type of device that’s monitoring either blood flow or temperature at the fingertips. Then, you basically occlude the artery and the arm like you would with the blood pressure cuff. You have to do that for about 5 minutes which is not enjoyable for the patient because, as you can imagine, it isn’t feel very good to have your blood occluded for 5 minutes. Then, prior to doing that though, you're doing a general assessment on blood flow and temperature of the fingers. Then, you occlude the blood flow and then you let it out all at once. When the blood comes, as you might imagine, rushing back into the extremities in the fingers, you should get some degree of expansion of the arteries. Normal function would lead to the arteries, as the blood really rushes in there, would lead to the arteries expanding to a certain extent. People that have endothelial dysfunction, their blood vessels will not expand appropriately. The machines are designed to sort of read that, sort of the tip, where your tips of your fingers are sitting, the machines is detecting, is there a significant enough change in temperature and or blood flow. There's also something called arterial pulse velocity which basically, there's a smaller device called an iHeart like an iPod but it’s iHeart. I'm not connected to any of these companies or anything like that but that is a newer device that’s being developed that checks sort of indirectly the same thing. It looks kind of like a pulse oximeter but it’s actually detecting arterial pulse wave velocity and literally how quickly a pulse rate is moving down the arterial tree. If you might imagine, the sort of left compliant and arterial, an artery is, the quicker the pulse rate is going to move down it. That’s generated by heart, a heartbeat. Those are the only ways that I'm aware that are … Those are the only things that I'm aware that are being used in-office to directly assess endothelial function. There is a lab test that can be measured with people called ADMA. It stands for asymmetric dimethylarginine. That is considered a surrogate or indirect assessment of endothelial function. The higher the ADMA is, the higher the potential for endothelial dysfunction because it’s a direct sort of inhibitor of nitric oxide production. Kaczor: All right. Well, that leads us into our next little piece, doesn’t it? Nitric oxide production being integral to the whole relaxation of the smooth muscle and the endothelium to allow for blood flow whether we’re talking about the fingertips or the penis. Can you talk a little bit about nitric oxide? Maybe briefly mention how an assessment can be made, the ADMA being one of the means of assessing that as far as the blood test and anything else that might be accessible to a general physician or clinician that might be seeing these patients. Chong: Well, I mean, endothelial function is, to me, the ideal way to get an assessment of that because I'm a big proponent of the idea that we want to check end of point factors as often as we can. Classic example of this is looking at the different impacts of certain dietary changes on cholesterol markers and making conclusions about whether or not that is good for the vascular system or not, certain changes like HDL going up, for example, after the implementation of a certain diet did not guarantee by any stretch of the imagination that you're having a positive effect on the vascular system so I like to use endpoint markers or end, sort of, functional markers as much as possible so far and away still, the best way to me to assess nitric oxide levels is via those endothelial function tests that we mentioned already. Other ways to sort of try to get an assessment of it, the only other way that I’m really aware of is if you've seen … You've been to enough conferences, I know. You’ve probably seen this company that has this little saliva test that you can use to check basically nitrate levels in the saliva. That’s going to be … Nitrate is a crucial factor, nitric oxide production as well, so some people are using these little saliva tests to check what a person’s typical nitrate intake is and then recommending dietary or supplement interventions based on that. Those are really the only ways that I’m aware of to sort of really truly get an assessment on that other than, obviously, history and talking to a person, seeing how well things are working, so to speak. Kaczor: Can I ask you a question? I don’t mean to put you on the spot and I do not know the company that’s offering nitrate levels in saliva but is this something that’s been validated or is it with any rigor or is this one of those early adoption things that happen? Chong: Right. You're asking me if something has been validated with scientific tests or research? Can you restate? Kaczor: Or at least … Yeah. Chong: You do that with everything which is great. That’s why I like you so much but I don't know for sure. This is … In all honesty, I haven’t really looked too deeply into that method of assessment with people, so I wouldn’t be able to say with any certainty at all. I know that they’re quite widely used and it’s not a very complicated, technically complicated test so I think it’s pretty straightforward. I do recall seeing literature being made available by these companies but I have not looked that in-depth at that at this point. Kaczor: Well, I appreciate your honesty. When you're on the cutting edge, early adoption of new technologies is part of our … We get to do that. We get to be right there doing, instituting things but it’s important, I think, for us all to go at a pace that has some, at least reproducibility, if not rigor. Chong: Absolutely. The other thing that I would say to add to that is like using different angles of assessment is also crucial, not just relying on one piece of information whether it be cholesterol. That’s why the classic conventional mistake is like, “Okay, we’re going to check and see if you have a high risk for cardiovascular disease. Let’s check your lipid panel. There’s so much more beyond that that can be done to assess and evaluate people and get a much clearer picture. That’s a classic idea, just sort of not settling on one thing, not just using the newest thing, whatever it is. Use as many tools as you can within reason to get the clearest picture. Kaczor: Yeah. I want to continue on the molecular biology of this and specifically, we have just a few minutes left, really talk about- Chong: Time flies when you're talking about erectile dysfunction. Kaczor: What’s that? Chong: I said time flies when you're talking about erectile dysfunction. Kaczor: Well, oxidative stress, being something that you mentioned and it’s just something that we’re … That inflammation is kind of always at the forefront of anyone who’s doing integrative medicine or optimal wellness or however you want to term it. I guess my thought is this. In a concise way, can you tell me if you use any actual blood markers that are widely available and what are some of your favorite ways of, kind of across the board, addressing oxidative stress issues, which even beyond erectile dysfunction, it becomes part and parcel with that but it’s also just part of life and part of being alive, is creating oxidation? Chong: Right. In the realm of assessment, especially if we were going to so far as to separate out inflammation in oxidative stress because obviously, they aren’t exactly the same thing, when we’re talking inflammation, the primary markers that I’m measuring with people certainly are high sensitivity CRP as our sort of general global marker of inflammation or lack thereof. When we’re talking about the vascular system, I’m also typically going to be checking something called Lp-PLA2 or what’s also known as the PLAC test. That is more specifically an inflammation marker for the vascular system so it’s going to actually reveal immunoactivity and inflammation going on in the wall of the artery whereas a high CRP is not going to be able to definitively determine that or not. MPO or myeloperoxidase is a later stage, nonspecific but frequently correlated marker for late stage vascular inflammation for a vulnerable vascular system. In the realm of oxidative stress, the 2 primary markers that I might look at is actually … number 1 is actually oxidized LDL so it’s pretty hard to have moderately elevated LDL levels and a high amount of oxidative stress and not see a relatively increased level of oxidized LDL in the bloodstream. That is sort of a good, what you'd call extracellular oxidative stress marker, but we can also get intracellular oxidative stress for different reasons. For that, you can also check something called 8-oxoguanine which is an actual, actually a urinary test. Not too many labs run that. I’m not sure if we’re supposed to name names here but that is an … If you just Google 8-oxoguanine test or something like that, you can probably find the labs that run that but that’s going to give you more of an assessment of intracellular oxidative stress. Then, beyond that, you can, in all honesty, get a pretty good idea whether or not somebody is going to be a candidate for high oxidative stress just by talking to them and looking at them and that type of thing as well. Kaczor: Yeah. A lot of those other markers for cardiovascular disease like obesity, even the aging process, certainly smoking, all- Chong: Right. Absolutely. Kaczor: Obviously, we would take into account for oxidation. Can you let me know or let the listeners know your top three? Someone looks at you and they’re like, “Listen. I do everything right. I exercise. I eat well. My BMI is normal. I don’t drink. I don’t smoke. What are the three supplements you …” You only get to see them once. They’re going to leave your office. Chong: These people are eating well, you said, in my opinion? Kaczor: Okay. That brings up the point. What would that look like in your opinion? Chong: No, no. I’m sorry. I’m just- Kaczor: We only have 2 minutes left but what would be an ideal guy in your opinion and then- Chong: No, no, no, no, no. I’m sorry. I was just clarifying the question. If these people are already eating well like they’re eating lots of fruits and vegetables, et cetera and I’m just talking about supplements, the 3 main ones I’m going to recommend are going to be vitamin C, magnesium, and then probably some type of concentrated plant-based antioxidant. As a naturopath, herbal medicine trained, I have an affinity to hawthorn but also, I frequently recommend hibiscus tea to people. Kaczor: Nice. Hibiscus being, you're also from Hawaii so that’s- Chong: Good point. You could certainly go beyond that and complement it with things like arginine, citrulline, and then there are a number of nitric oxide precursor type of products that are high in dietary nitrates. Kaczor: Well, Dan, I really appreciate this. I feel like we could have a whole part 2 where we go into the therapeutics and more details into all of this but I think the listeners have gotten good overview today and I really do appreciate the time you've taken and your expertise, and best of luck with your Healthy Heart Project. Chong: Thank you, Tina. It was good to talk to you and happy to help as I can. Kaczor: All right. Take care. Chong: All right.

""I lost a total of 55 pounds. My BMI dropped from 30 to 23. My total cholesterol dropped 90 points without statins. I reached my ideal weight within three months. I have been on the whole food, plant-based (WFPB) diet since 2014. I have never looked back nor do I miss the Standard American Diet."  - Steven Mattis

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