Podcast appearances and mentions of Russell M Jaffe

An integrative approach can help enhance the immune response against viruses and provide additional protection. In this interview, Russell Jaffe, MD, PhD, who is a respected researcher, pathologist, immunologist, and biochemist, gives clinicians advice on how to strengthen the body’s viral immune response. He discusses immune system assessment, targeted nutrients, and some lifestyle factors to focus on. About the Expert Russell M. Jaffe, MD, PhD, is CEO and chairman of PERQUE Integrative Health (PIH). He is considered one of the pioneers of integrative and regenerative medicine. Since inventing the world’s first single step amplified (ELISA) procedure in 1984, a process for measuring and monitoring all delayed allergies, Jaffe has continually sought new ways to help speed the transition from our current healthcare system’s symptom reactive model to a more functionally integrated, effective, and compassionate system. PIH is the outcome of years of Jaffe’s scientific research. It brings to market 3 decades of rethinking safer, more effective, novel, and proprietary dietary supplements, supplement delivery systems, diagnostic testing, and validation studies. About the Sponsor PERQUE Integrative Health (PIH) is dedicated to speeding the transition from sickness care to healthful caring. Delivering novel, personalized health solutions, PIH gives physicians and their patients the tools needed to achieve sustained optimal wellness. Combining the best in functional, evidence-based testing with premium professional supplements and healthful lifestyle guides, PIH solutions deliver successful outcomes in even the toughest cases. If you are interested in delving more deeply into this and other integrative health topics, we invite you to join the PIH Academy. Additional resources made available to you by PIH and Jaffe are shown below: Immune Support & Virus Protection Recommendations C Cleanse Coronavirus Resource Center ELISA/ACT Biotechnologies    

There is a growing awareness of the interconnection between sleep, stress, and mood. Often, all 3 need to be addressed in clinical practice. In this interview, pioneering integrative health researcher, pathologist, immunologist, and biochemist Russell Jaffe, MD, PhD, shares his physiology-first approach to tackling all 3 of these common clinical issues. He and his team have developed and validated personalized, proactive, predictive, primary prevention practices and protocols over the last four decades. Listeners will glean new ideas regarding lifestyle and targeted nutrients that can help with sleep, stress, and mood. About the Expert Russell M. Jaffe, MD, PhD, is CEO and chairman of PERQUE Integrative Health (PIH). He is considered one of the pioneers of integrative and regenerative medicine. Since inventing the world’s first single step amplified (ELISA) procedure in 1984, a process for measuring and monitoring all delayed allergies, Jaffe has continually sought new ways to help speed the transition from our current healthcare system’s symptom reactive model to a more functionally integrated, effective, and compassionate system. PIH is the outcome of years of Jaffe’s scientific research. It brings to market 3 decades of rethinking safer, more effective, novel, and proprietary dietary supplements, supplement delivery systems, diagnostic testing, and validation studies. About the Sponsor PERQUE Integrative Health (PIH) is dedicated to speeding the transition from sickness care to healthful caring. Delivering novel, personalized health solutions, PIH gives physicians and their patients the tools needed to achieve sustained optimal wellness. Combining the best in functional, evidence-based testing with premium professional supplements and healthful lifestyle guides, PIH solutions deliver successful outcomes in even the toughest cases. If you are interested in delving more deeply into this and other integrative health topics, we invite you to join the PIH Academy. Additional resources made available to you by PIH and Jaffe are shown below: Immune Support & Virus Protection Recommendations C Cleanse Coronavirus Resource Center ELISA/ACT Biotechnologies

In this interview, Russell Jaffe, MD, shares his immune-boosting protocol that can enhance immunity and help patients achieve better overall wellness. In addition to discussing diet, lifestyle, and dietary supplements, Jaffe shares information about an innovative lymphocyte response assay that is now available. Jaffe is an internal medicine physician, clinical pathologist, immunologist, and biochemist. About the Expert Russell M. Jaffe, MD, PhD, is CEO and chairman of PERQUE Integrative Health (PIH). He is considered one of the pioneers of integrative and regenerative medicine. Since inventing the world’s first single step amplified (ELISA) procedure in 1984, a process for measuring and monitoring all delayed allergies, Jaffe has continually sought new ways to help speed the transition from our current healthcare system’s symptom reactive model to a more functionally integrated, effective, and compassionate system. PIH is the outcome of years of Jaffe’s scientific research. It brings to market 3 decades of rethinking safer, more effective, novel, and proprietary dietary supplements, supplement delivery systems, diagnostic testing, and validation studies. About the Sponsor PERQUE Integrative Health (PIH) is dedicated to speeding the transition from sickness care to healthful caring. Delivering novel, personalized health solutions, PIH gives physicians and their patients the tools needed to achieve sustained optimal wellness. Combining the best in functional, evidence-based testing with premium professional supplements and healthful lifestyle guides, PIH solutions deliver successful outcomes in even the toughest cases. If you are interested in delving more deeply into this and other integrative health topics, we invite you to join the PIH Academy. Additional resources made available to you by PIH and Jaffe are shown below: Immune Support & Virus Protection Recommendations C Cleanse Coronavirus Resource Center ELISA/ACT Biotechnologies

Chronic health issues can precipitate from a myriad of origins including inflammation. On this episode, integrative medical physician Russell Jaffe, MD, PhD, explains his physiology first approach to restorative healing. In addition to recommended testing, Jaffe will describe a comprehensive strategy that is fundamental to personalized medicine and improved patient outcomes. Jaffe is one of the pioneers of integrative and regenerative medicine with expertise in testing, research, diagnostics, and dietary supplements. About the Expert Russell M. Jaffe, MD, PhD, is CEO and Chairman of PERQUE Integrative Health (PIH). He is considered one of the pioneers of integrative and regenerative medicine. Since inventing the world’s first single step amplified (ELISA) procedure in 1984, a process for measuring and monitoring all delayed allergies, Jaffe has continually sought new ways to help speed the transition from our current healthcare system’s symptom reactive model to a more functionally integrated, effective, and compassionate system. PIH is the outcome of years of Dr Jaffe’s scientific research. It brings to market 3 decades of rethinking safer, more effective, novel, and proprietary dietary supplements, supplement delivery systems, diagnostic testing, and validation studies. About the Sponsor PERQUE Integrative Health (PIH) is dedicated to speeding the transition from sickness care to healthful caring. Delivering novel, personalized health solutions, PIH gives physicians and their patients the tools needed to achieve sustained optimal wellness. Combining the best in functional, evidence-based testing with premium professional supplements and healthful lifestyle guides, PIH solutions deliver successful outcomes in even the toughest cases. If you are interested in delving more deeply into this and other integrative health topics, we invite you to join the PIH Academy

Dr. Russell Jaffe, a top expert in pathology and integrative health, distills the best foods and methods for keeping your body nourished and healthy during detox, and in everyday life. On today’s podcast, you will learn: How metals cause food sensitivities How metals can cross react with different foods, and cause you to develop a sensitivity to a food, when it's really a sensitivity to a heavy metal. Why we need more nutrients (more supplements and nutrient dense foods) than is required by the body to help it detox its burden of toxins and metals. The top foods to eat for detoxification   Dr. Russell Jaffe Bio: Russell M. Jaffe, M.D., Ph.D., CCN Fellow, Health Studies Collegium Russ Jaffe is Founder and Chairman of PERQUE Integrative Health, LLC (PIH, www.PERQUE.com) a company that offers the world scientifically proven, integrative health solutions to speed the transition from sick care to healthful caring. Dr. Jaffe is also founder and chairman of MAGique BioTherapeutics and ELISA/ACT Biotechnologies, which does food sensitivities testing. Dr. Jaffe has more than 40 years of experience contributing to molecular biology and clinical diagnostics. His focus is on functional, predictive tests and procedures designed to improve the precision of both diagnosis and of treatment outcomes and he has authored nearly 100 articles on the subject. He received his B.S., MD and Ph.D. from the Boston University School of Medicine, completed residency training in clinical chemistry at the National Institutes of Health, and remained on the permanent senior staff before pursuing other interests, including starting the Health Studies Collegium think tank. Dr. Jaffe is board certified in Clinical Pathology and in Chemical Pathology. He is the recipient of the Merck, Sharp & Dohm Excellence in Research Award, the J.D. Lane Award, and the U.S.P.H.S. Meritorious Service Award. Dr Jaffe was honored as an International Scientist of 2003 by the IBC, Oxford, England, UK for his lifetime contributions to clinical medicine, biochemistry, immunology, methodology, and integrative health policy. He is widely published and sought to explain complex subjects to any audience. Learn more about Dr Jaffe and his work at Are toxic metals causing your fatigue and health issues? Find out by taking Wendy’s Heavy Metals Quiz at

This podcast interview features integrative health expert Russell Jaffe, MD, PhD, CCN, who shares his philosophy about addressing men's health issues in clinical practice. Jaffe discusses hormonal balance, prostate health, gastrointestinal health, cardiovascular health, and inflammation. About the Expert Russell M. Jaffe, MD, PhD, is CEO and Chairman of PERQUE Integrative Health (PIH). He is considered one of the pioneers of integrative and regenerative medicine. Since inventing the world’s first single step amplified (ELISA) procedure in 1984, a process for measuring and monitoring all delayed allergies, Jaffe has continually sought new ways to help speed the transition from our current healthcare system’s symptom reactive model to a more functionally integrated, effective, and compassionate system. PIH is the outcome of years of Dr Jaffe’s scientific research. It brings to market 3 decades of rethinking safer, more effective, novel, and proprietary dietary supplements, supplement delivery systems, diagnostic testing, and validation studies. About the Sponsor PERQUE Integrative Health (PIH) is dedicated to speeding the transition from sickness care to healthful caring. Delivering novel, personalized health solutions, PIH gives physicians and their patients the tools needed to achieve sustained optimal wellness. Combining the best in functional, evidence-based testing with premium professional supplements and healthful lifestyle guides, PIH solutions deliver successful outcomes in even the toughest cases. If you are interested in delving more deeply into this and other integrative health topics, we invite you to join the PIH Academy. Transcript Karolyn Gazella: Hello, I'm Karolyn Gazella, the publisher of the Natural Medicine Journal. Thank you for joining me today. Our topic is men's health, and my guest is integrative health expert, Dr Russell Jaffe. Before we begin, I'd like to thank the sponsor of this topic, who is Perque Integrative Health. Dr Jaffe, thank you so much for joining me. Russell Jaffe, MD, PhD, CCN: Thanks for the invitation. Gazella: Well, before we dig into the specific health issues that men face, you believe in a philosophy first approach. I'm sorry, physiology first approach. What do you mean by- Jaffe: The philosophy is physiology. Gazella: Exactly. Jaffe: So, that was appropriate. Yeah- Gazella: So, what do you mean by that? Jaffe: Right. It's a high level, brief, 2 words, physiology first. What we mean is, physiology before pharmacology. We mean physiology first because it seeks an upstream assessment of the causes of risk or symptoms, in contrast to most conventional care today, even holistic or not, that remains rooted in downstream symptom management. Physiology first uses global evidence to reduce risks and prevent people from falling into the river of disease. Physiology first uses nature's nutrients in supplements, with enhanced uptake and chaperone delivery, for safer, more effective, essential replenishments, items we must take in since our body doesn't make them. Physiology first urges organic or biodynamic or locally grown sources of nutrient-dense whole foods, as minimally contaminated as possible. Physiology first focuses on underlying causes. For example, too little of essential needs being met, which are eating, drinking, thinking, doing—those are the 4 headline categories—rather than working back from symptom-reactive case management. And finally, physiology first uses predictive biomarkers interpreted to their best outcome goal values. Now, this is a paradigm shift for many colleagues but we now can impersonalize predicted, proactive, primary prevention practices, save individuals probably a million a year just by applying physiology first. Gazella: Yeah. Well, that's exciting so I'm glad that we went over that. Now in general, what should be on the radar of clinicians when it comes to addressing the special health needs of their male patients? Jaffe: Yes, and here again, now that we've kind of gotten the hundred thousand–foot level, we start and recommend colleagues start with self assessment. This includes transit time, urine pH after rest, hydration, and a sea-cleans as overall global self assessments, very inexpensive. The individual does much of it themselves, brings it to the expert who interprets it so that we get a snapshot of the metabolic or metabolon/microbiome, the digestion and metabolism. You interpret that to best outcome goal values. You use that to inform and inspire and motivate people to put it in effort for the 6 to 7 weeks that it takes to change a habit of daily living and you can add years to life, years of quality life and life to years. In people with chronic symptoms, well. Take a careful family history although family history is highly relevant if you have the same behavior and environmental factors. If you change your behavior, your habits, your environment, then your family history to a very large extent disappears into the midst of history. If there have been prior treatments and treatment failures, it's important to assess that. We use the predictive biomarkers to help people celebrate when they are at their best outcome goal value and take action when their risks increase. Now, men and women at all ages need activity, at least 45 minutes a day of walking or equivalent. Sitting is the new smoking. Weight-bearing exercise or cardio exercise 2 or 3 days a week and knowing about it or preaching about it is one thing. It's when you actually do it. I'm glad to tell you that I had just enough glimpse of the consequences of not doing that I do what I'm recommending. Now we want to teach men to prepare for sleep, achieve restorative sleep, using physiology before pharmacology, using salt and soda baths, Epsom salts and baking soda, plus or minus aroma oil, essential oil. The baking soda alkalinizes and relaxes muscles in the pores of the skin, and the Epsom salts, which is magnesium sulfate, allows the magnesium to come in and that's often very helpful. We recommend that teaching people, particularly men who have sleep issues, about abdominal breathing and active meditation and green dichromatic light, along with nature's sources of serotonin and melatonin, which is tryptophan. We ask about changes in urine stream flow and quality after urination. Is there any dribbling? How many times do they get up at night to urinate? And we make lifestyle suggestions tailored to the individual at their phase of life. We want to be proactive with prostate support nutrients, such as micellized soft gel that contains all of active saw palmetto, [inaudible 00:06:03], lycopene. Free lycopene, not just some ketchup. Hygeium, with 14 or 15% beta sitosterols. Urtica dioica, also known as stinging nettles. Zinc, in the picolinate form. And selenomethionine, selenium in the selenomethionine, healthier, safer form. And all of this micellized in pure pumpkin seed oil to enhance uptake in retention, to improve function. And we think people can be pleasantly surprised at how effective and synergistic the above prostate health support is, available in a single, easy-to-swallow soft gel. Ask about adult beverages. If they consume more than 5 a week, provide comprehensive liver support and recommend a glass of water above the four quarts or four liters a day that humans need to avoid marginal dehydration—1 or 2 or 3 percent dehydrated is a big stress on every organ in your body. So this is, again, at a headline level, how our comprehensive approach actually works. Gazella: Perfect. Now I'd like to kind of narrow our conversation and I want to stay on the prostate because you mentioned the prostate. So, what are the roles that testosterone plays when it comes to prostate health and men's health in general? Jaffe: Right. Both men and women need testosterone. They need a balance of free and bound testosterone. They need good and not bad testosterone. Now, what does that mean? Well, you can measure in saliva or in plasma. The free and the bound, free and total testosterone. You can measure the dihydrotestosterone. You don't want much of that, maybe zero. You can measure oxidized testosterone. You want zero of that. And you want to enhance the good T, the good testosterone and reduce the bad T based on testing results because testosterone is needed for brain and muscle and organ and joint and bowel renewal and many other functions beyond just being a male hormone. You want to enhance healthy testosterone production through healthy microbiome and metabolon functions, especially the family of the central antioxidants. Vitamins, minerals, and cofactors that along with good hydration optimize your healthy testosterone, which is one of the vitality factors in the body and minimize the bad testosterone that causes everything from hair loss to loss of erections. Gazella: Okay, perfect. So before we leave the prostate, remind us what the significance is of the PSA test. Jaffe: That's a very important question and I think we're finally, after half a century in laboratory medicine and I've been following the issue all of that time. The PSA test is a measure of prostate repair. So, the PSA goes up if you have prostatitis. For example, if you just sit in your car too long and hold your urine in too long. And the PSA goes up in some but not all prostate cancers, and you can fractionate the PSA, free and bound, and that usually but not always helps distinguish the prostatitis from the cancer risk. If you had concern about the prostate and about PSA levels and have a biopsy, after a single biopsy—often there are multiple biopsies—the future PSA has no interpretable value that I know of except for population, but we're talking about 1 man at a time. And so many review articles that I have seen in the last few years say do other tests of prostate health and don't even do the PSA because if you don't need the test, you wouldn't do the test. If it's a question, it's a gray zone, that's exactly what the test is not very sensitive or specific. Gazella: What about enlarged prostate? Jaffe: The first thing I would do and have recommended for many years for enlarged prostate is to take that combination of prostate vitality factors and we have had men whose prostate was double or triple than usual size come back to that of a 40-year-old by following for about 6 months a program that includes the supplements that I recommended just a few minutes ago, along with eating foods that the man can digest, assimilate, and eliminate without immune burden, and that means the lymphocyte response assay test that measures T and B cell function and that then says eat this and don't eat that, take the supplement and don't take that, follow this mental and physical plan because in the 80,000 cases that we put in our database, we've evolved a very personalized approach to, say, prostate size. Gazella: Okay, perfect. So, let's move on. What does it mean when a man wakes up with an erection or doesn't have an erection? Is that significant? Jaffe: Oh, absolutely. The headline is that every healthy man should wake up in the morning with an erection. In essence, it's the quality control check of the distinctive male. Too often and very commonly, when a man does not wake up with an erection, that's a sign that they have pregnenolone steal, that they have high stress cortisol levels and low DHEA, which is the antistress hormone, usually with low free healthy testosterone, often with a sluggish thyroid and an exhausted adrenal gland, due to lack of adequate intake of the essential antioxidants, minerals, cofactors that are necessary. In addition to prostate health nutrients, I would recommend checking the thyroid, TSH, 3T3, 3T4. That can be done on a blood spot or in many different ways. But you must, by my recommendation, get the 3T3, 3T4, TSH all at the same time, and the healthy range for TSH is .5 to 2.5, not above. The usual range has too many unwell people. (Usual lab range.) You want to check adrenal stress hormones, cortisol and DHEA at four times during one day. And at the same time, in the same saliva or plasma specimen, you can measure male and female hormones and their sources, their precursors to see if the body has learned a distress response that steals the healthy progesterone and pregnenolone and produces too much distress hormone cortisol and too little healthy male and female hormones. They come from the same source. You want to get both and in balance. Now in regard to male sexual performance, there are natural solutions to erectile dysfunction. The following vitamins, minerals, and amino acids work as a team to improve the quality and duration of erections B complex. One phrase is 'B complex is for boners'. Keep the urine sunshine yellow and feel the difference comprehensive B complex means. C, it is ascorbate vitamin C, always fully buffered, fully reduced and we recommend based on the C cleanse, taking that amount is associated with healthier and the more robust erections. Vitamin D is really a neuro hormone and it does a lot of things, including improving cell function and providing cell energy to sustain the generally sixfold increase in blood retention during an erection. Then magnesium choline citrate. Magnesium is essential for a lot of different things, including a healthy sexual function, and choline citrate at the same time, say 220 mg of magnesium solves and a teaspoon of choline citrate. That enhances the uptake dramatically. It enhances the retention because it is an alkalinizing, rather than an acidifying source. Most magnesium solves and magnesium products have very low bioavailability and are in the acid form, which makes the magnesium run out almost as soon as it comes in. And then last is L-citrulline and L-arginine, and these are 2 amino acids. They both enhance nitric oxide production inside cells, and when you take about a gram of L-citrulline and 500 mg of L-arginine 30 minutes before adult activities, most men notice the difference, especially men over 40. Foods that are rich in these amino acids include nuts, seeds, chickpeas, and other legumes, also known as garbanzos, and meats. Making an avocado and chickpea hummus with some mustard seeds or black and white sesame seeds added plus or minus some toasted pine nuts with fresh ground black peppers and your favored high-quality salt, that can blend into a nutritious, delicious, amorous and traditional food. Gazella: That's great and it sounds yummy as well. Jaffe: It is. It should be nutritious and delicious. Gazella: Exactly, exactly. Well, let's now move onto the gastrointestinal tract. What should practitioners focus here when it comes to their male patients? Jaffe: Well, in the 21st century it is a pretty fair assumption that the person sitting across a professional has mild digestion dysbiosis, some degree of atrophy known as enteropathy, a long transit time. Transit time should be 12 to 18 hours. We recommend doing that with charcoal. We have an online instruction if folks are interested because you want to assess what's called the microbiome, which is the digestive tract in its fullness, or the GNS, known as the gut nervous system, which is in constant conversation and communion with the reigning central nervous system. And so we recommend focusing on a full complement of personalized native antioxidant, minerals, and cofactors in their safer higher uptake forms based on the assessments and the predictive biomarker tests that we recommend. We want to pay attention to hydration because even a little bit 1, 2, 3% dehydrated puts a stress on every part of the body. We want to have prebiotics. That is unprocessed fiber from diet or supplements, 40 to 100 grams a day. That's what Dennis Burkitt taught me and the most knowledgeable nutritionists that I know recommend that much fiber a day. Probiotics, 40 to 100 billion healthy by a mixed bacteria, bugs. Then synbiotics, which is really recycled glutamine to energize and repair the lining of the digestive tract. Then you want to eat what you can digest, assimilate, and eliminate without immune burden. So, you've done some functional immunology testing like LRA, lymphocyte response assay. Take in no empty calories. You are sweet enough as you are. If you feed parasites and pathogens, fungi and yeast, they will grow. Improve the digestion, the microbiome and metabolon, the innate biological detoxification competencies and enhance your digestion by eating what you can digest, assimilate, and eliminate without activating your immune responses. We teach people to stop feeding the pathogens and they disappear as digestion improves, repairs improve, resilience is restored, and habits of daily living are improved. Then you want to look at the secretory IgA if you're concerned about the interface between digestion and the body. It's called SIgA, secretory IgA. You can measure that in saliva. There should be protected mucins so that if partially digestive materials get near the wall of the body, they don't become foreign invaders if you have healthy mucins and healthy secretory IgA. And there are other elected protected digestive functions that healthy people have that are lost when people lack the essential nutrients or the essential minerals when their cellular metabolism becomes acidic, when their body is reaching out, calling out, actually crying out for repair enhancement essentials, things you have to take in that you can't make in the body. So, we wanna taper or possibly discontinue medications that impair digestion. We want to use prebiotics, probiotics, and synbiotics, especially in people who have had antibiotics and other digestive-interfering medicines. We want to check transit time, should be 12 to 18 hours. When I have roast beets as a main part of my dinner, I expect to see red in the commode in the morning. But I can tell you after all these years when I see that red, my first thought is never, "Oh, I had beets last night" so that's why we use charcoal. Now, avoid fat-binding medications and supplements that reduce essential fat-soluble vitamin uptake. That's vitamins A, D, E and K. And you need bile from the liver to do that and for that you need phosphatidylcholine-rich foods and/or supplements, and we happen to micellize all of our soft gels with this PC, with this—not politically correct—phosphatidylcholine. Now, many men have atrophy of their intestinal lining because of stress and toxin exposure and it's the 21st century, and maybe less than perfect eating, breathing, and drinking. So, getting the essential needed nutrients restored may mean intensive supplementation for a few months, followed by maintenance supplementation for a long, healthy life, and I personally plan to be dancing at 120 and I would like you to join me. Gazella: That sounds perfect. So, you mentioned tests to assess the microbiome and you also mentioned secretory IgA. Are there other tests that you recommend in terms of assessing the microbiome? Jaffe: Right. So, the transit time we talked about, it's one of the self-assessments, 1 of the 4. Then this SIgA, the secretory IgA, in saliva or serum, with the comprehensive lymphocyte response assay, if there's any indication that the person has shifted from elected protected mode into survival mode, which means all the protective and repair functions are down regulated, that's called chronic illness to happen, or hormone tests that include cortisol and DHEA at 4 different time points, male and female hormones can be measured in their precursors on the same saliva specimen. You can use plasma if you wish. Adrenal and thyroid adaptogenic supplementation is recommended either based on clinical history or these test results. By all means include some way of determining how much ascorbate that person needs because ascorbate is the maternal antioxidant that sacrifices yourself that all others may be presode. And then the magnesium with enhanced uptake choline citrate. The choline helps build acetylcholine, an important neurotransmitter and neurochemical. It also helps build the choline-rich biosalts that are more soluble and help get the thicker bile out of the gallbladder and into the digestive tract, where that helps emulsify fat to be taken up into the body. And then based on the urine pH, we would adjust how many doses of the magnesium choline citrate you take. Do a regular hydration assessment and when in doubt, what I recommend is that you have a carafe of water in front of you and a glass. If the glass is full you drink it and if it's empty you fill it, and you just keep doing that. And personally my goal is to go to the bathroom at least every couple of hours and then I cut down the amount of liquid I take in after 7 or 8 PM so then I'm not overhydrated when I go to bed. But underhydration is a much more common and unappreciated problem. Monitor the breadth of our little chemicals, and this can give very interesting insights that are both diagnosis-specific of mild digestion dysbiosis enteropathies and so forth. But in addition that information often makes it very clear to the individual that this is true for them and not in general. And the last is a zinc taste test. Developed by Harry Henken, you drop a zinc solution on the tongue. The people who need zinc can't taste it. The people who say the zinc tastes strong have enough. And it's a pretty good one-dollar type assessment of a critical mineral and specifically for men, men need lots of minerals but especially zinc. You lose about 25 mg per every ejaculation. Gazella: Yeah, that's good. That makes a lot of sense. So, now it's time to discuss inflammation. Is inflammation really repair deficit and how does that change clinical practice? Remind us why that's such a big deal. Jaffe: Right. Well, we started with the physiology-first concept. Now I'm a doubly board-certified pathologist. I know the 5 aspects of inflammation. I know it's taught as a fire to be fought, something that has to be suppressed with anti-inflammatories. And now I pause and say: Anything that starts with 'anti' is using pharmacology before physiology. Inflammation is repair deficit. What my pathology colleagues see as inflammation is the cumulative lack of repair when your immune defense and repair system is doing too much defensive work because of foreign invaders from the breath or the skin or the gut, and if you enhance the innate immune system's ability to repair, your infrastructure is reborn, your bones get rebuilt, your joints are renewed, your mood is better. Your ability to get restorative sleep and meaningful relationships all are improved when you recognize that repair deficit is an opportunity. You use the hsCRP test as a predictive and validated biomarker. It's also an all-cause mortality, morbidity marker. The healthy goal value—and this is, again, where we have the reframing. I don't even look at the lab range because that includes too many unwell people. You know the goal value for this test, hsCRP, and it's less than 0.5. Ignore statistical lab ranges unless you're treating statistics, and knowing the best outcome goal value we add ascorbate based on the [inaudible 26:350, magnesium choline citrate based on the urine pH, and other similar kinds of monitoring so that the person gets more safely the forms that are more effective because of their enhanced uptake and retention and therefore the deficits get corrected more quickly. I mentioned hydration. I keep mentioning it only because every part of your body is healthier and more resilient and more able to repair when you take in healthy water, 4 liters a day or more of either mineral-rich, I happen to have well water but some mineral-rich water that's not contaminated and/or sparkling water. I happen to like Pellegrino but there's also Gerolsteiner and Apollinaris and actually every culture has a mineral-rich water known as a therapeutic or beneficial or health-promoting mineral water. So, you want to drink hard water, so water softeners are not recommended, at least not total home water softeners. If you want to soften the water in the pipes, I don't care, but your blood vessels are not pipes and now I care about the quality of the water that you take in. Gazella: Perfect. So, I love your perspective about looking at repair deficit as an opportunity. Are there other ways to kind of take advantage of that opportunity to reduce oxidative stress and reign in inflammation? Jaffe: Yes. And again, in a physiology-first point-of-view in regard to, say, blood fats. Cholesterol and triglycerides and blood fats and [inaudible 00:28:14]. If you keep the oxidation of those fats, if you keep oxidized cholesterol to zero, if you keep oxidized LDL to zero, because you're taking enough antioxidants and especially ascorbate. Now, the fat-related cardiovascular risks just went away. What remains is understanding your hemoglobin A1C, your hsCRP, your homocysteine, your LRA (lymphocyte response assay immune responses), your vitamin D, your first morning urine pH, your omega-3 index, and [inaudible 00:28:51]. Those are the eight predictive biomarker tests and we have online for folks to peruse and/or download or watch on YouTube discussions of why these eight predictive biomarkers cover all of that genetics, which is 92% of your lifetime quality of life and health. And yes, you can blame mom and dad for the other 8%, and yes transgenerational influences on RNA are a big scientific field but not yet ready to measure clinically. Live in the moment, do one thing at a time, practice gratitude and random acts of kindness, breathe abdominally for at least 5 minutes a day, and make enhance repair your practice and banish inflammation. Gazella: That's perfect. It's a very integrative approach that includes lifestyle as well. I'd like to end with heart disease because heart disease remains the leading cause of death for men in the United States. So, what do you recommend when it comes to protecting heart health for male patients? Jaffe: Yes, and as I think you know part of my primary research when I was in government service at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center was collaborating with the Heart Institute on animal models of heart disease. Now, Paul Dudley White in the 1930s was a famous cardiologist. He helped invent the electrocardiogram. He taught when I was a young student that in the 1930s at Mass General Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts if they had 1 heart attack a year, they published the case. And yet 40 years after that, cardiovascular disease was the major killer of Western civilization. That's not a genetic change. It's too quick for genetics. A lot has to do with smoking and sitting, sedentary lifestyle, processing of foods, and all that goes with that. Jaffe: So, cardiovascular disease. If your heart attacks you, if you have a clog in a blood vessel, an artery, if you have a stroke, you didn't pay attention to the upstream warnings that you would know about if you did the self-assessment, if you did the predictive biomarker tests because these change. Your risk goes up dramatically decades before catastrophe. And if you change your consumption and attitude, if you change the environmental toxin exposures and by the way 80% of the toxins that people have in their body are of recent exposure, and you can dramatically reduce that by certain simple lifestyle changes. Include 1 to 300 mg a day of micellized CoQ10 in 100% rice-brand oil, and no glycose. No antifreeze in your CoQ10. Keep the 8 predictive biomarkers at their best outcome goal value and when they are, when those 8 tests are at their best outcome goal value, you have a 99% chance of living 10+ years, even if you're 100 at that point, and my main teacher Buntey was 110 when he passed and as I mentioned before I plan to be dancing at 120 by following this lifestyle, and I urge anyone who is willing and interested to join me. Gazella: That's perfect. Well, Dr Jaffe, we covered a lot today. Before I let you go, I'm just wondering if there's any final thoughts or anything else that you'd like to share with our listeners today. Jaffe: Yes. In essence, the physiology-first, the epigenetics is 92% of your life quality has to do with consumption, which you eat and drink and how you think and what you do. Now whatever season of your life is as a man, that may be different. When you're young and immortal, that's one thing. As soon as you're beyond young and immortal, be prudent. Cardiovascular disease starts in teenage years. Cancer risks goes up dramatically when your innate anti-cancer mechanism is turned down because you're eating foods that are causing too much defense burden in your immune defense and repair system. So, just follow through on this physiology-first approach looking at your individual needs for personalized health promotion and put pay to chronic ill health. Gazella: Perfect. Well, once again I'd like to thank today's sponsor, Perque Integrative Health, and Dr Jaffe I'd like to thank you for taking the time and sharing so much information with us today. Jaffe: Well, thanks for inviting me and for making it such an enjoyable time. I hope the listeners will take away much that will be of value, and it's my pleasure. Gazella: Well, thank you and I hope you have a great day. Jaffe: You the same, Karolyn. Always a pleasure. Gazella: Yes, it is. Bye-bye.

ep-130-predictive-biomarkers-for-lifetime-health ( http://radiomd.com/media/k2/items/cache/eda2fd372bee17ee3c2fae72e5b82968_Generic.jpg ) Learn how these eight biomarkers can affect overall health and longevity.In the medical community, most resources go towards treating people who are already sick. However, it’s also important to treat people who are well to ensure they’re making the right lifestyle choices, so they don’t become sick. Much of this school of thought centers around epigenetics. Epigenetics, at its simplest, is the study of biological mechanisms that switch genes on and off. What you eat, drink, think and do—or don’t do—can cause chemical modifications around the genes that will turn those genes on or off over time, determining your short- and long-term quality of survival. There are eight predictive biomarkers in particular that are indicators for lifetime health. They are: * High sensitivity Hemoglobin A1c: Measure of efficiency of sugar/insulin/energy conversion * High sensitivity C-Reactive Protein: Repair and inflammation immune status * High sensitivity Homocysteine: Methylation, Detox, Cardio Risk * Test for immune memory/immune response to up to 491 items * Assess mineral need and cell acid/alkaline balance * Vitamin D level for cell communication status * Oxidative stress and antioxidant status in cell envelope (membrane) * 8-hydroxy-2′-deoxyguanosine (8OHdG): Oxidative stress and antioxidant status in cell nucleus Listen as Dr. Russell M. Jaffe joins Dr. Taz to discuss these eight indicators and how to make lifestyle choices that will improve health and longevity.

During this interview Russell Jaffe, MD, PhD, CCN, will share his thoughts on how to safely and effectively enhance and protect bone health. Listeners will learn how acid-alkaline balance impacts bone health, as well as key nutrients that can help support bone density.  About the Expert Russell M. Jaffe, MD, PhD, is CEO and Chairman of PERQUE Integrative Health (PIH). He is considered one of the pioneers of integrative and regenerative medicine. Since inventing the world’s first single step amplified (ELISA) procedure in 1984, a process for measuring and monitoring all delayed allergies, Jaffe has continually sought new ways to help speed the transition from our current healthcare system’s symptom reactive model to a more functionally integrated, effective, and compassionate system. PIH is the outcome of years of Dr. Jaffe’s scientific research. It brings to market 3 decades of rethinking safer, more effective, novel, and proprietary dietary supplements, supplement delivery systems, diagnostic testing, and validation studies. About the Sponsor PERQUE Integrative Health (PIH) is dedicated to speeding the transition from sickness care to healthful caring. Delivering novel, personalized health solutions, PIH gives physicians and their patients the tools needed to achieve sustained optimal wellness. Combining the best in functional, evidence-based testing with premium professional supplements and healthful lifestyle guides, PIH solutions deliver successful outcomes in even the toughest cases. Transcript Karolyn Gazella: Hello, I'm Karolyn Gazella, the publisher of the Natural Medicine Journal. Thank you for joining me. Today, we're talking about bone health with pioneering integrative health expert, Dr. Russell Jaffe. Before we being, I'd like to thank the sponsor of this podcast who is Perk Integrative Health. Dr. Jaffe, thank you so much for joining me today. Russell M. Jaffe, MD, PhD: Thanks for the invitation. Gazella: Well you know when we think of our bones, we often think of osteoporosis. Let's start there. How common is osteoporosis in particular? Jaffe: Oh, far too common. Depending on how you make the measurements, somewhere between 50 and 100 million Americans are at risk. One in 4 women over the age of 40 will have a fracture of their bones due to the osteoporosis or osteopenia. Maybe 1 in 5 or 1 in 4 men, maybe more, the precision of diagnosis probably understates the issue. The point is that bones, whatever your birth date might be, your bones should be young. Bones turn over every 10 years, which means no part of any bone that you or I have is more than 10 years old. Remember when we were 10 years old, we could jump around, we could leap around. I don't recommend behaving like a 10-year-old. What I'm saying is, your bones should be resilient, and flexible, and not brittle, and not being leeched by the stress and dietary choices of modern living. Gazella: Yes. It's hard for me to even imagine a 10-year-old, but it would be fun to have bones like a 10-year-old, for sure. Now is the DEXA scan still the gold standard for measuring bone density? Jaffe: Yes. D-E-X-A, DEXA is the "gold standard" reference standard. There are other measures that are coming along. There's N-telopeptides which are a little hard to interpret. There are other measures, but to the best of my understanding, the expert experts in bone say that you can measure DEXA changes over 2years. My colleague, Susan Brown and I did an anecdotal prospective study with 11 people, 10 of whom had between 2% and 10% or 11% new bone growth, unprecedented new bone growth by following this approach to Alkaline Way bone health. Gazella: Yes. How often do you recommend that patients get a DEXA scan? Jaffe: Well, let me come at it 2 or 3 different ways. In regard to the usual and customary use of the DEXA scan, it's a 2-year waiting period. Now many doctors will do a DEXA after one year and try to compare, and interpolate, God bless. Other people will use other measures, including bone mineral protein and how much of that there is in say the urine. You asked the right question, which is what is does the measure that almost everyone agrees, or that about which there is reasonable agreement and consensus. The answer there, DEXA. Until something better is really validated and yes, new things come along all the time, but I'm seeing a lot of them go 'cause as you know, my PhD was in collagen and elastin cross-linking, and how you regulate that. That was half a century ago and learned a lot since then. But collagen has a lot to do with bone health and bone turnover. Then there's certain other unique characteristics contributed by the liver that allow the minerals, not just calcium, but all of the minerals that are necessary to align properly to form what we call a bone. Gazella: When it comes to bone health, what do you mean when you say physiology before pharmacology? Jaffe: Well I mean the fact that bone is piezoelectric, which means when you walk, when you move, actually stimulating tiny electrical flows that say to the bone rebuilding cells, the osteoblast and osteoclast, "Do your job." Moving is a good thing, at least 45 minutes a day of walking. Yes, sitting is the new smoking, but if you get up at least 5 minutes an hour, you can undo most of the adverse effects of cutting off your circulation when you sit in most chairs. Now if you happen to have one of these recliner chairs or something like that, more power to you, but you still have to get up out of the chair. Walk for at 45 minutes a day. [inaudible 00:05:24], to the extent that he had a doctor was me, and [inaudible 00:05:29] very active now, they both agree. Now walking is a terrific way of human beings stimulating bone growth because of this "piezoelectric" or tiny electrical flow that nurtures and nourishes the bone. That's an example of physiology before pharmacology. Gazella: A great example. When it comes to your integrative approach, I want to dig into certain aspects of how we can enhance or protect bone health. You often talk about the acid alkaline balance. How does acid alkaline balance impact bone health? Jaffe: Well in essence when your diet or your environment contributes acid, your bones melt slowly away and sometimes not so slowly. On the other hand, when you have a mineral rich environment that bathes the cells and renews the cell's mineral buffering abilities, now you build new bone. We want to build new bone. We don't want to melt the existing bone. Gazella: Right. That makes a lot of sense. Let's stay on this topic for a bit because I know that most of our listeners understand how to support the acid alkaline balance, but what are some of your foundational aspects when it comes to supporting proper acid alkaline balance? Jaffe: Well as you know, we start with the self-assessments. The assessment we want to start with measuring the pH, that means how much acid or how much mineral is in your urine after 6 or more hours of rest. It's the one time of day when you get a meaningful measure in a non-evasive way of the cellular mineral status, 'cause after 6 hours, the fluid in the bladder equilibrates with the lining cells, and lining cells, if they need magnesium then they put the extra acid into the urine. If it's below a pH value of 6.5, then you're too acid. You're deficient in minerals, particularly magnesium at the cellular level. You should take 2, 3, 4 more doses a day of magnesium, but enhanced uptake magnesium with choline citrate. It must be choline citrate, it cannot be choline bitartrate. Try to fool mother nature and she'll come back and slap you on the tush. You want to enhance the uptake and chaperone delivery of magnesium based on [inaudible 00:08:14] chemistry, and for your listeners who are technical, these are inverted [inaudible 00:08:20] droplets. I really am a biochemist. What that means is tiny little droplets that are taken up by [inaudible 00:08:28], that easily enhance the uptake. In recent studies near 100% comes in and then goes to the cells that are [inaudible 00:08:37]. Gazella: You know it seems like bone broth has been the rage for a while now. What are your thoughts on bone broth as a way to boost bone nutrition? Jaffe: Well I'm a big advocate for broth, but not bone broth. Why not bone broth? Bone broth turns out to be far too rich in glutamate, and why is it rich in glutamate? You wouldn't think there's much glutamate in bone, it's glycine, and proline, and something else. No. What the industry calls bone broth includes skin, it includes things that have no other commercial value that are left after you "render" the animal, or the chicken, or the whatever, [inaudible 00:09:27] bone. Bone broth, no. But meat broth, vegetable broth, fish broth, broth you make at home, or broth that's organic or biodynamic, yes, yes, yes. Broth is a very good source of minerals, and I mean vegetable broth, fish broth, meat broth if you want, but real meat made into a broth, which means you very slowly simmer it until it falls apart, and then you have more or less a broth, especially if you either whisk it or put it in a blender. Broth, yes. Bone broth, no. Gazella: Okay, good. That's a good distinguishing factor. Now we also hear about MSM and hyaluronic acid for bones and joints. I'm wondering what you think about these 2 ingredients when it comes to bone health. Jaffe: Well MSM is a sulfur source. Sulfur sources are very important in protecting and enhancing bone vitality and renewal. Now we recommend that physiology before pharmacology approach, which we use garlic, ginger, onions, brassica sprouts and eggs. G-G-O-B-E, garlic, ginger, onions, brassica sprouts. All sprouts are good, but broccoli sprouts, brassica sprouts especially, and eggs. Why not MSM? 'Cause it's pharmacology. It is water soluble DMSO. DMSO makes you smell like a fish. Not a very healthy fish or a decomposing fish actually. MSM is a supplement that's been around for 20 plus years. It has a certain [inaudible 00:11:04] that comes and goes, but it's pharmacology. We want to start the physiology, the G-G-O-B-E, garlic, ginger, onions, brassica sprouts and eggs. Then if a particular practitioner feels that additional MSM is helpful, I think they make the final decision along with their client. As you can hear from my comments, we want to use nature's pharmacy, which means you generally have to cook the food the way it's traditionally done. If you just chop up an onion, the cell walls will prevent you from getting the good stuff. But if you sauteed the union until it's clear, now you have a nutritious and delicious detoxifying physiologically helpful bone joint and vitality enhancing material that you can make into any broth you want. However, you want to eat the foods you can digest, assimilate and eliminate without immune burden. If your body reacts to one or more of the G-G-O-B-E foods, then substitute with the other 4. Thomas Jefferson said they should be stables in the diet, not condiments. I'm a Jeffersonian democrat, which means I'm a grieving optimist. I believe that we should make these staples in our diet again. Gazella: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. What about hyaluronic acid? Jaffe: I'm glad you asked that too. Hyaluronic acid is different. It is physiologic, so when you take ... I'm a pathologist, [inaudible 00:12:40] certified pathologist. When you look under a microscope at a joint, more than at bone, but at the joints you do see what are called water absorbing compression-friendly molecules, hyaluronic acid among them. Hyaluronic acid goes back to the early '80s, when a Canadian company thought that this was going to be the answer to joint erosion, to the kind of bone-on-bone pain that very commonly occurs to people who haven't walked enough, and have sat too much, or have been on planes too much, as I have been from time to time. Hyaluronic acid has a medical application. It's an injection. I think after you use nature's pharmacy, after you engage, when you eat and think, drink and do in a comprehensive and holistic way, that injections in hyaluronic acid in the right hands, in experienced hands, are an option. It does provide relief to some people for a period of time while other renewal should be engaged in. Gazella: Okay, that makes a lot of sense. Now let's dig into some of your other go-to nutrients for healthy brains. I'm sorry, health ... Jaffe: Bones. Gazella: Bones. Yeah. Jaffe: That applies to brains too. Gazella: Yeah, yeah. That's good. When it comes to bones, what are some of the nutrients that you like to recommend? Jaffe: Well in regard to the nutrients, there are over a dozen and a half. You can divide these into vitamins, minerals and co-factors. It's mostly about a family or a symphony of minerals. Remember a symphony has many different instruments, each of whom plays a slightly different tune. We recommend, in addition to vitamin K1 and K2, in addition to vitamin D3, we recommend biotin necessary for healthy bone. We recommend half a dozen forms of calcium, half a dozen forms of magnesium. Specialized bio available forms, low contaminant forms of zinc and magnesium, and chromium and selenium, methionine. Copper is the sebacate, iodine and iodide, you need both. Boron, acid citrate, vanadium, which balances out blood sugar and chromium. Silica, but from horsetail. Stable strontium is the gluconate, and fiber, croscarmellose fiber to enhance the easing digestibility making it food-like. Those are the over 18, 19, 20 essential bone building nutrients. Now vitamin D should be the D3. There should be some vitamin C to keep everything reduced and happy. Gazella: 'Cause this does seem like a big list. These all work synergistically? Jaffe: And they're all essential. If you lack any one, your bones won't renew properly. It's amazing how many co-factors, how many minerals and necessary nutrients that allow for bone health. But Dr. Susan Brown and I published an article a decade ago, we're working on an update now, which basically says the more tonic, or soda, or acid beverage you consume, the more quickly your bones will dissolve, the more quickly your bones will melt away. Then on the other hand, when you have a healthy traditional diet, rich in minerals, the Alkaline Way, the joy of living the Alkaline Way, documented by morning urine pH, keeping it in the 6 ½ to 7 ½ range, that's green rather than sandy color which is acid, or blue which is too alkaline, you want to keep it in the green zone. It's Goldilocks scenario. Not too much, not too little. Just right is just right. Gazella: Now before I move on, I want to talk about this combination of vitamins, minerals and co-factors. Are these in one product? What will be ... Jaffe: Oh, yes. This is what Dr. Brown and I used in our prospective study. When I say gaining 2% to 11% new bone, by DEXA in just 2 years, I'm saying people taking this formula and also following a healthy lifestyle of foods they can digest, assimilate and eliminate. Gazella: Okay, great. What's the name of this product and what's the recommended dosage of this product? Jaffe: Well the recommended dosage is 4 tabsules a day to build, 2 tabsules a day to maintain, 6 tabsules a day if you have osteopenia or osteoporosis. Gazella: Okay, so 4 per day, 2 per day. Then, I'm sorry, that was 6 per day if there is osteoporosis or osteopenia? Dr. Jaffe? Jaffe: Oh, I'm back. Sorry. Gazella: Okay, perfect. The dose for osteoporosis or osteopenia is 6 per day. Jaffe: Yes, that would be 6 per day. What I would say would be 3 in the morning, 3 in the evening, so a twice a day dose of 3 tabsules, these are fully active, fully available, and they contain all of these different nutrients, each one of which is necessary, and together they form a symphony or a bone building team. Gazella: Okay, perfect. Great. Now I want to switch gears a little bit. What's your view of bone morphogenic proteins and the long-term effect on bone status? Jaffe: Well you're absolutely up to the minute. Bone morphogenic protein is being studied as we speak. It's promising, but we really don't, in my opinion yet, have enough information. What we know is it's built upon something called 2-Beta Coxatene, for those of you who are technical. This is bone mineral protein precursor. Dr. Brown and I are, at this moment in time, encouraged by what we have heard about this. She and I are collecting information as we speak, and stay tuned for bone [inaudible 00:19:21], as they say. Gazella: If we were going to look into the future when it comes to integrative health and bone support, bone building, is this where we're headed with the morphogenic proteins? Is this an exciting area? Jaffe: Well yes, definitely an exciting area. The question is, how much do you need for each person because, as you can imagine, given that you started with a really healthy organic or biodynamic bone, and then you somehow got out of it, this magic complex, how much do you need, and how much does it cost, and how long will it take before you really confirm what is asserted by some clinicians based on their observations? The observations are encouraging, but stay tuned for the bulletin. Gazella: Okay. Perfect. Now I want to dig into diet and lifestyle. I want to circle back with your G-G-O-B-E, the garlic, ginger, onions, brassica vegetables and eggs. Explain it again or in more detail as to why these 5 dietary items are foundational for you. Jaffe: Right. They're foundational because in traditional societies they are sulfur rich. You can think of sulfur as a fire that burns away bad stuff and toxins. That's a metaphor, but biochemically it's not far from the case. For those of you who are technical, they form thioethers. This makes compounds that would otherwise be free radical generating harmful compounds more water soluble and less harmful, so once they're complex, what these sulfur rich foods, or the sulfur in the foods, then they can be treated in urine, sweat and stool more safely and effectively, and it's been used for millennia in traditional societies. We just have rediscovered it in recent times. Gazella: Perfect. Well I want to stay a little bit with eggs because I've done a lot of writing about eggs, and I had the belief that eggs have gotten a bad rap. I personally eat eggs almost every morning. Explain to us about why eggs got the bad rap, and why eggs are actually good for us. Just remind us of that. Jaffe: Yes, eggs got a bad rap because Levy and Fredrickson had the idea of the diet-heart hypothesis that the amount of fat or cholesterol you ate was determinative or it actually determined how much blood fat you have. Now it turned out to not be the case, but Levy ran the Heart Institute and Fredrickson ran the NIH. They had the dominant ... in their time. At that time, there was a man named Olson, and he pointed out that eggs are the perfect food when you combined the white and the yolk, when you make a gently coddled or gently cooked egg you have a near perfect food in regard to easy to digest, assimilate and eliminate for people that have healthy digestion. Now implied in what you said, I think, is getting a healthy egg. My preference today are goose and duck eggs, or quail eggs because they haven't been messed with very much. If you put in front of me a biodynamic chicken egg, or a home harvested fresh egg, I'll be delighted. Commercial eggs I'm not so sure of. I'm concerned about what the chicken ate the got into the egg and that's what she wrote, as they say. Gazella: I would have that same feeling as well. Let's talk a little bit about what we should not eat if we're trying to protect and enhance bone health. What do you tell your patients not to do from a dietary standpoint? Jaffe: Well as you know, I don't have a private practice. I get to influence other doctors and their probable cases, but what I do recommend is stay alkaline. Stay alkaline means eat foods that are mineral rich, eat foods that are antioxidant rich, eat foods that are nutrient dense and rich, and you are sweet enough as you are, do not add sugar to your diet, do not use edible oils. I think edible oils is an oxymoron. What I mean by that is you avoid packaged goods, shipped foods, crisp foods, extruded foods, things that have been processed because processed means you lost the good stuff and you gained the bad stuff. Do a makeover in your kitchen, eat the foods that are whole, eat more fruits and vegetables that are vying ripe. If you want to have healthy fat in your diet, have an avocado, a whole one. Once you separate the oil from the seed, you know, like the olive oil, once you separate the oil from the seed the protective material is now gone and what you have are dense calories. Fat are dense calories, but those fats, those edible oils are easily oxidized, damaged and rancid. Then they get masking agents to make sure that your tongue and your brain get addicted to wanting those rancid processed fats. I don't think that's a good idea. I can tell you lots of reasons why [inaudible 00:25:15], who taught me about this in the early '80s, late '70, [inaudible 00:25:19], why Patty Deuster is so correct about these issues, but slowly we turned in regard to nutrition [inaudible 00:25:26]. Gazella: Let's talk a little bit about lifestyle factors. Now you mentioned movement and exercise in a scientific literature is so clear that that's protective of bone health. What about other lifestyle factors, like if we're looking at stress, or sleep, or just other things that we do? What do you tell your doctors to tell their patients? Jaffe: Well what I learned from [inaudible 00:25:52] and the Dalai Lama was that afflictive responses, that is the traumas of early life or the traumas of daily living that contribute stress hormones, afflict us, they erode us, they reduce new bone formation. By the way, no one gains from any of that. In the famous words of Bobby McFerrin, "Don't worry, be happy." I don't mean live by denial. What I mean is practice relaxation response. Know that your breath is a refuge and know that stress hormones only come out when you feel under attack. You may have heard about fight or flight, but there's also fortitude, there's also gaining the resilience to know that when you go to your breath, you can stay at ease even if everyone around you is hysterical. I can tell you from personal experience, in my family, if you didn't shout, no one paid any attention to you because everyone else was shouting. They just didn't know it. Gazella: Yeah, that's true. The relaxation ... Stress is a big deal. What about sleep? I know often times, sleep and stress go hand in hand, and one can lead to the other, and vice versa. What's your philosophy on sleep? Jaffe: Yes, my philosophy on sleep is that it's really important, restorative sleep, and how do I prepare for restorative sleep? Well I take a salt and soda bath. I put half to a cup of baking soda and Epsom salts in a warm tub of water, and get in for 20 minutes. First 5 minutes I breathe like a baby into my abdomen, the next 15 minutes I pray that my heart won't attack me, and whatever active mediation you want to do, then I get out and I dry off before I get into bed, and I stretch when I'm in bed before I fall asleep. Then I might even ask myself a question that I would like my dreams to answer if I'm inclined to do that. [inaudible 00:28:03] dreaming myself. In the morning I wake up and I stretch. I got to bed early enough that I get up early enough that I don't need an alarm clock. There is no screen, there is no clock, there's no unnatural sound. Occasionally I'm woken up by a wind chime or by a bird, but that's a nice thing to get woken up by. Then I stretch before I get out of bed, and then I get in the shower and I stretch when I'm in the shower, 'cause if you're not stretching a lot, you'll contract. Look at most old people, they slow down and contract. I am how you say old, but not that old, and I'm not yet contracted. Gazella: That's a good thing. Jaffe: That's a good thing. I'm working on it. Gazella: It's perfect. What would you like to be the most important bone health message that our listeners of health care professionals receive today? What's the most important thing that you want to get across? Jaffe: Most important is that bone health is a choice. It is about what you eat and drink, think and do. When you put it together in this proactive way, you have healthy bones for life. If you follow the "Conventions of modern living and pharmaceutical pill-based solutions," you end up slowing the loss but creating brittle, more fragile bones. In the famous words of Mel Brooks, the 2,000 Year Old Man, "Don't do that." Gazella: Right. Yeah, the physiology before pharmacology, I think, is such an important message. Well this has been very interesting, Dr. Jaffe. Once again, I would like to thank the sponsor of this topic, who is Perk Integrative Health. Dr. Jaffe, once again I'd like to thank you for joining me today. Jaffe: Pleasure to be with you as always. Gazella: Yes. Have a great day. Jaffe: You have the same.

Sponsored by Perque Integrative Health By Natural Medicine Journal There is a significant link between lack of sleep and hormonal, inflammatory, and immune system health. In this interview, Russell Jaffe, MD, PhD, describes the connection and then provides information about his comprehensive, integrative approach to sleep issues. About the Expert Russell M. Jaffe, MD, PhD, is CEO and Chairman of PERQUE Integrative Health (PIH). He is considered one of the pioneers of integrative and regenerative medicine. Since inventing the world’s first single step amplified (ELISA) procedure in 1984, a process for measuring and monitoring all delayed allergies, Jaffe has continually sought new ways to help speed the transition from our current healthcare system’s symptom reactive model to a more functionally integrated, effective, and compassionate system. PIH is the outcome of years of Dr. Jaffe’s scientific research. It brings to market 3 decades of rethinking safer, more effective, novel, and proprietary dietary supplements, supplement delivery systems, diagnostic testing, and validation studies. About the Sponsor PERQUE Integrative Health (PIH) is dedicated to speeding the transition from sickness care to healthful caring. Delivering novel, personalized health solutions, PIH gives physicians and their patients the tools needed to achieve sustained optimal wellness. Combining the best in functional, evidence-based testing with premium professional supplements and healthful lifestyle guides, PIH solutions deliver successful outcomes in even the toughest cases. Transcript Karolyn Gazella: Hello, I'm Karolyn Gazella, the publisher of The Natural Medicine Journal. Today, I have one of my favorite guests, Dr. Russell Jaffe, with me. Our topic is sleep. But before we begin, I'd like to thank the sponsor of this interview, who is PERQUE Integrative Health. Dr. Jaffe, thank you so much for joining me. Russell Jaffe, MD, PhD: A pleasure to be with you, Karolyn. Gazella: Yes, it's always a pleasure. This is an important great topic. Now, the CDC has said that lack of sleep is a significant national health problem. It's reached epidemic proportions. Now, why do you think so many people today don't get enough quality sleep? Jaffe: Well, first I commend my colleagues at the Center for Disease Control for waking up. Yes, sleep deprivation in our time, in this 21st century, it is at least epidemic, and it may be endemic. Endemic means beyond epidemic. If it becomes so usual that it's like the normal, we don't notice it. Fortunately, CDC has noticed that sleep deprivation causes all sorts of "tsuris." That's a Yiddish word for problems. It causes all sorts of amplifications of dispositions to ill health. Not necessarily the sole cause or the single bullet in the problem that a person has, but anything you have will be made better by good restorative sleep. Anything, any health challenge you have, any performance issue, any life quality issue, will be made better by good quality of sleep and worse by a lack of restorative sleep. The emphasis here is on restorative, not just on being unconscious. Gazella: Right, I would agree with that. I want to dig into some of the technical aspects of sleep. Can you first explain to us the intricacies of the hormonal regulation of sleep? What's going on? Jaffe: Well, half a step back if you permit me, which is in biology, in life, it's always about proportion, or ratios, or balance or imbalance. We can, and I'm happy to talk about the hormones and the neurochemicals, and the sources of these neurochemicals that are amino acids. The sources of some of these neurohormones that are either a vitamin or a fatty acid, a dietary source again. As Hippocrates said several millennia ago, "Let your food be your medicine. Let your medicine be your food." If you start with a healthy, all foods diet that you can digest, assimilate and eliminate, you will then take in a healthy balance of the precursors to all of these neurochemicals, neurohormones, et cetera, and the body will figure out how to utilize them in an efficient and effective way. Now I know that's a kind of high level view. But when we talk about these rhythms, which sleep is a particular example of biological rhythms in action, we do know certain things. There are four phases to sleep. At the end of the fourth phase is the time when a release of growth hormone, a release of neurochemicals, a release of neurohormones occurs, and abnormal cells are identified and eliminated. It's called apoptosis for those of you who speak Greek. But it means that everybody makes abnormal cells, abnormal cells you could hear as cancer. But everyone makes abnormal cells every day. The reason we don't all have cancer is because at night we have a restorative and reparative system that also identifies abnormal cells and eliminates them. Now I mentioned the importance of rhythm, and you asked me about hormones, which is the right question to ask for sure, one of them. One of the hormones we know in relation to stress resilience, and stress adaptation and stress response is cortisol coming out of the adrenal under the stimulation of the pituitary, which in turn is controlled by the pineal, and we'll get upstream at some point. When cortisol goes up because we're under stress, if DHEA, the companion molecule on the other side, the source of the androgens and estrogens, if DHEA goes up in proportion to the cortisol going up, we're fine. It's when the stress hormone cortisol goes up and the DHEA is exhausted and cannot go up, that's when we have a first level of problem. That's when people feel invincible, but they're not. They're cruising for a bruising, but they're not aware of it because the cortisol overrides the commonsense of the DHEA and those androgen and estrogen compounds. There are other hormone ... Go ahead. Gazella: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense, and I was going to ask you, but are there hormonal connections, so please continue. Jaffe: Oh. If I may, there are other modulators. One important balance point or ratio is the cortisol to DHEA. But then there are others including the adrenaline to serotonin. Now adrenaline derived from the amino acid tyrosine, derived from our dietary protein, adrenaline says, "Go and you can persevere until the success shall be won." In contrast, serotonin says, "Now hold on there. Maybe we don't have the fuel to go all the way to the end. Maybe we should be a little more sensible here and not get exhausted." Now serotonin comes from tryptophan just like adrenaline comes from tyrosine. Both of these come from the proteins we eat. If we're a carnivore, we'll have more of those amino acids. If we're a vegan or a vegetarian, we'll have less. If you think your engine is burning too hot because of too much adrenaline, if you think that it would be better for you to be more on the calm than on the assertive side, my suggestion is try a plant based diet. You might not want to be a vegan or a strict vegetarian cause I think you should have a wide variety of foods that you can digest, assimilate and eliminate without immune burden, and I'm not making any political statements about ... Although my personal preference is a more plant-based diet cause I think that's healthier. I think that's less polluted. I also think that's better for the planet. But I put my little advertisement in, and now I'll get back to the fact that tryptophan becomes not just serotonin, the soothing counterbalance to adrenaline, but serotonin becomes melatonin in the pineal, this deep control center. We've learned about the pituitary as the master gland, but the mistress or the master of the master gland is the pineal, modulated through the thalamus and the hypothalamus. We can get into all those tracks if you want cause I really am a biochemist and a neuroanatomist. But the point is that amino acids derived from our diet become the neurochemicals whose balance we express in our personality, in our resilience, or in the way in which we're distressed. The people who have mood issues, the people who have endurance issues, the people who are concerned that sometimes they, maybe either overreact, or they're just not in tune with what's going on and people misunderstand. In any of those situations, you have an imbalance of cortisol to DHEA and/or an imbalance of adrenaline to serotonin. Gazella: Right, that makes a lot of sense. I love how you brought adrenaline and serotonin to life. That was perfect. I want to stick with the topic of amino acids here. You know, I've heard varying views about tryptophan versus 5-HTP regarding sleep. Can you clear up that confusion for us? Jaffe: I absolutely can. There was a time when tryptophan was the favorite approach, the more natural approach to sleep, to sleep enhancement, sleep quality. Then it fell under a cloud because of something called Eosinophilia–myalgia Syndrome. At that time ... This was the late 80s, early 90s ... there was voluntary recall of tryptophan. At the same time, interestingly, that serotonin reuptake inhibitors were being advocated on the pharma side. Tryptophan fell under a cloud until it became clear that due to a change in production techniques, one company called Takeda had inadvertently, not intentionally, but they had changed the way in which they produced tryptophan. It was cheaper for them to produce large bulk of tryptophan. But they also included what turned out to be something called Peak E, which was a dimer. It was two tryptophan molecules bridged by a small carbon bridge. The consequence was induction of pain, myalgia, muscle pain, and an allergic-like response, eosinophilia. The FDA, out of an excess of caution, asked the industry to voluntarily recall tryptophan and they did, which was the right thing to do, in my opinion. At the same time, my group published a clinical observation, which is we had uncontaminated tryptophan, and we gave it to people with this Eosinophilia–myalgia Syndrome, and it helped them get better, and we published that. If tryptophan was the real culprit, then giving them tryptophan would have made them worse, and it made them better, and we published that. Now the agency, the FDA did not yet know about the contaminate now known as Peak E, this dimer of tryptophan that somehow jangles things up or messes things up. In fact, we do know how it does that. It bridges across two receptors in a way that makes the cell very unhappy. Out of an excess of caution, the FDA asked the industry to withdraw tryptophan. In the absence of tryptophan, 5-HTP became popular because it's a tryptophan derivative. That sounds okay. Until you learn that it most often goes to quinolinic acid, and a series of excito-neurotoxin consequences that are not so good. You don't get as much of the serotonin to melatonin conversion when you go through 5-HTP. It's actually better to go directly from tryptophan to melatonin and bypass the 5-HTP. 5-HTP is a supplement. It is available in health food stores and online today. It is not my preferred form because I always believed in tryptophan. I still believe in tryptophan. My recommendation is enhanced uptake tryptophan. Because it turns out when you have a little B6, a little B3, a little zinc, a little of the right fiber, then you double, triple or quadruple the uptake from the intestines into the body so you get smoother uptake and better total absorbability, or what we call bioavailability. That is basically what we recommend. Gazella: Interesting. With the tryptophan, is there a dosage range for sleep that you typically recommend? Jaffe: Well yes, in regard to the tryptophan ... And I do recommend the enhanced uptake and the chaperone delivery. But for the tryptophan itself, it's anywhere from 500 milligrams of free amino acid to 1,000, maybe even 2,000. It is absolutely safe for people to start at the lower end, which would be one capsule, say 500 milligrams, and go up anywhere from two to four, depending on their body mass, depending on their situation. Then often people ask me the question, "Well, what if I get up in the middle of the night?" "Well, why did you get up in the middle of the night? If you got up to go to the bathroom, go to the bathroom and get back to bed. If you want, you can take a second dose of the tryptophan because the peak occurs at 30 minutes. It has really done its job after four hours. If you are in a deep sleep and you stay restorative in your sleep, you don't need more. But if you get up, for whatever reason, my suggestion is take another dose. Take another one, two, three, four capsules, whatever dose works for you, 500 to 2,000 milligrams per dose. You can take that two or three times in a night." Now occasionally, people do tell us that if they take more than 500 milligrams, they sleep really soundly. But when they get up, they're a little bit groggy before they really get going. That feels, to me, like a little too much. "Metabolism does play into this individuality," as Roger Williams told us. Biochemical and individual natures of our metabolism, how robust is our liver, how effective is our spleen and kidney at any moment in time, these are important variables. Gazella: Yeah, and I'm glad that you mentioned that about the breakthrough insomnia, because I think that a lot of people are affected by that, where they will wake up at 2:00 in the morning and then they're frustrated, so that's good to know about the tryptophan. Now are there any- Jaffe: Well, let me add if I can jump in on that, cause it is very, very common. It is also very common in people who are more creative, more sensitive and more aware. Why? Because they're worrying. I think you know this, but the Dalai Lama is my daughter's godfather. One of the things he said to me is, "Don't worry." Gazella: Good advice. Jaffe: Good advice, hard to do. You have to practice it and that's the point. Sometimes two, three, four o'clock, maybe even five o'clock in the morning, it may feel early, but that's the preferred time for monks to meditate. They go to bed early, but they get up early. If you're one of those people ... And I'm in that phase of my life. I tend to go to bed early now, and I tend to get up early. I find those few hours before dawn a delicious time to either relax, or stretch or meditate, or just have a few quiet moments to myself where the phone doesn't ring. Gazella: Yeah, I would agree. Now are there any other amino acids that can be helpful with regulating sleep and mood? Jaffe: Well, yes, and there's two parts to this discussion. There are the amino acids related to detoxification. Then there are the amino acids related to mood stability. If I can take those in reverse order, in regard to mood, it turns out that glycine, the simplest amino acid, is also a neurotransmitter. It's a soothing neurochemical. If the nerves are excited, glycine calms them down. If the nerves are exhausted, glycine provides an energy source to wake them back up. Glycine's really very important in the brain, also important in the gut nervous system. In addition, if you combine glycine with methionine, a methylating detoxifying amino acid, and combine those two with magnesium aspartate, an amino acid that in its own right has been studied as a mood modulator, as an antidepressant. But when combined with the detoxifying methionine and the neuro-balancing glycine, that's a very interesting combo of simple amino acids that in combination with the tryptophan can give even deeper and more restorative sleep. Gazella: Perfect. Then now you mentioned the detox side of things? Jaffe: Right. Now the other side is there are three phases to detoxification, phase one, phase two, phase three. Within the detoxification system, you want sulfur containing amino acids like cysteine, C-Y-S-T-E-I-N-E, you want methionine, but you might want a little phenylalanine because in order for sleep to occur, you must have enough adrenaline in the deep brain sleep center so that the adrenaline falls at the same time that the serotonin rises. That's called going to sleep at the cellular, molecular, biochemical level. Now what happens if the serotonin rises cause you're tired, and your body wants to go to bed, but there isn't enough phenylalanine-derived adrenaline to fall, you'll be exhausted, but you'll still be awake. What about the other side? What if the adrenaline falls, but you didn't take in enough tryptophan so the serotonin doesn't rise? You'll be groggy, but you won't have restorative sleep. We need to have the fall of adrenaline and the rise of serotonin at the time when we're horizontal, not vertical. Gazella: Right. I want to kind of circle back to what's going on when we're sleeping because you mentioned previously when we're sleeping, the body is really quite active. I've read studies associated with inflammation for example. If you get six hours or less in just one night, you put your body in an inflamed state. We know that there's a strong connection between the immune system and the inflammatory system. What's going on with those two systems in particular, and why is it so damaging if we're not getting enough sleep? Jaffe: A profound, important question, and a question for our time, our 21st century challenging time. There is so much that occupies people today, so many screens, so many calls, so many distractions, so many attractions, that most people do not appreciate that sleep is essential for quality of life. If you want to add life to years and you want add years to life, you must have a quality of sleep. Most of us, at some point, we become tired and/or exhausted. We do get into bed. Most of us even take our clothes off before we do that. But most people ... And I'm the exception here and I would advocate being the exception. Most people do not have a roughly half an hour or so during which they prepare for a restive, restorative, rehabilitative sleep time. They might even dream. They might even be able to solve a problem and bring a solution back into waking time. It turns out you can do things called lucid dreaming if you're inclined towards that. But the bottom line is that sleep, preparation for sleep, and appreciation of the importance of sleep has been massively devalued in our society. Where we're supposed to go as close to 24/7 as we can and sleeping is somehow either depreciated, deprecated, or seen as a sign of sloth. Now when I was a young doctor in the academic medical world, I can tell you that I slept so little that when Rebecca and I got together ... Cause she's a fine artist who values her sleep, and she's a terrific human being if she gets 10 to 12 hours of sleep a day. At the time, I was sleeping about four hours a day and thought that was just fine, which meant we had to choreograph being together, but we figured it out. My point is that very often the very people who would benefit from mindfulness and restorative sleep don't "have the time." They can't fit it in. They're too driven to succeed. Or, as the Dalai Lama says, "They sacrifice their health to gain wealth. Then they give back their wealth to regain their health and they are so busy living in the past or ruminating about the future, that when they pass in the moment, they have barely lived." That's a classic Buddhist perspective. I'm not particularly Buddhist, although I've done of lot of mindfulness myself. I have found that it helps to not just to feel that I've indulged in sleep, but to know that with wisdom and more years, having the ability now to go to bed early and get up early is delicious. I don't miss going out to the Kennedy Center as much. Occasionally, I still want to go out and socialize. I have friends over. I prefer to cook for them than to go to a restaurant cause when I cook, I know what they're going to eat. I know we're going to sleep better because it's going to be food you can digest, assimilate and eliminate without any burden. I'm even going to take into account what their biochemical individuality might be and sometimes I get it right, sometimes I don't, but I always try. Sleep is our friend. Sleep is to be appreciated for the positive side, not for the absence of usual consciousness. Gazella: You know, I want to get back to specific nutrients cause we've already talked a lot about amino acids. But before I talk about other nutrients, I'd like to talk about sleep medications. There are some pretty potent prescription sleep medications. There are over the counter sleep medications. Do you have an overarching view of these sleep medications and if they're helpful or if you think it's better to try to get patients off of these sleep medications? What's your view? Jaffe: Well, actually it's interesting. My view is more or less the same as the FDA. The FDA's official view is if you can do without them, please do. If you can possibly do without them, do. Because the adverse effects are clearly known. The benefits are also statistically defined. If you absolutely need them, they are beneficial at least within the reductionist frame of our scientific method. But while I agree with the FDA, I often find that if people will follow through on what we're talking about. Including, having a diet that's appropriate for them, that they can digest, assimilate, and eliminate without a burden. When they have enough of the essential vitamins, include vitamin D, which is really a neural hormone and other essential nutrients. So that their cells can deal with the challenges and stresses of the day without being so overexcited or overexhausted, those are two extremes which we want to avoid. Being overexcited or overexhausted. We want to be resilient, we want to be in the middle. Sleep is just really important for all of that. Now with regard to prescriptions, the most common question I get is, can we approach this nature, nurture, and wholeness approach to sleep ... these amino acids and these fatty acids that are the precursors for these complicated molecules. Can I increase nature's sleep balancing, stress balancing molecules? The answer is yes, although in many cases—especially, in the cases of Ambien and other serotonin reuptake inhibitors—when you bring in nature's team, the full valet or symphony of life, very often you can taper the pharmaceutical hypnogogic sleep medicines. Taper them, eliminate them slowly. The importance of that is that it's known and it's been proven in many scientific studies. That you do sleep, however you don't dream and you don't have the normal sleep rhythms phase one, two, three, four. You don't have the normal release of growth hormone, which is so important to identify abnormal cells and eliminate them. So sleep prescriptive medicines are benefits with a cost. I usually find that when we bring in the essential nutrients that people can't make. That they must take in from their diet or supplements, that they can then taper safely and effectively, the pharmaceutical sleep medications. Gazella: Yeah, that's good to know. Certainly long-term use is definitely not indicated with those pharmaceuticals. Talk a little bit about those specific nutrients that practitioners who are listening can use to help improve sleep quality. Jaffe: Well, we've talked about amino acids, so I'd like to note turn towards the fats. Those essential fatty acids, the omega-3 and omega-6 fats are the sources for the prostaglandins. They're the sources for the thromboxanes, which are the really active but short lived molecules inside the body. We can measure the balance of omega-3 to 6 in laboratories. Neil Harris has devoted decades to validating the omega-3 index. My colleague, Artemus Simopolous, has looked at the NHANES National Health and Nutrition survey data. She says that Americans now, instead of having a balance of omega-3 to -6, because of edible oils, and fats in our diet, and these foods that are crisped, and chipped, and so forth. It's typical for Americans to have 20, 30, 50, 80 times more omega-6 than omega-3, which is pro-inflammatory. That makes you feel worse faster. That makes you more inflamed, and creaky, and uncomfortable faster. Folks like me no longer use edible oils. We cook with wine, or we cook with broth, or we cook with beer, and whole foods. When you do that, you can restore a typical four to one ratio and not be so pro-inflammatory. Many people that I meet today look, feel, and function as if their body is under assault, inflammatory assault as if it's not repairing itself. Inflammatory is really repair deficit. When your body can repair itself, you don't have inflammation. So we don't want to have zero omega-6 intake, but we don't want to have 50 times omega-6 to omega-3. There is an omega-3 index test. It's one of the eight predictive biomarkers. It can help you take in the sources of fat that are essential and good. By the way, there is good fat. Omega-3 and omega-6 fats are good unless they're damaged by air and oxygen, in which case they're bad. So you want them distilled under nitrogen. You want them in whole food sources. You want them in the healthier forms so that your body can convert the omega-3 fats into the prostaglandins that repair you while you still have a little bit of omega-6 to activate the system. But not so much that it creates repair deficit commonly known as inflammation. Gazella: Perfect. Now in addition to the EFAs, before I move on to my next question, are there any other nutrients that you'd like to highlight? Jaffe: Well, yes and it's in the broad category of, life is connected at every level with every thing. But when we think about, say sleep, and how the systems that convert these amino acids or these fats into the quality of sleep molecules that we're looking for. We must have enough antioxidant ascorbate in the cell to donate electrons and prevent free radical oxidative harm. We must have enough magnesium, choline, and citrate. We advocate advanced uptake in chaperone delivery of magnesium using choline citrate. So that you can correct the acetylcholine/bile salt deficiency at the same time you've energized and alkalinized the cell, while bringing magnesium into the cell. When very often, there's too much calcium and too little magnesium. In fact, calcium channel blockers are a major category of pharmaceuticals because there is a relative excess of calcium. But there's an absolute deficiency of magnesium. Magnesium in the diet, Dr. [Rah Aleem 00:06:51] has shown, has dropped half, by 50 percent in the last 50 years. While the need for magnesium ... because of stress and medicines that waste magnesium. Like, proton pump inhibitors and H2 blockers, and many chemotherapies, and even hypertensive medicines like diuretics are known to waste minerals including magnesium. So, as my grandmother used to say, the rents are going up and the ceilings are coming down. Gazella: It's true. So, you know the conversation between the patient and the doctor is an important one. I'm wondering for the Healthcare Professionals who are listening, what type of tips do you give patients to help them get a good night's sleep? I know you believe that it's not just a matter of handing somebody a pill and calling it a day. It's a very comprehensive approach that you have to health. So, what type of advice do you give to people who are struggling with sleep? Jaffe: Thanks for asking and yes, as important as I believe diet and supplementation are in the 21st century, it's about what you eat, drink, think, and do. So, let's talk about the doing part of preparing for sleep. Here's what I do, I set aside the half an hour before I'm gonna get into bed. During that half hour, I want to get as much value as I can. So I set a salt and soda bath. I put a half to one cup of Epsom salts and a half to one cup of baking soda. My skin isn't dry, but if my skin was dry, I might put in a drop of Rosemary or some other Emollient oil, an aromatic. I soak in there for about 20 minutes. While I'm soaking, I do five minutes of deep abdominal breathing. If you want to know what abdominal breathing is like, get a video of a baby or watch a baby because they all do it correctly. They breathe abdominally. Then, do about 15 minutes of mindfulness practice, or active meditation, or whatever is your preference to let go of the day. Very often, people fall into bed, reasonably tired and exhausted. But thinking about the stresses of the day and they bring that into the bedroom. In my bedroom, we actually have no screens, we have no clocks, we have no alarm clocks, we have no phones. I know this is hard to believe, but I actually when I go to bed, I don't need to hear the emails coming in on my phone. I believe, if you can, at the place where you sleep should be a place of serenity. That you should give yourself a half an hour to let go of the day and really let it go. Then, have an active time of restoring yourself through sleep. If you want the bonus round, it's the green dichromatic light that I learned about from [Banti Darmawarh 00:09:56]. A rather extraordinary monk. Green dichromatic light is known to go directly from the retina to the pineal gland. In the pineal gland, it says everything is okay. Green is the harmonizing color. This has nothing to do with vision. It has everything to do with the retinal / pineal direct connection, which has been reconfirmed by others. As [Banti 00:10:25] said, well wisdom, new things, millennia ago, and science is catching up and that's a good thing. Gazella: I have not heard of the green light. That's fascinating to me. Jaffe: No, it is fascinating. You may have heard about light boxes. There are people with what's called Seasonal Affective Disorder or SAD? Gazella: Sure. Jaffe: Norman Rosenthal and NIHMINH, showed that if you stay in front of these fluorescent light boxes for three hours a day, it boosts your pineal, and you get a little more melatonin, and you're less depressed. Banti said, people don't have time for that 20 minutes twice a day in front of the green. That's what we recommend. Gazella: Wow, that's awesome. What about other hygiene aspects? Like the temperature of the room? Light in the room? Are those valid? Jaffe: Thanks for asking. The answer to the second question in regard to light. It should be as dark as possible. Now if for some reason, it is not pitch black in the room where you sleep, please get a comfortable eye mask. You should not have photons of light hitting the retina while your eyes are closed during sleep. If that requires an eye mask, please. They're not expensive, they can be comfortable. Take a flight on the Air Singapore, they'll give them to you. At least in business class. That's the question of dark. Now, the nature of the room itself, should be comfortable, cool, this is a situation where warm is not your friend. What I have is a latex mattress which is very firm and lets me float. That's a nice thing. I have a duvet, so I have ... Some goose donated some feathers and somebody sewed this together. In Germany, this is routine. You have this light Duvet on top of you. You have a mattress that will support you. It's cool in the room, you don't want it warm. Does that address your question? Gazella: Absolutely, absolutely. Those are some great tips that our Practitioners can keep in mind when talking to their patients. I'm just wondering, we're about ready to wrap up, is there anything else that you'd like to talk about sleep for our listeners today? Jaffe: No. I thank you for the opportunity to come at it in this way. Restorative sleep is one of essentially components of a life well lived. As someone who didn't think that sleep was important for many decades of my life, I can tell you it was a mistake. I'm correcting that now. But I do also believe there are different phases to a life. I think if you're an adolescent, you have a different sleep rhythm. My understanding today is that young people actually do go to bed later and get up later, although they may or may not be able to do that and still graduate from schools. But I do think at different seasons of our life, we have different relationships between wake and sleep. I want both my wake time and my sleep time to be as productive as possible because this is the only life that I know I have at this time. Therefore, every moment to me is precious. Gazella: Yeah, absolutely. Great point, great way to end. So once again, thank you Dr. Jaffe for joining me. I'd also like to thank the sponsor of this interview, Kirk Integrative Health. Thank you and have a great day. Jaffe: Thank you, Karolyn. A pleasure. There is a significant link between lack of sleep and hormonal, inflammatory, and immune system health. In this interview, Russell Jaffe, MD, PhD, describes the connection and then provides information about his comprehensive, integrative approach to sleep issues.

By Natural Medicine Journal   While vitamin C may seem like a straightforward topic, it's actually rather complicated. In this interview, leading integrative medical expert Russell M. Jaffe, MD, PhD, describes some of the clinical complexities associated with this popular nutrient. Jaffe describes the different forms, dosages, and synergy with other nutrients. He ends with a description on how ascorbate helps with toxic mineral removal.  Approximate listening time: 18 minutes About the Expert Russell M. Jaffe, MD, PhD, is CEO and Chairman of PERQUE Integrative Health (PIH). He is considered one of the pioneers of integrative and regenerative medicine. Since inventing the world’s first single step amplified (ELISA) procedure in 1984, a process for measuring and monitoring all delayed allergies, Jaffe has continually sought new ways to help speed the transition from our current healthcare system’s symptom reactive model to a more functionally integrated, effective, and compassionate system. PIH is the outcome of years of Dr. Jaffe’s scientific research. It brings to market 3 decades of rethinking safer, more effective, novel, and proprietary dietary supplements, supplement delivery systems, diagnostic testing, and validation studies. About the Sponsor PERQUE Integrative Health (PIH) is dedicated to speeding the transition from sickness care to healthful caring. Delivering novel, personalized health solutions, PIH gives physicians and their patients the tools needed to achieve sustained optimal wellness. Combining the best in functional, evidence-based testing with premium professional supplements and healthful lifestyle guides, PIH solutions deliver successful outcomes in even the toughest cases.

Leading integrative medicine pioneer, Russell Jaffe, MD, PhD, CCN, describes his philosophy regarding hard-to-treat thyroid conditions. Jaffe starts with proper diagnosis and then takes listeners through to the environmental impact, alkalinizing the body, and using targeted nutrients to provide an individualized approach. Approximate listening time: 21 minutes About the Expert Russell M. Jaffe, MD, PhD, is CEO and Chairman of PERQUE Integrative Health (PIH). He is considered one of the pioneers of integrative and regenerative medicine. Since inventing the world’s first single step amplified (ELISA) procedure in 1984, a process for measuring and monitoring all delayed allergies, Jaffe has continually sought new ways to help speed the transition from our current healthcare system’s symptom reactive model to a more functionally integrated, effective, and compassionate system. PIH is the outcome of years of Dr. Jaffe’s scientific research. It brings to market 3 decades of rethinking safer, more effective, novel, and proprietary dietary supplements, supplement delivery systems, diagnostic testing, and validation studies. About the Sponsor PERQUE Integrative Health (PIH) is dedicated to speeding the transition from sickness care to healthful caring. Delivering novel, personalized health solutions, PIH gives physicians and their patients the tools needed to achieve sustained optimal wellness. Combining the best in functional, evidence-based testing with premium professional supplements and healthful lifestyle guides, PIH solutions deliver successful outcomes in even the toughest cases.  

Lyme disease can be a challenging condition to treat. In this interview, integrative medicine expert, Russell Jaffe, MD, PhD, CCN, describes his treatment approach and also explains the important connection between Lyme disease and small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO). Approximate listening time: 20 minutes About the Author Russell M. Jaffe, MD, PhD, CCN, is CEO and Chairman of PERQUE Integrative Health (PIH). He is considered one of the pioneers of integrative and regenerative medicine. Since inventing the world’s first single step amplified (ELISA) procedure in 1984, a process for measuring and monitoring all delayed allergies, Jaffe has continually sought new ways to help speed the transition from our current healthcare system’s symptom reactive model to a more functionally integrated, effective, and compassionate system. PIH is the outcome of years of Dr. Jaffe’s scientific research. It brings to market 3 decades of rethinking safer, more effective, novel, and proprietary dietary supplements, supplement delivery systems, diagnostic testing, and validation studies. About the Sponsor PERQUE Integrative Health (PIH) is dedicated to speeding the transition from sickness care to healthful caring. Delivering novel, personalized health solutions, PIH gives physicians and their patients the tools needed to achieve sustained optimal wellness. Combining the best in functional, evidence-based testing with premium professional supplements and healthful lifestyle guides, PIH solutions deliver successful outcomes in even the toughest cases.

Fantastic Friday Call: Special Guest Dr. Russell Jaffe! Bio.  Russell M. Jaffe, M.D., Ph.D., CCN Fellow, Health Studies Collegium Russell Jaffe is Founder and Chairman of PERQUE Integrative Health, LLC (PIH, www.PERQUE.com) a company that offers the world scientifically proven, integrative health solutions that speed the transition from sick care to healthful caring. Dr. Jaffe has more than 40 years of experience contributing to molecular biology and clinical diagnostics. His focus is on functional, predictive tests and procedures designed to improve the precision of both diagnosis and of treatment outcomes and he has authored nearly 100 articles on the subject. He received his B.S., MD and Ph.D. from the Boston University School of Medicine, completed residency training in clinical chemistry at the National Institutes of Health and remained on the permanent senior staff before pursuing other interests, including starting the Health Studies Collegium think tank. Dr. Jaffe is board certified in Clinical Pathology and in Chemical Pathology. He is the recipient of the Merck, Sharp & Dohm Excellence in Research Award, the J.D. Lane Award, and the U.S.P.H.S. Meritorious Service Award. Dr Jaffe was honored as an International Scientist of 2003 by the IBC, Oxford, England, UK for his lifetime contributions to clinical medicine, biochemistry, immunology, methodology, and integrative health policy. He is widely published and sought to explain complex subjects to any audience. Dr. Jaffe is also founder and chairman of ELISA/ACT Biotechnologies, and MAGique BioTherapeutics.