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Listen in as Dr. Mike provides the answers to a wealth of health and wellness questions.
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- Segment Number 4
- Audio File healthy_talk/1519ht1d.mp3
- Organization Life Extension
- Guest Website Healthy Talk MD
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Transcription
RadioMD Presents: Healthy Talk | Original Air Date: May 4, 2015
Host: Michael Smith, MD
RadioMD. It's time to ask Dr. Mike. Do you have a question about your health? Dr. Mike can answer your questions. Just email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call now: 877-711-5211. The lines are open.
DR. MIKE: That's This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. If you like this part of the show like I do, send me more questions. You can be as vague, detailed, lengthy, whatever as you want. It can be a current event, t can be about your own health, whatever, you guys want. I do enjoy this part of the show. So, my first question is from Bart Taylor that name sounds familiar hmm—I think Bart sent me some questions before.
"Hi Dr. Smith! What is your opinion on the optimal dose of Vitamin C in adults?"
And Bart so graciously included in his email a study. As a matter of fact, I've seen this study. I reviewed this study about a year ago it's from Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition 2012 the title is Authors Perspective: What is the Optimum Intake of Vitamin C in Humans? And in this study, they concluded about 200 mg is an optimal dose but keep in mind, the daily recommended dose of Vitamin C is about 50-100 mg depending on who you read. Somewhere between 50-100 mg of Vitamin C everyday will prevent scurvy and that, by the way, is exactly what the recommended daily intake or recommended daily allowance (they're basically the same thing) that's what they were designed to do: to come up with a dose of vitamins and minerals that will prevent deficiencies, diseases of deficiencies.
So, that's exactly what the RDI and RDA do and that's way low. If you want to prevent scurvy and that's all you want to do with Vitamin C, great! Follow the RDA. If you want to do more with Vitamin C, if you want to benefit from Vitamin C in terms of heart health, brain health, immune health, anti-cancer properties, you definitely need more than the RDA or the RDI. So, this study coming out of Oregon State University, they looked at different trials. They looked at different sub-culture studies.
They said something really interesting. Bart, in this study, in the abstract, at least, they said, "Here we argue that Phase 3 randomized controlled trials, RCT's, designed principally to test the safety and efficacy of pharmaceutical drugs are ill-suited to assess the health benefits of essential nutrients." Yes, yes, yes.
"And the currently available scientific evidence is sufficient to determine the optimum intake of Vitamin C in humans."
What happens, Bart, is we get a lot of situations where when it comes to dosing, specifically, what I call "ideal dosing" or what you refer to as optimal dosing, the kickback that we get from conventional doctors and research is that there's not enough dosing trials or even randomized controlled trials in vitamins and nutrients to really come up with a good dose range--the low end and the high end. And there is some truth in that that there's not enough randomized controlled trials in vitamins and minerals but the point that these researchers make that I really like is that it may not even be the best way to study vitamins anyway. Randomized controlled trials are looking at one group taking the test material and the other group placebo and because it's a pharmaceutical chemical drug. There's usually a quick effect and you can measure that effect and see a difference quite quickly.
Is that really a fair way to test vitamins and nutrients? And I'm so happy to see the authors in this study recognize that that if you're looking for pharmaceutical type studies to decide what a dose of Vitamin C should be, well, maybe that's the problem. Maybe we're not testing these nutrients, these what are called micronutrients in the right way. So, I like that I just wanted to bring that in there. So, they say 200 mg, Bart. Yeah, I like that but I think it's a little low, still.
My research showed that the dose range, the ideal dose range, for Vitamin C is 500 mg to 2000 mg. The Life Extension Foundation confirmed that and I think the basic multivitamin that the Foundation offers is called the Two-Per-Day doses it at 500 mg. So, at least at the lower end of that optimal range but 200--that's about double the RDA.
I think, again, here's some good research looking at different types of trials coming up with a much higher dose than the RDA for optimal Vitamin C intake. So, to answer your question, what's my opinion? I like this study. I think 200 is a good start. I think it's still too low. I think the optimal range for Vitamin C, Bart, is between 500 and 2000 mg.
Question number two: "My husband was diagnosed with melanoma a few months ago. They are going to remove it but they want to follow up with a cancer vaccine."
Ah, very interesting.
"I've done my research but I am still unclear what this is. Can you help explain it? Thanks, Pam."
Yes. Okay, Pam so, you know, in the same way that a regular vaccine works, like a flu vaccine, a cancer vaccine stimulates the immune response to kind of be primed and ready to fight that particular cancer. So, ultimately, what they're going to do for your husband is they're going to remove the melanoma with what are called clear margins and then they're going to give, and this does make sense to me because I'm pretty sure I'm not up to date on current cancer vaccines, but melanoma there is a cancer melanoma vaccine. There is. So, once they've cut out the melanoma, they then give him this melanoma vaccine and what they're trying to do is they're trying to get his own immune system to respond to this vaccine, produce activated T-cells and B-cells against the melanoma so he can be more protected from future development and future spread.
And so that's what they're doing. That's what it is. A cancer vaccine is basically immunotherapy. It's used in the immune system to fight the cancer so they remove it but knowing that melanomas are aggressive, they do spread. Melanomas are very metastatic. They spread to other organs very readily so they have to remove it, they have to dig it all out. They have to make sure that there's absolutely clear margins but then they do something to protect from that potential spread because you can't get every single cell. There's just no such thing as a perfect removal of a tumor. And so, they've developed these vaccines to stimulate the immune response so that he can be protected down the line.
So, I think it's great. I'm not sure what else I should say about it, Pam, but cancer vaccines and immunotherapy I really think a lot of research has been going on in this field for at least maybe the past 5 or 6 years and we're starting to develop more cancer vaccines.
We're starting to develop more immunotherapy approaches and I think it's awesome because the immune system is so incredible, Pam. Your husband's immune system is one of his best defenses against having a problem with this melanoma down the line. It's just we have to help it a little bit. We have to help his immune system kind of be a little more aggressive when it comes to this melanoma. Be a little more activated, be a little more active about it, a little proactive. That's what the cancer vaccine does. I think that's great. I hope that helped, Pam.
Okay next question. I think I have time for one more.
"What is..."
Okay, listen. This question rings home to me because I'm a frequent traveler myself. I travel all over the country with the Foundation.
"What's your take on the airport scanner? Should frequent flyers be concerned?"
By the way, too, I've noticed the use of the scanners has pretty much gone up significantly. I mean, I remember it used to be half the time I'd go through the more traditional metal detector but now I don't think I've gone through a metal detector at all. In the past couple years, it's been the scanners every time.
I'm not too concerned. I'm a radiologist so I'm not too concerned about the radiation from the scanners. If you are, though, you could just do some supplements. You know, cruciferous vegetables, anti-oxidants, sulfur-based compounds are the best radio protective ones we have like MSM, Methylsulfonylmethane, like 1000 mg of that before you go travelling. That protects from the scanner and from being up high in the air. I mean, maybe just do some supplements. I'm not concerned about them though.
This is Healthy Talk on RadioMD.
I'm Dr. Mike. Stay well. - Length (mins) 10
- Waiver Received No
- Internal Notes NO GUEST
- Host Mike Smith, MD
AMPK (adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase), is an enzyme that exists in cellular energy homeostasis.
Additional Info
- Segment Number 1
- Audio File healthy_talk/1519ht1a.mp3
- Organization Life Extension
- Guest Website Healthy Talk MD
-
Transcription
RadioMD Presents: Healthy Talk | Original Air Date: May 4, 2015
Host: Michael Smith, MD
Anti-aging and disease prevention radio is right here on RadioMD. Here's author, blogger, lecturer and national medical media personality, Dr. Michael Smith, MD, with Healthy Talk.
DR MIKE: So, there is a cellular enzyme that I want you to reactivate. A cell-based enzyme I want you to reactivate.
Now, when I say enzyme I think the first thing many people think are digestive enzymes or in some cases proteases, the enzymes that break down inflammatory proteins. But that's not what I'm talking about here. I'm not talking about a food based-enzyme or a digestive enzyme, I'm talking about a cell based enzyme and this enzyme is so critical to how your body and how your cell, in particular, manages energy that it's critical we keep it at a high functioning level throughout our life.
So, let's just back up for a moment and let's talk about why enzymes are so important because I think you're going to start seeing kind of a resurgence of enzyme research. And I say resurgence because it was maybe about a decade or so ago that there was a lot of research looking into different enzymes in the body, particularly enzymes involved in cell energy production and how we could reactivate them, supply them, replenish them, those kinds of things. And that research kind of fell out and we made way for the CoQ10 research and the Omega-3 research which was awesome and necessary but now we're starting, as I said, to see a resurgence in enzyme research and it's a good thing.
So, what is an enzyme? What does an enzyme do for us? And, again, I'm not talking to digestive enzymes. I'm talking about compounds, small molecular compounds in your body, that, really, without them the basic life processes wouldn't occur. You know, we're basically chemical factories. The beating of your heart, for instance, is managed by chemistry. Substance A combines with Substance B that converts into Substance C and you get some sort of effect.
That's the basics of life right there: A+B=C, chemistry; however, in order for that reaction to occur, for that chemistry to occur, Substance A has to get together with Substance B. There has to be the right temperature, the right pH, they have to be in close vicinity and if all of that comes together in a lucky way, you might actually make C and get the effect you want.
Well, that's where enzymes come in. Enzymes help Substance A to find Substance B. Enzymes help the body or the cell to reach the right pH and temperature, so that you can make Substance C and get the effect you want in a physiological time frame so that you can function and have life. Without enzymes, eventually that chemical reaction would occur. You might get a beat of a cardiac muscle cell about once every ten years, if you didn't have enzymes. Eventually the chemistry would happen but it would just take so long in terms of what we call physiological time to the point where the reaction wouldn't really be able to support life.
So enzymes are used by the cell to accelerate, to initiate, propagate and move forward the chemistry of the cell in a much more physiological, timely manner so that you can live. And one of those key enzymes is called AMPK: adenosine monophosphate protein activated kinase.
We'll just call it AMPK. It's an incredibly important enzyme in the cell. It's sometimes referred to as the master energy switch and all that really means is AMPK helps to coordinate cell energy production pathways. When AMPK is activated at a high level, your cells are able to manage energy better--both the production of energy and the storage of energy.
The cell is just more efficient at everything that has to do with energy. Sugars, fat, protein, ATP, all those words you've heard me talk about before, when AMPK is activated to a good optimal level, your cell manages all that stuff well and if a cell can manage energy and how it brings the precursors to energy in, how it actually takes those precursors and runs them through these pathways and how you end up with ATP and if you have too much sugar and fat and protein coming in, how you can store them--all of that is the management of energy. When the cell can do that, when the cell can manage that whole process well in a healthy way, the cell is healthy, the tissue is healthy, the organ is healthy and the organism--you and me-- we're healthy. And one of the key enzymes in that whole process is called AMPK.
Just like everything else as you get older, you lose hormones, you lose antioxidants, everything drops, skin drops. Everything drops, wrinkles form. Well, same thing here AMPK drops in function and in activity as you get older. I don't have a number for it but we just know that when a cell becomes less efficient at managing energy, when the cell becomes engorged with fat, when the cell is no longer able to make a decent amount of ATP so that it can function normal--when all that stuff happens, it's often directly coordinated to a low level of AMPK activity: adenosine monophosphate protein kinase.
Now, I'm going to give you just a list of things these are the dangers of reduced AMPK activity and this is all research based. When there's a low level of AMPK you're going to get an increase in belly fat. That's because cells are storing more fat instead of burning fat. One of the true signs of cell dysfunction is when cells engorge themselves with fat--not just fat cell--all cells can begin to form fat droplets and stuff if they're not burning that fat as energy. So, fat cells get bigger. Even non-fat cells start to engorge with fat as well. The liver becomes what's called non-alcoholic fatty liver. All of that kind of stuff can happen when you have low AMPK because you're not managing energy. Number two, chronic inflammation goes up.
Reduced levels of AMPK elevates blood sugar because you're not managing sugar; you're not managing energy. Once you have that sugar issue, now you have the next thing the fourth thing: insulin resistance problems. Insulin is that hormone that drives sugar inside the cell but if your cell is having a hard time managing sugar you tend to overproduce insulin to try to overcome that problem with sugar and, eventually, the cells become very insensitive, resistant, to insulin. High cholesterol and high triglycerides can happen when you have low AMPK. You lose the powerhouses. You don't have as many mitochondria when AMPK is not activated.
So, all of these things have been associated with reduced AMPK activity. However, when you reactivate it to younger levels, more youthful levels, there's evidence that we can extend lifespan by as much as 20-30%, improve glucose uptake in cells, lower blood sugar, improve insulin sensitivity, reduce blood triglycerides—basically, everything I've just covered the dangers of reduced AMPK activity reverse when you reactivate it. So, AMPK is a cell enzyme and this is not about digestion. This is a cell enzyme, AMPK, that is the master regulating switch for managing cell energy.
From the precursors, to the production, to the storage and that is so critical to how healthy a cell is. How can you reactivate it? Well, you can work out really, really, really hard like triathlon level. You can restrict calories to about 30-40%, which most of us just can't do. No one is really going to do the first two.
So, really the best way to do it is with two plant-based extracts: one is called Gynostemma pentaphyllum and the other one is called Rose canina. That's also where we get rose hips from. There's good evidence in the literature that Gynostemma pentaphyllum in combination with rose hips or Rose canina will reactivate AMPK, that important cell enzyme. Go check it out at LifeExtension.com.
This is Healthy Talk on RadioMD.
I'm Dr. Mike. Stay well. - Length (mins) 10
- Waiver Received No
- Internal Notes NO GUEST
- Host Mike Smith, MD
Listen in as Dr. Mike provides the answers to a wealth of health and wellness questions.
Additional Info
- Segment Number 5
- Audio File healthy_talk/1518ht5e.mp3
- Organization Life Extension
- Guest Website Healthy Talk MD
-
Transcription
RadioMD Presents: Healthy Talk | Original Air Date: May 1, 2015
Host: Michael Smith, MD
You're listening to RadioMD. It's time to ask Dr. Mike on Healthy Talk. Call or email to ask your questions now. Email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call now: 877-711-5211. The lines are open.
DR MIKE: So, Kimmie wants to know if it's best to do mushrooms--medicinal mushrooms. Not the psychotropic ones, but medicinal mushrooms. I'm adding that word medicinal. I assume Kimmie is talking about medicinal mushrooms. Kimmie wants to know if doing medicinal mushrooms is best as teas? You know, that's a good question. You can make a tea out of just about anything. Making a tea is more the process of steeping something over hot water. I just think it depends on what your philosophy is, Kimmie, in all this. You know if you're one of these—and by the way there's no right or wrong here. I'm just going to tell you there are two large categories of philosophies in the supplement industry. I'm over-simplifying but it works here.
On one hand, you have people who really believe in the whole essence of a food source or a plant source or whatever, meaning that if they're going to do something like reishi mushrooms, for instance, they want to do the whole mushroom. So, someone who really believes in the essence of the whole food might want to make a tea versus take an extract or something which by the way, an extract, that's the other philosophical way of looking at the supplement industry and that's kind of where I fall. I'm more of an extract type guy although the whole reishi mushroom is good. There's a lot of good components there. We know, for instance, if you really want to boost the immune system you want to get the key compound called "triterpenes". Triterpenes are the main constituent in reishi mushroom killer cells, for instance.
So, for me as an extract type guy, standardization type guy, I would rather take a capsule of reishi mushroom standardized to a certain amount of triterpenes to boost natural killer cells. But if you're on the other side of things, if you're more of a whole food person, you may not care so much about concentrating the triterpene so you can try teas and I don't think there is anything wrong with it. I think one thing to always understand—you know, making a tea out of something is processing it. And anytime you add a level of processing to something you're going to lose some of the compounds.
I mean, that's just—it is what it is. Taking the mushroom even out of the ground is processing. You've just removed it from it's natural setting/environment and you're changing it and that right there--that process alone--picking a plant, picking an apple, pulling the mushroom out, that's processing. And then, if you cut it up, that's processing and then you steep it over hot water-- that's processing. There is still benefit to gain there, Kimmie. Absolutely. But you are losing some of the compounds. Each step of processing decreases the amount of some of the key components, the healthy components of a food source, which is why you're doing it. So, that's just something to keep in mind that's all.
By the way, don't make a tea out of reishi. I shouldn't say that, I tried reishi tea once. It was horrible. Extremely bitter. I had that taste for like a week in my mouth. So, maybe reishi was a bad example, I don't know. Maybe you like it, Kimmie. But that's fine. You can make teas out of anything. That's perfectly fine. Just remember it is a level of processing. You're going to strip some of the compounds out. Okay, that was the first question.
This next one is kind of related it's about botanicals. What are botanicals? Mark is asking. And are botanicals a separate category from supplements? Well no it's just a way of classifying supplements. You have antioxidants and then even there you have subclasses you have amino acid antioxidants you have plant based antioxidants what have you.
No botanicals is just more of a general term that means plants, plant based. I think going back to this idea of whole food philosophy versus extract I think there are some purists, some whole food enthusiasts that consider the botanical to be more of the whole plant and those of us that do the extracts we don't really say botanical we call it plant extracts.
I don't know so there may be some ways that people use these terms that are different from one group to the other but botanical is just plant based and it's not a separate category from supplements it falls under the classification of a supplement but simply supplements your diet to bring in some extra nutrients that's all. I assume that's all you mean I'm not sure where else to go with this question so I'll leave it there.
The next one is kind of related to this as well. How can herbal remedies benefit my health? And I could do a whole seminar on answering that question. "How can herbal remedies benefit my health?" but I think most of the herbs are just loaded with antioxidants, so I think first and foremost herbal products are going to reduce what we call oxidative stress that can come from toxins in our environment--your own metabolism.
I mean, that's the first thing I think of when I think of herbs. They are just loaded with great antioxidants that can help the immune system, the cardiovascular system, the cerebral vascular system, bone, joints. The second category, then, from the antioxidants would be the anti-inflammatories that you find in a lot of herbal remedies. Many of the herbs that we use and I might throw spices into that as well.
Herbs and spices are able to inhibit some of the key inflammatory enzymes the cyclooxygenase, the lipoxygenase enzymes. Those are powerful pro-inflammatory enzymes. So, you have the antioxidants from herbs and spices. You've got the anti-inflammatories from herbs and spices. You also have anti-pain.
There's good evidence that a lot of herbs and spices are able to kind of bind to pain receptors but it doesn't stimulate the pain receptor, it blocks the stimulus from coming in and actually activating the pain receptor so you see? That's huge. Antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-pain. I mean boom! That pretty much covers herbs and spices but going even a little bit further, I mean, you really have to start thinking about particular herbs and spices and what they can do. I mean, there's some that have anti-cancer properties, curcumin for instance.
There's some that are better at say the pain part of it, like tart cherry extracts. There are some herbs and spices that are better at the anti-inflammatory part but I think in answering the question, "How can herbal remedies benefit my health?" I think the best way to answer that is reducing oxidative stress, reducing chronic inflammation, and reducing pain. I mean, I think that would be that three broad categories.
Next question.
"I travel overseas. If I purchase supplements in other countries, are they safe?"
I mean, I think it depends on where you buy it from. That's a tough question to answer. In the United States--and I can speak about the United States because I'm involved with a company, Life Extension, and I know more of the rules.
In the United States, we have the DSHEA Law, dietary supplement, oh I always forget what DSHEA stands for. Dietary Supplement something something Health Act (DSHEA). It regulates how supplements are made and manufactured and stored in the United States. For instance, manufacturers have to follow GMP, good manufacturing practices. We have the National Science Foundation (NSF) that certifies places like Life Extension and makes sure that we're following the rules and then the FDA does regulate that stuff.
I think it depends on where you're going. I think you should be careful about buying things that you're not familiar with how that country regulates things. So, it's a tough question to answer. That's the best I can give you.
This is Healthy Talk on RadioMD. I'm Dr. Mike, stay well. - Length (mins) 10
- Waiver Received No
- Internal Notes NO GUEST
- Host Mike Smith, MD
Listen in as Dr. Mike provides the answers to a wealth of health and wellness questions.
Additional Info
- Segment Number 4
- Audio File healthy_talk/1518ht5d.mp3
- Organization Life Extension
- Guest Website Healthy Talk MD
-
Transcription
RadioMD Presents: Healthy Talk | Original Air Date: May 1, 2015
Host: Michael Smith, MD
It's time for you to be a part of the show. Email or call with questions for Dr. Mike now. Email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call 877.711.5211. What are you waiting for? The doctor is in.
DR MIKE: AskDrMikeSmith@RadioMD. So, I went through...Obviously, today I'm talking a lot about weight loss issues. We're getting into summer. People want to start looking good. That's all good, so I do have three weight loss questions that I thought I would answer first. So, let's make sure you get through all three of these.
The first question comes from Melanie and she asks:
"When I try any diet, I get intense cravings and ultimately fail." And then she says, "Help!"
Melanie, I think I can help. First of all, let's talk about why you might be getting the cravings. By the way, appetite and cravings are two different things. Melanie, cravings-- that intense desire for a certain type of food--usually it's sugary for most people. There's salt cravings but usually it's sugar. That craving, by the way, that sweet craving is usually linked more to stress than anything else. And it could be mental stress or it could be actual physical stress. When you're dieting you get both of it. I mean, think about it.
You're dieting. You're trying to lose weight. You're really stressed out about that anyway, so there's already some emotional stress involved with dieting. But then, dieting, physically speaking, when you cut calories, that stresses the body.
The body for years or months, whatever, was used to a certain amount of calories every day and you might have been getting heavier and heavier. You know, body fat going up but your body alternately was just fine. Let's just keep eating and it's good. But then all of a sudden you cut calories and it's like, "Oh, what's going on?" That's the whole diet shock thing I've talked about before where if you cut calories too much, you shock the body into reversing your weight loss efforts. You're shocking the body into putting weight back on. So, it's a stressor. So, you have this emotional stress thing going on with dieting and then you got the physiological stress of simply eating less. And that's probably where the cravings are coming from. Whether it's an emotional stress, Melanie, or a physical stress, the cortisol is all behind it.
So, cortisol, the stress hormone, is being released and cortisol, it's job is to prepare you to deal with that stress and how do you do that? Well, you need energy. So, the cortisol wants to mobilize sugars. It wants to get your sugar into your blood stream and once you've broken down your sugar stores called "glycogen", and you've dumped that sugar in and once that's gone, which goes pretty quick, and you don't have a lot of sugar stores, it'll start going into the fat stores a little bit but, ultimately, what cortisol does is it causes you to crave sugar.
Because now your muscle cells in your brain, in your nerves, they're starting to function more. Cortisol is raising metabolism. You're trying to deal with this emotional stress of dieting, the physical stress of decreasing calories, so cortisol is revving up your muscles in your brain and there's not enough sugar, so what do you do? You crave sugar. I'm assuming -- I'm making an assumption only -- because if you're an average person you're probably craving sugars.
It's stress related. Cravings are usually stress related.
And one of the best ways to handle that is to boost serotonin in your brain. Serotonin is the counter nerve transmitter to the hormone cortisol. So, if you want cortisol to behave and calm down, you need more serotonin in your brain. I might suggest for you, Melanie, saffron extract. Saffron is a serotonin reuptaking inhibitor but what that means is, is that it just keeps serotonin in your brain a little longer.
So, serotonin can act a little longer and you'll feel better. That manages the stress better, brings down the sugar cravings. You could also just produce more serotonin through tryptophan. That's an over-the-counter amino acid. It's very easy to take and taken on an empty stomach--that's the best way. But tryptophan is the precursor of the serotonin. You can try that. Another one is called 5HTP. That's another over-the-counter supplement you could try to use to boost serotonin. But I think that would be the best thing for you. And it's just understanding that you're dieting. It's emotional stress. It's physiological stress. It's cortisol related - the cravings. Counter that by boosting serotonin.
Next question. If my hypothyroidism is being treated, why am I not losing weight yet? That's a great question. So, this person had low functioning thyroid and they were missing a metabolic throttle--the accelerator that revs you up.
So, metabolism slows, everything you eat turns into fat. That was recognized by his or her doctor and the low thyroid is being corrected. That's awesome. That's great. So, maybe you've just got to give it more time. Maybe you're not taking enough thyroid medication. Maybe you've got to improve the numbers a little bit - better TSH, Free T4, Free T3. The other question I might have for this is how are you correcting a thyroid hormone? Are you taking Synthroid which is the most commonly prescribed thyroid medication? The problem with Synthroid for some people is, it's only T4, which is the main form of the thyroid hormone that's produced by the thyroid gland and T4 travels to the tissues where it converts into the more active form called T3.
Well, some people, simply because of the low thyroid state have more cortisol, more stress and that gets in the way of the T4 to T3 conversion.
So, you might want to measure something called reverse T3. If you're taking Synthroid, which is only T4 and you're stressed out from the low thyroid state, which is common, that T4, that Synthroid T4 will not convert into T3, so you really aren't...Even though your numbers might be getting better, you're not making that active form T3 and, instead, you're making this inactive form called reverse T3. So, just go and measure it. If it's high, there is your issue.
So, we got to get cortisol out of the way. So, maybe what you need is an anti-cortisol type regimen. Adaptogenic herbs like ashwagahnda, rhodiola, ginseng, in combination with the hormone DHEA, might be what you need. Maybe your thyroid is fine but you're dealing with a different hormonal imbalance. For men, low testosterone, low DHEA, low androgens.
For women, it's the estrogen/progesterone ratio. Maybe you're estrogen dominate if you are a woman, and that needs to be corrected. Maybe doing a nice -- Now that you're being treated for the low thyroid, consider that whole reverse T3 thing. Maybe what you need to do is just do a nice hormone profile, a nice blood test and look at all your different hormones and correct those imbalances as well.
Next question:
"Some people say weight is only a matter of calories in and calories out but others say it's more complicated than that. So which is it?"
Well, it's true because I've said this before. Your weight, on a moment to moment basis, is based off a very easy mathematical equation. Very simple math. Calories that you take in minus the calories you burn out through exercising metabolism. Calories in minus calories out.
If that number is positive, you gain weight; if it's negative you lose weight. If it's zero, your weight stays the same.
So, in one sense your day to day weight is maintained or goes up or goes down or is determined, I should say, by a very, very simple mathematical equation - in minus out. Where it gets complicated is what is causing you to eat more. What is causing you not to burn enough calories? That's where it becomes complicated and that's where the hormone issues have to be addressed. Insulin has to be addressed. So, it is a simple mathematical equation.
It's just the factors that determine that equation. The result of that equation--that's where it gets complicated. This is Healthy Talk on Radio MD.
I'm Dr. Mike. Stay well. - Length (mins) 10
- Waiver Received No
- Internal Notes NO GUEST
- Host Mike Smith, MD
If your body doesn't feel like it's getting enough fuel, it might go into emergency conservation mode to prevent you from starving.
Additional Info
- Segment Number 3
- Audio File healthy_talk/1518ht5c.mp3
- Organization Life Extension
- Guest Website Healthy Talk MD
-
Transcription
RadioMD Presents: Healthy Talk | Original Air Date: May 1, 2015
Host: Michael Smith, MD
Dr. Michael Smith, M.D. with Healthy Talk.
DR MIKE: Have you ever heard of diet shock? Diet shock. You probably haven't. It was a term that I actually coined about ten years ago. I wrote an e-book. I don't even know where it's at now but the e-book was titled Make Your Diet Work. And one of things that I talked about in the e-book was the fact...You know, I was trying to explain why so many people when they try to lose weight, why they have some success in the beginning but then they kind of plateau and often end up gaining weight back. I mean what's going on there? And that's where I came up with this idea of diet shock.
Why it's not always good to be the biggest loser. There definitely is a safe amount of weight loss every week and if you go above that, you have this potential of going into diet shock. So, let me explain what's going on based on my research, looking at different weight loss studies, clinical studies, and not about a specific diet plan--just weight loss in general. What I discovered was anything over 2-3 pounds a week is too much. It's funny, too. I just saw an ad.
I don't remember what diet program it was for or what new weight loss supplement it was for but the ad was something like "Miracle, whatever it was. Miracle supplement. Lose 5 pounds a week." I thought to myself, "No, that's too much. That's going to cause diet shock."
So, what is diet shock? Well, your body is shocked you're cutting out calories so much that—and, by the way it, doesn't really matter what diet program you go on. It really doesn't. All of the diet programs, the different types of diets, even the weight loss supplements out there, ultimately are either decreasing the number of calories you eat and/or increasing the number of calories you burn when you're not exercising raising what's called the "resting metabolic rate". The best programs do both of those. They help you to eat less and burn more. That's a nice balance.
That's a good way, by the way, to avoid diet shock. Bring down calories but bring up what you're burning as well. Keep that metabolism up. That's a great way to avoid diet shock but most diets don't do that, especially the diet programs like the Atkins and the South Beaches. Ultimately, when you look at these programs, even though they may be restricting one kind of food source or whatever, at the end of the day you're eating less. In some cases, significantly less. As a matter of fact, I just talked about one called the yogurt diet and when I really looked at what was going on in the yogurt diet, it really wasn't about the yogurt although there is some evidence that probiotics in yogurt might help. It was really—when I looked at the daily meal program-- the menu-- it was just decreasing calories significantly.
So, most of your diet programs are really about eating less. I mean, that's really what it comes down to. And when you do that--when you eat less--and you don't do something to support metabolism, your metabolism crashes. It goes into a shock-like state and all of your weight loss efforts and all of your weight loss success is completely reversed and you start to gain weight. Your body--this is so important remember as a dieter--your body is designed to do one thing and it does it very well. Do you know what it is? It's designed to not starve. There was a time in human history where famines and food sources were scarce and the body came up with some amazing mechanisms to make sure that you could survive those famines.
One of the reasons, for instance, that we crave fats so much, saturated fats, animal fats, is because that was a great source of energy. There was a time when you could eat the bone marrow, for instance, or the fatty part of a carcass out in the Serengeti Desert or whatever, that some other predator killed and got the good meat but you would go in there as a human thousands of years ago and you would eat that fat because you didn't have to eat a lot of it and it was good high-sustaining energy and that's carrying on today. That's why we like fats so much.
So, there was a time in human history where we weren't surrounded by McDonald's and grocery stores everywhere and food sources everywhere. I mean, there was a time in human history where famine and starvation was a real issue and so the body developed ways of counteracting the loss of calories. And guess what dieting is? It's a loss of calories. I mean, your body ultimately doesn't know you're dieting. It just thinks, "Oh, my gosh. Calories are gone. We're in a famine!" And the body then kicks in these anti-famine, anti-starvation mechanisms that are powerful.
And just to kind of keep it simple, if I could just summarize what all of those anti-starvation mechanisms do in your body: they build fat. What it means is when your body thinks you're in a famine--in a starvation--mode any food source you bring in, even if it's a little bit, is going to turn into fat. Protein turns into fat. Sugar turns into fat. Everything gets stored as fat because fat is a great way to store energy and prevent starvation. So, diet shock is when you cut calories so much and you lose a lot of weight initially that you shock the body into thinking it's starving and then you kick in all of these anti-starvation mechanisms and you turn everything into fat.
You plateau and you eventually gain fat back, usually greater than what you started with. Diet shock. Why it's not always good to be the biggest loser. You really only want to shoot for two—I actually believe two pounds a week is a decent amount, one pound a week is probably better because it's not really about that week. It's about what you're doing as a lifestyle change. It's really about four or five, six, seven, eight years down the line where you're now at a healthy weight where the heart's going to like you and the brain's going to like you better and you look better. It's not really about week to week, it's really a more long-term lifestyle.
So, one pound a week, two pounds a week, based on my research. You might could push it to three pounds a week but if you go over that you're going to kick in diet shock. We've actually learned, by the way, this is really cool. We actually now know...Well, I should say, we have a good idea, a good theory of how the body turns everything into fat. We discovered an enzyme. We've known about the enzyme for a while but just recently in the past, maybe, decade we've been able to measure it in people dieting. What we have found is this enzyme activates 2/3/4 times greater than what it should be in people who are trying to lose weight.
This enzyme is called Glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase. Glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase. It is the enzyme that turns sugar into fat. This enzyme takes those carbs you're eating even if you're eating very little, even if you've cut your carbs by 50, 60, 70%, when you're in diet shock it takes even just the little bit of carbs you're eating and Glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase turns it into fat very readily. So, when you're going to cut calories make sure you maintain metabolism. The best way to do that is through exercise but there's other nutrients there too like 7-Keto DHEA, green tea, capsaicin, which is the hot pepper extract.
I mean, there are ways to support that so make sure you're focusing on metabolism as well. But when you're cutting calories don't cut so much that you go into diet shock. Another way to prevent diet shock is to inhibit the activity of Glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase. And there is really only one well-documented nutrient that does that and that's the African mango extract Irvingia gabonensis. Irvingia gabonensis will inhibit Glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase. So, don't be the biggest loser. Don't go into diet shock. Two pounds a week, control Glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase with Irvingia.
This is Healthy Talk on RadioMD. I'm Dr. Mike. Stay well. - Length (mins) 10
- Waiver Received No
- Internal Notes NO GUEST
- Host Mike Smith, MD
If you're looking to achieve lasting weight loss, you need to know the nine pillars for success.
Additional Info
- Segment Number 2
- Audio File healthy_talk/1518ht5b.mp3
- Organization Life Extension
- Guest Website Healthy Talk MD
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Transcription
RadioMD Presents: Healthy Talk | Original Air Date: May 1, 2015
Host: Michael Smith, MD
Living longer and staying healthier. It's Healthy Talk with Dr. Michael Smith, MD. Here's your host, Dr. Mike:
DR MIKE: It always seems after the holidays in January, February and then as you move closer to summer April, May, and June, there's always this focus on weight loss and that's fine. This time of the year, I always seem to come across so many new weight loss programs, so many new diets. I think recently, I just talked about the yogurt diet on another show which really isn't about yogurt. It's just that you're cutting your calories down like crazy. But this time of the year, there just seems to be an explosion of weight loss programs, the latest and greatest scientific weight loss.
All this kind of stuff and that's all fine. That's all good but I think we're missing something. Here's what we're missing. Why are we gaining weight in the first place? Isn't that really the question? I think the question we've been asking "How do I lose weight?" I think that's an okay question but I don't think it's the first question we should ask. I think the first question we should ask is "Why am I gaining weight to begin with?" I think that's a better question to ask as well.
And so, at Life Extension I worked with some of our doctors and I put together a free little e-book. It's about 30 or 40 pages called The Nine Pillars of Successful Weight Loss. And what it is, it's an e-book that is structured in a way that's similar to my Supplement Pyramid book, which is quizzes.
What we've done is, we've identified nine pillars and these pillars are really weight-gaining pillars and if you counteract them, then you're going to be able to finally be successful in losing weight on any diet program that you decide. So The Nine Pillars of Successful Weight Loss is not a diet program. It's not a diet product or anything like that. It's really asking the question "Why are you gaining weight in the first place?"
And it's pinpointing your weight gaining mechanisms and then, through a series of questions and nutrient suggestions, we're able to counteract the physiological reason you're gaining weight. I really do believe that it'll get you on the right start for successful weight loss. I'll put it to you this way. If you're on, I don't know Atkins, South Beach, Weight Watchers--whatever you're doing. If you don't manage or counteract the pillars, the mechanisms causing you to gain weight in the first place, it's just going to be an uphill battle. Let me just go through quickly these nine pillars of successful weight loss.
The first pillar is insulin resistance. A lifetime of eating sugar causes a lifetime of insulin overload in your body and it means that the cells in your body, especially the muscle cells, become very insensitive to insulin. If that happens, the sugar level builds in your bloodstream. It can lead to diabetes, for instance, but it also just means you don't manage the sugar very well.
You don't burn it as readily for energy and you store it as fat. People with insulin resistance or low insulin sensitivity tend to have more body fat. So, the first pillar has to do with sugar and insulin. We have to improve insulin sensitivity so if you go through my—it's about five to six questions, if you answer yes to three or more of them you probably do have an insulin issue and we need to get you on nutrients like chromium, magnesium, green tea extract. Those things help in reversing insulin resistance.
Pillar number two is hormone imbalance and for men and women the very first one you have to consider is low thyroid. You have to correct your thyroid hormone. It's your metabolic throttle and I offer suggestions for that in the e-book. Now, moving on to women, one of the most common reasons in women, especially in that perimenopausal and postmenopausal age group, one of the most common hormonal imbalances that cause weight gain is called "estrogen dominance". Even though estrogen and progesterone are both dropping, progesterone drops off at a far greater rate and it causes this dominance in the body and estrogen dominance puts on weight. If you don't correct that it's hard to lose weight.
For men, it's really about low testosterone, low DHA, low androgens and we've got to make those corrections before you're going to be able to be successful.
Pillar number three is excessive carbohydrate and starch absorption. What I mean by that, too, is even if you're controlling how much sugar you're eating, how many carbs you're eating, some of us just have really active digestive enzymes that break down those starches and carbs real easily and you just absorb tons of sugar. We want to control that process.
As you're trying to eat less sugar, as you're trying to eat more fiber, more complex carbs, we've still got to control how fast your body, your digestive system breaks down those carb sources, those simple sugar sources. I have some questions that you answer and if you answer "yes" to three or more, it probably means you do have a carb/starch absorption issue and I offer suggestions like chrysin. I'm sorry. Not chrysin but arabinose and white kidney bean extract and certain types of fibers which will be very helpful in slowing down how fast you absorb those carbs.
Pillar number four is muscle loss from low physical activity. You know, gaining lots of fat but losing muscle mass. Things like whey protein, pea protein supplements, the androgens like DHEA, even testosterone replacement can be very helpful there.
Pillar number five is low brain serotonin. Why is that important? Well serotonin is a neurotransmitter. The higher the level of serotonin in your brain you just feel good overall. As a matter of fact, low brain serotonin is really what causes depression but we also know that when we have low brain serotonin you tend to crave sugars more. So especially if you're a three in the afternoon type sugar craver. You know, stress kicks in from the work day and you've got to get that sweet whatever it is that you like to eat. If you crave that kind of stuff, that could be a serotonin issue and if you don't correct that it's going to be hard to lose weight so saffron and tryptophan are things I suggest in the e-book.
Pillar number six is slow resting metabolism which is when you simply just don't burn as many calories when you're at rest. When you're younger, you can just be sitting there watching TV and you're burning calories. That's why kids are skinny. Wouldn't that be nice? Watch TV, read a book and you burn some fat calories. That is awesome! And now, really all of us kind of deal with this. As you get older metabolism, slows down so we offer up some suggestions. Now I have about five or six questions you're going to answer in the e-book, if you answer "yes" to three or more of them, that tells us that maybe your metabolism is definitely too slow and we offer up suggestions like 7 Keto DHEA, the seaweed extracts like fucoxanthin or the hot pepper extracts like cayenne. Those all can be very helpful.
Pillar number seven this is a weird one. It's called abnormal fat cell signaling. Turns out, your fat cells talk to each other just like nerve cells talk to each other. That's how, like in your brain you have brain cells that communicate together and they form these connections. That's how you form memories and recall. Well, fat cells do the same thing. They talk to each other. Fat cells like to clump together and when they do that, they pass these chemicals back and forth that help them to grow and get bigger and fatter. Fat cells can actually get fatter. But we want skinny fat cells and in order to do that we have to correct some of those signaling molecules that they're using to stay fat. And so things like Irvingia, mangosteen and cyclodextrin these are compounds that will help to improve that fat cell signaling so you get skinny fat cells.
Pillar number eight is low AMPK activity. That's an enzyme in every cell of your body. When AMPK is at a higher level and working well, you manage sugar better and energy better, so we want to re-activate AMPK. That's pillar number eight.
Pillar number nine we call simply diet imbalances and we just talk about the importance of eating a well-balanced diet: fats, carbs, protein, mostly plant based. Like 80% plant based versus 20% lean meat. That's a good diet balance.
So, these are The Nine Pillars of Successful Weight Loss. If you want to learn more you can go to yourweightlossrx.com and download the e-book for free. Yourweightlossrx.com.
This is Healthy Talk on RadioMD, I'm Dr. Mike. Stay well. - Length (mins) 10
- Waiver Received No
- Internal Notes NO GUEST
- Host Mike Smith, MD
Oil pulling is an ancient Ayurveda practice that has gained popularity in the U.S over the past couple of years.
Additional Info
- Segment Number 1
- Audio File healthy_talk/1518ht5a.mp3
- Organization Life Extension
- Guest Website Healthy Talk MD
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Transcription
RadioMD Presents: Healthy Talk | Original Air Date: May 1, 2015
Host: Michael Smith, MD
Living longer and staying healthier. It's Healthy Talk with Dr. Michael Smith, MD. Here's your host, Dr. Mike:
DR MIKE: So, I wanted to talk about my experience with something called oil pulling. For those of you that aren't familiar with this it's pretty simple. You take an oil--there's different types and I'm going to give you what I like to use and why in a second--but you take an oil you basically swish it around in your mouth from anywhere 5, 10, 15 minutes, you spit it out and it's really good for gums and teeth. Most of us probably understand that cavities and plaque, gingivitis, periodontal disease, it's an infection. As a matter of fact, there's a very specific bacteria pathogen called streptococcus mutans that is the culprit behind bad gums and plaque formation. Not so much cavities--that's a different set of bacteria that we see mostly in kids.
As we get older, streptococcus mutans increases and we tend to get more plaque and gingivitis type problems versus cavities but regardless of the bacterial type, bacteria have what is known as a "double membrane". It's a fat membrane that surrounds the insides of the bacteria so when you place an oil in your mouth and you swish it around for a while the oil, the fat in the oil, is attracted to the fat in the membrane of the bacteria and it's like it mechanically pulls the bacteria out of the pockets of your gums and when you spit it out, you spit out all that bacteria.
So, it's anti-microbial. Oil pulling ultimately is anti-microbial. At least, that's the theory behind it all. You know, I found some information about oil pulling that's pretty interesting. Using liquids in the mouth for health purposes is mentioned in two ancient Indian Ayurvedic texts--one written in 800 B.C. and the other in about 700 B.C. and it's considered one of the oldest practicing health systems in the world, oil pulling. Of course the conventional docs today, you know, the American Dental Association cautions because there's lack of evidence, I'm getting kind of sick of that. They do not recommend oil pulling as a replacement for standard oral health care, suggest flossing and teeth brushing. Of course not. Oil pulling doesn't replace anything. It's added to a normal, in my case, daily oral care regime. So, you continue to brush your teeth and floss and go see your dentist so they can be happy, you know, all that kind of stuff. There's apparently--now, I don't do this. There are two techniques and this is the technical part of oil pulling.
There's two Ayurvedic Indian medicine techniques one (I don't know if I'm going to pronounce this right but I'll try) one is called Kabbalah and the other one is called gan—I'm sorry Gandusha or "Gan-doo-sha". Kabbalah and Gandusha. Kabbalah is when you fill your mouth with the oil and hold it there for a couple of minutes before swirling it around the mouth and spitting it out. You do that for 3 or 4 minutes repeat it 2 or 3 times. The other technique the Gandusha is the technique of holding the oil still in the mouth but you don't really swish it around, you just hold it in there for 3-5 minutes and then you spit it out and then repeat as necessary. I mean, I didn't know about these two techniques these official techniques, I just put the—I use coconut oil and I'll explain why I use coconut oil--but I put coconut oil about a tablespoon, and I just swish it around like it's mouthwash. Maybe not as vigorously but I just you know—the word oil pulling comes from that swishing process so you pull the oil from one side to the other. If you're not careful, you can do it too hard.
At least for me, some of it you spit out which gets messy, so you don't have to do it so hard, but that's what you do. You kind of swish it around and move it from one side of the mouth to the other or technically you pull it from one side of the mouth to the other. It traps the bacteria like streptococcus mutans, you spit it out and you're decreasing what is called the biofilm--the biomass--and that helps with, it should help with gingivitis and just overall gum and tooth health.
And listen, it's worked awesome for me. In my family we have a history of receding gum lines. Receding gum lines usually for most people occur because of gingivitis periodontal disease but there is a family connection, a genetic connection, and it does run in our family. It's on my mom's side. All of my sisters deal with it, my mom dealt with it, my aunts. Almost everybody on my mom's side was affected a little bit but receding gum lines and what is that? Receding gum lines is simply where the gum recedes. It pulls up.
You know, if you're talking about your top teeth, for instance, the gum recedes up leaving a space then between the gum and the tooth and that just exposes the root a little bit and it can be painful. There are different degrees of it and I think that's actually how the dentist will diagnose it. You'll get different numbering system so like a receding gum line #1 is just a small little space. Number 2 is a larger space. Number 3 is a space that actually needs surgery and what they do is, they take a piece a tissue from the top of your mouth and then just suture it in filling in that space that's been created because the gum receded.
And by the way, that's ultimately how most dentists handle it. Now, if receding gum line is diagnosed as #1 or #2 sometimes the laser treatments help a little bit. With laser treatments what they're doing is, they stick the laser catheter down into the pocket of the gum, the deep pocket, and they shoot the laser and it kills the bacteria. And that's what oil pulling is doing as well. It's killing the bacteria. So, I decided I was going to go—and, you know, I do have on my upper jaw on the left side, I have a couple of teeth that the gums are starting to recede. Probably on one tooth #1 and another tooth #2 and #2, that root is about the be exposed so I definitely don't want to happen. And
so, I thought, "Let me do this. Let me do a 6 month experiment with oil pulling." never did it before but I have a lot of friends in alternative medicine who just love it. They talk about it all the time and so I thought, "Okay. Let me just give it a try." So, I said I was going to do this for 6 months and just see what might happen. Historically speaking, people will talk about cleaner teeth , plaque formation goes down, the gums are healthier, no more bleeding gum, no more gingivitis, and in some cases, people talk about the gum line improving and even increasing for those that have receding gum lines. So, I thought, let me just give it a shot.
I did choose coconut oil. I do think that is the best oil to use. Coconut oil has three primary saturated fats in it so, by the way, when you first use coconut oil, when you scoop it out, about a tablespoon out of the jar, it's a solid fat. It's saturated. So, saturated fats are solids at room temperature. So, it's solid and it's kind of weird when it first goes in your mouth but you just start swishing it around. For me, a tablespoon after about ten minutes, it starts to become very liquid and at that point I believe the process is pretty much done. So, once it becomes real easy to swish it around almost like it's water you can spit it out, rinse your mouth out, brush your teeth at that point. I did that for...Gosh, I did that for—it hasn't really technically been 6 months yet.
It's been about 5 months and the results have been amazing. One of the key saturated fats in the coconut oil is called lauric acid and there's some good evidence that it actually is beneficial in fighting streptococcus mutans and it's worked wonders for me. My teeth are better, my gums are healthier, and I really do believe it does seem that the receding part of my gum has improved. I know. It's crazy! But it's working. Oil pulling. I do it every day. So, give it a shot if you have some gum issues and some oral issues. It might help.
This is Healthy Talk on RadioMD. I'm Dr. Mike. Stay well. - Length (mins) 10
- Waiver Received No
- Internal Notes NO GUEST
- Host Mike Smith, MD
Listen in as Dr. Mike provides the answers to a wealth of health and wellness questions.
Additional Info
- Segment Number 5
- Audio File healthy_talk/1518ht4e.mp3
- Organization Life Extension
- Guest Website Healthy Talk MD
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Transcription
RadioMD Presents: Healthy Talk | Original Air Date: April 30, 2015
Host: Michael Smith, MD
RadioMD. It's time to ask Dr. Mike. Do you have a question about your health? Dr. Mike can answer your questions. Just email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call now: 877-711-5211. The lines are open.
DR MIKE: Gary G. sent me an email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.:
"My total testosterone is low but my free T (free testosterone) is high. How could that be? Am I missing something? Thanks."
Great. Gary this is a good question. I think more and more of us, men and women, are checking our hormones. As a longevity doctor, healthy longevity doctor, hormones are definitely an important part of the tools I use not only in my own body but in other people to help them live healthier and longer. And we're just seeing more and more people testing hormones; seeing where they're at. So, I think this is a great opportunity to talk about what might be going on here because this is something common. Well, I don't want to say it's common but it's not uncommon. Gary, it's not uncommon that we see this. So, your total testosterone is low.
Okay, so that one is easy to explain. Your testicles are not producing as much testosterone. There's the type of cell in the testicle called the Leydig cell. They just become dysfunctional. Many of them die off. You're just not producing as much testosterone. That's number one. Then, of course, the testosterone you are producing, once it gets out in your system, it gets into certain tissue like fat, it can turn into estrogen more. Other types of cells like muscles and stuff like that, even in hair follicles, it can turn into a more potent form of testosterone called DHT. So, your body's not making as much testosterone and what you are making more of, it is converted into estrogens and DHT.
So, that's why total amount goes down. And in most cases, Gary, most men that's followed by a drop in free testosterone as well but in your case your free testosterone, I'm assuming, has remained normal or gone up a little bit. And so the first thing that I would do is, I would re-test. I would make sure that this isn't a lab error.
I mean, technically speaking if total testosterone drops, free testosterone should drop as well. So, that might be the first thing is just double check. Make sure we're looking at some real numbers here and if you do that and sure enough total is down, and free is remaining the same or a little higher, okay, well then, we've got to explain what could be going on. Well, one of the things that we have discovered over the past few years since more people are checking their hormones is there's a—these steroid hormones, by the way, Gary, are fat based. They come from cholesterol. Cholesterol makes pregnenolone, pregnenolone then makes all these steroid hormones: progesterone, DHEA, testosterone, estrogen. So, these are fat-based, cholesterol-based compounds.
And they have to travel in your watery blood stream, so they need a carrier molecule to do that and that carrier molecule is kind of like the truck that can swim in the bloodstream and inside the truck is the steroid hormones and other types of fats called a sex hormone binding globulin. It's just a fancy way of saying a protein that carries the testosterone. And what we have found as men get older, in most cases--I'm going to give you the common scenario. In most cases, as the testosterone levels drop in a weird way for most men, the sex hormone binding globulin goes up. Sounds weird but it just—for some reason we don't make as much of the product but we make more of the trucks to carry the product.
And so, when testosterone levels drop, we can often see a huge drop in free testosterone because you've got so many trucks out there that are binding to the testosterone that are holding onto it that are not releasing it to become free testosterone in the tissue. So, the normal scenario is as a man gets older total testosterone drops, free testosterone really comes down and sex hormone binding globulin actually goes up a little bit. It's kind of weird. That's the common scenario but we do, now that we're checking enough labs, we are seeing that there are some guys out there, and women included in this, do the opposite.
As total testosterone drops they actually make less sex hormone binding globulin allowing more of the testosterone to be released to the tissue and become free. I don't know if I have an explanation. I'm just telling you what we see in the labs. You might just be one of those people, Gary, who, for whatever reason, your sex hormone binding globulin, the truck that carries the testosterone, you're not making as much of it and it's just releasing the testosterone more readily into the tissue to maintain a higher level of free testosterone. That's probably more ideal.
So, your body is actually a little more optimized for all this, Gary. I can tell you in my personal experience I was not like you. I was more of the average guy. My body was not optimized for this. I lost some testosterone, sex hormone binding globulin went up and I lost a lot of free testosterone because of that. But your body is actually handling the loss of testosterone a little bit better. I would expect your sex hormone binding globulin.
Gary, is probably a little bit lower than mine was. That might explain why you're able to maintain a more optimal, ideal level of free testosterone. But, again, that would be uncommon, Gary. We do see it so you might want to first just check again. Repeat the labs and if that's the case, that's awesome. You're free.
So, I would, for someone like you, it's really more important to look at that free testosterone and as long as that's in a nice optimal range for guys, you may not have to do anything at this point. And just ask your doctor to check the sex hormone binding globulin as well. Now, for the guys that are more like me, I'm going to change the scenario here.
So, I'm not really speaking to Gary. Now I'm talking to myself. What about that scenario which is more common where you lose testosterone, your sex hormone binding globulin goes up, free testosterone really crashes. What can you do to help get some of that testosterone you are making off the truck? The sex hormone binding globulin. What can you do? There isn't a lot of good research here but things like nettle's root, stinging nettle's root has been shown to help, cruciferous vegetable extracts have been shown to help to maybe offload some of that free testosterone.
Great question, Gary. Thank you. I could talk a long time about hormones.
As a matter of fact, we're going to talk about hormones again. This time thyroid. This comes from Elizabeth who read about reverse T3 at Life Extension, so she says—or she writes:
"I've been on thyroid medication for two years and it's helped a little bit. I still have constipation and fatigue. Should I check a reverse T3, something I read about at Life Extension. Thanks, Elizabeth."
Yes. I think you're right on so let's explain what's happening here. The thyroid gland, which is in the neck, mostly produces what is called T4 and T4 then travels throughout the body, gets into the tissue and it converts into the more active form of thyroid hormone called T3. And T3 is really what gives you the thyroid effect in the tissue. I mean T4 helps a little bit but the main job of T4 is just to get to the tissue: muscles, brain, heart, whatever, gut, nerves.
And then once it's there, it turns into T3 which is really the workhorse of the hormone. So, what happens in many cases when we're not producing the T4, we have hypothyroid. We have to go on medication. And most of the medications or the most common medication is called Synthroid. That's what most people are on and it's only T4. And that T4 gets to the tissue and for a variety or reasons, it doesn't convert into T3.
So, people still have symptoms of low thyroid. That's probably why it's better, Elizabeth, to do some of the more natural thyroid product, desiccated pig for instance, there's Nature-Thyroid and there's different ones out there but these are medications that provide T4 and T3, so that might help right there. But the other thing is, if you want, you can check this thing called reverse T3.
What happens is when T4 does get...Let's say it's Synthroid, your medication which is T4, gets to the tissue and instead of turning into T3, it turns into this thing called reverse T3. It's basically kind of like the mirror image of T3, but it doesn't work. It's non-functional. So, you might want to check that. If reverse T3 is high, then it's a sign that your T4 is not converting properly and one of the most common reasons for that is stress, cortisol. So, do something like DHEA to bring cortisol levels down.
This is Healthy Talk on RadioMD. I'm Dr. Mike. Stay well. - Length (mins) 10
- Waiver Received No
- Internal Notes NO GUEST
- Host Mike Smith, MD
Listen in as Dr. Mike provides the answers to a wealth of health and wellness questions.
Additional Info
- Segment Number 4
- Audio File healthy_talk/1518ht4d.mp3
- Organization Life Extension
- Guest Website Healthy Talk MD
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Transcription
RadioMD Presents: Healthy Talk | Original Air Date: April 30, 2015
Host: Michael Smith, MD
You're listening to RadioMD. It's time to Ask Dr. Mike on Healthy Talk. Call or email to ask your questions now. Email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call 877-711-5211. The lines are open.
DR MIKE: So, my first question is a follow up. I had a guest on recently that was talking about the toxic pathway of cancers. His name was Raymond Francis. And I think his book is Fear Cancer No More. Something like that. But we were talking about the home environment, more specifically things like toothpaste and we got around to talking about carpets.
Yes. Like, carpets in your home and how toxic they can actually be. And it brought to mind also a book that I read probably a decade ago and it was one of the first times I had heard about how polluted our homes are. The indoor environment can be worse than the outdoor environment. And the name of that book and I don't—I'm so sorry I don't remember the author's name but the name of the book is My Sick Home you can probably Google it. Our Sick Home--something along those lines. It was one of the first books that really was talking about indoor toxins, so this question is a follow up to that.
"One of your guests mentioned that carpets are full of toxins. What toxins? And, will steam cleaning them help?"
So, we didn't get into the specific toxins in that show so I just did my own research here and it turns out that carpets are full of things called VOC's, volatile organic compounds, VOC's. Volatile simply means the compound can leave solution very easily. It can leave the surface it's on very easily, get into the air and of course once that happens, once it's in the air as a gas you breathe it in and your lungs are good at filtering things but if these compounds get into the actual air-sacs, that's just an easy entryway right into the bloodstream.
So, the lungs on one hand are really good at filtering certain things but once these volatile compounds, which they do easily get into those air-sacs, once that happens, these compounds do get into your system.
Quite easily actually. And what's concerning is there's different groups of VOC's and probably the most scary group are the ones that end in "ene". When you see a group of chemicals in anything, in this case carpet, and they all end in the letters "E" as in Edward, "N" as in Nancy, and "E" as in Edward, "ene", that's bad. Most of them are based on a very known carcinogen called benzene, b-e-n-z-e-n-e, benzene. And there's different types here. There's styrene, toluene they're all basically these benzene type carcinogens and that's exactly what I found is in carpet.
These are compounds that are anti-mold, anti-yeast, anti-microbial. In general, they are also compounds. Benzene is a ring structure. In chemistry it forms a ring. Organic benzene is an organic compound that forms a ring and that ring structure actually acts as a good barrier to things. So these benzene type VOC's also not only do they prevent molds and stuff from getting on, they can resist staining and that type of stuff which is why they use them.
It got me thinking, "Gosh, well, okay what about..." I just saw a commercial recently about stain-free carpet. You know, some big sale going on at some carpet store and it sounds great but then you've got to think. "Wow, they are probably coating that stuff in these benzene, styrene, those VOC's that end in "ene" type things and they are carcinogens and they are volatile. They do leave the carpet. They do get in the air. You do breathe them in and they are direct carcinogens." Not only that, these benzene type VOC's have been known to cause nerve problems, cardiovascular problems, but ultimately they are carcinogens.
And you have to be especially careful when it's new carpet. If you ever get new carpet or you move into an apartment with new carpet you probably do want to steam clean it as much as you can with a mask maybe and maybe even before you move in. Really clean it up as best you can. I know in some cases you can't really do much about it, especially if you're renting a place but wooden floors with wool rugs are much better for you. So, you know this whole idea "will steam cleaning help?" I really couldn't find much there. My thought is it might help a little bit. I mean steam cleaning is going to heat them up. Now, of course, you're heating the carpet up when you steam clean. What does that mean? Well, that means some of those volatile organic compounds can be released more so you have to be careful.
You've got to be sure you have a good vacuum system with that steam cleaner to really pick up the VOC's so they don't get into the air. You probably do want to use a mask or something when you are steam cleaning carpet, especially brand new carpet. And you don't want to store carpet in your home. As a matter of fact, that book I read about ten years ago, the guy who wrote it was one of your original house flippers. That's really big now but ten years ago that was just kind of getting going and he was one of the original guys.
He talked about a lot of these older homes that he was renovating in the Northeast having an extra bedroom just full of used carpet just rolled up and that's not good. So, carpets do have these VOC's. In particular the types of VOC's in carpet seem to be the ones that end in the "ene" the benzene, toluene, styrene-these are known carcinogens. Steam cleaning might help but wear a mask because you're going to heat those chemicals up and release them into the air. So, make sure you've got a good vacuum steam cleaning system.
Okay next question:
"Can you please explain why saturated fats may not be so bad after all?"
I think this comes from another segment I did, too. I love having follow up questions. I've had Dr. Steven Sinatra on and he was a co-author of a book called The Cholesterol Myth and we talked a lot about—the idea was in the 80's that saturated fat raised cholesterol levels and guess what? It does. Saturated fat does raise bad cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, but what we've now learned, though, is there are different types of LDL cholesterol. That's why it's important to, in my opinion, don't just rely on the standard cholesterol test that your doctor may do. I do know that your yearly exam that looks at total cholesterol, LDL, HDL, and triglycerides but the problem is there's different types of LDL.
There's different types of HDL that you're not teasing out in that basic workup. There's more advanced cholesterol testing. One is called a VAP test V-A-P and there are other ones out there but what those more advanced tests do, is they look at that LDL cholesterol and they tease out what type it is. There's LDL cholesterol that's very dense, very small and dense. That stuff filters through the vessel wall. That is what causes the arterial plaque. There are other types of LDL cholesterol that doesn't do that. It is more buoyant. It's larger and we kind of refer to it as fluffy. That type of larger LDL cholesterol does not get into the vessel very readily and it actually gets to the liver where it's processed. And what we now know, based on some really good research is that saturated fats increase LDL cholesterol but it's the big fluffy type, it's the more buoyant, large LDL molecule, not the small dense one.
So, saturated fat. If you eat a lot of saturated fat and you look at just the standard cholesterol test that your doctor does, yes, LDL cholesterol starts going up, our doctor gets worried, cuts out your saturated fat and you replace it with a bunch of sugar and things get worse. If you were to actually do an advanced cholesterol test you would know with the saturated fat diet, you're actually increasing the LDL that is more, if I can say, healthier. It's still LDL cholesterol. It still can be oxidized. It still can be a problem but saturated fat raises that type of LDL cholesterol that is not quite so bad. So a little saturated fat in your diet is okay.
This is Healthy Talk on RadioMD.
I'm Dr. Mike. Stay well. - Length (mins) 10
- Waiver Received No
- Internal Notes NO GUEST
- Host Mike Smith, MD
Are you allowed to just one cheat meal or several?
Additional Info
- Segment Number 3
- Audio File healthy_talk/1518ht4c.mp3
- Featured Speaker Chazz Weaver, MA
- Book Title The O.C. Diet Revolution
- Guest Website Chazz Live
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Guest Bio
Dieting Counselor and Fitness Coach, Chazz Weaver, M.A., is the Founder of ChazzLive.com, a streaming health and fitness video network. Chazz holds both a Bachelor's degree and a Master's degree from UCLA and Syracuse Universities and is a PhD Candidate in Psychology, pursuing his interest in the mental health aspects of weight loss. With over 30 years of experience in fitness training and weight loss coaching, Chazz Weaver has been interviewed by ABC News, Fox News, the Los Angeles Times, CBS News Radio, GoodMorningAmerica.com and many others.
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Transcription
RadioMD Presents: Healthy Talk | Original Air Date: April 30, 2015
Host: Michael Smith, MD
Healthy Talk with Dr. Michael Smith, MD. And now, here's the country doctor with the city education, Dr. Mike:
DR. MIKE: So, what are the do's and don'ts of cheating on your diet? My guest is Chazz Weaver who does say cheating on your diet can actually be beneficial if you do it in the right way. He has a great website ChazzLive.com and holds a couple of Master's degrees. He's a Ph.D. candidate in psychology; he is about 60 years old and in my last segment Chazz said to go to his site. So, I did, Chazz. I went to your site ChazzLive.com and what pops up is a very young, very muscular looking 60-year-old guy. Is that you?
CHAZZ: That's me.
DR. MIKE: (laughing) Well, listen. That's important, right? I think it's easy to talk about things but you're actually living the lifestyle and this website looks really interesting. Tell us a little bit about just real quickly--maybe a minute or so--about how you got started in all this the stuff that you do.
CHAZZ: Well, it's quite interesting and, this was in my late teens--right out of high school about a year or so--and I kind of got into the labor market, if you will, and doing construction that kind of stuff and what happened is I went to go play a game of basketball with some friends.
Now my mind was still telling me I was this kid in high school but my body sure told me it no longer was, just after being out of high school a year, year and a half. So back then, we didn't really have the information on fitness that we do today, so I started researching and looking into getting in shape and the more I did, the more I found out the long-term benefits that I could really derive from being in shape. Interesting thing, Dr. Mike is that during my 20's, 30's and even into my 40's people would say "Oh, you're just a young kid, wait 'til you get older!" Well now that I'm 60 and generally people start to—
DR. MIKE: You can't say that anymore! (laughing)
CHAZZ: Exactly. Well maybe he knows something that I don't know. And it's not extremes and so that's the reason I got into it for personal benefit long-term. And then as you see some of the older people...
DR. MIKE: Yes. ChazzLive.com.
Let's go—so you sent me a nice little list of do's and don'ts when it comes to the cheating meal, which we already talked about, and the benefits of that. It actually may help with their diet more. Don't deny yourself the flavors and textures you like. Have that reward once in a while, but it needs to be controlled. We're not talking about bingeing.
Why don't we do this? Why don't we just quickly—let's see. I think you sent me 1,2,3,4 do's: do cheat at night, do cheat with carbs, do schedule your cheat, and do know your tolerance. Why don't we just go through those in the next couple minutes, Chazz? Talk about cheating at night. Why is that a do?
CHAZZ: Well, the do at night is more because don't do during the day. At night, you're already at home; you're going to be going to bed in a while; you wind up with this cheat meal; you're nice and satisfied and then, all of a sudden, you're going to wind up going to sleep at night and then you get back up on the same track.
DR. MIKE: I see it now. Chazz, I read this—Okay, this is kind of funny. I was thinking there was some...Being the medical doctor, I'm always thinking about physiology and is there something with—I read here "cheating at the end of the day reduces the risk of cheating again later". I mean, that's pretty much it, right?
CHAZZ: Yes. I try to keep it as simple as I can Dr. Mike (laughing).
DR. MIKE: (laughing) I'm the one that tries to complicate everything.
CHAZZ: And, really, when we look at it like that, because I've seen it over the course of years, people who generally wind up cheating in the morning or the afternoon have a higher probability of keeping that cheat meal and moving it into "cheat day" if you will. So, if we look at it at night and this comes back to the psychology as well as the physiology of it, you lower that probability of extending that cheat meal beyond where it should be.
DR. MIKE: Yes. What about do cheat with carbs? That's going to sound crazy for some people what do you mean by that?
CHAZZ: Yes and, again, I go back to the way that people restrict their calories and, again, the human body is so efficient, it's going to get used to it, one. And then, two, it's just going to drain itself from its own stores. Well, carbohydrates, you're going to wind up...And, again, I'm talking some complex carbohydrates. We're not talking necessarily just sugar or straight sugar, if you will. So, with carbohydrates you're going to get that taste that you like, the added sweetness that we crave as humans. But it's also going to help replenish what the muscles have lost while you're also exercising or your activity program during this calorie restrictive diet you're on to lose body fat. So, carbs are actually really great and it's one thing that really helps us with our glycogen level within the muscles as well.
DR. MIKE: What about scheduling the cheat? Now, I think what you mean here is we do want to schedule when we're going to have that cheat meal. So, is it like a consistent one meal a week type thing? Is that what you mean by scheduling the cheat?
CHAZZ: Yes. What you want to do is like anything else. You just don't want to come off the cuff and this even goes back to our eating patterns as humans. You know, we want to schedule how we eat. We need to learn how to eat. Most people think they do but they really don't because they're just eating from instinct. So, by scheduling it you keep everything on track to accomplish your goals. The other part about it is, I was mentioning before our break, is that for me and where I'm at with my activity level, I actually cheat about 30% of the time and 70% of the time, I keep food as a tool. So, that's the way I schedule my particular eating patterns out and depending on what I'm doing. Now, let's say I want to lose some more body fat. Well, I'm going to adjust those throughout my life depending on where I want to get to. Does that make sense to you, Dr. Mike?
DR. MIKE: Yes, it did. It did. What about this: "Do know your tolerance"? Do you mean by the types—if I know I'm—like, I love cheese, Chazz. If I was ever on a diet, I would probably somehow in my cheat meal have a lot of cheese but I have to know I could overdo that. Is that what you mean by knowing kind of your boundaries a little bit? Am I on the right track?
CHAZZ: Yes, you are because a lot of people will wind up almost kind of like a food addiction, if you will, to certain foods and so, what you want to avoid—and, again, this is not for your entire life. It's to get to your goal that you want to get to. And what you want to do is, you want to avoid the foods that actually made you overweight or gain a lot of body fat. So, if you have a propensity, as you just stated, to cheese you may want to stay away from it. You want to really know yourself.
DR. MIKE: But I like it so much, Chazz.
CHAZZ: Ah! Well, again, I'm not saying "don't". I'm just saying know your tolerance, though.
DR. MIKE: I watch it though. Listen, I do watch my calories. I control what I eat but I like the texture and taste, so I enjoy a little cheese once in a while. This brings us to the first "don't" that you listed, by the way. So, you have "don't" cheat with foods that made you fat, right? I mean, that makes sense.
CHAZZ: Correct.
DR. MIKE: So, if I was overeating cheese that would be the one thing that I would have to start eliminating?
CHAZZ: Correct and I saw your picture. You're in great shape. I saw that. It's awesome but you take somebody, let's say, 40 or 50 pounds overweight and they want to get to that goal. It may not be a great idea for them to go ahead and have that cheese. Wait until all of a sudden you've dropped and then introduce it slowly so you don't wind up with those cravings.
DR. MIKE: Let me do this. So, we only have about a minute or so and there's a few more "don'ts". Let me just read the "don'ts" here and we'll see what we can get to. Okay, we just talked about don't cheat with the foods that made you fat. Obviously, got to be careful there. Don't binge. Don't feel guilty. Don't make cheat meals your life. Let's talk about the "don't feel guilty" because that's a tough one for people. You're on a diet. You're not supposed to cheat, Chazz, so, I mean, how do we overcome that?
CHAZZ: That's the big thing. You don't want to feel guilty. So, you want to surround yourself with people that are trying to accomplish the same goal. What I try to tell people is, "Look you want to understand you're allowing yourself to do this and you know what? If you do go off the wagon a little bit, don't harp on it just get back on the next day." So, it's then really important that you don't wind up constantly feeling guilty.
DR. MIKE: Let's leave it there, Chazz. The website is ChazzLive.com. Go check it out right now. Take a look at him. He is really walking the walk, you know? And doing a great job. Thanks for coming on today, Chazz. I appreciate it. Good luck with everything that you're doing.
This is Healthy Talk on RadioMD. I'm Dr. Mike. Stay well. - Length (mins) 10
- Waiver Received No
- Host Mike Smith, MD
