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/1513ht1e.mp3
- Organization Life Extension
- Guest Website Healthy Talk MD
-
Transcription
RadioMD Presents: Healthy Talk | Original Air Date: March 23, 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 AskDrMikeSmith@RadioMD.com or call now: 877-711-5211. The lines are open.
DR. MIKE: Alright. Just so you know, I do have a different number just for little bit of time 844-305-7800. Please go ahead and give me a call or send me your email questions as well.
So, we're going to move on to, I think this is a really good question by Bart Taylor. Well, actually I don't know if it's from Bart, the email is from Bart but then it says. "Love your shell, Michelle." So I'm not sure if this is from Bart or Michelle, either one of those.
"Hi Dr. Mike: We're learning a lot about antioxidants lately. It's clear we need some antioxidants. The body does use oxidant signaling to start anti-inflammatory cascades. Of course, you can take too many antioxidants through food or supplements but how do you tell where the sweet spot is? Where you are cooling off excess oxidation with some supplementation but not shutting down beneficial reactions?"
I think this is a really good question. And I think the answer, Michelle or Bart, really comes down to balance. You're right. The body does use certain oxidants to run certain reactions. Just look at the immune system. I've talked before with cancer patients during cold and flu season about the importance of natural killer cells, for instance. Natural killer cells are kind of your front line immune warriors. They're surveying your blood. They're ready to attack a virus or a bacteria that comes into your blood system. And they do so with oxidants. That's how they do it. They're able to inject pro-oxidants into a bacteria or a virus and that disrupts the membrane of the virus or the bacteria and it kills them. So, yes, in theory I could overload on anti-oxidants and shut out a little bit of the function of the natural killer cell and put myself at risk for infection.
I meant, that is, in theory, what could happen. And so, again, I think it comes back to this idea of balance. Here's another example. If I lived in a bubble where all exogenous toxins and infectious agents and everything were just taken out of the equation and I just lived in this bubble, my body would have a certain amount of pro-oxidant production that would be countered perfectly by my body's own production of anti-oxidants. It's kind of like for every oxidant that's formed and does its job, then there's this antioxidant that comes along and shuts it out until the next time I have an oxidant.
That would be like this perfect balance. But here's the thing. The problem with all this is that we don't live in bubbles anymore. I mean we live in an atmosphere where certain radiation from the sun comes through, even though our atmosphere blocks a lot of that, some of that still comes through.
We have our own bodies produce a lot of these oxidants. We have toxins in our environment today like we've never seen before and most of them are pro-oxidants causing oxidative stress. A lot of the preservatives that we use in foods today. That's a great thing. I think sometimes we forget that we live in such an awesome day and age. We're so blessed that we're able to have food on a shelf for a long time. That's pretty amazing when you think about that and that's a good thing to a point. But when we're consuming that stuff over and over again, then there's a problem. So, unfortunately, this little bubble doesn't exist. It's popped.
By the way, I live and you live, we live in an environment that is more oxidative than it's ever been. Pollution, preservatives. All that right? Let alone what my own body produces. So when you put all that together, we are imbalanced. If we're on a see-saw and one side of the see-saw is pro-oxidants and the other side is antioxidants, the side with the pro-oxidants is like a 500 pound guy sitting on it and the anti-oxidant side is like a 80 pound 12-year-old girl or something. I don't know. You just get that in your head. We're totally, totally balanced towards the bad stuff--the oxidants. So, even though in theory, Michelle or Bart, I think this is a good question, that you have to be careful about how much you're taking in, in terms of anti-oxidants from food and supplementation when you actually look at the reality of the lives that we're living today. We need more anti-oxidants.
We need to balance that see-saw better. We need to get rid of these toxins. We need to counter the preservatives. We need to take in more anti-oxidants. And I know there's been some cell culture studies that have actually looked at certain very strong anti-oxidants like curcumin, for instance, even CoQ10, pomegranate. I mean they've looked at these traditionally used anti-oxidants either through food or supplements. In petri dish studies, they've shown that curcumin, for instance, can actually turn on pro-inflammatory pathways, if you get too much of it in. The problem with those studies, Michelle and Bart, is that in those little petri dishes, they've created kind of like this little bubble. They've created a bubble and they've thrown in a bunch of anti-oxidants, so now they've created an imbalance and they're showing some adverse effect from it.
Because when you do those same studies, which they've done this, you take that same petri dish, you add pro-oxidants into it first and then you add curcumin, you get a good result. And I think it just goes to this idea that we just need to be in balance. We need some oxidation, but we have to counter that with anti-oxidation. We live in an environment today that's very pro-oxidant, so we need to probably add in more anti-oxidants.
Now in your own words here, Michelle or Bart, where's the sweet spot? I mean, I don't know how to answer that. That's really up to the individual. The sweet spot for anti-oxidant use for somebody that lives in a bubble is going to be none because your own body makes its own antioxidants and you're going to be able to cover the pro-oxidants that are just formed through normal metabolism. So that person, the bubble living person, their sweet spot is going to be really low when it comes to anti-oxidant use. They don't need much. But burst that bubble and place that person in a city environment and they're working, maybe they're mechanic, and they're working with lots of industrial chemicals. That person's sweet spot is much higher, isn't it? They're going to require a lot more anti-oxidants. So, there is no generalized sweet spot for anti-oxidant use. I just know we need anti-oxidants today because the average person is living in an environment that is very pro-oxidant. We need to eat more fruits and vegetables--the deep dark colored ones: 7, 8, 9, 10 servings. Not the 3 or 4 that the government talks about. That's silly.
And probably supplementing with some known anti-oxidants like pomegranate, CoQ10, Omega oils, curcumin. I think that's all very important important because I know the average person in the developed world is balanced toward oxidation. And I've got to rebalance that back towards anti-oxidation. So, where that sweet spot is it's really hard to tell and it's just going to be an individual answer.
I think I'm going to skip this one question because I think it's going to take a little more time. Let me go to a question real quickly about "What role does the FDA play in the overall development of dietary supplements?"
It's a myth that the FDA doesn't regulate the supplement industry. They do. They just don't regulate pre-market launch of a product like they do with drugs. Instead, it's all post-market regulation. They do look at product label claims. They look at how a product is being marketed. The FDA does pull off random products to test to make sure the label claims--that the ingredients--on the label are actually in that product at that right dose. So, the FDA does regulate the supplement industry. They make us follow GMP manufacturing and they can post-market evaluate products. So, they do have a role.
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/1513ht1d.mp3
- Organization Life Extension
- Guest Website Healthy Talk MD
-
Transcription
RadioMD Presents: Healthy Talk | Original Air Date: March 23, 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: AskDrMikeSmith@RadioMD.com or call now: 877-711-5211. The lines are open.
DR. MIKE: So, in case you want to call in today, I have a different number. I have 844-305-7800 that is 844-305-7800.
I would love to talk to you on air but, of course, you can always just send me your email questions as well.
So, this one came from Virginia Ross. She says, "I'm being treated with three medications for blood pressure: Lisinopril 200 mg twice a day, Lopressor 500 mg twice a day, and Norvasc--that's a calcium channel blocker--at 5 mg a day." And then, she also added that she is also taking thyroid medication. "My blood pressure still high, the top number ranges up to 130 to 155 the bottom number is okay. I try to exercise and walk; however, I just don't have the energy, plus my legs hurt and ache. So, please help if you can."
Well, I think there are two issues here. I think your bottom number, Virginia, you know that 60-70 range that is good. The top number, though, that is high. I would like to see that more around 110. I know your doctor probably says 120. I think that's still a little too high. I think that optimal blood pressure is 110/70. I think when I was in medical school we learned 120/80 was kind of the target, but I think that's a little too high. I think that needs come down. And remember, out of the 17 heart disease risk factors, next to smoking, I put blood pressure right at the top the list. So, I do want to see those top numbers come down.
Now before I answer the question--because I think I'm going to need just to make some supplements suggestions that you could add to the medications. Of course, talk to your own doctor. I'm just giving suggestions here. I'm not your doctor. I will say something, though, about the not being able to walk or exercise too much because you don't have energy.
Well, first of all, you're on thyroid medication, so if I were your doctor I would want to know if you're being properly medicated for your low thyroid condition? So, you wrote down here that you're on Synthroid.
I don't know the dose so and I don't know where your thyroid profile is. I think that's really important because we want you to exercise. We know that it's incredibly important for the cardiovascular system, but if you can't do it because your thyroid is not being properly replaced--your thyroid hormone--you know that's going to make it difficult. And then, Virginia, add into this the fact that you know you have a couple medications here. The Lopressor and the Norvasc--they're kind of known for wiping energy out. So here you have a thyroid condition that may or may not be treated properly and you're on medications--a beta blocker and a calcium channel blocker that are known to cause low-energy.
So, yes, I don't blame you. I really believe you that you're trying to walk but you just don't have energy. I get it. So I think you're on it here's the good news. We're not talking about anything major here we're just talking about maybe 10 more points or so, maybe 15 or 20 more points from your top number. So, I think you're a perfect candidate to really talk to your doctor about maybe getting rid of one of the medications, either Lopressor or the Norvasc. I would keep the Lisinopril. Get rid of one of those medications that are known to cause fatigue. Check your thyroid to make sure you're being treated properly and, if that's the case, and your thyroid numbers look okay, I would then add something like maybe pomegranate 100-200 mg a day. You could do milk peptides. That's when you take whey and you break it up into smaller pieces and when you take it, that can act as a blood pressure medication.
It's a supplement, but it acts in the same way as some of the medications we have. You could also do olive leaf extract that's another good suggestion. Grape seed extract is another good suggestion. So, there are things you can do. What your goal would be is to maybe take away one of the medications possibly causing some fatigue and replace it with a couple of those nutrients. I would personally do pomegranate and olive leaf extract and see if we can get a drop in that top number a little bit. Plus, you're going to have a little more energy because we took out one of those medications and now you're going to want to exercise more which is going have benefit towards blood pressure down the line as well. I've got to tell you though, a lot of this hinges on the thyroid, though. We've got to make sure your thyroid's being treated properly, so get that checked as well.
That's my suggestion for Virginia. Go ahead and talk to your doctor about getting rid of one of the medications, either the Lopressor or the Norvasc, and adding pomegranate and olive leaf extract. I hope that helps, Virginia.
Okay next question: "Can I take Vitamin K2 if I am on Coumadin? What dose should I take if I can take it?"
So, Coumadin is a blood thinner, although there's really no such thing as a blood thinner. What usually people mean by that is you are preventing a clot from forming and so you bleed. So, maybe that's where the idea of blood thinner came from. You bleed more easily. People who have had strokes, heart attacks, deep venous thrombosis--stuff like that--are put on the medication Coumadin. There are other ones out there that I think are a little bit better. They don't require as much monitoring, but this person here is on Coumadin, so that's fine.
How does Coumadin work? Well, in order to form a clot, the first thing that happens is platelets will form over the injury, the injured vessel, and then on top of the platelets what is called "thrombin". Eventually, fibrin will form over the platelets as the clot. In order for that to happen, you have to have vitamin K. Vitamin K is required to activate some of the proteins involved in forming a clot. Coumadin is a vitamin K antagonist. It blocks vitamin K from doing its thing and helping you to clot.
Now, vitamin K comes in two forms. It comes and K1 and it comes in K2. Vitamin K1 is the form of the vitamin involved in clot formation, so Coumadin is a vitamin K1 antagonist. So that means, to answer the question "Can you take vitamin K2," as long as your numbers are being followed and that you know your Coumadin numbers, you should be okay doing a vitamin K2. Now, vitamin K1 and K2, some doctors believe that they should be thought of as totally different vitamins. Vitamin K1, as I said, is in clot formation. Vitamin K2 is in calcium management and helps to put calcium into the bones. There are some doctors who just believe that they're two totally different vitamins. That's not totally true.
Vitamin K2 does have some effect on blood clotting, but for the most part, if somebody is on Coumadin, the vitamin K1 antagonist, they should be able to do some vitamin K2 which is extremely important for the cardiovascular system. You should be okay. Of course, talk to your doctor and make sure that's okay. By the way, if any my listeners are taking the drug Coumadin, also called Warfarin and your doctor has said don't take any vitamin K1 or don't eat leafy green vegetables--that kind of stuff--more and more research has shown that that's not true. To tell somebody not to eat leafy greens is just crazy. That's almost malpractice. I think what we've found is that if you're on Coumadin, you don't want to take a vitamin K1 supplement.
You still want to eat your leafy greens. You still want to get vitamin K1 from your diet. As a matter of fact, that helps Coumadin work better. That's the latest research. As far as dose goes, if you take vitamin K2, it comes in two forms MK-4 and MK-7. MK-4 is a thousand micrograms, which is 1 mg, and MK-7 is about 200 micrograms a day. That would be the dose range of the vitamin K2 and you want to see both of those on a label, MK-4 and MK-7.
So, yes, it should be okay. Talk to your doctor and there you go. That's vitamin K2.
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
What are 10 ways to help burn calories without going to a gym?
Additional Info
- Segment Number 3
- Audio File healthy_talk/1513ht1c.mp3
- Featured Speaker Joey Thurman, Health Expert
- Guest Website The Lifestyle Renovation
-
Guest Bio
Joey Thurman is a health, fitness, and nutrition expert and the creator of The Lifestyle Renovation, a website dedicated to helping people achieve their health and fitness goals. He has appeared on CBS, FOX, ABC, and WCIU sharing his insights as a celebrity fitness trainer and published author.
Joey's work has been featured in publications such as BodyBuilding.com, Racked, TimeOut Chicago, RedEye, and American Global Traveler. Joey is a fashion model represented by Chosen Model Management where he works with brands including Neiman Marcus, Abercrombie, Jockey, and Carson Pirie Scott.
He has also appeared on the covers of Healthy for Men and TimeOut Chicago. Joey is a Certified Personal Trainer (CPT) with the American Council on Exercise, a Fitness Nutrition Specialist (FNS) and a FITchef. -
Transcription
RadioMD Presents: Healthy Talk | Original Air Date: March 23, 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, I'm here with Joey Thurman. He's a Certified Personal Trainer with the American Council on Exercise and he started The Lifestyle Renovation. His website is TheLifestyleRenovation.com. So, there's a "the" in front of that. TheLifestyleRenovation.com.
Joey, welcome to Healthy Talk.
JOEY: Thank you, sir.
DR. MIKE: So we talked about sticking with your journey, setting those goals. Being realistic. Small, simple goals. I think that key thing there is what motivates you. Be realistic.
Let's go on now, though, because I was looking at some of your stuff, Joey. This is what really caught my eye: ten ways to burn 200 calories in less than an hour. Because, listen, we're not Brad Pitt. We don't have trainers following us around all day. We don't have 5 hours a day to work out. I'm sorry. I know it's important to work out, but I need something a little bit quicker.
JOEY: Yes.
DR. MIKE: (laughing) It's just what it is. So let's go into these. Give me the 10 ways that I can burn 200 calories.
JOEY: Sure. Simply jumping on a bike. All of these, by the way, you don't need a gym membership, which is what's great about this.
DR. MIKE: That's nice.
JOEY: Jump on a bike and ride around the neighborhood 30 minutes and burn about 210 calories at 10-12 mph, which is a nice ride around the neighborhood. Good on the legs. Very easy. Jumping rope. I love jumping rope. I had no idea how to jump rope as a kid, which is kind of funny. I learned how to do it in my 20's. Just jumping rope for 10-15 minutes will burn 200 calories. Everybody has 10-15 minutes in their day.
DR. MIKE: Wow. Yes.
JOEY: Another thing is climbing the stairs. Now, this is great because you also get a lot of muscle activation out of climbing the stairs. You can take the stairs in your office. You can go outside and find a set of stairs or a hill and climb that. Simply doing that for about 30 minutes will burn 200 calories. Now possibly, if you work even harder, you can burn more than 200 calories in 30 minutes. These are all just averages here.
DR. MIKE: Okay.
JOEY: Dancing. Doc, I'm sure you can get around the studio there and dance for about 40 minutes. You'll burn 216 calories.
DR. MIKE: You don't want to see me dancing, Joey. I don't know. No, no. That's not going to work.
JOEY: (laughing) Well, you know, I didn't say "good dancing", I just said "dancing".
DR. MIKE: Well. you know. Listen. I embarrass myself enough. I don't need to add dancing to that. (laughing)
JOEY: (laughing) Maybe we'll avoid dancing for you. Bowling. Bowling for about an hour will burn about 200 calories.
DR. MIKE: That I can do.
JOEY: Yes, you can do that. Hey, when you're bowling make sure not to order the pizza and the fried foods. That's the one thing you need to look out for. So, if you're in a bowling alley and you're ordering that, your 200 calories will pretty much go to waste there. Basketball playing basketball for 20 minutes basketball is great if you have short sprints and lateral movements, 20 minutes will burn 200 calories. But most people play basketball for about an hour, so you're going to burn that at least three-fold. And one of America's favorites: jogging.
This is one of the easiest things you can do. Just make sure you get a good pair of shoes, so you don't have these joint problems. Jogging for about 25 minutes will burn about 200-218 calories—a simple 25 minute jog. Also, a little note on that. You don't have to jog continuously the whole time. If you want to run for a block; walk for a block; run for a block; walk for a block. That's a great way to start. Everybody thinks that, "Okay, I need to get up and run a 5k." Don't. You can start walking and running just to reach that goal. Swimming 30 minutes will burn 215 calories. You don't need to be Michael Phelps. You can still burn that 215 calories.
Tennis. This is a great one here. Similar to basketball a lot of lateral movement and sprinting type movements for 25 minutes will burn 218 calories. And also, a basic training workout. This can be squats, sit-ups, push-ups, intervals of sprinting and running in place. That'll burn 200 calories in as little as 30 minutes and right there is a good 10 exercises you can do without having a gym at all.
DR. MIKE: Yes. It's interesting. Now, when you were going through a lot of these, even though we're promoting this as things you can do in less than an hour, some of these you're burning 200+ calories just in 30 minutes or so.
JOEY: Exactly.
DR. MIKE: This is very doable I think for a lot of people. Let me tell you what I do, joey. I kind of do a weird basic training thing. I have a border collie and she has to run. Like, I mean, she has to get out there all the time. She's a little older, so she's slowed down some, but I've got to get her out there to burn some of that energy. So, what I do is I run with her. She loves sticks and balls. So, I'll take a ball and I'll throw it and I'll race her to get. Now, of course, I don't come close to beating her every time.
JOEY: Yes. Who would?
DR. MIKE: But that's my way of exercising. Also, I'm not just throwing the ball. I actually go after it with her. So, I'm outside; I'm being active, right? I'm getting a little sweat going. I'm not overdoing it or anything but I'm using playtime with my dog to get my exercise in. And it works.
JOEY: Right.
DR. MIKE: I mean I feel like at the end that I got a decent little workout. So, I think these are wonderful. Now out of all these, what do you focus on personally, Joey?
JOEY: Well, I, myself, love playing tennis; getting outside in the summer and playing some tennis with my wife. It burns a lot of calories and I get a little tan, so I've got the best of both worlds right there; killing two birds with one stone.
DR. MIKE: Yes. Now, are these daily things we should be doing? Or, three times a week?
JOEY: This is easily attainable to do every single day. Now, I know most people aren't going to do that, but if you want to start on your way to losing weight or even just being healthier, if you do this a few days a week, even if it's 10-15 minutes of the jumping rope in the morning, you're going to burn 600 calories right there. So, if you change up your eating just a little bit and burn those 600 calories, the body fat is going to start coming off. Most importantly, you're going to start feeling better and then maybe you're going to want to be more active and go out and go for a hike or switch things up and go for a jog or play basketball or swim with your kids or walk your dog.
And what you're doing, Doc-- what you're not realizing is, you're doing interval training. You're throwing the ball. You're running to get the ball. You're stopping. You're taking a breather and you're throwing that ball again. That's a great way to exercise a lot of people don't realize. It's just getting up and moving.
DR. MIKE: Yes. And when I'm out with my dog, Joey, it honestly doesn't feel like exercise to me. That's important for someone like me. I tried the gym stuff. I struggled with that in my 20's and 30's. I forced myself to go.
JOEY: Mhmm.
DR. MIKE: Because to me going to the gym is like a job. I'm busy enough. I don't need another job. I promise you, I have plenty to do and that's what I felt like. Okay? I've got to get up. I took a shower, go to work. After that I went to the gym. It was so structured all the time. It was driving me crazy so I finally said, "No more." I got an active dog on purpose. You know, Border Collies are great. They've got to get out there and run. If they don't, they'll tear up your house. You have no choice but to get them out there and it works. It really does just feel like having fun and just releasing stress and it's really helpful for me.
JOEY: Right.
DR. MIKE: Let me ask you this. Do you find it better to work out with other people like a buddy system or does that really matter?
JOEY: Well, I think you need to find out what motivates you. If you're more likely to work out on your own and go to the gym or go for a run by yourself and you like that self-reflection time, that's great. But if you're more likely to get up and call a friend, a husband, a wife—anything--a neighbor, and say, "Hey, let's go for a walk right now. Let's play some tennis," that is definitely going to be more of a motivating factor, I believe, for the general public because you're out. You're doing something. You're being engaged. You're socializing. You're not realizing that you're working out. You can go out with your dog and throw the ball around and alternate turns. I'm sure that dog is going to have a lot more energy than the both of you.
DR. MIKE: Let me tell you something. You don't even know . (laughs) I mean, she can go for three or four hours and I finally have to bring her in.
JOEY: (laughing)
DR. MIKE: And when I'm looking at this list of ten, too. I can already see there are different ways of combining all these.
JOEY: Exactly.
DR. MIKE: You could bike for ten minutes and then do some jump-roping in the middle of your street. Do a little dance--whatever you want to do.
JOEY: (INAUDIBLE)
DR. MIKE: So, I'm here with Joey Thurman. Thank you so much for coming on. The website is TheLifestyleRenovation.com. Go check it out. You can learn a lot. Thanks for coming on, Joey.
This is Healthy Talk on RadioMD. I'm Dr. Mike. Stay well. - Length (mins) 10
- Waiver Received No
- Host Mike Smith, MD
When it comes to exercise, are you setting realistic goals?
Additional Info
- Segment Number 2
- Audio File healthy_talk/1513ht1b.mp3
- Featured Speaker Joey Thurman, Health Expert
- Guest Website The Lifestyle Renovation
-
Guest Bio
Joey Thurman is a health, fitness, and nutrition expert and the creator of The Lifestyle Renovation, a website dedicated to helping people achieve their health and fitness goals. He has appeared on CBS, FOX, ABC, and WCIU sharing his insights as a celebrity fitness trainer and published author.
Joey's work has been featured in publications such as BodyBuilding.com, Racked, TimeOut Chicago, RedEye, and American Global Traveler. Joey is a fashion model represented by Chosen Model Management where he works with brands including Neiman Marcus, Abercrombie, Jockey, and Carson Pirie Scott.
He has also appeared on the covers of Healthy for Men and TimeOut Chicago. Joey is a Certified Personal Trainer (CPT) with the American Council on Exercise, a Fitness Nutrition Specialist (FNS) and a FITchef. -
Transcription
RadioMD Presents: Healthy Talk | Original Air Date: March 23, 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, is your goal to get into shape? I mean, I think if you're an average American, that's probably a goal of yours. But so often, I think we don't succeed in that or we have some minor success or something. We lose a little weight, gain a little muscle only maybe to lose all of that because maybe we get bored with our routine or don't stick with our routine for a variety of reasons. Maybe your goals are too high. I don't know. There could be a lot of reasons for not sticking with your regimen. So, we're going to talk about some advice, some ways to stick with your journey, so that you can get into shape.
My guest is Joey Thurman. He's a Certified Personal Trainer with the American Council on Exercise and the creator of The Lifestyle Renovation, a website dedicated to helping people achieve their health and fitness goals. He's appeared on CBS, FOX, ABC and many others sharing his insights as a celebrity fitness trainer and published author. He's been seen on Bodybuilding.com and American Global Traveler. He's also appeared on the covers of Healthy for Men and Time Out Chicago.
Joey, welcome to Healthy Talk.
JOEY: Thank you, sir. Happy to be here.
DR MIKE: I appreciate you coming on. I think we've got to try and make this topic sexy. This is what people want because you know this is an important topic, right? But it's not something that is necessarily going to catch somebody's eye because so often I have patients, friends and relatives talk about how they want to get into shape. They want to do better. They want to eat better. They want to exercise. Maybe they get started, but so often two weeks later when I talk to them, they're not doing it anymore.
JOEY: That's right. They fall off the wagon right away.
DR MIKE: Yes. So, what's the first thing? So, you're talking to somebody, maybe my sister, for instance, who just called me up not that long ago wanting to get back into shape; back into a routine. What are some of the initial steps that she should be taking that are going to prepare her to succeed down the line?
JOEY: Right. Well, I think a lot of people don't realize that most of this is absolutely mental--getting into shape. One thing I tell people to do is to write down what your goals are; where you want to be. That can be as far as getting into shape and setting your goals if you write down where you want to be. That can be losing ten pounds; getting up every single morning and walking for 20 minutes.
Simply write down where you want to be and what your limitations are. So, if you know you're not a morning person and you say you're going to get up in the morning and work out, chances are you may start for a week or two, but all of a sudden, "Hey, doc. I'm not doing my workout anymore." "Hey, why is that?" "I can't stand getting up in the morning." Well, of course, you're not going to stick to that plan. That is not realistic. I mean, I hate the mornings, but you know what? I get money from getting up in the morning and training people. So, either I get up; I train my clients and I make "X" amount more per year or I get rid of that client and I make less money. You know, life is about choices, my friend.
DR MIKE: It is.
JOEY: Either choose to do something or you choose not to. I'm tired of everybody just saying, "Oh, you know, I want to get in shape. I want to do this." It's great that you talk about it but make a decision to actually do it and change your life.
DR MIKE: Yes. Joey, let's talk about goal setting in detail here because I think this is important. So often what I hear from, again, family members, patients, what have you, is these kind of like lofty type goals. They're not really specific. "I want to have more muscle. I want to look better in my bathing suit," whatever it is. How important is it to be very specific with goal setting?
JOEY: Here's the thing. You absolutely have to be specific because somebody says, "Joey, I want to get in shape." What does that mean to you? Do you want to look like Brad Pitt? Do you want to look like Russell Crowe? What is that? You need a visual. So it's great that you want to look like a movie star, but the only person that can look like Brad Pitt is Brad Pitt. There's all sorts of different ways. Nobody can look like me.
I can't look like you, Doc. We have genetic factors that set our limitations, so we can get our best genetic possible shape. So, it's great to have a goal and look towards this celebrity or somebody that you want to look like, but first of all, you need to set a big goal which is great, but how are you going to reach that big goal? So, if you want to lose 50 lbs. in "X" amount of time, then start with, "Okay, this week, this is my goal. I'm going to get up in the morning. I'm going to work out. I want to lose 2 lbs. this week." Alright, next week what's your goal? You start setting those small attainable goals, but every time you reach that goal you think, "Wow. Great. I've reached that goal. Now, I'm only 48 lbs. away from that goal," or "I'm only 2 lbs. of muscle away from that," or running a marathon.
Whatever it is, if you set those small attainable goals, that's much more beneficial for yourself than always thinking, "Oh, I'm looking over that mountain," you know? If you look at a mountain and then go climb a mountain, it's hard to imagine yourself getting to the top. It's not that hard to imagine going 100 yards. So, set those small goals and get those beneficial, attainable goals so you can be proud of yourself.
DR MIKE: In the long run if you don't end up looking like Brad Pitt, that's okay.
JOEY: Exactly.
DR MIKE: I think sometimes we get this body image issue with celebrities. I mean, that may be a goal you have, but just getting out there, being active and attaining these goals little by little, that's awesome and that's something to be celebrated.
JOEY: Yes. That's not going to happen. These celebrities, people they never talk about it, but they've got live-in trainers. I've been offered to live with my clients and follow them around and I don't want to do that. I would have to charge a ton of money and they can afford it, but here's the thing. They've got someone that's with them 24 hours a day watching everything that goes in their mouth. They're getting them up in the morning. They're smacking them in the face, "Okay. Let's go. You're making $20 million for your next movie and you only have three months." Well, of course these guys are going to get in shape. You tell me I'm going to make $20 million to play the next role as Superman, I will do anything I can at that point.
DR MIKE: Sure. That's nice motivation, isn't it?
JOEY: Money is a great motivator. Find your motivator. That's a good point. What is it that's going to motivate you and keep you going?
DR MIKE: Now, you started this off by talking about getting in shape is really a mental thing. Explain that a little bit. What do you mean by mental? Like, how can I improve my mental outlook about getting in shape?
JOEY: Right. Well, I think getting in shape is 100% mental. People say, "Oh, it's nutrition." "Oh, it's working out." Sure. Obviously, those come into play but if you mentally psyche yourself out and you can't get up in the morning to go for a workout or go to the gym, you're never going to get there. One thing I like to have people do is back to writing things down. I have them do what I call a clearing exercise. You know, we all have these negative thoughts about ourselves--about our self-limitations.
I like people to write down all of those negative thoughts that they have about themselves; that you have about anybody in your life. Things that you don't even want to tell people. You write down all of those negative thoughts. Then, you take another piece of paper and you write down your goals; your aspirations; where you want to be in life; where you want to be a month from now, 2 months from now, a year from now. You take that negative piece of paper and you rip it up. You burn it up. You throw it away. Now those negative thoughts are gone. Your mind is clear and anytime you start feeling bad about yourself or sorry for yourself, you look at that positive piece of paper because those negative thoughts are gone. Always reflect on what's good in your life because there's going to be more good than bad. Sometimes, it feels like things are overwhelming to you. Yes, we all have self-doubt and bad times.
DR MIKE: So, let me ask you this, Joey. So, okay let's go. We only have about 60 seconds. Back to my sister. So, in about two weeks she's going to call back and say something happened and something got in the way. What's one good piece of advice you can give my listeners for getting over those bumps in their journey in getting into shape?
JOEY: Right. We're all going to have bumps. It took you a couple years to put on 20 pounds. It's not going to take 2 weeks to get those 20 pounds off. Be realistic with yourself.
DR MIKE: Be realistic.
JOEY: Yes. I had a setback today. I ate a donut. That's okay. Don't eat the box. Get back on the horse.
DR MIKE: Joey, let's leave that there. We'll continue this conversation. The website is TheLifestyleRenovation.com.
I'm with Joey Thurman. Stick around. We'll be right back. - Length (mins) 10
- Waiver Received No
- Host Mike Smith, MD
CoQ10 is known for easing numerous health ailments; most recently, arterial function.
Additional Info
- Segment Number 1
- Audio File healthy_talk/1513ht1a.mp3
- Organization Life Extension
- Guest Website Healthy Talk MD
-
Transcription
RadioMD Presents: Healthy Talk | Original Air Date: March 23, 2015
Host: Michael Smith, MD
Healthy Talk with Dr. Michael Smith, M.D. And now here's the country doctor with the city education, Dr. Mike.
DR. MIKE: So, my good friend Bruce was very happy to find out that there was a nutrient that could improve arterial function and, of course, that is CoQ10. My friend Bruce is in his mid-forties and, unfortunately, he suffered a heart attack about a month ago and required, not open heart surgery, but he did have to have some emergency stint placements where they run a catheter in the arteries and use a balloon to blow it up and place a stint in to keep it up. He went three arteries he had to have stints placed. When he was out of the hospital the conversation came around to, not just diet, nutrition--and he knows he needs to improve on those things—but, he had an interesting conversation with his cardiologist about supplements.
He didn't specifically mention my name to his cardiologist but he had said something along the lines that he has a friend that is a doctor. And the first thing the cardiologist said was, "A medical doctor?" Bruce said, "Yes, a medical doctor. He's internal medicine. He's done radiology." He had mentioned to his cardiologist that I've talked about CoQ10 before being very good for arterial health. And the cardiologist responded with that's just voodoo.
That's what he actually said. "Voodoo." (laughing) I'm sorry it makes me laugh. I don't understand that at all and Bruce, being in the hospital at that time, just coming out of emergency stint placement, he was a little vulnerable and he took that to heart. He hears this guy, this cardiologist, who just really saved his life probably and so after he got out of the hospital Bruce called me and started questioning me a little bit about supplements and, "Is CoQ10 really good?" and "/where's the proof of it?" and all that kind of stuff. And that's fine and I encourage people to ask questions searching for the truth. Conventional medicine has its place. Thank God, the cardiologist knows how to put stints in.
That's awesome. That doesn't mean the cardiologist knows everything specifically about CoQ10. I would think they would know more about CoQ10 because, here's the thing. There's ample research supporting the use of CoQ10 in all sorts of patients, even just optimal health. There's ample research showing CoQ10 as a longevity nutrient because of its benefit to cell energy production. There's ample research of CoQ10 in terms of congestive heart failure. There's ample research of CoQ10 for arterial function, which I'm going to cover with you 4 studies today. And it goes on and on. There's even good research showing CoQ10 is helpful in Parkinson's and Alzheimer's, Huntington's Disease, people with mitochondrial disorders. These are genetic disorders. CoQ10 is helpful and all it takes is a little effort go to PubMed.com and put in "CoQ10 and heart failure" abd look at all the results. Lots of research studies showing positive benefits of CoQ10 in heart failure. Do the same thing "CoQ10 in heart attack", "CoQ10 in arterial function", "CoQ10 in Alzheimer's".
I mean, it's there--the research. It's there. Laboratory research, animal research and human clinical research. It's all there and so I don't practice voodoo medicine. I don't. I'm not even sure what that is, but CoQ10 does improve arterial function and I had a nice discussion with my friend Bruce about this. The first thing I explained to Bruce is the importance of arterial function and how we measure that. And we measure that through the production of a chemical called "nitric oxide" abbreviated N as in Nancy O, NO, nitric oxide. It is the compound of the arterial system. This chemical compound is produced by the cells that line the inside of the arteries called "endothelial cells".
A very famous cardiologist, a conventional cardiologist and a natural cardiologist, Dr. Steven Sinatra--I've had him on my show before--and a long time ago, in a paper he wrote he talked about the importance of endothelial health and nitric oxide function to the health of the overall cardiovascular system and, basically, what we now understand, of course, he was right. That if your endothelial cells are healthy, if they're producing this important chemical compound, nitric oxide, at adequate amounts, you're going to have a healthy cardiovascular system. If you damage the endothelial cells by smoking, high blood pressure, all those 17 heart disease risk factors that I've talked about and nitric oxide levels drop, then the artery becomes stiff and then that's when problems happen. So, arterial function is incredibly important and we measure it through the health of the endothelial cell. Nitric oxide is a surrogate marker for the health of the endothelial cell. So here's what it is and it's very simple. CoQ10 supports the endothelium that's what it does. CoQ10 supports nitric oxide production. Let me just show you some of these studies.
The first study here in patients with diabetes. Diabetics, by the way, suffer accelerated arterial dysfunction and heart disease. In a 12-week study using 200 mg a day of CoQ10, significantly increased endothelial function in a major artery, the brachial artery. That's where they measure it. They actually measured an increase in nitric oxide production by giving diabetics CoQ10. That's not voodoo. That's very similar to how you would study a drug, but CoQ10 is not a drug, it's a dietary supplement. Yet it had this same type of quick 12-week effect that a drug would. That's awesome.
Here was one published in the International Journal of Cardiology in 2005. A group of men with known endothelial dysfunction and CoQ10 supplementation improved endothelial function significantly compared with baseline. Again what were they measuring? They were measuring nitric oxide production. So, in a group of men who had low nitric oxide production, they gave them CoQ10. I think it was around 100 mg in this study. Nitric oxide levels went up. That's a sign that the endothelial cell was getting healthier and there's improvement in arterial function. So that was the International Journal of Cardiology.
In the European Heart Journal of 2006, patients with mild to moderate heart failure on 300 mg a day of CoQ10 improved endothelial function 38%, an affect comparable to that of exercise training. That's not voodoo. That's right there in a peer-reviewed journal published in 2006. In that same journal published in 2007, a year later, blood vessel relaxation, a measure of endothelial function and blood flow improved significantly in patients with known coronary artery disease at risk for heart attack who needed optimal cardiac blood flow. Let me just summarize that. CoQ10 helps the blood vessels to relax. That's what nitric oxide does. So if CoQ10 is improving nitric oxide production from the endothelial cell, that artery can relax a little bit more, fill with blood properly, deliver more blood flow and oxygen to the heart, the muscles, the brain and people just do better. European Heart Journal 2007.
I'm just summarizing four studies here on the importance of CoQ10 to endothelial function and I mean that's just four. There are hundreds, if not thousands, more on the benefit of CoQ10, so after sharing this kind of stuff with my friend Bruce he is going to be taking CoQ10 and his primary care doctor is okay with that. And I'm happy for him and I do think with that diet and exercise and CoQ10 and a few other supplemental things like pomegranate, Resveratrol and Arginine. By the way Arginine, is important because it is the pre-cursor to nitric oxide.
I think Bruce's outcome looks fantastic. And why is that? Because there's a blending of practices. Here we had the conventional doctor go in there and place the stints. That was important and now we have the natural side of things with CoQ10, Arginine, etc., that's going to give him a better outcome down the line with those stints. Integrative medicine at its best.
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/1511ht1e.mp3
- Organization Life Extension
- Guest Website Healthy Talk MD
-
Transcription
RadioMD Presents: Healthy Talk | Original Air Date: March 9, 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: AskDrMikeSmith@RadioMD.com or call now: 877-711-5211. The lines are open.
So, this first question is a medical myth. It has to do with a medical myth. Let me just state the medical myth and then I'll go into the question that Ryan sent in. Here's the medical myth: testosterone supplementation or testosterone hormone replacement in a man causes prostate cancer.
That is a myth. That myth is just a myth. It's not factual. It's been disproven that testosterone causes prostate cancer. As a matter of fact, the research disproving this goes back many, many years and it comes out of Harvard. Dr. Morgentaler is a Harvard researcher who is a urologist and he did a lot of research talking to thousands of men looking at testosterone replacement, prostate cancer. There's just no link. As a matter of fact, it's low testosterone that tends to cause the problem and if I have a chance, I'll explain that, but let me go to the question Ryan sent in.
"My doctor put me on testosterone a couple of years ago because it was extremely low. Since then, I have more energy and my libido is awesome, but now he wants to stop it because my level is high. He says it could be dangerous to continue. What are your thoughts? Thanks, Ryan."
Well, I mean, I don't know what you mean by your testosterone is high. Now, there is an optimal range and it's not the conventional range that you'll find on the lab report, Ryan. Instead, I like men to have testosterone levels of that when they were in their 20s, you know?
Upper 20s which is somewhere between 500 and 700. So, when you say "high"—and, by the way, the conventional lab reference range that you see on the lab result, that's based on your age. I don't know what your age is, but let's say you're 60. The average testosterone for a 60-year-old man, if you just look at all the 60-year-old men out there, the average testosterone is probably more like 250-450.
So, if you're taking testosterone and you get up in the 500-600 range, your doctor's going to say, "Oh, my god. That's too high." Well, no, I actually think that's optimal. I want you to be more like a 20-year-old. So, that's hard to answer because I'm not really sure what you mean by "high". Now, if you're over 700, 800, 900 and into 1000, then, yes, maybe you do need to take a little break. There is an optimal range. There's an optimal range and dose for everything we do, including hormones.
So, assuming maybe you're high for your age, but you're in the optimal range that we like to see, no, I don't think there's any reason to discontinue it. Pulling from your question, here, your doctor thinks it's "dangerous to continue", and I think I'm making a lot of assumptions because I don't have a lot to go with in the question, but most likely your doctor is following that medical myth that testosterone causes prostate cancer and it doesn't.
That's been well disproven by really good research coming out of Harvard. By the way, we've summarized all of that research at LifeExtension.com. You can just search "testosterone, prostate cancer". Search "Dr. Morgentaler". He's done some great work over the past 20 years on all of this and there's no association of taking testosterone and increasing prostate cancer risk. It's a myth.
As a matter of fact, what we do believe is causing most of the prostate issues with men is not high testosterone, it's actually low. So, the question becomes, "Well, why is a guy's testosterone level low and how is that affecting the prostate?" Well, number one is, we don't make as much testosterone, so we are losing production, but also what happens is testosterone, as a man gets older, tends to convert into the estrogens more and also converts into a very potent form of testosterone called "DHT" or dihydrotestosterone. Most of the research is showing that it's the estrogen and it's the DHT that's affecting the prostate that's causing the problems, not testosterone itself.
Not free testosterone which is actually dropping.
So, assuming that your doctor is calling it dangerous because of the prostate cancer risk, well, it's just wrong. What I might encourage you to do is print out some of the articles that we've written at Life Extension summarizing Harvard's Dr. Morgentaler's work and take it into your doctor. Say, "Here's the truth of it. What do you think now, doc?" and see what he wants to do about that.
If he still doesn't want to give you more testosterone, maybe you go find another doctor. You are the consumer. So, that's what I would do. I would show your doctor that it's just myth to think testosterone replacement increases prostate cancer risk.
Now, the flip side of that, though, there is a caveat there. If you have prostate cancer—you've been diagnosed with prostate cancer—and you start taking testosterone, well, that's maybe not good because sometimes those prostate cancers require testosterone to grow which is why we often treat prostate cancer with testosterone deprivation therapy or androgen deprivation therapy. So, if you already have established prostate cancer, don't do it. Right? But, it's a myth to think that testosterone increases the risk of developing the cancer in the first place. That's the myth. Okay?
So, maybe you just need to educate your doctor and, hopefully, he's open to that education, Ryan.
Okay. Next question.
"I seem to suffer from migraines without the headache. I experience visual changes. My sight narrows and I see flickering lights for 4-6 hours. Do you think this is migraine?"
You know, that's a really interesting question because I don't know. I don't know if I have an answer for that. We know that migraines and cluster headaches do cause these types of visual auras and stuff like that. Some people get a weird taste in their mouth. Usually, these kinds of things precipitate—come before—the headache.
But, you're not having the headache, so I'm not really sure what that is. You might want to, first of all, just make sure it's not something in your eyes. We know flickering lights and stuff like that could be some retinal issues, like retinal detachment issues, but if this is happening a lot, that's probably not the case.
I'm assuming this is kind of like this aura type thing that people get before a migraine. It does sure sound like it. I guess technically it just maybe never develops into the headache pain, but this is kind of stumping me. I'm not really sure. If it's not bothering you—I mean, I'm sure sight change probably is bothering you--but if it's not bothering you too much, maybe you just let it go. Hopefully, you won't ever develop the actual pain which can be debilitating for people. This is a good one.
I'm not sure and because you're asking me, you've probably have already asked your primary care doctor, maybe even a neurologist, and they probably didn't have an answer for you either, but it is interesting. So, I'm not really sure where to go with this one at this point.
Let's go on to the next question.
"Are their supplements for HIV? I know that a basic multivitamin can help, but is there anything that fights the virus directly?"
Well, there are some interesting things out there, but nothing is going to replace the Triple Therapy, right? Usually, you take 3 different drugs that work on 3 different parts of the virus and that really has saved lives.
There's no doubt about that. Most of them are even just one pill a day now, so that's awesome. I just want to make sure you understand, I do have some information here that's interesting, but none of this stuff would ever replace the prescription therapy, right? So, let's just make sure that's clear. Maybe what you do is, you do this on top of that prescription therapy, but, of course, talk to your own doctor first. First of all, there is evidence that soy protein, specifically, what are called isoflavones, might be able to block the entrance of HIV into the immune cells.
Selenium might be able to block replication of the cell and even some mushroom extracts like reishi may also be able help. So, that's soy, selenium and reishi fighting HIV.
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/1511ht1d.mp3
- Organization Life Extension
- Guest Website Healthy Talk MD
-
Transcription
RadioMD Presents: Healthy Talk | Original Air Date: March 9, 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: AskDrMikeSmith@RadioMD.com or call: 877-711-5211. What are you waiting for? The lines are open.
I'm going to start this segment with some follow up questions. I did some of these. I answered some of these questions in some past shows and got some follow ups from some other listeners, which is awesome. It means people are listening. Yeah!
Alright. I do love my listeners and I appreciate everybody who tunes in.
So, this first one, I guess...I don't remember when. It was a while ago, but I do remember vaguely talking about hand sanitizers and how we overuse them. So, the question is:
"You mentioned we over use hand sanitizers, so how often can we use them?"
Well, there's not a number here. I mean, it's not like once a day or twice, something like that, but I think a good rule of thumb is if you are around soap and water, use the soap and water. I was traveling recently for Life Extension and in the airport bathrooms, they obviously have the sinks and the water and the soap, but, also, as you leave, they have the hand sanitizer at the exit. That shouldn't be replacing washing your hands. Gosh, I hope people aren't doing that, right? That they're just leaving and just doing a little squirt of the hand sanitizer. So, there's no number. I think the rule of thumb is, if there's soap and water, use the soap and water. There's no reason to do the hand sanitizer. Soap and water works just fine. I guess that's a good rule of thumb then. That's maybe what we should practice.
So, no number. When you don't have soap and water, that's when the hand sanitizers are pretty good. Or, if, when you're on the plane, for instance. You know what? Those planes are kind of dirty. I'll use a hand sanitizer at times when I'm in the seat using the tray and stuff like that. So, there are times when it's appropriate to use them. It's just that if there's normal soap and water, you don't need to. Alright?
Okay. Next question. Okay. This question refers back to...I don't know if this was a question, actually, or if this was a whole segment. I don't remember. But, I talked about Acetaminophen—the big brand name Tylenol. I talked about the dangers of Acetaminophen, specifically to liver health, right? Just a quick review here.
Acetaminophen—and the main form, the main brand, is Tylenol. If you get too much of it, you can deplete the glutathione level in the liver and that's not good because the liver is doing so much detoxification that it needs glutathione as an antioxidant to protect itself from all those toxins. When you deplete glutathione in the liver, that increases the chance of severe liver disease, even acute liver failure. That's exactly what Tylenol does is Acetaminophen depletes glutathione, so I talked about that. The question here—this follow up question is:
"Well, what is the maximum dose of Acetaminophen?"
So, if you look on the label, or you can go to a site that I like to use for these kinds of questions is Drugs.com. It's just straight information on Drugs.com. It's not biased either way. Just real simple. Drugs.com says 1000mg every 6-8 hours would be the max. So, that comes out to about 3000mg a day.
They go on, Drugs.com says in the precautions: "Cases of acute liver failure, some resulting in liver transplant that have been reported with Acetaminophen. Most cases of liver injury are associated with doses greater than 4 grams a day and often involve more than one Acetaminophen containing product."
That's exactly what I talked about in that segment. It's not that in and of itself, by itself, Acetaminophen is dangerous. I mean, if you keep it within the dose range, it's fine. You're not going to deplete glutathione.
Everything's good. When you get up to that 4 gram, 5 gram a day, that's when we have an issue. That's when you deplete the glutathione and what happens, Acetaminophen is in so many different products now, so people aren't adding up all those doses. That's the problem. They just don't know they're overdosing on it.
So, if you're not feeling well, if you have fever, pains, whatever it is, before you take something with Acetaminophen, make sure you know how much of it is in there and if you take something else a little bit later, make sure there's no Acetaminophen in it or at least make sure you're adding up those doses. It's 3000 mg a day or less and you should be okay. I love follow up questions.
Okay. Next question. Actually, this is three questions that came from a listener:
"Dear Dr. Mike: I have a few questions. I am a 60 year old female. Basically healthy. I've been taking aspirin, 81 mg enteric coated ever since 2006. But, a few months ago, I started taking ginseng. Should I stop the aspirin? I don't have a heart problem at this point. I have no hypertension and I read a Mayo Clinic report that taking daily low-dose aspirin is not good."
Well, let's address that Mayo report. Yes, there was a recent study looking at is it efficacious, is it really worth it, taking a baby aspirin every day? If you have low cardiovascular risk, the answer is "no". You don't need it in those cases. So, that report wasn't addressing people at high risk or moderate risk or people who have already had a heart attack or a stroke. In those cases, the aspirin is beneficial. So, if you don't have any heart issues whatsoever, you're at low risk, right? And your doctor has said you're at low-risk for heart disease, there's probably no reason to take a baby aspirin.
That's really what that Mayo report was talking about.
As far as the combination, though, of aspirin and ginseng, I mean, there's nothing in and of itself that's wrong with that. You just have to realize that both of them are blood thinning, right?
I mean, as a matter of fact, ginseng, just like aspirin, will affect platelets. Before a clot actually forms, the first thing that happens is platelets will bind to the area where there's a wound and then the clot forms on top of the platelets.
So, if you take something that's anti-platelet, you're making it really hard for any clot to form. So, that's what we call "blood thinning". So, aspirin and ginseng kind of do the same thing. As a matter of fact, when people talk about blood thinning supplements, a vast majority of them are affecting platelets.
A vast majority of the blood thinning supplements are affecting platelets. So you need to be aware of that if you're doing over the counter or prescription anti-platelets because you don't want to knock them out too much. You might bleed a little bit too much.
So, how do you know? Well, if you get too much of an anti-platelet effect in your body, in this case, let's say between ginseng and aspirin, you won't see a bruise which would be an indication of a problem clotting blood, but what you see with anti-platelet, when you overdo the anti-platelet medications, is you get what are called "petechial hemorrhages"—little red spots all over your arm or a leg or something like that.
You'll see a collection of these little "petechiae" is what they call them. That would be a sign of your platelets are really knocked out. So, here you have a situation where you don't have a heart problem and based on some current research, there's probably no reason to be on a baby aspirin.
I love ginseng for a variety of reasons. Ginseng kind of gives you some of the same benefit as the aspirin, so I would probably say stick with the ginseng, forget the aspirin. That would just be my opinion. I'm not telling you to do anything. I can't. Okay.
The next question she had:
"I also take DHEA. Should I take that on an empty stomach?"
Yes. I take DHEA as well. I consider it an anti-aging supplement. I take mine in the morning right when I get up. So, there are some rules there. Amino acids, proteins, hormones, those are usually done better on an empty stomach.
The last question was:
"I know that Vitamin K2 is good from your talk, and I tried several times taking it, but each time, my lips felt numb, so I stopped. I learned I can eat more cheese to get my Vitamin K2. Is that true?"
Yes.
Vitamin K2 is found in a lot of the foods we don't want you overeating. Animal protein, fats, cheeses, dairy. But, yes. You can get your Vitamin K2 from those sources as long as you don't overdo it.
Alright. 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
CoQ10 has tons of benefits, including expanding your life expectancy.
Additional Info
- Segment Number 1
- Audio File healthy_talk/1511ht1a.mp3
- Organization Life Extension
- Guest Website Healthy Talk MD
-
Transcription
RadioMD Presents: Healthy Talk | Original Air Date: March 9, 2015
Host: Michael Smith, MD
Anti-aging and disease prevention radio is right here on RadioMD. Here's author, blogger and lecturer and national medical media personality Dr. Michael Smith, MD with Healthy Talk.
One of my foundational supplements, CoQ10 is a longevity factor. That's right. It can help you live healthier longer. Very simple supplement. Maybe, what? Twenty bucks a month and it can have such a huge impact on every cell in your body. Well, you know what? That's not true.
There's one cell line that CoQ10 doesn't affect and that's the red blood cell because they don't have any mitochondria. Red blood cells are just basically packed with iron and oxygen and that's it. So, minus the red blood cell, CoQ10 is good for every other cell in your body and it helps cells produce energy and to function at a youthful level. That's important.
One of the leading theories of aging is mitochondrial decay or loss of cell energy production. It's one of the oldest theories of aging and the research goes all the way back into the 1950's looking at worms and what the mitochondria do and what happens when you take away mitochondria. So, mitochondria play such a key role in overall cell health and CoQ10 is a key compound for the mitochondria.
Just a quick review. You know, we call the mitochondria the powerhouse of the cell. It's where the energy currency, the cellular energy, is made, (ATP, adenosine triphosphate). If you've ever wondered why is ATP energy? What does that mean? Well, it's a chemical compound that has 3 phosphates.
That's the triphosphate—adenosine triphosphate. Those 3 phosphate bonds are high energy bonds and when you break them, it releases energy. It's exothermic. Heat and energy are released which then can drive other functions for the cell. So now, how do you make ATP? Because it's kind of important to understand all this.
To understand why mitochondria decay is so detrimental to the health of the cell, you have to understand how we make ATP. Well, sugar is needed (glucose) and so is oxygen. Sugar and oxygen get together in the mitochondria and they undergo all kinds of different reactions, but the end result is ATP. Okay? The energy currency. Well, I want you to think about something for a moment. I always teach in my lectures that everything in life has a flipside—has a dark side, if you will. Right? I mean, we need sugar. We need oxygen to make ATP, but the flipside, the dark side to sugar—especially if there's too much of it--is something called glycation which is a very destructive reaction.
The flipside—the dark side-- to oxygen is oxidative stress which is also very damaging. That's why we need antioxidants. So, here you have a situation where a vast majority of the sugar in the body and a vast majority of the oxygen in the body are concentrating in these little powerhouses called the mitochondria. So, guess what? Mitochondria really suffer most of the glycation and oxidative stress in the body. So, they do become dysfunctional and they become damaged and it becomes important that if we want to live healthier and longer, that we have to protect them and promote energy production from them and maybe even produce new ones—produce new mitochondria. Wouldn't that be awesome?
So, here we have a situation where one of the leading theories of aging, mitochondrial decay, is also directly associated with one of its key compounds, CoQ10. CoQ10 works in the mitochondria. Research has shown that if you remove CoQ10, and the original research was done in worms, mechanisms of aging and development, in 2004, showed that if you remove CoQ10 from the worm, I think it was C-elegans they used, the result is premature death in these worms.
Well, what they noticed first was that these worms started to act old. I'm not sure how they really measure that a worm is acting old, but here are ways that they can look at a worm and say, "That worm's not doing so well. This one is." And, the first thing they noticed was that these worms were acting old, and then, they died young. Here's what was interesting, though. If you added CoQ10 back in, everything reversed. The aging reversed; there was restoration of more youthful function. Now, you might be thinking, "Okay. That's great. But, that's a worm. Does that really correlate with what goes on in human?" Well, probably not, but we're now taking those worm studies and moving up the animal kingdom and we're looking at the same type of thing in mice. There was a study recently.
As a matter of fact, this was just published last week and I haven't had a chance to review everything completely, but it came across my desk as I was preparing to do this newsletter for Life Extension and it was the same basic set up. They took some mice. They were able to genetically engineer these mice to remove the CoQ10, pretty much at will, and then replace it at will. When they removed the CoQ10 from the mice in the study, yes, they started to dysfunction.
Now, with mice, I do know how they look at function. They look at how they do mazes, if they remember a maze, where the food is, that kind of stuff. Even swimming. All of those kinds of things got worse when they removed the CoQ10 and the mice that didn't get the CoQ10 back, they died young. I mean, it's just a confirmation of what we learned in the worm study. When you replaced the CoQ10, they did better. Age restored. Youthful function restored. So, we see the importance of CoQ10 to the mitochondria and then, of course, the mitochondria to the overall health and longevity of the organism.
So, as a matter of fact we have seen some other mice studies. There was one published also in 2004 Experimental Gerontology where mice supplemented with CoQ10 lived longer. In one case supplemented animals experienced a 11.7% increase in mean lifespan and a 24% increase in maximum lifespan. That increase translates into the equivalent of humans gaining over 9 years based on today's life expectancy of 78.5 years.
So, there you go.
So, there's an animal model—and a mouse is pretty close to a human—moving away from the worms, showing the importance of CoQ10 to overall longevity.
Listen, regardless of the effect on longevity, I consider CoQ10 a foundational supplement simply because it's so important in cell energy production. If you have a muscle cell or a gut cell or a brain cell, whatever the cell line, that cell has a certain job it needs to do. In many cases, several jobs it needs to do and it needs energy to do that.
I mean, it's not that hard to figure out that we need to help our cells in our body produce energy throughout our lifetime and that's going to help us live healthier longer. Accordingly to a mouse study, if you do the math into humans, we're talking CoQ10 can increase your life by 9 years. Now, that's not a direct correlation, but you know, when you do the math, that's the extrapolation based on that mouse study and Experimental Gerontology in 2004.
So, CoQ10 is a foundational supplement and I'm encouraging all my listeners to take it. Now, there's two forms: ubiquinone and ubiquinol. Ubiquinone is the old form. It was good a few years ago, but there's a better form: ubiquinol. Ubiquinol is simply a form that absorbs better.
It delivers into the mitochondria better and you'e going to get better function and cell energy production. So, you want to be doing ubiquinol CoQ10. What dose? Well, on average probably 100-200mg a day. If you really want to know what your dose is, you can do a CoQ10 blood test. We can look at how much CoQ10 is in your blood and we can pinpoint the best dose for you.
But, without knowing that, if I had to guess: 100-200mg of ubiquinol CoQ10 will help every cell, except the red blood cell, in your body.
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/1510ht5e.mp3
- Organization Life Extension
- Guest Website Healthy Talk MD
-
Transcription
RadioMD Presents: Healthy Talk | Original Air Date: March 6, 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: AskDrMikeSmith@RadioMD.com or call: 877-711-5211. What are you waiting for? The doctor is in.
Alright. So, here's what I want to do for this last segment for today with these questions. I'm going to try something a little different. This is not going to be easy for me because I like to talk and I'm already talking a lot.
I have a series of 8 questions here that I'm going to try to give just boom, quick answers to and we'll see how I move through these. So, let's get to this.
The first question is: "Should I purchase a brand supplement or are generic products of the same quality?"
Okay. Good question. I think you should buy the brand supplement. It's a little bit more, but I do believe in the supplement industry, you do get what you pay for. There are—I've mentioned this before—twelve to fifteen supplement companies--established brands--that have been around for a long time.
They produce and manufacture awesome products and that's who I buy from. I don't buy from online things. I don't buy from generic companies, these fly-by-night companies that are just trying to make profit off the latest and greatest nutrient. So, I do believe, in my opinion, it is best to stick with the brands that have been around for a long time, like 10 plus years or 20 plus years. Something like that. If you want a list, go check out my book, The Supplement Pyramid. I have a listing of those companies that I like to use. Okay. There's that one. Use the brands. Okay.
"If I am only planning to include one supplement," Oh, this is going to be hard for me to do quickly. "If I am only planning to include one supplement into my daily routine, what should it be?"
No. This one is easy for me. A multivitamin. Come on. At the end of the day, I know that we need the basic vitamins and minerals. I know what they do. I know how important they are and I know that if you don't get these vitamins and minerals, not only can you get all kinds of problems, you start developing diseases of vitamin and mineral deficiencies.
So, don't poo poo a basic multivitamin. It may not be sexy. It may not be the latest and greatest, but a high-quality, daily multivitamin is the best bang for your buck when it comes to just overall health. A multivitamin. Good.
Next question.
"What is the optimal time of day to take my supplements?"
Well, the best time of the day is the time that you can remember. Compliance is really the issue here. Okay, there are some rules--soft rules. You know what? When it comes to protein supplements like amino acids, take those on an empty stomach. So maybe right when you get up. Certain hormones like DHEA are best on an empty stomach. So, I take that one right when I get up. I take that one in the morning. Things that are done on an empty stomach, I tend to do right when I get up in the morning, right? But, that's just how I do it. I guess you could wait between lunch and dinner and take some of those if you wanted to. So, really, for me, this isn't a question about what we call pharmico or neutro kinetics which is the study of how drugs and nutrients enter your body, how they're metabolized, how they're eliminated. This is really more of a question that goes to compliance.
I'm going to tell you something and this is going to blow your mind. It's one of the most amazing things I've learned. I've been in this industry for about 10 years. I've been in medicine for 20 plus years, medical school, residency, pharmaceutical companies, Life Extension. I've been doing this a long time and here's the one thing that I know—it's the only thing l know for an absolute fact.
Absolute fact. Here it is. Are you ready? If you don't take it, it don't work. Yes. Isn't that amazing? All that money I spent to get my degree. If you don't take it, it don't work. It's true. It's the one thing I know for a fact. So, really, this kind of question is, when is the best time for me to do it? It's the time that you remember. It's the time that works for you because if it's hard to do, if you develop a regimen that's hard to follow, compliance goes down and then you're not taking it and then I know for a fact it's not working.
That's not just with supplements, that's with drugs as well. You know, I remember when HIV was first being treated. It was multiple drugs having to be taken at multiple times and the cocktails worked, it was just too hard for people to do it. Compliance dropped and the drugs didn't work even though the chemicals in the drugs actually could fight the virus.
So, they had to figure out a way to make it easier on people. Compliance is really key, right? We've got to do things, we've got to develop regimens that we can actually do and accomplish. So, yes, you've got to figure out a schedule that works for you and stick with it and that's going to be the optimal time for you. For me, personally, empty stomach stuff, I do in the morning. The rest of my stuff that I can do with food, I do at lunch and dinner and I split it up. I have some supplements here at work. I have some supplements at home. It's that simple. Okay.
Next question. That was a little long.
"How do I..." Oh, I'm going to skip that one because that one is way too long. So, I'm already not doing what I told you I was going to do. Alright. I'm going to go to this one: "Does my diet impact the viability of supplement intake?"
Yes. Okay. Let me answer that on two levels. If you're consuming the Standard American Diet, SAD. It's very sad. High fat, high animal protein, not lean animal protein, very little plant-based food, lots of simple sugars, not a lot of fiber, lots of preservatives. That kind of stuff.
If you're eating that type of diet and you think taking this handful of supplements over here is going to help you overcome that bad diet, you're just setting yourself up for failure. You're asking the supplement to do something that it just can't do. Pharmaceuticals can't even help that, okay? So, diet comes first. You have to improve your diet.
If you improve your diet and move away from the Standard American Diet and you're eating more plant-based, lean proteins; you're getting 8, 9, 10 servings of fruit and vegetables every day; you're moving away from anything processed; eating fresh fruits, you're buying your groceries on the outside aisles of the supermarket, not the inside aisles with the pre-packaged stuff--If you're doing that, now you're going to allow those supplements to do what they need to do for you, right? But, if you're eating bad stuff, you're asking those supplements to work through all that gunk and that's just making it really difficult.
So, on that level, diet absolutely affects how well these supplements are going to work for you, the viability of supplements. But, I think this person is talking more about are there certain foods that might slow down absorption of supplements. I think that's maybe what they're asking more about here and the good news is, no. For the most part, no, because supplements are based on nature—natural things. You know, if you're doing a multivitamin with vitamins and minerals and you're eating fruits and vegetables and a little bit of lean meat and stuff like that, well, those same vitamins and minerals are in that food. So, the food you're eating, because the supplements are natural--they come from nature--isn't really going to disrupt how they're going to be absorbed and stuff.
Now, you can't say that about chemical prescription drugs. There are certain foods that can disrupt how they're absorbed and distributed throughout the body. But, for the most part, not with supplements. Now, the one class of supplements that that might have an issue here are the protein based supplements—the amino acids. Those really should be done on an empty stomach. If you eat some food and take some amino acids or supplements, it's not going to hurt you, it's just not going to absorb as well.
So, that's about maybe the only caveat to what I just said is that amino acids should be done on an empty stomach. But, no, supplements are pretty much based on the stuff that's in your food anyway, so you're okay there. Isn't that awesome?
I did that pretty good. I didn't get through all of them, but not bad.
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/1510ht5d.mp3
- Organization Life Extension
- Guest Website Healthy Talk MD
-
Transcription
RadioMD Presents: Healthy Talk | Original Air Date: March 6, 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: AskDrMikeSmith@RadioMD.com or call now: 877-711-5211. The lines are open.
So, my first question today is about calcium.
"Should I include dietary and supplement sources in calculating my total calcium intake?"
So, we have more integrative doctors. You know, doctors who integrate West and East. Whatever modality is necessary. We've been talking about anywhere between 1000 mg to even upwards of 1500 mg a day of calcium for post-menopausal women. For women who are menstruating, maybe a little less, but not too much less--maybe 750-1000 mg.
So, I think people are starting to question a little bit about that much calcium given the fact that there have been some negative studies relating supplement calcium intake to heart disease in women.
Of course, I've talked about those studies before. I'm not going to go into that again. Those studies were just poorly designed. They didn't look at other nutrients that are important to help manage calcium, like Vitamin D, Vitamin K2. We've talked about that before. But, I still think this is a good question. I think sometimes when we talk about a certain amount of a nutrient we want you to get every day, I don't think we're always clear about is that dietary plus supplement or just supplement? It's really an individual case. Each nutrient is a little bit different. But, in the case of calcium, I want you to calculate your total intake of calcium from both sources, right? And it needs to come out to probably around 1500 mg a day if you're not menstruating any more.
So, that's a good question. I like to look at both of those. So, you need to look at the foods you're eating. Now, I guess that's not always easy to do, but thank God for Google. You can just go online and just put in "the amount of calcium in kale", "the amount of calcium in spinach". You know, whatever it is you're eating. There are all kinds of charts like that on websites and stuff, so it's not as hard as it used to be to do that. So, yes. You do want to look at both supplement and dietary sources and we're still shooting for about 1500 mg of calcium a day. Yes, take your other nutrients like Vitamin D and Vitamin K2. That's critical for calcium management.
Okay. The next question has to do with magnesium.
"What's the difference between red blood cell magnesium and serum magnesium? My serum magnesium level is normal, but my red blood cell level is low."
Well, let me just start off answering that by saying, if your red blood cell magnesium level is low, that's the one you look at. Red blood cell magnesium gives us a better measurement of your overall true magnesium status, okay? So, if you get a red blood cell magnesium, don't even look at the serum one.
But, this is a good question. I think more and more, we're going to be seeing tests looking at these minerals within certain cells. So, there's already like a red blood cell folate cell test out there. As I just said here, there's a red blood cell magnesium test.
So, what's the difference between those standard ones you've been getting and a red blood cell measurement? Well, it turns out that the amount of a mineral, or any nutrient really, in the blood at any given time, is so transient it's just hard to really have a lot of confidence in that number. We also know that magnesium, for instance, at any given time only about—and I don't remember the exact percentages—but, maybe 5%, 10% of your total magnesium is in the blood at any given time. Most of it's in other places: muscle, bone and red blood cells.
So, looking at a specific target like a red blood cell gives us more confidence in the number we're actually looking at. So, a red blood cell folate level. A red blood cell magnesium level. And probably soon, in the future, all of these nutrient profiles are going to be looking at the specific targets like that for certain cells. Far better than just a serum check, a blood check. Okay.
So, if your red blood cell magnesium level was low, it's low. Don't worry about what the serum level said. I think the normal red blood cell magnesium level is like 5 or 6.
Again, I think the conventional labs will list a broader range, like 2-6. I think that's way too broad of a range. I think it's more like 5-6. So, if you're less than 5, then you have a magnesium deficiency. We need to improve that and remember, magnesium deficiencies are associated with blood pressure, muscle issues, brain issues, heart issues. I mean, magnesium is important for, I think the number I always see is, like 300 biochemical reactions. It's a lot. It's important. It's interesting that a lot of the age-related diseases and symptoms we see in aging Americans in this country mimic or match what you'll read just on Google about magnesium deficiency. Look at the average symptoms that people complain about, that they go into their doctor's office with: sleep issues, muscle issues, headaches, blood pressure--all of these things. Just look at that. They rank those things all of the time.
"Here are the top 5 symptoms people go see their doctor about." Then, compare that to just a list of symptoms from low magnesium. It's an eye-opener. They match. I'm not saying that a low magnesium or magnesium deficiency is causing all those things but it's interesting that they match. Maybe it is. I don't know. So, yes, take more magnesium. If you want to know if you really need it, do the red blood cell magnesium level, shooting for a 5-6 milligrams per deciliter in your blood. I just looked the units up here. Again, thank God for Google. Okay.
Let's move on to some more questions here. I think I'm okay on time. A couple of minutes left. Okay.
"Are there any health benefits to coffee and chocolate?"
Coffee and chocolate. Well, let's talk about both of those separately. Well, the simple answer is, yes, there are benefits to coffee and chocolate. Let me talk about the chocolate first. So, I'm not talking about candy bars. A lot of people just went "aw". No. I mean, yes, chocolate itself—especially the dark chocolate, the cocoa butter—has some good antioxidants.
Dark chocolate has been shown to improve the health of the cardiovascular system. What's really interesting about dark chocolate antioxidants is that they seem to improve the health of the cells that line the inside of the arteries. Those are called "endothelial cells". And, when you improve the health of the endothelial cell, you're improving the health of the overall cardiovascular system. We can measure that by the production of nitric oxide, which is the chemical compound that allows arteries to dilate and relax. Dilate and relax.
You know, with the heart: dum dum dum. Nitric oxide at the artery level is what's running that and that comes from the endothelial cells. So, endothelial cells that are able to produce more and more nitric oxide, we believe that's a healthier endothelial cell. Well, dark chocolate antioxidants improve nitric oxide production. There's also some evidence that dark chocolate can improve blood pressure. Yes. So, that's good. But, not the candy bar. That has sugar and added fat and gunk in it. Dark chocolate. If you want to enjoy a little bit of dark chocolate, maybe try a bar that's like 75% dark cocoa. That's what you want to shoot for. It's a little bit bitter, but it's better.
Coffee, yes. Coffee has chlorogenic acid in it which is helpful in managing sugar and insulin. We just talked about that. Chlorogenic acid. So, a coffee a day. As a matter of fact, coffee has also been shown to reduce the risk of certain cancers like prostate and breast. I did a blog on coffee and cancer, if you go to the LifeExtension.com website. So, there you go. Yes, they are good for 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
