January 15, 2021
Welcome to Ben Greenfield's Weekly Roundup and Cool New Discoveries!
Ben Greenfield's discoveries, from the latest news on the fronts of fitness, nutrition, health, wellness, biohacking, and anti-aging research. I also recap my upcoming events and special announcements so you can keep up with giveaways, discounts, and more!
New Discoveries Of The Week: Cool New Things I'm Trying, Books I'm Reading, And More!
Very Helpful Lab Tests to Assess The Health Of Your Immune System
From a very helpful screening/testing interview I recently tuned into, here are 11 screening tests that can help assess the state of your health and immune system:
- 1-25 Dihydroxy Vitamin D: This is the activated form of vitamin D. Vitamin D increases antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) and improves the activity of neutrophils (white blood cells that fight bacteria).
- RBC Magnesium: Magnesium is an important cofactor for the activation of vitamin D. Taking magnesium can actually reduce the amount of oral vitamin D you require to optimize your vitamin D level.
- Neutrophil to Lymphocyte Ratio (NLR): This marker alone determines prognosis in most solid tumor cancers. Neutrophils go up when there’s a bacterial infection, while lymphocytes are suppressed by viruses. As explained by Lewis, “The NLR is sort of an amplified barometer for your stealth infectious burden. The absolute count should be 1.5 or below.” Anything above 55% neutrophils is indicative of a chronic, likely bacterial, infection.
- Red Blood Cell Distribution Width (RDW): Red blood cells are born small and die large. If your RDW is wide, you likely have plaques and inflamed carotid arteries. Above 16 or 17, RDW could be a sign of anemia, but between 12.5 and 16, it’s a pure sign of inflammation.
- C-reactive Protein: A marker of inflammation. This should be 0.6 or below.
- Fibrinogen: As a signaling molecule for tissue repair, fibrinogen is a good marker for how well your body is able to repair itself. If your fibrinogen is between 150 and 285, your repair and recovery is probably meeting or outpacing wear and tear, allowing you to properly heal and recover. Above 285, you are probably deteriorating more rapidly than you're repairing. Fibrinogen is also a clotting factor marker, so in COVID-19 and sepsis, for example, high fibrinogen is indicative of a cytokine storm. Pre-cytokine storm levels are also indicative of several chronic diseases, including heart attack and cancer.
- Ferritin: Ferritin is an iron transport protein that becomes elevated in COVID-19 and other serious illnesses. Iron catalyzes growth of bacterial pathogens. Typically, when your blood cells are under attack by a pathogen, your body responds by hiding the iron from the antigen (the infection) in the ferritin protein, thereby resulting in anemia (low iron) and high ferritin. If you have elevated ferritin, the iron may not be available to the pathogen, but it is still available to the cells of your body. Iron is a powerful oxidant stressor that will radically increase oxidized species, reactive oxygen species (ROS) and reactive nitrogen species, which activates the NRLP3 inflammasome and radically increases inflammatory mediators and cytokines. The solution for high ferritin is to donate blood. If your ferritin is above 100, consider giving blood periodically.
- Fasting Insulin: Insulin resistance is a foundational contributor to most chronic disease and significantly increases your risk of complications and death from SARS-CoV-2 infection. Fasting glucose is also a useful test that you can easily do at home.
- Uric Acid: Uric acid is a multifactorial inflammatory marker. It also helps protect against hypoxia.
- Homocysteine: Homocysteine is a vascular toxin associated with heart disease that is influenced by your vitamin B levels. As explained by Lewis: “LabCorp keeps changing their reference normals, and now they're as high as 17. But the Framingham's study shows that with a baseline of 9, every five points higher homocysteine leads to a 40% increase in dementia because it's a vascular toxicity.”
- SED Rate: The SED rate is a measurement of how fast your red blood cells settle in a test tube. Red blood cells have a repulsive charge on the outside of their membranes (zeta potential) that allow them to remain buoyant. When this repulsive charge is lacking, they settle faster. As explained by Lewis: “SED rate is a surrogate for how good your electrical system is working, which I then use as a surrogate for your gut and how well it's doing at digesting and making minerals bioavailable, because it's the sodium potassium pump that drives the electric potential of cells, among other minerals.” Ideally, if your zeta potential is good and high, your SED rate should be close to zero. The lower, the better. The higher your SED rate, the worse off you are, as this means the “battery” of your red blood cells are discharged, which will result in systemic problems and overall low energy levels. Typically, your SED rate will improve once you start to heal and rebalance your gut.
You can get most of these tests through DirectLabs or WellnessFX. You can also check out the full interview from which I got this info with Dr. Mercola and Thomas Lewis, by clicking here.
Podcasts I Recorded This Week:
This episode was brought to you by Kion Aminos (code BEN10), Organifi Red Juice (code BENG20), Seed Daily Synbiotic (code BEN15), and Thrive Market (Receive a gift card worth up to $20 when you begin a new membership).
This episode was brought to you by The Kion Fasting Challenge, Organifi Green Juice (code BENG20), Lucy Nicotine Gum (code BEN20), Organifi Green Juice (code BENG20), and Water and Wellness (code GREENFIELD).
Ben Greenfield's VIP Text Club: To receive exclusive texts from Ben Greenfield, text the word “FITNESS” to 411247 (within the U.S. only).
Articles I Published This Week:
Sabbath Ramblings: Chop Wood, Carry Water.
My full article feed and all past archives of my articles are here if you want to check out past articles.
Podcast I Was Featured On This Week:
Special Announcements:
::: Free “How To Choose A Healthy Mattress” Webinar :::
From the 55-degree water that circulates from head to toe beneath my body to my relentless avoidance of any source of blue light in the hours preceding my drift into a deep, restorative slumber—I am deeply intentional about, and protective of, this extremely healing “one-third of my day.”
And you should be too.
If you happen to be sleeping on a sub-par, or, even worse, a toxic mattress, you’re squandering what could be the most healing time of your 24-hour daily cycle—and creating joint and toxicity issues the whole time.
Enter a new free webinar, How to Choose a Healthy Mattress, that gives plenty of helpful tips for ensuring your decision about what you’ll be sleeping on for the next 10+ years is a wise one—tips such as…
- Various types of mattresses on the market (pros and cons of each)…
- Toxins hiding in mattresses and how they affect your health…
- What volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are, and how to find out if your mattress has them…
- What “greenwashing” is…
- Whether you should ditch your organic or memory foam mattress… (It’s not a straight-up “yes” or “no”)
- And much more!
The extreme priority I place upon sleep quantity and quality has been crucial to much of the success of my career, relationship, and athleticism. Sign up here for the free “How to Choose a Healthy Mattress” webinar so that you can finally crack the code on deep, restful sleep.
Featured Product: Kion Immune
I don't need to tell you how important having a strong immune system is right now. Lucky for you, my company Kion and I recently formulated and blended two of the most studied nutrients for immune health—Vitamin C and Zinc.
It may sound like a super simple formula, but these two nutrients are essential when it comes to proper immune system function, are safe for long-term use, science-backed, and very affordable.
We put your Vitamin C and Zinc in the perfect ratio so there’s no guesswork on dosage (I’ve been taking 2 caps each morning at home with my morning baking soda in water, then 6 caps when I travel). When taken regularly, Kion Immune can support a healthy immune system and promote proper function of immune cells.*
I’m obviously super excited about this new basic, but powerful, blend. Click here to take an important step in building a strong immune system, and use code BEN10 to save 10% on your first order. Combined with a healthy lifestyle, good sleep, and proper nutrition, Kion Immune can help you stay vibrant and healthy year-round!
*These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
This Week's Most Popular Instagram Post
This Week's Most Popular Tweet:
My Most Popular Facebook Post This Week:
Leave your comments and any news or discoveries that you think I missed below!
Cheers,
Ben
Viruses do not decrease lymphocyte counts, they increase lymphocyte counts.