• Ben enjoys an organic glass of wine every now and then
• Endorses responsible consumption of alcohol
  • Even in small amounts, alcohol may cause some issues
• Zack Abbott worked at a research lab; worked at engineering probiotic strains to help digest alcohol better
• ZBiotics (use code BEN15 to save 15%)
• Coming up with the name ZBiotics
• Zack's favorite cocktail is boulevardier or whiskey-soda

-Is alcohol going to kill you no matter what?…10:31

• People swearing off alcohol completely
  • Dr. Andrew Huberman’s influence
• Alcohol replacement drinks that technically aren't alcohol
• For some people, an all-or-nothing solution is not sustainable
• It’s important to drink responsibly
• Is alcohol a hormetic stressor?
  • In some cultures known for longevity, alcohol, used in moderation, is an important part of the diet
• Alcohol consumption is a behavior that goes along with a lot of healthy social interaction
• Microdosing psilocybin instead of alcohol in social interaction

-What happens when you drink alcohol?…17:11

• When you drink, you ingest the ethanol, and it goes into your stomach and your intestines
  • It is rapidly absorbed into the bloodstream
  • It goes to the liver for detoxification
  • Ethanol gets converted into acetaldehyde, and then acetate
  • Acetaldehyde is then broken down into acetate
  • Acetate is essentially vinegar
• It is acetaldehyde that is highly toxic, more toxic than ethanol, but it doesn’t get into the bloodstream from the liver
• Some of the alcohol that goes into the gut is broken down by the microbiome
  • Not a significant amount of alcohol, but very important in terms of human health
  • That alcohol is converted into acetaldehyde, but then not into acetate like it is in the liver
• The gut ends up being a major source of acetaldehyde in the body
  • Colonic acetaldehyde levels are 5 to 10 times higher than blood acetaldehyde levels
  • It gets absorbed out of the gut into the bloodstream, and then to the liver
• Effects of ethanol:
  • Brain – intoxication effects and sleep problems
  • Hormone imbalances
  • Glucose insulin response
• The more alcohol you drink, the more acid is forming in your gut and going to your bloodstream and liver
• Other risk-creating elements in alcohol
  • High sugar
  • High-fructose corn syrup
• People drinking caffeine and alcohol together
  • People are more likely to engage in risky behaviors with that combination
• Red Bull vodka phenomenon in Europe

-The idea behind ZBiotics…24:43

• Adjustments to the microbiome to better deal with acetaldehyde
• The gut is a major source of acetaldehyde
• The idea that we could deal with acetaldehyde in the gut is logical
• Zach has a PhD in microbiology – studied bacterial gene regulation
• Bacteria perform 3,000 biological functions, only some are useful for humans
• Applying genetic engineering to ensure one additional function to the bacteria
  • They took some safe, edible probiotic bacteria
  • Engineered it to express an enzyme very similar to the one the liver uses to convert the acetaldehyde to acetate
• The idea is to consume this probiotic before you drink alcohol

-The safety issues of genetic engineering…30:20

• A lot of people are scared of GMOs mainly because of the way they have been used
• There's a big debate on the use of GMOs
• Genetic engineering has no effect on safety 
  • It's just a technology, a tool to make better products
  • A tool that can be used to make both safe or unsafe products
• Misconceptions about what genetic engineering is
• Life already alters its own DNA
  • Plant crossbreeding
• The process of genetic engineering of the bacteria
• Genetic engineering is just facilitating a natural activity
• The process does not make the bacteria unsafe in any way
• ZBiotics provide the bacteria that creates enough of a very common enzyme at the right time and in the right place

-The lack of liver enzyme and the use of antihistamines…35:27

• The enzyme that the liver uses to convert the acetaldehyde into acetate is mutated in certain people
  • Mostly people with East Asian descent
• Acetaldehyde Dehydrogenase – enzyme that the liver uses to convert acetaldehyde into acetate
• Strategene – dirty genes testing
• Histamine sensitivity:
  • Fermented foods like kombucha
  • Canned fish
  • Alcohol
• Ben takes ZBiotics (use code BEN15 to save 15%) prior to taking alcohol, glutathione after
• Ben is not a fan of activated charcoal use after alcohol consumption
  • Activated charcoal basically absorbs any other supplements you take
  • Causes constipation
• The volume of activated charcoal pills is too small to have any effect

-DNA in ZBiotics’ probiotic strain…42:20

• Getting the DNA – the art meets the science
• Designing DNA suitable for bacteria to integrate into its biome
• Reading and writing DNA
  • You can just order that strip of DNA to be made
• Many companies are very good at synthesizing DNA
  • It’s like writing or composing
  • Sticking nucleic acids together in the appropriate sequence
• How to know it’s safe?
  • The string of letters of DNA is the instructional code for the bacterial cell
  • The code itself does not have any effect on humans
• Everything you eat has DNA
• The question is what functions are affected?
• Many tests for safety are performed
  • Looking at toxicity, allergenicity, pathogenicity
• It can't mutate you

– Do you need to load the gut with​ ZBiotic ​over time?…48:10

• Akkermansia by Pendulum (code GREENFIELD saves 20% off your first month's subscription)
• Podcast with Colleen Cutcliffe:
  • The New Probiotic Strain That Allows You To Eat Carbs Again, How GLP-1 Peptide Actually Works And Why It’s Not Intended For Everyone, With Pendulum’s Colleen Cutcliffe.
• Lactate digesting enzyme
• Probiotics have to take up residence in our gut
  • That’s difficult because everybody’s microbiome is different
• No FDA-approved drug that's probiotic-based at the moment
• Consistency is incredibly hard to gain
• Most adults do not have lactobacillus in their gut, or at least not in significant numbers
  • The reason why it's a probiotic is because it's a leftover of the dairy industry
  • Not because it's good for human health
• The bacteria in ZBiotics is Bacillus subtilis (use code BEN15 to save 15%)
  • Is everywhere, and everyone has it
  • Passes fast through the gut
  • Doesn’t disrupt microbiome
  • Produces the enzyme and leaves the body
  • Doesn’t have to load up the gut with it
• Antibiotics can’t disrupt it because it is not a resident of the gut
• Zack’s PhD: How bacteria turns on and off different genes in different conditions
• Engineered this strain of bacteria that was making a lot of acetaldehyde dehydrogenase enzyme
• Many of the bacteria in your gut are also making it
  • Just not at the right time and in the right amount

-How to take ZBiotics?…54:15

• It’s a liquid shot, and you take it just before you drink
  • Most beneficial when taken before drinking
• Stacking a lot of responsible habits and behaviors together
• When you drink, a lot of things happen in the body
• The biggest problem is sleep
  • It’s ideal to go to bed sober
• Alcohol induces a surge of GABA that wears off
• High-carb meal before bed – you'll go hyperglycemic
  • As blood sugar drops, you wake up in the middle of the night

-Are some types of alcohol cleaner than others?…58:34

• Fermentation and distillation processes have many byproducts
• Fermentation affects the flavor in ways that we enjoy a lot of the time, and sometimes don't
• Red wine has a lot of acetaldehyde
• People have different reactions to them
• The cleanliness of the alcohol in general
  • Clear or light-colored alcohols have fewer congeners than darker-colored alcohol
• A lot of times, it's a personal choice

-Electrolytes and hydrogenated water…1:01:15

• When drinking alcohol, Ben does the following:
  1. Electrolytes / Minerals / Hydration
     • Because of the increased urination
  2. Hydrogen tablets
     • The anti-inflammatory effect that makes alcohol feel a little bit better
• Oxidative stress is the body’s response to alcohol
• Hydrogen gas, in large part produced by the microbiome, is one of the major ways that the body deals with oxidative stress
• Increased urination is just due to the fact that you are increasing fluid intake
  • Biochemical markers of dehydration are not present
  • Things that make you dehydrated don't feel like how alcohol makes you feel
• But keeping your blood volume high with fluids is always valuable
• A study in the Journal of Strength Conditioning Research
  • Compared beer consumption post-exercise with Gatorade consumption
  • Found that beer essentially hydrated you to the same extent as Gatorade with a similar post-exercise recovery boost
• A lot of studies on rugby players in the 70s who were drinking alcohol after the game
• The hypothesis that alcohol causes dehydration

-Plans for new products…1:06:24

• Engineer bacteria to overlay a function that we know is valuable
• Creating a probiotic that is very specific and tailored to people's needs
• When ZBiotics launched its first product in 2019, it was the world's first-ever genetically engineered probiotic of any kind
• Planning to build all kinds of products to do all sorts of things
• The goal is to make products that basically help people deal with modern life
• ZBiotics (use code BEN15 to save 15%)