March 24, 2022

From podcast: https://bengreenfieldlife.com/podcast/qa-441/

[00:00:00] Introduction

[00:02:00] Methylene Blue Articles

[00:11:14] Podcast Sponsors

[00:22:34] News Flashes

[00:23:11] Beyond Probiotics: 3 Powerful Tools For Healing The Gut Biome 

[00:37:34] Gluten-Sensitive or Not

[00:40:29] Trying a non-fermentable form of fiber 

[00:44:38] A Homemade Liquid Morphine

[00:49:55] Glutamine for Gut Issues

[00:53:37] Worms to the rescue 

[00:57:20] The latest on bitter melon and blood sugar 

[00:59:33] Lemon juice is a cheap hack to lower your blood glucose after a meal

[01:02:23] Resistance Training Study

[01:06:10] Tips for healing an injured hand, after having tried everything under the sun

[01:12:52] End of Podcast

Ben:  In this episode of the Ben Greenfield Life Podcast, methylene blue madness, the gut-healing mega-news flash, homemade morphine, cheap blood sugar hacks, training 2 versus 4 times per week and a whole lot more.

Faith, family, fitness, health, performance, nutrition, longevity, ancestral living, biohacking and a whole lot more. Welcome to the show.

Jay: It's been mass chaos but in all the good ways. I'm actually having a lot of fun with what I'm doing. So, yeah, how about you, dude?

Ben:  Good, good. Well, I know you're smack dab in the middle of launching your company, Hanu Health. I'm smack dab in the middle of my rebrand of my company, which you may have noticed if you heard the podcast introduction is now Ben Greenfield Life at BenGreenfieldLife.com rather than Ben Greenfield Fitness because I decided I want to get fat and eat twinkies and sit on the couch and watch what's a good news show, Tucker Carlson or–

Jay:  You're losing so much fans right now?

Ben:  I don't even know.

Jay:  I think [00:01:25] _____.

Ben:  Yeah, yeah. So, anyways, we're going to become a political show. No, we're going to get a lot more into things beyond fitness, basically lifestyle optimization. So, because of that though, Jay, everybody needs a good cognitive pick-me-up at least in my opinion to get through these tough times. And, it turns out that there's something going around the internet that many people have asked me about when it comes to enhancing one's mitochondria and cognition.

And, I'll tell you what if you want a little bit of entertainment while you're listening to the show, go google Methylene Blue Ben Greenfield because there's about 10 articles that hit the internets this week including headlines such as “Doctors slam influencers for ingesting fish tank cleaner to fight aging” and “Medical expert issues warning about fish tank disinfectant craze.”

I started to see these just pour into my inbox lately. Have you seen any of these, Jay?

Jon:  Yeah. I know, I saw the ones that you sent over. And, it was funny because it was you, it was the one that doctor slams people for ingesting the fishbowl cleaner. It was you, and then my friends Lauren and Renee, the biohacker babes, and I sent it over to them. And, I was like, “Oh, look at you guys.” So, the crush of media. So, yeah, that one's been going around.

Ben:  It's supposedly quite dangerous. And so, if you read some of these articles, they get into this fact that a lot of fitness influencers and Instagram personalities, et cetera, are hawking the health benefits of something called methylene blue, which they describe in these articles as this dangerous antifungal dye often used to clean fish tanks. And basically, each article gets into the idea that it causes a horrific and possibly dangerous meth inside people's mouth and turns their lips blue, and may cause potentially deadly, deadly complications for people who take antidepressants. And, despite hydroxychloroquine actually being derived from a methylene blue precursor, the total dismissal of claims that somehow the dye could be beneficial in treating or modulating cases of COVID-19. I mean, they just go on and on, everybody, all these so-called medical experts essentially vilifying this stuff. So, I figured I would clear up the air here or at least turn the air blue.

So, let me explain. Methylene blue, which I actually do indeed use. There's one company called Troscriptions that makes a great one that they compound a little bit of nicotine, a little bit of caffeine, a little bit of CBD. I tell you what, it's a great cognitive pick-me-up. I love it. Yeah, it's called a troche. It works well. There's another guy who's troche I use sometimes, I don't know if he sells it on the internet, he's a doctor I met down in phoenix, Dr. Mike Major down in Phoenix. He's got another one that I use. And, a lot of times I'll combine it with a walk in the sunshine because when this methylene blue is in your bloodstream, the photonic light from sunlight can help to enhance the effects of methylene blue on the mitochondria.

Okay. So, here's the deal with methylene blue. It's also known as methylthioninium chloride. And, it is indeed true that it can act as an antifungal on surfaces, which is why it's popular as a fish tank cleaner. But, don't go buy a fish tank cleaner. If you get pharmaceutical grade methylene blue, which is what's used in a lot of these popular supplements now that have been getting a lot of biohackers thrown under the bus, methylene blue has been proven in research to protect the brain by acting as an electron donor to specifically complex 1 through 4 of the mitochondria, and directly increasing adenosine triphosphate or ATP production, your body's cellular energy currency, even in the absence of say caloric intake. And, to do so, even at an even greater extent when it is exposed to infrared light such as if you use one of these troches when you're in an infrared sauna or if you are out in the sunlight.

Now, the reason that acts that way is that methylene blue is an electron donor. Okay, donates electrons to something called coenzyme Q, which is another part of the mitochondria, and also to a part of the mitochondria called cytochrome C. So, it increases the activity something called cytochrome oxidase, and increases oxygen consumption, and increases heme synthesis, and also stimulates glucose metabolism and increases the amount of NAD produced by the mitochondria. So, not only is it producing greater amounts of ATP, it's increasing the amount of NAD that's produced, which can also act as a DNA protectant, it acts as an antioxidant. Meaning that methylene blue interacts with oxygen, makes water that decreases the amount of superoxide radicals that are produced during the process of oxidative phosphorylation. That's your body's energy creation process, okay? It can also trap leaking electrons that are produced by mitochondrial inhibitors and it can preserve the metabolic rate by bypassing certain blocked points of electron flow that happened during mitochondrial respiration. Okay. So, there's a lot going for mitochondrial health and overall energy levels when you have methylene blue in your system, which is also why a lot of functional medicine doctors will use methylene blue in some of their treatments or a lot of people use it as a nootropic or a cognitive pick-me-up.

And, the other interesting thing about it is that there is a law of diminishing returns in the same way that you shouldn't use these big infrared light lamps for more than about 20 minutes per day because it can produce excess electrons. And, that can saturate your electron transport chain in your mitochondria. I mean, it can produce reactive oxygen species. Well, with methylene blue, same thing, at high doses, it can indeed promote oxidative stress. In addition to that, and this is why there was all this chatter, “But if you're on an antidepressant, it's going to kill you.” It is one of those things that may cause too much serotonin to flood the cleft between the neurons. So, it could cause serotonin toxicity in someone who's already on an SSRI. But, the research on the mitochondrial benefits and the energy-producing benefits of methylene blue, and I don't sell methylene blue, I've got no stock in an methylene blue company, I'm just saying I like it as a nootropic because of all the different things that it does. Furthermore, it can have antimicrobial action. Okay. That's why it was first used back in the 1800s to treat malaria. And, that's why it was eventually used as the precursor for what we now know as hydroxychloroquine, which has been used, some would argue not, but I would say, yes, it has been used as something that can be effective for COVID. It's also an antifungal agent and it can inhibit candida. So, in women, it'll often will have yeast candida or people who drink gallons of kombucha from whole foods or have too much sugar or whatever. They can have candida. Methylene blue is good for that. I would say the number one thing that it does though that has actually been studied in clinical trials at relatively low doses is an increase in cognitive performance. And, this was a 5 to 10% increase in cognitive performance that was found along with a decrease in the rate of neurodegeneration.

So, I'm going to drop the mic now and say that these articles are silly. And, I think that the reason they got so popular was because they were able to put up a bunch of photos of influencers with blue mouths and blue tongues. And so, obviously, these news flashes were ripe for virally spreading. So, anyways, I don't know.

You going to stop using methylene blue anytime soon, Jay?

Jay:  Well, this is the way I look at it, man. It's super clickbaity and it's an easy clickbait. You see the blue tongues, I mean, you hear about the potential for death, and people are going to click on it, and they're going to start slamming just the doctors are slamming you and everybody else who's in this article. We see all the same thing with infrared light a few years ago. We saw the same thing with micro-dosing.

Ben:  Sun tanning your perineum, your butthole.

Jay:  I remember that one. Yeah. So, you're going to see this. So, no. For me, I'm very risk-averse just in whatever I put in my body and to the extent of I just don't do it super often. So, with methylene blue, with nicotine, those are things that I might use, let's say, once or twice max a week. And, it's not saying like, “Oh, you have to limit yourself to that,” but I just do it just because for me, too much of something, I'm just really sensitive to stuff like that. For instance, those troches that you use the Troscription ones, I love them, but I can only take a fourth to a half of the troche max because I just get a little bit jittery.

Ben:  Weak sauce. Yeah.

Jay:  I know. I'm such a weak one. But, I'll guzzle down 20 ounces of coffee in one gulp and I'm good to go. No, I'm kidding.

Ben:  Yeah.

Jay:  But, I think it's all just kind of this clickbait thing that it happens initially, and then we'll see it fade away.

Ben:  Yeah, yeah. Well, we could talk until we're blue in the face. See how I did there. Or, we could go ahead and jump into this week's news flashes. We have one special guest before we jump into the news flashes and then we're going to go into Q&A with our live Clubhouse audience ready to come on, ask some questions, and we'll rock and roll. So, all the shownotes for today's show are going to be at BenGreenfieldfitness.com/441.

And, let's go ahead and bring James on. James Newcomb is the guy who produces this podcast. And, I wanted to have a quick chance here to hear from James because I know how many people, even people who are listening to the show right now are interested in starting a podcast or interested in maybe having somebody who can edit their audio. James is a great job for us. He does my audiobooks as well. And, I thought, you know what, there's so many people that could really benefit from knowing of James's existence that we should bring him on so we can explain what he does.

James, what's up?

James:  Hey, Ben. Thanks for having me. And, I just checked and Fox News is still spouting out nonsense. So, there's never been a better time to start your own podcast. Get it off the ground, speak your truth into the world.

Ben:  Maybe at some point in your audio editing wizardry you can figure out this five-second delay that Squadcast is throwing at us right now. But, anyways, go ahead.

James:  Well, it's easy if you know how, Ben. And, that's why you have an editor on board. And, that's what I've been doing for many years, four years for your show to be exact. And, what can I say? I make my living doing something that I love. So, who can say that? I'm really, really fortunate to be able to say that. Now, the name of our business is The GSD Network. And, GSD is short for Getting Shit Done. And, that's just what we're all about, it's no-frills, it's nothing fancy. We take the audio that people record and we just give it a nice haircut, get it ready to ship. So, I absolutely appreciate this opportunity to share a little bit about what we do on your show.

Ben:  I like it. I like it. So, if people wanted a podcast editor, James, or wanted to start a podcast, I needed somebody in their back pocket standing outside Starbucks with an iPhone and a microphone, and a Tesla. What's the URL again where they can find you?

James:  The URL to find us is GSD.network, GSD.network. And, whether you need some help getting your shows ready to ship for public consumption or you need a good swift kick in the pants via some coaching, we are here to serve.

Ben:  GSD.network. Alright, you guys. So, check out James. You may also recognize James's voice because he was the guy who had big enough balls to be able to record all 8,000 hours of my last book, “Boundless.” So, that's James. And, that's why you might be familiar with his voice if you listen to my audiobook because he was the man for that.

Alright, James, thanks for filling us in. GSD Network, Getting Shit Done Network. I like it. My mom hopefully isn't listening in to me curse on my own show. But anyways, thanks, James.

James:  Thank you, sir.

Ben:  Hey. So, I don't know if you've heard but my new book, “Endure” is officially available for pre-order. I could not be more excited to gift this book to you. It is inspired by my own personal temptations, and struggles and failures. And, it's a tool that I put together so that you can learn how to put your battle armor on and better be able to deal with all the stress, and trials, and tribulations that life inevitably deals to you. So, my hope is that you're going to use this book as a companion to my other book, “Fit Soul.” And, with this new book, “Endure,” you're going to be totally equipped to build your spiritual stamina, to strap on your battle armor, to trust God, to experience the peace and the love and the joy of creation. And, it's all available now at GetEndure.com. That's GetEndure.com. Copies are now available for pre-order. And furthermore, if you pre-order, I'm going to gift you the first three chapters of endure as an instantly downloadable eBook. So, you can get started away. I'll give you a sweet discount also on the Spiritual Disciplines Journal that I use along with books like this to enhance my fulfillment, and my happiness, and my purpose, and the impact that I can make in this world. So, I really hope you get a chance to check it out. And again, the URL is GetEndure.com.

The last two years been kind of crazy, haven't they? Now is crazy. We've never experienced anything like this in our lifetimes. We never experienced such a strange effect on our mental well-being at least not any time in recent history. And unfortunately, a lot of us have been taken down by the anxiety, and stress, and poor sleep. And, I mean, if you're a working parent, you have the extra difficulty of keeping your kids occupied 24/7 while trying to work from home. That's not an easy task. And, if you feel exhausted and burnt out, you're not alone. There's tens of thousands of people in a similar place right now. And, well, you can't out supplement your way out of a scenario like this. There is one thing that gets exhausted when you're stressed out, and that's magnesium. And, by supplementing with magnesium, you can replenish the levels that get depleted through all this stress and anxiety. And, low magnesium levels incidentally can contribute to more anxiety. So, it's kind of this vicious cycle.

There's a form of magnesium that I've really been liking lately. It's called Magnesium Breakthrough, seven different forms of full-spectrum magnesium. It's all organic for stress relief and also better sleep and a nice bowel movement the next morning. And, you get that all in one bottle. So, it helps you, magnesium in this case and especially this Magnesium Breakthrough stuff have more energy, and stronger bones, and healthy blood pressure, and less irritability, and a calmer mood, and reduce muscle cramping, and even fewer migraines. Start out. Take a few capsules before you go to bed. You'll be amazed by the improvements in your mood and your energy levels and you get 10% off of this stuff. Go to MagBreakthrough.com/Ben and use code BEN10. That's magbreakthrough.com/Ben and use code BEN10 during checkout to save 10% and get free shipping.

Oh, it's no secret I'm a big fan of wine. Not the kind of wine that gives you headaches and that's full of 76 different additives that are actually legally shockingly approved for use in winemaking these days, dyes and thickeners, and GMO, yeast, and that fancy French wine that you've paid for. So, the top 21 sold in the U.S. contain higher levels of sugar and alcohol and it's crazy. It's like drinking a soda. And, if you care about what you put into your body and don't want all this stuff, then you got to go for an alcohol that's organically and biodynamically grown, preferably lower in sugars, lower in alcohol, lab tested for purity, and even created on a smaller family farm for better quality control. Three giant wine companies sell over 50% of U.S. wine, it's crazy.

So, wine is a pretty bastardized industry, but there's this one company, they're called Dry Farm Wines, okay. It's dry because they don't irrigate their crops heavily, so you get a grape that's more concentrated in antioxidants and lower in sugar. They have access to 55,000 acres of organic vineyards. Okay, their growers farm roughly 7% of all the organic farms in Europe. So, these small family vineyards preserve healthy soil and dynamic biodiversity. You get the wine, it's old-world biodynamic wine the way wine was meant to be. My wife gets headaches when we go out to a restaurant and order wine. And, when we drink Dry from at home, she's just fine. And, they even have 100% happiness promise. Any bottle you don't love, they'll replace a refund at Dry Farm. So, they're going to give you an extra bottle in your first box for a penny. And, that's basically because legally it's alcohol and they can't give it to you for free.

So, Dry Farm Wine is going to give you an extra bottle in your first boxing room for a penny. I get a box every month. It's amazing. It's a no-brainer. So, you can see all the details and claim your bottle for a penny at DryFarmWines.com/BGF. That's DryFarmWines.com/BGF.

Okay. I am super stoked. As you know, occasionally, me and my team at Kion dive into our Batman caves and develop a brand-new supplement. The one that we have officially finished tweaking. And, I can tell you I have been using it, I've been given a few of my samples to friends and they've been using it. So, here's the deal. It is an extremely potent fast-acting sleep formula. It lets you fall asleep fast. It lets you stay asleep. It lets you get better quality sleep, so you wake up refreshed. My sleep scores are through the roof on this stuff. I haven't told barely anybody about it because obviously, I didn't want to get your hopes up before we actually launch this thing. But, Kion Sleep is now available. Kion Sleep is now available.

So, you go to getKION.com/BenGreenfield. That's getK-I-O-N.com/BenGreenfield to try the brand-new Kion Sleep now. It's flying off the shelf. So, get in fast getKION.com/BenGreenfield. Let's getK-I-O-N.com/BenGreenfield.

Alright. So, this may not be a surprise to you, but we're kind of in the middle of a major health crisis. I'm not talking about COVID, or diabetes, or obesity, but a different kind of more silent epidemic that since 2019 the research has shown up to 60% of Americans suffer from. So, if you're listening this podcast, you could be even extra susceptible because I have a hunch this affects some of us more health-minded folks even more than say regular everyday people and for even the fittest biohackers that are missing this one thing. It could be as destructive to your health as smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day, your risk of premature death from all causes significantly increased by this. It increases your risk of dementia, and depression, anxiety, and gives you a 29% increased risk of heart disease and a 32% increased risk of suffering a stroke. So, you're probably wondering what this missing piece is. And, the answer is this, it's true authentic human connection. The last few years have shattered so much of our social infrastructure, change the way we work, and even the way we exercise, go to church and school. And, as social creatures, many of us are still picking up the pieces and searching for a solution that's going to meet our needs in a way that doesn't necessarily include a screen or technology. And, I know from my own experience all the peptides and biohacking in this world just cannot replace the boost that my mind, body, and spirit gets from immersing myself with the right group of vibrant people, like-minded people, and new friends that I can make.

So, if this is sounding interesting to you, then keep listening because here's the deal, whether you're an entrepreneur like me, I used to want to be, a go-getter at a corporate job, an individual looking to expand your personal and professional network or even a health-conscious couple that would love to be part of a vibrant health-minded community, I've got the solution for you. It's called RUNGA, R-U-N-G-A, RUNGA. If you've listened to me for a while now, you may have heard me say that RUNGA is the creme de la creme of wellness retreats. And, this year's RUNGA is going to be no exception. It's an exclusive invite-only experience called The Gathering, and it's happening this May in Austin, Texas.

So, at The Gathering, you're not only going to have access to the latest biohacks and therapies like hyperbaric oxygen, and PEMF, and peptide injections, you're going to be hanging out with me and 50 other carefully selected VIP guests and industry experts for three full days of activities in classes, and live podcast recordings, and Q&As, and workouts, and mind shares. And, I'm so excited for this.

Every year, RUNGA is this cool opportunity for me to care for my body, and soul in an environment, and a community that's nothing else I've found. And, I would love to see you there.

So, here's the deal, for all the details and to apply for one of the limited spots at this incredible event, you can head over to BenGreenfieldfitness.com/RUNGA. It's BenGreenfieldfitness.com/R-U-N-G-A.

Well, folks, this is the part of the show where we jump into some incredible news flashes and interesting information that came across my desk this week because I've been pouring through research articles, and journals, and books, and things that people send me and sharing the things that are most intriguing with you. Now, I should let you know from an audio standpoint that my dear podcast sidekick Jay, I'm just going to blame it on him is experiencing a few internet difficulties, so we have a little bit of a delay in his audio. So, we'll see whether or not he's able to join us for much of his witty banter or not. But, either way, we're going to do this.

So, as I let you know in the introduction, I did want to give you a gut-healing mega news flash on today's show because there's a lot that has happened lately in the realm of the gut biome and specifically healing the gut biome. So, I want to fill you in on some of the things going on right now because I know a lot of people deal with bloating, deal with gas, deal with brain fog that maybe doesn't manifest as gastrointestinal issues but manifests instead as cognitive issues.

And so, the first article that I want to make you aware of was written by Keenan Eriksson who's a chronic disease specialist and a personal trainer, and an author who wrote a great article at BetterHumans.pub. And, BetterHumans.pub is a wonderful resource for just basically delving into a lot of body, and brain, and human optimization tactics. Now, this gentleman who wrote the article had been experiencing severe gut dysbiosis and imbalance of bacteria in the gut and in stomach and gastrointestinal issues that were manifesting and basically things like chronic fatigue syndrome, and panic attacks, and anxiety, and fatigue, and even inability to exercise. And, I've come across a lot of folks who have experienced things like that. And, what he laid out was a really beautiful and very clear and precise method to address gut issues like this that I think was spot on in terms of the science behind it. Because when you look at your gut, I mean, it's a whole ecosystem of bacteria, we're talking 23,000 genes that influence your biology. But then, if you look at the gut biome, we're looking at more like 3.3 million genes because you have so many foreign critters in your tummy, these bacteria. So, it's incredibly complex.

And, basically, the way that this guy managed to fix his gut was he did a few different things. First of all, even though the research and the agreement amongst gastroenterologists and gut researchers is a little bit controversial regarding the use of probiotics, this particular individual did a combination. And, I really, really this combination and have used something very similar to it successfully in the past for people with gut issues as well as myself, a combination of a very good probiotic combined with a soil-based probiotic. Now, in this case, he used one called P3-OM. P3-OM is made by a company called BiOptimizers. I like that probiotic. It's a well-formulated strain. It has L. plantarum in it, which is particularly effective at eliminating gut pathogens.

I tend to use one now called Seed, S-E-E-D, is my go-to probiotic because it's wrapped in this algal medium that allows it to survive the acidic nature of the stomach and make its way almost down to the colon. And, I do quite well taking about three of those right when I get up in the morning and if I'm traveling because airline travel can disrupt the gut microbiome significantly. I will double up on that and take three in the morning and three in the evening. 

Now, what that probiotic and many other probiotics are missing is the bacterial strain that's found in soil. And, that's where you can throw in a soil-based probiotic. There's a lot of different soil-based probiotics out there. One of the ones that I like is made by Josh Axe‘s company, Ancient Nutrition. And, I'll put a link to it in the shownotes. They do a really great soil-based probiotic. But, that one-two combo of Seed plus the Ancient Nutrition soil-based probiotic, I think, is a really good one-two combo. There are other companies that make soil-based probiotics, but those are the two that I like, are Seed and Ancient Nutrition. And, you can take those at the same time. So, you can do a couple capsules of the soil-based probiotic from Ancient Nutrition, three of the Seed. Do that in the morning. And, if you're traveling, do it in both the morning and in the evening.

This individual wrote this article also began to widely expand their intake of ferments. Meaning like kimchi, sauerkraut, miso, natto, yogurt. And, I don't think that's a bad option with the only thing being that if your gut issues manifest with a lot of gas and bloating, you may actually have small intestine bacterial overgrowth. And, if that's the case, some of these fermented vegetables can almost be too much. They can produce too much gas, too much methane, et cetera, in which case you need to stick to basically lower fiber probiotic foods. And, I would be referring to things like miso, yogurt, fermented fish sauce, things along those lines. And, if you do not have any of the symptoms of SIBO, you can get away with basically doing a whole wide variety of probiotic-infused foods like kimchi and sauerkraut, et cetera.

Now, one thing that you should be aware of is that there is a wonderful relatively new book called “The Gut Fix” by Dr. William Davis who I'll be having on my podcast soon because of all the different probiotic type of foods that you could consume. I think top of the totem pole is his Gut Healing Yogurt. He has the whole recipe in that book. I or my wife or somebody in our house makes a fresh new batch about every two weeks. And, this particular yogurt is very, very unique. In our house, we use goat milk just because we have a mommy goat right now who's turning out lots of milk. You could use coconut milk technically. Although if you use coconut milk, you've got to add a little bit of sugar because coconut milk doesn't contain the lactose sugar that will feed the probiotic or that will feed the bacteria. You can also use if you want a thicker yogurt like half and half or cream, for example. But, you take your yogurt or you take your milk rather. And, into your milk, you basically powder and drop in there about 10 tablets of something called L. reuteri, which is a probiotic strain made by BioGaia. You can buy this stuff on Amazon. I'll put links in the shownotes at BenGreenfieldfitness.com/441 for all the ingredients. And then, you put a few tablespoons of inulin, which is a prebiotic that will help to feed the bacteria. And, you add that all to around 32 ounces or so of your goat milk, or your regular milk, or your half and half, or your cream, or your coconut milk. And again, if you use coconut milk, you have to add a little bit of extra sugar to it so that the bacteria have something to eat and munch on. And then, you do a long — at least relative to making yogurt, a long fermentation. You basically will put it in a food dehydrator, or an oven, or a yogurt maker. And, you want to do it at somewhere right around 100 to 105 degrees for 36 hours.

And, when you do it for 36 hours, you read all the details about this in Dr. William Davis's new book, “The Gut Fix.” You get an amplification of this L. reuteri bacteria by the billions and billions and a huge surge in a bunch of gut-healing nutrients that are going to be found in that yogurt, particularly oxytocin. And, oxytocin is that feel-good hormone that's released when you, for example, when you have an orgasm or women, when you breastfeed. So, I guess they could call this orgasm yogurt. But basically, it vastly increases oxytocin, does a great job stabilizing and feeding the gut. You get better sleep. You get better exercise performance. You get better mood. It's just basically an amazing homemade yogurt. And, the cool thing is it's cheap because once you bought those probiotics once, all you do to make a new batch is you save just a few tablespoons of the old yogurt and then you put that into the milk, toss it in the food dehydrator, or the yogurt maker, or the oven at 100 to 105 degrees and you can make a whole new fresh batch. So, that was the second part of the recommendation in addition to taking the probiotic combined with the soil-based probiotic because this wonderful yogurt. And, I have about 4 to 6 ounces of this yogurt every single day. I'll either put in a smoothie, or put it on top of a salad, or have some with steak at dinner. Doesn't matter. I am absolutely addicted to it and it's amazing.

Next, the strategy that this person used, I really do like. It comes from Dr. Zach Bush who's a previous podcast guest and it's the use of what's called lignite. This is actually an extract from the soil. And, this was something that was originally launched and designed by Dr. Zach Bush who's really smart. And, it relies upon this process of cellular signaling called redox signaling, which is the process of oxidation and reduction that involves the transportation of electrons for your cells and for your mitochondria.

Well, redox signaling is also involved in the way that your gut biomes bacteria communicate and coordinate with one another. And, if you have a lot of bad bacteria in your gut, or certain cells, or malfunctioning, the communication between mitochondria basically gets impaired and you can get a lot of gut issues. And, this is particularly problematic for people who have a high intake of herbicides, pesticides, glyphosate, et cetera.

Well, if you look at lignite extract, which is just a fancy name for all these materials that are present in dirt, what lignite does is it allows this cellular communication to be restored by repairing the cells tight junctions. And, this is a liquid you would take a shot, for example, before you have a meal or a few times a day. And, in people who specifically have leaky gut, it can really work well. I don't use this stuff anymore because I personally feel that the colostrum that I now use and that I actually toss into my smoothie every morning, I think it does an even better job at fixing up leaky gut cells and at helping to restore proper cellular communication in the gut. But, it's the same type of tactic whether you use this RESTORE product by Dr. Zach Bush, whether you use the colostrum, I use the Kion brand of that that you combine with the fermented foods that you combine with this soil-based probiotic and the regular probiotic. These are all steps that if you have gut issues can do a really good job fixing things. I've had a lot of gut issues in my life and these are these are steps that have vastly improved my own gut health.

Now, the last component is like a temporary component, but it can really do a good job pushing the reboot button on the gut. It's a hypoallergenic liquid diet that you follow for anywhere from three to 14 days. It's called an elemental diet. Now, what an elemental diet is is it's basically a diet that eliminates a lot of fiber. It eliminates a lot of the things that would potentially irritate things like SIBO, or Crohn's, or ulcerative colitis, or celiac disease. It's basically a liquid-based nutrient-rich formula. And, there's a few different ways that you can do it. In my book, “Boundless,” I do have instructions for a DIY elemental diet using certain things that you would find around your kitchen. But really, the easiest way to do it is to use either the Elemental Heal powder, which is made by Dr. Michael Ruscio. The other one that I really is Thorne's SGS powder. And, you basically, I know it sounds boring, but you drink an elemental diet smoothie for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. While you continue to take the colostrum, you take these two different probiotics, you use a little bit of this yogurt that I just described in this elemental diet. And then, the other thing you can toss in there is especially if you're trying not to lose muscle on a diet like that, about 20 to 40 grams of essential amino acids on a daily basis. That's what I do with people who I help walk through an elemental diet is I throw in a ton of aminos, I throw in a ton of colostrum, I throw in some of this gut-healing yogurt, those two different probiotics I described.

And, if you go through all those steps, and I'll link to the article as well in the shownotes and along with some of the other things I've mentioned, you can literally take a gut that's just ravaged and torn up, and within a couple of weeks feel like you have a born-again stomach. It's pretty amazing.

So, anyways, that's the first thing that I want to tell you guys about when it comes to the gut.

By the way, Jay, you still with me?

Jay:  Yeah. No, I love the idea of that yogurt. So, one of the things that I'm going to do. So, I think I've mentioned this in the past that the probiotic that I use is called Pendulum, and it's made with Akkermansia. So, it's really good for glucose control. So, I like to do a lot of testing like AB testing with and without it, and then utilization of other probiotics to look at glycemic control especially with the use of Levels or a CGM. And, I love the addition or the additive of the inclusion of this yogurt with my Pendulum, and then also add in a bit of Kion Colostrum to it. I think that's a really cool fix. I don't really have gut problems per se or at least I'm not super sensitive to that if I do. But, I'd just be really interested to see kind of with the combination of all those things that I'm using if there is a substantial effect or at least one that I could feel. So, yeah, cool stuff.

Ben:  Yeah. And, the only other thing I'd throw in there from a quantification standpoint is if you do think you have a leaky gut, you can actually test the intestinal permeability of your small intestine. There's a test called the intestinal permeability assessment. It's made by Genova Diagnostics. I'll link to it in the shownotes. You just drink this pre-measured amount of what's called lactulose and mannitol. These are two different sugars. And then, you pee for the next six hours. Not six hours of continuous peeing, should be a boring time in the bathroom. But, just every time you pee over six hours after you drank it, you collect this urine sample and the degree of intestinal permeability based on how much of these non-metabolized sugar molecules wind up in the urine versus not in the urine, which should indicate they've permeated the intestinal mucosa can basically indicate whether or not you have intestinal permeability. So, it's kind of a cool test. And, I'll link to that one in the shownotes. It's made by Genova Diagnostics.

So, let's keep going. So, there's a lot of other things that have happened in the past couple of months regarding the gut. The next thing I want to talk about is this idea that a lot of people think that they are gluten sensitive when in fact they are not. For the past few years, multiple studies have come out showing that people who think they're gluten-sensitive aren't really gluten sensitive. Instead, they are sensitive to the fermentable carbohydrates found in wheat and the fermentable carbohydrates found in what is called FODMAP-containing foods. FODMAP, that's an acronym that stands for fermentable oligosaccharide, disaccharide, monosaccharide, and polyols.

Now, this would include things like wheat, barley, apples, onions, many vegetables that are often considered healthy but are yet fibrous and very fermentable. Even a lot of sugars and things like fructose and in fruit, especially dried fruit. If you get a lot of gas when you have apples, when you have onions, when you have garlic, and you have dry fruit, and when you have wheat, all of those are pretty good signs that you have potential sensitivity to FODMAPs. And, a lot of times people don't get the relief from eliminating gluten per se, they get the relief from eliminating these FODMAP-containing foods.

Now, this has been known for some time but this recent study they did last month was they put people on a low FODMAP diet and then they basically gave them pure gluten powder. We're talking like South Park might make your dick fly off and fly around the room and explode gluten powder. Okay. If anybody's familiar with that South Park episode.

Jay:  I'm not at all. I was so confused with that.

Ben:  It's pretty funny. Anyways, though, maybe I'll link to that episode in the shownotes. Yeah, South Park gets a little bit edgy, but it is a pretty funny little scene about the gluten powder.

So, anyways, yeah one group received rice flour. Obviously, no gluten and the other group received gluten powder. And, the group that was on a low FODMAP diet with the gluten powder added in, they didn't have issues. They only had issues if they had a lot of FODMAPs in their diet. And so, this just goes to show that you might think you have gluten intolerance, you might be eliminating a lot of foods that you think you should be eliminating, and getting on a gluten-free diet. You may or may not still be having issues, but what you need to know is that often it's not getting rid of the gluten, it's going on a low FODMAP diet. And, you can easily google low FODMAP. You can print a food chart and hang it on your refrigerator or keep an image of it on your phone that shows you all the foods that are high in FODMAPs like apples, and onions, and garlic, and wheat and things like that. And then, you just avoid the FODMAPs. It's super, super simple to do so once you have your head wrapped around it.

Now, what's interesting was a second study that came out last month looked at whether or not people on a low FODMAP diet could combat the inevitable constipation that often occurs when people eat a low FODMAP diet. If they introduced the type of fibers that are not fermentable. Now, this is really, really interesting because a lot of people will have gut issues. They'll switch to a low FODMAP diet and then they'll wind up with constipation because when you switch to a low FODMAP diet, you do get rid of a lot of fibers that would normally be a part of your diet. And so, this study thought, “Well, why don't we add the fibers back in but make sure that all the fibers that people are eating are low FODMAP fiber?”

And so, in this case, they use sugar cane. Now, obviously, if you're tracking your blood glucose and you don't want to get the diabetes, then you would actually not want to use a super, super sweet fiber like sugar cane as your primary source of fiber.

Jay:  Though it does sound fun.

Ben:  But, it does sound fun just to be non on sugar cane. I'm sure you could impress your friends with your giant stick of sugar cane sticking out your backpacks.

Jay:  Right.

Ben:  But anyways, there are other ways that you can augment stool bulk because this study did find that people on a low FODMAP diet could get rid of their constipation when they use sugar cane as a fiber.

Now, if you look at some other sources of fiber that don't irritate the gut but arguably don't have the same impact on your blood sugar levels as sugar cane, there are a few. And, these are a few that I really, really like. One is sea moss gel. That's a powerhouse source of cellular fiber, very low in calories, very satiating and it allows you to have bulk in your stool that you might not have if you've cut out a lot of fiber because fiber doesn't agree with your gut. So, sea moss gel.

I use this stuff, Akasha, A-K-A-S-H-A. I think we have a discount code with them somewhere. I'll find it and put it in the shownotes at BenGreenfieldfitness.com/441. But, Akasha, I really like. I always have a few jars of that Akasha sea moss gel. I'll put a dollop of it with breakfast, lunch, and dinner, get my fiber. Another one that I really is a pumpkin puree, like canned pumpkin puree. I get a BPA-free canned organic pumpkin puree. I ordered that one on Amazon. And again, really, really great for adding to smoothies, have it on the side with some steak or fish. It tastes great. You put a little cinnamon and nutmeg on there and drizzle it with just a touch of honey. You feel like you're eating baby food pumpkin pie. But basically, that's another one.

And then, the final one that I use that's a good source of a combination of soluble and insoluble fiber increases your ability to take a good poop but doesn't cause the fermenting, and the bloating and the gas is chia seed gel. Chia seed gel. And, what I really because it gives me a good poop the next day is when my families have an ice cream or whatever for dessert, I just have this giant mason glass jar full of soaked chia seeds in the refrigerator. And, I basically will just have some of these chia seeds. I'll put a little stevia, a little sea salt on them. Sometimes I'll sprinkle a little bit of a quarter bar dark chocolate or whatever in there. And, that's a really, really good source of non-fermentable fiber as well.

So, sea moss gel, pumpkin puree, chia seeds combined for low FODMAP diet. That's just magic for the gut. You ever tried those type of fibers before, Jay? Those ones I'd described like the pumpkin, or the chia or the sea moss?

Jay:  Yeah, I guess I wasn't necessarily using them with the intention of what you've mentioned but I have. I haven't tried sea moss though. But, chia and pumpkin puree, basically they become semi staples within my diet.

Ben:  Yeah, yeah. You should totally try the sea moss stuff. It's really cool. It's super easy. My kids like this. You can get just the sea moss that you then soak in water and drop in your Vitamix or your blender and blend after you've soaked it for a day. Or, you can get just the pre-made gel that they sell on their website. You might be able to get on Amazon too, but it's Akasha, it's a great, great brand.

Jay:  Yeah, interesting.

Ben:  And, I'll tell you a funny story about the chia seeds. This was three weeks ago. I took out the chia seeds to soak them and I left them on the counter in the Mason glass jar like I usually do for about a day and I came back and they were just all kind of floating in the water. They hadn't done their cool little chia seed pet thing. And so, I thought, “Well, gosh, what kind of crazy mutant chia seeds are these?” And, I open the jar and I try to feel they're still crunchy. I'm like, “Ah, crap.” So, I kept it soaking. Came back the next day, they were still hard. I thought, “Okay, I'm just going to go one more day, maybe some funky's going on here.” Maybe these are just the chia seeds from, I don't know, what do you call it?

Jay:  X-men chia seeds.

Ben:  Yeah, like X-men chia seeds or maybe they're hardcore Russian army chia seeds or something. I don't know. But anyway. So finally, the third day, my wife's like, “Why are you soaking poppy seeds on the counter?” I said, “Poppy seeds?” Okay. It's an understandable mistake, poppy seeds look a little bit like chia seeds.

Jay:  Yeah.

Ben:  And so, anyways, I thought, “Gosh, crap, I just wasted a bunch of poppy seeds.” So, I'm dumping the water out of the Mason jar and I thought, “I should use a strainer, strain these poppy seeds out because maybe I could still use them for something, maybe I could toast them and use them on a salad or whatever.” So, I strained the water out and I've got the poppy seeds in a little colander that I use for straining. I set the poppy seeds on the side. I'm looking at the water and I thought, “Yeah, I could drink some poppy seed water.” Maybe that's good for you. And so, I drank the water. And, the whole rest of the day, I was super chill, not stoned but I was chill. Nothing was really bugging me. I couldn't really go that hard during my workout in the afternoon. I just was relaxed bro. And, I thought, you know what, poppy seeds do have implications in terms of their opium content. They're an opiate.

Jay:  Yeah. Was it like an analgesic feel? Did you feel a little bit numb?

Ben:  Yeah, yeah. That's the best way I can describe it. Not hardcore like I just took morphine numb, but there was something going on with opioids. And so, I thought, huh. And so, I went and looked at the research and it turns out that soaking poppy seeds in water results in 50% of the morphine and 50% of the codeine from the poppy seeds winding up in the water. And then, I found another case study and review, and I'll link to this in the shownotes showing that many people have actually experienced something close to morphine-based intoxication when using poppy seed tea not just water. If I would have heated up the water and drank that whole thing, I guarantee I could have wound up in the hospital potentially. It would have been a lot of morphine, a lot of opioids. But, some people will use poppy seed tea as a way to wean themselves off of addictions to opioid-based painkillers. Some people will use poppy seed tea as a way to kill pain in a way that they would if they take an opiate because it's one of those cheap kitchen hacks for homemade morphine. And so, I thought, that's interesting.

So, what I'm getting at here is zombie apocalypse comes along, and let's say you got your carbine on your front porch shooting the zombies, or the Chinese black helicopters, or whatever and stray bullet catches you in the leg and you got no painkillers, no morphine, no coating to snort, and so you think, “But, I do have all these poppy seeds that I bought in bulk on Amazon last year when I bought all my ammo and put them in the pantry in case I was in a gunfight.” And then, you go and you warm up your poppy seeds and you make tea out of them and you drink your homemade liquid morphine. What do you think?

Jay:  I love that that's where your mind went to a zombie apocalypse. And, this is the way to negate the effects of getting bit, or shot, or whatever maybe. I guess if you get bit, you're a zombie now. But, if it's gun battle, I could see how that might work.

What's really interesting about it is that my wife recently has been making a flaxseed tea to help out with gallbladder functioning because she found out that she was having a little bit of gallbladder sludge and a little bit of slower functioning. And, I'm sitting there thinking, yeah, we don't want to mix up our poppy seeds, which we actually don't have any, but we don't want to mix those up with flax because you might get a bit of a different effect there than a flaxseed tea. So, yeah, that's pretty crazy. But, I love how you just were like, “Dude, I might as well just chug the water, don't want to get rid of the water.” Next thing you know, you're semi-high on poppy water.

Ben:  Yeah. I was semi-high. And, considering pot, you can get 10-pound sacks of poppy seeds for nothing on the internet. To me, just where my prepper mine goes is, hey, add it to the medicine cabinet just in case, but be careful kids. Okay.

So, one last thing regarding the gut stuff that we were talking about and then I have a few other just quick things I wanted to go through with people. Okay. So, this is interesting because I've recommended glutamine for people who have irritable bowel syndrome for some time. And, this latest study on glutamine, it was really fantastic. So, what they found was that when you take the low FODMAP diet that I just described, the amelioration of irritable bowel syndrome symptoms is vastly amplified when you add 5 grams of L-glutamine three times a day, 5 grams of L-glutamine three times a day.

Now, considering the inexpensive nature of L-glutamine and the fact that you can get giant tubs of L-glutamine powder for next to nothing and considering how nourishing it is to the gut, I'm telling you because I've already been using this with some of the clients who I work with who have gut issues, probably the number one population of clients I work with or the number one problem among clients I work with is they have gut issues. And so, I've began to recommend not only the probiotics that I mentioned and that colostrum in the morning, a lot of colostrum, but then this glutamine, all I have them do is just grab–and sometimes I'll just dump it straight into the mouth. There's the 5-gram scoop that comes with the tub of glutamine. And, you just basically take, every time you have a meal, 5 grams of glutamine, super simple. The research is amazing. So, if you have gut issues, definitely consider adding just cheap-ass glutamine into the equation. And, it seems to do a really good job especially if you're already eating a low FODMAP diet. And, I hope that's going to be helpful to some people. So, anyways the glutamine is an interesting one. Yeah, yeah. And, again, super-duper affordable, easy to get.

I was talking with Dr. Mercola about this. He actually is not into all these expensive NMN, and NR, and NAD supplements. And, he showed me some of the research and somewhat he's been digging into for just increasing your NAD levels either naturally, which he was describing to me how the number one way to increase your NAD levels is to fast for 12 to 16 hours every day, do some kind of really hard weight training or high-intensity interval training, multiple times per week. And then, I'm trying to remember. I think the last one was eating a wide variety of fermentable foods, which are already tackled for NAD. But then, for pennies on the dollar, you can get a nicotinamide powder. And, basically, you just take a certain amount, very small amount of this powder, this nicotinamide powder which you can buy on this fringe website that starts with an A and rhymes with Amazon. And basically, you get a little scale, you might need a little jewelry scale because you just take 25 to 50 mgs and you get the same increase in NAD as you do from this $70 bottle of nicotinamide riboside that you get from Life Extension Foundation or whatever. Ain't that interesting?

Jay:  Yeah, that's super interesting because yeah that stuff racks up. I mean, as far as expense goes. And so, if there's any ways to do it that are much cheaper and then also provide other health benefits, I mean, we already know the benefits of heavy movement of weight or of our body for HIT and all the other things you mentioned, they hold other benefits just outside of taking a single $70 pill or whatever. That's pretty cool.

Ben:  Yeah, yeah. I think it is pretty sick. So, hopefully, we're saving some people money. Get your nicotinamide powder. Get glutamine powder. A lot of this stuff. It doesn't have to be super expensive to hack the body, folks. Can be, but it doesn't have to be.

Jay:  Indeed.

Ben:  Okay. Speaking of expense, here's another interesting article that came out. Insects as a viable protein source for human consumption. I posted this one and a lot of people were like, “Unfollow, not going to eat worms, bro.” I wasn't shoving them down your throat, I was just mentioning that this recent study showed that insects are a sustainable protein-dense food source and a viable alternative to conventional animal-derived proteins. And, in this study, they actually looked at a really, really good tracer test, a protein-derived amino acid score, which is kind of a gold standard way to test for protein digestion. They looked at amino acid absorption kinetics. They looked at skeletal muscle protein synthesis rates. And, they found that ingestion of a meal of basically, in this case, mealworm-derived protein was followed by rapid protein digestion, a big increase in amino acid absorption, a big increase in muscle protein synthesis rates, and essentially the equivalent of what you'd get from milk protein concentrate, which is an animal-derived protein, which is actually really fantastic because they've done other studies and I think I've talked about them on the show before showing that the protein quality of insects is pretty high, particularly cricket, moth and grasshopper are three of the really sustainable type of digestible proteins, although termite had the highest digestibility score. You could eat some termites and also save your house from getting eaten.

Jay:  Yummy.

Ben:  But, this meal worm was super high. And so, it's so funny because we see everybody making the Beyond Burgers, the Impossible Burgers are complaining about cow methane or complaining about available land. That's an argument for another day. I'm a big regenerative egg guy and I feel we could feed a lot of people on a lot less land with a lot less carbon emission that would be considered problematic if we engage in more regenerative agriculture. But, I think that going forward, I think at some point there will be certain populations of humans who realize how foolhardy it is to not be relying upon the world's greatest mass of bioavailable protein specifically insects: mealworms, crickets, grasshoppers, you name it. So, yeah. And, I don't mind being a voice to encourage people. We're out there in the nutrition industry and supplements business look into this as a viable source of protein and it's really not that expensive either.

Jay:  Yeah, dude. Bear Grylls, he's been beating on this drum for a while. So, listen to Bear Grylls on this one.

Ben:  Yeah.

Jay:  One that's really interesting, it's very cultural. So, if you look at our culture, let's say domestic United States of America, yeah, this sounds an awful option for protein, but there are other cultures where this is not an awful option, this is a part of fine dining. I mean I think about wasn't it John The Baptist who had a nutritional profile focus?

Ben:  Focus.

Jay:  Yeah, exactly.

Ben:  Yeah.

Jay:   Yeah.

Ben:  Yeah, yeah. And, we all know he was swole, John The Baptist.

Jay:  That's right.

Ben:  I don't know. What was the movie I was watching? It's this TV show about Jesus's apostles, “The Chosen,” I think it's called.

Jay:  Oh, yeah. It's really good.

Ben:  Yeah, yeah, it's a good flick. I watched that with my kids last year a little series. I don't watch much TV, but that one I found intriguing.

Alright. So, anyways, a few other things that I want to mention. We'll see if we have time for Q&A or not. There's so many things I want to go through today but stick with me if you're on Clubhouse. Even if we just do one question, we'll try and squeeze one in.

So, next, a recent study and two recent studies related to reducing your blood glucose. So, the first one, I've had a lot of eyebrows raised at me when I say what I've said in the past. And, that is that I don't take metformin because even though it has some really good life extension properties, the trade-off in terms of disruption of the gut microbiome, decreasing the ability to produce new mitochondria and decreasing the ability to get muscle protein synthesis post-exercise dictates that I think the cons outweigh the pros unless you have full-on diabetes in which case metformin could be a good idea. But, I've always said, I prefer two things that said bitter melon or dihydroberberine. I think better melon or dihydroberberine are two of the best most fantastic alternatives to the metformin.

And so, this recent study actually studied bitter melon because me personally I've tested my blood sugar scores and my blood glucose responds just as favorably to bitter melon as it does to metformin. The only thing that shoves my blood sugar lower than bitter melon, which is the stuff that we use in Kion Lean is an intense cold bath or cold shower. So, anytime I have carbs: carrot cake, sourdough bread, sweet potatoes, yams, glass of wine, you name it, I pop two Kion Lean and my blood sugar is right as rain. This recent study showed that bitter gourd extract AKA bitter melon extract, the effects on lowering blood glucose was significant. In this case, they looked at hemoglobin A1C three-month snapshot of blood sugar levels and found that there was a significant hypoglycemic effect. As a matter of fact the reason they did this study was they were trying to figure out what you would do in people who failed to respond to anti-diabetic medications. When anti-diabetic drugs are ineffective, what do you do? But anyway, so this bitter melon extract actually works and this latest study backed up what I've been saying for a long time, the hypoglycemic effect of bitter melon is so strong that I actually don't recommend you use it before a workout because your glucose might get too low. But, with carbs, it's great.

Now, let's see. You can't afford it and you want something a little bit more inexpensive. Since we're talking about cheap blood sugar hacks today, the other one that works really well and this was another recent study, they looked at glycemic response, they looked at appetite satiety, they looked at gastric secretions, and they looked at gastric emptying after people ate bread. Bread being a food that notoriously would increase blood sugar levels. And, in this case, what they did was they gave people lemon juice with water as a control and with tea as a control. Lemon juice led to a one-and-a-half-fold increase of the volume of gastric contents, 30 minutes after the meal. Meaning the gastric emptying was one-and-a-half times faster. It elicited a 35% lower blood glucose concentration and an increase in satiety. Meaning, the appetite perception and the gastric volume correlated and corresponded to a better appetite satiation in response to the lemon juice along with an increase in gastric secretions indicating that it helped people to digest food better. So, if you're up the creek without a paddle, you don't have all these fancy supplements, you don't have bitter melon extract, you don't have your digestive enzymes, you don't have your bitters, all you need is lemon or lemon juice.

Jay:  It's fascinating.

Ben:  And, you can add a little bit to a morning glass of water like I do. If I'm at a restaurant and I don't have a cocktail, I just order a glass of bitters on the rocks, a little squeeze of lemon. Don't underestimate the power of some of these cheap hacks like lemon juice, or nicotinamide powder, or L-glutamine powder, or some of these things that a lot of people don't talk about so much because they don't make a lot of people a lot of money. But, the lemon juice absolutely works. I think the Kion Lean is probably a little bit better. I think the one-two combo of both for carbohydrate control could be great, but it's nice to see how some of these simple things actually work. And, in the last few months, all these research studies I'm talking about, these are brand new research studies, it's just been proven to work. So, lemon juice to the rescue.

Jay:  That one's really cool.

Ben:  Lemon juice to the rescue.

Jay:  I really like that. For me, it's interesting. There's a couple things that I want to try here. The first would be I like the combination of take some Kion Lean, then drink lemon juice during your meal, pre-meal, whatever way works best. And then, afterwards, just get in a walk. I feel like those, that three combo, and if you're, hey, listen you don't want to spend the money on the Kion Lean, sorry Ben and Kion, then yeah, just the lemon juice and then a walk afterwards. That seems a really inexpensive if not free-ish way of managing blood glucose. So, I think it's a cool combo.

Ben:  Alright. So, here's a time hack one. This was a really cool study in the Journal Of Strength Conditioning Research. And, what they looked at was let's say that you only had two times of the week available to work out rather than another person I might have four times of the week available to work out, but you still wanted to get the same type of strength improvements and the same type of muscle gain or muscle maintenance improvement. Could you take all of the things you'd normally do working out four times a week and compress that into just working out twice a week for a longer period of time? So, instead of doing, let's say, four 45-minute strength training sessions, could you get away with two 90-minute strength training sessions because those are the only two times you can make it to the gym during the week?

Well, it turns out you can. It turns out that training frequency isn't a big deal when you actually equate the training volume. Okay. And, in this case, they had folks doing a full-body workout that involves squat, bench press, chest press, lat pull-downs, and seated rows. And, one group exercise four days of the week with a lower number of sets. And, the other group worked out two days of the week with a higher number of sets. And, the group that worked out fewer times but just with a higher training volume wound up having results that were just as good. Essentially, it was a washout. There was no difference between the groups, which is kind of cool to know. So, don't beat yourself up if your friends go into the gym, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, and you can only make it Monday and Friday, that's okay, you need to have a bigger strength training session. But, it turns out that frequency really doesn't matter that much. It's volume, total number of sets that you do no matter how you squeeze them in during the week that really, really matters. 

There are some cases in which this isn't true. Let's say, protein. Your body can only really absorb and assimilate 30, maximum 40 grams of protein, and some people who are on an OMAD diet, they'll be like, “I'm going to have all my protein at the end of the day. Well, if you're trying to let's say gain muscle and you're shooting for what I think would be the gold standard for muscle gain, which would be 0.8 grams per pound of protein, arguably, you are going to not be able to eat and absorb that much protein on a one meal a day protocol unless you're doing something like taking little bits of amino acids the rest of the day before that meal or whatever. So, that's a case in which the volume is not equated to the frequency because there is a limit to how much protein you can actually absorb and assimilate. But, when it comes to working out, it turns out that you can actually absorb, so to speak, all that work out and see just as good results as the people who are training more frequently but with less volume. I thought it was interesting.

Jay:  Yeah, it's the age-old discussion of quality over quantity. And so, I like the idea of just when you go, go and bust your ass and then don't be so bothered with this quantity of workouts but it's the quality of the workout and it's really the volume that's truly the thing that matters. And, it makes all the sense in the world to me intuitively, but I think that it's been passed down upon generation upon generation of this idea that frequency and being in the gym five, six, seven times a week is what's most important and it's obviously not.

Ben:  Yeah, exactly. Exactly.

So, we're getting a little long in the tooth, but I would be remiss not to have us reply to at least one, maybe two questions from our live audience on Clubhouse. So, what do you think, should we take a couple questions from our live audience here?

Jay:  I think that would be kind of us, Ben.

James:  This is James Newcomb, the producer again. And, the audio from Clubhouse was very poor. And so, I'm just going to basically read the questions for you so that you can actually hear them. 

The first gentleman asks a question. He has an injured hand, he's tried everything under the sun to heal it with no success and he's asking ben for some tips on how to heal an injured hand. And, it seems he's tried everything that there is possible to try.

Ben:  I'm always cautious getting into on the podcast, what's this strange wart on my left earlobe that nobody else has but I have and try to steer these questions towards information that might be broadly applicable to a lot of people. And so, yeah, there's a lot of modalities that can work to manage injuries that don't seem responsive to all of the typical biohacks, red-light, and Rolfing, and scraping, and BPC-157 injections, and ice, and heat, and vibration, and shockwave therapy. I mean, the list goes on and on for everything. But, I think that probably the two things from a regenerative medicine standpoint–if you don't really know what regenerative medicine is, you should go listen to my podcast with Tony Robbins, which I'll link to if you go to BenGreenfieldfitness.com/441.

The two things that I have seen work best when just about nothing else seems to be working, again, from a regenerative medicine standpoint, would be number one, exosome therapy, number two, ultrasound-guided nerve hydrodissection. So, allow me to explain. Exosome therapy, that doesn't involve using donor cells in your body like stem cell therapy would. So, exosomes are extracted from what's called mesenchymal stem cells from humans and they're sterilized. The resulting solution has these lipids, it's got messenger RNA, it's got micro-RNA, it's got signaling cytokines, it's got proteins. It's kind of funny because it's basically got a bunch of mRNA in it and the same people who are complaining that vaccines with mRNA are going to cause them to grow a third arm are the same people sitting in a medical clinic getting exosomes IVs, which I just think is kind of funny. But anyways, so exosomes, they're typically administered via an IV or direct injection into the treatment area. They work very powerfully. They contain nearly three times the amount of growth factors than stem cells do. They're kind of expensive, but man, they're anti-inflammatory, they're anti-fibrotic, they're easy to administer, they're available in many regenerative medicine clinics. So, injection or IV exosomes, I think, is one thing to look into as far as something that a lot of people have tried a whole bunch of stuff but haven't yet tried this could benefit from.

Next one is nerve hydrodissection. Dr. Matt Cook at BioReset Medical in San Jose, I think, is one of the best guys for this. There's another guy local to my town who's been trained by Dr. Cook, his name is Dr. Phil Lenoue. He's extremely good. I wish more athletes and more injured individuals knew about this. Nerve hydrodissection is a non-invasive technique. And, basically what it involves is using an anesthetic or solution like saline, or placental matrix, or ozone. And basically, what they do is they go in with a needle, you barely feel a thing, they separate the nerve from the surrounding tissue and fascia and adjacent structures, it removes the feeling of pain and discomfort that might be limiting mobility. In many cases, it allows you to take the next step towards physical therapy, or return to activity, or healing that you'd normally otherwise not be able to do because of the nerve irritation. And, I have literally seen people who have had tennis elbow for 10 years sit up off of Matt Cook's treatment table after five minutes of nerve hydrodissection, big smile on their face, pain totally gone, walk out, pain never comes back. It's nuts. I wish more people knew about it.

So, those are the two, I would say, exosome therapy or nerve hydrodissection, when nothing else seems to be working, I would say, are the top two things that could help you from a regenerative medicine standpoint. So, great question. Sorry, I couldn't really hear you Demian, but I hope that helps out.

And, I think that's probably basically based on my own schedule about all that we have time for in today's show. However, we always like to give out a goodie to anybody who does leave a review. You can leave a review by going to BenGreenfieldfitness.com/441, follow any of the links there or anywhere where fine, fine podcasts are found. You can leave a review. If we read your review on the show, that means that you get a handy dandy sweet gift pack from Ben Greenfield Life. And, you just email [email protected]. That's [email protected] and we will get that one out to you.

So, Jay, what's our review this week?

Jay:  Yeah, man. This is one from Slim Ry Ry. And, it's called, “Thank you, Ben.” Slim Ry Ry says, “Great podcast and links towards whichever path you'd like to take towards wellness. I really like Ben and his team. They're easy to listen to and have a great sense of humor.” So, there we go. I would to think that they're speaking to me when they refer to your team and the sense of humor.

Ben:  Oh, yeah. Well, you can be funny sometimes, but don't give up your day job, dude, because honestly, your day job's pretty cool. You guys should stay tuned. At some point, I'll be interviewing Jay because he's got this cool new wearable coming out.

Jay:  Oh, yeah.

Ben:  It's called Hanu. But, you have to check it out. It's going to be sick. But, that's a discussion for another day. But, in the meantime, go to BenGreenfieldfitness.com/441. You could check out the shownotes, check out the studies. You could leave your own questions, comments, feedback. I'd love to hear from you. And, check out the new website. I think a couple times I said BenGreenfieldfitness.com/441. But, technically now, it's BenGreenfieldLife.com/441. So, note the self.

And, Jay, thanks for coming on and battling the internets with me and teaching people how to poop better.

Jay:  That's right. It's been a blast. And, relieve your pain with poppy seed tea. That's always been a good one too.

Ben:  That's right, that's right. You learned how to make your own drinkable morphine.

Alright, cool. We'll catch you guys on the flip side.

Jay:  See you.

Ben:  More than ever these days, people like you and me need a fresh entertaining, well-informed, and often outside-the-box approach to discovering the health, and happiness, and hope that we all crave. So, I hope I've been able to do that for you on this episode today. And, if you liked it or if you love what I'm up to, then please leave me a review on your preferred podcast listening channel wherever that might be and just find the Ben Greenfield Life episode. Say something nice. Thanks so much. It means a lot. 

 

 

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Listener Q&A:

Q: Tips for healing an injured hand, after having tried everything under the sun…57:05

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