September 2, 2023

From podcast: https://bengreenfieldlife.com/podcast/caroline-alan-beam

[00:00:00] Introduction

[00:01:11] Who is Caroline Alan?

[00:04:48] How did Caroline get interested in minerals

[00:09:00] The link between adrenals and mineral storage

[00:14:00] Plant-based minerals

[00:18:04] What exactly a plant-based mineral is and where it comes from

[00:24:43] How important is sourcing

[00:29:04] The Herxheimer effect and other reactions

[00:34:00] Do plant-based electrolytes need to be separated from other supplements?

[00:36:44] The effect of humic and fulvic on performance athletes

[00:38:39] The use of plant-based minerals in gardening

[00:42:20] The advantages of plant-based minerals in spray

[00:46:51] Testing and tracking the efficacy

[00:55:11] Closing the Podcast

[00:56:52] End of Podcast

[00:57:24] Legal Disclaimer

Ben:  My name is Ben Greenfield. And, on this episode of the Ben Greenfield Life podcast.

Caroline:  The beautiful thing about the humic molecule, it's actually being studied all around the world. And, just so we're clear, they use humic as a tool to remove heavy metals from toxic waste dumps. They used it in Chernobyl. They're using it in Chernobyl to bring areas of land back to being able to grow vegetables and plants. They have used it in astronauts in outer space to keep them from getting heavy loads of heavy metals from radiation because it's so effective as a chelator and remover of heavy metals.

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

Alright, folks. I don't think I have ever taken a very deep dive into minerals on my show before. I talked a little bit about mineral testing, but it's been a long time since I've tackled a lot of the questions that I personally have about minerals; how to use them, how to test them, whether you should take them orally, if they can be absorbed transdermally, capsules versus liquids, et cetera. Because obviously, our bodies are electrical machines, which I've talked about before on the podcasts, and each of our cells operates on this very precise electrochemical gradient. But, the minerals in your body are what carry that charge throughout your body. So, it's important to consider this from a whole health standpoint. And, I've been using minerals, gosh, ever since I've got involved with Ironman Triathlon and found that high mineral and high salt intake is what wound up fixing a lot of the overtraining and poor sleep issues I had while competing. And, ever since then, I've been very cognizant of minerals and mineral sources.

So, today's guest on the show is also a mineral enthusiast, so much that she's actually the CEO of a company called BEAM Minerals. And, I'll let her tell you her story about how she got interested in minerals, but it involved some serious health issues that she wound up fixing with minerals. So, she has taken a deep dive into microbiology, molecular biology, cellular biology, agricultural, soil science, the study of plant decomposition and found out a lot about minerals along the way. 

So, her name is Caroline Alan. And, everything that you hear on this show in terms of the resources for the podcast, you can find at BenGreenfieldLife.com/BEAM, which is the name of Caroline's minerals company, BEAM. What's BEAM stand for, by the way, Caroline? I'm guessing the M might be something mineral-related.

Caroline:  Yeah. Actually, it was a result of a whiteboard session where we said, “Well, what is our company?” And, we said, “Well, we're the best electrolyte and mineral company,” which is an acronym for BEAM. BEAM is an acronym for Best Electrolytes and Minerals.

Ben:  Oh, that's simple.

Caroline:  Yeah.

Ben:  That's way easier to remember than UNESCO or NATO. So, just best electrolytes and minerals. Easy, I can do that. I can do that.

By the way, where are you? This looks like a beautiful Garden of Eden if people are watching the video.

Caroline:  Oh, my gosh, I am in the most amazing place. I'm in San Jose and I just found this Airbnb. If anybody wants a link, I'd be happy to provide it. This place is the most amazing beautiful garden I've almost ever been in.

Ben:  Oh, wow. San Jose is a cool spot. There's a lot of good people down there. Dr. Matthew Cook who's been on the podcast, Mind Pump Media, their whole fitness studio, and Jim is down there, my friend Jordan Harbinger, who runs the Jordan Harbinger Podcast, is in San Jose, and there's this fantastic downtown almost like a nighttime hot spot with all these cool restaurants and food trucks. I forget the name of it, but it's right down there in the main drag downtown. So, San Jose is actually a cool spot.

Caroline:  Yeah.

Ben:  I don't think a lot of people know how cool that city is.

Caroline:  It's really cool.

Ben:  Yeah, yeah, awesome.

Caroline:  Yeah. You should hook me up with your friends, I'd love to meet them.

Ben:  Yeah, yeah, bring them some of your minerals. I've got a few liquid canisters or your minerals up in my fridge. And, I've actually been dumping them into this big Mason glass of water that I have every morning. I put about a shot of your fulvic minerals and a shot of your humic minerals in there. And, I definitely want to talk more about those.

But first, what got you interested in this whole topic of minerals?

Caroline:  Yeah. What happened to me was I was in the corporate world. I was a big project manager in the tech world and I burned out of that and I was in a really bad state. I had flatlined adrenals for three years, two and a half to three years. I had really bad inflammation in my gut. I had been gluten intolerant all my life, but I been gluten-free for seven years really carefully. And, I was never able to get over the gut dysbiosis and bloating and discomfort elimination issues. I had really bad inflammation in my mouth with deep pockets, gingivitis, receding gums.

Ben:  Oh, gross.

Caroline:  I know. And bone loss in my teeth. I had recurring sinus infections every season, so really depleted immune system.

Ben:  What was your corporate job? Were you a Navy SEAL or something?

Caroline:  Well, you know what they say about a good project manager, they get a bigger more complex, more messed up project to fix. So, I just kept getting bigger and bigger projects and more and more responsibility. And, at a certain point, I realized, wow, where does this end up? It ends up with me sick in bed. So, I had to quit.

Ben:  Well, did you go to a doctor or anything or get blood testing or kind of go down the rabbit hole from a health standpoint?

Caroline:  Ben, I've spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on my health. And, the other thing I didn't mention is I have really bad insomnia. I had a really hard time sleeping, staying asleep. I'd wake up five times a night. And, I went to so many different doctors at the time that I started taking minerals, which the reason that I started trying minerals was that I met this man, Dan Howard, who is now my business partner in BEAM Minerals, and he said, “Why don't you try these plant-based minerals?” And, I started taking them. And, after two months, I went to my dentist and she looked in my mouth and she was like, “Oh, my gosh, what's changed? The pH in your mouth is totally different. You had your teeth cleaned. Your gums didn't bleed. What is different?” And, I thought for a minute, I was like, “Well, I think it's these minerals.” That was the only thing that I had changed.

After four months, I went to my naturopath and I had been working with the same naturopath for two and a half years trying to heal my adrenals, which were completely flatlined. And, I had taken the test, saliva test, for adrenals prior to the meeting and she opened the book to look at the results and she just was like, “Wow, look at this.” And, they were one-third of the way up the chart with their natural sawtooth pattern. She was truly amazed. At our previous meeting, she had basically said to me, look, I think you're going to need to take hydrocortisone. And, she'd given me a prescription for hydrocortisone. So, when your naturopath gives you hydrocortisone, you know you've got a real issue. But, I wasn't going to do that because I didn't want to get on that kind of merry-go-round, I don't believe in that kind of thing. So, she was truly amazed. Those were just the beginnings.

Over about nine months, I would say eight or nine months, my gut dysbiosis completely healed, my elimination issues, I stopped getting bloating, I stopped craving sugars and salts like salty food and sugary food. I'm not a big candy and that kind of person or sweet either, but I ate a lot of fruit. And, instead of sitting down and eating a half a pound of grapes, I'd have four and I'd be like, “Oh, okay, that's enough. I'm good.”

Ben:  Yeah, yeah. I ate a lot of fruit, too. Dark chocolate-covered strawberries, particularly.

Caroline:  Those are good. That's good.

Ben:  So, these minerals, you talked about the adrenal issues. Now, I think maybe some people might not be aware of the link between the adrenals from a biological standpoint and mineral storage or mineral usage. Can you explain the link there?

Caroline:  Well, what I like to do, Ben, and generally is kind of where I see–I'm not a scientist. What happened to me is I went down the rabbit hole. Because of the experience that I had, I was like, “How can these little cups of liquid have such a huge effect on so many parts of my health?” And so, I went down the rabbit hole. In that process, I learned a lot about the science behind minerals, how they work in the body, how replenishment works, how they affect different systems and why my minerals were so depleted, why I was so deficient. So, the reason I'm mentioning is that I like to really stay in the sweet spot. I'm going to talk about this from an overall conceptual perspective like a paradigm shift is what I call it.

So, most of us, we think about our adrenals and we think about stress and we think, okay, your adrenals get stressed, let's–if you're a performance athlete, like you for instance, you're constantly stressing your system via training or going out and putting yourself at the edge of your performance level regularly. Now, that creates stress on the adrenals because people don't realize that you need so little adrenaline in your body. For a whole year, I think it's a few tablespoons. That's how incredibly powerful adrenaline is. And, the whole issue of cortisol and how that supports the adrenal system and the development of cortisol, people tend to think about this as related to external stimuli. And, what I am wanting people to understand is a lot of the stress that they are experiencing is coming from inside, from inside their cells because literally their cells do not have what they need to operate optimally. Scientists think that most people have about 30 to 40% of the minerals in the body that they need to operate optimally for full mitochondrial function.

Ben:  Okay.

Caroline:  So, I like people to think about a light in your room. If you're in a place where you have a light, just dim it down to 40%. And, that's how most people's bodies are operating.

Ben:  So, the adrenal glands themselves, to my understanding, are kind of a storehouse of some of the mineral deposits within the body, not deposits from a gallstone or a calcium deposition standpoint, but more the appendix. A lot of people get an appendicitis don't realize that the appendix actually is sort of a memory house for your biome. And, by removing the appendix, you can actually shift the gut microbiome and produce a need for pretty hefty probiotic supplementation and fermented food intake for the rest of your life. If someone would have their adrenal glands removed, that would be, of course, a mortal mistake to make. However, your minerals would be something you would be removing from the body if you think of the adrenals as kind of a gas tank for many of the minerals. Of course, they're also in bone and in other tissues, but if the adrenal glands are a storehouse for minerals and the activity of the adrenal glands is in hyperdrive, so to speak, then you would have a higher than normal need for minerals and a greater amount of potential buildup of mineral deficiency. Is that kind of the right way to think about this?

Caroline:  Yes. And so, that's so awesome because we find it across the board that when people start to remineralize their entire body that it affects their cortisol levels and their ability to have optimal or more optimal adrenal function.

Ben:  Right. You would see basically an increase in cortisol production if you're using a DUTCH urine test or a salivary hormone test with the idea that you in a hypoadrenal state when you're in burnout weren't producing too much cortisol although at one point you probably were. You get to the point where you've exhausted the adrenal so much that cortisol output is subpar.

Caroline: Yes, exactly. It's no longer fueling all of the adrenal requirements in the body.

Ben:  Okay. So, you said Dan.

Caroline:  Yes.

Ben:  Does this guy Dan gave you plant-based minerals? You said a few minutes ago you were taking these shots of liquids when you went into your naturopath. What was this plant-based mineral that this mysterious Dan fellow gave to you?

Caroline:  Yeah. So, Dan Howard, my business partner, he had a small business at that time selling these minerals and essential oils. He was more into essential oils. And so, he knew that these minerals could help me so I started taking them, and at that point when I had so many amazing effects, I was like, “Forget those essential oils, I want to go into business with you. We need to get this word out about these minerals.” So, what are they? They are plant-based minerals. And, I always kind of joke say, “That's not an oxymoron” because most people think of minerals as rocks shells, bones, because most mineral supplements that you take do come from those things.

Ben:  Yeah. That are just table salt, right? A lot of people salt their food [00:15:09] _____ minerals. Yeah.

Caroline:  Exactly. So, as a result of the research that I did, the thing is I really studied how the mineral replenishment system works in the body. And, one of the things that I learned, and if you think about rocks and shells and bones, and then you think about your digestive tract, how well does it actually digest those. Not very well. So, rock, shells, bones. And then, the other thing that people don't know, and this is one of my big things that I'm really trying to get out in the world is salts. Salts are really useful for acute electrolyte depletion. If you're about to fall over, if you have heat stroke, you should definitely get some salt, but used on a regular basis as your electrolyte replenishment tool. They're irritating to the bladder and kidney and you can read about that. There's studies about this. So, it's actually not a good thing. And, I know there's a big huge thing about using salts for electrolyte, do-it-yourself, electrolyte replenishment, and all sorts of, I mean most electrolyte drinks that you buy are salt-based. Most electrolyte supplements are salt-based. These are actually not useful to your body on a regular basis for replenishment.

Now, the cool thing is these plant-based minerals and electrolytes–electrolytes are minerals. So, when I say minerals, I'm actually including electrolytes. They are really cool substances. I could describe where they come from. Where do you think we should go?

Ben:   Yeah. I want to hear about where a plant-based mineral comes from, but that's actually something interesting that you say about salt. It's an issue with some of these modern ketone supplements as well. They'll bind them to a salt, like a ketone salt powder, the amount that you need to consume to get into ketosis or reap the performance or mental benefits of something like that dictates not only the potential for gastric irritation but some of the kidney in the bladder irritation that you talked about. And, you'll also see some of this in the mucosal membrane in the lips of people who decide they're going to get all of their electrolyte and mineral intake from hefty use of salt. Even if it's good salt like fleur de sel or Kona black salt or I use this salt called Colima salt, Celtic salt is another popular one I'm totally into and do implement good salt intake with every meal. Not only as a flavoring agent but to get some minerals. But, were I too consume all of my minerals from salts, what you'll get is cracking of the lips, irritation with mucosal membrane, sometimes a burning sensation when you pee. And yeah, they are different than the type of minerals that I think you're about to discuss, this whole plant-based mineral type of lens.

So yeah, I'd love to hear you explain exactly what a plant-based mineral is and where it comes from.

Caroline:  Yeah. So, imagine an entire rainforest back when the dinosaurs lived and it decomposed over millennia into this incredibly mineral-rich substance. And, the substance is called humate, and it's a very black crystalline substance. There's also other plant-based mineral substances like people have heard of shilajit, however you want to say it, and that's more of a pasty substance that comes from the Himalayas, the humate where the humate that we use comes from the United States in the Southwest United States. The beautiful thing about it is it's very pure because it comes from beneath the surface of the Earth. It hasn't had contact with modern pollutants and acid rain or anything like that. So, it's really pure.

So, inside of humate, inside this crystalline substance, there are these two molecules and they're truly amazing. One is called fulvic and the other is called humic. And, I call these two things together Mother Nature's mineral replenishment and full system detoxification technology. When I describe it, you're going to really understand they're truly a technology that is designed by something much greater than us because they're freaking amazing.

So, let's talk about fulvic first. Fulvic is a very, very small molecule. It's much smaller than a cell and it's an intercellular transporter. This word that lots of us have heard called flavonoid, it carries nutrients 60 times its molecular weight of nutrients into the cell and then it does what no other molecule on Earth can do. It changes its polarity. And, when it does that, all those nutrients fall off inside the cell. Now, they're available to the mitochondria as cofactors for energy generation. And, what fuels a mitochondria? Amino acids and minerals.

So now, it's dropped off these things inside the cell, the nutrients that it's brought in, the mineral content, the electrolyte content, and then what clings to it is biowaste, environmental toxins, things like glyphosate and free radicals that have gotten inside the cell and it carries those out of the cell. And, it does this through something called the concentration gradient. Now, people who are really a little bit more technical understand that usually, things that go across the cell wall barrier require a certain receptor. The amazing thing about the fulvic molecule is it requires no receptor. So, any channel that opens up in your cell wall, the fulvic gets a free pass right through the cell in and out. So, that is a really incredible function, and again why I call it a technology that you're evolved to utilize. So now, it's got all these biowaste toxins, heavy metals attached to it and it carries those out of the cell. And then, it does that same thing again, it changes its polarity and those things drop off inside your bloodstream.

Now, we have the second part of this technology, which is the humic molecule. And, these two molecules, humic and fulvic, appear together in nature always together. So, you never see one without the other. So, the humic molecule is a very large molecule relative to a cell. It's an extremely strong electrolyte. It's actually a technical term and it gathers free radicals. So, it's exponentially the best antioxidant you can have in your system like thousands of times more effective than any superfood mix or anything like that. So, it binds with the free radicals. It gathers biowaste. It chelates with heavy metals. It's an extremely effective heavy metal chelator. And, it also does something with glyphosate, which glyphosate is an herbicide that's sprayed on genetically modified foods, so the weeds die and the plants live but the problem is that you ingest that glyphosate and it has all sorts of issues in your gut, which we could talk about another time. 

But, the beautiful thing about the humic molecules is one of the only substances they found thus far that adsorbs it so it keeps it from absorbing into your system, it actually grabs it or the glyphosate clings to the humic molecule. And then, the humic molecule builds a biofilm around that glyphosate molecule and starts breaking it down. As soon as it breaks it down, it starts breaking it down, the glyphosate can no longer have its negative effects, dysbiosis creating effects in your gut. And then, ultimately, this humic molecule has so much weight at a molecular level that it falls out of solution and it leaves your body through the normal elimination channels.

Now, many of us who've dealt with detox understand that you need to make sure that your detoxification channels are open if you're going to do a heavy metal detox or things like that. The beautiful thing about the humic molecule is that it does not require a specific elimination channel to be open. It uses all the elimination channels in your body including your sweat, your tears, your snot, your saliva, rubbing your hands together, and of course your feces and urine. And, in fact, all cellular systems including this garden, every single plant in this garden uses humic and fulvic in this way as a nutritional enhancement, nutrition uptake enhancement tool, and as a full system detoxification tool.

Ben:  Just to interrupt you for a second, the fulvic is such a powerful binder as part of this humate substance that contains the humic acid and the fulvic acids, do you need to be careful about the way that you source it? Because I've heard this about shilajit as well that because of its binding properties, if it's coming from impure soil that might have things like glyphosate or heavy metals or other toxins in there that you could actually be consuming those in their bound form when you consume the humate, the fulvic acid and the humic acids. And so, based on that, is sourcing important for this type of things?

Caroline:  Yeah. So, there was a case in Canada several years back where there was a company that had a humic supplement that did prove to have some environmental toxins associated with it and supposedly they were actually getting their humic from a location that was near some sort of toxic waste area. So, with every supplement that you ever take, you should absolutely vet where the actual material that's in that supplement is sourced from. Now, the beautiful thing as I said about ours is it's truly had no contact with any modern pollutants, even acid rain, which is a beautiful thing because it comes from underneath the Earth. However, I do want to talk about the heavy metal thing because it's really misunderstood and I've been studying this really deeply with some of the most world-renowned humic and fulvic experts and I've really had them explain to me.

So, when people ask for our certificate of analysis, you will see that there are very, very, very, very low levels of some heavy metals inside the humic product. And, that's because if you take a piece of the Earth, your body actually includes heavy metals. I mean, it just exists everywhere. Now, the beautiful thing about the humic molecule and it's actually being studied all around the world, and just so we're clear, they use humic as a tool to remove heavy metals from toxic waste dumps. They used it in Chernobyl. They're using it in Chernobyl to bring areas of land back to being able to grow vegetables and plants. They have used it in astronauts in outer space to keep them from getting heavy loads of heavy metals from radiation because it's so effective as a chelator and remover of heavy metals.

Now, the thing about heavy metals, it's really interesting and I'm really deep in study about this, is that heavy metals are a problem when they're free roaming in your body. The heavy metals that are in the humic molecule are completely bound. Now, when you have a heavy metal that's free roaming in your body, it has what they call valence and it can bind with things in your body and create all sorts of oxidative stress and other problems in your body, toxicity and other problems. But, the heavy metals that are bound in the humic molecule are completely bound in it and they do not come free. And, this is something that's being studied all around the world because they're like, “How is that?” I mean, truly the humic and fulvic molecules have some, what I'll call, magical properties. I say “magical” simply because scientists have not been able to understand how it occurs that way. And, when you start studying, you get down into quantum mechanics and quantum biology and things like that.

Ben:  Now, based on this detoxification effect, do people get what many in the industry call a Herxheimer's reaction or any type of reaction, especially if they have some type of toxin buildup in response to beginning to use this combination of fulvic and humic acid?

Caroline:  Yes. I've never actually heard of anybody having a Herxheimer effect with fulvic. And, our fulvic product, people use it as an electrolyte replenishment. They take a lot of it. No one has ever recorded a single Herxheimer being a histamine response. It could be a rash or an ache or a headache, lots of different symptoms.

We do have a great article on our website available for people to read about Herxheimer if they want to learn about it. It helps kind of demystify it and helps people understand what's happening. However, with the humic product, that's our Micro-BOOST product, people can get Herxheimer. Now, the beautiful thing about having a humid product that's a liquid is it's extremely easy to manage that. And, all you have to do is do something, I call it the slow introduction method. So, I have this glass of water. And, just so you know, I have autoimmune and I'll get Herxheimer. If I take a full daily amount of our Micro-BOOST and I just shoot it down, within 24 hours, I might get a pimple on my nose or I might get a little rash. I've even had hives from it. But, what I do is I just put it in my glass of water in the morning and I drink that, no Herx. So, all you're doing is giving your body a little bit more time to adapt and utilize that detoxification capacity over a period of time. Again, what's so beautiful about having these liquids because now you can use the fulvic as a nutrient enhancer and as a electrolyte replenishment tool that is not salt-based, so it's not going to cause those other symptoms and it's also completely bioavailable.

Now, this is one of the most amazing things about plant-based minerals. First of all, your gut is really–even if you take humate powder.

Ben:  Yeah. Well, by the way, and you might be getting at something I wanted to ask you. Why couldn't you just use an encapsulated or powdered version and kind of get rid of some of the volume that you would experience when using or traveling with the liquid?

Caroline:  We have capsules and you can use the capsules. Again, if you're somebody who gets Herxheimer, that could be an issue for you because you might get too much of the humic and your body might go into some sort of detox effect. The beautiful thing about the liquids is that if you're somebody who's very sensitive, you can titrate up over time, start with people who are very sensitive. We have them start with maybe a half teaspoon of humic in a 4-ounce glass of water, drink it. And then, over time, they build up to the full half an ounce of the product daily.

Ben:  Okay. Could you theoretically concentrate it in a liquid dropper to where it's hyper-concentrated for better bioavailability and have something like a dropper bottle of fulvic or humic when you travel?

Caroline:  Yeah. Well, just so you know, we are working on a product for people for travel. That is going to be truly amazing and still have the full bioavailability properties of our liquid. That's down the way a little bit, but the problem with concentrating electrolyte products is that they lose their electrolyte capacity that literally the electrical charge becomes less. Now, how much less? I can't tell you. What I can tell you is that so many people, so many of our customers who have used concentrates sell salts, other concentrated, I won't name any brands, but other concentrated humic and fulvic brands, and then they start using ours and they are like, “Wow, I can really feel the difference.” After short periods of time, they can really feel the difference.

Now, that's for a lot of reasons. It's about the way that we manufacture our products, which is zero chemicals, the extraction process is very gentle, which means that we retain as much of the electrolyte, that electrical power as possible.

Ben:  Based on the binding potential of it, do you need to separate it from other supplements like you would with say activated charcoal because it would bind to those supplements and just make really expensive poop or tears or urine or whatever?

Caroline:  Well, what I say to people is if you're doing a detox protocol with someone and it's a very intensive chelation protocol or some sort of other environmental glyphosate, although people use humic for glyphosate remediation in the body. But, from the research that I've done, I see no problem with taking the humic and fulvic while you're doing those detox protocols. Now, once you're done with that protocol, the best thing that you can do for your body for ongoing continuous detoxification, removing environmental toxins that you come in contact with, including glyphosates and dioxin and PFAS and nanoplastics and heavy metals, I mean literally humic works with all of those components. So, what I say is you don't need charcoal. If you're using humic and fulvic regularly, there is no reason to use these other binders.

Ben:  Okay. Now, what I mean by this though is if I'm taking a supplement like NAD or vitamin D or creatine or something like that, should I not be washing it down with a glass of water that also has fulvic acid in it?

Caroline:  Absolutely. Yes. So, what I tell people is if you're using fulvic, think of it as a delivery mechanism. It makes all of the nutrition, all of the supplementation that you put into your mouth more bioavailable because it carries it into the cell.

Ben:  Okay. So, it's kind of the opposite of what I'm theorizing, it would in fact allow for increase bioavailability by binding and carrying those across the cell membrane.

Caroline:  Exactly.

Ben:  Okay, interesting.

Caroline:  In fact, people who use our products for a long time find that if they have even a very small amount of alcohol, they get high very quickly because their nutritional uptake mechanism in their body is extremely effective and efficient.

Ben:  Okay. I'm definitely going to have to try that tonight. I'm going to make myself a margarita with fulvic acid and just get more out of that tequila.

Caroline:  Believe me, I have had people do that. I've had people do that.

So, the other thing I want to mention that I didn't mention because it's another component of the aspect of the humic molecule. One of the things the humic molecule also does and it's extremely important for people like you performance athletes who deal with hydration issues or that feeling of never feeling replenished, never being able to get back to a feeling of fully replenished, the humic molecule interacts with the cell wall and it increases cell wall permeability. So, the way I like to describe that to people is if you're in a room and you've got two windows and a door, now if you triple those, now you have more availability for things to go in and out of the room more easily, more quickly, more efficiently. So, the humic and fulvic work together in that way because the humic opens more channels and the fulvic carries more things in and out of the cell. So, it's extremely effective for athletes.

I work with a lot of aging performance athletes who have used a whole lot of magnesium in their life trying to get back to that sense of replenishment or they're dealing with cramping or fasciculation, the creepy crawlies. And, once they start using our minerals regularly and I get them off the megadose measured in milligrams amounts of electrolyte replenishment that they're using, their body comes back into this balance. They stop having cramping. They start to feel hydrated. They start to feel actually replenished even during their training cycles. It's really cool.

Ben:  Got you. Interesting. Is somebody cutting down your garden with the chainsaw right now?

Caroline:  Do you hear something loud? I'm so sorry.

Ben:   Is that a weed eater?

Caroline:  Oh, I'm so sorry. Yeah.

Ben:   It's okay. It's not bad.

Caroline:  I think somebody's doing–it's not my garden, it's the neighbor.

Ben:   Okay, it just enhances the natural gardening aspect of this podcast. And, that actually relates to something I wanted to ask you. I've got eight raised garden beds and what I'm theorizing here is if I were to have good humate, couldn't I add it to that soil, and by doing so, increase the mineral bioavailability of the plants that I'm growing at home?

Caroline:  Yes. And, in fact, one of the things I like people think about, even in your backyard organic garden, when you grow a plant in soil, the way that that plant structure is actually built is with minerals that are sucked from the soil. So, it's one thing to put humus and leaf matter and compost and nitrates and things back into your soil, it's another thing to get the minerals. And, I'm specifically talking about the humic and fulvic back in your soil. If you can get that humic and fulvic back in your soil, you will be amazed. I grew a beet that was, I don't know if you can see, it was 8 inches across by using our humic and fulvic.

Ben:  That's kind of interesting. I interviewed a guy yesterday who uses quantum technologies and also referred to as giant-sized beets. So, apparently, beets are the vegetable to investigate if you're studying the effects of quantum energy or humus on the soil. The thing with the humic acid and the fulvic acids in the soil, surely, it wouldn't really be financially prudent to purchase your product and dump it all over in my garden. Do they actually sell at home and garden centers or something like that some type of soil that's already enriched?

Caroline:  Not at home and garden centers very much. Actually, at a very high-end one, you might. But online, you can readily find good humic and fulvic supplements for your garden, for your soil, soil amendment, and we've actually thought about creating some plant products but it's a whole other world. So, we're focusing on humans right now, humans and pets.

Ben:  What do you mean pets?

Caroline:  Well, we've also created some products for cats and dogs. I've learned a lot because I got involved with some women who run a parent and pet longevity summit. And, this one woman, her name is Penny Zoolittle, she's a zoologist, she did a really cool thing in her zoo. She took our Micro-BOOST and she took it around to every single animal in the zoo. And, she put down a bowl of water, just regular old water and she put down a bowl of water with our Micro-BOOST in it and she said every single animal drank the one with the Micro-BOOST in it before they touched the other water.

Ben:  Yeah. Animals, they have a weird innate intelligence. They'll do the same thing with structured water. My dad's in those experiments with his structured water facilities on farms and the cattle always go towards the water that's been passed through the agricultural base structured water filter he produces. It's kind of weird. It's almost a sixth Spidey sense that animals have on some of this stuff. I interviewed a guy years ago about the natural intelligence of animals when it comes to food, liquid and nutrient selection. I may hunt that down and put it in the shownotes. I'm blanking on his last name. His first name's Frank, but he wrote a whole book about the built-in intelligence of animals and how it applies to humans. So, it is super interesting. And, when it comes to the component of adding this to the garden, giving it to pets, you can see it on yourself, et cetera.

Does it matter if it is taken with a meal versus on an empty stomach?

Caroline:  That is a beautiful thing because our minerals have no caloric intake, so they don't break a fast and they don't bother most people's stomach. Again, if you are a sensitive person, I would recommend if you're going to do the Micro-BOOST that you just take that with a little bit of water but it can absolutely be taken on an empty stomach, both of them.

Ben:  Okay. I also noticed you have a spray, a mineral spray. Tell me about that and the effects of minerals transdermally in terms of the absorption. Is this just for a muscle cramping or are these actually absorbed and available systemically?

Caroline:  So, think about that fulvic molecule and how small it is, it's much smaller than a cell. So, the beautiful thing is if you take this spray that we have and you spray it on your arm, it actually takes only three seconds, one-one thousand, two-one thousand, three-one thousand. Some of that fulvic has already absorbed through the tissue. It's also reinvigorated the electrical system in the area because it's such a strong electrolyte and it's brought the minerals directly into the cells and also started detoxification. One of the things I like to help people understand is that every cramp in the body is mineral depletion, whether it's menstrual cramps, leg cramps, tension, headaches, or heart attack, these are all mineral depletion in a specific area of the body.

So, imagine you can literally spray it on to a specific area. For people who have night cramps, I mean it's life-changing. We have lots of people who they get cramps every night, what we tell them is take the spray home, spray it on your legs before you go to bed. Most people will not get cramps.

Ben:  That's interesting.

Caroline:  Yeah, it's really. Imagine being able to put the minerals where you want them on your body and have them be able to absorb directly. And, we have people who get menstrual cramps, they spray it on. Now, if you do get menstrual cramps and you take regularly and you take the minerals regularly, most women stop having cramping.

Ben:  Yeah. Not all cramps are due to mineral depletion though. I got to correct you there. Cramp is an alpha motor neuron reflex that can be responsive to mineral depletion, but even in someone who has adequate minerals, it can also be due to things like glycogen depletion and heavily worked muscle, contraction of the muscle that is over and above what someone has experience in training such as someone who's never run 26.2 miles and has maybe run 18 miles, getting the mile 20 in the marathon and cramping. Sometimes their mineral and glycogen levels are just fine, but it's a protective mechanism that kicks in by the central governor of the brain to deactivate and protect the muscle. And, this is why sometimes you'll hear about people using pickle juice and reversing a cramp, but the amount of time that takes when the pickle juice is simply in the mouth is not enough for it to have been absorbed. And, it's actually an inhibition of that alpha motor neuron reflex that occurs in response to a very sour or bitter taste profile. However, I would estimate that probably 70 to 80% of the cramping that you do see out there is due to mineral depletion, I just wouldn't say all of it is due to mineral depletion.

Caroline:  I'm right there with you. And, the only thing is that I think if you follow it all the way down, the reason that response is happening is because there is extreme depletion. In those local areas, the body's saying, “Look, I'm not going to be able to do this, we have to shut everything down.”

Ben:  Yeah, that's possible.

Caroline:  I don't know. It would be an interesting thing. It's just that when I really studied cells and the mitochondria and all of the detail inside of how energy is generated in the body, I mean I think that's absolutely incredible what you said and accurate. And, if we just keep going down to the bottom level of everything, you get to minerals and amino acids.

Ben:  Yeah, yeah. Also, when you hold a hammer, the world looks like a nail, but I still get what you're saying about minerals.

Now, what about the whole testing component? Do you do much in the way of hair mineral testing or is there a good way to actually analyze minerals? Or, let's say somebody were to use your product or some other sort of mineral mechanism, what's the best way to track the efficacy of this or see if you're depleted in the first place in your opinion?

Caroline:  So, first of all, what people ask me and I've actually asked lots of doctors, how do you know if your patient is depleted of minerals? And, they say they come in to see me. Meaning that we are all mineral deficient. All of us are mineral deficient. I mean, we're all deficient. Actually, that's not true, I'm sorry. Anybody who's not supplementing with minerals and really looking at their diet very carefully is deficient. 

Now, it is really useful to find out what's happening in your body relative to your mineral balances, your mineral levels and electrolytes, et cetera. I've done a lot of study about different mechanisms for testing. A lot of people are really into hair analysis, and hair analysis is good but I actually think a much better tool for mineral analysis is something called Oligoscan. And, the Oligoscan uses photo spectrometry, which is a very, very stable science used in material sciences and it uses a very bright light that is shined into your tissue. It's non-invasive and it returns data to it which goes through an algorithm which tells you your levels of all of your beneficial minerals, your electrolytes, your heavy metals. It also tells you quite a few vitamins, overall oxidative stress. I've tested it with other methods to see. I've had lots of people vet this who are much smarter than me and they have all agreed that it is truly the state of the art of mineral testing for the body.

Ben:  Yeah. A couple of times at health fairs or whatnot, I've actually gotten an Oligoscan and seen the spectrometry analysis. But, I'm curious, can someone get that ordered to their home? Can you buy on Amazon or somewhere your own Oligoscan?

Caroline:  You can. You could buy the actual machine that will do the scan, but to use the actual app software algorithm, you have to purchase it. It's really a practitioner-level thing.

Ben:  Okay.

Caroline:  So, you have to find and I can provide you the link of where you can go to find out, where you could get one. The beautiful thing about looking at someone's scan is if you find a really knowledgeable practitioner, they will be able to look at your skin and tell you based on not only just whether you're severely depleted in one area or another but how the balances are in between minerals.

So, one of the things I like people to begin to shift their idea about is your body's not a car, you can't just like, “I need magnesium, throw in magnesium. I need potassium, throw in potassium,” et cetera, because these things work in balanced pairs. And, when you look at somebody's mineral scan, it might say you're fine in magnesium and potassium but it also might tell you that your ratios are off and that puts that actually into a red, into not a good state. So, what often happens with athletes is they may not have low magnesium but they may have cramping and they think, “Oh, I've got cramping, I need more magnesium.” They put in more mag magnesium, they give themselves say magnesium citrate and then they end up getting even worse cramping because it's not about how much magnesium they have, it's about the balance between the two. So, this is part of teaching and educating people about minerals is to help them begin to understand how minerals actually work in the body. It's not like you can just throw in a whole bunch and hope that it's going to work.

Ben:  Yeah. Well, the Oligoscan certainly sounds more convenient than a haircut and stuffing your hair into an envelope and setting it off. And, it's interesting too, I can attest to what you said about balances because someone once told me I should be supplementing with potassium because, whatever, I'm an athlete, I'm exercising in hot weather, I'm doing saunas, et cetera, I began to do so and within a day was cramping severely and had night cramps. And yeah, so I've experienced exactly what you've noted. Just because a mineral is reported to be good, I think that a more customized personalized approach whether an Oligoscan or hair mineral testing or whatever, to see what your actual ratios are is it's pretty darn important.

So, go ahead, were you going to say something?

Caroline:  Well, can I say one other thing about it? It's really important to think about this. You're a biohacker, you're a person who spends a lot of time supporting your body and figuring out how to best support your body, and somewhere along the way, some scientists said you need so many milligrams of potassium every day and so many milligrams of magnesium, et cetera. And, what I've learned in the research that I've done is that is absolutely ludicrous that you would know how many milligrams of magnesium or potassium you need, it's ludicrous, and that you and I, because we're both adults, would need the same amount, et cetera.

So, one of the reason that I found that the plant-based humic and fulvic substances are so effective–and, I've seen this across the board where people will come to our booth, they get the Oligoscan and then they start taking our minerals. They come back a year later and then they had really bad depletions or imbalances in their scan. They take our minerals for a year, they come back and all their levels are all great. And, it's not like they went out and tried to fill some big depletion that they had of magnesium or whatever it was, potassium or chromium or whatever it was, they didn't go out and take pills, they just infused their body with this super bioavailable form of full spectrum minerals and then their body got to pick and choose what it needed, when it needed, how it needed it.

Ben:  Yeah. I mean, you do have to be careful with that approach because obviously based on Roger Williams‘ book way back in the '60s on biochemical individuality, there are a wide variety of mostly genetically driven responses when it comes to vitamin D excretion rates and the potential for vitamin D toxicity due to vitamin D supplementation or arterial calcification or, for example, the use of SSRIs or even some nootropics and smart drugs when it comes to your genetic COMT and other serotonin and dopamine-driven variants that dictate that. I think you do want to make sure that you're not just throwing everything into the, I'm going to take this in the body's innate intelligence to go figure out what to do with it. 

But, when it comes to minerals in particular, I do think that this full spectrum approach is pretty wise versus say mega-dosing with magnesium or potassium or calcium or anything else. And, I haven't done a whole lot of mineral testing myself, but I think at one point maybe what I'll do is kind of commit to a good few months of this humate supplementation, see what happens to my own levels because I'd actually be curious. I'm already in the past month using your product about a capful of each regularly, the fulvic and the humic acid that I, again, like I mentioned, just add my morning glass of water. I like it. I mean, I feel it's really supportive as well with my sauna and my outdoor exercise and especially for the adrenal glands like you mentioned.

So, the product is called BEAM. I'm going to put all the shownotes at BenGreenfieldLife.com/BEAM. Caroline, if you can remember to send me the information on that Oligoscan device or protocol, that would be interesting because even if it's not the average person ordering, I have a lot of health practitioners who listen in who might be interested in that for their own patients or their own clients. And man, you're making me wish I was outdoor in a garden right now, so I might have to go outside after this podcast and dig around in the dirt.

Caroline:  It is so nice out. Yeah. Thanks for not being bummed out about that, whatever the saw was going on because it's really nice to be outside. I spend so much time inside at my computer.

Ben:  Yeah, that's okay. It just made it sound like a horror flick. Anyways though, so folks, try out this stuff if you want the fulvic and humic acid. The fulvic is called Electrolyze, the humic is called Micro-BOOST, they're on Caroline's website along with her spray and her pet products. And, I met Caroline at a health conference and was just really intrigued with her stuff. And, I've been testing out myself, so I figured it'd be cool to talk about this whole concept of fulvic and humic acids. And, if you have questions or comments or feedback of your own, you can leave them in the shownotes, again, at BenGreenfieldLife.com/BEAM. And Caroline, thank you so much for coming on the show and doing this.

Caroline:  Hey, Ben, thanks so much for having me. It was great to talk to you. I learned some things. And, I look forward to getting to know you more in the future.

Ben:  Awesome. Awesome. Alright, folks. Well, I'm Ben Greenfield and Caroline Alan from BEAM Minerals signing out from BenGreenfieldLife.com. Have an amazing week.

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