March 24, 2012
Podcast from: https://bengreenfieldfitness.com/podcast/biohacking-podcasts/how-to-test-and-fix-your-bodys-biochemistry/
[00:00] About Dr. Ryan Bentley
[01:57] How Dr. Bentley Ended Up in Biochemistry
[11:23] Importance of Environment
[22:51] Regarding Electrolyte Intake in Biochemistry
[27:46] Oxidative stress – What You Don't Realize That Most Athletes Truly Die From
[33:06] How to Truly Test the Amount of Inflammation in Your Body
[34:40] Carbohydrate Metabolism – Why you Can't Just Monitor your Blood Sugar, and What Else You Need to Test
[39:03] How to Find Out if You're Eating Too Much or Too Little Protein, and If You're Digesting it Properly
[43:44] Specific Vitamin Deficiencies That Make You More Prone to Overtraining and Adrenal Fatigue
[54:19] How to Find Your Emotional Button to Ensure That You're Able to Actually Adhere to the Lifestyle Changes
[59:54] End of Podcast
Ben: Hey folks, Ben Greenfield here, and Dr. Ryan Bentley's with me. Dr. Ryan Bentley is doctor of chiropractic, but his knowledge is enormous when it comes to anatomy, physiology and biochemistry. He has worked with professional and Olympic athletes. He has worked as a team physician within any university's track and field team, and I've spoken with him a few times and found his knowledge of biochemistry to be very massive. The way that I discovered Dr. Ryan Bentley is at a conference speaking with another chiropractic physician who is talking about how he evaluates his patients, what he looks for and what type of biochemical markers he looks for to identify whether or not someone is actually functioning the way they should, and I asked him what kind of system you use, and he said well you need to talk to the guy who basically had invented the system I use and knows everything there is to know about this. It's Dr. Ryan Bentley. So I got Dr. Ryan Bentley on a call and he's here with us today, and we're going to talk about your biochemistry and what kind of things to look for that can affect your performance, your health and your longevity. Dr. Bentley thanks for coming on the call today.
Dr. Bentley: Yeah, appreciate you having me on, and I think it's great that you get great content out to all your listeners out there because I think it's important that people have knowledge, and it's taking that knowledge and putting into action which often will change our culture as we have into current culture that we have today. So I commend you for taking the time and making the effort to go out and help educate and give information to everywhere, from typical athletes to people who are chronically ill to professional athletes and helping them make you gain better health. So I'm very sure your time that you do, the effort you put into that.
Ben: Thanks, this is great to hear. You have sent me a list of things that you look for when you're looking at someone and where they're at biochemically. It looks like we've got a lot to go through today, so let's dig right in and why don't you tell me a little bit about what it is that you do and how you came to know what you know, and then let's talk from the perspective of a patient walking in your office or whatever you want to approach it and what you look for.
Dr. Bentley: Okay, well the first I got started in this was my wife and I had two children that didn't quite make it, and not been quite. They didn't make it during the pregnancy. She lost her first one in the second trimester, and our second baby we lost in the first trimester, and heartbreaking, heart-wrenching type things that went on, and some of the top fertility specialists, try getting answers. Everything was cookie cutter. Everybody was going, you need to do this, you need to do that. One doctor in the top fertility specialist at a very highly regarded medical university told us she had a problem ovulating, and I said we've been pregnant twice. You'd think she'd have a problem ovulating, and you just really want to push through, like a cow through the herd, and do what is protocol. That led me to search and try to understand her physiology and what was truly going on, and it led to a number of things that helped me understand physiology. Because the reality is everybody believes that we are genetically programmed to become ill, and that's not the reality. We are not genetically programmed to become ill, so I really sought out to figure out what is health, and that's where the paradigm shift is going to happen here.
To all your listeners, there will be a huge paradigm shift coming across very soon with regards to what is health and understanding true health, and so what I'd like to do, as we go through this, I want to start off with the finding how and giving your listeners an understanding of truly what is health and how can we approach our bodies, and so what I had to find for my wife and go back there for a second is I had to find out what was biochemically imbalanced with my wife, what things were wrong specifically for her. Not the last person that came and not everybody that goes on blood pressure medication used to be on a diuretic. Not every person who has high blood pressure has gone on blood pressure medication to some diuretic beta blocker, calcium channel blocker, things of that nature. We need to find out what caused it to go up, and that's the reality, and so with my wife, I was trying to figure out what was happening, so that's where I really became a biochemical geek with my own personal tragedies that turned into wonderful joyous things in the life. Now, I have three wonderful, beautiful children and really enjoy my time with them, so this approach, the term most people use is functional medicine, metabolic medicine, lifestyle medicine and wellness. It's understanding the body and how body functions, so with that, let me go into and give an analogy of what is health. So I'm going to ask you a couple of questions, Ben. I don't mean to put you on the spot, and listeners, I did not prompt him on this and give him some preliminary things. So I'm going to quiz him for a second.
Ben: And it is an early morning.
Dr. Bentley: Yes, it is an early morning for him. So let's think of a car, how does the car run? What does it need to run? What kind of car design do you run off? What does it need in it in order to make it work?
Ben: Fuel, gasoline.
Dr. Bentley: Not the hybrids, but fuel. So we need gasoline, so we got to have adequate delivery of gasoline in a fuel tank in order for this car to run. What's on the back end of the car?
Ben: Muffler, bumper, license plate.
Dr. Bentley: Muffler, okay. So what does the muffler do?
Ben: The muffler is where the exhaust from burning the gasoline I used?
Dr. Bentley: Exactly, so if you don't have adequate delivery of gas to a car, will the car run?
Ben: Probably not unless it is hybrids.
Dr. Bentley: Exactly, it's not going to run lest you get the hybrid and you have a little battery, that type of thing. Either way, you need fuel and battery of battery-inscribed fuel and provide energy for it. So when you're burning that fuel, you create an exhaust. If you plug up, if you ever see Beverly Hills Cop and stick the old banana in the tailpipe, and if you do that, the exhaust will build up in the car and the car will go pop, pop, pop, pop and quit working, right? So the only way that the car works, you're just going to move it downhill, and that's the same thing with our bodies. Our bodies have to have adequate delivery of nutrients and removal of waste because we are burning that fuel which creates a metabolic waste, and everything in our body, every cellular process creates metabolic debris or waste, and our body has to get rid of it. So it suffices to say that illness, by definition, if we look at it, is an inadequate delivery of nutrients, which is a deficiency, or an overabundance of toxicity. Maybe we're not eliminating, so it's either a deficiency or toxicity that leads to illness. So everybody looks at illness and says okay, I'm sick. I have this going on, I need to suppress a symptom. It's not about symptoms. People have high blood pressure, but it doesn't necessarily mean they're sick because when you start running, Ben, does your heart rate go up?
Ben: Absolutely.
Dr. Bentley: Does your blood pressure go up? Absolutely, your body has adapted to the physical stressors and you put it under. It doesn't mean you need to take a pill or bring it down, the body has adapted to the metabolic demand that you put on it. The same thing with our body, when a blood pressure goes up, it's not that it's sick. It's trying to find a way to adapt to the environment that you put it. So that's what happens with our bodies, so we need to understand that when it comes to our body, when it comes to health, ourselves depend upon the environment. Adequate delivery of nutrients and removal of waste. A single-celled organism, an amoeba that comes from food-electrolyte balance and mostly application in 1993, H2 actually, and if you're looking at textbook, it will actually say an amoeba depends upon the environment for delivery of nutrients or removal of waste. What does it depend upon? And then it goes on a couple paragraphs later and says our body is a hundred trillion amoebas, and we are carrying around our own pollen, which is our extracellular fluid which is around ourselves. And so what does our environment like? And that's a question that people have to identify and have to have an understanding of. People that exercise and eat junky still have a junky body because they're putting in junk in their system that can't rebuild. So I'm sure when you talk to your athletes that you're working with, when they're exercising, their tearing down their muscle and they're putting a body under a lot of demand, they need a lot of good things in order to rebuild their body. It's the same thing when your house gets blown over by a tornado. Do you go back and build it with the same material? No, you go get new material. So with new material, you go back and rebuild your house. The same thing, we've got to have adequate delivery of nutrients depending upon a metabolic demand that you put the body under, and that's the key thing that people need to understand. So people say, “I eat right, I take exercise, but why do I have these things going on my body?” Well, what kind of demand are you putting it under? If you're out there and you are training for a triathlon and you're eating 1200 calories a day, how is it going to work for you, Ben? Not very well, right?
Ben: Not too hot, you might slow down.
Dr. Bentley: Yeah, you might slow down a little bit. Your body's going to plateau, it's going to start looking for energy reserve. You’re gonna start eating away your fat, you can eat away your muscles, and that's going to cause issues in your body. So when it comes to the environment, it's the food that we eat, the thoughts that we think and the exercise that we get that either leads to health or illness, and here's a reality, ladies and gentlemen. You're either living a lifestyle that leads towards health or living a lifestyle that leads towards the disease. You can't have both, you can't walk forwards and backwards at the same time. It's one or the other, so which one are you really? Towards health or towards sickness and disease, that's the interesting balance that people need to find out, and again, it comes down to the thoughts you think, the foods you eat and the exercise that you get.
If someone is eating right and exercising, but yet, they have a bunch of fear and anxiety and unforgiveness, it causes chemical changes in their body. Let me give you an analogy, when you're driving down the highway and you see a cop car and you're speeding, you think, “Oh crap, I'm in trouble.” You slam on your brakes, your muscles tense up, your heart rate starts beating faster, and your blood pressure goes up. That was from a thought of oh crap, I'm in trouble which caused a chemical change in your body. Up in your brain, it went from the hypothalamus to the pituitary, down through your adrenal gland which cause your body to it release your epinephrine, norepinephrine and cortisol which are your stress hormones, and it causes your blood pressure, your heart rate, your muscles to tense up. Same thing happens when you put your body under physical stress. If you take off right now, Ben. Get out of your chair, Ben, you run around your house real quick, guess what? You can create the same stress response. Same thing, if you add a bunch of chemical toxins into your body, you're going to trigger some cellular stress, and this could stress your adrenal glands. This will cause a whole cascade of issues throughout your body. So this environment is important to know, we have to have our understanding of what our environment is, and it's not just looking at a blood panel, because most blood panels, the blood is the last thing to change. You've heard the term homeostasis, correct?
Ben: Right.
Dr. Bentley: So homeostasis wants to keep the body in balance. More appropriately stated is I am looking at our stasis which is the behavioral changes that occur to keep that body normal. So for instance, if you're on a treadmill again and you're running, your blood pressure goes up. Why? ‘Cause it wants to increase your heart rate. If you want to increase the blood out of your heart, keep blood up in your brain to get action there 'cause if you don't, you're going to pass out and fall over. It's not going to work out too well if you're on a treadmill, or if you're running in the middle of the street with the blood pressure, everything goes up for your body to adapt to that stress that you put it under. Such our stasis is that behavioral adaptation to keep the oxygenation to the brain a constant level of homeostasis. So the blood again is the last thing to change, and you can tighten the parameters, but the reality is when everybody comes back, and say “Oh, everything looks normal, this is great,” but that's not reality because reality is that the normal had gotten wider and wider and wider as the population has gotten sicker and sicker, so it's almost normal to become sick in America. Blood test, I'm not saying that you don't need blood tests, but I look at things that look at the nuance of the how the body works, and that's looking at the urine which is what your body is trying to get rid of, and at the same time, I look at the saliva because the saliva is the representation of your extracellular fluid, and so there's a number of biomarkers that I look at and I look at the environment. And what so many people want to blame your genetics. Look, I'm not going to change your eyes from blue to brown with the diet because that's 25% your genes. It's not going to change. I'm not going to change your sex of being male versus female with a diet and exercise in that nature, it's not going to happen. They are genetically predetermined, however 75% of your genes is what you do to your genes. It's the environment that they're in. Dr. Francis Collins says the genes are the loaded gun, and the environment is what pulls the trigger. You have something?
Ben: No, go ahead. I'm listening here, fascinated.
Dr. Bentley: Okay, so if you look at this and you look at the genes and everybody says oh well, my mom's obese, my dad's obese, we're all going to be obese. No, you guys live in the same environment, you have the exact same environment here. All three of you are eating crap, and it's leading to the same situation. You do what your parents do, and they lead by example, which is important why we need to teach the generation now, and the kids, if your parents are listening, engage your kids. Get your kids engaged. My eight-year-old right now is going through a testosterone surge right now, and he doesn't really know quite what to do with it. He's in that stage where he's trying to go from childhood to adolescent-type phase and trying to be a grownup, but now he's really confused. So what do we do? We took all three of our kids this Saturday, down to the basement. We had them on all different balls, gym balls. We created stations, we had circuit training for them, and it was just getting rid of their energy. We had a balance beam. Tell them to walk forward, backward, stand on one leg. We've got to engage our kids in today's society right now on how to eat right. How to because what we do today determines their health in the future, and it's an environment that you put in their body because people develop osteoporosis. By the time they're 23, they're already set. That's not when you reach menopausal age, and that's when osteoporosis kicks in, probably starting by the time they're 20, and you have 50% of your own bone density by adolescence. All these kids are drinking soda and eating a bunch of junk and not getting their fruits and vegetables and their calcium and other minerals they need for the bones, are wreaking havoc on the system.
But if we go back again, and your genes again are the loaded gun and your environment pulled the trigger, we've got to be able to look at that environment, and that's what I focus on my patients, and I tell our patients, “Okay look. Just because you have the gene doesn't mean it's going to cause an issue,” so since human genome project, we've isolated the hangover gene. You heard I said hangover. It means when you drink a lot of alcohol, the next morning, you're kind of groggy. Yes, that is the hangover. There is a hangover gene, but just because you have a hangover gene does not mean you're going to walk around in a drunken stupor. It's when you put it in that environment that it stresses a certain methodology to come on. Same thing, and that everybody that takes hormone replacement therapy gets breast cancer. What is it? You had a genetic predisposition, but then you put them on hormone replacement therapy, and then they'll get the kid breast cancer. Each person is a different biochemical individual, which is why we have to have the understanding that each person is their own individual. As different as we look on the outside or that different on the inside of how our body works, so the things I talk about now is not a one trick pony, folks. It's not a magic bullet out there. Each of you is a different biochemical individual. Just because someone else has taken Vitamin E and Vitamin C of the antioxidant doesn't mean that's exactly what you need. Maybe you need something else, maybe you have other physiological stressors in your body. There's creating oxidation, it's not just a lack of antioxidants.
So when we look at our bodies and we look at that aspect, and here's one last thing I'll leave you with before we start diving into these biomarkers, is to prove that how different we are in the inside. I don't handle that alcohol very well. If I have two drinks from three sheets to the wind, well that's how my body processes. Does that occur only to you one. That actually processes ethanol and alcohol through your liver. I have a down regulation for that. My body doesn't do very well. Well I got a bio body that's 126 pounds. I can drink a case of beer and just be fine. Well, what was the difference? We're drinking the same thing? It's our body, how our body metabolizes, how our body works. So what I do with my patients, and what I train doctors around the country to do, and you can find some of these doctors at www.wellnessprescription.net. There's a website on arrow.com. It will take you back to the .net site. Either way, you will get, and again, it's Wellness Prescription. You can find doctors that look at these biomarkers with regards to your health.
So if we look at alkaline reserves, every cell, every hormone, every receptor and every enzyme in your body functions at an optimal pH. A pH is your acid-base balance. Alkaline is between seven and fourteen, with seven as neutral. So anything above that, you're outlining, anything below that you're acidic. A lot of athletes out there has heard the term lactic acid. That's the build-up of lactic acid. Get a lot of muscle soreness because a decrease in blood flow causes the muscle to become tighter, which further decreases blood flow. Well, think of this. If your body becomes too acidic. Yourself can't work right because your enzymes can't work. The receptors can't work and the hormones can't work properly. So what happens? Hormones, if you think of a factor, you had the foreman. The foreman tell the workers what to do to get the byproduct. Well actually, you had the boss, then he had the foreman and then you have the workers. Your workers are the enzymes in your cells. The receptor is the foreman, and then the boss is the person who says this what I want to get done, and those are the hormones. So the hormones come in, and they talk to the foreman to go inside and tell the cell inside the cells to tell the enzymes to do what they need to do, and directs them. However, if your pH is off, the boss can't talk to the foreman and the foreman can't talk to the enzymes, and so no work gets done. That's where the alkaline reserve comes in, and it's important and so how do you balance your alkaline reserve?
Well it's making sure that you don't get too much acid in your system, so they create a lot of acid in your body. I think such as alcohol, soda, here is an interesting fact, Ben. The human body with a normal healthy diet of fruits and vegetables, lean meats and plenty of water and some are eating healthy and exercising, the body can handle fifty million equivalent of acid per day. One can of soda has 62 mil equivalents of acid, so that means that the minute you drink that acid or that soda, you're throwing your body as a deformation, because your body, you're already in a minus twelve now, and what your body can handle normally, if you're eating a healthy diet. So yeah, pretty amazing isn't it? So you think about the average, the standard American diet, the sad diet is a hundred to 200 mil equivalent of acid per day, so think of what is happening. Your body has to counteract that acid somehow. It typically does that through proteins and phosphates which is inside the cell, and it does it through your cellular respirator, through breathing. So your body breathes off carbon dioxide, that's why you breathe more when you start exercising, 'cause you're creating more acid, so your body starts bringing more to get rid of carbon dioxide 'cause carbon dioxide and water mixed together, and it creates acid. Carbonic ion and then the hydrogen ions. HCO3- and then H+ is what you're left with. So your body has to balance at that H+ now, that acid, and so what happens is your body says we need to balance, so the next thing that it goes to is your electrolytes, your minerals. Well guess what'll happen, if you eat up your electrolytes and extracellular fluid to a certain point from your bones. This is science, there are so many published articles on this. This is why kids are starting to get osteopenic, because you're drinking so much soda, so many acidic drinks, and you are eating the same American diet. So that's where our alkaline reserve comes in, and it's about electrolytes and minerals. So that's the other thing that look at.
I look at people that have the acid-base balance. I look at the saliva and urine because that where it adjusts the most. I was called in on a case of a curse is great with a five-year-old. Hospital overnighted me on his blood work from Christmas Day to December 29th. He had 150 pages of blood work done. I start flipping through, and I called the hospital immediately I said that he code on the 26th? They said yeah, how can you tell? I think his blood pH dropped to 7.14. At 7.11, you're dead or in a coma, and then I saw one. It said 7.097, and they said yeah, that was actually the day were we had to put him on life support with his breathing and everything 'cause he stopped breathing. Well the carbon dioxide wasn't getting out of the system, and that's how important it is, and the blood stayed at 7.35 to 7.45. So again just two-tenths of a drop or three-tenths of a drop. You're in serious, serious trouble, so the body adequately removes acid out of your urine and also expose into extracellular environment which is your saliva. So that is very important make sure that we have proper acid-base balance, so your hormones could talk to the receptors and the receptors can talk to the enzymes for your body to function properly, and that's where electrolytes lights come in. So athletes, if you are out there and get adequate electrolytes, you're going to create a lot of acid in the system.
Ben: So in terms of electrolyte intake, would you say that maintaining a proper acid base balance for your diet is just as important as taking in electrolytes. If you're concerned about say electrolyte deficiency leading to a crapping after long periods of time spent exercising in hot weather, something like that?
Dr. Bentley: Yeah, absolutely. You've got to get it from your diet, so the more green, the better, and then also the supplementing, especially if you guys are working now over 45 minutes to an hour a day, because you're sweating out more than your body can digest and process and that you're going to be getting from your nutrients, from the food that you're eating 'cause our food is so nutrient-depleted already 'cause everything in America is about money, and so we cultivate things much faster. We don't allow the nutrients go back into the soil because that's how the plants get their nutrients. So we're not getting the proper balance with electrolytes. So things like kale, collard greens, juicing those things is great. I'm not a big fan of juicing fruits, but I am a big fan of juicing more vegetables that are green and get those high-powered electrolytes into your system, and then also, you can take electrolyte-type drinks. I'm not a fan of a particular one called Gatorade, mainly because there's a lot of dyes in it. There's a vegetable oil and a citrus one, and they got food coloring. Basically it's just sodium chloride, in which your body really needs more potassium and magnesium especially when you're eating break for fusion.
Ben: You know, Ryan, if I could throw this in here, I've found that a lot of endurance athletes and a lot of active individuals get a lot of electrolytes, but they eat a lot of acid-containing foods or acid producing foods like carbohydrates and high amounts of grains and things of that nature, and I think it's interesting you bring this up because a lot of folks just tackle one side of that equation, getting enough electrolytes when I think that almost seems like it's overemphasized compared to focusing on what you've just described, in terms of eating net alkaline producing foods.
Dr. Bentley: Yeah, absolutely. You got to have…
Ben: I think that’s huge for people to think about.
Dr. Bentley: Yeah, absolutely, Ben. You’re absolutely, 100% spot-on-the-money there. It’s about your diet. A bad diet with supplements is still a bad life. Again, as I said, eating right and exercising and then having negative thoughts is still bad health. It doesn’t matter what equation, if you eat right and have positive thoughts, but don’t exercise, it’s going to equal bad health. You can’t replace a good diet with supplements. It would be equivalent to me saying, “Oh, go ahead and smoke, just make sure you take an antioxidant” and then you’re going to live healthy. No, it’s not going to happen and just taking electrolytes is not going to happen, it’s about your diet. So, you eating a ton of grains is getting a lot of phytic acid in your system, that’s going to create issues. These high carbohydrate-type things that are coming from grains is not okay. If you’re getting your carbohydrates from fruits and vegetables, well, that’s much better.
Ben: Right, right. So, let’s go ahead and move on down the line, talk about some of the other things that you look at in folks aside from the acid-base balance.
Dr. Bentley: Okay.
Ben: You know what, before we move on, just super quick, is that somebody you just have people test with a pH stick or…? How can somebody just check that out?
Dr. Bentley: There’s a number of ways to check that out: using litmus, or the pH papers, you can get that and check it and see where you’re at. I like the saliva to be between, I would say, 6.7-6.8, somewhere around there; in the urine, between 6.5 and 6.8.
Ben: Gotcha.
Dr. Bentley: So, you kind of like them balanced in between there.
Ben: Okay.
Dr. Bentley: The other thing that people get confused about is alkaline foods. People say, “Well, lemons are acidic.” Well, they’re not acidic. This is how food is determined if it’s alkaline- or acid-type food, it’s about the mineral content of that food. So, if you look at lemons, there’s plenty of minerals in lemons, in lime juice. Yes, they’re acidic, but it’s the mineral content that’s in them that makes it, where if you look at refined carbohydrates, white bread, whole grain, you look at that, there’s not a lot of electrolytes in there. There’s no color to them. And so, you don’t have electrolytes and that’s why they’re acidic. So, if people want to know why lemons are acid, yet they’re considered alkaline is because of the mineral content of that food.
Ben: Okay, got it. So, people can just get pH strips. Folks, by the way, I know that you’ll probably have lots of questions as we go through this, you can always head over to BenGreenfieldFitness.com, leave your questions in the show notes in the comments section, and I’ll try and point you in the right direction. I’ll also link to Ryan’s website over there too because, like he mentioned, there’s a lot of practitioners and docs who can help you out with stuff like this, who use his systems and protocols.
Alright, cool. Go ahead, Ryan.
Dr. Bentley: The next thing I want to talk about is the thing that most people don’t realize and it’s what most athletes die from. Ben, have you ever heard of the marathon runner that was eating right, exercising, they have perfect cholesterol levels, but yet they fall over of a heart attack?
Ben: Absolutely, yeah.
Dr. Bentley: You know, we hear those people and you’re like “what gives,” “what’s going on?” There’s no one out there that breathes more oxygen than you folks. The people that are exercising are people that are breathing more oxygen. So, again, it’s adequate delivery of nutrients and removal of waste. So, oxygen is very much a free radical. You’re not going to stop breathing to avoid it, that’s just not even reality, and don’t stop exercising, because that’s not even smart. You’ve got to move; our bodies are designed to move. But, oxidation is when you bite an apple and it starts to turn brown, that’s oxidation. It’s starting to rot. Or metal, when it starts to rust, that’s the process of oxidation. Oxygen creates free radical damage. Free radicals equal oxidation. Antioxidants combat oxidation in free radicals. They quench it; they bind it. The people that are running and exercising for the caliber that you guys do, you have to get your antioxidants and get more of them because, again, as I’ve said before, the more demand you put on your body, you’ve got to add more fuel. Again, you’re not going to do well in a 1,200 calorie diet if you’re training for an Ironman, your body needs more fuel than that otherwise you’re going to wither away and you’re going to look like some of those marathon and triathletes that look anorexic that I’ve seen on Ben’s website if you watch his videos.
Ben: Yup.
Dr. Bentley: These people are eating themselves away because they’re not supplying what they need. It’s the same when it comes to oxidation and so I wrote about this in a book and oxidation is a key thing when it comes to heart disease. It’s not about having lower cholesterol. 50% of Americans, this comes from JAMA 2003, Journal of American Medical Association… this 50% of Americans have normal cholesterol, yet still have a heart attack. It’s not about cholesterol…
Ben: And you’ve actually written a book about this, if I’m not mistaken, right?
Dr. Bentley: That’s correct.
Ben: About the whole cholesterol not being the underlying cause of heart disease or, at least, not the way that we think of it, right?
Dr. Bentley: That’s correct. Absolutely.
Ben: What’s the name of your book, just so I can link to that in the show notes for people?
Dr. Bentley: The book is called “Sex, Lies, and Cholesterol” and you can get it at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, you can get it on your Kindle, it’s available for eBook, it’s also, there’s an audiobook that you can get now. You can get those things. There’s links to Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and all that right off my website. The audiobook is directly off my website which is www.DrRyanBentley.com. You can find that information there. You can also see a pretty funny video about cholesterol and if you go to, on that, you’ll see a fan page. I do what’s called Medical Mythbusters, Dr. Ryan Bentley Medical Mythbusters is a Facebook fan page where I’ll do videos periodically about some of the things that people have misconceptions about. So, if any of you guys have questions and you would like me and Ben to address those where you’re like “I’m really confused about the science,” I am a science junkie. I look at the research, that’s one of my specialties, is looking at this in depth research. So, if you’re looking at something and you’re like “I don’t get it,” “I’m not sure about this,” “Is corn sugar really just sugar? The body really doesn’t know the difference?” because you see the advertisements on TV, I’ve already busted that myth. So, you can check some of those things out as well.
Ben: Gotcha. So, returning to oxidative stress, you mentioned taking antioxidants, but haven’t some studies shown that antioxidants might cause damage or stress the body out in a way that it shouldn’t be stressed out or limit your adaptation to exercise?
Dr. Bentley: Well, it depends on the type of antioxidants that you’re looking at and a lot of the studies that they do with those are synthetic. Like synthetic vitamin E, it’s not vitamin E in and of itself, the natural form of vitamin E, that makes your body ill and don’t take it because it’s going to kill you. Come on, really? No. but, you can get too many, as well. Again, it’s about a balance with the body. So, there’s a few ways to measure oxidation in the body with bloodwork, you can measure oxidation-reduction potentials, you can look at oxidases and look at these types of things in the blood. So, there’s a number of different ways you can evaluate oxidation. So, I don’t want to talk about all the different ways of evaluation, but oxidation definitely is something that’s important. So, taking copious amounts of antioxidants is not the answer either. The answer, really folks, is not taking 30 or 40 supplements per day, it’s about how you live. It’s not about how you look either. Some of you sit there and say, “I look great, I’ve got less than 10% body fat, I look great in the mirror, yada yada yada.” Well, guess what, there are people like you that still die of a heart attack. There are people like you that have cancer. It’s not about not having symptoms and looking good, it’s about how you live. So, if you get plenty of stuff from fruits and vegetables and then you have a measuring point, it’s important to be able to measure the oxidation. There’s not a lot of things that you can do with a home kit that measure oxidation, but finding a practitioner that will look at your risk of oxidation, but your oxidation also goes into inflammation because inflammation is not the cause of anything. Inflammation is the effect. And what is it? Oxidation is the spark that starts the fire.
Ben: So, when we’re looking at oxidative stress and we’re looking at cholesterol, is there, again, like when we flush this out to practical recommendations for folks, a specific test that people get or a test that you like best, like a cholesterol particle size test, some way to know how much inflammation or how much oxidative stress you have in your body?
Dr. Bentley: Yeah, you can measure oxidized cholesterol. It’s the oxidized LDL that’s the bad thing. Here’s a misnomer that people have, LDL is not cholesterol, neither is HDL. They’re proteins that carry cholesterol. LDL actually carry the cholesterol to your cells for cellular repair, they carry them to your gonads to make testosterone, they carry them to ovaries to make the sex hormones for women, they carry it to your brain for your brain to function well, and if you look, the FDA just changed their warning level with regards to Statin because it causes brain issues and memory and cognition. Well, the brain is mostly cholesterol, of course it’s going to cause issues. If you lower the LDL, that becomes an issue, it’s when LDL becomes oxidized that it becomes bad because that’s when it becomes sticky due to inflammation. So, you can look at your inflammation, so C-reactive protein and sed rate are good things to measure in your serum. To look at inflammation, I look at that with a gauge of oxidation as well because it’s inflammation that is the effect of oxidation, it’s oxidation which sparks to start the fire.
Ben: Gotcha. Okay, cool.
Dr. Bentley: Moving on to something else I look at is carbohydrate metabolism. People have hyperglycemia and hypoglycemia. So, people don’t eat enough and they become hypoglycemic which causes their adrenal glands to overstress. And so, what does your body do? When you don’t have enough calories in your body, your body starts to eat away itself; it’s called gluconeogenesis. You breakdown fats and proteins for energy, turns it back into sugar, so your body, again, if you don’t get enough carbohydrates from fruits and vegetables, it’s going to take it and it’s going to break down your protein and your fat. That’s how people wither away. So, hypoglycemia is not a good situation, because what does that do? It causes stress on your adrenal gland, the more stress you put on your adrenal gland, it increases your fight-or-flight response, again, causing the epinephrine and norepinephrine to be released, cortisol to be released, which again is going to increase your cellular machinery, which again increase the metabolic byproducts and it’s also going to increase oxidation.
Ben: So, when you’re talking about hypoglycemia, that doesn’t necessarily mean that people have to snack and eat fruit all day, right?
Dr. Bentley: Well, not even food, it’s about having just an adequate delivery of fuel. So, hypoglycemia to me is anybody that’s putting their body, not the Paul Blart Mall Cop where all of a sudden he just passed out and you’ve got to have a lollipop in your mouth all the time in order to stay awake. It’s about anybody that’s not meeting their metabolic demand. So, your body is going to be in a deficit. So, the body has to find a way to adapt to make your body bring that level back up and that’s what happens. And so, if your body is eating away your proteins and fats, it’s important to get a balance of protein, fats, and carbohydrates so your body is going to use that and, depending upon your demand, you’re not going to stop and eat a five course meal in the middle of your run and have a nice balanced meal. No, it’s not going to happen. So, you’ve got to make sure you’re having a balance of proteins and fats as well so you have that reserve that your body can call upon, like eating avocados, having a good source of protein in your system.
Ben: Okay.
Dr. Bentley: And then you get to the flipside where people get too much sugar in their body, and that’s all they get. They’re just having too many carbohydrates and again, the body is going to pull that sugar in, create carbon dioxide as a byproduct which is going to add more acid to the system, which is going to deplete the body of electrolytes as well.
Ben: Now, when you’re looking at carbohydrate metabolism, again, is there a way people can assess their blood sugar level, whether or not they’re running with low blood sugar throughout the day, whether or not they’re running with high blood sugar? What are you recommending in terms of tests for something like that? Just a blood glucose meter…?
Dr. Bentley: That’s something that can be done, again, but the body tries to keep things normal. What I find is a lot of endurance athletes and even young children, they have a tendency to be higher because, again, if you are… people that are training all the time, especially when they’re in that huge training phase, well, a majority of their stress, I mean, when I worked with Olympic athletes and boxers, people that are training two, three, four times a day, their body is under constant stress. So, the body is always trying to keep the carb level or the sugar level at a higher level because it’s adapting. It doesn’t mean they’re sick, it’s just adapting to the stress they’re under because the body is not seeing that, “hey, in another hour or so, I’m going to be depleted again.” So, it tries to build that reserve when you’re in that resting phase. So, I don’t find that to be the best way to do it. I like looking at carbohydrates in the urine to see if they’re spilling carbs in the urine, simple and complex, complex are really not supposed to pass into the body, so it gives me an indication they have what’s called leaky gut or things of that nature, that’s more than what this call has to do, but you know the blood sugar, the finger prick is okay, you just want to see how your body is responding. But, I also like having attached the insulin on people to understand where their insulin levels are because you can have a normal blood sugar, but your insulin is, say, at a 50 when it should be, let’s say, under 10. And, if your insulin levels at a 50, it’s taking a 50 to keep it at normal or it should be less than 10 to keep it at normal, so if you had it at 10, your blood sugar would be way sky high. Does that make sense?
Ben: Yup, yup.
Dr. Bentley: So, you’ve got to have a three dimension view, if you will. So, that’s why I think, if you’re going to do blood sugar measurements, do that, but also get fasting insulin to see where your insulin levels are to keep it at that normal level.
Ben: Gotcha. Okay. Cool. Alright, so what’s the next thing you look at?
Dr. Bentley: Protein metabolism. I like to make sure people are getting adequate protein in, but they’re also digesting and breaking it out properly. Urea is something that’s important, you look at the urine, there’s nitrates and ammonia byproducts of protein metabolism in their system. And, some people are getting too much protein and not breaking it down. Some people are not getting enough protein and they’re not breaking down what they are getting, or they’re catabolizing themselves. So, I use a test that allows them to look at their urinary nitrates and ammonium levels which also nitrates and nitrites are a byproduct of nitric oxide, which gives you a high indication that they also may have an inflammatory cascade because everybody says, “oh, you’ve got to take NOS or eNOS or any of these products out there that increase nitric oxide that has a lot of arginine in there.
Ben: Right.
Dr. Bentley: Well, yeah, that’s great but the problem is when it gets out of balance again because if you get too much, you put nails in your coffin because it creates increased oxidation in your system. And so, that’s not a good thing either. So again, you get too much, it’s not good. Yeah, you can dilate your blood vessels, get blood flow in there, and you fell ripped, and you feel all pumped up, but again, that’s not health. It’s about balance.
Ben: Interesting.
Dr. Bentley: So, again, looking at urea levels, people can look at what’s called a BUN, which is a blood urea nitrogen, looking about what the BUN is. So that’s something that you can look at in the typical blood perimeter where you can measure urea and…
Ben: Do you find that when you’re testing people, are most folks getting too much protein, too little protein, or just not really digesting or metabolizing well the protein that they are getting?
Dr. Bentley: The biggest thing that I find is that people are not digesting the protein adequately and they’re not breaking it down, or they’re taking poor forms of proteins, but the biggest thing that I find is a lack of hydrochloric acid. Hydrochloric acid is where a lot of things become an issue because, again, it’s that initial breakdown. People talk about, “Oh, well I have indigestion, so I’ve got to take a proton pump inhibitor.” No! And, I’ll bust that myth there real soon on Medical Mythbusters. But, that’s not the case and it leaves a detrimental effect. Most things, if you think about it, Ben, if you’re getting chased by a bear, your body says you don’t stop to go to the bathroom, your body is in a fight-or-flight response. So, your body is not going to stop and have a meal, digest, have a bowel movement, urinate, that type of thing. No, your body is in its stressed mode, it’s ready to go. People that over-train, people that are constantly… they train, but then they constantly have negative emotions, creating stress on their body or other chemical stressors or other physical stressors such as pain. Think of the stress response you’d have if you ran with a tack in your foot in every step that you took. Some people do that and they train through those injuries and that’s just adding more stress to the system as well. But, that stress shuts down your digestion, which shuts downs your hydrochloric acid production in your stomach, that’s just the dialogy. This comes straight out of Guyton and Guyton, like Guyton Textbook of Medical Physiology, comes right out of there. So, shuts down the digestion, so people are imbalanced and they’re training as well and not getting adequate rest, because rest is huge, that’s something else that’s important when it comes to digestion of producing hydrochloric acid is vitamin B3, but also zinc. Zinc is the main cofactor that helps your body produce hydrochloric acid out of the parietal cells in your stomach. So…
Ben: So, you feel that it’s not necessarily an issue with people needing to take more hydrochloric acid as much as them needing to make sure they’re getting adequate nutrients that allow their own body to produce it?
Dr. Bentley: Correct, and then also getting their stress imbalanced. Again, and people will say, “well, I’m not stressed out,” well, it is physical, chemical, emotional stress just depends on where their body is at and they have to take an honest inventory of where they’re at and have a practitioner evaluate it as well, that’s key. Taking hydrochloric acid and just taking it does nothing to fix the underlying physiology it created the issue in the first place. Again, if you take hydrochloric acid, does it remove the stress that caused the body to shut it down? If you’re getting chased by a bear and it shuts down, will taking hydrochloric acid fix it? Nope. What about does it replace zinc if you’re zinc deficient? Nope. There’s a very simple test that you could do, it’s called a Zinc Tally test, you can get a bottle of Zinc Tally for like eight bucks and all you do is you take 2-3 milliliters, you put it in your mouth, you hold it there, if you get a metallic taste in your mouth, then you’re good on zinc, if not, you’re deficient in zinc and you need to make sure you take zinc.
Ben: Interesting.
Dr. Bentley: Now, there is a time and place also to take hydrochloric acid with zinc because zinc has to be ionized or hydrolyzed in an acidic environment. So, if you don’t have acid, you’re not going to absorb any zinc either. So, there’s a balance there.
Ben: Okay, got it. So, in terms of zinc and vitamin B that’s important for protein metabolism, but you also mentioned stress, adrenal stress, how does that effect this?
Dr. Bentley: Adrenal stress, again, it goes back to that physical, chemical, or emotional stress. If the body is overstressed, you’re going to handle stress hormones just like if you see that cap car and your heart starts beating fast or your blood pressure goes up, if you’re getting chased by a bear, or if you get what’s called overtraining syndrome. You’ve heard that terms, right, overtraining syndrome?
Ben: Yeah, absolutely,
Dr. Bentley: Yeah, it’s when people are not allowing their body to have adequate rest for their body to repair and they’re overtraining. They’re doing too much which is a constant stress on the adrenal gland an then eventually what happens is they burn out. I had an athlete at Indiana University that was a track runner, and this guy was total adrenal burnout. His adrenals were absolutely 100% fatigued. They could not work anymore and they couldn’t create those stress hormones because he had depleted them and the main fuel for the adrenal glands is vitamin B5, B6, magnesium, and vitamin C. Those are the main fuel and if you run out of those because you’re overtraining, then your adrenals are going to start withering away and they’re going to quit functioning the way that they need to. They’re not going to adapt to stress anymore and then you’re going to start having so much fatigue, you can’t get out of bed, you feel like you can’t train anymore, that’s adrenal fatigue in a nutshell and that’s where overtraining syndrome comes in. So, again, when you come back to adrenal stress and you look at that, adrenal stress will shut down your digestion. So, if you shut down your digestion, then that’s just physiology, again, you said it, if you’re getting chased by a bear, you don’t stop to take a dump, excuse the language there, or defecate if you will, I think most people would understand that term, but the reality is your body is not going to stop and do that, you’re not going to stop and digest because your body is pushing the blood out to your legs and your extremities because you’re running and you’ve got to keep that to stay alive. So, it shuns the blood away from your core out to your extremities and so it shuts down that process. And so, guess what, now you’re not going to have a delivery of nutrients which is going to create what? A deficiency. And that deficiency leads to more issues because now you don’t have the nutrients that you need in order for your body to properly remove toxins because it takes a lot of energy and a lot of nutrients to remove toxins.
Ben: So, are most people needing to introduce supplements that allow them to have the adrenal support that they need from these vitamin Bs and vitamin Cs or are you finding that it’s more like stress depleting the nutrients that you’re getting from food, or both?
Dr. Bentley: It’s absolutely, 100% both. People are not eating enough of the things that create the B vitamins and getting the nuts and the lean meats or legumes, however they want to do it, if they’re going to go vegetarian aspect, how will they want to do it? If you do meats, do grass-fed for Pete’s sake; do not do the conventional corn-fed type thing or fish. You don’t see that anywhere. You basically don’t see a cow walking on the range going up and eating or gnawing on corn. No, it’s eating grass. You don’t see fish that are farm-fed, you don’t ever see a fish going up, in a normal habitat, eating corn, doesn’t happen.
Ben: Right.
Dr. Bentley: So, getting things in its most natural environment is important. So, if you do get meat, get it from that aspect, from a grass-fed type meat. So, again, getting the grass-fed beef is going to be the most important, but when it comes to adrenal stress, yes you need a balance of B vitamins, if you’re training, I don’t think there’s a problem while you’re supplementing it as long as you’re eating an adequate diet. If your diet is high in grains and that’s all you’re getting and that’s your source, you’re going to be damaging yourself. You’ve got to have a proper balance. Out body was made to run off of vitamins, minerals, proteins, fats, carbohydrates, and water. That’s what it was made to run off of. So, again, you’ve got to have that balance and give your body rest as well.
Ben: So, in terms of testing for adrenal stress, you running specific tests looking at specific hormones or are you more looking at a person’s symptoms?
Dr. Bentley: Both. You can look at the symptomatology and look at people and see that easily have adrenal stress by looking at that or that they have adrenal fatigue, those are pretty obvious signs as well. But, if you look at testing, I like a test that looks at the urine. There’s called [48:19] ______ test that allows you to look at the urine, the way that physiology works, basically the more dilute the urine becomes, it could be an indicator, it’s an indirect measurement of adrenal stress. There’s also a 24-hour cortisol profile that you can do to look and see how the cortisol levels are doing, but again, the adrenal glands also produce epinephrine and norepinephrine, couple other chemicals as well but those are the ones that we’re talking about with regards to adrenal stress. So, epinephrine, norepinephrine, and looking at those levels. So, those could be tested as well.
Ben: Okay.
Dr. Bentley: And as I mentioned this, talking about creating progressively more dilute urine is what you can see with adrenal stress, is hydration. And, hydration is important. If you don’t have proper hydration, you will slow down your metabolism because water, if you think about people that are overweight and obese, they have a higher tendency to become dehydrated. Why is that? Because that water repel each other, and the more fat they have, the less water they’re going to retain, and what happens when you do that? Your body has a lot of toxins, a lot of metabolic byproducts that it dilutes it with the water. You can go have water there where your body sees a build-up of toxic byproducts from metabolism, so the body says “we’re not getting rid of these toxins” so what does it do? It shuts down the metabolism, and your metabolism goes down just by not having proper hydration, so you gotta get proper hydration. When it comes to that, looking at having proper hydration to keep the metabolism going, if you have toxic buildup, I look at liver stress and kidney stress, and there’s a number of ways to look at liver stress and kidney stress, I look a lot of ureas, and data potential of the urine to have the body eliminating, they need to look at the BUN, creatinine levels, look at the kidneys, liver enzymes, high normals, GGQ levels, ASG, ALT, here are some tests that we utilize but with regards to liver stress, if the body is not able to process or remove toxins because 94% of toxins are fat-soluble.
So for those of you who are listening and have a problem losing weight, you know I had a lady that was 230 pounds but was a marathon runner. She actually trained people for marathons, worked out 2-3 times a day, couldn’t lose any weight, and within a month she dropped 14 pounds very quickly but she was doing everything beautifully. I didn’t change anything besides help her liver detox because she was eating right, she was exercising, she had great thoughts, everything was balanced. All I had to do was help her liver detoxify and immediately it started coming off. I measured, I used the bioelectrical impedance analysis or what’s called a BIA to measure the fat change that was occurring in her body by getting her liver because if you don’t detoxify, your liver is not clearing things out, it’s going to get stored to save yourselves ‘cause first thing it stored is in your fat tissues. So again if you’re not removing toxins, it’s gonna get stored on in your body as fat because again 94% toxins are fat-soluble and the liver, the goal of the liver will save things from being fat-soluble from phase 1 to phase 2 which makes it water-soluble and then it secretes it out through your feces or through your urine.
Ben: How does somebody who’s been eating a lot of toxins, or eating things that would cause them to create fat cells to store those toxins in, where do they even start with something like a detox, are there specific supplements or should they go on a cleanse, or is it a different process than that?
Dr. Bentley: No, there definitely is. The first thing that you gotta look at is, here’s an analogy I’ll give you: if your house catches on fire, you’re not gonna go in there and start remodeling the house when it’s still on fire, correct? You have to put the fire out, and then you’re gonna go in and start remodeling, rebuilding, and repairing the body. The same thing: if you have inflammation, you’ve got to put the fire out first before you go and start cleaning house because if you have a bunch of inflammation, inflammation shuts down. The research shows it shuts down, especially if you have inflammation in the gut, it’ll shut down the detoxification pathways even up into the liver. So it’ll shut down phase 2 which means that you’re gonna increase water oxidation which is gonna increase more free radical damage which is gonna increase more inflammation. You’re adding gasoline to the fire. Before you detox, you got to make sure that you don’t have major inflammatory cascades going on. If you don’t, then you can go ahead and move into a detox, and when I’m talking about a cleanse I’m not talking “oh let’s do a lemon juice with cayenne pepper and honey”, that’s not a cleanse. That’s not cleaning your body systemically and getting yourself to repair. I’ve specifically used a product called UltraClear Plus from Metagenics to help people detoxify and help cleanse, and also use another product called Advaclear, that’s what I use, but when I want to put the fire out, I use some things… you know, resveratrol is great on inflammatory processes. Acai berry is absolutely huge when it comes to inflammatory cascades, but if you look at those, what are they? They’re very potent antioxidants as well. Cumin, turmeric, those types of herbs are great to use, the spices, adding that into your flavoring, essential fatty acids is key. People buy too many omega 6’s vs. omega 3 there’s a bad balance and you get more inflammatory so you need to get more omega 3’s which is… most people maybe get from fish oil, while I’m thinking flaxseed when it gets converted. Problem is that it takes 5 in 7 in the next steps properly to convert it to EPA and DHA and only a small percentage of it gets converted. So fish oil and krill oil are typically the best forms in terms of fatty acid to get in the help combat the inflammatory cascade and then you can train your body to get ready for a detoxification process.
Ben: Mhm. Gotcha. Okay. Cool, so we’ve gone over a lot of stuff so far in terms of biochemical markers that you look for. Is there anything else that you go through?
Dr. Bentley: The biggest thing is that you evaluate your mental state. Anybody in this can become a patient of mind, they’ve got to be willing to make the changes and if they’re not willing to make the change… I’ve got a patient one time telling me “I guess I’m not sick enough yet to make a lot of changes in my life, but I’ll be back when I am” okay. I’ve “fired” patients for not complying, I’ve “fired” from maybe taking on patients because of that. The reason is because I don’t want to waste my time and I don’t want to waste their time. So you’ve got to be ready and make sure that you’re willing to put forth the effort; it doesn’t have to be that hard. Yes I talk a lot of biochemistry, I went over a lot of biomarkers and there’s a number of things, like I said you can find that practitioner website, if you want you can email me, you may even take a shot and look at working with something deeper out there, people that can give you some extra help biochemically, I’ll be willing to do that, just email me. [email protected], I’d be happy to help out with that. I do screen my patients…
Ben: I’ll put that on the show notes for folks… if you want to get tested. So you look at the mental adherence and are there any tricks that you use… you know, when somebody’s going through a lifestyle change, and they hear you talk about these biochemical parameters, they want to get tested, they want to fix their diet, they want to start taking things and making changes that are going to help them optimize themselves from a biochemical standpoint, but they want to stick to it. Do you have special techniques that you use in terms of getting people in the game mentally to make sure they adhere to the program?
Dr. Bentley: Yes, absolutely. I find their emotional button. I don’t care if it’s an Olympic athlete or a grandma. If grandma is… one day, her goal is to be able to play with her grandkids in the playground and not sit on the sidelines with life, which is what the majority of people are doing, I use that as your motivating factor because I find out what your goals are, that’s my first question. “What are your goals? What is it you want to achieve?” and that’s the care that’s constantly being dangled, and the biggest thing with me honestly from a physical standpoint, it’s about inspiration. People are motivated every New Years. They get motivated that they can change when motivation forces you to do something against what your will and your principles and your values are, and eventually willpower will fall over. It’ll die. Why? Because it’s forcing you to get what you naturally have an inclination to do. You’ve got to be inspired. To me, what better inspiration than your own creator and your own body, and to take care of that so you can better serve your purpose on life. If you don’t do that, you can’t do it very well sitting on the sideline, so I use that as a major motivating factor for people as well so they become inspired, they better serve their purpose that they have here in life because they can serve better if they’re not fatigued, depressed, or falling ill of crunched out diseases.
So again, it’s important that it’s not a magic bullet, it’s slow and steady wins the race… okay maybe not really in reality but what I mean with regards to physiology, they’ll look for a one-trick pony. Don’t think you’re gonna find that magic bullet because it doesn’t exist and that’s a myth that people created within our healthcare system. We have a society that creates fear and instant gratification, and people looking towards that. We’re geared towards that. You’ve got to break that, folks. You’ve got to get that out of your mentality and out of your head, and understand that this is the process and your body can adapt. If it takes 20 years of bad eating t0 create type 2 diabetes, and you can undo that in 6 months by taking care of yourself, that’s a good return on your investment but for 6 months of your life has to be dedicated and focused on it. Don’t buy into all the junk. Pick out the truth, understand the reality and realize there is not a magic bullet out there, and find what inspires you, what your passion is about, and use that as your drive and your inspiration.
Ben: Gotcha. Well, this is a lot of stuff I know, folks, that we went through, if you need to listen to it twice, listen to it twice, but recap for you: Dr. Bentley talked about our acid-based balance, how to test that, how to optimize your alkalinity and balance that with your acidity, talked about oxidative stress and his book “Sex, Lies, and Cholesterol” and what to look at when it comes to your oxidative stress and your antioxidant status. He talked about inflammation and the effect that that can have in your body, stress on your liver and how that can affect your fat cells and your ability to detoxify, he talked about carbohydrate metabolism and protein metabolism, your adrenal stress levels, and finally how to find that emotional button to ensure you’re actually able to adhere to the lifestyle changes that he recommends. So, again folks, listen twice if you need to; I know it’s a lot of information to digest. We’ll put a link to Dr. Bentley’s email in the show notes, to his book and his website and obviously go to bengreenfieldfitness.com and leave your comments and your questions underneath this post and I’ll be sure to point you in the right direction as well.
Dr. Bentley, thank you so much for coming on the call today and going through all this with us.
Dr. Bentley: No problem. I appreciate the time and the effort that you put in as well.
Ben: All right folks. Well, this is Ben Greenfield and Dr. Ryan Bentley signing out from www.bengreenfieldfitness.com.
Ever wondered how to test and fix your body's biochemistry?
You're going to learn how, and learn 8 ways to get your body operating like a finely tuned engine in today's episode with Dr. Ryan Bentley.
Dr. Bentley has been described as one of the brightest young leaders in the field of nutritional medicine. A true innovator, Dr. Bentley has emerged on the national scene in natural medicine circles with his engaging seminars and his book, “Sex, Lies & Cholesterol”, which is being praised by practitioners and lay people alike.
Dr. Bentley is the co-founder and CEO of The Wellness Prescription – created to educate practitioners on how to construct proven, objective, and quantifiable systems and protocols to help their patients reach optimal health. He has taught his principled nutritional approach to thousands of doctors around the country.
In this interview with Dr. Bentley, you're going to learn 8 ways to get your body operating like a finely tuned engine.
Our discussion includes:
-Acid Base balance – why taking electrolytes isn't the key to stopping cramps, and what strips electrolytes from your body…
-Oxidative stress – what you don't realize that most athletes truly die from…
-Inflammation – how to truly test the amount of inflammation in your body…
-Liver and kidney stress – how your liver can make you fat…
-Carbohydrate metabolism – why you can't just monitor your blood sugar, and what else you need to test…
-How to balance your cellular respiration, electrolyte balance and hydration…
-Protein metabolism – how to find out if you're eating to much or too little protein, and if you're digesting it properly…
-Adrenal stress – the specific vitamin deficiencies that make you more prone to overtraining and adrenal fatigue…
-How to find your emotional button to ensure that you're able to actually adhere to the lifestyle changes that Dr. Bentley recommends…
During our discussion, Ryan graciously offered for you to e-mail him if you have more questions about how to test for these issues or fix them. His e-mail is: [email protected]