Why the Wim Hof Method May Do More Harm Than Good

Wim Hof, often referred to as "The Iceman," is a Dutch extreme athlete famed for his ability to withstand freezing temperatures that would typically overwhelm the average person. His feats include running a half marathon above the Arctic Circle barefoot, and fully submerged in ice for an astonishing 112 minutes.

Hof's remarkable achievements have not only captured the attention of scientists and medical professionals eager to understand the potential implications for health and human limits but have also inspired thousands worldwide to explore their own capacities for resilience.

Hof attributes his superhuman tolerance to the cold to a self-developed method known as the Wim Hof Method — a combination of frequent cold exposure, specific breathing techniques, and meditation.

According to Hof, his method can improve mental and physical health and offers benefits like stress reduction, enhanced energy levels, and an improved immune response.

However, based on analysis of his method with respect to carbon dioxide (CO₂) and stress hormones, I strongly discourage anyone to follow in Hof’s footsteps, as being able to perform extraordinary feats is not the same as being optimally healthy.

Another concerning aspect of this method is Hof's habitual tendency to combine it with swimming, as highlighted in the video above, “The Rise and Fall of the Wim Hof Empire,” by investigative journalist Scott Carney, who used to be a staunch advocate for Hof’s technique but has since cautioned against it upon uncovering its numerous dangers.

The Wim Hof Breathing Method

The Wim Hof method includes a breathing exercise aimed at controlling your autonomic nervous system and influencing your immune response. It consists of several rounds of controlled hyperventilation followed by breath retention and ends with a recovery breath.

The controlled hyperventilation phase involves taking 30 to 40 deep, rapid breaths. Hof describes this as breathing in fully but not exhaling fully — more of a quick, active inhale and a passive exhale. This process increases oxygen levels in your blood and decreases CO₂ levels.

After the last breath of the controlled hyperventilation phase, you’re supposed to exhale fully and then hold your breath for as long as you comfortably can. During this time, CO₂ builds back up in the blood, triggering an urge to breathe.

This phase is known as the retention phase and can last anywhere from a few seconds to several minutes. During this time, your body experiences what has been described as a controlled stress response, which is said to strengthen your body’s physiology.

Once you can no longer hold your breath, you’re supposed to take one deep, full breath in and hold it for 15 seconds before exhaling. This recovery breath re-saturates your body with oxygen. People who practice this method often report feeling tingling sensations and a light-headedness that can border on euphoria, which is attributed to the increase in oxygen and decrease in CO₂.

Hof’s Negligence Linked to Shallow Water Blackout

In the featured video, Carney recounts how he became Hof’s “chief evangelist” after experiencing the method’s purported benefits firsthand. He wrote an article that launched Hof’s career and a book about environmental conditioning called “What Doesn’t Kill Us.” But despite his initial support, Carney shared that he constantly worried Hof’s stunts would harm both him and his followers.

One of his major concerns is how Hof often blurs the line between breathwork and cold-water immersion. Carney states that while the Wim Hof breathing technique, when practiced alone, may lead to benefits, its combination with Hof’s underwater feats creates what he describes as a “toxic brew” that can cause loss of consciousness and drowning even in a small volume of water — a phenomenon known as shallow water blackout.

Though I have differing opinions from Carney on certain matters, particularly on the claimed benefits of hyperventilation, as I'll explain shortly, I do share his concerns about the potential risks linked to how Hof presents his method.

When Carney brought up his concerns about shallow water blackout, Hof and his organization, Innerfire, shrugged them off, claiming their website and instructional videos already have warnings against performing the breathing technique in water. While this may be true, Hof constantly opposes these disclaimers by demonstrating the technique in aquatic settings, suggesting a dangerous contradiction to his followers.

The investigative film features multiple instances of Hof doing this. For instance, his $99 Classic 10-Week course shows a video of him during the eighth week, standing beside a shirtless student in front of an icy waterfall and saying, “Do the breathing. Go into the water. Keep on with the breathing. Keep on being focused, then you sit, then you immerse. Focus and you stay in the water.”

He also conducted a "baptism" ritual in one of his expeditions, where he directed a group of 100 participants, arranged in a circle around him after jumping off a 25-foot waterfall, to engage in hyperventilation breathing before submerging their heads in water. In 2018, while teaching his method to about 300 attendees at a Los Angeles event, Hof played the famous footage of him swimming under sea ice, telling people to hold their breath for the entire duration of his swim.

“I was in shock … Warning labels in my book as well as all over Wim Hof's own site repeatedly caution people that hyperventilation is not a freediving technique and yet here Wim was in front of a crowd implicitly saying the hyperventilation will help them push past their perceived limits and swim underwater just like him,” Carney remarked.

Drowning and Fatalities Continue to Rise

Carney says that while no drowning has occurred at an official Wim Hof event, the global death toll associated with the method has continued to climb over the years. His investigation initially uncovered 12 reports of drowning at the time of the film's release in June 2023. In his blog,¹ Carney updates that as of January 1, 2024, “the current totals have risen to 21 deaths and 18 injuries with 12 deaths in the United States.”

He also listed notable drowning cases linked to the Wim Hof Method, including the death of Andrew Encinas, an avid follower of Hof, who was found dead in a meditative pose in the shallow end of a pool. Similarly, Christopher Kuyvenhoven performed the Wim Hof Method and was passed out underwater for 20 minutes before being discovered.

“If you're doing one thing and then saying another, it creates a message that's really confusing and ultimately, I think the person is going to go with ‘I will probably do whatever Wim Hof, the master of this method, is doing himself,’ because it seems like if he's doing it then the implication is it's safe enough,” Kara Spencer, Kuyvenhoven’s girlfriend points out in the video.

Moreover, Carney shared the tragic death of high school senior Madelyn Rose Metzger in August 2022, which he believes could spell the end of the Wim Hof Method in America. He reports in his blog:²

“In a complaint filed in the Los Angeles Superior Court, Raphael Metzger contends that Wim Hof and Innerfire … negligently caused the death of his daughter Madelyn by failing to adequately warn his followers about the risk of drowning …

In a major civil lawsuit, he is seeking $67 million dollars in damages as well as an injunction against Hof and Innerfire from ever teaching his method in America again … This is the first formal legal action filed against Hof in an American court.”

These incidents, as well as multiple other cases of deaths and drownings, underscore the dangers associated with Hof’s methods. Even without the combination of water submersion, I believe his breathwork alone poses enough threat to your health because of its profound impact on your CO₂ levels that it would be wiser and safer to steer clear of this practice altogether.

Why You Do Not Want to Lower Your CO₂ Level

Physiologically, the problem with Hof’s breathing method is twofold, starting with the suppression of CO₂ that occurs when you hyperventilate, followed by the unnecessary activation of stress hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline.

One of the mechanisms that helps explain the benefits of intermittent hypoxia training is that it RAISES your CO₂ which, in turn, increases the efficiency of oxygen transport and metabolism.

The hypoxia, or lowered oxygen state, also relaxes your capillaries. In your brain, hypoxia increases blood perfusion up to 40%. This is a normal physiologic hypoxic response, and CO₂ plays a significant role in this reaction.

When you engage in the type of intentional hyperventilation that Hof teaches, you’re significantly boosting carbon dioxide removal, which can lead to a condition known as hypocapnia. This occurs because you exhale CO₂ faster than it is produced by cellular metabolism, leading to a reduction in arterial CO₂ levels.

The lightheadedness and tingling people experience are physiological responses to the constriction of cerebral blood vessels and reduced oxygen supply to your brain and other tissues that occur as a result of lowering CO₂.

CO₂ Has Underappreciated Role in Health

While this may come as a shock to most people, of all the strategies I know of to increase life extension, CO₂ is one of the most effective longevity interventions available. There really isn’t anything that comes close, other than a low linoleic acid diet and reducing estrogen dominance.

Unfortunately, virtually no one understands this. The now-deceased Ray Peat, a biologist and physiologist who developed the bioenergetic theory of health,³ was one of the few who understood CO₂ inside and out, and strongly advocated for its clinical use.

One of the simplest ways to optimize your CO₂ though is by breathing properly and NOT hyperventilating or overbreathing. Chronic CO₂ deficiency, which can be induced by chronic overbreathing, will inevitably contribute to premature death, which is the opposite of what the Wim Hof method promises.

In a nutshell, life-extending breathing involves breathing less and breathing slower. Both allow CO₂ to build up, and that appears to be part of why breathwork that focuses on imperceptible breathing has such wide-ranging benefits.

One of the reasons you don’t want to routinely suppress CO₂ is because it’s one of the things that protects you from the toxicity of oxygen. It’s well-known among people who work in trauma or the ICU that premature delivery of oxygen to a patient who has suffered shock, or an ischemic attack can be deadly.

The reason for this is because the introduction of too much oxygen too quickly creates a massive cytokine storm — an inflammatory reaction — when cells don’t have enough CO₂ to allow them to use the oxygen properly.

With that background, does it really make sense — if your aim is to live as long and as healthily as possible — to intentionally deplete your cells of CO₂ through hyperventilation and then flood your body with oxygen with a recovery breath daily?

CO₂ deficiency can also trigger seizures. In the past, going back 100 years or so, the test for seizure susceptibility was hyperventilating. The doctor would instruct you to breathe through your mouth very quickly for 30 seconds, and if seizure symptoms emerged, it was a sign that you have insufficient CO₂, as that’s what’s causes the seizure activity.

Reducing CO₂ with hyperventilation also raises the pH of your blood, a condition known as respiratory alkalosis, which can have a negative effect on enzyme activity, electrolyte balance and blood flow. Hypothetically, it may also promote cancer formation over the long term.

Respiratory alkalosis also increases intracellular water uptake, a hallmark of cancer, and as the pH of the cell increases, it causes overproduction of several inflammatory mediators, including lactate, which is another hallmark of cancer cells.

How CO₂ Depletion Impairs Cellular Energy Production

In addition to all of that, when your CO₂ is too low, your body reverts to an “emergency” vasodilator, nitric oxide (NO), a reactive nitrogen species that, when combined with superoxide, forms extremely harmful peroxynitrite.

There are three types of nitric oxide:⁴ neuronal nitric oxide synthases (nNOS); endothelial NOS (eNOS); and inducible NOS (iNOS). Low CO₂ triggers iNOS, which is far from ideal.

While eNOS primarily remains inside your blood vessels, iNOS spills into your blood, because one of its primary purposes is to fight pathogens. iNOS is produced for only two reasons, either as an emergency vasodilator, or if the immune system senses the presence of bacterial or viral invaders.

The reason you don’t want to activate iNOS unnecessarily is because it’s made available systemically. If your CO₂ is low, your NO will be elevated, which can form peroxynitrite and will damage polyunsaturated fats (PUFAs) that have been incorporated into your cells, no matter where they are.

NO can also form a covalent bond with Complex IV in the electron transport chain (aka cytochrome c oxidase), which is the rate limiting step of oxidative phosphorylation.

As a result, energy production in your mitochondria is inhibited, which is the absolute last thing you want, as achieving maintaining optimal energy production in the mitochondrial electron transport chain is at the very heart of health and disease prevention.

Another significant problem associated with elevated NO is pseudohypoxia, because you have oxygen in the cells but it cannot be utilized because NO impairs Complex IV in the electron transport chain. CO₂ prevents this by dissociating the covalent bond between NO and Complex IV. Hence, oxygenation is optimized when sufficient CO₂ is present. So, CO₂ keeps your blood vessels supple without the drawback of blocking Complex IV.

The Bohr Effect

Needless to say, optimal delivery of oxygen is crucial for good health, but you don’t increase oxygenation by breathing more, faster or deeper. You increase oxygenation of your tissues by raising CO₂.

Oxygen from the air binds to hemoglobin when you inhale and enter your blood circulation. This bond is relatively strong. To break that bond and deliver the oxygen where it’s needed, you need CO₂. This is known as the Bohr Effect.

Basically, the Bohr Effect describes the process in which CO₂ weakens the bond between oxygen and hemoglobin so that the oxygen can separate and enter into the tissues. As the hemoglobin releases the oxygen, it binds to the CO₂ instead. The CO₂ is then expelled through your outbreath. Without enough CO₂, you will not be able to liberate enough oxygen from hemoglobin.

Other Benefits of CO₂

CO₂ also has other benefits, all of which are forfeited if you’re routinely hyperventilating. Importantly:

• CO₂ attaches to and forms an electric cloud over proteins, which protects them from oxidative damage from LA metabolites like OXLAMs.
• It modulates the functional expression of proteins and hormones (as nearly all hormones are proteins). So, by raising CO₂, you can activate and radically increase the efficiency of proteins and hormones in your body.
• When administered rectally, CO₂ acts as fuel for specific anaerobic bacteria called Akkermansia in your large intestine. Akkermansia increases glucagon like peptide (GLP), which is useful in the treatment of diabetes and obesity. Ideal levels of Akkermansia are about 10% of your microbiome, but most populations now have less than 1%.

A nearly 150-year-old medical book describes the many uses and health benefits of CO₂ that were known at the time. It basically included the entire body, and an extensive list of ailments of the day, including dementia, psychiatric disorders such as mania, dysentery, fistulas, fibrotic conditions, whooping cough and tuberculosis. According to bioenergetic researcher Georgi Dinkov, who cited that 150-year-old medical book:

“Really, every condition you can think of, both physiological and mental, can be remediated, and in many cases cured, by increasing endogenous CO₂ production and decreasing degradation.”

Hyperventilation and the Activation of Stress Hormones

Another strike against the Wim Hof method is the fact that it triggers the release of stress hormones. Adrenaline and cortisol are part of a formidable survival mechanism that has allowed mankind to survive hostile and dangerous environments for eons.

Stress hormones also prevent your glucose level from dropping too low, as that could cause you to go into a coma and eventually die. So these hormones have key roles to play when it comes to keeping you alive. But surviving is not thriving, and stress hormones do not contribute to thriving health. Quite the contrary.

One of the reasons why modern man is in such a sad state of health is because of chronic stress — without an actual physical need to fight or flee — resulting in chronically elevated stress hormones that drives pathology. In short, they accelerate disease and premature death.

There's no question that stress hormones are bad news. Cortisol, for example, is a primary aging hormone. If it is chronically elevated, you will likely die prematurely as it is highly catabolic, meaning it breaks down tissues. To stay healthy as you age you need to be anabolic and build healthy tissues like muscle and mitochondria, and high cortisol will seriously impair those efforts. It’s also antimetabolic, meaning it lowers your metabolic rate.

What About the Positive Stress Argument?

Proponents of the Wim Hof breathing method will argue that controlled hyperventilation is a “positive” kind of stress — scientifically termed "hormetic stress” — that strengthens your body’s stress response and tolerance.

Even Carney stated in the featured video that he practiced hyperventilation and ice bathing every day and believed that it helped cure the canker sores that plagued him since childhood. He further explained in his blog:⁵

“The program’s basic premise is that by putting the body under intense, but non-damaging stress in the form of cyclical hyperventilation and prolonged breath holds, as well as learning to relax in frigid water, the human body will respond by becoming more physically and emotionally resilient.”

However, doing these types of hyperventilation exercises daily, as recommended, can push you into a chronic stress state, and little good will come of that. It is not “non-damaging” as Carney described, as your body doesn’t know that it’s supposed to be a “positive” stress.

Case in point: Recent research⁶ has demonstrated that endurance-type exercises can cause chronically elevated cortisol, and like Wim Hof’s method, exercise is known as an hormetic stress. Yet that doesn’t mean that too much of it will backfire and cause harm. In the case of cortisol, it will prematurely age you if chronically elevated, so anything that promotes that is to be avoided.

If you want to improve your health, learn to breathe properly — slowly and imperceptibly. The higher the CO₂ concentration you can maintain (while remaining within the biologically normal CO₂ concentration range), the greater the likelihood that your breathing will support your health and performance.

The Silent Epidemic of Excess Iron

In this interview, Christy Sutton, D.C., reviews the dangers of excessive iron. While most doctors look for iron deficiency, few ever pay attention to elevated iron. Sutton is the author of two books, “Genetic Testing: Defining Your Path to a Personalized Health Plan: An Integrative Approach to Optimize Health,” and “The Iron Curse: Is Your Doctor Letting High Iron Destroy Your Health?”

Iron plays an important role in health, especially for children and young adults. Without sufficient iron, you're not going to be able to form red blood cells and certain proteins in your mitochondria that are responsible for producing energy. On the flip-side, an excess of iron can cause significant damage.

A Silent Epidemic

Sutton’s interest in iron has been “lifelong” she says, as she struggled with low iron while her husband has a genetic anomaly that causes him to have elevated iron levels. So, she has personal experience with both ends of the spectrum.

“I have Crohn's [disease], celiac, and lost part of my small intestine due to Crohn's when I was 16,” she says. “Because of that, I have to take a bile sequestrant. Then, being menstruating female who's had a child, low iron has been something that I have been watched very closely for and I had to take iron a lot.

Like a lot of clinicians, when I came into practice, I seemed to be more hyper-focused on people's problems that were my own problems. I dealt with iron issues. So, I wanted to watch my patients' iron levels closely. Then I realized, ‘Oh, not everybody is low. A lot of people actually have high iron.’

It wasn't until I was writing my first book, ‘Genetic Testing: Defining Your Path to a Personalized Health Plan,’ that I discovered the hemochromatosis genes. I realized that my husband had a hemochromatosis gene, and I realized that that was why I kept telling him to donate blood.

His doctor would order iron labs, ferritin, CBC, and he would get elevated iron often, high ferritin. He was developing high liver enzymes and his red blood cells were getting high as well, which is a common issue with people that have too much iron ...

He went to a gastroenterologist, because he was trying to figure out why his liver enzymes were high. I thought it was the high iron, but that was presented to the gastroenterologist and dismissed. So, they went down this rabbit hole of misdiagnosing him with autoimmune hepatitis.

Later we went to a hematologist where we figured out he had hereditary hemochromatosis. So, it's not something that's particularly difficult to treat. Removing blood, diet supplements, things like that can help.

But once I got really savvy about looking for the genes and the labs combined, I realized that this is a silent epidemic that is not really being talked about. I would tell people, ‘You have a problem with high iron,’ and then they would often go and get a second opinion.

Their second opinion would say, ‘You're fine. Don't worry about it,’ which is a common issue where people are getting high iron labs that should warrant more investigation and then they're just getting dismissed.”

How to Lower Your Iron Level

I have beta thalassemia, a hemolytic anemia that results in a high turnover of red blood cells. My red blood cells only live about two months, rather than the normal three months. As a result, my iron tends to accumulate because of the rapid turnover. So, while I do not have the hemochromatosis gene, it results in similar problems. I inherited it from my father, who had a ferritin level close to 1,000 by the time he was diagnosed. Ideally, it should be below 40.

One of the supplements he tried was inositol, also referred to as hexaphosphate or IP-6, but it did nothing. I rapidly came to the conclusion that the supplements typically recommended for high iron are useless and potentially even dangerous, because they prevent you from doing what is really helpful, which is to remove iron through regular phlebotomies.

The most effective way to lower your iron is to donate blood two to four times a year. If losing 10% of your blood in one sitting is problematic for you, then you can remove blood in smaller amounts once a month on the schedule I have listed below. If you have congestive heart failure or severe COPD, you should discuss this with your doctor, but otherwise this is a fairly appropriate recommendation for most.

As it turns out, Sutton did not include IP-6 in her book, as she couldn't find any research to back up the claims. She doesn’t dismiss all supplements, however. One of the most helpful, in her view, is curcumin.

“Clinically, I have seen curcumin's ability to lower iron almost to a fault,” she says. “It's annoying to me, because I can't take curcumin for inflammation because it makes me low in iron. But for people that are high in iron or even inflamed with high iron, high ferritin, that's a great place to start, because curcumin binds to iron.

It also has all of these other wonderful health promoting properties. It's so good for your brain — it actually helps remove excess iron from the brain and other organs, the heart, liver, spleen.

So, unlike other iron chelators that might be used pharmaceutically, it doesn't have all these possible negative side effects, but it works very effectively. I mean, I've seen it be used in hereditary hemochromatosis patients to lower iron without blood removal ... Now, people that have really high iron might need 3 grams a day, which can create diarrhea. So, you have to look at other potentially limiting factors.”

She also recommends taking curcumin with an iron-rich meal, such as shellfish or red meat, to inhibit iron uptake. Other supplements that help bind iron include silymarin, (an extract from milk thistle). It too is very good for hemochromatosis patients, because it lowers iron and helps protect and repair the liver. Another thing that binds to and lowers iron is alpha-lipoic acid. It’s also great for protecting nerves and lowering blood sugar.

“I don't think silymarin lowers iron quite as much as curcumin, but it's still a significant way to lower iron,” she says. “The best way to take these — to lower iron — is take them with iron-rich meals. If you want to take them just for medicinal properties but not to lower iron, take them away from iron-rich meals.”

Health Risks Associated With High Iron

The health risks of high iron are manifold and include an elevated risk of skin infections and skin cancer. I suspect high iron may actually be a catalyst when it comes to skin cancer, along with high linoleic acid (LA) intake. LA is oxidized by iron, creating something called lipofuscin, which is basically iron attached to oxidized LA.

A more common term for lipofuscin is liver spots. So, liver spots are a dermal representation of oxidative damage to LA by high iron. Similarly, skin cancer is likely driven by a combination of high LA and high iron. Ancestral LA levels were below 2%. Today, the average is around 25%. If you had normal ancestral levels, you could have higher iron yet not get as much damage.

Understanding Hemochromatosis

There are several potential diagnoses related to iron, including iron deficient anemia, copper deficient anemia, iron overload and hereditary hemochromatosis, and getting to the correct diagnosis can be tricky.

“The nice thing is that you can always fall back on labs,” Sutton says. “You don’t want to just use symptoms to guide you, because if you’re using symptoms, then this person is well far down a pathological path that you could have potentially stopped years ago, if not decades before.”

Starting with hereditary hemochromatosis, this is when you have inherited one of three hemochromatosis genes, which causes increased iron absorption by decreasing hepcidin, a liver protein. If you have the hemochromatosis gene, you don’t make as much hepcidin, causing you to absorb more iron.

That can become pathological, because over time, you just keep absorbing more and more iron, until your body finally runs out of places to put it. The first place that gets overloaded is your liver. After that, your body will store the iron in other organs, such as your heart, pancreas, brain, pituitary gland, gonads, ovaries, testes and skin.

Eventually, the iron will go everywhere because the human body has evolved to hold onto as much iron as possible. The only way, really, to lose iron is through blood loss. This is why menstruating women have a lower risk for high iron and a higher risk for low iron.

“Having said that, when you start looking at the hemochromatosis genes, all bets are off, because you’ll see females that have these hemochromatosis genes that develop high iron … you will even see children with the hemochromatosis genes that develop high iron,” Sutton says.

“I discovered that in my colleague’s 5-year-old, where predatory hemochromatosis was causing her to have severe neurological problems. That was a very difficult thing to get through because the hematologist didn’t really want to deal with it.

When you look at labs, hereditary hemochromatosis can look very similar to non-hereditary hemochromatosis, which is where you have high iron but you don’t have one of those hemochromatosis genes.

So, for you, you have more of a non-hereditary secondary hemochromatosis, because you have that thalassemia issue where your red blood cells are breaking and letting all this iron out and then you develop high iron with potentially low red blood cells.

That's common with thalassemia. Some people, they don’t have a thalassemia gene and they develop high iron without hemochromatosis gene, because they’re just eating a lot of iron-rich foods and they’re not losing iron through menstruation. This is usually men.”

How to Diagnose Hemochromatosis

When it comes to lab work, Sutton recommends starting with a full iron panel, a complete blood count (CBC) test, gamma-glutamyl transferase (GGT), and a comprehensive metabolic panel to ensure you have sufficient liver enzymes. Measuring your copper and ceruloplasmin levels can also be helpful.

“The full iron panel has the ferritin, the TIBC [total iron-binding capacity], the UIBC [unsaturated iron-binding capacity], the serum iron and the iron saturation. With hereditary hemochromatosis, you develop high ferritin with a high iron saturation. That combination is hereditary hemochromatosis. So, over 45% iron saturation and high ferritin ...

With hereditary hemochromatosis, you’ll see high iron, you’ll see the TIBC go low, the UIBC go low. The serum iron often goes high, and then that ferritin will go high. You’ll often see the liver enzymes go high and it's common to see the red blood cells, hemoglobin, hematocrit go high.

But that doesn’t always happen. These days, so many are taking testosterone. So, you have to always ask, ‘Are you on testosterone?’ Because that can cause red blood cells, hemoglobin, hematocrit to go high as well ...

I always get the GGT as a part of the labs that I order. Occasionally, I will see a high GGT when the AST and ALT, which are the other two liver enzymes, are normal. More often than not, I’ll see a high ALT or high AST. Usually, if they’re not drinking alcohol and they just have high iron, you’re going to see that high ALT.”

What’s the Ideal Ferritin Level?

Sutton recommends keeping ferritin below 100. Ferritin above 100 means you’re either inflamed, have high iron, or both. Studies referenced in her book suggest that anything over 200 is pathological. The higher your ferritin level, the shorter your lifespan. You’re also more likely to die of a heart attack and cancer.

“I feel like 100 is high enough that I’m not swooping everybody in, but low enough that I’m not leaving stragglers out,” she says. “Now, if somebody has a ferritin over 100 with an iron saturation that is in the 40s or higher, then I’m highly suspicious of a hemochromatosis gene and I immediately want to get those hemochromatosis genes tested.

If they have a hemochromatosis gene, then we know why they’re high on iron and we know where this story is going — and it’s not going to be a pretty picture most likely. Then it’s time to refer to a hematologist ... and talk to them about how to get iron lower ...

The key is, if you don’t have a hemochromatosis gene, then you need to figure out ‘Why does this person have high iron? Do they have a thalassemia gene? Are they just eating a lot of iron?’ And then, ‘Do they have hemolysis for some unknown reason?’ That’s a non-hereditary hemochromatosis situation.

The treatment is basically the same, other than you want to use more of the supplements, go really heavy on the supplements to lower iron. If you have plenty of red blood cells and hemoglobin, then therapeutic phlebotomy is a wonderful place to start.

A lot of times people don’t because they either have a thalassemia issue where their red blood cells are getting chewed up too quickly, or they have lost so much blood so quickly because their doctors are just trying to get the iron down that they become low in hemoglobin or red blood cells. Rather than waiting for months for that to recover, you could be doing the supplements to lower the iron.”

The Link Between High Iron and Cushing’s Disease

Sutton’s husband also developed a pituitary tumor that was causing him to have high cortisol (Cushing’s disease). “Ultimately, I think the high iron created a lot of oxidative stress on his pituitary gland,” Sutton says. The only reason he was diagnosed early enough to save him was that they’d been checking his cortisol and DHEA on a regular basis.

“Periodically, they would jump up and then go back down. Then when the hemochromatosis got properly treated and the DHEA was still high, we were like, ‘Why is this happening?’ So we went to the endocrinologist and I said, ‘I’m worried my husband has Cushing’s.’ She was like, ‘He doesn’t have Cushing’s. He doesn’t look like somebody with Cushing’s. His hemoglobin A1C is normal.’

Five months later, he’s having surgery to remove the pituitary tumor. The reason I say that is because for years, he was told, ‘You just need to exercise and lose weight.’ His problem was not exercise. He had a pituitary tumor and hemochromatosis. Hemochromatosis was destroying his liver and his brain and his heart and everything else, and the pituitary tumor was causing him to have high cortisol, which made him look overweight.”

I believe progesterone may be one of the best ways to treat Cushing’s disease, as it very effectively blocks cortisol. Other natural substances that will inhibit cortisol include aspirin, DHEA, pregnenolone, emodin, vitamins A and D, gelatin or glycine, and niacinamide.¹

The normal dose for progesterone is 25 to 50 milligrams. For Cushing’s, I would recommend about 300 mg. It’s virtually impossible to overdose on progesterone and there are no downsides to it. One caveat is that you need to administer it correctly to gain the optimal effects.

Understanding Iron-Deficient Anemia

As explained by Sutton, iron deficient anemia is a serious issue. Children born of women with iron-deficient anemia have significantly higher risk of low IQ, ADD, ADHD and other neurological issues that often do not go away with age.

“Many kids suffer from low iron, because they eat a lot of calcium rich foods. Calcium binds to iron, and then you get low in the iron. Maybe they’re picky eaters, they’re growing rapidly. So many kids are not being checked for their iron levels and they’re being diagnosed with ADHD when their problem is actually just low iron, because if you don’t have enough iron, you can’t make dopamine. So, low iron is a serious issue.”

People with iron-deficient anemia will typically have high TIBC and UIBC, as their bodies are trying to mobilize more iron. Serum iron and iron saturation will be low and ferritin will typically be below 30.

“Now, iron deficient anemia is more complicated in many ways because the question is, why are you low in iron?” Sutton says. “There’s so many reasons that you can be low in iron. Are you just not eating enough? Are you not absorbing it? I think the most common reasons that people develop low iron is because they have a GI bleed. They have intestinal malabsorption issues, maybe undiagnosed celiac disease.

There is a gene that can cause you to be more likely to have low iron. I have that gene and that gene actually causes you to make more hepcidin. With iron-deficient anemia you'll also see low red blood cells sometimes, low hemoglobin and low hematocrit. MCH [mean corpuscular hemoglobin] might get low, MCV [mean corpuscular volume] might get low.”

Copper Deficiency Can Cause Both Low and High Iron

One common cause for iron-deficient anemia is a deficiency in copper. Paradoxically, lack of copper is also a common cause for iron overload. Sutton explains:

“The reason for that is because copper is necessary for two key enzymes. The first one is called hephaestin and the second one is called ceruloplasmin. Hephaestin is in the lining of the gut, the intestinal lining. Copper is necessary for iron to be absorbed in the gut lining. So, without copper, you will not absorb iron and you will develop iron deficient anemia.

Once iron has been absorbed in the gut lining by hephaestin, it passes it off to ceruloplasmin, which is the second copper-rich enzyme. Ceruloplasmin basically then allows that copper to transfer in and then move throughout the body. So, without ceruloplasmin, iron gets stuck in the tissues. It'll get stuck in the digestive system, it'll get stuck in the retina, it'll get stuck in the brain, it'll get stuck in the liver.

So, you develop iron overload in the tissues. But eventually, if you're low in copper long enough, you might then become low in iron, and then you don't end up with all this extra iron in the tissues. The solution is take copper to fix that problem. That's the way you solve copper-deficient anemia.

Copper-deficient anemia looks very similar to iron-deficient anemia if you're looking at the iron panel. You'll have a high TIBC, high UIBC, low serum iron, low iron saturation, low ferritin. You'll also potentially see low neutrophils and low white blood cells, because you need copper to have normal immune function as well. So, you might be more at risk for infections.

Then of course you can look at the ceruloplasmin. I don't find ceruloplasmin to be the easiest lab to look at, because it's an inflammatory marker ... If you're taking hormones like estrogen or birth control or you're pregnant or you're just inflamed or have an infection, ceruloplasmin can jump around and go high.

If you have a low or low-normal ceruloplasmin, and then you take copper and ceruloplasmin goes up, that's a good sign that you didn't have enough copper.”

How to Get More Iron Into Your Diet

The best way to get iron is through your diet. Shellfish and beef are iron-rich foods with highly absorbable iron. That’s key, because there are two types of iron: heme iron and non-heme iron, the latter of which is not very absorbable. Heme iron is found in animal products while non-heme iron is found in vegetables such as spinach.

“If you're not eating iron-rich foods like red meat, then you're more likely to get low in iron if that is something that you struggle with,” Sutton says. “If you struggle with being high in iron, maybe you don't want to eat as many of those things or maybe you just want to remove blood and supplement accordingly, so that you continue to eat those things.

The form that I like if I'm going to go to a supplement is ferrous peptonate, which I found to be the gentlest on my gut but also get the iron levels up. I really don't like ferrous sulfate, which is the most common given iron. I don't think it works very well, and it tends to create a lot of stomach pain. I always have to take my iron with food and sometimes I'll add copper or vitamin C to it. If I don't take it with food, it's really going to upset my stomach.”

More Information

To learn more, check out Sutton’s books, “Genetic Testing: Defining Your Path to a Personalized Health Plan: An Integrative Approach to Optimize Health,” and “The Iron Curse, Is Your Doctor Letting High Iron Destroy Your Health?”

The Role of GABA in Health and Well-Being

Editor's Note: This article is a reprint. It was originally published December 10, 2023.

In this interview, Dr. Scott Sherr, director of integrative hyperbaric medicine and health optimization at Hyperbaric Medical Solutions, reviews the action of gamma aminobutyric acid (GABA) and the role it plays in your physical and mental health.

"I worked with people all over the world, and I worked with clinics all over the world, using hyperbaric therapy as the fulcrum or main focus point of what I do," Sherr explains.

"I then gravitated towards a colleague of mine who was working in a foundational approach to medicine called health optimization medicine and practice, which is an educational platform.

It's a nonprofit that's training doctors and practitioners, including myself, on how to optimize health. And from there I've kind of delved into multiple things, including neurotransmitter balancers like GABA."

Most modern people live in constant fight-or-flight mode and find it hard to relax. GABA helps put you into parasympathetic mode, which is why it helps promote relaxation and stress reduction. Indirectly, GABA can also aid detoxification because detoxification happens during parasympathetic mode.

Serotonin Is Not a ‘Happy Hormone’

Most have heard of serotonin, dopamine, glutamate and norepinephrine, but they don’t realize that GABA is a major player involved in 20% of your brain’s neurotransmission.

Glutamate is the primary excitatory neurotransmitter and GABA the main inhibitory neurotransmitter. These two are always working in conjunction with each other to maintain a balance.

Serotonin is typically referred to as "the happiness hormone," and deficiency is thought to be the source of depression. That’s why depression is routinely treated with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) that raise serotonin levels in your brain.

The problem is, serotonin is NOT responsible for depression, and raising your serotonin is the last thing you want to do. Elevated serotonin destroys empathy, love and wisdom, and impairs thyroid function, reduces metabolism, and contributes to reductive stress and insomnia.

Increasing GABA, on the other hand, can indeed be part of the solution for depression. Many who struggle with depression are GABA deficient, and augmenting the GABA system can in these instances make a big difference.

"GABA deficiencies are associated with so many things," Sherr says. "It's associated with anxiety, with fear, with depression, with a short temper, phobias, impulsiveness, disorganization, addictions. It’s even associated with schizophrenia and OCD [obsessive-compulsive disorder].

You can also have things like IBS and diarrhea, hypertension, tinnitus, chronic pain, migraines, allergies, frequent urination, flushing, sweating, salt cravings, muscle tension. These are all things that could be signs of GABA deficiency.

Many have been prescribed an SSRI for some of these symptoms, but it may not have been related to a serotonin deficiency. Actually, we know that depression is not related to serotonin deficiency. That's been well-studied over the last several years now."

Why GABA Is So Important for Mental Health

As explained by Sherr, GABA decreases the firing of neurons. When GABA binds to its receptor, it prevents that neuron from firing. So, it's what we would call a postsynaptic neuron. The presynaptic neuron fires and the postsynaptic neuron doesn't fire because GABA prevents it from doing so.

GABA also functions as an interneuron. An interneuron is a neuron located between other neurons, and it regulates the firing between the other neurons. Sherr explains:

"[Interneurons] are extremely important for learning, processing, memory and skill acquisition, because it’s not about how much you can intake in your brain; it’s how much you can stop that information from coming in so that your brain can actually process it, so you can learn and understand and have new memories and skill acquisition ...

So, if we can enhance and balance the GABA system, we can see a significant shift in the health of our patients and clients. I've been seeing this in real time, looking at the whole arc of GABA production, everything from the amino acid glutamine, which gets converted into glutamate in the brain. Glutamate is your excitatory neurotransmitter. And then glutamate gets converted into GABA."

The conversion of glutamate to GABA only goes in one direction, so GABA doesn’t convert back into glutamate. According to Sherr, if you have trouble converting glutamate into GABA, you’ll have excitatory-like symptoms, as the glutamate overaccumulates.

Factors That Inhibit Glutamate’s Conversion to GABA

Underlying factors that can prevent the efficient conversion of glutamate to GABA include:

The chronic stress angle is one of the reasons I quit low carb and intermittent fasting, as one of the side effects of those strategies is an increase in stress hormones, primarily epinephrine and cortisol. That said, Sherr points out that the ketogenic diet does increase GABA production. It’s an effect related to the production of ketone bodies. So, there is some balance there.

The stress of fasting, however, could easily deplete your GABA reserves, depending on what those stores are to begin with. Eating too little can also affect your gut lining and cause problems via that route. I firmly believe that optimizing mitochondrial function with appropriate carb intake is the best way to increase GABA. Ideally you will also need about 0.7 grams of protein per pound of body weight. Sherr explains:

"[People who eat very little] might not be getting enough protein in the day, for example. As a result of that, they're not getting enough glutamine. Glutamine is an amino acid that's extremely important for the health of the gut lining.

If you have any leaky gut, for example, or stress in the gut with infection, or if you have a leaky brain, which is very common if you have a leaky gut, you're probably going to need significantly greater amounts of glutamine to convert to glutamate, because you're using all the glutamine for your colonic cells. It’s the main fuel of your cells in the gut themselves. So, you have to be looking at the whole picture when you're thinking about this.

The other thing is that GABA supplements don't typically work because the molecule itself, GABA, is too big to get across the blood-brain barrier. However, if you have a leaky brain, they may work. So if you're taking GABA and it's working, it may be because you have a leaky brain, which sounds scary, but that just means that you have a leaky gut as well.

So, be aware that if you're trying to enhance the GABA system, you're going to be thinking about all the aspects of the biology — leaky gut, leaky brain, glutamine production, glutamate conversion, cofactors.

And then if you're looking to enhance the GABA system, you have to be thinking about other things rather than just GABA itself. And there are many other ways to do that. There are herbals, there are even ways of attaching GABA to other things to help it get through the blood-brain barrier."

Does Oral GABA Work?

Now, there’s ongoing debate as to whether oral supplementation with GABA works on brain-related issues as it’s still unclear whether, and how well, GABA can cross the blood-brain-barrier (BBB). Studies looking into this matter have come to wildly differing conclusions.

For decades, the drug industry and mainstream medicine have spent a ton of money on questionable studies to "prove" GABA supplementation has no effects on the brain. This is understandable once you realize that many of the most popular antianxiety meds, such as benzodiazepines, are GABA agonists.

If you can just take a GABA supplement to treat your anxiety, depression and sleeplessness, the drug industry would suffer major losses. Interestingly, companies are now working on alcohol replacement products based on GABA, so, the industry faces a tricky problem. If oral GABA can’t cross the BBB, just how could a GABA-based synthetic alcohol produce alcohol-like effects in the brain? Sherr comments:

"Alcohol has a high affinity for the GABA receptor. This is where benzodiazepines, barbiturates and Quaaludes will also bind. Those are called allosteric binding sites of the GABA receptor. So, GABA binds to the receptor, and it's got all these other binding sites on the receptor where other things can bind.

So, alcohol and benzos and barbiturates bind very tightly to the GABA receptor, and when they do that, it enhances GABA production and GABA function. So you have more of the inhibition. So yes, this is how alcohol works.

Unfortunately, things like alcohol, benzos and barbiturates are highly addictive because they bind so tightly to the GABA receptor at their sites, and then they cause a conformational shift in the receptor themselves. So, if you go cold turkey off of those things, it could cause withdrawal and even death.

But there are other natural equivalents that are much safer. Things like kava, for example, have been known for thousands of years to affect the GABA receptor without causing any potential addiction, withdrawal or tolerance. Honokiol from magnolia bark is another one that binds to a receptor site outside of the GABA receptor itself but actually does the same thing.

It helps with enhancing GABA production. Valerian root is another one that increases GABA production in the brain, but it doesn't bind to the GABA receptor itself. It binds to these allosteric sites.

There's something called N-nicotinoyl GABA, which is vitamin B3 attached to a GABA molecule. Because it's attached to B3, it very easily gets through the blood brain barrier and then hydrolyzes vitamin B3 and GABA in the brain.

As a result of that, you have increased vitamin B3 in GABA directly. So that becomes a GABA agonist, also called an orthosteric ligand at the GABA receptor. So, you have other ways to modulate the receptor, even if you can't get GABA in directly.

Now, I have heard that nanoliposomal varieties will potentially work because they're attached in a fat molecule itself. And if you take very, very high doses of GABA directly, that may have an effect as well. But, at least clinically, if patients have a pretty good gut overall, they don't have any effect of the GABA supplements themselves.

Then, I give them vitamin B3 attached to GABA. If we give them these allosteric molecules like the ones I've just described, then they start having significant improvement. Then their anxiety and stress get better and they sleep better as well."

Cannabinoids such as CBD and CBG will also enhance the GABA system, as will THC, although it can produce a paradoxical response. "The reason some people who take THC will get a lot of anxiety is that it's doing something to the GABA receptor where you [end up having] less GABA to play around with. As a result of that, you get more excitatory anxiety and things like that," Sherr explains.

Other ways to increase GABA include exercise, which helps reset the balance between glutamate and GABA, and things like meditation, mindfulness training, breathing exercises and yoga. All these strategies put your body in a parasympathetic state, which increases GABA production.

The Importance of Carbon Dioxide

One of the reasons breath work is so helpful for resetting your sympathetic and parasympathetic balance has to do with carbon dioxide (CO₂), commonly misunderstood as nothing more than a harmful waste product of respiration. As it turns out, CO₂ has many important roles, including improving oxygenation and tolerance to stress. Sherr explains:

"I've been an oxygen guy for a decade, doing hyperbaric oxygen therapy and understanding how oxygen works. It wasn't until maybe two years ago, when I met a couple of colleagues in the breath space and the CO₂ retention space, that I truly started to understand that if I wanted oxygen to work better, I needed to understand how CO₂ was working.

Because, if you're hyperventilating, for example, you don't unbind oxygen from your red blood cells and you can't get it to your peripheral tissue because of how you shift your oxygen dissociation curve. The oxygen dissociation curve shifts depending on multiple different things.

Oxygen availability is one of them, CO₂ is another. The pH in the body will shift. I used to think about it as, ‘Oh, we just make carbon dioxide and breathe it out.’ But CO₂ has lots of other major effects, especially in the brain. It causes vasodilation, for example.

If you have too little CO₂, you're going to constrict blood vessels, and if you're constricting blood vessels, you're going to have a challenge with getting oxygen to the tissues that need it.

So, the breath work that works on CO₂ tolerance is really important, because that's going to shift your oxygen dissociation curve. As a result of that, you're going to have a better parasympathetic and sympathetic balance because you're going to be more tolerant to stress overall if you have more CO₂ tolerance overall.

So, I think a part of what's going on with breath work and balancing out your sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system is CO₂ tolerance. By extension, I think GABA is playing a role as we have more parasympathetic balance around as well."

Most people think you need to breathe more — heavier and more quickly — to get more oxygen, but it's the exact opposite. Rapid deep breathing lowers your oxygen. Slow, shallow breathing allows CO₂ to rise, which in turn allows more oxygen to be distributed. Nasal breathing is also important for improving your oxygen carrying capacity.

More Information

If you’re intrigued by Sherr’s approaches and want to learn more, be sure to check out his website, drscottSherr.com. To learn more about health optimization medicine, which focuses on optimizing cellular health, gut health and the effects of neurotransmitters like GABA, check out homehope.org. You can also connect with Sherr on Instagram.

Dr. Casey Means on Building a Metabolically Healthy Mind and Body

Dr. Casey Means is a Stanford-trained physician and co-founder of Levels, a company focused on metabolic health. Means shifted her career from surgery to functional medicine after recognizing the potential to prevent chronic diseases through lifestyle and dietary changes.

Her book, “Good Energy,” empowers people to make informed health decisions using self-trust, intuition and technology-enabled tools to reach higher levels of metabolic health and, ultimately, joy.

Means’ journey toward spreading the word about limitless health is as intriguing as her health recommendations, which center on combining modern technology with ancient wisdom and optimizing how your cells create and use energy. “Everything requires energy,” Means says. “So, if we don't get that right, we're not going to be healthy.”¹

Moving From the ‘Belly of the Beast’ to Holistic Medicine

After graduating from Stanford Medical School, Means held research positions with the U.S. National Institutes of Health, New York University and Oregon Health & Science University.² Trained as an otolaryngologist, or ENT, head and neck surgeon, she had only six months left of her residency when she realized she had to take a different path.

“I'm like, I can't finish. I fundamentally don't agree with what we're doing here. And when you get to that conclusion, try going into the operating room and cutting a patient open,” she says. “I literally couldn't do it. Because I … had integrity.”³

After nine years in the conventional medical field, Means had an awakening. She realized the tools the conventional health care system was teaching her weren’t helping people get better. On the contrary, they often made people worse:⁴

“What I really noticed is that so many of these conditions that we call, you know, comorbid, they kind of go together. That's our word in medicine for conditions that sometimes cluster together. They're all going up at the same time … we're on track this year to have more new cancer cases than any year in human history. 2 million cancer cases in the U.S., autoimmune diseases skyrocketing, depression, anxiety, skyrocketing.

Developmental disorders, behavioral issues in kids going up. Infertility going up, Type 2 diabetes going up, obesity going up. Heart disease cases, going up, heart disease deaths, fortunately, going down but that's because of treatment. But it's this everything all at once situation.

And we are somehow still buying into this idea that the more money we throw at the problem with the same approach that we've been doing, the better it's gonna get — and that is totally false.

Because what the science is actually showing us, what the real biochemistry and cellular physiology research is showing us, is that all these conditions are connected. They're all connected by similar, invisible, physiologic disturbances happening inside ourselves. And we know this now, they're all fundamentally metabolic driven issues. And yet our health care system is not practicing metabolic medicine.”

Why Means Is ‘Obsessed With Metabolism’

After realizing the health care system is based on an outdated, symptom-based criteria of diagnosis instead of the physiologic basis of disease, Means left conventional medicine behind.

“We need to modernize and update the healthcare system. And in that interim, while the health care system is essentially not catching up, we need to empower individuals to understand this aspect of their health, learn how to track it, learn how to improve it,” she says. This is the crux of her book, and her drive to spread this message was further strengthened by experiences with her own health and her family:⁵

“My own health was basically trashed during residency when I was just working all the time and had to leave my surgical training to heal myself. But my mother, unfortunately, she, tragically, represents essentially missing the warning signs of metabolic disease and treating patients in silos until they get the ultimate warning sign, which is a lethal diagnosis that takes their life prematurely. And that's what happened to my mom.

She died far too young from pancreatic cancer, which is a cancer that's deeply tied to metabolic issues, and obesity and high blood sugar are driving factors of this cancer. And so looking back at her life now from the vantage point where I stand — a vantage point that I did not learn at Stanford Medical School — of root cause physiology, it is so clear to me the trajectory that she was going on that was totally missed by our system.”

Means’ parents also encouraged her to act with integrity, think for herself and ask tough questions. So, when she decided to leave her residency, her parents celebrated the decision. “[They] gave me that sense of, if you follow the light, or the signals that the universe is putting in front of you … things just will work out … if you ignore them, life will be hard … the most disastrous thing you could do in this lifetime is hear calls and signals and ignore them,” she says.⁶

Ultimately, Means realized that disrupted metabolism, including mitochondrial dysfunction, is tied to most chronic disease:⁷

“The reason it's showing up as dozens, if not hundreds, of different conditions … it's very simple. We have over 200 cell types in the body … and under powering in different cell types will look like different symptoms. That doesn't mean it's a different disease.

We're confusing the symptoms for the disease. The disease is inside the cell, the symptom is what it looks like, externally, when a certain type of cell is dysfunctional. But instead of treating the disease, we're treating the symptoms … the beauty of all of that is that … the way out is simpler than we've been led to [believe].”

Trust Yourself, Not Your Doctors

One of the chapters in “Good Energy” is called Trust Yourself, Not Your Doctor, as Means urges people to tap into their intuition to heal what ails you:⁸

“Trust Yourself, Not Your Doctor is fundamentally about a trend that is very, very pervasive in our world right now, which is the subtext that drives our $4 trillion failing health care system, which is this idea that obviously health is too complex and disease is too complex for us to understand it for ourselves.

We have to outsource all of this to these huge, complex industries. Innovation is the answer. You know, and don't trust yourself, trust the science.

… And as we have trusted the science and not trusted ourselves, we've had an explosion of chronic disease rates in children, adults and the elderly, and our life expectancy is going down.

And we spend two times more than any other developed country in the world … the body is speaking to us every second, it speaks to us through symptoms, through our diseases, through our moods, through our interoception — what's happening inside of us. It's constantly speaking to us. And the way I think about symptoms … is that symptoms are a gift.

Symptoms are the language through which our cells are trying to get our attention to tell us something very specific — their needs are not getting met.

And when we actually run through the checklist of the ways we can meet the needs of the cells, then oftentimes the symptom melts away … with compassion, and curiosity, think for two seconds, what is my body trying to tell me about how its needs are not getting met, and like a parent would do with an infant that's crying, figure out, brainstorm about how to meet those needs.”

Means is also a fan of leveraging technology, including lab tests, wearables and biosensors like continuous glucose monitors, to gain more clues about what’s happening in your body. “Learn the basics of the 10 to 15 key basic biomarkers that together can help you read the tea leaves of what's going on inside your body and your cells, [and] track them every three to four months,” she says.⁹

If You Feel Joy, You’re on the Right Track

If you wake up each morning feeling joy, it’s a sign that your body is balanced on a physical, mental and spiritual level. The amount of joy you have is “the ultimate biomarker,” Means says, adding:¹⁰

“If you want instant biofeedback on whether your diet and lifestyle and sleep and supplements are working … what is your level of waking up with a sense of optimism, joy and total awe at this precious miracle of life? And that's not going to be every single day, right? But on a general level, it’s that sense of just really cosmic … unflappable, joy there.

When we're doing all the things we know that create metabolic health — getting in the sunshine, walking, moving, eating, managing our emotional health, cultivating fearlessness, avoiding toxins — that is emergent from that way of living more in touch with nature and not in antagonism with nature.”

While building health involves proper nutrition and avoidance of environmental toxins, it also involves freeing yourself of fear. Means describes cellphones as essentially “digital terrorism,” creating unnecessary fear by bringing bad news to you 24/7:¹¹

“This essentially creates a sense of fear every day, all day, that all of our cells are experiencing constantly, thinking that we're in a mass homicidal world all the time … A challenge I have for people … is to address every potential avenue of fear that is controlling your mind, your life and your behavior, and go to the ends of the Earth to figure it out, understand it, manage it.

That can be done through a lot of different ways … it's therapy and counseling, some of it’s journaling, some of it’s reading ancient texts … Read the philosophical work that helps us manage fear, go into nature, deeply soothing, gives us a sense of the bigger picture.

The average American spending 93% of our time indoors, this makes us petrified. We have to go outside to see the patterns of nature to realize the world is abundant. And there's actually nothing really to fear. We're an eternal, infinite expanding universe, we all need to calm down.

There's all sorts of different things that we can do to manage our relationship with fear that controls all of our behavior. And I think that is our No. 1 job as humans, ultimately, I think where it will lead you is to realizing that the world and the universe is fundamentally good. It's fundamentally connected, it's fundamentally one of light. And we can and should live fully and express fully and live fearlessly.”

Better Metabolic Health Gives You the Energy to Power Your Life

Metabolic health is the key that ties all of this together, as it’s essential for optimal mitochondrial function and energy production. Proper metabolic health ensures that mitochondria can function efficiently, contributing to overall energy homeostasis and cellular health.

Eating in a way that supports metabolic health is essential. Means recommends avoiding ultraprocessed foods, including seed oils, and instead focusing on minimally processed, nutrient-dense food grown in biodiverse soil. Fundamentally, however, your mindset and mood also influence healthy eating and overall health, as this is a spiritual journey toward metabolic and overall health. Means explains that even letting go of fear is part of supporting metabolism:¹²

“The way this gets back to metabolism in a funny way is that, you know, metabolism is how we create energy in our cells. But fundamentally, it's how we transform energy from outside of us in food, to inside of us to a currency of energy that powers our lives.

And so, in a bigger sense, metabolism also relates to all of this because really good metabolism is the flow of cosmic energy that started in the sun, was stored in the carbon bonds of plants, channeling through our bodies to power this process that that we are.

When we're fearful and we are making decisions out of fear, which often are unhealthy decisions, which break our metabolism, it actually stops us from doing the most miraculous thing about our body, which is transforming sunlight to human energy. So, we have to get on that journey.”

You can learn more about Means’ recommendations for building healthy metabolism and limitless health in her book, “Good Energy” which is available on sale at all bookstores. If you want to get it at Amazon you can get it here.

The Art of Finding Joy and Building the Life You Want

Joy has an immense impact on health. It drives you to make decisions that can empower and enrich your life. Yet, many people today lack Joy, which is why I have shifted my focus toward helping you cultivate this important aspect of your well-being. But what really defines Joy and how can you harness it to build a more fulfilling existence?

The book "Build the Life You Want: The Art and Science of Getting Happier," written by best-selling author and Harvard professor Arthur Brooks, Ph.D., and co-written by the renowned host Oprah Winfrey, sought to answer these questions.¹

"Our mission in this book is to tie together the two strands of our work, to open up the amazing science of happiness to people in all walks of life, who can use it to live better and lift up others.

In plain language, we seek to help you see that you are not helpless against the tides of life, but that with a greater understanding of how your mind and brain work, you can build the life you want, starting inside with your emotions, and then turning outward to your family, friendships, work, and spiritual life," they wrote in the book.

It's Never Too Late to Turn a New Leaf

The book opens with a poignant anecdote from Brooks,² reflecting on the final moments of his 93-year-old mother-in-law, Albina Quevedo. Despite facing adversities throughout her life, she looked back fondly at her memories and declared that she became happier as she aged.

As a child, Albina lived through the Spanish Civil War, during which her father was imprisoned. "Despite that, she always saw her childhood as a happy one because her parents loved her and loved each other, and this love was the memory that endured most clearly," Brooks recounted.

Albina faced more challenges in her adult life, as her husband abandoned her and their children, offering no financial support and thrusting them into poverty. She spent years feeling miserable until she suddenly chose to turn her life around one day in her mid-40s.

"For reasons that were not clear to her friends and family, her outlook on life seemed to shift. It’s not that she was suddenly less lonely, or that she mysteriously came into money, but for some reason, she stopped waiting for the world to change and took control of her life," Brooks narrated.

Her life-changing journey began with her decision to enroll in college and pursue a teaching career. Despite juggling studies and family obligations, Albina graduated at the top of her class and went on to teach children from underprivileged neighborhoods. She was able to support her family financially, make lasting connections with the people around her and later on reconcile with her estranged husband.

"She truly became her own person … Now here she was at age ninety- three, with her circumstances once again limiting her, but her joy undiminished — and even increasing … What was her secret to turning the corner at forty-five toward a better life — and getting happier for nearly five decades after that?" Brooks pondered.

You Are the Master of Your Own Life

In the book,³ Brooks explained that there are three things that happened to Albina that set her free from unhappiness. First, she came to the realization that she had the power to control her responses to life’s challenges rather than passively waiting for external changes to bring her joy.

Second, she made conscious decisions and took proactive steps to manage her reactions to negative emotions. Finally, she focused on the four important pillars of her life — family, friendship, work and spiritual connection. These three pivotal steps empowered her to build the life she desired. With her story in mind, Brooks advised:

"You, too, can become the boss of your own life, not an observer. You can learn to choose how you react to negative circumstances and select emotions that make you happier even when you get a bad hand. You can focus your energy not on trivial distractions, but on the basic pillars of happiness that bring enduring satisfaction and meaning."

These insights echo the principles in my own upcoming book, "The Power of Choice." Up until now, all my books, nearly all of which have become best-sellers, have focused purely on diet and lifestyle strategies for physical health and longevity. "The Power of Choice" is also, ultimately, about health, but approaches it from a different perspective — that of connection to your consciousness.

One of the key lessons from this book is that life is about creating Joy. You hold the ultimate authority over the experiences you encounter, as they are entirely shaped by your individual choices. If your life lacks fulfillment, then it could be your true Self telling you to make different choices that could steer you toward a more satisfying existence.

I intentionally capitalize "Self" and "Joy" to underscore their deeper, transcendent nature. Self represents unlimited, immortal consciousness, while Joy denotes a profound state of contentment that emanates from within yourself.

Avoid the Traps of Fame, Fortune and Pleasure

Another important aspect of finding Joy is to steer clear of the misguided paths toward it. Brooks addresses this in his article,⁴ "Love People, Not Pleasure," published in the New York Times.

In this piece, Brooks talks about the story of Abd al-Rahman III, an emir and caliph of 10th-century Spain who, despite having fame, wealth and pleasure, said he experienced only 14 days of genuine happiness in his entire life. Brooks pointed out that Abd al-Rahman’s problem is not the lack of happiness, but rather unhappiness caused by his fixation on extrinsic goals. He further explains:

"What is unhappiness? Your intuition might be that it is simply the opposite of happiness, just as darkness is the absence of light. That is not correct. Happiness and unhappiness are certainly related, but they are not actually opposites … As strange as it seems, being happier than average does not mean that one can’t also be unhappier than average."

Brooks cites research⁵ suggesting that individuals fixated on extrinsic goals often experience higher levels of stress, anxiety and dissatisfaction with life. The quest for fame, in particular, manifested in the modern world through mediums like television and social media, where people vie for attention by showcasing their everyday life. He suggests this leads to a superficial sense of fulfillment and feelings of inadequacy.

Brooks further highlights that prioritizing materialistic goals has been shown to increase the risk of anxiety, depression, substance abuse and even physical ailments.⁶ He also debunks the belief that sexual variety leads to greater well-being, citing a study⁷ that examined data from about 16,000 American adults, which showed that across men and women, the optimal number of sexual partners is one.

"This search for fame, the lust for material things and the objectification of others — that is, the cycle of grasping and craving — follows a formula that is elegant, simple and deadly: Love things, use people. This was Abd al-Rahman’s formula as he sleepwalked through life."

Brooks concludes that to find the formula for happiness, you simply have to invert the formula that perpetuates the cycle of unhappiness. That is, "Love people, use things."

Trust Yourself to Take Chances and Make Brave Choices

Ashley Armstrong’s journey as the cofounder of Angel Acres Egg Co. and the Nourish Cooperative⁸ is another inspiring example of how prioritizing Joy in your decision-making can lead to a more purposeful and fulfilling life.

The video above, taken from our previous interview, describes how Ashley made a radical career change to pursue her passion for regenerative agriculture. By making this brave choice, she was able to reclaim Joy, as well as improve her health and benefit other people.

Brooks himself took the same courageous leap when he quit his chief executive job at a large nonprofit organization to help people lift themselves by teaching the science of happiness. He shared in the book:⁹

"In the years since I made this life change, my own well-being has risen a lot. People notice and remark that I smile more, and I look like I’m having more fun in my work. My relationships are better than they were. And I have seen improvements like this in students, business leaders, and ordinary people who learn the principles.

Many of them have experienced pain and loss beyond anything I have ever faced, and found joy even amid their suffering."

Much like the transformative impact of the choices made by Ashley and Brooks, as well as Albina, as illustrated in "Build the Life You Want," your decisions hold significant power, capable of reshaping your own reality and impacting the lives of others.

It is my sincere hope that their stories empower you to trust in your own discernment and intuition, and help you recognize that your inner wisdom knows best what will bring you the most joy and fulfillment in life.

You Need Sufficient Cellular Energy for Decision-Making

In the video, Ashley touched upon the importance of having enough cellular energy to support the brain’s energy-intensive decision-making processes. This is because your brain consumes about 20% of your body's energy despite being only 2% of its weight.

Various factors, such as having excess linoleic acid, high levels of estrogen and being exposed to endotoxins, can deplete your cellular energy and hinder your ability to make healthy life choices. It’s important to avoid these pitfalls to optimize your mitochondrial function, which is a central factor, as the energy produced by your mitochondria is virtually identical to the energy that created the material universe.

Improving your mitochondrial health boosts your ability to connect with the Source of your true Self, which is where true Joy resides. This is also where your intuition and inner knowing lie, which are always nudging you toward the direction of your authentic self and, ultimately, to a path that will bring you the most Joy.

Cultivate More Joy in Your Life by Anticipating It

Have you ever felt a sense of joyful, intense anticipation before a positive event, like a vacation, holiday or even a simple delightful meal? This emotion is encapsulated in the German term "vorfreude." Rachel Dixon delved into this concept in an article for The Guardian,¹⁰ exploring how you can learn to anticipate and savor joy.

Dixon lists 30 ways to increase your vorfreude quotient according to experts, starting from something small like taking note of one joyful thing each day and having a routine that you can look forward to each day. For more tips to get more anticipatory Joy in your life, check out my article, "Embrace Joy With Vorfreude."

Finding Joy Takes Time and Effort

As Brooks aptly concludes in the book’s introduction,¹¹ "Building the life you want takes time and effort. To delay means waiting for no good reason, missing more time being happier, and making others happier as well."

I wholeheartedly agree with this perspective. That is why, as you may have noticed in this article, I emphasized "Joy" over "happiness." I believe there’s an important distinction between these two terms, as happiness is passive, fleeting and dependent on external factors.

In contrast, Joy is a verb; it’s an active state of being. It represents the ultimate pursuit and realization of life’s purpose — a journey that I hope you will embrace, as it will guide you to shape your life the way you want it.

Why Do Fingers and Toes Get Pruny in Water?

Editor's Note: This article is a reprint. It was originally published January 7, 2017.

There are many uncertainties in life, with answers shrouded in mystery. Some of the world's most challenging perplexities will never be known, but others can sometimes be reasoned out analytically.

One of those enigmatic questions is — Why do our fingers and toes get pruny after sitting in water for a while? Luckily, while some of the most difficult-to-fathom disputes may, at first, seem out of our depths, the headwaters of science can often be tapped. In this case, we're in luck. At least there are a few theories.

The Dilemma — Too Much Time in the Tub

You've probably been there — not much to do, plenty of time on your hands, achy bones and the splendid notion that a nice, relaxing bath might be the ticket.

After several minutes of bliss (about a half hour, they say), you happen to notice something that would be slightly alarming if it hadn't happened so many times before, starting when you were a kid with your snorkel gear and rubber ducks floating around with you — pruny fingers and equally pruny toes. Wrinkly digits.

Here's the scientific basis for this odd phenomenon. For whatever reason, the digits in question are more prone to wrinkling than other areas of your body. It's called "glabrous" skin, meaning hairless. It's thicker than the skin found on other parts of your body, which is good whenever you touch something that's too hot.

When water seeps into glabrous skin, electrical charges are sent to your nerve endings — more precisely, the sympathetic nervous system, says dermatologist Dr. Sarina Elmariah, in an interview for STAT.¹ In response, the nerves send a message to your blood vessels that it's time to constrict, or tighten.

When water starts to permeate into your skin, it's thought that the upper layers of your fingertips start to swell. Simultaneously, the nerves in your fingertips (or toe tips) start the constriction process, which scientifically is known as vasoconstriction — the narrowing of blood vessels.

"That creates a negative pressure that essentially pulls down the upper layers of the skin, leading to this wrinkling or 'undulating' pattern," explains STAT² reporter Megan Thielking.

Wrinkled Digits — Do They Serve Some Evolutionary Purpose?

Great minds have pondered the question of whether the pruny finger and toes occurrence may have some sort of evolutionary rationale, if there can be such a thing. "It's thought that the adaptation arose in primates and our ancestors to allow us to grip wet items," Elmariah suggests.³ Sure enough, Scientific American concurs:

"Laboratory tests confirmed a theory that wrinkly fingers improve our grip on wet or submerged objects, working to channel away the water like the rain treads in car tires.

People often assume that wrinkling is the result of water passing into the outer layer of the skin and making it swell up. But researchers have known since the 1930s that the effect does not occur when there is nerve damage in the fingers."⁴

That interesting factoid indicates there may be an involuntary reaction within your body's autonomic, or unconscious, nervous system, the same system that regulates your heart rate and breathing.

Wrinkly Fingers May Be for a Better Grip, Like Tire Treads

Scientists have actually looked long and hard at the crinkly conundrum of why this happens. Mark Changizi, an evolutionary neurobiologist and director of human cognition at 2AI Labs in Boise, Idaho, conducted experiments using marbles of different sizes, and volunteers who would try picking them up with both wet hands and dry hands.

The results,⁵ published in Biology Letters, showed that the subjects were able to pick up the wet marbles faster when their fingers were wrinkled, but there was no advantage when they tried picking them up with dry, wrinkled fingers.

As Tom Smulders, co-author of the paper and another evolutionary biologist at Newcastle University, UK, conjectured:

"We have shown that wrinkled fingers give a better grip in wet conditions — it could be working like treads on your car tires, which allow more of the tire to be in contact with the road and gives you a better grip."⁶

Changizi agrees, and believes the test results corroborate behavioral evidence that the reason pruny fingers and toes appeared (appear) in wet conditions is to provide something like rain treads. Live Science quotes him as saying:

"We worked out what the qualitative nature of the wrinkles should be like if they really are water drainage networks, and then showed that pruny fingers have that signature (... rather than infinitely many other sorts of wrinkle patterns that could potentially exist)."⁷

It's probably only a matter of time until some enterprising manufacturing company produces footwear with traction-improving channels on the bottom, inspired by the mountain rivulet formation your fingers take on under the effects of moisture.

Scientific Pieces That May Fit Into the Puzzle

Smulders wondered if wrinkly fingers may have been helpful for gathering food from streams or wet vegetation, and have the same effect in toes for them to lock a grip in better on a trail or mountainside in the rain.

The only drawback to this explanation is that, if there's an advantage for the body to spontaneously or over millennia develop wrinkly fingers in moist conditions, but there's no disadvantage with dry ones, one wonders why everyone's fingers aren't perpetually wrinkled.

If it happens on your fingers and toes, why not the other parts of the body? Regardless, Changizi's next venture is to find other animals besides the macaque, a primate hailing from South America and Asia, that produce a similar, wrinkly fingered state in wet conditions:

"One would like to be able to predict which sorts of animals are expected to be pruny, and which are not, and, do wetter species have more pruniness?

At the moment, though, we have almost no data on which animals do and do not have prunes. I did find that macaques get pruny, which suggests all Old World monkeys probably do. But we need to have a lot more I asked more than dozen primate labs, and none had ever looked to see."⁸

Keratin is a protein that makes up your hair, nails and skin, especially the outer layer, or epidermis. The grainy inside surface of your hands and feet is actually many layers of dead skin, explaining why it's so tough, compared to the skin on your chest, stomach or earlobes. According to How Stuff Works:

"The epidermis contains the protein keratin, which strengthens your skin and helps keep it moist. Dead keratin cells make up the epidermis' own surface layer known as the stratum corneum, which is Latin for 'horned layer.'"⁹

Everyday Mysteries, from the Library of Congress, notes:

"These dead keratin cells in the stratum corneum absorb water easily and start to swell after extended periods in the water, but the living keratin cells deeper in the skin do not.

As the dead cell layer expands, it begins to take up more surface area, but it's still connected to the living cells beneath and doesn't have anywhere to go. As a result, the stratum corneum wrinkles to give the temporary new surface area someplace to go."

Last Word on Prunified Extremities

A few interesting points to note:

• The macaque, as an "Old World" primate, is a member of the Cercopithecoidea family, which means "tailed ape."¹⁰ Unlike other apes, their tails are not prehensile (cannot be used for grasping).¹¹
• Old World Monkeys are found in Asia and Africa, while New World monkeys are located primarily in Central and South America and South and East Asia, where there's mostly tropical forests or mountainous areas with heavy winter snows.¹²

So conceivably, if macaques and other Old World primates have tails that are unable to grip, meaning they have to rely on their fingers and toes to get around, it's quite interesting that they also have the wrinkled digits feature.

Six Ways to Maintain Optimal Cognitive Function as You Age

You may believe that forgetting information here and there is normal as you age. However, that doesn’t have to become a permanent fixture in your life. There are several natural strategies that can help keep your brain in top shape.

In an article for CNET,¹ journalist Taylor Leamey, who is also a Certified Sleep Science Coach,² highlights six insightful ways to help keep your mind sharp as you age. I’ve listed them below, expanding on her ideas by adding my own recommendations.

Learn a New Skill

Have you ever wanted to play an instrument, like the guitar or the piano? It’s never too late to learn! One of the simplest ways to keep your brain in top shape is picking a new skill or hobby that you haven’t tried yet but interests you.

Taking up a musical instrument can, figuratively, have your brain firing on all cylinders. In a 2018 study,³ researchers sought to understand how music can benefit cognitive function in adults. They recruited seven patients diagnosed with mild traumatic brain injury and gave them piano lessons for eight weeks. Throughout the study, the participants’ brains were scanned using functional and structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technology.

Results indicate that the subjects were able to function better in social interactions and had improved concentration. Moreover, six out of seven of them felt confident enough to return to their jobs after their accident.⁴

If learning a musical instrument doesn’t appeal to you, even the simple act of listening to music can have profound effects on your memory. In a study⁵ published in Neuropsychologia, patients with Alzheimer's disease better recognized music when the lyrics were sung to them, aside from having a visual presentation. The study authors concluded that music may enhance memory recall for verbal information.

Another activity you can try is dancing. In a paper⁶ published in Clinical Interventions in Aging, researchers observed the effects of dancing on the cognitive function of participants affected by mild cognitive impairment, which is the transitional stage between normal aging and dementia.

For three months, the participants were instructed in a moderate-intensity dance routine, aside from their usual health care regimen. The dance routine was carefully selected for its complex movements, allowing the participants to use their memorization skills. Results showed an improvement in their episodic memory and processing speed compared to the control group, which didn’t partake in the dance classes.⁷

As you can see, acquiring a new skill or hobby can keep your brain "on its toes." The important thing to remember is that you should be interested in it, so that you can remain inspired to keep practicing and getting better. "Just make sure it's challenging or complex, and continue to practice for the best brain results," Leamey says.⁸

Get Regular Exercise

Exercise is an important component to overall health that most people should implement in one way or another. Leamey says, "Generally, any exercise that's good for the body will also help the mind. It doesn't have to be lifting weights; walking, swimming and dancing also achieve the same results."⁹

Aside from helping boost fitness, research suggests that exercise may also help with cognition by boosting blood flow to the brain.¹⁰ This process helps your brain produce new nerve cells, which is a process called neurogenesis.¹¹

In a related example, a study¹² noted that the hippocampus shrinks during late adulthood, which can increase your risk for impaired memory and dementia. The researchers hypothesized that exercise may counteract these cognitive issues.

In their experiment, they tasked participants with completing a computerized spatial memory task at baseline, as well as following an exercise program for a year. By the end of the study, the participants’ hippocampus grew by 2%. While this may seem small, it’s already enough to keep away reverse age-related loss for another one to two years.

In addition, the subjects received higher scores in the spatial memory task a year after their baseline scores were taken. Specific findings in this area of the study include increased response times and improved memory.¹³

So, what constitutes effective exercise? For most adults, moderate-intensity exercise is the ideal option. In my interview with Dr. James O’Keefe, a cardiologist with the Mid-America Heart Institute at St. Luke’s Hospital in Kansas City, he espouses two strong cases for moderate-intensity exercise:

Solve Puzzles to Train Your Mind’s Muscles

As exercising can lead to better fitness, the same idea can be likened to solving puzzles for your brain. According to training specialist David Wiener, in an interview for the online magazine Express,¹⁴ he explains how puzzles can help keep your mind sharp:

"By challenging your brain with mental exercises, it is believed you could maintain individual brain cells and stimulate communication between them to help them work more effectively."

To "exercise" your mind, crossword puzzles may be a convenient option. In a study published in the Journal of the International Neuropsychology Society, completing crossword puzzles may help delay memory decline in persons who already developed dementia, "possibly via its effect on improving cognitive reserve."¹⁵

Aside from puzzles, what other activities can you try? Dr. Zaldy Tan, director of the Cedars-Sinai Memory and Healthy Aging Program, provides additional examples that can stimulate your mind:¹⁶

• Concentration skills such as online brain games
• Visual-spatial working memory skills such as a jigsaw puzzle
• Tactile skills that use procedural memory, such as knitting or model-building
• An activity combining tactile, visual, motor and auditory skills, such as dancing

Prioritize Getting Enough, High-Quality Sleep

Sleep is one of the most important pillars of health, especially when it comes to brain health. Your brain makes up only 2% of your bodyweight yet uses around 20% of your body’s total energy expenditure.¹⁷ It performs numerous energy-intensive processes, such as synaptic transmission and firing neurons.

While you’re awake, metabolic waste is generated in the process of consuming energy.¹⁸ This is where sleep comes into play. As your body is in deep slumber, your brain takes advantage of this time to flush waste and clear out debris that could otherwise lead to degenerative disease.¹⁹

The system responsible for this process is the glymphatic system, which acts as a "brain-wide metabolite clearance system."²⁰ By pumping cerebrospinal fluid through your brain's tissues, your glymphatic system flushes waste from your brain back into your circulatory system and liver for elimination.

If you don’t get enough sleep, cognitive performance becomes affected. According to Matthew Walker, Ph.D., director of the University of California Berkeley’s Center for Human Sleep Science, sleep influences your learning and memory processes both before and after acquiring new information. Therefore, depriving yourself of sleep will impact your brain’s learning process.^21,22

If you’re having trouble getting peaceful rest, these strategies may help. For a more comprehensive list, see "Sleep — Why You Need It and 50 Ways to Improve It."

Eat a Healthy Diet

Your metabolic health is crucial for cognition. If it’s not in optimal shape, then brain health may suffer as well. As noted in a study published in Neurology,²⁴ a pro-inflammatory diet can increase your risk of dementia. Notable pro-inflammatory markers include increased intake of omega-6 fatty acids, as well as trans fat.²⁵

These findings lend credence to the dangers of linoleic acid (LA), an omega-6, polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA), which I believe is one of the most destructive ingredients in the modern Western diet. Most ultraprocessed and junk foods sold today contain high amounts of this unhealthy fat, and this includes fast food and foods served in restaurants.

If that’s the case, then what is the ideal diet for optimizing your metabolism for better brain health? Some of the options Leamey recommends are leafy greens, salmon, green tea, Greek yogurt, and cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli. While these are ideal suggestions, I advise getting them from clean, sustainable sources to protect your health.

For example, choose Alaskan wild-caught salmon instead of farmed salmon. For green tea, choose loose leaf tea, as teabags can leak toxins when heated. Regarding yogurt, it should be made from raw, grass fed milk, preferably homemade. As for leafy greens, spinach are high in oxalates, so if you’re sensitive to oxalates, stick to low oxalate varieties.

In addition to the mentioned foods, here are additional, crucial strategies that can help guide your dietary options:

The reason why I recommend limiting fat is because your mitochondria can only burn one fuel at a time, either fat or glucose. This energy-switching mechanism, called the Randle cycle, can be likened to a railroad that changes the tracks of a train. The image below can help you visualize this vital concept.

When more than 30% of your calories come from fats, your body will prioritize this energy source rather than glucose. The shift can hinder your body’s ability to burn carbohydrates, which can contribute to higher blood sugar levels and insulin resistance.

Your body does this through a process called gluconeogenesis, wherein cortisol is secreted and synthesized into glucose. Cortisol also happens to be the primary aging hormone, so keeping it low can help ward off premature aging.

Moreover, while I believe ripe fruits and starches like white rice are ideal carbs, it’s important to note that they’re rich in fiber, which will feed endotoxin-producing gut bacteria UNLESS your gut health is optimal.

If you experience problems eating complex carbs that result in bowel issues, then consider temporarily restricting your carb intake to very simple carbohydrates such as fruit juice, which is easier to digest. Once your gut health improves, you’ll be able to incorporate more fiber-rich fruits, vegetables and starches.

I also recommend avoiding sources of monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs) high in oleic acid, such as olive oil. These products may be just as damaging as LA when consumed in high quantities (when not balanced by adequate saturated fat). Interestingly, the Neurology study I cited earlier supports this notion — the researchers observed that MUFAs are also a pro-inflammatory dietary marker.²⁶

Foster New and Current Connections

As the saying goes, "No man is an island, no man lives alone."²⁷ Humans are meant to be social, and neglecting this aspect can have dire consequences to your health. Leamey says:

"Prioritizing social contact is an essential part of aging well. Whether spending time with your family or putting yourself out there at your local community center, staying connected is an integral part of aging gracefully."

According to a study published in PLOS Medicine, the quality of social relationships can directly affect mortality rate. In fact, the researchers equated the influence of social relationships to the same magnitude as smoking and alcohol consumption.²⁸

Similarly, two meta-analyses^29,30 that investigated loneliness and social isolation — which are related but not identical — may be an even greater threat to public health compared to obesity, and even raise your risk for premature death by 50%.

For best results, I recommend creating a social routine with the exercise examples I mentioned earlier, which can provide a synergistic effect. Going back to my interview with O’Keefe, he mentions how exercising while socializing can benefit your health:

"Exercising and making social connections at the same time, that is an absolute goldmine of a longevity activity," he says. "That means that even walking with your dog or your friend or [playing] pickleball is huge ... The whole thing is to move your body in a fun, playful manner and make it social."

How does one make new friends, especially as an adult? Here are some suggestions that can help expand your social circle:

Meta-Analysis Confirms the Therapeutic Potential of Exercise for Depression

For years, researchers have highlighted the therapeutic potential of exercise when it comes to preventing and treating depression. I've been a long-term advocate for exercise as a primary treatment option for depression, and two recent meta-analyses confirm just how well-reasoned this advice has been.

The most recent of the two, published in the February 2024 issue of The BMJ,^1,2 analyzed 218 randomized controlled trials with 14,170 participants, and found that a wide variety of exercises significantly alleviate symptoms of depression, regardless of severity. As reported by the authors:³

"In isolation, the most effective exercise modalities were walking or jogging, yoga, strength training, and dancing. Although walking or jogging were effective for both men and women, strength training was more effective for women, and yoga or qigong was more effective for men. Yoga was somewhat more effective among older adults, and strength training was more effective among younger people.

The benefits from exercise tended to be proportional to the intensity prescribed, with vigorous activity being better. Benefits were equally effective for different weekly doses, for people with different comorbidities, or for different baseline levels of depression ..."

Lead author Michael Noetel, a senior lecturer at the School of Psychology in Queensland, Australia, told PsyPost:⁴

"We were surprised exercise worked so well for so many people. The benefits were bigger than we expected. Exercise was as good as therapy and drugs."

Dance Your Blues Away

While dancing showed a particularly large effect, the authors didn't give it much consideration due to the low number of studies (only five), and the low number of participants in each study. It makes sense that dancing would have a significant effect on mood though, considering it's difficult to dance and hold on to distressed emotions. Try it sometime.

Dancing with a partner also brings in the oxytocin aspect. Oxytocin is often referred to as the "love hormone" because it plays a crucial role in forming social bonds and increasing trust among individuals.

It can improve relationships, which is a significant factor in overall mental well-being. It also has a calming effect and can reduce stress levels and anxiety by lowering the stress hormone cortisol. Music also engages your emotions, so it makes sense that music combined with physical movement might have a unique ability to change one's emotional state.

Exercise Is 1.5x More Effective Than the Best Antidepressants

The second analysis — an overview of 97 systematic reviews^5,6,7 — involved 128,119 participants who took part in 1,039 different trials. It was published in 2023. Populations included healthy adults, people with mental health disorders and people with chronic diseases.

This is the most comprehensive review of research to date, and clearly demonstrates that exercise can rapidly alleviate mild to moderate symptoms of depression, anxiety and other forms of psychological distress. Importantly, it found that exercise was 1.5 times more effective than the most prescribed antidepressants. As reported by the University of South Australia, which performed the umbrella review:⁸

"University of South Australia researchers are calling for exercise to be a mainstay approach for managing depression as a new study shows that physical activity is 1.5 times more effective than counselling or the leading medications ...

[The study] shows that physical activity is extremely beneficial for improving symptoms of depression, anxiety, and distress. Specifically, the review showed that exercise interventions that were 12 weeks or shorter were the most effective at reducing mental health symptoms, highlighting the speed at which physical activity can make a change ...

Lead UniSA researcher, Dr Ben Singh, says physical activity must be prioritized to better manage the growing cases of mental health conditions.

'Physical activity is known to help improve mental health. Yet despite the evidence, it has not been widely adopted as a first-choice treatment. Our review shows that physical activity interventions can significantly reduce symptoms of depression and anxiety in all clinical populations ...

We also found that all types of physical activity and exercise were beneficial, including aerobic exercise such as walking, resistance training, Pilates, and yoga. Importantly, the research shows that it doesn't take much for exercise to make a positive change to your mental health.'"

Exercise Banishes Insomnia

In related science news,⁹ exercise also has demonstrably beneficial effects on sleep, helping to banish insomnia, which is a common complaint among those with depression.

The study, published in BMJ Open,¹⁰ included 4,339 participants, ages 39 to 67, who were followed for 10 years. Thirty-seven percent of participants consistently did not exercise while 25% were regularly active, 20% stopped being active and 18% started exercising between the beginning and the end of the study.

Compared to those who didn't exercise regularly, those who exercised regularly throughout the study had 40% lower odds of insomnia, and this finding held true even after accounting for factors such as age, gender, body mass index, smoking history, and study location.

"Physically active people have a lower risk of insomnia symptoms and extreme sleep duration, both long and short," lead study author Dr. Erla Björnsdóttir, sleep expert and researcher at Reykjavik University, told CNN Health, adding:¹¹

"Our results are in line with previous studies that have shown a beneficial effect of physical activity on symptoms of insomnia, but the current study additionally shows the importance of consistency in exercise over time. It therefore matters to be physically active throughout your life in order to reduce the risk of insomnia and short sleep duration."

If You're Over 40, Avoid Jogging

While many studies stress the importance of high-intensity exercise for depression, a systematic review and meta-analysis published in the March-April 2023 issue of Missouri Medicine¹² highlights the importance of proper exercise dosing depending on the type of exercise performed.

When it comes to jogging, people over 40 increase their risk of atrial fibrillation by a massive 500% to 800% from this type of exercise. What they concluded is that once you get into your mid-40s and 50s, exercise should be fun and stress-reducing, not competitive.

High-Intensity, High-Volume Exercise Backfires After a Certain Point

Other types of high-intensity exercises can also backfire if you do too much of them. The 2023 Missouri Medicine analysis¹³ found that while vigorous exercise up to 75 minutes per week reduced the risk of all-cause mortality and other diseases in a dose-dependent manner, benefits plateaued after that.

So, people who were doing four to seven hours of vigorous exercise per week didn't get any additional benefit, and from a cardiovascular standpoint, lost some.

Endurance exercise such as jogging and running can also cause drastic elevations in cortisol, which can wreck your health. One of the functions of cortisol is to raise low blood sugar, but it does this by breaking down your muscles, bones and brain.

It sacrifices your lean muscle mass to release amino acids that your liver converts to glucose in a process called gluconeogenesis. So, ultimately, chronically elevated cortisol will increase inflammation and impair your immune function.

Cortisol is also the primary aging hormone. If it is chronically elevated, you will likely die prematurely as it is highly catabolic, meaning it breaks down tissues. To stay healthy as you age you need to be anabolic and build healthy tissues like muscle and mitochondria, and high cortisol will seriously impair those efforts.

Moderate Exercise Cannot Be Overdone

On the other hand, they found that you cannot overdo moderate exercise, loosely defined as exercising to the point where you're slightly winded but can carry on a conversation. Examples include gardening, walking, recreational bike riding, yoga, nonintense swimming and pickleball.

Perhaps even more surprising, moderate exercise also improves all-cause survival better than vigorous exercise — about two times better.

Walking is perhaps one of the best forms of exercise. It's about 2,000 steps per mile, and every 1,000 steps you get on average per day reduces your mortality by 10% to 15%. Benefits don't plateau until you reach 12,000 steps a day, but you never start losing benefit from walking too much.

Overdoing Strength Training Is Worse Than Doing Nothing at All

The Missouri Medicine analysis¹⁴ also detailed the sweet spot for strength training, and it's far lower than previously thought. The graph below, from the meta-analysis, shows the J-shaped dose-response for strength training activates and all-cause mortality. As you can see, the benefit maxes out right round 40 to 60 minutes a week. Beyond that, you're losing benefit.

In the video above, best-selling author and high-performance coach Siim Land reviews these and related findings.

Once you get to 130 to 140 minutes of strength training per week, your longevity benefit becomes the same as if you weren't doing anything, which is nothing short of shocking. If you train for three to four hours a week, you actually end up with WORSE long-term survival than people who don't strength train!

Granted, these data are focused on longevity, not depression relief, but I wouldn't recommend getting into a habit that will ameliorate one area while backfiring in another.

So, the take-home message here is that 20 minutes of strength training twice a week on non-consecutive days, or 40 minutes once a week, is the sweet spot for optimal payoff in the long term. You also don't want your exercise regimen to center around strength training. It should be an add-on, as you get far greater long-term benefits simply from walking, or any other moderate exercise.

Other Studies Confirm Importance of Strength Training in Moderation

Other studies confirm the importance of strength training in moderation, keeping your weekly total to an hour or less. Among them is a systematic review and meta-analysis of 16 studies published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine in 2022.¹⁵

Muscle-strengthening activities were associated with a 10% to 17% lower risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD), total cancer incidence, Type 2 diabetes and all-cause mortality.

As in the Missouri Medicine analysis, this review found a J-shaped association, with a maximum risk reduction of all-cause mortality, CVD and cancer (10 % to 20%) being observed at a dose of 30 to 60 minutes per week. After 60 minutes, the benefits of strength training started to diminish, and above 140 minutes per week, it was associated with an increased risk of all-cause mortality.

Yet another 2022 systematic review published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine found that:¹⁶

"Compared with undertaking no resistance training, undertaking any amount of resistance training reduced the risk of all-cause mortality by 15% ... cardiovascular disease mortality by 19% ... and cancer mortality by 14% ...

A dose-response meta-analysis of four studies suggested a nonlinear relationship between resistance training and the risk of all-cause mortality. A maximum risk reduction of 27% was observed at around 60 minutes per week of resistance training ... Mortality risk reductions diminished at higher volumes."

Get Your Nature Fix

Lastly, the Missouri Medicine analysis also discusses the benefits of spending time in nature. You need at least 1.5 to two hours outdoors each week for good health, even if it's only a local park or tree-lined street.

As noted by lead author Dr. James O'Keefe, a cardiologist with the Mid-America Heart Institute at St. Louis Hospital in Kansas City, whom I interviewed about these results:

"Japanese people who live in Tokyo, one of the biggest cities in the world, will get on a bullet train and an hour or two later be at the mountains and in the forest. They go hike around or even just sit in nature and smell the pine and the fresh air. Then they get on the bullet train and go back home.

They show reductions in blood pressure and improvement in mood. And there's really, really strong benefits ... It's been shown to ... reduce anxiety and improve sleep ..."

So, in conclusion, if you struggle with depression, a consistent exercise routine should be your first priority. Just make sure you get the exercise volume or dosing correct for the type of exercise you're doing so that you're not inadvertently negating other benefits.

Can This Banned Condiment Boost Brain Function?

Editor's Note: This article is a reprint. It was originally published April 17, 2017.

Perhaps you first heard about Vegemite in the early 1980s from the Men at Work song, "Down Under." The Australian sandwich spread, described by the Telegraph as a sticky, gloopy, salty spread made from yeast extract, may be the flavor that embodies the entire continent, as 23 million jars are purchased in Australia every year.¹

Vegemite's first cousin, Marmite, is the British version of the controversial condiment. Both are considered an acquired taste, but it's Marmite that's been scrutinized in scientific circles and found to contain some very impressive properties for the human body.

In fact, several studies show it contains vital nutrients, including 40% of the reference daily intake (RDI) for vitamin B12, 50% for folic acid and 36% for niacin, helps to protect against antibiotic-resistant superbugs such as MRSA and boosts gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) levels to restore optimal brain balance.²

Invented in the late 1800s, Marmite came first, followed by Vegemite, invented in the 1920s. In fact, Marmite was included in the ration packs English soldiers carried during World War I. The high level of different B vitamins is also attributed to its effectiveness as a mosquito repellent.

The Daily Meal describes the dark, rich sauce as "full of umami and, at first blush, one of the most disgusting things most Americans have ever tried."³

The British are serious about their Marmite. Owned by Unilever, the company's spoof Ministry of Marmite exists "to enrich the existence of all Marmite lovers, whether resident in the U.K. or overseas, through the comprehensive application of Marmite in every facet of their domestic, professional, cultural and social lives."⁴

Brits and Aussies are wild about their respective yeast extracts like many Americans are about jam on their morning toast, but Marmite isn't sweet like jelly and marmalade; it's umami, the newest flavor among the basic tastes of sweet, sour, salty and bitter. Umami is the Japanese word for "delicious," which in English means "savory."

Popular as a meat flavor for vegetarians, this yeast-based paste can be stored at room temperature and, although it might dry out, remains edible for years, according to the International Business Times (IBT).⁵ One must ask what's in it to give it such a remarkable calling card.

Sweden Not a Fan: Marmite's Controversial Components

The main ingredients in Marmite are yeast extract, vegetable extract and salt augmented with thiamin, folate, riboflavin, niacin, iron and vitamin B12. It's flavored with things like celery extract, although the exact ingredients and the amounts are a carefully guarded and undisclosed recipe.

The Marmite website reports that a jar contains 100 grams (just over 3.5 ounces) with 34 grams of protein, 30 carbs, 1.2 grams of sugar and 10.8 grams of salt.⁶ In spite of its strong flavor, some consider Marmite to be a bona fide superfood. According to Daily Mail:

"Both products are made via a complex method in which salt is added to a suspension of yeast and then heated, resulting in a rich paste loaded with free glutamic acids, also known as umami (it's the primary component of MSG). The exact recipe is a secret, but various vegetable extracts and vitamins are also added."⁷

The glutamic acid in MSG, or monosodium glutamate, is an excitotoxin, which means it overexcites your cells to the point of damage or death. But the glutamic acid found in nutritional yeast binds to and is absorbed by other amino acids or proteins, while what is found in MSG is not. In essence, your body controls the glutamic levels.

While Marmite isn't exactly banned in Sweden, the government requires retailers to obtain special permission from the Danish Veterinary and Food Administration to place it on their shelves. IBT explains it this way:

"The paste is made by adding salt to the yeast by-product from breweries, heating the solution until the cell walls of the yeast are softened, then straining the solution to make it smooth.

The result is naturally rich in vitamins, especially the Vitamin B complex, but additional vitamins and minerals are added to Marmite — and that is what the Danish government dislikes."⁸

While in the U.S. Marmite barely shows up on the radar in terms of nutrition, it's been lab tested and declared better than peanut butter in terms of its ability as a brain booster. Recent studies have determined that the savory substance may increase your brain's neurotransmitters, the function involving messaging.

Marmite May Boost Your Brain's GABA Levels

Of course, it was a study based in the U.K., kicked off when researchers found that a single teaspoon of Marmite, taken daily by study participants, prompted a decrease in neural response to visual stimuli.

Scientists at the University of York said that's an indicator of increased gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) levels.⁹ According to Medical News Today:

"GABA is a neurotransmitter responsible for inhibiting the excitability of brain cells, helping to restore the optimal balance of neuronal activity required for healthy brain functioning. Put simply, GABA 'calms' the brain.

Previous studies have associated low GABA levels with an increased risk of numerous neurological and mental health disorders, including anxiety, depression, autism and epilepsy. As a result, researchers have been investigating ways to boost GABA levels in the brain."¹⁰

Study author Daniel Baker, Ph.D., used data from 26 adults, divided into two groups. One group was directed to eat a teaspoon of Marmite every day for a month, while the others ate the same amount of peanut butter.

Thirty days later, the study subjects underwent electroencephalography to measure brain activity in response to visual stimuli in the form of flickering lights. The Marmite group had a 30% decrease in neural response to visual stimuli in comparison to the peanut butter group but, even better, those responses were ongoing for another eight weeks.

The result was similar to that resulting from an animal study in which there was a 300% decrease in neural response to visual stimuli. The study concluded:

"This 'response gain' effect should provide a clear index of GABA availability in cortex, in that increasing GABA concentration should reduce the neural response evoked by visual stimuli to below normal levels."¹¹

Baker said the main reason for the significantly reduced responsiveness to visual stimuli in the participants was most likely the high concentration of vitamin B12 in the Marmite. Interestingly, while the scientists stressed that therapeutic recommendations couldn't yet be made, they touted the study as the "first example of how dietary interventions can alter cortical processes."¹²

B Vitamins: 'Super' Compounds in Marmite

According to the Journal of Clinical Investigation,¹³ niacin, or vitamin B3, one of the main ingredients in Marmite, helps protect your body against staphylococcus bacteria. The Telegraph reports that in tests, niacin:

"… [P]roduces neutrophils, a white blood cell that fights bacteria — [and] increased our immune system's ability to kill different strains of the bugs by up to 1,000 times. This could mark a turning point in the battle against antibiotic-resistant superbugs, such as MRSA, the deadly strain that poses a threat in hospitals."¹⁴

Folate, vitamin B6 and vitamin B12 are essential for converting what could become a damaging molecule, called homocysteine, into the amino acid cysteine in a process called the methylation cycle.

Without this suppression mechanism, studies show heart disease and Alzheimer's to be an increased risk, as homocysteine can lead to brain and blood vessel deterioration. According to the George Mateljan Foundation:

"Homocysteine promotes atherosclerosis by directly damaging blood vessel walls and by interfering with the formation of collagen (the main protein in connective tissue).

Elevations in homocysteine are found in approximately 20 [to] 40 percent of patients with heart disease, and it is estimated that daily consumption of 400 mcg of folate alone would reduce the number of heart attacks suffered by Americans each year by 10 percent."¹⁵

Further, high levels of homocysteine not only are linked to blood vessel damage, but are often found in Alzheimer's patients, suggesting that many people all over the world may be suffering from a "Marmite" (or B vitamin) deficiency.

Other brain and mental capacities positively influenced by vitamin B3, or niacin, found liberally in Marmite, include attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), anxiety, depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder. And B12 deficiency can trigger different types of psychoses and paranoia. Unfortunately, this deficiency is common.

How an Early Scientist Discovered One of Marmite's Most Important Benefits

In the 1930s, English scientist Lucy Wills discovered that the folic acid content in Marmite could successfully treat anemia. In studying whether a vitamin deficiency might contribute to what was at the time called pernicious anemia of pregnancy, one review noted her research on the effects of Marmite, a "cheap yeast extract," on monkeys:

"One particular monkey did especially poorly, and for reasons which are not recorded — perhaps in desperation — she tried the cheap yeast extract, Marmite. It had a dramatic effect. Thus, after all the intensive examination of diets and exhaustive testing on rats, it was a chance intervention with a single animal that led to the breakthrough. Wills had taken the first step to the discovery of folic acid."¹⁶

According to nutritionist Melanie Brown, who specializes in pre-conception and pregnancy nutrition, Marmite can help pregnant women through morning sickness, as well as help elderly individuals who have lost their sense of taste.¹⁷

High Salt Content Leads to Marmite Bans, but —

Denmark, which hasn't sold Marmite since May 2011, isn't the only country to look unfavorably on the savory condiment that a large portion of the known world swears it can't live without. The powers-that-be in Ceredigion, Wales, banned Marmite in elementary schools in 2008.

Oregon State University jumped on the bandwagon and began warning people not to take high "doses" of the stuff without medical supervision due to its high salt content.¹⁸ However, salt is not the ogre it's been made out to be. In fact, not enough salt in your diet isn't good for your heart. The more important question is whether or not your salt quotient is properly balanced with that of your potassium intake.

Kidney Stones in Children Are Becoming More Prevalent — Here's Why and How to Fight Them

Kidney stones are hard masses that form from the chemicals in the urine when there's too much waste and too little liquid. They can be as small as a grain of sand, or as big as a pebble — in some cases, they can grow as large as a golf ball. As your body works to eliminate the stone, it can lead to irritation or blockage, causing intense pain and other symptoms.¹

In adults, kidney stones are a common health complaint, with 8 out of 1,000 adults being diagnosed yearly.² Alarmingly, cases among children are increasing as well.

Is Your Child at Risk of Developing Kidney Stones?

According to an article in ABC7,³ kidney stones have become more prevalent in children over the last 20 years. Although less common than in adults, it could still be a lifelong battle. The article tells the story of Alex Zellers, a 4-year-old with a rare genetic disease called cystinuria, which caused him to develop enlarged kidney stones that had to be surgically removed.⁴

"One stone in his kidney was the size of a golf ball. The other, in his bladder, was the size of a lacrosse ball. 'It's just like a giant dense egg. It's just a big mass,' described Kate, Alex's mother."

In the article, Dr. Greg Tasian, a pediatric urologist with Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, explains how kidney stones form, saying "Your body doesn't absorb certain amino acids and that cystine accumulates and crystallizes in the urine forming stones early in life."

And although Alex's condition is rare, Tasian claims that he is seeing an increase in young patients with kidney stones and says that several lifestyle factors are to blame, such as eating more ultraprocessed foods, excessive of use antibiotics and being chronically dehydrated, especially during hot weather.⁵

However, there could be another more significant contributing factor, and it's found in the foods you eat — even those that are considered healthy.

Oxalates Are Linked to Kidney Stones, but What Are They?

Oxalates are natural compounds found in many plant foods, including beans, grains, seeds and nuts, fruits, berries and herbs.⁶ They're also called dicarboxylic acid, meaning they are composed of two carbon dioxide (CO₂) molecules.

However, having two carboxyl groups (COOH), causes them to lose protons under physiological conditions. This leaves them with a negative charge, which then allows them to bind to positively charged ions like calcium.

Chemically, oxalate is a salt; and as with other salts, it forms crystals that your body innately has a limited capacity to process. When oxalates bind with calcium, they form calcium oxalate crystals, which are microscopic and razor-sharp and can cause significant tissue damage. And because they are not soluble, they can accumulate.

This is what causes kidney stones to form. Calcium stones are the primary type, making up 80% of kidney stones.⁷ But contributing to the formation of kidney stones is just one of the ways oxalates wreak havoc on your health. These compounds can affect numerous body functions and cause a wide range of symptoms.

A High-Oxalate Diet Can Lead to Joint Pain, Digestive Problems and Skin Irritation

Excessive oxalates can affect your absorption of essential nutrients and lead to mineral deficiencies. When they accumulate in your joints, they can cause crystals, similar to those in the kidneys, to form. This can trigger inflammation and joint pain, resembling symptoms of gout or arthritis.

In your urinary tract, oxalates can cause irritation, discomfort and an increased risk of urinary tract infections (UTIs). The razor-sharp crystals can also make urination painful, and contribute to irritable bladder syndrome, which is characterized by frequent, urgent and/or painful urination.

Meanwhile, bloating, gas, diarrhea and abdominal pain can arise when oxalates affect your intestinal tract, especially in people with sensitive digestive systems or who have irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).

There's also research linking a high-oxalate diet with fibromyalgia symptoms, and while still not fully understood, the theory is that oxalate crystals may be causing inflammation in the muscles and connective tissues, causing widespread pain and fatigue.

Once your body tries to eliminate oxalates, they can be excreted through your skin, particularly if your kidneys can no longer process the excessive amounts of oxalates in your system. This can form crystalline deposits on your skin, causing irritation, rash and intense itching.

I struggled with this health problem 15 years ago, when I developed a rash that caused such intense itching it made me lose sleep. When scratched, the rash would turn into hard nodules that would last for months or years.

I tried numerous natural interventions, including icing the affected area and applying aloe gel, but could not find any long-lasting solution — it was only when I addressed the oxalates in my diet that I was able to find relief.

Oxalates Can Interfere With Your Cellular Functions

Another way that oxalates harm your health is by disrupting enzyme functions that are essential to cellular energy production. Oxalate ions can bind to the enzymes in the mitochondrial electron transport chain, which are essential for adenosine triphosphate (ATP) production.

Your mitochondria produce ATP, which is why they are called the "powerhouses" of your cells. ATP is the currency of your cellular energy and is the lifeblood of cellular processes. It powers everything, including processes like muscle contraction, nerve impulse propagation, synthesis of essential biomolecules and the maintenance of cellular homeostasis.

When oxalates disrupt ATP production, it can lead to decreased energy production and increased oxidative stress within cells. This then leads to a broader range of metabolic and physiological dysfunctions.

Avoid These High-Oxalate Foods

Everyone needs to be concerned about oxalates, not just those dealing with kidney stones or other chronic health issues, metabolic inflexibility or mineral imbalances. The first step is to identify high-oxalate foods and remove them from your diet, until your gut is healed.

I recently interviewed Sally Norton, who is an esteemed authority on oxalates. Her expertise is indeed invaluable for anyone seeking to understand this topic. In our discussion, she specified the foods that are particularly loaded with oxalates. You may be surprised, as some of these are on many people's "healthy foods" list:

In addition to spinach, high-oxalate leafy greens that are considered "superfoods" are Swiss chard and beet greens, so you may want to avoid them if you're sensitive to oxalates or are struggling with kidney stones.

You may also want to avoid these collagen-rich protein sources until your gut is healed, as collagen breakdown can lead to oxalate production and aggravate your condition:

• Bone broth
• Gelatin
• Animal skins, tendon and ligaments
• Meat cuts with connective tissues such as oxtail, neck and shank
• Organ meats like heart and liver

Healing Your Gut Can Help Address Oxalate Toxicity

I mentioned above that healing your gut health is crucial to help curb the effects of oxalates, but before you do that, you need to address your metabolic inflexibility. This refers to your body's diminished ability to switch between burning fuel sources, mainly carbohydrates and fats.

When you're metabolically inflexible, it can affect your body's ability to produce energy. This can have a profound impact on your gut health, particularly your large intestine, as it hinders your body's ability to maintain a low-oxygen environment in this organ.

You need a low-oxygen environment in your large intestine because not only does it help keep pathogenic bacteria in check, but it also allows healthy obligate anaerobes to thrive. These are a primitive type of bacteria that cannot survive when exposed to oxygen.

So what do obligate anaerobes have to do with oxalate toxicity? It turns out that there are obligate anaerobes that can digest oxalate crystals, called Oxalobacter formongines.⁸ These beneficial bacteria thrive in a low-oxygen environment and have a unique ability to efficiently metabolize oxalates.

Using specific enzymes, Oxalobacter bacteria break down oxalate crystals into formate and carbon dioxide. The carbon dioxide then helps retain the low-oxygen environment in your intestine, allowing these primitive organisms to thrive and support your health. Through simple passive diffusion, the crystals are released and wind up in your intestine where the Oxalobacter continues to digest them until the oxalate toxicity issues disappear.

To put it simply, you need to optimize your metabolic flexibility so you can maintain a low-oxygen environment in your gut and allow Oxalobacter bacteria to radically reduce the level of oxalates in your tissues.

I believe this is the ultimate cure for most kidney stones. It's far more efficient and effective than the conventional approach for this common health condition, as it goes straight to the root cause of the problem.

Step 1 in healing your gut would be to eliminate linoleic acid (LA) from your diet, as LA precipitates the formation of peroxynitrites that ravage mitochondrial function and impede energy production, forcing your body to rely on glycolysis in the cytoplasm of your cells rather than the electron transport chain (ETC) of your mitochondria.

This, in turn, results in the impairment of your gut by allowing oxygen leakage into your gut that kills beneficial bacteria and allows pathogenic bacteria to thrive.

There's No Quick Way to Detox Oxalates

If you or your children struggle with kidney stones or have other signs of oxalate toxicity, I encourage you to watch my interview with Norton, as we discuss many strategies and food choices that can help minimize the harmful effects of oxalates or aid in their elimination.

Aside from limiting your intake of high-oxalate foods mentioned above, here are some key recommendations to remember:

Remember that healing your body takes time — don't expect results overnight. It's a marathon, not a sprint. In some cases, it may take two years to two-and-a-half years after following a low-oxalate diet to see the effects, and they may not be pleasant.

For example, you may suddenly get sicker, as your kidneys are finally cleaned up and can excrete oxalate more efficiently. This means your body is tapping into deeper deposits. Possible side effects can include gastritis, migraines, anxiety attacks, gout and other types of toxic reactions.

Your uric acid may also increase, as it is replacing the oxalic acid. In this instance, this means you're clearing oxalate. You may also notice tartar buildup on your teeth, gritty stools, gritty eyes, hemorrhoids and burning stools — all these are symptoms that your body is healing itself.

Cellular Energy — The Very Essence of Life

My personal struggle with the skin irritation triggered by oxalates 15 years ago is an eye-opener. It's what I consider the pivotal turning point in my health journey, as it is the best illustration of just how crucial it is to have a healthy, well-functioning microbiome to your overall health.

Unfortunately, virtually none of us have a healthy gut microbiome. This is a result mainly because of large multinational corporations taking advantage of us and steering us toward unnatural products that end up harming our mitochondria and ultimately our ability to create cellular energy.

I believe that your ability to produce sufficient cellular energy is the single most important factor to fuel your body's innate repair and regeneration processes so it can recover from diseases and any type of health obstacle.

With that said, I will be releasing a new book this summer that delves into the science of cellular energy. In this book, I'll explain in detail the biochemical pathways that provide energy to your cells, as well as also how disrupting these pathways can put you or your loved ones at risk of progressively worsening health issues.

I'll also share practical strategies to help support your mitochondrial health and enhance your cellular energy production through healthy food choices, lifestyle changes and proper supplementation. This book is a definite must-read, as it can help you rediscover the foundational strategies to heal your body and ward off diseases, so stay tuned.

Raw Milk at the Crossroads, Again

Few of us were born when the forces for milk pasteurization launched the first major attack on Nature's perfect food. In 1945, a magazine called "Coronet" published an article, "Raw Milk Can Kill You," blaming raw milk for an outbreak of brucellosis in a town called Crossroads, U.S.A., killing one-third of the inhabitants. The "Reader's Digest" picked up the story and ran it a year later.

Just one problem with this piece of "reporting." There was no town called Crossroads and no outbreak of brucellosis. The whole story was a fabrication — otherwise known as a lie. And lies about raw milk have continued ever since.

Unfortunately, the fictitious Crossroads story paved the way for laws against selling raw milk, starting with Michigan in 1948.

Here's another example of lies against raw milk (which I referenced in an earlier post,¹ but it is worth repeating). In 2007, John F. Sheehan, BSc (Dy), JD, US Food and Drug Administration, Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (USFDA/CFSAN), Division of Dairy and Egg Safety, prepared a Powerpoint maligning raw milk; it was presented to the 2005 National Conference on Interstate Milk Shipments (NCIMS) by Cindy Leonard, MS.²

As shown in the table below, all of the fifteen reports associating outbreaks of foodborne illness with raw milk that Sheehan cites are seriously flawed. For example, in two of the fifteen, the study authors presented no evidence that anyone consumed raw milk products and in one of them, the outbreak did not even exist. Not one of the studies showed that pasteurization would have prevented the outbreak.

Fast forward to the present and the ruckus about bird flu in dairy cows — more lies, very clever lies, but lies nevertheless.

In a press release dated March 25, 2024,³ the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as well as state veterinary and public health officials, announced investigation of "an illness among primarily older dairy cows in Texas, Kansas, and New Mexico that is causing decreased lactation, low appetite, and other symptoms."

The agencies claim that samples of unpasteurized milk from sick cattle in Kansas and Texas have tested positive for "highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI)." Officials blame the outbreak on contact with "wild migratory birds" and possibly from transmission between cattle. The press release specifically warns against consumption of raw milk, a warning repeated in numerous publications and Internet postings.

According to the press release, national laboratories have confirmed the presence of HPAI (Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza) through testing, but it does not reveal the type of test used to detect this so-called viral illness.

Lie No. 1: Researchers Have Found HPAI Virus in the Milk of Sick Cows

Officials have NOT found any viruses in the milk or any other secretions of the sick cows. The CDC has yet to reply to repeated requests for proof of finding the isolated HPAI virus in any fluid of any sick chicken or other animal.⁴ Nor have health and agriculture agencies in Canada,⁵ Japan,⁶ the UK⁷ and Europe⁸ provided any proof of an isolated avian influenza virus.

As for all the studies you can find in a PubMed search claiming "isolation" of a virus, not one of them shows the true isolation of a virus, any virus, from the fluids (phlegm, blood, urine, lung fluids, etc) of any animal, bird or human.⁹

The truth is that "viruses" serve as the whipping boy for environmental toxins, and in the confinement animal system, there are lots of them — hydrogen sulfide, carbon dioxide, methane and ammonia from excrement, for example.¹⁰ Then there are toxins in the feed, such as arsenic added to chicken feed, and mycotoxins, tropane and β-carboline alkaloids in soybean meal.¹¹

By blaming nonexistent viruses, agriculture officials can avoid stepping on any big industry toes nor add to the increasing public disgust with the confinement animal system.

Way back in 2006, researchers Crowe and Englebrecht published an article entitled, "Avian flu virus H5N1: No proof for existence, pathogenicity, or pandemic potential; non-'H5N1'z causation omitted."¹² Nothing has changed since then.

Here's your homework assignment: Contact USDA at Aphispress@usda.gov and ask them to provide proof of the isolation of the HPAI virus or any virus in the milk of the sick cattle.

Lie No. 2: National Laboratories Have Confirmed the Presence of HPAI Through Testing

They don't say anything about the kind of test they used, but it almost certainly the PCR (polymerase chain reaction) test. The PCR test detects genetic material from a pathogen or abnormal cell sample and allows researchers to make many copies of a small section of DNA or RNA. The test was not designed to determine or diagnose disease, it was designed to amplify or increase a certain piece of genetic material.

Each "amplification" is a doubling of the material. If you amplify thirty times you will get a negative; amplify 36 times or more, and you will get a positive. At 60 amplifications, everyone will "test positive" for whatever bit of genetic material you believe can cause disease.¹³ If you want to show that you have a pandemic brewing, just amplify, amplify, amplify. Folks, this is not a valid test, not good science by any stretch of the imagination — especially as there was no virus to begin with.

How many times did our health officials amplify the samples they obtained from the milk of the sick cows? Be sure to ask them when you email Aphispress@usda.gov for proof of the virus.

Lie No. 3: The 'Virus' Is Highly Pathogenic

According to the "Wall Street Journal," one — just one — person working in the dairies got sick and tested positive for avian influenza after exposure to dairy cattle presumed to be infected with the H5N1 bird flu.¹⁴

The person reported eye redness, or conjunctivitis, as his only symptom — a symptom that can be explained by exposure to any of the many airborne toxins in confinement dairies. (How are they treating the illness? With vitamin A and herbal eyedrops? No, the poor sod is getting treatment with a toxic antiviral drug.)

According to the CDC, the disease in humans ranges from mild infections, which include upper-respiratory and eye-related symptoms, to severe pneumonia. If the "virus" is so highly pathogenic, we'd expect a lot of workers working around these sick cows to end up in the hospital ... but we've heard of none so far.

Lie No. 4: You Can Get Avian Flu From Drinking Raw Milk, but Pasteurized Milk Is Safe

According to medical biologist Peg Coleman,¹⁵ "Recent risk communications from CDC, FDA, and USDA regarding transmission of highly pathogenic avian influenza virus or HPAI (subtype H5N1) to humans via raw milk include no supporting evidence of viral transmission from raw milk to humans in the peer-reviewed literature.

An extensive body of scientific evidence from the peer-reviewed literature ... does not support the assumption by these US government agencies that [nonexistent] HPAI transmits to humans via milkborne or foodborne routes and causes disease. Nor does the scientific evidence support the recommendation that consumers should avoid raw milk and raw milk products [emphasis in the original]."¹⁶

Coleman notes the suite of bioactive components in raw milk, including bovine milk, that destroy pathogens and strengthen the gut wall. "Many of these bioactive components of raw milk are ... sensitive to heat and may be absent, inactive, or present in lower concentrations in pasteurized milks.

Cross-disciplinary evidence demonstrates that raw milk from healthy cows is not inherently dangerous, consistent with the CDC evidence of trends for 2005-2020 and evidence of benefits and risks. There is no scientific evidence that HPAI in raw milk causes human disease."

And while USDA, FDA and CDC assure the public that pasteurization will make milk safe, they note that "Milk from infected animals is being diverted or destroyed," implying that pasteurization alone does not guarantee safety. In any event, sales of industrial pasteurized milk continue their relentless decline.

Fortunately, raw milk drinkers are already skeptical of government pronouncements and are skilled at seeing through lies. Both large and small raw milk dairy farms report that sales are booming. The current bird flu fracas is just another Crossroads, U.S.A., a bunch of lies fostered by a dishonest dairy industry taking aim at the competition.

About the Author

Sally Fallon Morell is author of the best-selling cookbook "Nourishing Traditions" and many other books on diet and health. She is the founding president of the Weston A. Price Foundation (westonaprice.org) and a founder of A Campaign for Real Milk (realmilk.com). Visit her blog at nourishingtraditions.com.

Are You Addicted to Your Smartphone?

Editor's Note: This article is a reprint. It was originally published February 2, 2017.

You've seen it many times — A family taking their seats in a restaurant, then one by one pulling out their individual smartphones to examine until the food comes, after which they check their phones repeatedly as they're eating.

Perhaps you've noticed people walking on busy streets, riding bicycles, driving cars or standing on a commuter train, scrolling their phones, paying little attention to their surroundings.

Toddlers, too, are given their own little digital devices, to which their eyes remain glued as if they're mesmerized instead of taking in the world around them and engaging with real people and real situations that help them grow socially and emotionally.

Most people in the real world have connected to technology, only vaguely aware that in the process there's the danger that unless they remain diligent, they'll disconnect to some degree from what's real and really important.

According to Nancy Colier, author of "The Power of Off," in The New York Times (NYT), "The only difference between digital addiction and other addictions is that this is a socially condoned behavior." The NYT observes:

"The near-universal access to digital technology, starting at ever younger ages, is transforming modern society in ways that can have negative effects on physical and mental health, neurological development and personal relationships, not to mention safety on our roads and sidewalks."¹

Statistics Regarding Cellphone Use

There's nothing like a good set of statistics to take a vague notion and attach the reality of numbers to it. In regard to cellphone use (or abuse) here are a few that may surprise you:

• Most people check their smartphones 150 times a day, or every six minutes.² Nearly 80% of teens check their phones hourly; 72% feel the urgent to respond immediately.³
• Cellphone users between 18 and 24 years exchange an average of 109.5 text messages per day, or more than 3,200 per month.⁴
• Forty-six percent of smartphone users say they "couldn't live without" it. Some say they'd give up sex first.⁵
• More than 1,000 pedestrians visited emergency rooms in 2008 following injuries while using a cellphone to talk or text, and since 2006, that number had doubled for the previous two years, an Ohio State University study showed.^6,7 In 2010, pedestrians injured while using cellphones accounted for 1,500 emergency room visits.⁸
• Of the 83% of adults in the U.S. who own cellphones, about 73% of them send text messages; about 31% of that number prefers texting to actually talking on the phone.⁹

One author offered a reminder that every time people look down at their phones, they're spending precious time giving attention to something that doesn't really matter. It's about as mindless as someone doing a crossword puzzle while their daughter is giving a commencement speech. The NYT observed:

"Moderation in our digital world should be the hallmark of a healthy relationship with technology.

Too many of us have become slaves to the devices that were supposed to free us, giving us more time to experience life and the people we love. Instead, we're constantly bombarded by bells, buzzers and chimes that alert us to messages we feel compelled to view and respond to immediately."¹⁰

Now That We Have It, Who Wants to Live Without Technology?

Over the last 40 years, give or take, the jobs of thousands of advertisers, journalists, secretaries, real estate brokers, students and arguably virtually every other profession has changed drastically with the great leap forward from typewriters to word processors.

Smartphones in today's world have much broader potential than just a way to get and take calls away from home.

Connected as they are to the internet, they can tell you how to cure a cold, how to plant a tree, the meaning of the word "zydeco" and directions to Milwaukee. They can also trigger emergency medical and weather alerts.

Whether you work at a desk, on an oil well drilling platform, on the deck of a shrimping boat or on a New York stage, phone technology has probably made your life easier and infinitely more entertaining. It's disengaging from them, however, that's proven to be the challenge, often with unforeseen drawbacks.

In a video from Business Insider,¹¹ Dr. Dan Siegel, clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) School of Medicine, disclosed that smartphone use before bed has detrimental effects on both your brain and your body, literally releasing toxins to your cells.

Due to light exposure from screens (smartphone and otherwise), melatonin isn't released as usual to help you get to sleep, so you might figure, "Oh, well, I'm awake anyway," and turn to your phone again, worsening your sleep deprivation. Colier, also a licensed clinical social worker, notes:

"Without open spaces and downtime, the nervous system never shuts down. It's in constant fight-or-flight mode. We're wired and tired all the time. Even computers reboot, but we're not doing it. It's connections to other human beings — real-life connections, not digital ones — that nourish us and make us feel like we count.

Our presence, our full attention is the most important thing we can give each other. Digital communications don't result in deeper connections, in feeling loved and supported."¹²

Children and Technology — It's Up to You to Manage It

According to The Kaiser Foundation,¹³ two-thirds of parents had no rules about how much time their children spent with media, and the average 8- to 10-year-old spends nearly eight hours a day (teens up to 11 hours) with a variety of different media.

While many lament the lack of exercise for themselves and their children, and worry that there's "no time" to visit a (real) library, toss around a football in the park or enjoy a sunset, they still scroll their phones. Almost by default, some parents opt out of those things for their kids, as well, because staying on the phone is just too easy.

PBS filmed a documentary, "Web Junkie," covering the tragic toll "screen addiction" is taking on young people in China, so obsessed with video games they play dozens of hours at a time, often without eating, sleeping or even using the bathroom. Immersed in the cyber world, they begin seeing the real world as the one that's counterfeit.

Chinese doctors treating it like a clinical disorder usually recommend rehabilitation centers where the young people immersed in the cyber culture are sometimes kept for months with a complete disconnect from all media, The NYT reported.¹⁴

While it may not have been given a clinical diagnosis, American teenagers and young adults are much more involved in games on their phones than experts think is healthy. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) wrote:

"Children who overuse online media are at risk of problematic internet use, and heavy users of video games are at risk of internet gaming disorder."¹⁵

Harried parents used to occupy their infants and toddlers with Sesame Street while they got ready for work. Today, just as many parents (or maybe more) hand their child a cellphone or tablet for their entertainment. They may not realize how harmful this might be for their children in the long run, as the skill to self-soothe.

Further, every hour spent playing on or otherwise engaged on cellphones is an hour spent sitting indoors. Detox expert Holland Haiis, author of "Consciously Connecting: A Simple Process to Reconnect in a Disconnected World," quoted by CNN, cautioned:

"If your teens would prefer gaming indoors, alone, as opposed to going out to the movies, meeting friends for burgers or any of the other ways that teens build camaraderie, you may have a problem."¹⁶

Experts' Phone Use Recommendations for Parents (and Their Children)

The AAP has long stated that children should not be exposed to any electronic media before age 2. Why? Because "a child's brain develops rapidly during these first years, and young children learn best by interacting with people, not screens."¹⁷

They amended this to say that some high-quality media (such as educational TV) could provide educational value for children starting at 18 months, provided parents watch with their children to help them understand the content.¹⁸

The NYT further noted the AAP's recommendation that older children and teenagers be restricted to one or two hours a day on entertainment media — and no more — preferably with high-quality content. More importantly, they recommended kids spend more free time playing outdoors, reading and working on hobbies, and generally using their imaginations.

The question begs to be asked — What is considered "high-quality" content? Maybe focusing on what it's not is one way to find an answer to that. Kristina E. Hatch, in preparing her honors thesis at the University of Rhode Island, said she asked fourth-graders about their favorite video games.¹⁹

One kid said his favorite had "zombies in it, and you get to kill them with guns and there's violence … I like blood and violence."²⁰ It doesn't take a rocket scientist to discern that a steady diet of this type of "entertainment" might not be good for kids of any age. Heavy electronic media use can have a significant and negative effect on not only kids' behavior, but school performance as well. Dr. Dimitri A. Christakis of the Seattle Children's Research Institute asserts:

"Those who watch a lot of simulated violence, common in many popular video games, can become immune to it, more inclined to act violently themselves and less likely to behave empathetically."²¹

In the first place, parents are the ones who usually purchase the different media options for their kids (or should be) but, for whatever reason, the same parents may be reluctant to offer guidelines or restrictions of any kind, even to the point of allowing them to play in the car and during meals instead of engaging in conversation that leads to connection and relationship.

Is It Possible to at Least Limit Your Smartphone Use?

One woman who decided to give up owning a smartphone entirely told The Guardian that before that point, she'd lived in a world where "constant communication isn't just a convenient accessory — it (was) a second skin." Then:

"I got a landline and I got more sleep. I look people in the eye. I eat food instead of photographing it and am not driving half a ton of metal into oncoming traffic while looking down at a tiny screen."²²

Haiis, the digital detox expert, says one way to resist spending more time than is useful is to try limiting posts to social media to two to three times a week. This not only forces you to give more thought to what you're posting; you spend less time looking at what others post.

Setting boundaries for yourself is key, Haiss maintains. When the urge comes to reach for your phone, for instance, go outside, take a walk or exercise — do something positive to distract yourself.

"We have constant access to new information and this is alluring, intriguing and exciting, but without setting limits for yourself, it's a slippery slope … The dopamine in our brains is stimulated by the unpredictability that social media, emails and texting provide.

It's a vicious cycle and in order to break that cycle, you need to find the same unpredictability and stimulation which is out there if you are exercising. You never know what's around the bend when out for a jog, bike ride or walk."²³

It's important to know when it's time to put down your smartphone and connect with the living, breathing people in your life, some whom you know and some whom you don't — yet — but whom you'd never meet if you didn't look up. Colier offered a three-step plan²⁴ to help wean yourself from phone dependence:

• Figure out how much time you realistically need on your phone for things like work, navigation or letting people know you're OK, and how much you use it for pure entertainment and distraction.
• Rather than going off your phone cold turkey, determine times when you restrict your phone use and refuse to let it interrupt you, such as mealtime and spending time with family and friends.
• Determine what's really important to you, what "nourishes" you, and dedicate more thought, time and energy to those things. In short, live more intentionally and consciously, not dictated by the ringtone of your phone.

• The Elite Daily February 11, 2013

• Time September 20, 2011

Black Seed Oil — A Natural Ally in Maintaining Disease-Free Living

Herbal oils have a long history of use in traditional medicine, and one particular example that has stood the test of time is black seed oil. Not to be confused with black cumin (Bunium bulbocastanum),¹ black seed oil comes from the Nigella sativa (N. sativa) plant, which grows in Southern Europe, Southwest Asia and the Middle East.² The seeds are shaped like tiny Brazil nuts and coal-black (as their name implies).

Black seed oil is regarded for its potential to help protect against diseases and heal ailments — it has antidiabetic, analgesic, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial and antioxidant properties, to name a few.³ Studies have also shown its impressive potential to help protect against cancer.

Studies Demonstrate Black Seed Oil’s Anticancer Effects

In his COVID Intel⁴ Substack article, Canadian physician William Makis posted a summary of five papers that focus on the anticancer potential of black seed oil. According to the studies,^5,6,7,8,9 N. sativa may help protect against different types of cancer in humans, including:

• Breast cancer — A study in Fitoterapia¹⁰ found that the combination of phytochemicals thymoquinone (TQ), carvacrol and trans-anethole in black seed oil, even in small doses, was more efficient in preventing breast cancer cells from spreading, as opposed to using individual but higher concentrations of these chemicals.
• Pancreatic cancer — Published in the Frontiers of Oncology journal, the study¹¹ notes that thymoquinone "regulates the occurrence and development of pancreatic cancer at multiple levels and through multiple targets that communicate with each other."
• Colorectal cancer — The researchers noted¹² that TQ-LNCs (thymoquinone lipid nanocapsules) helped reduce tumor size in mice with colorectal cancer.
• Prostate and colon cancers — According to the study,¹³ N. sativa oil helped slow down the growth of prostate and colon cancer cells, especially when higher doses of thymoquinone were administered.
• Hepatic cancer, cervical cancer, leukemia and more — Using nanotechnology, the researchers¹⁴ observed the anticancer efficacy of TQ on its own or when combined with other cancer treatments.

The five studies highlight black seed oil’s main bioactive component, thymoquinone (TQ), as the primary compound responsible for its anticancer benefits.

Thymoquinone’s Mechanism of Action

Chemically known as 2-methyl-5-isopropyl-1, 4-benzoquinone, thymoquinone is a monoterpene molecule that’s been found to alter certain molecular and signaling pathways related to cancer and other inflammatory and degenerative diseases.¹⁵

According to the featured research,¹⁶ thymoquinone helps reduce the risk of cancer by inhibiting cell proliferation, triggering apoptosis (cancer cell death) and preventing cancer cell migration, but without harming healthy cells. One study notes:¹⁷

"TQ [thymoquinone] is the main bioactive constituent in N. sativa that has been intensively investigated in vitro and in vivo and shown to have several therapeutic properties, including anticancer activity. Its effectiveness on cancers is demonstrated in murine model studies in which TQ enhances higher survival rates, reduced tumor volume, reduced pro-cancerous molecules and elevated anti-tumorigenesis biomarkers.

Meanwhile, in in vitro studies, TQ has shown the ability to inhibit cancer staging such as migration, proliferation, and invasion or apoptosis induction by repressing the activation of vital pathways, such as JAK/STAT and PI3K/AKT/mTOR."

In the featured article,¹⁸ Makis summarizes the mechanisms of action of thymoquinone, explaining that this phytochemical’s unique feature is its ability to activate certain proteins that prevent tumors from forming. It also turns off oncogenes, which are genes that promote cancer growth.

Considering that cancer is now the leading cause of death worldwide — with 10 million people dying in 2020 from this illness, according to the World Health Organization (WHO)¹⁹ — the rise of natural interventions like black seed oil is certainly an advantage, especially since conventional cancer treatments today are rife with side effects. 

"Cancer continues to threat [sic] mortal alongside scientific community with burgeoning grasp. Most efforts directed to tame Cancer such as radiotherapy or chemotherapy, all came at a cost of severe side effects.

The plant derived bioactive compounds on the other hand carries an inevitable advantage of being safer, bioavailable & less toxic compared to contemporary chemotherapeutics," one of the studies reports.²⁰

Black Seed Oil May Also Protect Against COVID-19

During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, N. sativa was found to be one of the natural remedies that may be potentially beneficial against the viral infection. One study²¹ published in 2021 reviewed the active ingredients in black seed oil, mainly thymoquinone, α-hederin, and nigellidine, and found that they may help combat COVID-19.²²

Aside from having significant antihistamine effects, these black seed oil compounds help downregulate interferon regulatory factor-3 activation, which is essential in innate bacterial and viral immune responses.²³

Thymoquinone may also help promote autophagy, which is the body’s mechanism of eliminating damaged cells. A 2018 study²⁴ found that thymoquinone can help promote autophagy in the heart muscle. This is crucial, as COVID-19 was found to suppress autophagy; therefore, thymoquinone’s effects on autophagy are indicative of its antiviral potential.

In addition, the researchers noted that thymoquinone may help inhibit enzymes that can produce leukotriene and prostaglandins,²⁵ which are both inflammatory agents.

"Considering the anti-inflammatory actions of N. sativa seed and its different extracts, these might be potentially used for the prevention as well as cure of SARS‐CoV‐2 viral infection," the researchers report.²⁶

Black seed oil is listed as one of the Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance’s (FLCCC) recommended first-line treatments for COVID-19,²⁷ along with ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) and zinc.

What Else Can Black Seed Oil Do for You?

In different cultures, N. sativa has been used for centuries to help ease ailments. The Indians consider it an important element in their Unani and Ayurvedic traditional systems of medicine. Meanwhile, the Muslims value it as one of the "greatest forms of healing medicine." In fact, the Prophetic Hadith — the compilations of the teachings of Muhammad — refer to black seed as "the remedy for all diseases except death."²⁸

To give you an idea of just how useful black seed oil is, here’s a list of ways it can benefit your health:

Black Seed Oil May Also Help With Dermatological Conditions

N. sativa oil may also help with skin ailments and promote a healthier complexion. In one review of the literature published in the Journal of Dermatology and Dermatologic Surgery,³⁴ black seed oil was found to help promote wound healing in farm animals as well as reduced the effects of vitiligo in lizards.

"In a randomized double blind clinical study, patients applied N. sativa oil to lesions of vitiligo twice daily for 6 months had a significant decrease in the vitiligo area scoring index with no significant side effects," the researchers noted.³⁵

Another clinical study,³⁶ this time on humans, found that a 10% black seed oil lotion reduced acne vulgaris after two months of use, mainly due to its anti-inflammatory, immunomodulatory and antimicrobial properties. The study says 67% of patients were "fully satisfied" and 28% were "partially satisfied" with the treatment.

"The 10% Nigella sativa oil lotion showed no side effects, and can be considered very safe when compared with other topical therapies like tretinoin and benzoyl peroxide that are commonly associated with local and systemic side effect such as local irritation, burning sensation, dryness of skin, peeling and teratogenic effects.

The present study recommends the use of 10% Nigella sativa oil lotion as a topical therapy for acne vulgaris, as it is a natural plant extract," the researchers conclude.³⁷

However, remember that black seed oil may still have certain side effects on sensitive individuals when applied topically. One study notes that the oil caused contact dermatitis in two persons.³⁸ No adverse effects were reported when the oil was used internally, though. To be safe, dilute pure black seed oil with a safe carrier oil and apply a small amount on your skin to check for any adverse reactions. 

Black Seed Oil Contains Linoleic Acid, So Be Mindful of Dosage

Since it is a seed oil, N. sativa contains unsaturated fatty acids, with linoleic acid (LA) as the primary constituent, making up 50% to 60%. Other fatty acids include oleic acid (20%), eicosadienoic acid (3%) and dihomolinoleic acid (10%).³⁹

Although it’s advisable to avoid omega-6 fats, particularly LA, you shouldn’t be too worried if you’re only using black seed oil as a supplement (as opposed to consuming ultraprocessed foods or deep-fry foods in seed oils, which exposes you to excessively high amounts of LA).

Each teaspoon of black seed oil contains about 1.7 grams of LA, so avoid taking higher amounts than that. Ideally, you’ll want to limit your LA intake to 5 grams a day or less, which is closer to what our ancestors used to get. Black seed oil also contains oleic acid, which is nearly as damaging as LA.

Use an online tool like Cronometer.com to help you track your food and LA intake. The key is to use a digital scale to carefully weigh your food, so you can enter the exact amount to the nearest gram.

Once you've entered your food for the day, go to the "Lipid" section on the lower left side. You just need to look at how many grams of omega-6 are present to find out how much LA is in your diet for that day. Roughly 90% of the omega-6 you eat is LA. To learn more about the dangers of excessive linoleic acid, I advise you to read my article, "Linoleic Acid — The Most Destructive Ingredient in Your Diet."

Toxins Cause Heart Failure and Cardiomyopathy

According to research¹ published in 1999, people with severe heart failure have 12,000-fold more antimony in their myocytes (the heart muscle cells responsible for contraction) than healthy controls. They also have 22,000-fold more mercury.

Mercury is a highly toxic metal that causes oxidative stress, weakening of the antioxidant defense system, enzyme inactivation and increased oxidative damage, all of which contribute to the deterioration of heart function.² Long-term exposure to antimony has also been linked to cardiovascular problems. Antimony also has estrogenic activity, which drives many chronic diseases, including cancer.

The oxidative stress caused by heavy metals is one of the primary ways in which they destroy your mitochondrial function. Some heavy metals, including mercury, cadmium and copper, also interfere directly with the mitochondrial electron transport chain,³ leading to reduced ATP production, which is crucial for cellular energy.

Mercury's interaction with mitochondrial enzymes and membranes further amplifies oxidative damage, impairs cellular respiration, and can trigger cell death.

High Concentrations of Heavy Metals Are Nearly Always Present in Failing Hearts

In a November 2023 article,⁴ Dr. Thomas Levy, contributing editor for the Orthomolecular Medicine News Service, pointed out that the heart is “the preferred collection site” for most heavy metals, and as such, heavy metal toxicity is a common contributor to, and sometimes direct cause of, heart failure.

Various toxins, especially heavy metals like lead, copper, iron, mercury, aluminum, cadmium and others, can accumulate in heart tissue, contributing significantly to heart failure by directly damaging heart muscle cells and affecting their function. As reported by Levy:⁵

“Many different toxins, including many heavy metals, have been either linked to heart failure or clearly shown to be the direct cause. Furthermore, one or more of these toxins is nearly always present in high concentrations in the affected heart muscle. A partial list of such agents includes the following:

Levy cites studies showing how each of these toxic agents damage your heart and deteriorate cardiac function. Lead, for example, is linked to acute heart failure and myocarditis; copper toxicity to hypertrophic cardiomyopathy; iron to congestive heart failure; and mercury to idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy (IDCM).

Recognizing and treating heavy metal toxicity can dramatically improve heart function, Levy notes, adding that chelation therapy has shown promise in reversing toxicity-related heart damage.

The Safest Way to Lower Your Iron

While Levy reviews the use of an iron chelator (deferoxamine) for severe iron overload, routine phlebotomy (blood donation) is another, likely safer, option. Side effects of deferoxamine include but are not limited to allergic reactions, respiratory issues, vision disturbances, hearing loss, muscle spasms and bone pain.⁶

For those with elevated iron levels, I recommend donating blood two to four times a year. If losing 10% of your blood in one sitting is too problematic, you can remove blood in smaller amounts once a month on the schedule listed below. If you have congestive heart failure or severe COPD, you should discuss this with your doctor, but otherwise this is a fairly appropriate recommendation for most.

As reported by Levy:⁷

“[A] case report described a 27-year-old woman with ‘severe heart failure’ completely normalizing on an iron removal regimen. Patients with severe iron overload cardiomyopathy have an average survival of only one year when therapeutic phlebotomy (blood donation) and iron chelation are not utilized.

This form of cardiomyopathy begins with restricted filling of the heart (diastolic dysfunction), and then evolving into a congestive cardiomyopathy. Iron overload cardiomyopathy occurs most commonly in patients with hereditary hemochromatosis or secondary hemochromatosis (as with β-thalassemia and sickle cell anemia).

However, excess iron short of that seen in full-blown hemochromatosis can still be expected to inflict its own dose-dependent toxicity. Most adults already have excess levels of iron in their bodies, as reflected by elevated ferritin levels that erroneously remain regarded as normal in laboratory reference ranges.

Excess iron in the heart is also a predisposing factor to developing atrial fibrillation, an arrhythmia that contributes its own increased morbidity and mortality.

In animal studies, excess cellular iron in heart cells has been shown to increase oxidative stress and impair the ability of the mitochondrial electron transport chain (ETC) to produce ATP. As ATP is the primary energy-providing molecule in the body, any decrease in its production always results in compromised cellular function and disease.

Of note, resveratrol supplementation has been shown to dramatically improve heart function in animal models of iron overload cardiomyopathy. In another animal study,⁸ either deferiprone or N-acetylcysteine was effective in decreasing cardiac iron concentration.”

Where Does the Antimony Come From?

In personal correspondence with me, Levy pointed out that one of the primary sources of antimony is PET-containing plastics, with plastic water bottles being the top source.

“By comparison, antimony is more toxic than arsenic,” he told me. “After presenting this info recently, a Veteran in the audience told me that they dropped huge pallets of bottled water to the troops in the Middle East, and he would get sick every time he drank the water, but there was no other source of water. Of course, heat accelerated the antimony release into the water.”

Chapter 3 in Defend Our Health’s 2022 report, “Problem Plastic: How Polyester and PET Plastic Can be Unsafe, Unjust and Unsustainable Materials,” detail how antimony in plastic threaten our health, especially that of our children. Here’s a small excerpt:⁹

“Antimony (in the form of antimony trioxide) is the preferred catalyst for speeding the final chemical reaction that produces PET plastic. Small amounts of antimony can continually escape from PET during use and disposal of plastic bottles, food packaging, and from polyester clothing, children’s products, and other textiles.

Antimony has been known to adversely affect health for decades based on health studies of exposed people and laboratory animals … Children are exposed to multiple sources of antimony from its use as a plastic additive, including its common use with flame retardant chemicals, including in PET and polyester.

In addition to exposure from food and beverages, antimony may be ingested from house dust and from the mouthing of polyester-based toys and clothing. This aggregate exposure to antimony by children appears to exceed the maximum daily dose established by the State of California to protect against chronic organ toxicity.”

Importantly, antimony also has estrogenic activity and estrogen is not something you want too much of. The “Problem Plastic” report cites research that found estrogenic activity in 7 of 9 PET bottles tested.

Aside from being a known carcinogen and a driver of obesity, estrogen is also a metabolic inhibitor that slows down energy production in the cell. And, as stressed by Levy in the quote above, any decrease in energy production “always results in compromised cellular function and disease.”

Beware of Beverages in Plastic Bottles

In February 2022, Defend Our Health tested 20 popular beverages for the presence of antimony. All of the beverages were bottled in PET plastic, and all had detectable levels of antimony. Eight of the 20 samples (40%) had antimony concentrations that exceeded California’s Public Health Goal for drinking water of 1 part per billion (ppb), and 18 of the samples (90%) exceeded the 0.25 ppb limit recommended by Defend Our Health. According to the “Problem Plastic” report:¹⁰

“The highest concentration was found in the Campbell’s V8 vegetable juice sample, which had 3.45 parts per billion (ppb) of antimony, more than three times California’s public health goal for antimony in drinking water.

The soda sample with the highest antimony concentration was Coca Cola (packaged in 100% recycled PET) at 2.2 ppb. Nestle’s Perrier water had the highest concentration of antimony among the sampled bottled waters, at 1.58 ppb.

The plastic from 11 bottles had concentrations of antimony in the range of 216 to 321 parts per million (ppm). These concentrations fall within or slightly above the previously documented range of 172 to 261 ppm in PET bottles known to use an antimony catalyst.

Three bottles tested had undetectable concentrations of antimony. These PET samples were Simply Lemonade, Mountain Dew, and 7up bottles. Titanium concentrations for these PET samples were found to be six to seven times higher than in the other tested bottle samples …

Aluminum levels were also elevated in the plastic from two of these samples (Simply Lemonade and 7-up), suggesting that these bottles may have been produced using a titanium- and/or aluminum-based catalyst.”

Nanoplastics Linked to Heart Attacks and Stroke

In related news, recent research¹¹ has also linked nanoplastics to an increased risk of heart attacks and stroke. The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, analyzed tissue from 257 individuals undergoing carotid endarterectomy.

Arterial plaques were found to contain several kinds of nanoplastics, including polyethylene, which was detected in 58.4% of patients, and polyvinyl chloride, found in 12.1%.

Disturbingly, individuals with microplastics or nanoplastics in their carotid artery tissues were found to have fourfold higher risk of suffering a cardiovascular event such as heart attack or stroke over the next three years compared to those without such plastics. They were also more likely to die from any cause.

Increasing Cellular Energy Is an Important Part of Heart Failure Treatment

The heart and the brain between them consume nearly one-third of your body’s energy. The brain is 2% of your body weight and consumes 20% of your body energy, while your heart is only 0.5% of your body weight (or 75% less than your brain) yet still consumes 7% to 8% of your body’s energy. Gram per gram, this is 50% more than your brain consumption.

If you are unable to produce adequate cellular energy, you simply won't have enough power to allow your heart to pump efficiently. This is why it is so vital to implement the strategies we have discussed previously in other articles to improve cellular energy production.

The following are key concepts that need to be integrated to improve all cellular energy, and certainly energy produced for the heart. They all revolve around improving mitochondrial function:

Lower Your Toxic Burden With Blood Donation and Sauna

In addition to lowering iron, blood donation can also lower the levels of certain plastic chemicals in your blood. Another effective way to excrete heavy metals and plastic chemicals from your tissues is through sweating. I recommend using a near-infrared sauna with low EMFs for this purpose, as the near-infrared rays can penetrate far deeper into your body than far-infrared.

Other benefits of sauna use include improved cardiovascular fitness and reduced all-cause mortality, lower blood pressure, reduced dementia risk, improved mental health, strengthened immune function, improved athletic endurance, reduced inflammation, stem cell activation, improved insulin sensitivity and a reduction in stress hormones.

As a general recommendation, stay in the sauna for 20 to 30 minutes, or until you reach subjective fatigue, which is a sign that you’ve maxed out the benefits you’re going to get. It’s not about reaching a point of suffering — just that point where you’re feeling mildly anxious and tired and want to get out.

As for the frequency, research has consistently shown that it’s dose-dependent, so the more often you do it, the greater the benefits. The sweet spot seems to be right around four times a week, because you’ll also be losing minerals along with toxins. So, you need to rehydrate and replenish those minerals to avoid mineral deficiencies. For more details, including how to build your own near-infrared sauna, see “Near-Infrared Sauna Therapy — A Key Biohack for Health.”

Progesterone Counteracts Xenoestrogen Exposure From Plastics

To counteract the hazards of estrogenic exposure from plastics you can use progesterone, which is a natural estrogen antagonist. Progesterone is one of only four hormones I believe many adults can benefit from. (The other three are thyroid hormone T3, DHEA and pregnenolone.)

As a general recommendation, I recommend taking 25 to 50 mg of bioidentical progesterone per a day, taken in the evening one hour before bed, as it can also promote sleep. For optimal bioavailability, progesterone needs to be mixed into natural vitamin E. The difference in bioavailability between taking progesterone orally without vitamin E and taking it with vitamin E is 45 minutes versus 48 hours.

Another good reason for taking progesterone with vitamin E is because it binds to red blood cells, which allows the progesterone to be carried throughout your body and be distributed to where it’s needed the most.

Simply Progesterone by Health Natura is premixed with vitamin E and MCT oil. You can also make your own by dissolving pure USP progesterone powder into one capsule of a high-quality vitamin E, and then rub the mixture on your gums. Fifty milligrams of powdered progesterone is about 1/32 teaspoon.

Do not use synthetic vitamin E (alpha tocopherol acetate — the acetate indicates that it’s synthetic). Natural vitamin E will be labeled “d alpha tocopherol.” This is the pure D isomer, which is what your body can use. There are also other vitamin E isomers, and you want the complete spectrum of tocopherols and tocotrienols, specifically the beta, gamma, and delta types, in the effective D isomer.

I do not recommend transdermal progesterone, as your skin expresses high levels of 5-alpha reductase enzyme, which causes a significant portion of the progesterone you're taking to be irreversibly converted primarily into allopregnanolone and cannot be converted back into progesterone.

Preventing Toxic Exposures Is Key

Of course, prevention — minimizing your exposure to heavy metals and estrogenic compounds such as microplastics — really needs to be your first line of defense.

While that sounds easy enough, it can be tricky business, for the simple reason that these toxins are all around us, in our food, water, household dust, clothing, household and personal care items and even the air we breathe. That said, making a concerted effort to rid your household of plastic can go a long way toward minimizing your and your children’s exposure. Here are a few suggestions to get you started:

Eat More Yogurt and Avoid Osteoporosis

Editor's Note: This article is a reprint. It was originally published May 29, 2017.

If someone asked you who invented yogurt and how long it's been on the foodie landscape, you may not know the answer, so I'll tell you. Yogurt was probably one of the first-ever "processed" foods, as it was created as a happy accident somewhere in Central Asia as early as the Neolithic Age, 4,500 years before the Common Era, aka the Christian Era.

If you've ever wondered how humans survived those prehistoric epochs, yogurt consumption may help explain it. As a cultured milk product, we've known for some time it helps balance your intestinal bacteria for digestive health, but research¹ reveals it also has advantages for your bones.

In fact, the research showed a yogurt-inclusive diet increased bone density and lowered osteoporosis risk. Yogurt, you may remember, is actually fermented milk. You could even call it edible bacteria, which is surprisingly easy to make if you have a few key ingredients and the right conditions.

It may help your gut develop a healthy microbiome and eliminate toxins. Take two beneficial bacteria, lactobacillus bulgaricus and streptococcus thermophilus, add them to high-quality raw, grass fed milk, and when it's a certain temperature, it will ferment. While that may not sound all that appetizing, the end-product will be a smooth, delicious-tasting yogurt.

Early Yogurt Production and Consumption

The potential health benefits of milk products were recorded in Ayurvedic medicine as early as 6,000 B.C. Today,² Indian cuisine serves up hundreds of types of yogurt, and its name, "yogurt," is universal.

When America learned the secret of bacteria-fermented milk, it set about "diversifying" the product, mixing it with fruit, honey or sugar to make it more palatable, which you'll learn a little later actually served to make yogurt less a healthy, go-to snack and more of a health liability.

Today, proponents in Turkey and Eastern Mediterranean regions create products such as a drink (ayran), cucumber mix (cacık in Turkish), soup paste (tarhana) and yogurt cheese (çökelek in Turkish) prepared as it's been for centuries in cultures that continue to thrive.

Why is this significant? Because what was discovered by researchers based at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland, in early 2017 was that besides improved overall physical fitness, eating yogurt daily was linked with a 31% lower risk of osteopenia and a 39% lower risk of osteoporosis, as well as a 52% lower risk in men compared with non-yogurt eaters.³ Bel Marra Health reported:⁴

"In order to identify the reasoning behind this association and the risk factors for being diagnosed as osteoporotic, an analysis of several factors such as BMI, kidney function, physical activity, servings of milk or cheese, and calcium or vitamin D supplementation as well as traditional risk factors for bone health — like smoking and alcohol intake — were taken into account."

Eating High-Quality Yogurt May Protect Your Bones

The New York Times said the scientists tracked more than 4,300 adults, taking several factors into consideration, and found that compared to people who didn't eat it at all, those who ate yogurt daily had a 3% to 4% increase in bone density.⁵

Bone loss is the cause of osteoporosis, or literally "porous bones," a malady suffered by 10.2 million people in the U.S., most of whom are women, according to Medical News Today.⁶ Incredibly, medications many doctors give their patients for this condition may cause fractures due to increased bone loss and are linked with a higher cancer risk.

The researchers also found that the participants' bone loss biomarkers were 9.5% lower for those who ate more yogurt compared to those who consumed the least, indicating that there was less bone breakdown. Eamon Laird, lead study author and postdoctoral research fellow at Trinity College Dublin, noted:⁷

"Yogurt is a rich source of different bone promoting nutrients and thus our findings in some ways are not surprising. The data suggest that improving yogurt intakes could be a strategy for maintaining bone health but it needs verification through future research as it is observational.

The results demonstrate a significant association of bone health and frailty with a relatively simple and cheap food product. What is now needed is verification of these observations from randomized controlled trials as we still don't understand the exact mechanisms which could be due to the benefits of microbiota or the macro and micronutrient composition of the yogurt."

However, Laird added that because the study was observational in nature, it didn't necessarily prove cause and effect. He said that one thing it does prove, however, is that yogurt is a good source of micronutrients, vitamin D, B vitamins and calcium, not to mention protein and probiotics.

But while other dairy products don't have the same beneficial effects that yogurt has, yogurt often is loaded down with so many additives and sugar that any advantages go by the wayside. Such additives turn yogurt into a health detriment rather than being a positive, nutritionally. Laird cautioned, "We have to be careful about that."

Problems to Look for When Buying Yogurt

Reading labels on the yogurt you buy at the store is important. Some brands may offer a few "clean" options, but most of them are loaded with harmful additives. The Cornucopia Institute offers a "scorecard" for commercial yogurts, by brand as opposed to individual products, for consumers to get a better idea of what they're buying, and:⁸

"[T]o hold manufacturers and marketers accountable for turning yogurt — an ancient, wholesome food — into a convenience/ junk food loaded with sweeteners, preservatives, thickeners, milk replacements and artificial flavors and colors ...

Organic food dramatically reduces exposure to toxic agrochemicals. In addition, peer-reviewed, published research indicates that organic milk is nutritionally superior to conventional milk, which often comes from dairy cows confined in feedlots and fed a diet of GMO [genetically modified organism] grain … [and] nutrition in addition to lower levels of chemical residues."

There are yogurt brands out there with 22 or more grams of sugar per serving — as much or more than what you'd find in a Twinkie! The negative effects from sugar far outweigh the minimal probiotic benefits you may receive from store-bought yogurt. Some of the problems to look for when buying yogurt include:

Yogurt Is Good for You When It's 'Clean'

Probiotics play an incredibly beneficial role in your gut health. The type and quantity of microorganisms in your gut interact with your body in ways that can either prevent or encourage the development of many diseases.

Yogurt is a great source of natural, healthy bacteria as long as it's not pasteurized, is made from grass fed cows' milk and does not contain added sugars or artificial sweeteners. Food Babe¹⁰ says the only yogurt she recommends is plain organic yogurt, either Greek or regular (I would add to make it grass fed as well), and asserts:

"The food industry has a reputation of taking incredibly healthy items and turning them into processed junk food and this is exactly what has happened to most yogurts available on the market ...

Conventional yogurt usually comes from milk produced by cows that are confined and unable to graze in open pasture. They're usually fed GMO grains, not grass. As the yogurt ferments, chemical defoamers are sometimes added … These practices alarm me, since yogurt has been such a healthy, longevity-promoting food for ages."

What you may not realize when you pick yogurt up from a grocery store dairy case is that yogurt is only as good as the milk that was used to make it. To ensure your yogurt contains all the good and none of the bad ingredients for optimal health, it's not difficult to make your own, using 100% organic, raw, grass fed milk.

Most people know that yogurt provides calcium, a mineral the National Osteoporosis Foundation¹¹ says is necessary for life, as it builds bones, helps your blood to clot and allows your muscles to contract and your nerves to send messages. Further, when you don't get enough calcium (and it's best derived from food), it's leached from your bones.

Besides the all-important vitamin D, B vitamins are another reason to eat grass fed yogurt. Then there's phosphorus, potassium and riboflavin, as well as high-quality protein, beneficial probiotics and cancer-fighting conjugated linoleic acid, or CLA, a very important fatty acid, of which one of the only other sources is grass fed beef.

Diverse Agriculture Benefits People and the Environment at the Same Time

Industrialized farming is characterized by monoculture, or growing one type of crop over a large area, season after season. While said to be efficient and profitable, this oversimplification of farming systems comes with significant drawbacks that put human health and the environment at risk.

Diversification, on the other hand, may be the age-old "secret" to not only increase crop yields and improve food security but also protect the planet. "If you look at how ecosystems operate, it's not just plants growing alone. It's not just animals or soil. It's all of these things working together," Zia Mehrabi, assistant professor of environmental studies at the University of Colorado Boulder, said in a news release.¹

Mehrabi and colleagues conducted a study showing that diversified agriculture had "win-win outcomes" for both society and the environment.² To put it simply, "Drop monoculture and industrial thinking and diversify the way you farm — it pays off," said Laura Vang Rasmussen of the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, the study’s lead author.³

Landmark Study Reveals Major Benefits of Diversified Agriculture

Using data from 24 studies in 11 countries, spanning 2,655 farms, the scientists revealed that five diversification strategies led to positive outcomes for people and the planet. This includes:

• Livestock inclusion and diversification
• Crop diversification, including crop rotation and cover crops
• Soil conservation and fertility management, such as compost application
• Noncrop plantings, including hedgerows
• Water conservation, such as contour farming

Contour farming, for instance, is an agricultural technique where crops are planted following the natural contours of the landscape rather than in straight lines. This method is particularly useful on sloped land, as it helps reduce soil erosion by slowing runoff water and allowing it to soak into the ground rather than washing soil away.

By planting along the contours, farmers can create natural barriers that trap water and reduce the velocity of water moving across the surface. Hedgerows, meanwhile, are lines of densely planted shrubs or trees that are commonly used as boundaries between different sections of land. They’ve been used for centuries in agriculture, particularly in Europe, to mark property lines, contain livestock and provide windbreaks to protect crops.

In addition to improving biodiversity in agricultural landscapes by providing a variety of plant species and supporting different types of wildlife, hedgerows help to reduce agricultural runoff, filter pollutants and improve water quality in nearby streams and rivers.

Use of Multiple Diversification Strategies Led to the Greatest Benefits

On farms using diversification strategies, social benefits, including human well-being, crop yields and food security, were noted, along with environmental gains, including improved biodiversity.⁴ The benefits were greatest when multiple diversification strategies were used at once, and applied to all different types of farms.

"The group discovered that farmers and ranchers can achieve many more benefits if they employ several agricultural solutions in tandem, rather than just one at a time," the University of Colorado reported. "For Mehrabi, the study reveals a new vision for food around the globe — one in which farms and pastures work less like factories for churning out calories and more like healthy natural ecosystems."⁵

What’s more, the study spanned agricultural operations across the globe, from small farms in rural Africa to plantation crops in Southeast Asia and large-scale farms in North America and Europe. "The crazy thing is that the positive effect of adding multiple diversification practices is true across wildly different contexts," Mehrabi said. "It works on industrial farms in the U.S. and in small-scale maize farms in Malawi."⁶

Half of the farms in the study, for instance, used some form of livestock integration, in which animals and crops are raised together within the same farming operation. Benefits include nutrient recycling, as animal waste provides a rich source of organic fertilizer for the crops, enhancing soil fertility without the need for chemical fertilizers.

Livestock integration also provides a natural form of weed and pest control. Sheep and goats, for instance, can graze on weeds, and the grazing has an added benefit of improving soil structure and aeration. The study revealed that livestock integration increases the amount of food the farm produces, reduces damage to soil and decreases environmental pollution. As the University of Colorado noted:⁷

"In many cases, Mehrabi said, more diverse farms can deliver extra benefits because they can better weather natural disasters like droughts or heat waves. In other cases, the positives are more subtle. If small-scale farmers grow fruit trees amid their crops, for example, they can eat those bananas or papayas themselves while selling the rest of the harvest."

Green Revolution Ushered in Industrialized Agriculture With Negative Effects

The Green Revolution that occurred between the 1940s and 1960s is heralded with increasing agricultural production worldwide. But it was instrumental in the implementation of industrialized agriculture, including genetic engineering, monocrops and increased use of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides.

Soil degradation, reduced soil fertility, pollution from chemical inputs and increased water use are all part of the Green Revolution’s legacy. According to the featured study:⁸

"Historically, the architects of the Green Revolution were primarily concerned with breeding crops and developing agronomic inputs to increase staple crop yields and respond to food security needs.

However, the focus of their policies on simplifying agricultural systems came with unintended large and negative environmental impacts such as pollution, as well as social side effects such as farmer indebtedness, reduction of peoples’ dietary diversity, and reduced resilience.

This has led to widespread calls for a change in agricultural development policy that addresses the negative side effects directly through the action of biologically diversified farming systems."

The Corbett Report further explained why the so-called "Green" Revolution served to make oligarchs richer while threatening farmers and the environment:⁹

"It was John D. Rockefeller III who, when sitting on the Board of Trustees of the Ford Foundation, convinced his fellow oligarchs to join the 'Green Revolution' by founding the Intensive Agriculture District Programme in India, which exacerbated the disparity between rich feudal landowners and poor farming peasants.

And then of course there's the Rockefeller's work in Africa, which today takes the form of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa. AGRA's stated goal is to 'elevate the single African voice' on the world stage.

It all sounds nice and fuzzy until you learn that 200 organizations have come together to denounce the alliance and its activities. They claim that the group has not only 'unequivocally failed in its mission' but has actually 'harmed broader efforts to support African farmers.'"

AGRA, an organization funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation,¹⁰ was launched in 2006 with funding from Gates Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation. It’s essentially a Gates Foundation subsidiary and most of its goals are centered on promoting biotechnology and chemical fertilizers.

After more than a decade, AGRA’s influence has significantly worsened the situation in the 18 African nations targeted by this "philanthropic" endeavor. Hunger under AGRA’s direction increased by 30% and rural poverty rose dramatically.¹¹ During our interview, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. noted:¹²

"He [Gates] got African countries to switch from traditional agriculture ... to GMO monocultures, with this idea that this is part of globalization that will bring big corporations in who will buy your products, give you cash and lift everybody's standard of living up. That was the promise. But exactly the opposite happened ...

It's been an absolute calamity for the people of Africa. I think there's 30 million additional people who have become food insecure as a direct result of Gates' Green Revolution, but Gates and his companies have made a killing ... In each philanthropical effort he makes, there's always, at the end of it, some moneymaking scheme for Gates and his foundation."

Living in Concert With Nature Makes Biodiversity Thrive

Diversified agriculture depends on living in concert with nature and creating thriving, self-sustaining ecosystems. Some farmers have also learned how to harness the natural environmental benefits of wildlife around them — even beavers, which are often mistakenly viewed as pests.

Centuries ago, about 200 million beavers maintained a "lush Eden of interlocking streams, creeks, ponds, lakes and rivers," according to author Roberta Staley in Modern Farmer.¹³ But as their animal pelts became prized for trading, their numbers dwindled — and so did their priceless gift to the environment.

Staley relates the story of Jon Griggs, manager of Maggie Creek Ranch in Elko, Nevada. The 200,000-acre ranch’s streams dried up after beavers were removed from the property for felling trees and blocking irrigation ditches. Then, Griggs partnered with the Bureau of Land Management and beavers were reintroduced, restoring balance to the ecosystem not only on the ranch but on surrounding public lands. Staley reported:¹⁴

"First, cattle’s access to creek beds during the spring and summer growing periods was restricted, allowing brush and grasses to regrow. As a result, creeks began widening, cooling and deepening. Willows took root, creating an ecosystem that could support beavers, which consume such woody species.

… Griggs watched as a new generation of Castor canadensis began to re-engineer the landscape by building dams, creating pools of water that preserved the snow melt and the dozen or so inches of annual rainfall. The moisture created green oases half a mile wide that emanated from the creeks. Grazing expanded. Cattle had more and better-quality drinking water. Trout flourished. The creeks flowed year-round."

Staley also interviewed the owner of a 10,000-acre ranch that includes national forest in Idaho. The area’s main source of water — Birch Creek — dried up, but was restored when beavers were released. But not only did the beavers restore a crucial water source for the ranch’s cattle, they also led to an increase in other wildlife, including reptiles, water fowl, insects and mammals.¹⁵

It’s another powerful lesson on how embracing nature can solve many of the environmental challenges that modern-day farming created.

Overcoming Barriers to Diverse Agriculture

The Science study acknowledged that financial and other barriers exist for many farmers interested in switching to more diverse agricultural practices. Government subsidies exist, but they’re overwhelmingly geared toward support of industrialized programs at the expense of biodiversity and small farmers alike. The University of Colorado explained:¹⁶

"Governments already spend huge sums to buffer the agricultural industry. Some nations, for example, subsidize farmers so that they can grow water-intensive crops in areas that don’t get a lot of rain. That money might be better spent, Mehrabi said, in helping farmers diversify."

Chronic Pain Due to Mitochondrial Dysfunction, Niacinamide Can Treat It

About 21% of U.S. adults suffer from chronic pain, with new cases occurring more often than new cases of other common conditions like diabetes, depression and high blood pressure.¹ Pain is considered chronic if it occurs every day or most days over a period of three months or more.

For about 8%, the chronic pain is considered high-impact,² meaning it limits life or work activities, demonstrating the heavy burden this condition places on those affected. Many reach for dangerous opioid drugs for relief, which suppress mitochondria³ — the last thing you want if you’re struggling with chronic pain.

Chronic Pain Is a Symptom of Mitochondrial Dysfunction

Researchers with Utrecht University in the Netherlands revealed that nicotinamide riboside (NR) — a form of vitamin B3 and precursor to nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+), a molecule involved in DNA repair and healthy aging — helps relieve chronic pain in mice⁴ by improving mitochondrial function.

“Previous research has linked chronic pain to dysfunctional mitochondria, particularly those in specialized nerve cells, called sensory neurons, which detect changes in the environment,” New Scientist reported.⁵

For the study, an inflammatory substance was injected into the paws of 15 mice, which led to changes in mitochondrial function, even a week later after the inflammation had resolved. The mitochondrial changes were associated with greater pain in the mice, which also had lower levels of NR in the mitochondria of their sensory neurons compared to mice that didn’t experience inflammation.⁶

NR plays an important role in mitochondrial function, so researchers gave the mice a high dose, which alleviated pain.

“Together these findings indicate two things: first, that inflammation can impair mitochondrial function in sensory neurons and that these impairments increase the risk of chronic pain, even after inflammation has resolved. Second, that taking nicotinamide riboside supplements may help treat this chronic pain by restoring mitochondrial function,” according to New Scientist.⁷

The study may help shed some light on why some people continue to experience pain even after inflammation has healed, which remains a largely unanswered question. The researchers noticed that even after the initial pain from inflammation goes away, the nerve cells involved in sensing pain still show changes in their mitochondria that disrupt the balance of certain chemicals in the cells.

However, adding the NAD+ precursor NR helped mice recover from pain, even when it was chronic. This suggests that managing mitochondria function in these nerve cells is crucial for overcoming persistent pain after inflammation.

Vitamin B3 for Chronic Pain

As noted in the blog To Extract Knowledge From Matter, which is inspired by the work of the late Ray Peat, niacinamide, another form of vitamin B3 involved in similar cellular processes as NR, may be useful for relieving chronic pain:⁸

“The study … is one of the first to demonstrate that chronic pain is not an organic disorder of its own, but a symptom of an underlying mitochondrial dysfunction. This not only explain why the intervention with niacinamide worked in alleviating the pain (by improving mitochondrial function), but also why treating chronic pain with opioids is about the worst intervention one could choose.

Why? Because opioids are among the most potent suppressors of mitochondria, which means that as soon as one stops taking them the chronic pain will be much worse, leading to more opioid use and so on — a vicious cycle with usually lethal outcome (overdose).”

In fact, one study found that people who use opioids tend to have fewer mitochondria in their blood. Further, being exposed to the synthetic opioid fentanyl before birth was found to change the number of mitochondria in the blood and the activity of genes related to mitochondria in the nucleus accumbens, a brain area important for feeling pleasure, in young offspring.⁹

To Extract Knowledge From Matter continued explaining why the featured study’s use of vitamin B3 is superior to opioids for chronic pain:¹⁰

“The niacinamide dose used in this study was on the high-side (HED [human equivalent dose] ~35mg/kg daily), but considering it was administrated only once and the pain was completely resolved, it is a low-risk intervention in such doses for humans, especially compared to opioids.

Also, there are prior animal studies showing that lower doses (HED 3mg/kg daily) taken for a few weeks can also relieve chronic pain, which lowers the risk of such intervention even more.”

Your Mitochondria Need Niacinamide

Niacinamide, also known as nicotinamide, is a form of niacin (vitamin B3) that plays a vital role in energy metabolism. It’s essential for the mitochondrial electron transport chain to function. Without it, your mitochondria cannot make energy.

Niacinamide is so important because it is a precursor for NAD+, which is involved in the conversion of food to energy, maintaining DNA integrity and ensuring proper cell function. NAD+ is also a primary fuel for sirtuins, longevity proteins that become depleted with age.

Niacinamide at a dose of 50 milligrams (mg) three times per day will provide the fuel for the rate limiting enzyme for NAD+, NAMPT. Niacinamide also has potent antiobesity effects, can help prevent neurodegeneration and heart failure, and reverse leaky gut.

Niacinamide may also help prevent neurodegeneration by allowing for higher energy levels through energy metabolism in the mitochondria. “There are many studies, going back decades, demonstrating that a drop in NAD+ levels, and thus of NAD/NADH, is a common feature of virtually all neurodegenerative diseases,” writes Peat’s student Georgi Dinkov, a bioenergetic researcher.¹¹

I recommend getting niacinamide in powder form because the lowest available dose in most supplements is 500 mg, and that will decrease NAD+ due to negative feedback on NAMPT, which is the opposite of what you’re looking for. Niacinamide will only cost you about 25 cents a month if you get it as a powder. Typically, 1/64 of a teaspoon of niacinamide powder is about 50 mg.

I also recommend taking one aspirin tablet daily. Aspirin plays a role in mitochondria function¹² and also has other health benefits. Importantly, it helps increase the oxidation of glucose as fuel for your body while inhibiting the oxidation of fatty acids, specifically linoleic acid (LA). Dinkov adds:¹³

“Since aspirin is known to modulate autophagy (raise it when it is abnormally low and lower it when it is abnormally high) and niacinamide is a very effective NAD precursor, it is reasonable to try them in combination that should be synergistic when it comes to protecting the brain (and the entire organism) from diseases and even aging.”

Why Avoiding LA in Ultraprocessed Foods Is Important for Pain Relief

Lowering your LA is the single most important strategy you can take to not only lower reductive stress in your mitochondria but improve your overall health, including relief of chronic pain. LA is an omega-6 fat found in the vegetable oils and seed oils common in most ultraprocessed foods.

The main reason why excess LA causes disease is that it prevents your mitochondria from working well. Mitochondria produce most of your cellular energy in the form of ATP, and without ATP, your cells cannot function and repair themselves normally.

Polyunsaturated fats (PUFAs) such as LA are easily damaged by oxygen in a process called oxidation,¹⁴ which triggers the creation of damaging free radicals.¹⁵ These, in turn, give rise to advanced lipoxidation end products (ALEs)¹⁶ and in the case of omega-6 fats, oxidized LA metabolites (OXLAMs).^17,18

These ALEs and OXLAMs then go on to cause mitochondrial dysfunction, which is a hallmark of most chronic disease. In addition to oxidation, inflammation and mitochondrial dysfunction, processed seed oils can also inhibit cardiolipin, an important fat in the inner membrane of your mitochondria.

Cardiolipin is important because it influences the structure of the cristae inside your mitochondria, which is the area where energy production occurs. If cardiolipin is damaged, then the complexes will not be close enough together to form supercomplexes, and thus the mitochondrial energy production will be impaired.

Cardiolipin also works like a cellular alarm system that triggers apoptosis (cell death) by signaling caspase-3 when something goes wrong with the cell. If the cardiolipin is damaged from oxidative stress due to having too much LA, it cannot signal caspase-3, which means apoptosis does not occur.

As a result, dysfunctional cells are allowed to continue to grow, which can turn into a cancerous cell. The type of dietary fat that promotes healthy cardiolipin is omega-3 fat, and the type that destroys it is omega-6, especially LA.

The good news is that dietary changes can improve the composition of fats in your cardiolipin in a matter of weeks, or even days. So, even though it will take years to lower your total body burden of LA, you will likely notice improvements well before then.

How to Optimize Your Mitochondrial Function

To optimize your mitochondrial function, you want to avoid LA as much as possible and increase your intake of omega-3s. Primary sources of LA include seed oils used in cooking, ultraprocessed foods and restaurant foods made with seed oils, condiments, seeds and nuts, most olive oils and avocado oils (due to the high prevalence of adulteration with cheaper seed oils).

Animal foods raised on grains, such as conventional chicken and pork, are also high in LA. Another major culprit that destroys mitochondrial function is excess iron — and almost everyone has too much iron. You can learn more about the health risks of excess iron in my interview with Christy Sutton, D.C. The most effective way to lower your iron is to donate blood two to four times a year.

As mentioned, I also recommend taking 50 mg of niacinamide three times per day. It’s also helpful to make sure you’re getting all the other B vitamins, as they too are crucial for mitochondrial function, especially regular niacin, riboflavin and folate.

Oftentimes, decreased mitochondrial function is due to a deficiency in B vitamins, and that’s easy to fix with a low-dose, high-quality B complex. Usually, when this is the case, improvement can be seen — and felt — within two to three weeks.

Too Many Children Are Taking Melatonin

Editor's Note: This article is a reprint. It was originally published June 22, 2017.

Melatonin is an important hormone produced by your body's pineal gland. One of its primary roles is regulating your body's circadian rhythm. When it gets dark, your brain starts secreting melatonin (typically around 9 or 10 p.m.), which makes you sleepy. Levels typically stay elevated for about 12 hours, then, as the sun rises, your pineal gland reduces your production, and the levels in your blood decrease until they're hardly measurable at all.

When your circadian rhythms are disrupted, such as from shift work, jet lag or nighttime light exposure, your body produces less melatonin. It's these instances when supplementing with small amounts of melatonin can be most useful, as it may help to reset your internal clock.¹ However, a growing number of children are reportedly now taking the supplement to help them sleep, which could be associated with long-term risks.

Melatonin May Help Children With Certain Sleep Disorders

If your child has a unique medical need that makes nighttime sleep difficult, melatonin may be helpful and is likely safer than prescription sleep aids. One example would be children with autism, for whom sleep disorders are common and may intensify autistic symptoms. Melatonin has been found to help synchronize circadian rhythms and improve sleep quality and behavior in individuals with autism.²

Among children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and chronic sleep onset insomnia, melatonin was also found to be an effective therapy in 88% of cases even when used long-term, with no serious adverse events reported.³ Further, behavior and mood also improved in 71% and 61% of the cases, respectively.

Most Children Should Be Able to Get a Sound Night's Sleep Without Melatonin

For children who are otherwise healthy but struggle with bedtime on occasion, however, melatonin should be used with caution, if at all. "Most pediatricians know little about sleep or melatonin. For non-autistic children it is a fashionable treatment for parents wanting 'perfect' children," Dr. Neil Stanley, former director of sleep research at the University of Surrey, told The Guardian.⁴

While melatonin is thought to be relatively safe when used for short or even medium periods (up to 18 months), some children are taking the supplement for six or seven years. The long-term effects of melatonin on children are largely unknown, but there is some research that suggests it could interfere with the production of hormones related to puberty. According to one study, caution is warranted even in children with ADHD and chronic insomnia:⁵

"Very little systematic research has been done into the possible impact of melatonin intake on puberty and the endocrine system. Therefore, treatment with melatonin in children with ADHD and (C)SOI [chronic sleep-onset insomnia] is best reserved for children with persistent insomnia which is having a severe impact on daily functioning, particularly in cases where [there] is an obvious phase-shift of the endogenous circadian rhythm."

There are, however, those who support its use, even among healthy children — 25% of whom are said to suffer from insomnia (this rises to 75% in children with neurodevelopmental or psychiatric conditions).⁶

According to a review published in the journal Canadian Family Physician, "For children with otherwise undiagnosed insomnia and healthy sleep hygiene, melatonin use should be considered. While melatonin seems to be safe, there is a lack of evidence for its routine use among healthy children."⁷

Proper Sleep Hygiene Should Be Addressed First

There are concerns that a synthetic form of melatonin is being overprescribed to children who could improve their sleep using other methods, like adopting a regular bedtime routine. This may be as simple as pulling down your window shades, putting your child in pajamas, reading a story and turning on some white noise, followed by a hug and kiss.⁸

Behavioral modifications and attention to proper sleep hygiene should always be the first line of treatment if your child is having trouble sleeping, even before trying a natural supplement like melatonin. In particular, the College of Family Physicians of Canada suggested:⁹

Attention to light and darkness, at the appropriate times of day, is also important. Your body requires exposure to bright daylight, especially in the early morning, to produce healthy amounts of melatonin each night. Getting sunlight in the morning is one way to help reset your circadian clock daily. Ten to 15 minutes of morning sunlight sends a strong message that it's time to rise and shine. In this way, your body is less likely to be confused by weaker light signals later in the day.

My rule of thumb is, if there is enough light in your bedroom at night to see your hand in front of your face, then there is too much light. Your body requires light during the day to produce healthy amounts of melatonin, but at night, light inhibits production.

So, it's difficult to get too much light during the day and easy to get too much at night. In addition to installing blackout drapes in your child's bedroom, avoid exposure to blue light at night and have your child wear blue-light-blocking glasses after the sun sets.

At What Age Should Your Children Sleep in Their Own Room?

In 2016, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) released their sleep guidelines for infants, intended to reduce the risk of SIDS and other sleep-related infant deaths.

In addition to putting babies to sleep on their back until 1 year of age, they also recommend both a firm sleep surface with no other bedding or soft objects and breastfeeding. In addition, AAP recommends that infants sleep in their parents' room, close to the parents' bed (such as in a bedside portable crib) for at least the first six months and ideally for the first year.¹⁰

In contrast, a study published in Pediatrics in June 2017 found that room-sharing at ages 4 months and 9 months was associated with worse sleep outcomes.¹¹ Instead, babies who slept in their own rooms prior to 4 months of age slept 40 minutes more a night than babies still room-sharing at 9 months.¹² There's much controversy in this area, however, and how long your infant stays in your bedroom may depend on practical matters and personal preferences as well.

Further, while health officials typically advise against bed-sharing with infants, some experts believe the practice of bed-sharing, when done safely and with a breastfeeding mother, may actually reduce the risk of SIDS and provide a safe sleeping environment.¹³ In case you're wondering how much sleep your child actually needs, here are the guidelines from the National Sleep Foundation (NSF):¹⁴

• Infants (4 to 12 months) — 12 to 16 hours
• Toddlers (1 to 2 years) — 11 to 14 hours
• Preschoolers (3 to 5 years) — 10 to 13 hours
• School-age children (6 to 12 years) — 9 to 12 hours
• Teenagers (13 to 18 years) — 8 to 10 hours

Sleep Tips From Fellow Parents

Sometimes, fellow parents have insightful tips to help children get to sleep. In an article posted on Growing Slower, one mom shared what finally helped her toddler get a good night's sleep, and it involved a long process of trial-and-error to find the right combination of "tricks" that worked for their family. Among them:¹⁵

It's important to remember, too, that children sleep better when parents take an active role in creating a positive sleep environment. According to NSF, "When parents set and enforce sleep rules, children sleep longer."¹⁶

For instance, setting and enforcing a set bedtime and limit on how late your child can watch TV or use the computer may boost sleep by more than one hour a night. Being a good role model is also important, including limiting your own exposure to electronic devices and blue light at night and wrapping up your work prior to bedtime.

Even doing homework too late at night may make it difficult for your child to fall asleep. "Make sleep a healthy priority in your family's busy schedule," NSF states. "Set appropriate and consistent bedtimes for yourself and your children and stick to them, and talk to your child about the importance of sleep for health and well-being."¹⁷

Boost Your Child's Natural Melatonin

Before considering melatonin supplementation for your child, it makes sense to engage in habits that will increase your child's natural melatonin production and improve overall health. The tips that follow apply to both children and adults.

How Ultraprocessed Foods Are Slowly Killing Us

Consumption of ultraprocessed foods in the U.S. grew from 53.5% of the total calories consumed between 2001 to 2002 to 57% of the total calories consumed between 2017 to 2018.¹

During a lecture at the Royal Institution in October 2023,² Dr. Chris van Tulleken from the University College London cited 60% of the total calories in Great Britain are consumed from ultraprocessed foods and 1-in-5 people consume 80% of their calories from ultraprocessed food.

A 2024 systematic review of the literature³ confirmed what multiple past studies have also shown — the higher your intake of ultraprocessed food, the higher your risk of adverse health outcomes. Many of these adverse health events are closely linked to obesity and van Tulleken finds strong associations between consuming ultraprocessed food and obesity.

During his lecture,⁴ he presented a slide illustrating the meteoric rise in obesity that began in the mid-1970s, calling the situation "pandemic obesity." At the time, childhood obesity was a mere 2% but now it’s more than 20%.

Data Confirms Ultraprocessed Food Is Killing Us

To fully understand how ultraprocessed food is altering human health, it is crucial to understand what it is. The concept of ultraprocessed food didn't become part of nutritional conversations until the NOVA system was first proposed in 2009 by Carlos Monteiro. Researchers now use this system to classify types of foods used in interventional studies.

Van Tulleken notes that the category definitions are long and involved, so he simplified ultraprocessed food as: "Wrapped in plastic with at least one ingredient you wouldn't normally find in a standard home kitchen."⁵ However, while van Tulleken notes that ultraprocessed food does drive excess consumption and weight gain, it doesn't just cause obesity.⁶

There is also a strong association with a long list of other diseases such as cardiovascular disease, certain cancers, Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, fatty liver disease, inflammatory bowel disease, mood disorders, frailty and other "complaints that we all just think are part of growing old."

The 2024 analysis⁷ included 45 unique pooled analyses and 9,888,373 participants. There was a direct association between 32 health parameters and exposure to ultraprocessed food. These health outcomes included metabolic, cancer, mental, respiratory, heart, gastrointestinal and all-cause mortality.

According to this study and others, this increasing exposure is contributing to rising rates of chronic disease and illness in the population. In other words, eating ultraprocessed foods is slowly killing us and, we really are what we eat.

Humans Have Always Processed Food

Van Tulleken notes that processed foods are not the same as ultraprocessed foods because processing is ancient.⁸ He calls humans the "only obligate processivores," or mammals that must process their food before eating. Compared to other mammals of similar size and weight, humans have much smaller jaws and teeth with shorter digestive tracts.

The kitchen became our extended gastrointestinal system where knives and grinders are used to cut and chop food and cooking is used to process, mash and extract to make food more easily digestible.

"For hundreds of thousands of years, we've been grinding it and mashing it and extracting it and salting it and curing it and fermenting it and smoking it and doing all of these wonderful things that make diets edible and delicious," van Tulleken said.

A 2022 paper⁹ noted that a food product is not simply the sum of the nutrients and that "Human diets are progressively incorporating larger quantities of industrially processed foods." Throughout his lecture, van Tulleken agreed. In the early 2000s when Carlos Montero proposed the NOVA system, he also proposed that food is more than the sum of its parts and that how we process food matters to how our body processes food.¹⁰

What We Do to Food Matters

As an example of why processing is important, van Tulleken recounted an experiment done in the 1970s by a group of scientists in Bristol. The group used apples. They left some unprocessed, some chopped into chunks, some pureed and some were squashed with the fiber out. The processing was done immediately before the participants consumed them and what they found was revealing.¹¹

"If you eat a whole apple, it leaves you feeling fuller for longer, it doesn't spike your blood sugar, and you don't get a sort of rebound hypoglycemia. If you drink the apple juice, you get a big spike of blood sugar, you don't feel full at all. Now, when you back-add the fiber, so it's whole pureed apple, you still get that sugar spike, and you still don't feel satisfied.

So even when we have a pureed whole apple, it's very, very different to eating the whole apple, to dismantling the apple with your teeth. Eating, the act of chewing, of manipulating food with your tongue, causes all sorts of internal physiological changes that are really, really important. So we do need to process food with our mouths."

In 2016, Kevin Hall, a scientist and nutrition researcher with the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, was at a conference with a representative from PepsiCo.¹² They discussed the recent NOVA classifications and Brazil's food guidelines to avoid ultraprocessed foods. Hall believed it was a silly rule because obesity had nothing to do with food processing.

He was attracted to the idea that food is the sum of its nutrient parts. Yet, there was damning evidence in the scientific literature that appeared to be correlative rather than causative. He believed that ultraprocessed foods were being wrongly blamed and so at the end of 2018 he and his colleagues were the first to test whether diet could cause overeating and weight gain.

In a randomized controlled, crossover study,¹³ participants ate either an unlimited amount of ultraprocessed food or an unprocessed diet matched for equal amounts of salt, fat, sugar and fiber for two weeks. The researchers found that while on the ultraprocessed food, the participants gained roughly 1 kilogram (2.2 pounds) and lost the same amount on the unprocessed diet.

Van Tulleken was also curious about how ultraprocessed foods affect the body. So, over one month, the 42-year-old increased his daily intake from 30% of ultraprocessed products to 80%, which mimicked how 20% of the U.K. population eats. By the end of four weeks, van Tulleken experienced a myriad of changes, including:¹⁴

"I felt 10 years older, but I didn't realize it was all [because of] the food until I stopped eating the diet," van Tulleken told the BBC.¹⁵ This is significant since the physician recognized that he had purposely changed his diet, and yet he did not recognize that feeling 10 years older after only four weeks was associated with the food he was eating.

Your Brain Predicts Nutrition From Taste

Van Tulleken makes the point that "The brain is a prediction engine. It's constantly making predictions about the world. And when you get a mismatch between a prediction … there may be a stress response."¹⁶

In his first example, he uses artificial sweeteners and Diet Coke. He notes that these artificial sweeteners are not linked to weight loss and the phosphoric acid in the beverage doesn't just dissolve teeth, it also reduces bone density. He frames it as a way of "commodifying ill health."

Looking at the labels on ultraprocessed foods, he noticed a theme.¹⁷ Each begins with four commodity crops — rice, corn, soy and wheat. The crops are broken down into powder, so they have "a nearly infinite shelf life and cost very, very little." These are then mixed with commodity oils such as vegetable, sunflower and palm oils. These can be mixed with a little meat if needed and then the additives are included.¹⁸

"In the UK and in Europe we have around two and a half thousand additives that we use in food, and they're somewhat regulated. In the United States, there are between 5,000 and 15,000 additives. No one has a list. The FDA who regulate, or are supposed to regulate additives, don't have a list of all the additives that are added to food."

Finally, whey powder, which was once a waste product of the dairy industry, and sugars may be added. Many of these ultraprocessed foods are being sold as healthy. The rating Diet Coke receives is an interesting example, which "gets four green traffic lights on the bottle. So, this isn't just a health food. This is the healthiest product you can possibly buy. Very few foods get four green traffic lights."¹⁹

As van Tulleken notes, the body has evolved a sophisticated system for understanding what food does. This may have been the basis for manufacturers developing the "bliss point," or the point where salt, sweetness and richness were perceived as being just right on the tongue.²⁰ When you taste sweetness, it prepares the body for sugar and carbohydrates.

The initial theory was that the taste released insulin, which dropped blood glucose and made you hungry. Van Tulleken notes that more recent research has demonstrated that artificial sweeteners increase blood glucose, which may be part of a stress response when the body predicts sugar and doesn't receive it.²¹

And the same may be happening with fat. In the 1980s when fat was demonized, food manufacturers began producing low-fat products. The food manufacturers also created the sensation of fatty textures but without real fat. Van Tulleken notes that your mouth isn't tasting for fun, it's an early warning system.

So bitter taste identifies toxins and sweetness tells your body that sugar is on its way. If your mouth detects fat in food that doesn't have fat or savory tastes without protein, he and others believe this is one factor that drives excess consumption. The flavor tells your body a nutrient is coming, but it never arrives. This throws off the homeostatic mechanisms built into mammals.²²

"And remember, we do all have an internal mechanism that is able to say ‘I am full.’ There is no obesity in wild animals, and that is not to do with scarcity of food. Many animals live with very plentiful food, but they have homeostatic mechanisms …

We all have a way of keeping all of our internal physiology the same. Our temperature, our blood pressure, our oxygen levels, our carbon dioxide levels, our blood pH, our sodium, our potassium, we regulate it all tightly. It would be bizarre if we didn't do the same for calorie intake, and we can if we eat real food."

Debunking Food Manufacturers Reasons for Obesity

As the manufactured food industry became a primary driver of obesity and ill health, they also began proposing reasons that people were obese that had nothing to do with the ingredients in the manufactured products. However, as van Tulleken notes throughout his lecture to The Royal Institution, these reasons have since been debunked.

The Most Destructive Ingredient in Ultraprocessed Food

While ultraprocessed foods contain a wide variety of harmful ingredients, including synthetic and/or genetically engineered compounds and contaminants like pesticides, one of the most harmful ingredients found in most processed and ultraprocessed foods is the omega-6 fat linoleic acid (LA), thanks to the liberal use of seed oils in the making of these products.

One significant problem with polyunsaturated fats (PUFAs) like LA is that they are chemically unstable, which makes them highly susceptible to being damaged by oxygen species generated from the energy production in your cells.

This damage causes them to form advanced lipoxidation end-products (ALEs), which in turn generate dangerous free radicals that damage your cell membranes, mitochondria, proteins and DNA. LA also breaks down into harmful metabolites such as oxidized LA metabolites (OXLAMs), which have a profoundly negative impact on your health. These ALEs and OXLAMs then go on to cause mitochondrial dysfunction, which is a hallmark of most all chronic disease.

The video above reviews the health risks associated with vegetable oils and seed oils, which are found in most processed foods. It shows how chronic diseases such as heart disease began to skyrocket after the introduction of these oils to the market.

Seed Oils Are Far Worse Than Sugar

While most nutritional experts blame the epidemic of chronic disease on the increase in sugar consumption, the role of sugar is relatively minor when compared to the impact of seed oils.

Processed foods typically contain about 21% sugar. However, up to 50% or more of the overall calories contained in most processed foods come from seed oils.^27,28 The connection is further confirmed by looking at the U.S. carb consumption. It’s been declining since 1997, yet obesity and Type 2 diabetes have steadily increased. Interestingly, this continued rise coincides with the surge of seed oil consumption.

Another major reason why seed oils are exponentially more pernicious to your health than sugar is that they last much longer in your body. The half-life of LA is around 600 to 680 days, or approximately two years. This means it will take you about six years to replace 95% of the LA in your body with healthy fats. This is the primary reason for keeping your LA intake low as possible.

Meanwhile, your glycogen stores will be exhausted in about one to two days. So, if you go on a sugar binge, that sugar doesn’t stick around for years destroying your health like the LA in seed oils does. Seed oils also play a far greater role in obesity than sugar.

Obesity Is a State of Energy Deficiency

It’s important to understand that obesity is a state of energy deficiency due to inhibited mitochondrial respiration, which causes calories to be stored as fat instead of being burned for fuel. The solution is to optimize your mitochondrial function and raise your metabolic rate.

This inefficient burning of fuel (metabolizing of food) is why people who are obese typically also struggle with other health issues, such as low energy, fatigue, an inability to maintain focus, digestive problems and poor immune function.

It is important to note there is a difference between energy and fuel. Your body uses food for fuel to create energy, which it uses in bodily functions, including muscle contraction, digestion, and cognitive function. An important misconception about weight gain is that you are converting your fuel from food into energy, which is adenosine triphosphate (ATP).

Without activity to burn the energy, your body converts ATP into body fat. In other words, you're not producing enough energy and you're in an energy-deficient state, but you have enough fuel. The fuel is stored because your body cannot efficiently metabolize it.

The result is body fat and insufficient energy which forces your body to down-regulate other systems, such as reproductive hormones, thyroid activity, and systems that are not essential for survival. Unfortunately, you also experience perpetual hunger because the hunger signal is predominantly regulated by energy availability.

This in turn leads to overeating, resulting in a vicious cycle of low energy and weight gain. The goal is to fix your metabolism or low energy production. Several strategies can help. You’ll find a deeper discussion about this vicious cycle, several suggestions to fix it and links to more help in "Obesity Study: ‘Fat but Fit’ Is a Myth."

‘Strong and Consistent Evidence’ Links Multivitamins to Memory and Cognitive Benefits

Taking a daily multivitamin may improve memory and slow cognitive decline in older adults, according to a third major study on the topic. The studies used data from the COcoa Supplement and Multivitamin Outcomes Study (COSMOS), which evaluated whether cocoa extract supplementation with and without a standard multivitamin affected the risk of developing cardiovascular disease and cancer.

While the study, which involved 21,442 participants, found cocoa flavanol supplementation did not show a significant impact in reducing the total number of cardiovascular events, further evaluation revealed daily multivitamins potentially reduced lung cancer by 38% and “did appear to improve levels of several nutritional biomarkers.”¹

Three additional studies using subsets of COSMOS data focused on cognitive benefits, with the latest showing those taking multivitamins perform better on cognitive and memory tests.²

COSMOS-Mind — Multivitamins Linked to Slower Cognitive Decline

The COSMOS-Mind study involved 2,262 participants with a mean age of 73 and looked at how taking cocoa extract or multivitamins and minerals (MVM) for three years affected brain function.³ Researchers called participants to test their thinking skills at the start of the study and then annually.

They measured overall brain function by looking at average scores from different tests, including memory and problem-solving activities. While the study found that cocoa extract didn't make a difference in overall brain function, significant benefits were found from the daily multivitamin, with three years of such supplementation translating to a 60% slowing of cognitive decline, which is equivalent to about 1.8 years.⁴

Improvements in global cognition, episodic memory and executive function were noted, with the effects most pronounced in people with cardiovascular disease. According to the study, which was published in the journal Alzheimer’s & Dementia:⁵

“COSMOS-Mind provides the first evidence from a large-scale, long-term, pragmatic RCT [randomized controlled trial] to suggest that daily use of a safe, readily accessible, and relatively low-cost MVM supplement has the potential to improve or protect cognitive function for older women and men.

An additional trial is needed to confirm these findings in a more representative cohort and to explore potential mechanisms for cognitive benefit. This work may ultimately have important public health implications for standard of care to improve or protect cognitive function in older adults.”

COSMOS-Web — Multivitamins May Improve Memory in Those 60 and Over

The second study, COSMOS-Web, included men over the age of 60 and women over 65 who received either a multivitamin supplement or a placebo. The participants were evaluated at baseline and each year using neuropsychological tests over a period of three years.

Those taking the multivitamin supplement had better immediate recall at the first year point, which was maintained during follow-up. Effects were most pronounced in people with cardiovascular disease.

"When we start seeing that kind of consistency across well-designed studies, it certainly helps convince me — the ultimate skeptic — that we're on to something real," professor Adam Brickman of Columbia University, who worked on the first study, told Insider. "... I started taking multivitamins the day we ran the analyses and saw the results, and I take 'em every morning."⁶

“There is evidence that people with cardiovascular disease may have lower micronutrient levels that multivitamins may correct, but we don’t really know right now why the effect is stronger in this group,” Brickman said.⁷

The researchers estimated that taking a multivitamin improved performance by "the equivalent of 3.1 years of age-related memory change" compared to placebo⁸ and could not only help maintain cognitive functioning but potentially enhance it later in life. The team concluded:⁹

“Vitamin supplementation is relatively inexpensive, accessible, and has a few adverse effects, and thus might be a potentially useful population health intervention ... Daily multivitamin supplementation, compared with placebo, improves memory in older adults. Multivitamin supplementation holds promise as a safe and accessible approach to maintaining cognitive health in older age.”

COSMOS-Clinic — Multivitamins Improve Memory and Slow Cognitive Aging

The third study, COSMOS-Clinic, analyzed the effects of a daily multivitamin supplement on cognitive changes based on in-person visits involving 573 people.¹⁰ It, too, found multivitamins had a positive impact on overall brain function over two years when compared to a placebo. Specifically, they found a significant improvement in memory of past events, but not in the ability to plan or pay attention.¹¹

The researchers, from Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, also conducted a meta-analysis involving all three COSMOS studies, without repeating participants and spanning two to three years of taking multivitamins.

The meta-analysis “showed strong evidence of benefits for both global cognition and episodic memory,” according to a press release. “The authors estimate that the daily multivitamin slowed global cognitive aging by the equivalent of two years compared to placebo.”¹² Study author Chirag Vyas with Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), said:¹³

“Cognitive decline is among the top health concerns for most older adults, and a daily supplement of multivitamins has the potential as an appealing and accessible approach to slow cognitive aging ... The meta-analysis of three separate cognition studies provides strong and consistent evidence that taking a daily multivitamin, containing more than 20 essential micronutrients, helps prevent memory loss and slow down cognitive aging.

These findings will garner attention among many older adults who are, understandably, very interested in ways to preserve brain health, as they provide evidence for the role of a daily multivitamin in supporting better cognitive aging.”

Since the three trials used varied methods to assess cognition — including telephone, online and in-person assessments — and involved a large number of participants, they provide convincing evidence for the positive role of multivitamins in healthy brain aging. Study author Howard Sesso, with Brigham and Women’s Hospital, added:¹⁴

“With these three studies using different approaches for assessing cognition in COSMOS, each providing support for a daily multivitamin, it is now critical to understand the mechanisms by which a daily multivitamin may protect against memory loss and cognitive decline with a focus on nutritional status and other aging-related factors.

For example, the modifying role of baseline nutritional status on protecting against cognitive decline has been shown for the COSMOS cocoa extract intervention. A typical multivitamin such as that tested in COSMOS contains many essential vitamins and minerals that could explain its potential benefits.”

Multivitamins Improve Biomarkers of Nutrition in Men Aged 68 and Over

It’s estimated that one-third of U.S. adults — and one-quarter of children and adolescents — use multivitamin and mineral supplements,¹⁵ making them one of the most common supplements in the U.S. But despite their popularity, many wonder whether taking multivitamins really makes a difference in health.

A team of researchers from Oregon State University (OSU), who conducted a study involving 35 men aged 68 years or older, concluded, “Our evidence indicates that many older men could benefit from a daily multivitamin.”¹⁶

The men took either a multivitamin/multimineral (MV/MM) supplement or a placebo for at least six months. The researchers were mainly looking to see if the supplements would change levels of certain nutrients in their blood, a sign of better vitamin and mineral status. They also wanted to see if these supplements would affect how cells use oxygen, which is important for energy and health.

Those who took the MV/MM supplements saw improvements in their blood levels of certain vitamins, such as B6, vitamin D, vitamin E and beta-carotene, showing that the supplements could indeed boost the amount of these nutrients in the body.

However, the supplements didn't make a significant difference in the levels of minerals like calcium and zinc. Interestingly, the supplements helped prevent a decrease in the rate at which certain immune cells used oxygen, which could be a good sign for overall health, particularly for metabolism and the immune system.

In contrast, the placebo group didn't see these benefits and even saw a drop in some vitamin levels, suggesting they were moving toward a less optimal vitamin status. While vitamin and mineral deficiencies weren’t widespread in the healthy subjects that took part in the study, the researchers still found multivitamins to be worthwhile, explaining:¹⁷

“[T]he use of MV/MM supplements can improve or prevent declines in the status of several vitamins and may prevent declines in cellular bioenergetic status. Although MV/MM supplementation is a ‘one-size-fits-all’ strategy and does not target specific micronutrient needs, it is a cost-effective approach to improve micronutrient status in older men and may have an as yet unappreciated impact on maintaining metabolic function in cells.”

Can You Get Enough Vitamins and Minerals From Food Alone?

Ideally, people of all ages should strive to get their nutrition from whole, nutrient-dense foods — and it’s certainly possible to get the vitamins and minerals your body requires via your diet. However, nutrient deficiencies are common, even among people who believe they’re eating a balanced diet. In the U.S., 31% of the U.S. population was found to be at risk of at least one vitamin deficiency or anemia.¹⁸

Beyond cognitive function, your body depends on essential nutrients for growth, development and health maintenance, and deficiencies in certain vitamins can impact your immunity, vision, wound healing, bone health and much more.

This is why, if you think you may be missing out on important vitamins in your diet, the best way to boost your intake is via organic, whole foods. But if you’re not eating right, a high-quality multivitamin may help fill in any gaps and improve biomarkers of nutrition.^19,20

"We're not suggesting that people should get their vitamin and nutrient intake from supplements — the primary source of that should be from whole and healthy foods," Brickman told Insider. “... I think that multivitamins, along with a lot of other things that we could potentially do as we age, might have a modest but meaningful effect on how we age, cognitively.”²¹

He added in a news release, “Supplementation of any kind shouldn’t take the place of more holistic ways of getting the same micronutrients.”²² When choosing a multivitamin, be sure to look for a manufacturer that has checks and balances in place to ensure the quality of the product.

And remember, since multivitamins contain both water- and fat-soluble vitamins, it’s generally recommended to take half your daily dose in the morning, with breakfast, and the other half with your main meal.

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