Jay Feldman 0:12
Welcome to Episode 26 of the energy balance podcast, where we teach you how to live without constant hunger and fatigue, brain fog, poor sleep and all sorts of other low energy symptoms by maximizing your cellular energy. I'm Jay Feldman. I'm a health coach and independent health researcher, and joining me again today is my good friend Mike Fave who has been researching health and nutrition with me for quite a while now, and he also draws on his own experiences from working within the healthcare industry. In today's q&a episode, we're going to be talking about a variety of topics, including how we can use natural antibiotics and antimicrobials to clear out gut pathogens and also to fix any sort of gut dysbiosis. And we'll also be discussing certain things that you may want to watch out for when using these different compounds and supplements. We'll also be talking about the relationship between our mental health and our physiology, and of course, this also includes the relationship with energy and mitochondrial function, and we'll go through some of the more important things to focus on for improving our mental health, and this includes improving conditions like depression or anxiety or even schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, as all of these have a pretty strong relationship with energy and mitochondrial function. And then lastly, we'll be talking about how to measure whether our bodies are effectively using carbohydrates, and then if we find that they aren't, how we can improve our body's abilities to burn carbohydrates and oxidize glucose. If you have any questions that you'd like to leave us on a future Q and A episode, you can email me at Jay. At Jay Feldman wellness.com that's Jay. Why? At Jay, why Feldman wellness.com or if you're watching on YouTube, feel free to leave those questions in the comments to check out the show notes for today's episode, head over to Jay Feldman wellness.com/podcast where you can take a look at the articles or studies or other podcast episodes that we referenced throughout today's episode, and if you are dealing with any of those symptoms that we will be discussing today, whether that is a gut dysbiosis or some sort of gut infection or other gut symptoms like bloating or inflammation or water retention or constipation, or maybe you're dealing with other low energy symptoms like fatigue or chronic hunger and cravings or joint pain or weight gain or mono imbalances, a low libido. Or maybe you're not sleeping well, or maybe you're also dealing with some of those mental health symptoms that we'll be discussing today, like depression or anxiety. Then head over to Jay Feldman wellness.com/energy, and sign up for a free energy balance mini course where I'll walk you through the main things that you want to focus on, the main things that you want to do in order to optimize your cellular energy production, and why that's really the key to reversing all sorts of these different symptoms and chronic health conditions that we'll be discussing. And in today's episode, we will be talking about some of the complexities as far as addressing gut dysbiosis or mental health symptoms or conditions, and how it can be pretty difficult to address these symptoms, and there are a lot of factors involved. So if you would like some extra one on one, help there, head over to Jay Feldman wellness.com/call and sign up for a free call. And I'd be happy to offer you some more specific suggestions based on what you are experiencing and what's going on in your individual situation. So to sign up for that free call, head over to Jay Feldman wellness.com/call and with that, let's get started. All right. So speaking of gut health and addressing it for people of any sort of potential gut overgrowth, this next question might be for you. So Oscar asks, he's asking about natural antibiotic supplements and so, you know, just to give some context here, we like to think of antibiotics as bad things, which, in many ways, pharmaceutical antibiotics cause a lot of issues, but the point being that bacterial overgrowth or fungal overgrowth are very common and contribute to a lot of issues. For pretty universally, when somebody is struggling metabolically, it leads to impairments and digestion that allow for these overgrowth to happen, and you get this vicious cycle. And so in there are certain contexts where using pharmaceutical or natural antibiotics can be pretty helpful to clear out harmful microbes, which we call pathogenic, that it can be helpful to get rid of those things and lead to a lot of symptom relief, assuming that we're also doing the things to help restore a healthy microbiome by eating the right foods and and whatnot. Do you want to talk through some of those natural antibiotics up? Ones that you like to use.Mike 5:01 Sure, I mean, the biggest ones that I've found success with are certain types of essential oils, the main ones being oregano oil and cinnamon oil. There's other ones that you can use. From the research that I've seen, oregano and cinnamon are some of the strongest, some of the other essential they also the essential oils have other effects too, besides just being antibiotic. So you have to keep in mind too that some people say, Oh, I take this and I'm getting die off and it's like you could be getting a die off reaction, but you also could be getting symptoms from what you're taking so it's lasting for an extended period of time, and maybe you're getting symptoms. But other ones that I've used within that area are something like olive leaf extract, grapefruit seed extract, mono Lauren, which is basically a lauric acid with as a singular ester. I think that one's actually been pretty helpful for fungal or certain I think it's gram positive bacteria, as it functions on mostly. So those have been really helpful trying to think of what else I've used. Oh, there's certain probiotic strains that I've tried that have been helpful, specifically bacillus bacillus subtilis. There's other bacillus species like COA or lichen formus. I stayed away from those because some of the research showed them as possibly being pathogens, whereas the pillows was a little bit less likely to be a pathogen. Those things have all helped out my gut to some extent. I've used them in multiple different ways, and I've in multiple different forms, and I've definitely noticed benefits from those, and I've worked with people who have used have used them as well and have gotten pretty strong effects from them. There's some other ones that people recommend, like raw garlic and things like that. They I think that they can work. The problem is, is a lot of times they're, like, really irritating by themselves. So just, just be careful with some of the recommendations, or, like, taking tons and tons of vinegar, like apple cider vinegar, like that might be an issue as well. Um, and then obviously, with, if it's excessive, if it's excessive, yeah, but what I'm saying, because some people will have these, like, ridiculous protocols that they go on to clear their guts, and a lot of times, the protocol can actually be damaging because it's so excessive, right? Um, but things like that. Oh, another one, another, another good, another interesting. One is Wormwood, and then cat's claw and palady arco, which are all different types of herbs you have to it's very important before you take these that you read up on them and you get the proper forms. For example, with something like oregano oil. Like the main active ingredient in there is carvacrol, and then there's also thymol. High amounts of thymol can be damaging, whereas carvacrol is very damaging. So you have to be careful what type you're taking and carvacrol is not damaging. How thymol can be so you have to be careful with what you use. You can't just buy cheap whatever over the counter stuff. I mean, it is over the counter, but you have to be cognizant of what you're using. In other circumstances, with cinnamon oil, you want to make sure that you're getting a sale on cinnamon instead of Cass cinnamon, because some certain compounds that can be concentrated in this may be problematic. With something like wormwood. You need to make sure that you're not getting a really high amount of fujo. I think that's, that's what it is. I think that's the main component of absent and it can have some I think it's like a GABA agonist. So it can have, can cause seizures and things like that. So you have to be really careful with what you're using. You have to make sure the quantities that you're using are safe, the forms that you're using are safe, and read up a little bit on on those before you take them. And then, obviously, all these essential oils have to be diluted. You cannot just take oregano oil and just its oil form orally. It has to be diluted in another specifically a fat and oil, olive oil, coconut oil, whatever it has to be diluted. If you just put it in water, it will stay as an oil in the water and it will burn you. So you have to be very careful when you use some of those things. The other thing I was going to say is for something like mono, Lauren, it's really important, at least in my experience, it works best if you melt it in coconut oil before you use it, because the mono Lauren's melting point is higher than body temperature. So if you just take the little pellets that they often sell it in, a lot of times, you'll find that you're just passing the pellets out on your stool, or you're not getting such a great effect, and that could be related to the pellets not being melted. And on a side note, I've just worked with somebody who had had gotten an infection, and then they wind up, they wound up developing psoriasis around the head and neck. And then we basically used mono Lauren, and it after using. Lauren, the infection seemed to clean clean up. So I'm not saying it's a cure. I can't say it's a cure, but what I can say is somebody had an infection, they developed psoriasis around the head and neck. After the infection, we used mono Lauren as a supplement, and then after using mono Lauren, not saying it's causative, the psoriasis cleared up in this case. I don't know if it'll work for other cases. I don't know if it was the causative agent. It just was a temporal relationship. That might just be a coincidence, but that's the I have noticed that these things, I have noticed these things working in certain instances, are particularly for infections and things like that. And there is a lot, there is literature out there showing, especially on some of the essential oils, them being pretty potent anti microbials in general, not just antibiotics. Yeah, yeah.Jay Feldman 10:52 I mean, I wouldn't necessarily be that gentle with it. Like these supplements are very effective antibiotic, antiviral, anti fungal compounds, and can clear infections, which oftentimes contribute to inflammatory states that cause things like psoriasis, like it's and other autoimmune issues and like all sorts of other issues that aren't necessarily considered to be autoimmune too, the important part is, obviously to consult with Your doctor before like, using any of these things and, like, you know, don't try to treat yourself. Work with your doctor, but, but yeah, I mean, I've seen similar effects like that. So some other things just to add in there are, as far as the essential oils, you can also just put them into a capsule if you don't feel like diluting it, for whatever reason. That can work, unless you have any objection to that. Mike?Mike 11:49 I just, I'm just, I would just be careful with using any of the essential oils straight just because, say, you take a capsule and goes in your stomach, always on your stomach, irritates your stomach, things like that. Just because they are some, they are very, very potent. And that's and as from my experience of using them and having taken oregano oil straight the first time and having a really terrible time, yeah, yeah. And that was only one drop. But let's just be clear, this is like one drop. I mixed it in water and I drank it, and the dropped in, since it just stayed in oil form. It was my mouth. Had a really bad time, and I would just just be very careful with those things. If you do get burned, or you do by accident, get it on you, the easiest way to take it off is with a good soap, or if you take it internally and you get a burn on your mouth, or something like that, taking some coconut oil and swishing it around in your mouth. Can take that oregano oil off that specific spot, and it helps out a lot. So that's something, but just be careful with them. They are very potent, and be careful with a lot of the herbs and the essential oils, because they have other effects besides being antibiotic. I want to stress that point. It's very important, because some of them, if you don't know what you're doing, you don't read up on them, and you just go on some random website, some random forum, and they say, Oh, I took this much of this and I felt way better. It's you have to be careful with that. Stuff has to be used appropriately, has to be used at the right dose, like it is very important. And that's because I've experimented with this stuff, and I have hurt myself a few times, and I don't, I don't want other people to go through that process.Jay Feldman 13:25 Yeah, yeah. I would add also that. And like, with a lot of these, like, there's a few things. One is there's this assumption that natural is is safer or better. And as you're pointing out, sometimes, I mean in the case of like a pharmaceutical antibiotic, just having the synthetic version, or just the isolated version can be of whatever the the effect we're trying to get, whatever compound can be safer, because you don't have all these other effects that are coming with them. Not to say that, like there are so many other factors to consider here, I'm not just saying pharmaceutical antibiotics are better than than herbal, but it is important to to acknowledge that there are problems associated with with durable ones, and so we want to be careful with what we're using, how much we're using. We don't want to just take a kitchen sink approach to it, which a lot of protocols kind of involve that. So yeah, and I would add also, lemongrass is another essential oil that I found to be pretty effective with people. Idea Labs has a product called camposol that has campholic acid and and then a form of salicylic acid that has also, I've also, also found to be effective. So those are a couple others. And there are, I mean, again, there are a ton of different products out there with big like, with combinations of all of these things and various herbal compounds and and they can be effective. Just be aware that there are some potential negative side effects if you want. Think of it that way, activated charcoal is something that can be really helpful to protect against any actual die off symptoms. So in the case that you're actually killing off bacteria that, let's say, have a lot of endotoxin and that ends up being absorbed that can cause symptoms. So using activated charcoal can help there, and maybe would also help to prevent side effects as well, just by preventing the the herbal compounds from being absorbed systemically, I don't know, but Mike 15:27 Just don't take them at this. I wouldn't take activated charcoal at the same time that you take whatever you're taking, because then your charcoal is just going to mop up whatever you just took and nothing's going to happen. Yeah, take it later on.Jay Feldman 15:38 I have actually heard of people using them together and seeing some benefits, but I can't say, I can't, like, say that with any certainty that it's, it's an effective route, but I've heard of people doing that, but, but yeah. And at which point, if you're taking it at a different time and then absorbing the herbal antimicrobials systemically, then you're still gonna have the quote, unquote die off, which is really just a side effect, so it's something that might be worth testing out to see if it does provide some some relief. But yeah.Mike 16:07 The other thing I want to add to to the list of things that we talked about is actually a bile acids for some people, taking bile acids can actually help clear out the small intestine. But the other thing to do is it can stimulate the intestine to start working again. So if you're having some constipation issues, and sometimes the bile acids can actually help pretty significantly. Again, you got to be careful with them, because if you take too much, the worst thing that happens if you take too much bile acids is you get bile acid diarrhea. And it's just not it's really not fun. It's a it burns, um, so you just, you can take that if you're having issues digesting fat. But it also can help here, clear out the small intestine. And it can also help get the bowels moving a little bit if you, if you have, like, really slow bowels and you don't know what's going on, it can help, uh, stimulate the bowels to have you go to the bathroom and things like that. And then taking there's certain herbs I haven't necessarily played with them yet. It's something that was on my list. But there's certain things like digestive bitters and things like that, that can help stimulate digestive secretions, and particularly gut infections or things like that, or slow bowels that may be able to help out. That's something that's that's on the drawing board, but yeah, there's a lot of herbal compounds. There's a lot of essential oils that can that can be helpful, that can that, and they really, I mean, as much as you're going to see all it doesn't work. If this is that a lot of stuff really does work, and a lot of the stuff is really helpful. So Ellen, another one just off the top of my head, is propolis, which is, it's like a COA. It's like a resin produced by bees that in their hive that serves, has an antibacterial function, and so that can help in certain circumstances as well. Jay Feldman 17:48 Yeah, and manuka honey too. Speaking of bees, Mike 17:50 yeah? And manuka honey can be very helpful too, yeah? And.Jay Feldman 17:53 I think there's there you can find manuka oils as well. Yeah,Mike 17:57 The manuka honey is just expensive if you're going to get the really potent stuff. Yeah.Jay Feldman 18:02 And so, yeah. So as you said, These things can all be very effective antibiotics, which can be really helpful for clearing out a gut issue. It is not the solution, because you still need to address the digestive side of things and what led to the bacterial issue in the first place, but they can be really helpful when used in the right context, and can lead to a lot of reductions in various symptoms and conditions. Again, it's important to mention that you know you should consult your doctor before doing any of these things. This is not medical advice. And with that, let's move on to the next question. So Joel asks about brain health and psychology and the relationship to the bioenergetic view, or viewing these things through bioenergetic lens? So it's really great question. I've worked with a ton of people with all sorts of what are considered to be psychological disorders, whether it's bipolar or PTSD or, you know, extreme anxiety, and seen drastic improvements by addressing things on this bioenergetic level. And it's, I mean, it's a in some ways, it's like a relatively complex relationship, but, but it's also relatively simple, where the basics of it is that things function properly when we have enough energy available, and that means that you end up with the right balance of neurotransmitters, which is similar to hormones. And that is kind of like a symptom. It's just kind of a representation of what may or may not be going on. And often is an oversimplification. For example, the whole idea that chemical imbalances underlie depression or which is another condition that I've definitely seen quite a bit. But yeah, the idea that it's just like a particular chemical imbalance where you just have slightly too much of this neurotransmitter, slightly too less of this other one, which normally they're talking about serotonin, being too low, that's definitely not the case. It's. Is a little more complex than that, but the but the important thing that I guess I would say, is that a lot of a lot of the symptoms that we consider from the brain health side, whether it's fatigue, not fatigue, whether it's brain fog or depression or anxiety, or any of these other kind of symptoms that exhibit psychologically. They are directly driven by our underlying metabolic health state, and can be directly affected by gut health, especially so. This is one of the most common things that I see where people who like when, if they are susceptible to these things, and they eat foods that are feeding gut microbes or that they don't digest, Well, that'll cause an uptick in symptoms, and vice versa, where, if those things are addressed, it leads to drastic improvements in these symptoms. And again, another side of it too would definitely be supplying enough fuel, supplying enough nutrients. It's pretty I mean, we kind of have joked about how, when we were low carb, it how much it changes your mind state. And in some ways, I mean, it's just you, you can become obsessed with food that's normally, like a way that it manifests and eating and like waiting for the next meal, but also definitely affected, uh, our us in that, or at least for me, I was definitely more irritable. I didn't have the same energy to focus on, on, like cognitive work, or even in physical things. So which just goes to show how important carbohydrates are, as far as supplying energy that we use, both for, you know, our musculature, but also for our brains. And our brains are, you know, they're using glucose as their primary fuel almost all the time, ideally all the time, because it's either glucose or ketones. And so when you're not getting enough glucose and you're in the stress data, it'll use ketones. But so having enough glucose available is a huge component here, as far as brain health, and then making sure that the brain can actually use that glucose. So keeping blood sugar steady, which we've done some episodes on blood sugar that I'll link to, by eating enough of the right types of carbohydrates throughout the day definitely makes a huge difference there as well.Mike 22:07 Yeah, I agree. I mean, I found that. I mean, I think we both found, at least for me, that, uh, when I have had gut issues, it has something that's directly affected my mood. And then the other thing is this low blood sugar is something that also directly affects my mood, and then going from low carb to high to eating more carb, basically no carb. We were doing like i Well, we were almost doing I was almost doing keto. I was just eating a lot of protein instead, and I felt that directly impaired my ability to learn. That was something that I noticed since increasing carbs a lot, that I can just read something and I just understand it. No problem. I just get it. I don't have to read it over to try and understand it. I just get it like I understand the general idea very fast as far as the specific details, yeah, sometimes, depending on the process, you know, if you're looking at the entirety of cell respiration, it's going to take a second to understand all the steps and things like that, if you really want to go into that detail, but at the end, like, that's something that I noticed, for me, it's just learning is just a lot quicker since increasing carbs and things like that. And I think that energy is extremely important, because I know, and you can talk to anybody who's anyone who's done a cut to try and lose weight or things like that. The first thing that goes is mood and a lot of people. And the other thing, as far as the the imbalance idea from for neurotransmitters and things like that, I wouldn't say that the neurotransmitters are imbalanced. I would probably say that something in the lifestyle is imbalanced, and then the neurotransmitters are reflecting that it if, that's if the neuro, I mean, if the neurotransmitters even play out to have a relevant, this extremely relevant theory. I mean, it is just a theory, but basically, I mean, you can even see in the Minnesota starvation experiment, which we've talked about ad nauseam at this point, that basically when people have a very strict caloric intake, you develop all these weird symptoms. Now, if you and I've had friends who have gone on these ridiculous diets, or did these, these meditation things, and went vegetarian and this and that, and then developed all these psychological symptoms and went to the doctor and got diagnosed with some with some disorder, schizophrenia, whatever it was. And before that, they had never had any issue like that. They had never had any mental disorders, they never had any mood disorders, they didn't have anything like that. They went in this extreme diet, they went into these, this very low calorie diets, and then all of a sudden, they develop psychological issues, and then they have a diagnosis of a disorder. And I mean, from my perspective, I don't see a disorder there in terms of some sort of, oh, it's schizophrenia. Oh, it's this, oh, it's that. I just see somebody who went on an extremely low calorie diet and that was nutrient poor and this and that, and energy poor in general, and then develop symptoms afterwards. That makes sense for that state. So the context is important to look. At instead of just, we have this group of symptoms here, and then this is the diagnosis. I don't think that that's really helpful to what's the context? Why are they having these symptoms? I've also had friends who got involved with doing a lot of drugs and things like that, and they also weren't eating. They're doing a lot of drugs. They're living on coffee and aspirin and cigarettes and marijuana, and on the weekends, LSD and shrooms, and then so they weren't eating, they lost a ton of weight, and they're doing a lot of drugs, and then all of a sudden they wind up getting a psychological, Psych disorder diagnosis. And it's just like, do they really have a psych disorder, or is their lifestyle just not conducive to maintaining a healthy psychological function. And both these cases, I would say that this is that, that that tended to be the cause, and this is this, these are anecdotal experiences. The other thing is, is there's beyond the bioenergetic perspective, which we which we covered having, and which you can see in the Minnesota starvation experiment. And in general, having enough energy is extremely important for biological function, and that extends all the way to the nervous system. But you can see in certain articles, they discuss certain food compounds, like case of morphines, which are morphing like components in dairy or exorptions and wheat causing symptoms in the population, and particularly schizophrenia, and in some very and in some, I guess, susceptible population, symptoms of autism, and it's from an excessive amount of opiate stimulation from these particular components of food because they don't digest them well, Whatever the case is as to why it affects certain people versus others. And so my question really is, is, I'm sure that there's, there's mental disorders out there, but the question is, what is the underlying majority in most of them? And I would say it's probably a lifestyle related thing specifically. And everything goes down to the energetic level. Everything comes back to the energetic level. So what's going on in our lifestyle that's causing these effects, what's causing the damage, and things like that? And I think that the addressing those is really is more important in a lot of cases, before trying to come to some sort of arbitrary diagnosis and then based on some sort of arbitrary set of criteria, and then coming to some sort of drug that is supposed to be used for that. I mean, again, it's looking for a silver bullet option where there is not a silver bullet option. If you're going to go and do a bunch of drugs and not eat and not take care of yourself, are you going to probably wind up with some type of disorder, whether it's psychological or physical, probably that would be that seems like it makes a lot of sense to me. If you're not, if you're going to go on these extremely religious diets with caloric, extremely low caloric intake, and and it's vegetarian or vegan and this and that, and you've eaten meat your whole life, and you used to be like 200 pound working out in the gym, and then you go down into 151 50 pounds. Yeah, you're probably going to have problems. There's going to be issues. And it's in the research in multiple areas. It's not like something that's me just saying it from my personal experience. So I think the energetic point for psychology and brain health extremely important. And then the other thing I think it's important to talk talk about in relation to psychology and diagnosis and whatnot, is that the way things are set up, at least from my experience, from my reading, is with the DSM five. And then the DSM five is essentially just, it's basically there's a list, or there's a there's a list of mental disorders, oppositional defiance disorder, bipolar personality disorder, and then they basically just have symptoms that go underneath that disorder and with and some of them have, like, some proposed theoretical basis of what causes disease on some sort of neurotransmitter level, but it hasn't really been fully proven or anything like that. So as far as as far as how things go in that area, it's basically you have a list of symptoms and you have a disorder associated with those symptoms without really any sort of fully elaborated physiologic basis in most cases. So in my mind, it's you can get a diagnosis and then you can have a drug that goes with that diagnosis, because they found it works in some degree to alleviate some percentage or or amount of symptoms based on a calculated questionnaire. But I think overall, the diagnosis in some of those cases is in the death sentence. It does. It doesn't mean that you have some disorder for life. I mean, especially if you start adjusting certain lifestyle factors and and figuring, you know, maybe if I eat this, it messes me up, maybe I have something going on with my gut. Maybe I'm not eating enough, maybe I'm just. Having an excess amount of stress at work, or have a poor relationship, or have some sort of thing that happened in childhood, whatever it was that I think there could be multiple etiologies there, and then, I think for a lot of people, in the bioenergetic view, it's important to take is to take a step back and realize that maybe you're when you have an issue, or you have some type of stress on the body, your manifestation could be psychological. So I think, I think it's important to step outside the idea of a diagnosis, and this is what I am, and realize that the diagnosis is just a categorization of symptoms based on observation. It doesn't necessarily mean that you have a disease or some genetic problem or something like that. It could, it could be from a lifestyle issue. And a lot of people that I've seen and worked with were had a lot of lifestyle issues going on. I mean, right? Just, it wasn't just, it wasn't just, like, just some random, I'm a schizophrenic type of thing. In a lot of cases, as people, I have IBS well, and I have anxiety and depression, and you often see those things go together. Okay, so you have some issues going on with your gut, and depending on what you eat, get anxiety and depression.Jay Feldman 31:12 Yeah, yeah. It's important to recognize that the that these are these disorders are like a way to classify groups of symptoms together, which there's value to. But it doesn't mean that it's a disease that you are stuck with, that it's permanent, that there's nothing you can do about and that you were just born with it, it at all. And it kind of leads to this. There's kind of this fight between the separation, between like mental health and physical health, where on one hand, you have this idea that they're entirely separate, and on the other hand, you have this you have the idea that they're interrelated. But you also have these people who are saying that something as simple, something as ridiculous, I should say as that low serotonin causes depression. And because there's a lot to be said that, like in the in depression, for example, it's not just caused by low serotonin or not caused by low serotonin at all. There's like, people then fly the other way and say, and this is kind of what you're alluding to before, when I was talking about chemical imbalance, where you're like, well, there, there is, like, physiological reasons involved. And that's true because, and the reason why it's important to mention that is because some people will say it's, it can't be affected at all physiologically, like what you eat has nothing to do with your mental health and what you know, whether you're exercising or any other factors in your lifestyle, those are completely separate. And how could your thoughts be affected by those things? And which is, which is an absurd notion? Yeah, that'sMike 32:35 insane. I can't believe it doesn't make that doesn't make any sense to me, to just if you just experience yourself right, don't get sleep. And then tell me how your function is, don't eat for a day. And then tell me how your function changes, your thoughts and your mood, yeah, yeah. And then sit there and tell me that they're not related. It doesn't make any sense.Jay Feldman 32:55 Yeah. And for women especially, I mean, as far as the hormonal side with their cycles, they experience this often monthly. It depends on how significant their symptoms are, but you know, sometimes for men, it's hard to empathize with that, because many men haven't like experienced the same thing or in the same way, or aren't as in tune with themselves to know that at certain points they might have certain hormonal fluctuations based on what they're eating or whatever they're doing that can affect their mood. But women are definitely pretty aware of how much our physiology affects our thoughts and and our mood and our mental state. And as you were mentioning earlier, there is a lot of research tying mitochondrial dysfunction and and the ability of our mitochondria to function properly to things like depression and also schizophrenia and bipolar and all sorts of other neurological or psychological disorders. So, yeah, I mean, there's there. There is not like, I guess I would say that there is not a there's no distinction between our mental health and the rest of our health. It is in the same way that there's no distinction between our joint health and the rest of our health. It just how people exhibit symptoms varies, but these things are all very much affected by what is going on with our physiology. And looking at it through that bioenergetic view, I think, is the by far the the best or most accurate way to view it, as far as wanting to have any lasting improvements.Mike 34:23 And even if you don't agree with the bioenergetic view, at the base minimum, recognizing that everything is connected in the body, there's not a separate issue. I think it's the first step, and it's extremely important, instead of this idea of breaking down the body into its parts, and then assuming that the parts equal to equal the sum of the whole like it just doesn't work that way. It's it doesn't make any sense. You can't just cut off the arm without affecting the other structures within the body. I mean, you have an infection your toe that affects the body in general. It's not just one small it's just my toe, right? Other. Is, and it's the same thing with the brain. It's the same thing with mood. It's the same thing with function. I mean, I just it doesn't it's just such an absurd proposition to sit there and say, Oh, the mind isn't affected. It's like if the primary function of the kidney is to filter the blood, and then you have some sort of damaging effect on the blood, and then it affects the kidney. If the primary function of the brain is to perceive and to rationalize things. And then you have some damaging function of the blood. It should probably affect the brain's ability to perceive and rationalize and things like that. Like it just doesn't. It doesn't make any sense. It doesn't. It doesn't. I just, I don't want to see how you could have them separate, right? I don't get it at all. It's just.Jay Feldman 35:40 Yeah, it is. It's a like it's so reductionist to view these different organ systems, for example, even as such, but as separate the brain being one of them. I mean, one that's acknowledged. One thing that has been acknowledged, because it's had to be, is that a lot of serotonin, the vast majority of serotonin, ends up being produced by the gut. So there's, you know, a very clear connection there between our gut health and brain health. And when you're considering that serotonin might not be such a good thing, and it might not be, and it might be produced when things in your gut aren't going too well, then, I mean, that's, that's a pretty important thing to consider if you are dealing with some sort of imbalance, there some sort of psychological disorder? Yeah.Mike 36:23 That's about, that's all I got for that one. Yeah.Jay Feldman 36:27 And just for reference, also, I've written an article talking about why depression is not just caused by, like, a simple lack of serotonin, and all the issues with with those views, and also what can be done to improve it. So I'll link to that article. All right. So David asks, How can I improve cellular carbohydrate utilization, and what tools, techniques or blood markers are helpful to show whether this is improving? What about body temperature and pulse? So this is a really good question, where, when he's talking about cellular carbohydrate utilization, what he's talking about is our the body's ability to use carbohydrates, which comes down to really glucose oxidation, which is the ability for for our cells to convert glucose to essentially usable energy. And the reason why this is so important is because this is one of the major, I mean, we talk about energy production all the time, and this is one of the major kind of interfaces of that. This is basically, I mean, we're either using carbs or we're using fats for fuel. And so a lot of people do have issues utilizing carbohydrates. And this is basically called insulin resistance, and the extreme version of it is type two diabetes, but it occurs on much like on smaller levels, as well within different tissues, or just in somebody who might be struggling with weight gain, even if they don't have elevated markers to the point where it would cause, or be considered, to be insulin resistance, They might still not be using carbohydrates properly. So the I mean, we talk, we kind of give this blanket statement with all of this, where addressing things like gut health, nutrients, all that is, are the main things that affect carbohydrate utilization. When you look at mitochondrial respiration, when you look at glucose oxidation, it's directly impacted by all of those things. It's directly impacted by PUFA, the polyunsaturated fats. It's directly impacted by endotoxin. It's directly impacted by a lack of nutrients, for example, the various B vitamins or lack of magnesium. All of those things will directly stop the cell's ability to use glucose efficiently. And when that happens, it's forced to switch over to fat, which, again, fat utilization is not, is not inherently an issue, but we need to be able to make sure that we're oxidizing carbohydrates properly without that that kind of forced to switch over without the lack of efficiency, which causes all of these other issues. So do you have anything to add there? Before we talk about basically how you can measure your carb utilization.Mike 39:01 I just think for a lot of the type two diabetic things in populations that I've seen, I think a lot of it stems around particularly gut issues. Because I think in a lot of people, it's a combination of excessive intake of PUFA over time, in combination with a with some type of gut infection, and what you see with a lot of type two diabetics is high amounts of circulating endotoxin. And so I think that, I think that those, those are the two main areas, is a high amount of polyunsaturated fatty acid intake, particularly from vegetable oils over time, in conjunction with an infection in the gut, or a high amount of endotoxin production coming from the gut. And oftentimes you'll see, with a lot of diabetics, they have little pot bellies, or in some cases, they have huge bellies. So I think it's important to really address number one, the gut infection, and that's by diet and then different supplements and things like that. And. The second thing is to, number one, really limit the polyunsaturated fat intake and replace it with with saturated fats, safe saturated fat sources and and try and make sure that you have a decent Omega three to omega six ratio, while keeping both low over the long term. I think that those are really important things to focus on, in general, if to try and to try and fix those things.Jay Feldman 40:28 Yeah, yeah. Which, I mean, I don't know how much I'd focus on the Omega three, Omega six ratio. I would say also, if you're eating quote, unquote healthy foods, or foods that we would consider to be healthy and supporting us metabolically, they're going to have some of those. Enough of the Omega threes, you know, if you're getting healthy animal fats from, like beef, you know, butter, dairy, whatever it is, there's going to be some omega threes in there. So they'll cover that anyways. And then, like, healthy seafood, whether it's shrimp or, you know, shellfish, or bivalves, mussels, oysters, whatever it is, PUFA, there is a huge component, I would add also just that, in general, the things that drive carb utilization also involve the hormones. So the hormones are basically a reflection of our energetic state, but then they also help to signal these things throughout the body and lead to they kind of mediate our adaptation, where if we add it, or if we adapt to a helpful environment and an optimal environment, or more optimal in the long term, it'll lead to one way it shows up, is through these hormones that further on the signal, and then vice versa. So because of that, the stress hormones are good at blocking energy production in the long term. And a lack of thyroid, which is really the main way that happens, is through a lack of thyroid hormones and the lack of reproductive hormones, that will lead to a lack of carbohydrate utilization. So those are things that, if you address everything else, should improve over time. But if needed, you could also supplement with certain thyroid hormones or or protective steroid hormones, reproductive hormones, if, if needed, those can help as well. And as I mentioned earlier, B vitamins can be really helpful, especially in higher doses. If, if that is like, if somebody is struggling with these things, that would be some of the main ones I would think of there's..Mike 42:13 B vitamins and proper diet, particularly focusing less, I think, on starchy carbs and more on sugar, specifically from fruits and fruit juice, whatever sound fruit juice, whole fruits, dry fruits, things like that, I think will make the biggest difference. And I think there are some studies showing that getting Type Two diabetics fruits didn't have a negative impact on blood sugar over the long term. So I think that it's that's really important. And staying away from and then some, and staying away, particularly from a lot of the refined sugars, like granulated sugar, sodas and different starchy carbs, like breads, pasta, things like that, I think focusing on the others will help to keep the blood sugar and a better range. And a lot of fruits have been shown to have a hypoglycemic effect in diabetic things like that too. So I think that that's important, and it helps with the gut issue as well, as far as tools and techniques and blood markers to show improvement and things like that. I mean, if you it's kind of hard to see what exactly is going on on the cellular level. So a lot of the markers that people look at, particularly in relation to blood sugar and blood sugar regular regulation, is looking at blood glucose levels in general, looking at hemoglobin, A, 1c looking at insulin levels and things like that. And they can give an idea of how your body's using your blood sugar. But if you really want to see what's going on on the cellular level, and a lot of type two diabetics, you're going to see over time, probably your sugars come down. What your sugar is. Waking up in the morning is important. And then if you have a sugar right before a meal, then after you eat the meal, like directly after, you take it, then another hour after, and then two hours after, and you can see how your the curve and how your body's handling the sugars, that's important. And then the other thing is, you're probably going to see like, direct effects with your body. You'll probably start to see some weight coming off. And then things like that, as far as body temperature and pulse, as far as like using sugars directly, they can be helpful, but they're kind of hard. They're kind of hard to get a good gage of that specifically. I mean, they are they can help a lot with thyroid hormone, but you have to be pretty adept at understanding how to look at your body temperature and your pulse and making sure, because it there's a lot of nuance with the body temperature and pulse, and it doesn't necessarily mean that blood your sugar is being handled appropriately. A lot of I've worked with a lot of diabetics, you can have high temperatures and and have decent pulses and and they're still diabetic. They're still type two diabetics, a lot of issues. So in a lot of those states, when you start running heavily on stress hormones, it can. You can get different readings and different effects. Those kind of those ones are kind of hard, but the easiest way to get an idea of how the body's handling it is to really look at your the easiest way to do it at home is this by glucometer, and check your blood sugar right when you wake up. See where is that there, and then check it right before your right before a meal, directly after a meal, an hour after a meal, and then two hours after a meal, once in a while, just to see how you're just, you're just, you're handling the glucose, or the sugar in general. And the other thing that's important to see, and I've, I've worked with with some people partake, I've worked with some people, and basically, what I we took their sugars before their meal, directly after the meal, an hour after the meal and two hours after the meal, but we checked it with with two different types of meals. One meal was like the standard meal that you would get in a hospital, which was your broccoli, and I think it was salmon and brown rice. You know, it's not a terrible meal, decently healthy meal. Um, there was no FADH, there is no sugar.Jay Feldman 46:07 Depends on who you ask as far as whether it's healthy. But.Mike 46:09 I mean it's not terrible, it's not the comparison meal that we looked at was oatmeal cookies from Publix. Okay, so at the glucose handling of the meal that was salmon, broccoli and brown rice was fine. We didn't even get a spike in blood sugar from this meal. However, with the oatmeal cookie meal, which consisted of refined, fortified wheat flour, soybean oil and a bunch of other stuff that they put in the cookies, he had a spike, and then the sugar didn't come down. So and then we've also tested with fruit juice, and he didn't really get such he got a little bit of spike with fruit juice, but nothing, nothing like ridiculously out of range. So.Jay Feldman 46:50 So normal fasting blood sugar, which would be when you wake up in the morning, they say over 100 is where that's getting into pre diabetes, or diabetes levels. And as far as post brand deal, they say 140 or lower is where you want it to again, not be in the pre diabetic or or diabetic levels. All of this, of course, depends on what you're eating and and many other factors. But yeah. So as far as testing it yourself, fasting blood sugar is definitely helpful. And then, as you were kind of alluding to. It all depends on the meal. So maybe having a particular meal that you use to test maybe one of them is a fruit juice, maybe one of them is like soda or just like some straight sugar, and then one is more of a balanced meal. And so that you can get an idea of how high your blood glucose is spiking using a glucometer would be, that would probably be the best way to determine carbohydrate utilization on the cellular level. And the reason for that is because the amount of carbohydrate that is taken in by the cells is dependent on how much the cells are using, and that's basically what insulin resistance is. And I'll reference articles and some articles and videos and podcasts on this, but basically the issue in insulin resistance is that the cells are not using carbs properly, and so the carbs don't make it into the cells, so they end up raising the blood sugar pretty extensively. And so, yeah, so blood sugar is is probably the best way to get an indirect measurement of cellular carbohydrate utilization. And then, yeah, as you said, body temperature and pulse are good indicators of metabolism if they're used properly, if you're considering that, that they can be raised during due to stress hormones as well. So you just have to be able to sort out what, what it's being raised due to, because basically the best way to do that is, well, it gets even more complicated with somebody as insulin resistance. But typically, if somebody eats a meal that includes carbohydrates and enough fat to lower stress hormones, then whatever reading after that should be a pretty like a pretty objective reading, because before a meal, it could be elevated due to stress hormones. But for someone who's not using carbohydrates, well, that brings in another factor where you might not have a drop in stress hormones after they eat carbohydrates. So it all depends. But yeah, those, those would be okay. The glucometer, measuring it in the way that we mapped out would probably be the best way. But as Mike had mentioned, also just using general symptoms that somebody's experiencing is a good way as well. Like noted, like having stable blood sugar throughout the day, and like stable energy throughout the day, and like feeling good after eating those sort of, like carbohydrate containing meals, those are all going to be good indicators of how well you're using carbohydrates. And then weight as well. If the weight gain has been an issue, then potentially weight loss is a factor there as well. All right, I hope you enjoyed that episode. If you have any questions that you'd like us to answer on a future Q and A episode, then feel free to send me an email at Jay. At Jay, Feldman wellness.com and that's Jay. Why? At Jay, why Feldman wellness.com or if you're watching on YouTube, you can just leave those questions in the comments. Comments, and I will add them to the list. If you did enjoy today's episode, please leave a review, like a comment or five star rating on iTunes. It really does a lot to help support the podcast and to check out the show notes for today's episode, head over to Jay Feldman wellness.com/podcast where you can take a look at any of the articles or studies, or anything else that we referenced throughout today's episode, and if you are dealing with any of these symptoms or conditions that we talked about throughout today's episode, whether that is insulin resistance or diabetes, or some sort of gut issue of gut dysbiosis or a gut infection, or any symptoms surrounding gut health, or maybe more on the mental health side, whether that is depression or anxiety or bipolar disorder, or any other sorts of psychological symptoms or conditions, or maybe you're dealing with other low energy symptoms, like constant cravings and hunger, a lack of energy throughout the day. Maybe you're not sleeping well, or you're dealing with chronic joint pain, or all sorts of other symptoms or conditions. Head over to Jay Feldman wellness.com/energy, and sign up for a free energy balance mini course where I'll walk you through the main things that you want to be focusing on as far as nutrition, exercise and other aspects of lifestyle are concerned. So you can optimize your cellular energy balance and find relief from all of these symptoms and chronic health conditions. So to sign up for that free energy balance mini course, head over to Jay Feldman wellness.com/energy, and if you are looking for maybe a little bit more one on one, help, maybe you would like to use some of those anti microbials or implement some of the suggestions we had, as far as the mental health side is concerned, but maybe you're not sure where to start, or you've tried some things and you haven't had as much success as you were hoping for. Or if you'd just like some extra guidance, head over to Jay Feldman wellness.com/call, and sign up for a free call, and I'd be happy to help you out and offer some help, some suggestions based on your individual circumstances, that you can recover from any of these conditions or symptoms. So to sign up for that free call, head over to Jay Feldman wellness.com/call, and with that, I will see you in the next episode.