Algae’s Power In Fighting Inflammation And Disease

Catharine Arnston

Hey, Laura. Good to see you again.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Yeah. Nice to have you back. Last time we did a really amazing mitochondria discussion. Today, we’re going to dove in again. You’re an expert in algae nutrition and really what you’re providing here is a solution for people. And I love that we’re having talks on solutions as well. You’re a wellness thought leader. You know something about mitochondria and energy production. You’ve spent the last 13 years researching algae, writing papers, giving presentations, lecturing at conferences, and speaking on 250-plus podcasts to explain the benefits of algae. You are the founder of ENERGYbits, which is a nutrition supplement company. And we’re going to be talking about all about algae today. And I would love to dive right in. And can you tell us about, you know, why chronic disease and inflammation are so out of control and escalating, and then we’ll get into the solution here. But let’s set the stage.

Catharine Arnston

Absolutely. And what people may not know is that 60% of Americans now have a chronic disease. And once you hit 65, that number goes up to 80%, 80% of adults over 65. And by the way, for those who are watching, I’m in that category. I’m over 65 and I don’t have a single chronic disease. So, and I take algae and we’ll tell you why it’s so good for you. So why is this happening? I believe, my theory is basically two reasons. We simply are not getting the nutrition that we need that our grandparents used to have. And there are too many toxins in our environment. And these two are the perfect storm causing what’s called mitochondrial disease. And I want to help you understand what mitochondria are and we’ll get into that in a little deeper dive but scientists are calling this the great nutrient collapse because even if you are eating vegetables, you’re getting like a fifth of the nutrition that we used to get or your grandparents had. 

And we all know that we have to plug in our cell phones to get it recharged every day. And we have to put gas in our car. Well, your body and your mitochondria are the same way. They need particular nutrients to be able to recharge. And as you’re going to find out, Spirulina has all those nutrients that your body and your mitochondria are craving and some of the nutrients aren’t even available from any other food or also in my case, even any other algae, because some of the other algae companies use high heat to dry their algae, which kills these critical nutrients.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

So, Catharine, I want to, want to interject really quick. So our idea is really clear about how important this is. So many of you may know of my previous work with the last two mitochondria energy summits. This is something that’s absolutely foundational and critical to your recovery process, to your healing process. The reason I brought Catharine on here is because she really can break this down for you and help you understand it in a simplistic way and show you a solution to help support mitochondria as well. But here’s the thing. If you don’t support mitochondria, if you don’t support energy production in the body, you simply cannot heal. You cannot solve the symptoms that you have. That low energy, the brain fog, the digestive issues, the skin issues, the moodiness, the pain, or whatever’s happening that is sending you into a cascade of collecting diagnoses and eventually chronic disease. So this is foundational. Absolutely. And if you miss this piece, you will have a very hard time recovering. So I just want to set that foundation of why it’s so important that we’re going into this. And Catharine, if you can now explain to us what is algae, where it comes from and what are the different types? And, you know, there’s a nutrient profile to it and there’s actually benefits. So, yeah, I just want to jump right in and get to it.

Catharine Arnston

Yeah, well, on that note, you know, it’s not only recovering from illness, it’s prevention. And so you may not have any symptoms, but there’s a great quote by John F Kennedy said, the time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining. So they call inflammation the silent killer because it can be going on for a decade before even any symptoms manifest. By the time those symptoms manifest, whether it’s heart disease, brain fog, or cancer, it’s been happening at the cellular level for many, many years. But you haven’t been aware of it or you haven’t been conscious of it. And it all comes down to this issue of mitochondria, which generate all of the energy for your cells. 

Now, we’re not talking about the energy just to run errands to the store or go for a great workout. This is everything that keeps you alive. Your heartbeat, your lungs, your brain, your lymphatics system, your digestion, your immune system. Everything is dependent on cellular energy. And all of that cellular energy comes from your mitochondria and your mitochondria DNA and as you’re going to find out, as you age and you have more toxins and not enough nutrients to protect and fuel the mitochondria, you have less cellular energy and therefore you don’t have enough energy to protect your health. And I’ll get into algae one more second. But I just want to help you with understanding this.

Think of cellular energy like money. When you have more money, you can do more things and you have more choices. Same with cellular energy. When you have more cellular energy, more ATP, as it’s called, you can do more things and you have more choices. But if you’re not getting enough cellular energy, imagine this. Let’s say you have a pie and there’s a thousand pieces, people that want a slice of that pie. Well, everyone is going to get the teeniest, tiniest little slice of pie and nobody’s going to be happy everybody is going to be mad at you and nothing is going to work well. That’s the same thing if you don’t have enough cellular energy, but algae is you’re going to find out. It’s like having a thousand pies because it protects your mitochondria, it regrows the mitochondria, it allows them to be more efficient. And so when you have a thousand pies, everybody’s happy.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

This is such a good analogy. Oh, my gosh. I’m thinking of at the time of filming this, you know, we’re going into the holiday season and I’m thinking of that pumpkin pie grandma recipe and everybody wants a piece of it.

Catharine Arnston

Yeah. Exactly. So now your heart’s getting a nice piece of pie. Your lymphatic system’s getting a nice piece of pie. Your digestion is getting a nice piece of pie. So they’re happy. So they’re going to perform optimally for you. If they don’t get enough pie, they’re going to be angry, and upset. It’s like kids that just don’t get fed at the right time. So they’re just going to be causing lots of distress for you. And it’s not ever going to go away until you give them what they want. Like children, right? So think of your mitochondria as children begging you for what they need so that they can perform for you. And as you’re going to find out, algae does it beautifully, and it does it in two ways. The Spirulina is you’re going to find out nourishes them is like giving them the pie. And the Chlorella is also nourishing, but most importantly, pulls out toxins that interfere with the pie being delivered. 

So toxins interfere a large in your cell membrane, so things can’t work properly and they disrupt things. So Spirulina is the nourishing, is the pie and the Chlorella is the plate that delivers the pie. So that just sort of sets the tone. So first of all, when we get to talk about algae, I want you to know that it is food. I know it doesn’t look like food. And there are different two different types of algae. There are macroalgae and microalgae. Macroalgae is that big stringy stuff that washes up onshore, also known as seaweed, dulse, or kelp. It’s very high in fiber and very low in nutrition. That’s not what we’re talking about today. We’re talking about microalgae, which is microscopic in size, very low in fiber, very high in nutrition, and completely opposite to that stringy stuff in the sea.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

I’m so glad I don’t have to eat that stringy stuff.

Catharine Arnston

Yeah, well, you know, it’s good if you want the fiber and the iodine, by the way, there is zero iodine in Spirulina in ours because we grow it in freshwater. This seaweed comes from the ocean so it has iodine. So the two algae we’re going to talk about today are Spirulina and Chlorella, grown in triple, we grow ours in Taiwan in triple-filtered spring mountain water. This is the Spirulina farm. This is the Chlorella farm. So the two key things you need to know are A algae is food, microalgae. B, it’s not from the ocean. Yes, there is algae in the ocean, but that’s not the kind of algae that we’re selling to you or that you might go to Target or Whole Foods. 99% of it is grown in freshwater. We just happen to grow more carefully than anybody else. And because algae is actually not like growing broccoli, it’s more like growing wine because the whole production process in wine is what determines the flavoring and the color, and all. The same with algae. So it’s the angle of the sun, the water that you’re growing it in, and the drying conditions. And most of the other algae companies use high heat to dry their algae because they’re lower prices. So they need to get to market quickly. But that kills and deactivates two of the critical nutrients that protect your mitochondria. I’ll give you like a little head start on what they are, one is an enzyme. An antioxidant called superoxide dismutase is also known as SOD. We’ll get into that in a deeper in a deep dive in a minute. And the other one is the blue pigment in Spirulina, which is a blue-green algae called phycocyanin. I know you’ve probably never heard of phycocyanin. I’ll spell it out for you later on but it has incredible protective healing attributes and both of those are completely deactivated by high heat. 

So if you buy a less expensive algae, you might be getting the protein and some of the other nutrients, but you’re not going to be getting these two most powerful nutrients. By the way, one of them stops, kills cancer cells, and the other one stops heart disease. And those two things alone represent 75% of our deaths in America. So I would say getting high-quality algae should be at your number, at the top of your list because those are the two diseases, chronic diseases we most want to avoid. So again, we grow it in fresh water. We air dry it without high heat, and then we press them into little tablets that we call bits because they are bits of nutrition. How much nutrition? Well, let me tell you, every single one of these tablets has the same nutrition as an entire plate of vegetables. That’s about three-quarters a pound of vegetables. How did I come up with that calculation? Because we have a quote from NASA that says, one gram of microalgae has the same nutrition as a thousand grams of fruits or vegetables.

So these little tiny tablets, this one’s Spirulina. It’s a blue-green algae. This one’s Chlorella, it’s a green algae. Each one of these tablets, again, is the same nutrition as an entire plate of vegetables. Except you didn’t have to carry all these vegetables home from the grocery store, clean them, cook them, eat them. If you just swallow ten Spirulina in the morning or the afternoon and ten Chlorella in the evening, you’re going to find out what they do differently. You will nourish your body, protect your mitochondria, regenerate ATP, and have lots of pie to share with people. You can start having your chronic diseases if you have any, you’ll be on a pathway for healing and if you don’t have any, you can protect yourself. And it’s all from food and it’s just very, very concentrated healing food. It’s the nutrients in the algae that’s doing it, not the algae itself, it’s the nutrients. And I mentioned two of them, superoxide dismutase and phycocyanin and we’ll go into it. 

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Now, in the last five minutes that we have in this first part of our talk, could you talk a little bit about the powerful healing aspects of this? I’d love for you to take this time to go into those pigments and antioxidants and explain why these are so powerful because I’m sure there are lots of different places we can get these things but what makes algae so special?

Catharine Arnston

Well, actually, there aren’t. So what happens is in your cell, you have your mitochondria. These are the little mitochondria and you may have up to 2 million mitochondria per cell in your brain. And that’s why they’re so powerful because your highest concentration mitochondria are where your highest energy needs are. But inside the mitochondria, that’s where the ATP, that’s cellular energy. Those pies are being made. But a byproduct is free radicals. Now, your mitochondria have their own DNA and so they’re right beside where the ATP is produced. And the byproduct of that is the free radicals.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

So that’s like exhaust, right? So it’s like energy production happens and the byproducts exhaust just like, like for example, our car driving it does this wonderful thing for us, but the byproduct is exhaust.

Catharine Arnston

Right. And I will go to geeky right now, but the way that the energy is produced is through something called the electron transport chain. There’s a force of molecules that passes the electrons from one to the next. And the final outcome is ATP. But when you have too many free radicals, those little molecules separate because the mitochondria start expanding. So now the electrons can’t be transferred from one another, they leak out. And what does that leakage cause? Exhaust. Free radical damage. So now your mitochondria aren’t getting the ATP, they’re not able to generate the ATP because they’re the station sort of like having hydro towers of too far apart from one another. It’s like, so your cell phone signal drops. So it’s the equivalent of that. So the electrons drop.

So, A you’re not getting the energy that your body needs to generate healing purposes or pathways, and B it’s causing even more damage. How do you stop that? With things that can stop the free radicals? Two of them are superoxide dismutase like I mentioned. Now the good news is your body makes superoxide dismutase until the age of 30, and after the age of 30, you basically have zero. Well, by 40 you have zero. This is exactly when chronic disease kicks in. And I think it’s because your poor little mitochondria aren’t protected like they used to be from all this free radical damage. 

And you can’t get superoxide dismutase from food, there is no other source of it. Algae is the only source of superoxide dismutase and ours has the highest concentration in the world. And the other problem is it’s an enzyme. So all the other algae companies that are lower priced may have had superoxide dismutase, and we tested it. It may even still be there, but it’s deactivated. It’s sort of like Superman lost all his powers. Yes, it’s there, but it’s not doing anything. It’s like going to school or with just your shoes on. Where’s the rest of the clothes? So that’s number one. Our algae have active superoxide dismutase. So it’s like having, like I said, a superhero in there to protect you. The other very critical nutrient is this blue pigment called phycocyanin. And I’m going to spell it for you. It’s phycocyanin. Those are your two superheroes, superoxide dismutase and phycocyanin.

What does phycocyanin do? Well, in a healthy cell. It speeds up the process of that electron transport chain. So it’s like having an electron transport chain is sort of like a relay race, except instead of passing a baton in the little stations instead of the runners, they’re passing electrons. And so there’s this little helper molecule called cytochrome c and if you the phycocyanin and in healthy cells speed that up, you get more ATP, more pie, more ability to heal, more ability to protect yourself. But phycocyanin doesn’t exist in any other food. It’s only in Spirulina algae, nowhere else in the universe. But once again it is deactivated by high heat. Now, because we don’t use high heat to dry our algae, our phycocyanin is alive and well. The only other place you could get active superoxide dismutase or phycocyanin is from frozen Spirulina because once again it has not been treated with high heat.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

So wait. So all that Spirulina that you can buy in powder form and put in your smoothie and all, it’s all garbage.

Catharine Arnston

Well, I won’t say it’s garbage. There are still nutrients that are in there. I don’t want to trash other company stuff.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

For this particular purpose. Yes. So let’s rephrase that. There are all kinds of other nutrients, but you’re not going to get this particular benefit.

Catharine Arnston

You’re not going to get your superpowers back. You’re not going to get your pie. You’re not going to get that. And by the way, that’s that blue pigment that speeds up the generation of that ATP for you if you’re healthy. It also can determine automatically, god bless mother nature, if the cell that it’s in is cancerous or a zombie cell also known as a senescent cell. Basically, senescent cells, is a cells that are subdivided so many times the DNA is all pretty much done and it can’t do anything. But it’s inflammatory and it’s not good for you and you want to get rid of them. So in a cancer cell or a senescent cell phycocyanin can detect that and instead of speeding up the ATP production. It ejects the cytochrome c molecule and kills the cancer cell or the senescent cell.

Well, this is why I call algae intelligent food. A, you have to be intelligent to take it. B, it knows what to do in your body and it does it automatically. Mother Nature created this for us. We just grow it very carefully and safely for you so that you get all the maximum value to protect yourself and regain your health. But it’s mother nature at her best. And I’ll tell you, it’s brilliant and it’s all documented in science. Everything I’ve told you there are 25,000 PubMed articles proving that superoxide dismutase stops inflammation, stops Alzheimer’s, stops heart disease. Unbelievable. But you can’t get it from any other food and you can’t get it from algae if it’s been dried with high heat.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

This is so good, Catharine. I love interviewing you. It’s so much fun. Your high energy, the way you use analogies, and the way you, literally I mean, this is one of my most favorite things to do is interview an expert and you’re one of my favorite people to talk to. So we’re going to keep this conversation going. But before we switch to the second part, I want you to tell people how they can get ENERGYbits. Now, we have clickable links on every page of this summit where you can click the Algae Bits logo and it’ll take you to a web page once you go to that web page, there’s a coupon code they can use to get it right.

Catharine Arnston

Yes. And the coupon code is the word SILENT. So our website is ENERGYbits.com, E N E R G Y B I T S dot com. And the Spirulina we call our ENERGYbits. We also have a second brand. It’s exactly the same, but we found women didn’t like the packaging and I started the company because my sister had breast cancer. So women’s health is important to me. These are both Spirulina, but they both have the blue phycocyanin that will speed up the production of ATP and basically give your body more pie so it knows what to do and can do it optimally for you. So these are the two and then the Chlorella, which we haven’t gone into in great detail, is called Recovery Bits because it helps you recover your health and build your immune system. By the way, Spirulina as it will find out in a deeper dive coming up, is also brain food because not only does it have all these protective nutrients for your mitochondria and your brain has the most mitochondria, it’s loaded with essential fatty acids and Omega-3. And we know that ocean fish and fatty fish are known as brain food. Well, where do you think the fish get the Omega-3 from? They get it from algae. So think of Spirulina as brain food and as we’ll talk about next, Chlorella is very much a gut-healing food. So they work in different spots. So ENERGYbits.com use the discount code SILENT and you’ll get 20% off everything on our website.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Wonderful. And Catharine, thank you so much for joining us today for this talk on algae, energy production, mitochondria, and how it pertains to the root causes of solving chronic illness. And to our audience, I hope you found our conversation insightful and helpful. If you’re a summit purchaser, stay right here, because we’re about to dive even deeper into this discussion with Catharine. If you’re not, click on the button on this page to get access to a continuation of this conversation and many others, and get the tools you need to reclaim your health.

If you’re watching this continuation of my talk with Catharine, thank you for being a valuable member of our community and we’re going to dive right back in. And I think the most sensible place to start is to talk about Chlorella because you had mentioned that at the end of the first part of our interview. So let’s jump into Chlorella and that recovery supplement and talk about why we want Chlorella in our body.

Catharine Arnston

Yes. Well, as I mentioned initially there are two root causes I believe to this chronic disease. The first one is the lack of nutrition and the diminished nutrition that is available even if we were eating a plant-based diet because their soils are so damaged in the ozone layer. So damaged that there are no minerals for the plants to even have to give to you. The other side of the equation is there are so many toxins in our world. The average adult I read has 700 toxins in their body. Could be anything from heavy metals, glyphosate, pesticides, and molds. And our immune systems simply weren’t built to sustain that toxic load. Now, when you have those kinds of toxins in your body, they lodge into your cell membranes. So that communication is damaged. They prevent proper and optimal ATP production, which is what fuels your production of intercellular energy. It interferes with the stomach lining. It damages your stomach lining, which can lead to autoimmune because food leaks out from your stomach. I mean, the list is endless. 

So you want to get rid of those toxins and you need to build your immune system. If we had, there are two pieces to being healthy. One is the mitochondria which generate the energy, cellular energy which we talked about earlier. The number two is keeping your body and your gut healthy because you’ve got to pull out those toxins and build your immune system, and that does happen in your gut. Chlorella, which we call recovery bits does that beautifully. And how does it do it? Well, number one, I didn’t mention earlier, but Spirulina has the highest protein in the world. Chlorella has the highest chlorophyll in the world. Now, Chlorophyll is virtually identical in its chemical composition to your hemoglobin. The only difference chlorophyll has magnesium in the middle and your blood has iron in the middle. Why is that important? Because Chlorophyll builds your blood, and when you have healthy blood, you’re going to have a healthier body. It will be able to carry more nutrients to your cells, to your mitochondria, and to your brain. The problem is there’s no chlorophyll in our vegetables anymore. My arugula goes yellow after day three. Chlorella has 500 times more chlorophyll than arugula and 25 times more than even liquid chlorophyll.

So already you’re getting all this great blood-building capability. That’s number one. Number two is your cells have something called a lipid membrane, which is a fancy word for saying fats. And this is why you need healthy fats like A and D and Omega-3. Well, Chlorophyll is also a fat-based pigment, so it heals the cell walls just like an Omega-3 or D3 would. So why is that important? Healthy cell walls allow nutrients in and toxins out. And when you don’t allow that to happen, it’s your cells turn into the equivalent of a dirty fish bowl. We’ve all had that goldfish. Poor old Goldie. You know, you begged your mother for a goldfish. Got the goldfish, and after two days, you’re already onto your next shiny object. And poor old Goldie in that goldfish bowl, water is getting all dirty. And. And sometimes Goldie just doesn’t make it. And you come home and, you know, poor Goldie. Well, that’s what’s going on over here.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Goldie is a floater.

Catharine Arnston

Goldie is a floater. S.O.S. Well, just imagine, that’s going on in your cells if you don’t keep your cell walls permeable with healthy fats and there are lots of great fats that you can do it. The problem is we end up eating a lot of omega-6s which are exposed to heat when they’re in processed foods, and that actually shuts down that permeability. So automatically your cells start to get all dirty. And what does that do? It increases the acidity, which introduces the possibility of diseases like cancer. All diseases are acidic. It reduces the oxygen, it reduces the membranes to be able to communicate with each other. It starts damaging your mitochondria and you get into that slippery slope. So the chlorophyll fat-based kills your cell walls. But I’ve saved the best of the last, Chlorophyll or Chlorella has a hard cell wall that attaches to all heavy metals lead mercury, radiation, toxins like pesticides, glyphosate, mold spores, and lyme, and pulls them out. 

So it not just attaches but it chelates them. So this is like having the cleanup crew in your body and particularly when you sleep, because when you sleep, that’s when your body goes through a detox or repair cycle. So we absolutely recommend Chlorella before bed. You can take it any time of day but definitely take it before you go to bed because this will facilitate a better cleanup crew. You’re getting your beauty rest, you’re not doing anything and you got the cleanup crew in there doing all the heavy lifting for you. Generally, people are hungry and tired in the daytime, and in the afternoon before a workout. So we generally recommend Spirulina in the morning or the afternoon just to ensure that you get all the energy that you need for your day. Now to help people understand the difference between the two of them, I came up with an analogy, a whole image for you.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Of course, you have another analogy. I’m sitting on the edge of my seat waiting for it.

Catharine Arnston

I know. Okay, so if I could find it for you. Well, I’ll tell you about it while I’ll look for it. So, I speak at a lot of conferences and they’re always, not always, but sometimes in fancy, fancy restaurants. And it occurred to me that when you get up in the morning, you might order room service and you get all the food and nourishment you need for the day. So I thought, gosh, that’s a lot like Spirulina, very nourishing. So think of Spirulina like room service and Chlorella because it cleans out everything, all the junk in your trunk, just like when you come back to your room. It’s all cleaned up. Why? Because housekeeping has been there. So Spirulina, I think a Spirulina as room service and Chlorella as housekeeping. You know, whatever it takes to help people understand that they do different things. Think of Spirulina as brain food because of the high concentration of mitochondria in your brain and Chlorella because it has fiber and pulls out toxins to build your immune system, that’s very much a gut healing process. And the two of them are essential. And by the way, the two of them, your brain and your gut are connected by something called the vagus nerve.

So when you heal your gut, you’re automatically going to start healing your brain. When you heal your brain, you’re going to automatically start healing your gut. But the two of them, how perfect is it that you can get the two of them working for you together and it’s effortless? It’s this is the key that I need to keep reminding people you don’t have to go buy and spend $25,000 in equipment. You can if you want and any kind of biohacking device whether it’s red light therapy or cryotherapy and massage therapy. These are all really important additions to helping you heal or protecting you from getting sick. But the best thing is if you have these sitting on your counter, all you do is reach over, shake some in your hand, swallow water, you’re done. This is not only nutrition insurance. These two are your health insurance. And honestly, one day I think people should get a much better premium on their health insurance if they can prove that they’re taking our algae because you’ll never get sick. You take chlorella every day your kids won’t get sick. By the way, these are both great for kids, great for pets, and great for your grandparents. There are no drug interactions. They’re ketogenic, paleo. They’re the most ancestral food.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

It’s food in a compacted little pellet. And I’m assuming you could throw those in a smoothie for your kids and swallow a pill.

Catharine Arnston

Kids love them because they turn their teeth green or their tongues green when they chew them. I will admit most people do swallow the Spirulina because it is a very chewy, earthy flavor to mine. So if you like them, that’s terrific. But you easily can chew yours. Oh, absolutely.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

You chew yours?

Catharine Arnston

Yeah. I don’t mind. Absolutely. I wouldn’t cheat myself. And remember, a poor algae gets a bum rap because people only think of it as algae blooms closing their favorite beach. And I remind people, well, the only reason algae is there is because it kills bacteria. It absorbs toxins. So the reason why it’s closing your beach is because somehow toxins and bacteria got into that body of water and it’s there, it’s the cleanup crew and it does the same thing in your body but it’s more visible than the toxins. Maybe the toxins have been there for a long time, but you can’t see them. But you can see the algae bloom. So same thing. So when you chew them, you’re killing bacteria in your mouth. We work with a lot of biological dentists who love to give this to their patients because of that reason for dental health. But also the chlorella, which again is called recovery bits, pulls out mercury when you’re getting your teeth pulled out. If it’s their old amalgams, they have mercury in there. So the patient, they give this to their patient, and the doctor, the dentist takes the chlorella as well because there’ll be mercury fumes in the air. So again, very nourishing and healing. You get energy at the moment, but also at the mitochondrial level because of the protective nature of the nutrients, particularly superoxide dismutase in the blue pigment phycocyanin.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Can I ask you a question about that blue pigment? Can you talk a little bit about photobiomodulation? Because we do have people here who are using red light and we will have discussions about red light on this project as well. And so I think that if they’re taking this energy bit, they’re going to get even more benefit from red light therapy.

Catharine Arnston

Absolutely. This is the great thing about algae. You can take it on its own and it will still have remarkable benefits to protect you from chronic illness or regain your health if you have one. If you do have a chronic condition. I’ve been saying ten tablets of each one each day, but you probably need at least three times that. So at least 30 tablets a day of the Spirulina, the Chlorella, if you have a condition, 60 even if it’s pretty serious, again, it’s just food. But you mentioned the red light therapy, which is and we work with a lot of red light therapy companies and spas because if you take it, we recommend the Spirulina before the red light therapy because Spirulina is a bacteria that does not have a cellulose wall. So it’s absorbed into your bloodstream almost instantly if you chew it like within seconds and only a few minutes if you swallow it. Chlorella has that hard cell wall, so it takes a little longer. Spirulina has two pigments, the blue one, the viscose iron, and the green one Chlorophyll. Chlorella just has chlorophyll. What’s so important about the chlorophyll? Is that when you combine chlorophyll with red light, the red light from the sun or red light therapy, it stimulates something called the CoQ10 molecule in that production.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

So I want to make sure I’m clear on this. This is the chlorella the green component.

Catharine Arnston

Yes, well, it’s the chlorophyll. But remember, there’s chlorophyll in the Spirulina as well. There are two pigments in Spirulina, the blue one, which helps kill the cancer cells through the cytochrome C molecule, and the green one, which I’m going to talk about now. Right. Okay. So remember I talked about that relay race when it’s to generate ATPs and instead of runners passing a baton, there are these molecules and they instead of a baton being passed they pass electrons. So here they are. Well, we already talked about that cytochrome c molecule. That’s what we call a helper molecule. It’s sort of like a Tesla, you know when you’re a healthy cell and you focus fine and that blue pigment is like flooring a Tesla, you get more ATP automatically. This is one of the reasons why Spirulina gives you energy. Now there’s another little helper molecule called CoQ10, and it’s earlier. It’s between the first and second molecules. Now a lot of people take CoQ10, which is why when you take algae, you don’t need CoQ10 and I’m going to explain to you why. When you have chlorophyll, which is in the algae, the highest concentration in the world and you add red light either from the sun or from light therapy, it recycles that CoQ10 molecule, which again speeds up the production of ATP. And remember more ATP is more cellular energy. More solar energy is like more pie. It’s like more money. So everything you do is to speed up the production of that energy and you get it when you add chlorophyll and the red light. So now just a little interesting side note to just compliment Mother Nature on her brilliance. CoQ10 is a fat-based molecule, right? Well, so is chlorophyll. And Chlorophyll is what speeds this up. Well, interestingly, cytochrome c is a water-based molecule, and the blue pigment that speeds that up, which is phycocyanin is a water-based molecule.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Thank you Mother Nature.

Catharine Arnston

Thank you Mother Nature.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

You just made everything work perfectly and I will just get on a soapbox for a minute. We have demonized the sun. I would say Western medicine dermatology has demonized the sun. It literally is so vitally important. Get out there for 30 minutes a day without sunscreen on. And then if you’re concerned about skin cancer and so on, put on your sunscreen at that point. But don’t block your body from getting sun every day. Oh, my gosh.

Catharine Arnston

Yeah, I completely agree. And you know, it’s so funny because when we first started the company years ago, we were runners and marathoners and were loving the Spirulina for the energy it gave them. Some people would run 100 miles with just the Spirulina and water, and it’s the combination of the protein, the amino acids, the B vitamins, and all those other good things. But it’s also because of the increased production of ATP, because of the blue phycocyanin, and also because of the chlorophyll. So they’re out there running in the sun. So the sun combined with the chlorophyll was like having your high dose gas and it’s free, it’s food. Who wants to turn that down? It’s like someone said, would you like a Tesla or would you like 1960s jalopy that doesn’t really have any tires anymore? I know I’ll take the Tesla.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

I know. I feel like the difference between a Ferrari and a Chevrolet like my mind’s going like the most powerful engine in the world, the handmade cars in the world. That’s amazing. Well, my next question is, I want to know about, let’s talk about who can take like can everyone take this? Do they replace the need for supplements, protein, or vegetables? Let’s talk about that.

Catharine Arnston

Sure. Spirulina, absolutely zero. Every single person in the world and I beg you to please take this and give this to your children. Give this to your pets. Give this to your parents, your grandparents, your friends, anyone who’s got any kind of health condition. This is the answer and it’s literally fast food. It’s going to put a new spin on fast food. You know, we’ve heard so much about the blue zones. And I say, well, taking algae, like bringing the blue zones to your home, this gives the plant-based nutrition. I mean, I can’t help you with the fitness because you’re going to be so you’re going to feel so much better. And it’s called quiet energy because it’s cellular energy. It’s not a stimulant, it’s cellular energy. So it just knows what to do in your body, again, it’s intelligent food. So whether you’re, in fact, I read in one of my many papers that in Japan babies were dying because they couldn’t digest their mother’s breast milk. The Spirulina in water was the only thing that would keep them alive.

And I recently did a, well, the recent years ago I did an analysis of a mother’s breast milk and the amino acid profile of the mother’s breast milk was virtually identical to Spirulina. Same amino, and the same proportions. It also has a very high it’s actually an omega-6, but it’s called GLA Gamma-linolenic acid. But because we don’t heat our algae, it behaves like an Omega-3. And by the way, the only place that has more GLA than our Spirulina is mother’s breast milk, Mother Nature. She knows what she’s doing. That GLA is very critical for the baby’s brain development. And you can’t get mothers breast milk after the age of two. So at least so I’ve observed. So this is like Mother Nature’s breast milk for you.

So consider it an essential foundation of food. Every single person in the world should be taking this regardless of their age. There are no drug interactions and no contraindications. The United Nations has endorsed Spirulina for 50 years as the answer to world hunger. And if I do my job right, we’re going to help, make that statement come true, because this is the answer, because we’re so for being fed with complete anti-nutrients as well as missing nutrients. So that’s really important. Chlorella, same thing. Everybody could be taking it now, the only thing I just caution people because it pulls out heavy metals, and some drug medications may have metals in them. I can’t, I know vaccines have aluminum, so that could be a good thing. You might want to take those after a vaccination. So if you can check to see if there are any heavy metals and if there are, just take this maybe 2 hours away from your medication because we want you to get whatever you need.

Although I could almost suggest to you, I can’t promise you, but if you take these every day, particularly if you have a health condition, you may not need that medication. I have many, many people. In fact, one of my team who joined me in the summertime, he was diabetic within six weeks, his doctor took him off all his diabetic medication, everything, because his diabetes was gone. This is unbelievable for diabetics. But if you are having any kind of treatments if you’re getting cancer treatments, you know how awful you feel, how hard it is to eat, and your low energy. Spirulina will help you with that. And because it also helps with the killing of cancer cells, this is critical and chlorella will pull out the excess chemotherapy after a treatment so you won’t be as nauseous and it will start building your immune system, which, you know, I got into this because my younger sister she had breast cancer. She’s fine now. But her oncologist told her to change her diet to an alkaline diet because it would help with her healing. And these are the most alkaline foods in the world. And so they’re very healing for all people, pets included. Cats and dogs. Absolutely. Go crazy over this stuff and they’re smart. I think they’re smarter than we are.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

They’re really smart. A lot of times, we can treat our pets similarly as we do humans. You know, you just give them like pediatric doses of stuff. Yeah. You know other supplements. Okay, so Catharine, we have a few minutes left and I love to just open the floor to any final thoughts, words, or encouragement. What would you like our audience to know on their healing journey? You know, based on your years and years and years of just research and lecturing and supporting people in the community, you’re a wealth of knowledge. So what would be your parting words here to really help people feel hopeful?

Catharine Arnston

Yeah. Well, first of all, I want people to know that algae isn’t new. It’s just maybe new to you. And just like you didn’t know about Chia or matcha or some of these other collagen powders until somebody educated you. Algae have been a multibillion-dollar agricultural crop in Asia, where they’ve been taking it every day for 60 years. And there are 100,000 studies documenting its efficacy for all these things we’ve talked about. But none of that science has been shared with you or explained to you and the algae that’s available for sale here has not been high enough quality. So we tried to address both those issues by providing you with a very safe, nutrient-dense food. We sell through doctors, we do third-party lab tests.

But the other thing is I want you to know, as you know, we’ve been talking about how the mitochondria are absolutely, absolutely your number one purpose for bringing it back to health, will bring you back to health. And you do that by eating the proper things like algae. I tell everyone I never eat alone. I’m always eating with my mitochondria. They’re there at the table with me every day. Every time I eat algae, it’s like, hey, this is for you, buddy, because my poop is green. I’m eating so much of this stuff. But this is for you. And the reason why it’s so important for you to understand how algae is so healing. Remember I mentioned I may not have mentioned to you, but your mitochondria are the only cell in your body with two membranes. They have that lipid membrane like all the other cells, but they have this inner membrane and it’s that inner membrane that most antioxidants can’t get through because and not drugs can’t get in there. It’s like the ICU and it’s in lockdown.

But the new antioxidants that can get in there are all found in the highest concentration of algae. We’re talking superoxide dismutase, another one we didn’t talk about a lot called glutathione, and also chlorophyll. Those three are in the highest concentration in our algae. Now, you say to yourself, well, why are those three, why do those three get to go into that inner membrane? Well, I’m going to tell you where that in remember it came from, because this will help you finish up the story. So maybe I think I mentioned that algae or maybe I didn’t was the first life on earth 4 billion years ago. It’s a cyanobacteria. Before cyanobacteria, there was just gas and water. No oxygen, no life. Nobody knows why. But a cyanobacteria like Spirulina started growing. It was an anaerobic cell, which means it grows best without oxygen, but it generated ATP, which releases oxygen as a byproduct. So a billion years later, now, bigger cells could start growing, and they were aerobic because they enjoyed all the oxygen. 

Meanwhile, our little guy, the anaerobic cell cyanobacteria, was struggling because it didn’t do well in oxygen. So I can imagine the conversation between the big cell to the little cell goes like this. The big sell says the little cell. Hey, little guy, I see you’re struggling there. So how about we join forces? We’ll protect you from all the oxygen, and you come in here and you make ATP for us. And that’s basically what happened. And it’s all proven in science. It’s called evolutionary. The little cell that started as cyanobacteria, like Spirulina, then got absorbed by the bigger cell, but it didn’t digest it became your mitochondria, so cyanobacteria became your mitochondria. So when it got absorbed, that original outer cell never disappeared. It just got a second lipid membrane put around it. But that’s why there’s that second membrane at this leftover evolutionarily left over. Your mitochondria and algae are a family.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

I’ve never heard that. Explain like that especially.

Catharine Arnston

Family. They have everything. It’s like having a trust fund, you know? Why would you turn down a trust fund?

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

You wouldn’t. You wouldn’t.

Catharine Arnston

Algae is your trust fund. Go out there and get it because it will do things for you that nothing else can. It’s a gift to us from Mother Nature. I think there’s something spiritual about Spirulina. I said the other day that oh, and Spirulina starts just like spiritual. So, you know, whether you want to go down that path or not, these two are your trust fund. Don’t turn them down. Just all you have to do is swallow a handful in the morning, and a Spirulina swallow handle at night. Let them do their work for you. You don’t have to do any other work. That’s the great thing about a trust fund. It just works for you. So good. That’s my little story. It’s there for us. We just needed to understand what it was, why it worked, and how to pick the best algae. Because not everything has all these powerful nutrients because they’ve been damaged during the production process, but not ours. Ours are ready and willing to go. It’s like having your whole team working for you. Just go get it but I can’t help you if I can’t get it in your body.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

So thank you so much, Catharine. And so everyone, you can click any ENERGYbits link on this on the pages of the summit, you can go to ENERGYbits.com, and you can use the coupon code SILENT as in silent killers to get 20% off. Catharine, you are so much fun. I love, love doing these interviews with you. You’re welcome in my house any time.

Catharine Arnston

I’ll always come, I’ll come bearing bits. We call them bits because it’s a nutrition, by the way.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

So good. To everyone else, I hope you’ve thoroughly enjoyed this as much as I have. Until next time, everyone. Take good care. Bye, now.