Feel Great Again: Algae Secrets For Energy & Immune Health

Catharine Arnston

Thank you. Thank you so much, Dr. Aimie. I am so thrilled to be here. My team knows that algae to me is like my child. I love to share it and help other people understand it so that you can benefit from it. And probably the first thing to do is to explain what algae is. Because in Asia, the Japanese and all the Asians have been using algae for over 50 years for longevity, health, and any kind of mental capabilities and for nutritional purposes. But 99% of algae is grown in Asia and 99% of it is consumed there, but here in America it is not grown and people either do not know about it, they think it is just pond scum closing their beach. And I am here to tell you that it is a nutritional rockstar. If you thought chia seed was big stuff, will you really hear about what algae does? Because it blows chia out of the water big time same with chlorophyll water. First of all, algae, as you are starting to gather, is a food, it is actually not a supplement. Then we grow ours in freshwater which is very important because algae will absorb what is ever in the water and do not want toxins. And I’m just going to show you a quick picture. This is an algae farm. This is the spirulina farm. This is a chlorella farm. First of all, algae is everywhere, it is in the oceans, the lakes, the rivers, and streams. But we harvest it as a food crop as they do in Asia. When you take our algae and grow it then we dry it into a powder then we pressed it into little tablets that you can take by the handful, a few of them. We call them bits because they’re bits of nutrition. This is about the size of them. We are going to be talking today about spirulina which is a blue-green algae, it is a darker color and then there is chlorella which is a green algae with just chlorophyll. 

Number one, spirulina and chlorella are both algae and they are harvested as food crops and then dried into a powder and then pressed into these tablets. Now, the reason why you want algae in your diet is because two fold, our food supply is so damaged that even if you eat a healthy diet of lots of vegetables you simply are not getting the nutrition that your grandparents had, it is impossible. Monocropping has destroyed our soils, vegetables are growing so far away that they are harvested before the enzymes and the nutrients can not get into the fruit or the leaves. By the time they are put it on a ship and then they are put in a warehouse and they are put in the grocery store, by the time they get to your plate you have lost literally 80% of the nutritional value. And if your body does not have the nutrients it needs to survive let alone be living optimally you will start to suffer. Your suffering goes as deep to the cellular level in the mitochondria which we are going to talk about in a minute. That is number one is that you are not getting the nutrients that you need. And the second is we are surrounded by toxins. The average adult now has 700 toxins in their bodies. And chlorella which you are going to find out pulls out toxins and it builds your immune system. Spirulina is the one that is very nourishing, we are going to talk about that in a minute. And chlorella is a wellness detox algae. 

These tablets that we have produced for you that you can swallow, you can chew, again they are about the size of baby aspirin, they are so nutrient-dense that every single tablet, here is one little tablet, I like to eat mine, every single tablet has the same nutrition as an entire plate of vegetables. That is crazy. And the reason we came up with that calculation is we have a quote from NASA says one gram of algae has the same nutrition as a thousand grams of fruits or vegetables. one to a thousand that NASA’s been feeding algae, chlorella, and spirulina algae to the astronauts for 50 years. It is like, well, when were they going to tell us about that? The other thing you need to know about is that algae is the highest protein in the world. The United Nations has endorsed spirulina algae which is one of the algae we are going to talk about today as the answer to world hunger because it has three times the amount of protein as steak. There is nothing in the world with more protein than spirulina algae. And it has 18 of the 20 amino including the nine that your body can not make so it is a complete protein. And spirulina as you are going to find out is a bacteria, it has no cellulose wall, it gets into your bloodstream so quickly that it almost bypasses digestion. I chew them, as you can see, but most people do swallow them. But it is very concentrated nutrition, so concentrated. You are going to find out we sell our tablets in large bags with a thousand tablets per bag. Each bag is the same nutrition as 551 pounds of vegetables. Think about that. That is over 30 grocery carts of vegetables in one bag. When I say this is efficient nutrition, trust me, I am telling you the truth. And there is nothing in the world with more nutrition than spirulina and chlorella algae. They both have over 40 vitamins and minerals. They both have over 60% protein. But they do completely different things in your body and we are going to talk about that next. Because spirulina, we call our energy bits because it energizes your brain, your body, and your mitochondria. It is very nourishing and contains nutrients not found anywhere else in the world. And chlorella has the highest chlorophyll in the world and has a hard sell while that attaches to toxins and we are going to talk about that in a minute. But chlorella is for building your immune system and pulling out toxins. And spirulina is for nourishing your brain and your mitochondria and protecting them so that you can, because your mitochondria are, you are going to find out in a second, is what generates energy, cellular energy, it is called ATP.

And cellular energy is needed for absolutely everything that you do. I say cellular energy is like money, when you have more money you could do more things and you have more choices, when you have more cellular energy you could do more things and you have more choices. It does not matter whether it is cellular energy for walking, talking, thinking, digesting, protecting your health, everything requires cellular energy. And that cellular energy is created for you by your mitochondria. Everything that you do is you should be thinking about protecting your mitochondria. And your mitochondria make energy from the food that you eat. I tell anyone who listens to me, I never eat alone, I am eating with my mitochondria, they are always keeping me company. But they can not reach out to pull out food or take a handful of algae tablets, I have to do that for them but they’re with me all the time. And your mitochondria are on your team, they want to help you, but you have to help them by giving them what they need and sadly, and to pull away the things they don’t need. The sad situation we face ourselves with is that we are missing the nutrients that your mitochondria need and we are also surrounded by toxins that your mitochondria don’t need. And algae solves both of those problems for you effortlessly and scientifically proven.

Aimie Apigian, MD, MS, MPH

Well, I would say that my personal experience has been when I was struggling with my trauma response and noticing that I was going into what we call the freeze response. And what I teach around the biology of trauma is that the trauma response is an energy problem. Your mitochondria have somehow decided I can not make enough energy to support this high level of stress and it just shuts down. And in that process when I notice that my body going into this trauma response, one of the things that my body would start to crave was chlorella and spirulina. And I would never be able to put. I do not have the research,  I haven’t invested that time that you have. But as you are talking about this it all makes sense because, of course, you are both helping your mitochondria but you are also helping your immune system and detoxifying. Those are always things that are part of this trauma response both contributing to the body getting overwhelmed. Because we have so many toxins we can not handle it all or we have got too much inflammation or the result of that and you have got all this inflammation and just clearing that out also helps to improve energy. As you are talking it makes total sense now why my body would just crave algae and it would go into this low-energy state.

Catharine Arnston

Yeah. People are always amazed at how much energy I have. And honestly, I have been eating out both spirulina and chlorella for 13 years every single day. I do not know how I would live without it. And this is why I am so passionate about it because I want everyone else to have the same high energy. I am healthy, I sleep well, I digest well, I poop well, and I am almost 67, I am not like in my 30s or 40s, this is something and I am going to be taking this for the rest of my life. I will probably live to 100 and my longevity will also be with health. Because who wants to live long if you are not going to live well, it just is not any fun. I want to help people in a way that is natural and that has been provided to us by Mother Nature. And before we end this interview I am going to tell you a really cool story again documented in science that proves why algae is the answer for our health. And by the way, I forgot to mention it was the first life on Earth was almost 4,000,000,000 years ago. And I will circle back to that in a few minutes. But let us dig into the benefits of spirulina for the mitochondria and the benefits of chlorella for your immune system.

Aimie Apigian, MD, MS, MPH

Yeah.

Catharine Arnston

I am going to show you a picture. This is your cell. And inside your cell, you have your nucleus and a bunch of other stuff. And these little peanut-shaped things are affectionately called mitochondria. Now these mitochondria are what generates that ATP. And just to show you how powerful they are there are 2,000,000 mitochondria per cell in your brain, the next highest are women’s eggs that have about 700,000 mitochondria per cell, the next highest after that is your heart, which is about 7000, and then about 5000 in your muscles. Things like your fat and your skin do not have many mitochondria because highest concentration of mitochondria are where your highest energy needs are. And think about it takes a lot of energy to make a human and your brain uses so much of energy to think. Inside the mitochondria is where the actual ATP is produced. But what they do not tell you is that a byproduct of ATP production are free radicals. And what you probably also don’t know is that your mitochondria have their own DNA. Yes, you have your 22,000 regular DNA called extranuclear DNA.  But your mitochondria have their own DNA, there is about 13 of them. And guess what? The mitochondrial DNA is located exactly where the ATP is produced which is exactly where the free radicals are. Now, they get damaged every nanosecond because they are sitting ringside where all of the free radicals are being released because that is where all the energy ATP is being produced. And if you have ever sat near a bonfire or got too close to a fireplace, you know how sparks would fly? Think of your free radicals like those sparks and those sparks are literally frying and damaging your mitochondria. 

Now, the reason why, your mitochondria DNA is so important is because your mitochondria DNA control all of your cellular communications, they control your regular DNA, they control everything that goes on at the cellular level. When they start getting damaged they send wrong signals or they die, they mutate, they go through a process where it is called necrosis and they spill all their toxic contents out to the rest of the cell structure. You want to be protecting your mitochondria DNA so that they will live longer and when they live longer and better you will live longer and better too. Here is a closer look at that cell where the ATP is produced and where the DNA of the mitochondria are getting damaged. There is two ways to protect your mitochondria, one, is to reduce your free radicals in the way you do that is with your dietary choices. Turns out that sugar and processed foods generate the most free radicals. The easiest thing to do is to cut out processed carbs that is cookies and crackers and breads, they do not contribute much nutrition to you anyways, if any at all. That is the first thing because you want to reduce your free radical load. You could go on a keto diet but you do not have to, just low carb, but the best way is to fast, intermittent fasting is great, or algae. Because algae or intermittent fasting or fasting produce virtually zero free radicals. 

I want to show you what happens when your mitochondria get damaged. Here is a picture of a healthy mitochondria. Here is a damaged mitochondria. See all that empty space in the middle? In the process of generating ATP, there is these little molecules and they transfer electrons from one little station to the next. And it is like a relay race. And in a relay race, someone has to pass the baton and then they pass the baton and then hopefully they cross the finish line, well, then you are in your mitochondria. It is a very similar thing except what is being passed are the electrons. The trouble is if the stations get damaged from free radicals they expand and they get further and further apart from one another. It is like asking Tom Brady to throw a pass in a stadium that is four times the size of a regular one. They get dropped more and when more electrons are dropped they turn into free radicals which cause more damage. As the damage occurs it gets worse and worse and worse which means your energy gets lower and lower and lower. And when you have less cellular energy remember you have less energy to do anything and you have fewer choices. We need to find a way to stop that process. Again, first option is to reduce the free radicals. The second option is to remove the free radicals. How do you do that? Well, normally you would have antioxidants. Antioxidants stop free radicals. But the problem is your mitochondria have a second inner membrane, it is the only cell structure in your entire body with two membranes and virtually no antioxidants can get in there. You could eat a room full of blueberries or a room full of oranges no vitamin C, no vitamin E, nothing can get into that inner membrane. But there are four that can, they are melatonin, superoxide dismutase, I know it is a mouthful, chlorophyll, and glutathione. 

Now the good thing is algae has the highest concentration of three of those four, especially spirulina, glutathione, superoxide dismutase, and we’ll talk about chlorophyll because mostly algae have the two highest ones. But the most important one is called superoxide dismutase, also known as SOD. And that gets into that inner membrane and stops the free radical damage. And what does superoxide do? It basically turns the free radicals into water. It is like having a fireman in there putting out the fire of the free radicals. Now your mitochondria are protected, they are saved, they are not mutated, they can function better, they can live again. If you are having damaged mitochondria, all of your cells, everything in your body is constantly regrowing. It is not a death sentence, you just need to pull away the things that are causing the damage to give them a chance to restore. And spirulina has the highest superoxide dismutase in the world. Now here is the trick, superoxide dismutase is an enzyme, and enzymes get damaged by high heat. And we are unique because we are the only company that I know that does not use high heat to dry our algae. All the other companies use high heat because they are lower priced and they need to get to market quickly to sell more. And I started the company just to help my sister. And we have always used the highest quality processes. And even 13 years ago when I started I heard that high heat would damage the enzymes and I did not even know about superoxide dismutase at the time, I said, well, we can not use high heat, we have never used high heat. Our superoxide dismutase is alive and well and can get to your mitochondria and deliver those critical antioxidants that stop that free radical damage. 

By the way, there is 25,000 studies documenting the benefit of superoxide dismutase for other health issues whether it is brain disorders, heart health. But, any kind of disease, any kind of trauma that is interfering with your optimization of your health, and in this case trauma at the cellular level, superoxide dismutase will still do the trick. The other amazing thing is that spirulina has two pigments in it that is why it is called the blue-green algae. The blue pigment is called phycocyanin, it is a long word. But it is not found in any other food in the world. And it is also a powerful antioxidant. And there are also tens of thousands of studies documenting how helpful phycocyanin is for stopping all kinds of damage at the mitochondrial level. Very nourishing, it satisfies your hunger, it gives you energy mentally, and physically but most importantly, will get to the cellular level to protect that mitochondria, it is very powerful. And these nutrients are not found. I think superoxide dismutase is a point zero zero zero zero zero one percent in broccoli or cabbage but they get damaged in digestion. But because spirulina is a bacteria, there is no cellulose wall for your body to break down to get access to it, it does get to the mitochondria very efficiently. It is pretty sweet. That is spirulina nourishing for the mitochondria, protective of the mitochondria. If you don’t like vegetables or you don’t have time to eat it helps you in every single way. We recommend ten tablets a day. You could take five, you could take more. NHL players they have 75 before a game with fuel, Olympic teams. There is no upper limit because remember it is food, not a supplement. 

Let me switch over to chlorella because it is quite different. It evolved a billion years after spirulina. Spirulina is called the son of bacteria, first life on Earth. Chlorella is a plant and it has one pigment in it, it is chlorophyll. Remember chlorophyll is what makes plants green. I do not have the image here but we will send Dr. Aimie a slide presentation, you can see this image later on. The chemical composition of Chlorophyll is virtually identical to the chemical composition of your hemoglobin at your red blood cells. And chlorophyll has been used for centuries for helping build the blood and helping people with their health and their immune system. Because when you have healthy blood you are going to have a healthier immune system because your blood delivers nutrients to all the parts of your body. And if you have healthier blood you are going to have a healthier immune system. That is number one, it builds your blood. 

Chlorophyll is also, interestingly, a fat-based pigment. Why is that important? Well, all of your cells have what is called a lipid membrane around them which is a fancy word for saying fats. Your mitochondria have a lipid membrane around them as well but they have that second inner membrane, we are going to get to in a few minutes. Because chlorophyll is a fat-based pigment, it heals that cell wall just like an Omega three would, just like a vitamin D. And if you have not noticed anybody who is listening or watching who has pets or dogs, when dogs are not well they will instinctively go to eat grass and it is because of the chlorophyll. Chlorophyll is very healing to your entire body, particularly to your cell wall. And getting to the immune system, you have probably learned by now that 70 to 80% of your immune system is in your gut that is in your lower intestine, this is where your bacteria are, this is your gut biome. And chlorophyll is very cleansing to your gut biome and chlorella because it has a hard cell wall and has fiber in it. It feeds your gut biome the fiber that needs to support a healthy immune system. Your immune system and your gut are connected to your brain by the vagus nerve. People refer to your gut as your second brain and I totally agree. We all know that we have these gut feelings, well, it is real, is not it, Dr. Aimie? I mean, it is another brain for you, it thinks for you. Chlorella, because it has that highest chlorophyll in the world that builds your blood and your cell wall and also your immune system. The fiber builds your immune system. And that hard cell wall, this is the biggest claim of fame for the chlorella is it pulls out toxins. It is been used for decades to pull out mercury, all heavy metals, lead, and radiation, the United Nations used it after Chernobyl to pull out radiation. We work with biological dentists to pull out mercury. It attaches to the heavy toxins and pulls them out because of that hard cell wall. It also has the highest glutathione in the world which is an antioxidant that also removes toxins. Chlorella or spirulina does this well. But chlorella because it is so healing it has the highest amount. So much of those toxins are in your liver and that is where glutathione is predominantly concentrated. 

Because chlorella has that healing ability for your immune system and cleansing ability and because your body goes through a detox repair cycle when you sleep, we generally recommend the chlorella before bed. Now you can take it any time of day but definitely before bed because that is when you are going to get the maximum benefit. Chlorella also has the highest  tryptophan which is a precursor to melatonin. And melatonin helps you sleep. We suggest people consider taking spirulina in the morning, in the afternoon, that is when you need energy and you are off for your day, you just throw back with some water a handful of the tablets, and you can have them throughout the day, and then chlorella at night before bed. You can take it any time of day. 10 tablets would be sufficient for wellness purposes, you need 20 or 30 tablets for detox purposes. Another way to remember them, because I am always trying to help people understand the difference between the two of them and I speak at a lot of conferences that are held at hotels, I said, think of spirulina like room service, room service brings you everything that you need for your day, very nourishing. And then chlorella is like housekeeping cleans out all the junk in your trunk and cleans out the space so you have got room to do other things. Think of this as room service and this is housekeeping.

Aimie Apigian, MD, MS, MPH

I love that. And as you are talking like this, to me, this is just amazing that we have this tool available for us, we are not stuck. You talked about this cellular regeneration so that even if we’ve had low energy, even if we’ve had toxins, even if we’ve had this damage chronically to our mitochondria we can still take algae and have the benefits because of the cellular regeneration. It is never too late.

Catharine Arnston

I tell people it is never too late to feel great. And also the other thing when you are having any kind of health issue, does not matter what it is. It is overwhelming and it is also very difficult to change behaviors. Rather than just telling people to completely change their diet and it is unfamiliar territory, they do not have the recipes, and they do not have the time and maybe they have difficult digestion, this is effortless. I did not mention but there is 100,000 studies documenting the benefits of the two algae but 60,000 for spirulina and about 40,000 for chlorella. It is been used safely in Asia for over 50 years. The Japanese are well renowned for their best longevity, lowest cancer rates, and lowest obesity rates. Why should they be the only ones benefiting from this? I want you to enjoy the same benefits and it is effortless. If you can swallow water you can get the nourishment that you need to get back on track, to regain your energy, to help you through these issues that you are dealing with trauma. A nourished body is a much healthier body, you will have a much greater likelihood to start feeling better about yourself and about the world and you didn’t have to give up anything, you didn’t have to change anything. That is what I really love about it. That’s why I got so excited when I discovered algae. And it is been endorsed by international agencies for almost 50 years. It is not grown here and no one’s explained it to you. I have spent 13 years digging into the research. I have probably read 5000 PubMed articles at this point. I do not want you to have to do that, I have done that for you. My job is to help you understand what it does and why it works. 

And now I want to show you my “piece de resistance,” my little final point about why algae is so amazing and so natural. As I mentioned at the very beginning, algae was the first life on earth. Before it started growing Earth was just gas and water. There was no life and no oxygen. Now nobody knows why if single cell called cyanobacteria started growing but it did. And it generated ATP and in the process byproduct, it released oxygen. After a billion years, there was an anaerobic cell. Anaerobic cells mean it grows without oxygen. Now there was a billion years later there is oxygen on earth. Now aerobic, larger aerobic cells could grow but they were not generating ATP as easily as the other little small cell. I can imagine the conversation going like this, the large cell says to the little cell, hey, little guy, I see you are struggling because of course, now they aren’t always oxygen and they can’t survive oxygen, the large cell says to the little guy, how about we join forces? We will protect you from all that oxygen and you generate ATP for us and we will coexist, and that is exactly what happened. Cyanobacteria like spirulina which was a single-cell organism, got absorbed by the larger cell but instead of being digested it co-existed and became mitochondria. Cyanobacteria grew into mitochondria. This is where the inner membrane of the mitochondria came from, it’s from its original days when it was by itself as a single cell. And when it got absorbed the larger cell put that second lipid membrane around it but the first one did not disappear. It makes complete sense to me why algae give us everything that the mitochondria need because they are basically family. And it just makes so much sense to me that here we are, we are in this very complex world, high stress, looking for complex solutions and the answer always comes from simplicity and from ourselves. You will always say your love, your success, your happiness, and your spirit comes from inside, but we are all so distracted that we look outside but it is all inside and so are the mitochondria they are in there. And they came from the origination of algae. I am so happy too. And it is all explained in evolutionary biology, it is called endosymbiotic theory, for anybody who wants to look it up on Google. But it makes me feel so comforted to know that all of our health issues ultimately are driven by mitochondria and all of the answers for the mitochondria I think ultimately come from algae. Spirulina and chlorella they are waiting for you. And in fact, we have a special discount code, biology, if you want to visit our website ENERGYbits it will give you 20% off everything, all the time, any time. We are here for you and we just want to be part of the solution because I think it is just been waiting.

Aimie Apigian, MD, MS, MPH

It has been waiting. And that is exactly what we teach here. The answer is in simplicity, not getting more complex, it is simplifying and within ourselves, within our own body. When we give our body what it needs it does the healing process and that is exactly what happens here with the algae. When we give it what it needs then it finally has the energy, it finally has the resources to clean up the mess and to help us be feeling better.

Catharine Arnston

Yeah. And I tell people, algae is not new it is just new to you. And if you think about it up until maybe ten years ago you did not know about chia seed, or matcha, or quinoa, or collagen powder, or even CBD, but these are things that have been used by other Indigenous groups in other countries for centuries. And so as algae has been used for centuries but it is never been explained or grown here. I just want to assure you it is not new, it is a heavily documented in science it is just not been explained to you very well and that is what we are trying to do to help everyone because we certainly need some help right now.

Aimie Apigian, MD, MS, MPH

We do. And I really appreciate the thought process that you have put into the production of it so that we are not using high heat that is going to kind of denature the proteins. You have put in the thought and the process to know how do we maintain the quality of this so that we are actually delivering these nutrients that the body needs and not making them less efficient in our process of production.

Catharine Arnston

Yeah. And that is just one example. Another example is that we grow it in triple-filtered spring water because algae will absorb whatever’s in the water, you never want algae from the ocean or lake because there is mycotoxins in there. But I forgot to mention, we do third-party lab tests because we only sell through our website energybits.com, or through doctor’s offices, functional medicine, chiropractors, and longevity centers. They need to know that the nutrients that we say are in there are there and that there are not any toxins. We do constantly lab tests and we provide those to practitioners so they feel quite comfortable with the product. Just on the chlorella, another thing is that it has that hard cell wall that needs to be cracked. Almost everybody else uses the original technique which was to tumble the chlorella tablets with glass beads and it was the glass that would crush the cell wall, but the glass heats up and led from the glass leaks into the chlorella so that is not healthy. When I started the company I learned about that and I said, well, that is not going to work for us, so we do not use that process, we found a new process a little more expensive. And we passed the chlorella through a sound chamber and it is the vibrations that crack the chlorella. It is just one of many things that we have done to try to ensure the highest quality, highest safety that our tablets are safe enough for newborns, children of any age,  teenagers, grandparents, and pets love them. That is a true test if your pets love something because they are smarter than we are. And there is no interactions, drug interaction it is just spirulina. 

Everybody in the world should be taking spirulina every single day for the rest of their life because it is so nourishing and has so much protein. You’ll half your groceries, you will be saving time and money. Again, very efficient nutrition, lasts for like three years and never goes bad, frankly, ever and it is effortless. I can not stress enough, we are in a society that wants instant gratification, well, spirulina gives it to you, and you will feel more alert within half an hour, 20 minutes. Chlorella is more of a wellness-preventative algae you do not see that immediacy but with spirulina, absolutely. And you might take it for helping with your mitochondria help, but your skin is going to improve, your digestion is going to improve, certainly, your mood will improve, your brain capability, everything. It’s a one-stop shop. And I’m just the voice of algae. Mother Nature gave it to us. We are just blessed. I am just blessed that I discovered it and now I can share it with you.

Aimie Apigian, MD, MS, MPH

And I really want to acknowledge you and thank you for the work that you have done leaving the career that you had to dedicate yourself to this and dedicate yourself to the process of the quality delivery for people. Obviously, starting with your sister knowing how important it was to have a clean algae and then being able to say, no, it should not stop here, the rest of the world needs to know this. Thank you for the work that you do in this world. Thank you for being on the summit. Thank you for sponsoring the summit. And really appreciate your time here.

Catharine Arnston

Well, thank you, Dr. Aimie. I am grateful to be here. And I wish everybody absolutely the best. And remember it is never too late to feel great.

Aimie Apigian, MD, MS, MPH

I love that. It is never too late to feel great. I am your host for the Summit, The Biology of Trauma Summit 3.0. Thank you for your time. And I will see you on the next interview.