Full Transcript Opening story on astaxanthin and sun protection 0:00 Salmon, krill oil, very rich in astaxanthin. 0:03 But one of the things it does for the kril, apparently, is they swim around pretty close to the ocean surface a lot of times, 0:10 and they get burned by the sun. 0:11 It would literally burn them up. 0:13 And the astoxanthan, I've read, it's what protects them. 0:17 Well, we went whale watching about 10 years ago, And I was doing a LOT of krille oil at that time and a lotta vitamin D. 0:24 So we're out doing whale watching on a moss landing out in Monterey Bay and it's really sunny. 0:30 And my wife comes up to me about an hour into our trip and said, do you have sunscreen on? 0:34 Because you can see my skin, it takes about five minutes for me to burn to a crisp. 0:38 It's about and hour ended the trip. 0:40 I said oh my God, no, I don't. 0:41 But you know what? 0:42 I'm not even pink. 0:44 I wasn't even Pink and I didn't get a sunburn. 0:47 That's the only time in my life I've ever been out in the sun for a long period of time. 0:51 And I got to tell you, I blame that on the astaxanthin and the high vitamin D levels. 0:56 Hi, and welcome to The Balancing Point. 1:03 functional medicine and integrative health simple, practical and fun so you can restore balance, boost vitality and enjoy a healthier life every single day. 1:17 Hey, y'all. 1:18 Thanks for joining me here today. 1:20 This is a really fun show, I'm thinking, that's going to happen.
Introducing Dave Stouter and the natural health philosophy 1:25 And I am here as your host of The Balancing Point, this is John Neters. 1:30 Today I've got a very special guest. 1:33 Very special to me, and I think special for you. 1:35 His name is Dave Stouter. 1:38 I have known Dave for many years. 1:40 And, you know, he used to own a store in Redwood City called Apple Health. 1:46 And I remember one of the things, in fact, I actually went online and looked it up and see if there was still anything there about Apple health foods and 1:54 there still is on Google. 1:57 and I was reminded that his. 2:00 real phrase that he went by is, he called it Mother Nature's Medicine Chest. 2:06 And he really lived by that. 2:07 Dave's customer service at that store, my patients miss him so much. 2:13 That store has been closed for over a decade, and I still have patients coming in and asking about Dave. 2:19 Now, what's significant in my mind about David, as well as being a great person, is that, in the manufacturing side of supplements. 2:30 He has experience on the wholesale side A lot of experience on the retail side of supplements. 2:39 So he probably knows as much about supplements in general as anybody around. 2:44 And so I love picking Dave's brain, but we used to have a lot, a a ton of fun at one time. 2:51 We were both on radio and we decided to do a radio show together called the Medicine Men. 2:57 It was a gas, we would have nothing prepared. 3:00 But we'd show up and Dave did most of the interviewing. 3:03 He's a very good interviewer. 3:05 And he'd say, all right, John, let's talk about this. 3:08 I go, okay, Dave, and we just wrapped for an hour. 3:12 It was so much fun being non-scripted, unscript and just going through things. 3:19 So Dave really, really focuses on the natural way of healing, the way people have taken care of themselves for centuries, 3:30 lifestyle, diet, getting enough sun, being socially, keeping your mental mental health, all the things that people have done for centuries. 3:44 We look at these areas they call the blue zones now where people live to a riper older age than people in other areas. 3:52 And it's really the stuff that Dave's going to talk about today. 3:56 So Dave, how you doing? 3:59 I'm doing great. 3:59 This is. 4:01 came back out to California and was able to come visit you more than once a year. 4:06 It was just really great and I think back to our radio show, The Medicine Man, and really folks, I can remember the old days, 4:15 like I would call into the radio station and John would come into radio stations, so we wouldn't be in the same room most of the time. 4:22 And I could remember, you know, we'd be on hold waiting for the show to start and go, John, got some good questions for you today. 4:28 He'd go okay. 4:29 And that was it. 4:30 And John and I, you know, John's very credentialed. 4:36 I've gone in as a patient. 4:37 My wife has my daughter has, I really never met anybody like John because he's humble, but he usually knows something almost about everything, 4:49 at least a little something, if not a lot. 4:51 You know I don't have credentials, because John said I'd been in the industry for about 53 years, and if you're in a health food store and all these places 5:02 and you pay attention, you learn things. 5:04 And I got to work with people like John and some of the luminaries in the health-food business. 5:11 I would say we are confusing being medicated with being healthy. 5:17 That's a real issue. 5:19 Medications have their place, but health comes from diet, lifestyle, nutrition. 5:26 and we have these wonderful. 5:29 interventions that can save our life and do amazing things. 5:32 But if we would really understand that, you know, they say alternative medicine, we're not the alternative, okay? 5:40 We are the way to health. 5:41 This natural foods industry, John, to me is the only industry that actually talks about health, We don't talk about insurance and medications and disease management. 5:51 We do talk mother nature's medicine chest, exercise, real food. 5:55 And I think we just need to really attempt to rely on that more, because if we don't, then we just think like, well, I have a headache. 6:04 I'll just take Advil. 6:06 It's sort of a slippery slope. 6:08 And when I would hear John lecture, we have good people out there. 6:16 We have people in health food stores. 6:19 We have guides to help us. 6:21 So if we could just remember that 80% of our health is diet, lifestyle, nutrition. 6:27 And we're going to talk about a few supplements today. 6:29 I just want to say to everybody, I don't think that supplements are a substitute for a good diet. 6:36 But I also don''t think a Good Diet is a Substitute for Supplements. 6:40 We live in a world where most of us aren't angels with our lifestyle. 6:48 We do things that we know aren't so good for us, but okay, we live in the real world. 6:52 But even if you're a saint, you live with what 30, 40,000 liver toxins, John. 6:57 And so you are, something like that. 7:00 You are being beaten up. 7:02 So to me, I don't think you can make that up completely as you age, especially just with diet. 7:11 and so avail yourself of mother nature, medicine, chest. 7:14 You know, I have several studies that I'd collected over the years that were done on the cord blood of infants, right? 7:22 These are babies that had never been out in the world. 7:26 It was the blood that they were having circulated while they're in utero. 7:32 Over 99% of the children, the cord blood that was tested had over 200 toxins. 7:40 So they were born with those toxins and then we're just going to add more. 7:43 And I had, I have a kid, um, it's kind of, kind a cocky in one of my nutrition classes while I was teaching, he was in. 7:50 acupuncture school, and I taught combination of Western and Chinese nutrition. 7:56 And I was talking about supplements and herbs. 7:58 He said, well, why would we need that stuff? 8:00 You know, my grandparents didn't need it. 8:02 I said well that's because your grandparents were eating food that was grown in soil that still had some nutrients in it, 8:09 you know? 8:09 And, I pointed to a study that done in the 1930s where they said 70% of the land that we're growing crops on had no nutrients. 8:17 So if it's not in the soil, it was not going in to plants. 8:20 But then I said, your parents weren't eating the type of wheat that you're eating. 8:24 They were eating a much higher quality form of weed. 8:28 And when they had dairy, It was raw, straight from the cow dairy with all the nutrients in it. 8:34 It hadn't been homogenized and pasteurized. 8:36 So good luck finding all of the things you need without an occasional or even more than occasional supplement.
Why supplements matter in a toxic modern world 8:44 Well, thanks. 8:46 And I'll expand on that just a little bit. 8:48 You know, I can remember Johnny Carson, for those of you that, you know he was like the main late night talk show host at the time. 8:55 But anyway, he talking to somebody and he goes like, well, a carrot's a carat. 8:59 What's the difference between an organic carrot and regular carrot? 9:03 Well, you know, A through zinc, maybe not a lot. 9:06 Okay. 9:07 They are very similar, but then you get into phytonutrients. 9:11 And when you use pesticides and things, we destroy most of them and the phytonutrions just play a big role in health and detox. 9:19 But we can go deeper. 9:21 There's supposed to be a microbial life in the soil, almost like the microbiome of the And that should be part of the plant and that then should part the 9:33 health benefit from the plan. 9:34 So even if it's organic and not full of a bunch of toxins, it may not be in great soil. 9:43 As John said, generally, we all come into the world starting with more toxins than our parents, and the environment we're growing up in has more toxins 9:53 than are parents. 9:53 So yeah, I know older people, you know, smoke cigars, drink alcohol, they're 95, their fine. 10:00 but you won't find as many of those today. 10:02 And now we have, you know, six-year-olds with anxiety and GERD and all kinds of things. 10:07 So folks, avail yourself of Mother Nature's Medicine Chest. 10:12 I thought, I know there's a lot of you out there that are maybe a supplement like me, you know, like I don't mind taking a lot of supplements and I had 10:22 a store, so you could take a whole bunch. 10:25 But I know there's a lotta you that would like to really try to get most of it with your diet, and admire that. 10:31 I wanna talk about three supplements that I think everybody should do, I dunno care, how healthy you are or not. 10:40 When you pick three out of a thousand really good things, your gonna leave good thing behind. 10:45 If it were me, I would not do less than the three things we're gonna talk about today. 10:52 And- Great, that sounds fabulous. 10:55 Okay, maybe top- Roll them. 10:58 Top of the list, John, you mentioned being out in the sun. 11:01 The sun actually does a lot for you. 11:04 But one of main things is vitamin D3. 11:06 Now I want you all to picture something. 11:08 If you think about it, all the energy on the planet comes from the Sun. 11:13 You know, the different lights we see and in a sense, it's electricity. 11:17 Everything really generates from the sun. 11:20 And I think of vitamin D that way. 11:21 It, you know. 11:23 The sun hits your skin. 11:24 You make vitamin d and that compound becomes so many things, just like the son gives so may forms of energy. 11:33 You know, D, we think of it as bone health, and that's true. 11:37 One of the sort of major pathways of D is to help the bones. 11:41 And it may be that four or 5,000 D a day may enough for bones for a lot of people. 11:47 But there's different pathways. 11:48 D makes hundreds of hormonal chemicals. 11:52 John, I was talking to Dr. 11:54 Michael Murray. 11:54 Many of you know him. 11:55 He's pretty well known in the industry. 11:57 Oh, yeah. 11:58 and he told me something I didn't know that vitamin D helps prevent fatty liver. 12:03 So people say, what does vitamin D do for you? 12:06 And I'm almost like, well, it'd be easier to just tell you what it doesn't. 12:09 So it does help your bones. 12:11 It does your heart muscle. 12:13 Along with vitamin K2, It helps keep calcium out of your arteries and soft tissue and into your bone. 12:20 Its critical for the immune system, for autoimmunity, thyroid health, even for vision. 12:27 And so we have underestimated what we need. 12:29 I just want to read one paragraph. 12:33 I'm going to tell everybody that from my point of view as somebody in the supplement business, I don't know why anybody wouldn't take at least five to 10,000 12:42 a day. 12:43 John, you're welcome to chime in on this, but Dr. 12:46 Reinhold Veith is one of the leading D3 researchers in world. 12:49 He's a PhD toxicologist. 12:52 he's worked for the CDC and he just says here, in this study goes, we present a risk assessment based on relevant, well-designed human clinical trials 13:04 of vitamin D collectively. 13:05 The absence of toxicity in trials conducted in healthy adults that use vitamin-D dose over 10,000 units supports this confident selection, 13:15 the value of the upper limit. 13:17 So if you lived on the equator, you'd probably pull in about 30 to 80,000 a day. 13:24 So folks, doctors are still a little slow, most of them on this, and they want to stop your blood level at 40 or 50. The people studying it want you to 13:33 be 100 or a bit more. 13:36 I used to take quite a bit. 13:38 My levels were 206.8 and I'm still here to be on the balancing point. 13:42 So because D does so much, it's one thing. 13:45 It's not expensive. 13:46 If it does. 13:47 I would make sure you're getting D and get more than is in your multi. 13:51 And I, I put the floor to your comments, John. 13:55 Yeah. 13:55 The, um, the one caveat is if I find someone that has so vitamin D, one of the reasons it. 14:03 Not much of a problem. 14:05 at any level, I mean any over 60, is that it still has one more conversion to become the most active form, which is called calcitriol. 14:15 So what's being tested when you get a D3 test is 25 hydroxy vitamin D. 14:22 That then converts to one comma 25 dihydroxyvitamin D, and that's what actually gets locked into your receptor sites. 14:32 And in a few people, and some people with a kidney disease have to be a little careful. 14:37 If they come in and they've got really, really low vitamin D, you know, it's like 10, 15, or if they're taking vitamin B and it still low, 14:46 then I will run a calcitriol test just to make sure they are not over converting to that form. 14:51 But we're looking at less than 1% of the population. 14:54 Would I even be concerned about that? 14:57 But one thing I want to mention, And it's something I could not legally say during the pandemic because California passed a law that people in my position, 15:09 even MDs, could say anything other than what the CDC told them to say. 15:14 Well, I'm looking at studies from all over the world. 15:17 And one of them that was done at the Galilee Medical Center in Israel showed, and they put vitamin D users in quintiles, 15:25 five different levels, and the people that were in the lowest quintile died from COVID at 14 times the rate as the People in The Highest Quintile. 15:38 14x higher death rate. 15:40 All they had to do was take a few pennies worth of vitamin D a day. 15:42 So, anyway, that's my two cents here. 15:44 Not 14% people, 14X, 1,400%. Right. 15:44 And that is the thing, it does so much for you, And you say, oh, I go out in the sun a lot. 15:56 Well, if you live in Florida or, you know, Brazil, okay. 16:01 But the farther you are from the equator, the less D you make, even if your in sun. 16:04 So I encourage you to go at the Sun. 16:06 I'm not saying don't go up the son, but take your vitamin D. 16:10 Now the next thing, uh, John, everybody talks a little about inflammation and they should be. 16:16 Uh, remember there was a big, it was either time or newsweek when they were a real magazine. 16:25 had a big article on inflammation and health. 16:27 And the sentence that I really took from it was, inflammation is the engine that drives every chronic disease. 16:36 Now, one of the main reasons we would have that chronic inflammation, and almost think of it as a pilot light that can just light fires all over your body 16:46 if you're not careful. 16:48 is the imbalance between omega-3 fatty acids and omega 6 fatty assets. 16:53 I've seen studies where even if you don't eat junk food, let's say you eat really good food.
Vitamin D benefits and dosing discussion 16:59 Still, if we lived out in the wild, our omega 3, omega six would be roughly equal. 17:06 Maybe omega6 would two or three times as much. 17:10 Typical Americans are 20 to 30 times the omega-6 to omega 3. And whether it's junk food or real food, that is an equation for inflammation. 17:20 The easiest thing to do is up the Omega-3. 17:23 Now here's where we get a little complicated. 17:25 I'm a big fan of fish oil, because the fish have converted the omega-3 into the active forms. 17:35 I won't mispronounce the long names, but they're EPA and DHA. 17:40 And there's plenty of studies on fish, oil and you go to a health food store, you can get clean fish. 17:45 Oil because fish are being rancid or contaminated is certainly an issue. 17:50 But I wanted to. 17:53 point out to you very strict vegans who are listening to me and going, ah, I'm not doing the fish. 17:58 I get it. 17:59 Now you have one alternative. 18:01 The thing is, as we referenced before, we live in a liver toxic world. 18:06 Just people are not converting your flax and your hemp and you're walnuts. 18:11 They're just not, converting the ALA into EPA and DHA at very small rate. 18:18 And when I meet someone who's a strict vegan, The first thing that comes to my mind, like what their health issue might be, 18:26 is fatty acids. 18:27 Because even at best, we're not converting them very well. 18:30 So many of the companies make an algae oil that has been converted to EPA and DHA, and that's one good alternative. 18:38 A little expensive compared to fish oil, but it has being altered. 18:43 But I want to give a shout out to a really emerging fatty acid, that is black seed oil. 18:53 I was thinking about this, black seed oil is pretty amazing. 18:56 John, I don't know if I told you this but... 19:00 Okay. 19:02 I'm sure you tell your... 19:04 patients to eat a colorful diet, right? 19:07 That's healthy. 19:08 Yes. 19:09 In fact, Chinese medicine is based on seasonal eating by color. 19:13 Okay. 19:13 Now to everybody out there, when I said, eat, a colourful diet. 19:17 What did you see? 19:18 You saw green and red and yellow and orange. 19:22 Maybe purple. 19:24 So when I was a little kid in elementary school, I wasn't fascinated by mixing colors when they taught us paint. 19:29 You know, you could put like yellow paint and blue paint together and it made green. 19:34 Like that just fascinated me. 19:36 I remember them telling me that the absence of color was white and that all the colors mixed together were black. 19:45 Now, when said eat a colorful diet, nobody saw black, probably not. 19:49 And I don't think you did, and I do. 19:51 But black is all of the color. 19:54 And I would tell you that black seed oil, I think, really should be more significant than turmeric as the herb that has such a broad, 20:02 and in the fatty acid profile blackseed oil. 20:06 It also has some things that help the liver convert. 20:10 So generally, I would recommend everybody do a good Omega-3, a fish oil, if you're not a vegan. 20:17 But if your are vegan, i would add black seed oil. 20:20 Did you tell me, John, that was in... 20:23 I think it's in the Quran that they say blackseed oil cures every death. 20:29 Well, it was Avicenna, the great Persian physician. 20:32 I mean, this guy was brilliant about a thousand years ago. 20:35 He's reputed to be the first doctor to do an appendectomy, but he was. 20:42 But he was revered and he said, the one, one thing I cannot be without is black seed oil or blackseed. 20:50 And he says, I can cure anything but death if I have black seeds. 20:55 He said if they're already dead, he can't do anything, but everything else we can heal with black. 20:59 Well, most of us, when we're dead we don't go into health food stores. 21:03 You know, now I do want to give a shout out and you and I talked about this to one of the companies when it comes to black seat oil. 21:12 There are a lot of good products on the shelf. 21:14 Now, the main active ingredient is called thymaquinone, kind of like we think of curcumin with turmeric. 21:21 And usually if we're buying a turmeric supplement, typically we want to see how much curicumin is in it. 21:27 A lot black seed oils don't even state the thymoquinone. 21:31 That doesn't mean they're bad, but I don' know how to compare them, right? 21:35 Like this one, you know. 21:38 So there's one by a company called Health Aid America, and it's around here in California, certainly, but you can find it on the internet, 21:46 too. 21:46 But they make a black seed oil from India, measurably, I think, than Turkey or Egypt, where a lot of it comes from. 21:58 It's organic. 22:00 They hand pick it, they hand press it. 22:03 And I've tasted black seed oil. 22:05 I wouldn't say it's tasty. 22:07 But this has actually a good taste, like a sweet, rich olive oil with a little bite. 22:12 and it has a minimum of 150 thymacoinone. 22:16 in one teaspoon and the ones that do state are usually 40 to 50. So this to me is the superior black seed oil. 22:25 And by the way, John, there's a lot of things, we could probably do a whole show on blackseed oil, but I noticed that there were studies on glaucoma. 22:35 on black seed oil. 22:37 And that's something that you really need to go to a practitioner about because I don't see much on the health food store shelves for that. 22:45 The other thing, I was at a trade show and was speaking with a woman who turned out to be a thyroid practitioner. 22:52 We were standing at the Health Aid booth and she put her finger on top of the blackseed oil and goes, number one thing for thyroid. 23:00 I'm like, really? 23:01 And she goes, especially Hashimoto's. 23:03 And when I looked at PubMed.gov, there was a study where two months, I didn't read how much, but two month on black seed oil cut the elevated antibodies, 23:13 the TPO and the tgo in half. 23:16 So this is a really good whole food oil. 23:21 It's not spiked, by the way. 23:23 Just think of it like avocado oil, you know, coconut oil and so I'm a big fish oil advocate, Omega-3. 23:30 I think we need preformed EPA, DHA. 23:34 And I would be curious about your thoughts, but adding black seed oil to that I, think is really great idea. 23:43 You know, Dave, you are the person that turned me on to using it for Hashimoto's and I'm seeing the same type of effect. 23:51 I have quite a few patients because I treat a lot of Hashimoto's who are getting really great results. 23:57 Where I had used black seed oil for decades was for ulcerative colitis. 24:05 I remember this one guy came in, he was desperate. 24:07 He said, look, they're going to take out my large intestine next month. 24:11 You got to help me. 24:12 So I did everything that I knew to do at that time. 24:16 And he went into remission enough that they let him keep his colon. 24:21 But he was like 90% better, but there was that last 10% we couldn't get. 24:25 And then I started giving him black seed oil, and that was the final magic ingredient. 24:32 Years ago, again, I don't know how many, a couple decades probably, I was looking for supplements that could help people with pancreatic problems and the 24:43 only supplement that was ever listed in any of the studies was black seed oil. 24:48 So it has just a myriad of uses. 24:53 My little image of all the colors are black and you need a colorful diet. 24:58 And so I would say I love turmeric and I like it that people are putting turmeric in their food and cooking with turmeric, 25:06 and making turmeric drinks and turmeric milk. 25:10 But I wouldn't say that black seed oil deserves to be a tier above even turmeric. 25:17 So as we talk about fatty acids, to me, you got to get your omega-3 because almost all of us need more omega 3 to balance out that omega 6 omega three relationship,
Omega-3s, inflammation, and black seed oil 25:27 which if it isn't balanced, it drives inflammation. 25:31 Now, so we've talked about two things. 25:34 Vitamin D and fish oil with a little side note there about black seed oil. 25:39 The third thing, and maybe this should have been the first thing. 25:43 is to take care of your microbiome. 25:47 And I want to make a little distinction between probiotics and microbiomes. 25:50 Probiotics are supplements that play a role in the health of the microbiote. 25:56 I'm going to go out broad with this. 26:05 that the interesting thing was they found like this many genes, but this much activity. 26:10 It was activity they couldn't account for in what they had mapped. 26:14 And then they realized at some point that that was the microbiome, that your bacteria do have your DNA and this activity was that colony. 26:23 By the way, folks, if I'm looking at John and he's a trillion cells, there's like probably a hundred trillion bacteria we're looking that we don't see. 26:32 They're not like ants you're supposed to brush off your sleep, they're a functioning colony. 26:41 mRNA, you know, we kind of think about that as the technology in the COVID shot. 26:48 But mRNA is the messenger that tells your DNA what to do. 26:53 Now, one of the reasons why as we age, get more conditions, diseases, not the only, but one them is that we lose our genetic stability. 27:03 We can't keep our good genes turned on and our bad genes turn off. 27:08 So the mRNA is what tells your DNA what to do for the most part. 27:13 That's epigenetics. 27:14 We're learning now that your fate is not in your dna as much as we used to think. 27:20 Your inner and outer environment conspires to tell your genes to the right thing or the wrong thing. 27:27 And a good 80% of that mRNA message comes from your microbiome. 27:35 Now let that sink in a minute. 27:37 Because, you know, we all know the gut issues, oh, I've got reflux, i'm constipated, and I get nauseous. 27:45 Okay. 27:45 And we go, well, one of the things you need to do is your microbiome, but there's plenty of things going on in your body. 27:51 Some of them take decades to manifest. 27:54 If you're not tending that garden, if you are not keeping that up, then You know, you're heading towards some kind of problem and don't rely just on your 28:06 gut to tell you. 28:06 And that's like one of the first places to go. 28:10 I was attending a lecture by this guy named Dr. 28:12 John Needers one time. 28:16 He was talking about certain medications. 28:18 So I raised my hand and I said, so John, we know that antibiotics and hormones are particularly rough on the microbiome. 28:28 What other medication should we be concerned about? 28:31 And he said, all of them. 28:33 So every medication, you know, sort of inhibits your microbiome. 28:38 And what I say to people is why do they put chlorine in water? 28:42 To bacteria. 28:45 If you drink tap water or anything made with tapwater, when you eat sweets or sugars, even a glass of orange juice, whatever the sugar is, 28:54 it disproportionately feeds negative bacteria. 28:57 So I'm sorry, folks. 28:59 To me, no one's walking around with a truly healthy microbiome unless you're doing something about it. 29:05 Now, John, you and I have been talking about this issue. 29:10 There's a product out there, everybody, and, I got to give it the Olympic gold medal as a microbiome supplement. 29:18 And by the way, probably everybody on the track team in the Olympics can run faster than I can and John. 29:25 But there is a gold metal and a silver and bronze. 29:27 I'll tell you why I think this is the gold. 29:31 you go into a health food store and you got a lot of products, right? 29:36 And if you were asking somebody who knew about all the products why is this one good? 29:41 Why is one this good, they'll all tell you, well, this is what we did to make sure the bacteria could actually get through digestion, 29:49 because that's tough. 29:51 When you put bacteria in your mouth, they really get it through the digestive system. 29:55 They have to have certain strains and they might enterocoded and that's good. 29:59 And then when it gets down there, it has to actually be able to implant. 30:03 and get work with all the friends in there. 30:07 And so they'll pick strains that they feel implant best. 30:11 Okay, that's good. 30:12 Then it needs food and we may not be feeding it well ourselves. 30:18 So they put prebiotics typically in the supplements. 30:21 But here's the thing we don't realize. 30:25 John, if I asked you, What do probiotic bacteria do for you? 30:30 You'd give me a bunch of things, you know, it helps with constipation, helps absorb certain nutrients, help with mood, helped with immunity. 30:37 And to sort of make a point, I'm going to say, no, John, the probiotics bacteria don't do any of that. 30:44 Then as everyone's saying, well, what do they do? 30:48 If they get down there and if they implant and, if their fed, they make a whole set of compounds called postbiotic metabolites. 30:58 Now, when you eat a fermented food, like, you know, sauerkraut, whatever, there's bacteria in it, but there is also post biotic metabolism. 31:08 Some researchers say that, fermented foods are better for you than probiotic supplements. 31:15 I'm not so sure about that, but to me, the kernel of truth in that statement is, is that complexity of a fermented food that has post-biotic metabolites 31:28 versus a really strong collection of bacteria. 31:31 Okay. 31:32 Now. 31:33 Because of that, there's a product out there called Dr. 31:36 O'Hara's Probiotic, and that's Ohira, like a Japanese name, not Ohara. 31:41 I'm happy St. 31:41 Patrick's Day to everybody. 31:42 Because we're recording it on St Patrick Day, so I'll mention that. 31:50 as a guy that loves finding clovers, four leaf clover. 31:53 But anyway, so what Dr. 31:56 Ohira, this Japanese professor found out a long time ago, and there's a story about him, I think he was in Indonesia. 32:04 And one story says he got really sick and once he at a conference and one stories says, he's got drunk. 32:09 but he was not doing well and one of the shamans there gave him this black paste and it just like picked him up. 32:17 And he actually was trying to figure out what it was. 32:20 He actually went and got a degree in microbiology so he could figure it out. 32:23 But anyway, what Dr. 32:27 Hirsch does is take a wide variety of interesting foods and some key bacteria and they ferment it for three years. 32:37 Now, When you eat food, roughly it gets through your system in 72 hours, you know, an average. 32:44 And so you've got 72. Hours for that food to ferment and become some post-biotic metabolites. 32:52 Here you have three years. 32:54 This stuff has over 500 post-biotic metabolites in it naturally because of the fermentation. 33:01 And so if your microbiome, if you're rainforest down here is like a desert, You can put all the good animals in your mouth and they can get down there. 33:12 Nothing much is going to happen. 33:13 You've probably taken a probiotic supplement and gotten really great results and taken another one and didn't. 33:18 And you've taken it and the results faded. 33:22 That's because They only really work well if they end up going through all these little barriers to make postbiotic metabolites. 33:32 This is what builds your microbiome. 33:42 John, I was looking at some stats. 33:45 We eat a little less carbs than we used to, probably still too many. 33:49 Okay. 33:50 And we're a Little more sedentary than it used To be as a, like in the last 25 years. 33:55 So, you know, most people would say that if you have an issue with weight, it's not the only thing, but too Many sweets and carbs and not enough exercise 34:04 is kind of a. 34:05 root cause for a lot of people. 34:07 But that doesn't change very much, but obesity and diabetes are going through the roof. 34:12 So there's metabolic disruption there, and it's probably different ones. 34:16 The fact that the GLP-1 drugs work, at least in terms of losing weight, shows that that's one of the key issues of metabolic disruption. 34:26 Now, I'm not a big fan of these medications. 34:29 I just think they have issues with them. 34:31 And I can understand if somebody is really overweight and just giving up. 34:36 But I wouldn't stay on them too long if I were you. 34:38 It's just my opinion. 34:40 Your own GLP-1 system is basically your microbiome consuming beta-glucans and certain fibers to make short-chain fatty acids, 34:51 to Make L-cells, To make GLPs 1, 2, and 3. And so when you look at this product, Dr. 34:57 O'Hara, that's just rich in post-biotic metabolites. 35:04 I take a lot of different probiotics. 35:06 I'm sure you use different ones in your clinic. 35:09 But when I look at this three-year fermented food that they just put the whole thing in a little capsule, they don't isolate it. 35:16 They don' monkey with it, it's really amazing because every biological system in you body has to operate through the microbiome. 35:26 Okay. 35:27 And my little image is imagine like walking somewhere and you're walking through the beautiful woods with the sunlight and the butterflies and hummingbirds 35:35 and trees. 35:37 How nice you would feel when you get to wherever you are going. 35:39 What if you had to slog through a swamp and worry about the leeches and snakes and quicksand?
Microbiome health and Dr. O'Hara's probiotic 35:46 Well, if your microbiome isn't so good, then your body is operating through swamp. 35:53 or if your microbiome's healthy, you're walking through the beautiful woods. 35:56 So again, I think that whoever you are, whatever you doing, whether you like to take as many supplements as you can afford, 36:05 just to hedge your bets, or you'd rather not take any. 36:08 I really think plenty of vitamin D3, an omega-3 supplement, if you wanna consider black seed oil, and a good probiotic. 36:16 There's lots of good probiotics, but I have to give the gold medal to Dr. 36:20 O'Hara's probiotics. 36:24 Dave, yeah, we, I haven't, i don't remember exactly at this moment, but I think we carry about eight different types of probiotics and we use them for 36:35 very specific things. 36:36 But Dr. 36:38 O'Hara's is my baseline. 36:41 If, you know, if someone has. 36:45 Anyway, certain gut conditions, I might use one of these other formulas, but O'Hara's is absolutely the gold standard. 36:52 It is just astonishing. 36:53 And then there's the professional grade, which has been fermented for five years, right? 36:58 Well, yeah. 36:58 In fact. 36:59 And so down in the lower bowel is where you're anaerobic bacteria, like no oxygen, low oxygen bacteria. 37:08 And, so your typical green box of Dr. 37:10 O'Hara is three-year fermented. 37:13 The professional is an extra two years of anaeroic fermentation. 37:17 So this increases the post-biotic metabolites and also increases, the bifidobacteria. 37:22 Especially if you have those lower bowels symptoms. 37:26 I'd start with a professional. 37:28 Dave, while we're talking about Dr. 37:29 O'Hara, you actually introduced me to what is now my favorite supplement. 37:34 Thank you. 37:35 All the black seeds right up there. 37:38 And that's the product that Dr O Hara has that also has the green propolis. 37:44 Now we've been fans of propolis around here for a while. 37:47 I mean, it's, a magic substance. 37:49 You know, what allows bees to keep their hives running. 37:53 But I had not seen a product with a probiotic that also had the green propolis in it. 37:58 Can you talk about that for a minute? 38:00 Well, yeah. 38:03 There used to be a vitamin company. 38:05 I don't think they exist anymore. 38:08 They might. 38:10 They sort of educated me on propolis a little bit. 38:12 I knew about propolis, you know, not particularly expensive. 38:16 And I was told it's why the bees could crawl all over each other in the hive and not get sick. 38:21 It had antibacterial and antimicrobial, and I'd see it in throat sprays and immune products and toothpaste and things like that. 38:31 But there's a green and a red propilis. 38:33 A red propolis is extremely rare and very expensive, but the green propulis and this is really the kind of bees and where they feed, 38:42 is a treasure trove of antioxidants. 38:47 I think this accurate enough to say, but they told me that bee pollen has at least traces of every known nutrient, like you know, 38:57 A through zinc and amino acids. 38:59 But green propolis has these traces every know phytonutrient. 39:04 So it is rich in all kinds of anti-oxidants. 39:06 Now you combine that. 39:08 with Dr. 39:09 O'Hara's probiotic, which is really postbiotic metabolites, just another array of superfood compounds. 39:18 And then they add astaxanthin, one of the more interesting antioxidants. 39:22 It's what makes the salmon pink. 39:26 I know there's been studies on muscle strength and even, you know, deep immune problems. 39:34 So besides being one of your better immune products, because we know that nourishing your microbiome is going to help your immune system. 39:42 And then you use this propolis, which you say this green propolis is just amazing in the astaxanthin. 39:48 I will tell you this, a lot of superfood supplements are powders. 39:54 you know, so they can put a lot of good green stuff in on it. 39:57 But I know a lotta you listening don't like powders or don' like the taste or it's too gritty, it' too much trouble. 40:04 I get it, but if you look at some of the same products in the capsule or tablet form, you have to take quite a bit. 40:12 And I would say that the doctor here's propolis plus formula is probably your best encapsulated superfood. 40:22 But I know people who rely on that for immunity. 40:25 And by the way, I think cold and flu season is about 10 and a half months long now. 40:30 It's just where we worry about viruses and things. 40:35 Oh, it's November. 40:36 I better take some immune stuff. 40:39 besides nourishing your microbiome, just that green propolis is truly amazing. 40:44 And I think... 40:47 The culture of Japan has a reputation for being really precise and just focused and really great job. 40:56 And I'm just finding that, that these products made in Japan are just really superlative. 41:01 They're just done well. 41:03 and whether you use the green box, the regular probiotic, professional or the propolis, excellent products. 41:10 I have a little personal story here. 41:14 So astaxanthin, an amazing compound, right? 41:17 It's like you're talking about salmon, krill oil, very rich in astoxanthan. 41:21 But one of the things it does for the kril, apparently, is they swim around pretty close to the ocean surface a lot of times, 41:29 and they'd get burned by the sun. 41:31 It would literally burn them up. 41:33 And the astazanthen, I've read, it's what protects them. 41:36 Well, we went whale watching about 10 years ago, And I was doing a lot of krill oil at that time and a lots of vitamin D. 41:45 So we're out doing whale watching on a moss landing out in Monterey Bay and it's really sunny. 41:51 And my wife comes up to me about an hour into our trip and said, do you have sunscreen on? 41:56 Cause you can see my skin. 41:57 It takes about five minutes for me to burn to a crisp. 42:00 And it was about an hour into the trip, I said, oh my God, no I don't. 42:04 But you know what? 42:05 I'm not even pink. 42:06 I wasn't even, pink, and I didn't get a sunburn. 42:09 That's the only time in my life I've ever been out in the sun for a long period of time. 42:14 And I gotta tell you, that I blame that on the astaxanthin and the high vitamin D levels. 42:19 So I love astoxanthan. 42:20 No, so I think you're absolutely right. 42:22 Oh, by the way, since we, just a little aside you made me think of, I heard a very interesting thing someone was talking about, 42:29 you know, there's that controversy, don't go out in the sun because you can get skin cancer, but go in a sun, because vitamin D helps prevent cancer. 42:38 I was told that when you go fry your skin in sun and it becomes bad, it's the omega-6 fatty acids in the skin that are burning. 42:49 So if you have a high omega 3 content, you are less likely, even if it gets sunburned, for it to turn malignant on you. 42:59 Besides the D, and you're right, the things like the astaxanthin protect the eyes. 43:06 It's really an amazing supplement. 43:08 Like I said, look, I've been in the industry a long time, and just because there's a best product doesn't mean other ones are bad. 43:16 Like somebody might say, well, you know, I been taking this probiotic, And I really love it, Dave. 43:23 I get it. 43:24 And sometimes for certain symptoms, a certain probiotics will work better and faster than something else. 43:30 But when you really think about what the microbiome is and how it really works, in fact, What they're really studying now in microbiome science are postbiotic metabolites. 43:41 When they come up with a particular strain they like, you know, this particular strand is so important. 43:47 It's because of the post-biomic metabolite it makes, or this strain. 43:52 And so I think this is one of these things where something discovered 40 years ago is cutting edge. 43:59 That's really cool when you find something that was made 40 ago instead of like oh, remember that old thing? 44:05 No. 44:06 So I would say if you haven't tried Dr. 44:09 O'Hara's, you know, I should mention, John, if I've mentioned this to you, but I'll mention it now. 44:15 The thing that the Essential Formulas is the name of the company is that they've come out with a sachet, a little packet with the substance, 44:27 the post-biotic substance in it. 44:30 Okay. 44:30 And so for people that don't like pills, even though the pills are little or the capsule materials, and it has the post-biotic metabolite equivalent of 44:39 five professional, because the other thing is, I've really seen people, if they would take more than one or two a day for a little bit, 44:47 really come around, but I know say take Three in the morning and three at night. 44:52 Most people look at you like, okay, they won't do it. 44:54 Say, you know, I understand. 44:56 But one little sachet, by the way, it tastes good. 44:58 Not because they sweetened it, but it taste like figs. 45:01 So that's something. 45:04 we can look at, but I just think doctor here is probiotic or their post-biotic sachet. 45:09 It's just, I think it's the best microbiome food and you can still eat a lot of good fermented foods and can you still take other products. 45:17 That's fine. 45:18 But please take care of your microbiomes. 45:21 One of the most critical things you could do I saw your thing about, you know, people say like, I don't care how long I live as much as I want to live 45:32 healthy every minute I'm here. 45:34 And I think that's the real important thing. 45:37 So I would just argue build your supplemental program around vitamin D, omega-3, and the probiotic. 45:47 Excellent. 45:48 One thing that I wanna throw in, which will probably make some people a little irritated, Is when I'm interviewing people and I am looking at their diet, 45:57 I see a huge weighting toward chicken, right? 46:01 It's, you know, it's the white meat. 46:04 They did a brilliant job of marketing when the cholesterol studies came out. 46:07 It was like, oh, don't eat that bad meat, eat chicken. 46:09 Well, the chicken that we eat, that now weighs about eight pounds in the late 1950s, weighed a little over two pounds. 46:19 What they added to it is not healthy. 46:22 And chicken is a very rich source of omega-6 fatty acids. 46:27 So when I'm talking to people, it's like, I see you eat a little fish and a lot of chicken. 46:32 Can you reverse that? 46:33 Eat a lotta fish, and maybe chicken very occasionally, right? 46:37 That's fine. 46:38 But when you weight it toward the chicken, you're doing exactly what you were talking about. 46:43 You're getting that omega 6 ratio way off. 46:47 My nutritionist, Sarah Keough, I heard her do a presentation and they had a group of people eating just like commercial chicken from the grocery store. 46:58 They had people who eating organic chicken fed soy and organic not fed. 47:04 And it actually went from a lot of inflammation to not so much inflammation, to maybe even a little in the other direction. 47:11 So, you know, I agree with you, John, we're overdoing chicken and we are not necessarily eating the best chicken. 47:19 And by the way, Dr. 47:23 Ross Pelton, who I've interviewed, he's a pharmacist and he happens to be the, the he is a brilliant guy. 47:28 I really like him and the science guy at Dr O'Hara's, but I had him on the radio once and I was thinking like, this guy's like you know, 47:37 been around for a while. 47:42 What's really the best diet? 47:43 Mediterranean, vegan, vegetarian, pescatarian, macrobiotic, carnivore, you know, I just said like, yeah, just want your opinion. 47:51 He goes, David, it's very simple for me. 47:54 Eat real food. 47:57 Now back to what you brought up earlier, John, is, the cow that might've been eaten 40 years ago on a farm is not the Cow and Safeway.
Propolis, astaxanthin, and immune support 48:13 And that's where, you know, can't just say like red meat's good for you, red meats bad for. 48:18 Or broccoli is good, broccoli's bad view. 48:21 It's how it's grown. 48:22 How it was prepared and what it done. 48:24 So the other thing is. 48:26 I really think, I like to say I eat a planet-based diet, not planet. 48:33 And I think that we ought to include all the foods and not exaggerate any of them. 48:41 But whatever you're eating, try to get it as clean as possible. 48:46 If you have a choice, make a good one. 48:48 You decide to go out to a restaurant. 48:50 I hope you go to decent one where they have fairly good food, fairly fresh food. 48:54 But you can't go in, what oil do you use? 48:56 You know, it's like, you just can. 48:58 It's gotta eat at the restaurant, but if you're buying water for yourself, buy a Good one, if your buying food for your self, 49:04 Buy real food and folks, You just have to realize like I used to say this. 49:11 So John, have you ever met anyone right around in your age group and they were just doing really, really well. 49:18 And you know, you're sort of jealous of them. 49:20 Like, wow, I can't believe they're my age. 49:25 I've got some, that are 20 years older than I am that, are coming in and you wouldn't, believe it. 49:31 They run circles around a lot of 40 years old. 49:34 Yeah. 49:35 Now, and that's because they are on better medications than you. 49:40 No. 49:40 Not at all. 49:41 The one patient I'm thinking of is on no medications. 49:44 Well, exactly. 49:45 And so my point is, when you see people that you go like, wow, he's 70 as well as I am, and look, boy, is really fit. 49:53 He's this, that. 49:54 It's because maybe he is exercising more than I, am eating better than what I have and maybe not taking medications, so we're getting healthy because of diet, 50:03 lifestyle and nutrition. 50:04 We're not getting health because we are on the right drugs. 50:09 I made the statement at the beginning of this podcast that we may be confusing being medicated with being healthy. 50:16 The other thing I want you all to know is we can manipulate risk numbers so that you look a lot healthier than you are. 50:24 Okay? 50:25 I mean, we can take a statin and interfere with liver function and drop the cholesterol. 50:30 I'm not really, I can't figure out if we did anything for your heart or your vascular system. 50:36 So, you know, We can say, well, John used to have 250 cholesterol and now he has 170, he's much healthier. 50:41 Is he? 50:43 No, if he is cardiovascular healthy, it's because he exercises, He gets circulation. 50:48 He eats right. 50:49 You know he doesn't smoke. 50:52 It's those things. 50:53 So please everybody, if you want to age well, and my thing is, so far I don't think I can live forever. 51:02 I figure I'll check out someday. 51:05 Just want go out on my feet. 51:07 And I want be there. 51:09 Be happy and healthy. 51:10 Folks, you've got to use mother nature. 51:13 You've gotta really up, always be trying to up your food content. 51:18 Think of the little things you can do to be healthier. 51:21 you know, park far away and walk. 51:23 There's little things you can do. 51:24 If you're disciplined enough to go to the gym and get serious, God bless you. 51:29 And then avail yourself of Mother Nature's medicine chest. 51:35 Let me say this, John, I love the internet. 51:39 One time I needed a video camera. 51:40 I ordered it in the evening from Amazon, got it the morning. 51:44 It's amazing. 51:50 unless I really know where they came from. 51:52 If I order from you on the internet, I'm fine, okay? 51:55 But I don't just order stuff on internet because I am a little nervous about it. 51:58 You only need something bad. 52:00 In health food stores, you really have to jump through a lot of hoops. 52:04 So I a big believer in find a good health foods store, or a clinic that has the supplements you need, you know they're reliable, 52:12 and deal with somebody that you can talk to. 52:15 Now, there are legitimate internet places, but look into them. 52:20 Don't just buy stuff like that and find places. 52:24 If you're in California, go to a farm. 52:27 Buy some stuff from a farmer. 52:29 Ask the farmer what they do. 52:30 Go to farmer's market. 52:33 up your lifestyle, little by little, reduce your plastic, there's so many things you can do, but that's gonna keep you, you're gonna be one of those 20 52:44 year older than John running rings around, okay? 52:47 That's what you wanna be, I really think that you have to be careful about medications. 52:56 They wear you down. 52:59 John, I guess we'll wrap up here, but one time I gave a talk to a woman's group in San Mateo and there was a, a women I believe she was Chinese and she 53:12 had broken English, But I'm going to say what she said, just like she set it to me because the way she sent it really made an impact. 53:21 Okay. 53:22 She came up to him and says, people come to think they sick. 53:26 They not sick, they on drugs. 53:29 And from that point, I started asking people, you know, my joints are hurting. 53:36 Are you on a statin drug? 53:37 Yeah. 53:38 Or are you in a bone drug. 53:40 And I starting realizing that a significant amount of some of the symptoms the older customers had may well have been either caused by or exacerbated by 53:52 the medication they were on, but no one looked at that because a lot of these adverse effects happened down the road. 53:58 You know, you take a cholesterol drug, if you'll find your number goes down, and you're happy. 54:02 And then in a couple of years, your memory fades a little bit. 54:06 So anyway, I'm just like, folks, You've got great health food stores. 54:10 You got practitioners like my good friend here, Dr. 54:14 John Needers that you can talk to, do you do telemedicine too? 54:21 I do tell a medicine and Dave, a lot of times people don't know where to start. 54:26 Do I go to an MD? 54:27 Do, I got to a podiatrist, a chiropractor? 54:30 do I get voodoo, you know? 54:32 And so I do free 15 minute discovery calls every week. 54:36 I have, some slots every weekend. 54:38 People can just pick my brain for 15 minutes. 54:41 And, uh, I love it, you know, it's kind of takes me back to my radio days when I would just field calls from all over the world. 54:48 You know? 54:48 You never know what's going to come in. 54:50 And I remember one guy used to try to play, Stump the Acupuncturist. 54:54 I'm sure he studied all week to find something to ask me, but I loved that. 55:01 So I usually have four to six of those discovery calls. 55:05 They're free and I have those every week. 55:09 being a resource to help people go in the right direction. 55:13 Well, yeah. 55:13 And look, I know people all over the country, but I've known John for a long time and I take my family to John and we love him.
Lifestyle, medications, and closing advice 55:25 I don't want to embarrass you, John, but he's a kind person, he is a thoughtful person and he very knowledgeable and I like his spirit. 55:34 I'm sure he gets rattled sometimes but I've never seen it. 55:37 And I think you want somebody that with a big heart that's calmly looking at you and helping you along the path. 55:46 Don't wait for a crisis to try to find a natural person to help you. 55:52 Get a relationship with one. 55:53 Maybe you're fine right now. 55:55 maybe you want to get to know John or somebody and just let them evaluate you and give you some tips. 56:01 And then if something does come up, you've already got somebody you know and trust instead of like, My friend said this person, 56:08 so folks, please, my message is, you know, again, clean up your lifestyle a little bit. 56:15 You don't have to be a saint, but clean it up. 56:18 Eat better food and avail yourself of some of the wonderful things of Mother Nature's medicine chest. 56:26 And this is what's going to, um, I'm not in perfect health. 56:30 But I'm 71. I don't wear glasses. 56:32 And I have joint pain. 56:34 Not on any medications. 56:36 Don't have great teeth. 56:38 But, you know, I am not perfect, but I think I had bad habits when I was a kid. 56:44 Smoked for like 35 years. 56:46 Okay. 56:48 So, You know I stopped drinking alcohol a couple years ago. 56:54 just because I was very functional, just drinking at home. 56:59 But I said, okay, at my age, can't get away with that. 57:02 So wake up everybody and enjoy yourself. 57:05 And I think medication should be mostly for crises. 57:13 If you're on medication, don't throw them away, but turn your direction in diet, lifestyle, nutrition, and that will serve you well. 57:24 A, you did succeed in embarrassing me. 57:26 So thank you. 57:27 Those were very kind words. 57:29 Anytime, John. 57:31 And B, I really want to thank. 57:33 You know, the more we can simplify, right? 57:37 And kind of boil things down to their essence. 57:40 There's too much noise out there. 57:42 Everything. 57:43 We're surrounded by. 57:44 noise on one form or another. 57:46 And I think the more we can simplify, the healthier we're going to be. 57:51 So I want to thank you for doing this and bringing this cohesive group of supplements to introduce to people. 58:00 Thank you. 58:01 All right, John, it was a pleasure and hopefully we'll do this again sometime. 58:06 Thanks for joining me on The Balancing Point. 58:09 If you enjoyed today's episode, please follow the show, share it with a friend, and leave a review. 58:17 Feeling out of balance? 58:19 Most approaches just manage symptoms. 58:22 Here we get to the root. 58:24 So real healing, real clarity and balance can begin. 58:30 Visit alamedaacupuncture.com. 58:33 That's alamedaacupuncture dot com to learn more, explore our supplements or book a call. 58:40 We'd love to hear from you.
Comments