Uncover The Inflammation-Heart Disease Connection

Introduction to Inflammation and Heart Health 0:00

Welcome back to the Conquering Chronic Inflammation Summit I'm your host, Dr. David Jockers, and I'm honored to have a great conversation with my friend, Dr. Jack Wolfson, the Natural Heart Doctor today. And we're talking about the relationship between inflammation, heart attacks, strokes, a-fib all different types of cardiovascular issues. If you don't know Dr. Jack, he is a board certified cardiologist. He's a founder of NaturalHeartDoctor.com. the number one heart health website. He is a worldwide leader in cardiovascular health and the bestselling author of the book The Paleo Cardiologist.

Again, we're doing a deep dive today on inflammation how it impacts cardiovascular health. You can check out Dr. Jack at NaturalHeartDoctor.com a wealth information there. You guys are going to enjoy this interview. So let's go right to it. Well Dr. Jack Wolfson always great to connect with you. And I know today we're talking about inflammation and how that impacts our cardiovascular health. So let's dive into it. thanks so much for having me on inflammation. You know, pretty much every cardiologist, every medical doctor knows inflammation is bad.

But their answer to inflammation is going to be this band aid pharmaceutical attempt. and things like statin drugs and other things to kind of cover up the inflammation that's there when both you and I know that the answer is really to find the root cause of inflammation and this other, maybe more complex term called oxidative stress, that really that combination of inflammation and oxidative stress, it is that common link between the disease itself and the cause. So you've got to cause you've got the results of inflammation and oxidative stress.

And then you've got the disease heart disease, cancer, dementia, you name it. And I appreciate you having me on to really discuss kind of causation of why people are inflamed. Yeah. So key I mean I always think about heart health. You know, there's so many people out there and, they're dealing with heart disease, obviously with high blood pressure, with, this lip edema, you know, is another big factor, AFib.

Root Causes: Gut Health, Oxidative Stress, and Lifestyle 2:25

I know you obviously have seen a lot of that, especially on the rise here lately, myocarditis. You know, we've heard that term especially after Covid. We've heard that term a whole lot more, which is basically inflammation of the heart muscle. and so let's talk about root cause factors here that are involved. Yeah. You know, there's there's always these things that lead to the inflammation. And that's just the natural body response to these injurious things that are happening to it. And I kind of view everything through this lens of, eating well, drinking well, and living well.

So this concept of eat well, live well, think well. So if we eat the wrong foods, if we live the wrong lifestyle, even if we think the wrong thoughts, that ultimately leads to inflammation. And, and I think another thing, maybe in between the violations of eat well, live well, think well, and the inflammatory response is how all of these things really impact the gut microbiome. So when the gut microbiome is damaged, for example, from the wrong diet or from environmental toxins or things like mold, mycotoxins, that the microbiome therefore changes, that leads to intestinal hyper permeability.

Now things get into the body that don't belong. The inflammatory system kicks in along with the immune system and then, excess oxidative stress. And then ultimately, yeah, like you said, atrial fibrillation, myocarditis, high blood pressure, dyslipidemia and then heart attack, strokes, cancer, dementia, you know, the whole thing. And I think a lot of ways it just it's really exciting times for, physicians like you and I and so many others to be able to understand this kind of a whole cascade of events, that happens.

And it still is different than how 98% of the medical doctors see it. They're just only trained in that pharmaceutical model, and therefore they never really get to understand root cause medicine. Yeah, absolutely. And I know that the idea of inflammation at the underlying as the underlying root cause of all these different cardiovascular disease is, is is it's getting into the mainstream medical model, however, you know, so most medical doctors, they think about heart disease, high blood pressure.

They think, okay, there's inflammation there. But instead of saying why is the inflammation there? How can we actually get to the root cause? Their training is really just, hey, high blood pressure does give you a medication, right? Not actually addressing the root cause. Well, why do you think that is? Why do you think these are very intelligent people? Why do you think that they're not diving deeper here? Well, I think, you know, I like to use the analogy lens. You said they are very smart people.

So I'm not going to, you know, denigrate them for that. But you only know what you know. It's like if you and I went on a trip to what, you know, Central Africa, and we didn't speak the language of the local people, they could look at us like idiots and we would say, hey, we're not idiots. We're not, you know, unintelligent. We've just never learned your language. We've never been told your language. So the physicians have never been told the health language. They've never been taught the health language.

As crazy as this sounds, when you think about all the training that the medical doctors go through, they've never been told the health language, only the sick language. And, it's really unfortunate. There's not really much of a sign that any of this is changing. certainly as it relates to the four year medical education that people are getting now, the doctors of chiropractic, the naturopathic medical doctors, they'll clearly get the different message, and their training, but the medical doctors, unfortunately, that's just the way that it is.

And it's only, because it's controlled by the pharmaceutical industry. We're talking about a $1.5 trillion industry. And when you have that much money at stake, it's not surprising to people to understand that it's really, you know, leads to, that the wrong approach in conventional medical training. Listen, God bless the men and women who work in emergency rooms and trauma centers. But when it comes to the prevention, treatment and reversal of chronic diseases, like we said, high blood pressure, dyslipidemia is atrial fibrillation, cancer, diabetes, being overweight, they they really have nothing, at all.

And to circle back finally to the inflammation. Yeah, it's really just about finding their root cause. And we look at it through that method of what we call the 100 year heart method of eat. Well, if we all think well, and then we could use the most advanced testing in the world. evidence based supplements, biohacking strategies to help people achieve heart health, to recover from cases of myocarditis and all these things. But, you know, it really is, you know, David, so many times I see someone who has had a heart attack and they're in the treatment, you know, they're in the recovery phase.

They've never had one marker of inflammation, even tested. and it's it's sad. It's it's really sad. Yeah, absolutely. And if you ask the cardiologist. Hey, what do you think is, is is at the root of this high blood pressure? They probably rattle off a few things.

Why Conventional Cardiology Misses the Root Cause 7:50

And one of those things would be inflammation if they're not even testing for it and they're not even doing anything really to address it. That's the thing they kind of know, but they just don't really have, you know, they just haven't been taught how to actually get to the root cause, how to actually address it and get to the root cause. And they'd be shocked if you actually showed them the research. Hey, hey, there's an actual relationship between leaky gut and and issues in the gut and how that relates to issues in the heart and the blood vessels know.

Like what? Because they're taught all of these systems are separate. So if you have got issues, you have got, you know, you have got inflammation, leaky gut, you're gonna digestive symptoms, right. And heart symptoms are separate, you know, totally separate system. And we realize in holistic looking at the body holistically that breakdown anywhere impacts us. You know basically systemically throughout the whole body, you know, and particular there's this intimate relationship between gut health and cardiovascular health.

Yeah, most certainly. And, the data on that is plentiful. And I can't really explain why most cardiologists are not reading that. you know, as you said. And it's right there, it's in the literature. But, you know, when you talk about this concept of leaky gut, most cardiologists have never heard of leaky gut. If they've heard of it, they would only have some kind of a, you know, condemnation, and criticism of that concept. But intestinal hypothermia ability is a thing that's been written in the medical literature for years.

And just as you said, as you get these things that come in through that intestinal barrier that don't belong. Now, you said that this whole cascade where. Yes, eventually it leads to this leaky heart, as I call it. There's leaky vessels. And now you have the inflammation inside the vessels, immune system, activation inside the vessels. And you ultimately develop coronary artery disease or atrial fibrillation. And of course, this dysfunctional blood vessels leads to hypertension. and, you know, hypertension is is really not a disease in and of itself.

I mean, there's something that's causing it. It's really just a sign that people are sick, sign that people are, you know, inflamed. and those are the things that we look to reverse. Yeah. What are some of the other big things we're talking about? Obviously intestinal hyper permeability or layman's term, leaky gut. What are some of the other big drivers of inflammation? Well, I think that, you know, if we look at some of the food. So for example, if we don't eat enough seafood that drives inflammation because we need healthy amounts of omega three fatty acids from eating seafood to keep our immune system and our inflammatory system in check, if we do not eat enough of the free range, grass fed meats.

Again, same thing. We're missing vitamins and minerals. you know, organic food. If we eat non-organic food and the pesticides boom, the pesticides kill the pests, if you will, which are actually good parts inside of our body. The microbiome, the pesticides. Kill that. Now, you have the leaky gut like we talked about before. and those are just, you know, some of the food and beverages, artificial sweeteners, flavorings, colorings, like, you know, you are, of course, one of the world wide experts in fasting.

When you don't fast, you don't give that microbiome a chance, to recover. You don't give the intestinal lining and the barrier a chance to recover. so, those things are all critically important, but that's just the food story. and then in addition, what about a lot of the toxic grains, that people consume some of the other foods that they really should not be eating in any appreciable level. But then that's just one part. What about the sleep part of the story? where, you know, sleep allows the gut to heal and the microbiome to heal.

Same thing with sunshine. to the solar panel, which is our skin, to allow it to heal. And then you have this huge category of all these environmental toxins, one of which is pesticides, but another one that I know you're intimately familiar with and that is mold and mold mycotoxins. So the most famous mold, mycotoxins of all time that most people or everybody has heard of, it's called penicillin. Penicillin is a micro toxin from mold that kills bacteria. Fleming discovered it 100 years ago, and now it's the most used antibiotic in the world.

And it kills bacteria. And including it kills bacteria in your gut. So if you're swallowing all these mold mycotoxins down, destroying your gut microbiome, it leads to leaky gut, of which there are many studies that prove this point. but my point here really is just to say there's a whole litany of things that can ultimately lead to inflammation, oxidative stress, immune dysfunction, all these other things. And then to wrap up this whole concept more, if you're not thinking, well, if you are under stress, stress is a fight, flight or freeze, it is not the rest.

And digest of the parasympathetic nervous system.

Diet, Toxins, and Environmental Drivers of Inflammation 12:50

So the the the gut microbiome suffers. The leaky gut occurs, inflammation, oxidative stress and disease. And it's really just a simplistic model. You know, once you talk about it once or twice, like you and I have, you know, that people can finally understand this is the solution. If I eat well, live well, I think, well, if I do these things and we can test for these with the most advanced testing in the world that, you know, most cardiologists, they're stuck in the 1970s with their basic tests.

And then do we use these kind of what we call like this whole, biohacking category, which is the evidence based supplements and then other techniques, you know, the biohacking techniques. And this could be the sauna, red light therapy, you know, cold plunge. Right? You know, IVs, whatever people choose to do, that would be part of the solution. Yeah. So basically inflammation is kind of this adaptive response when the body's overloaded with toxicities, infections, deficiencies or chronic stress like you were talking about.

And so when all of this becomes too much for the body to adapt effectively, inflammation in a sense is how the body responds. And so we get this is this low grade systemic inflammation that, to some degree prevents our body from dying immediately from let's say, you know, a systemic, an infection that would get in and kill you quickly, but slowly choose your system up. Right. Including, you know, we when we think about blood vessels, the endothelial lining of the blood vessels. Choose that, create scar tissue in there, which down the road, you know, causes symptoms like high blood pressure.

you know, all the different cardiovascular type symptoms. And ultimately, you know, we obviously get it got to get to the to the root cause and help the body adapt better. So where do you start when somebody comes in and they're dealing with, let's say high blood pressure hypertension. They have a-fib. where where do you start with them? Well, I think some of the quick wins are going to be really pushing more the foods to eat as opposed to what not to eat. So saying to people, hey, I want you to eat more seafood like wild salmon, sardines, anchovies, clams, oysters, shrimp, lobster, crab, scallops.

you know, wild salmon. Row. So try and focus on eating some of these foods. Try and focus on eating some cleaner. animal. What are some of the great what are some of the great nutrients you love? You mentioned seafood several times. What are some of the real powerful nutrients in there that people should be aware of, but why they're so beneficial? Well, number one is the early omega three fatty acids that are an EPA. Those are the most advanced forms of the omega threes that you cannot get from the plant world.

The body very poorly converts those where they need to go. And this is one of the problems, one of the many problems with a vegan or vegetarian diet. So those omega three fatty acids, they are very plentiful in every single cell membrane. The fence that encompasses or encloses the cell keeps things inside of the cell. The belong keeps things outside the cell that don't belong. And this is the omega three fatty acids of which is loaded. Now another thing that's in the membrane, the cell membrane is cholesterol, which proves the importance of cholesterol.

less than anybody be, uncertain about how valuable cholesterol is. So there's omega three fatty acids. That is one thing that is in seafood, again, people with the highest levels of omega three fatty acids naturally occurring in their blood, have the lowest risk of everything heart attacks, strokes, cancer, dementia, diabetes, dying, everything is better a-fib everything is better when you have more omega three. So we have people really push that now seafood also of course all the vitamins and minerals that a fish would need.

Humans need that as well. same thing again with, you know, with the shellfish, things like, zinc, selenium, copper, all the, all the full spectrum of all the vitamins. It's right there in the seafood. So it really is just a complete superfood. If you think about a salmon row, the an egg, it contains all the nutrients that a salmon needs to come to life. You can't find that in the plant world. There's no oatmeal or almonds or soybeans that can have any kind of, you know, comparison, to that. So tell people salmon are one of.

The, the most amazing species, one of the strongest species of animals because they can swim upstream against rapids. I mean, you think about the matter. Mitochondria, energy production. They got to have to swim against against the current and they can literally jump out of the water ten, 12ft. I mean, it's just incredible energy production. You got the omega threes. You got Astiz Anthon as well in the wild caught salmon one of the most powerful antioxidants. So you know like we think about like strong animals right.

like a bison. Right. That you know, we're going to be consume bison that's going to help improve our mitochondrial energy production. And these are just really strong, lean, healthy animals. well, wild caught salmon I mean, jumping that, swimming against the stream, jumping out of the water like that, we're going to confer a lot of those benefits that give it that incredible strength and resilience. You know, there was a, a TV show. There is a TV show, it's called alone, and it features people who go off into the wilderness, and try and survive.

And it's a competition to see who can last longest. So there was a woman who was very adept at living outside and building shelter, and she was put on a location that was close to this certain river, and she was basically able to go in there and pluck out the salmon. So she had this shelter and she had the salmon and nothing else. And she quit the show after like a month and a half in perfect health. And she said, you know what? It's time to go home. And she won the show easily. So all she is doing on living on one food and not food, which is this complete super food.

So, you know, again, I think that is perfect to combat, you know, things. So if all if all people got out of listening to you and I in this one particular conversation is to eat more seafood, they will gain benefit. I want to tell you one more thing too, is that we have tested wild salmon a row. Yeah, for various things, including metals. And it's very low on all things you would be you would consider dangerous. But one thing that I would consider very dangerous, especially in light of a recent study that came out regarding plastic.

so let me say this about the plastic study that was reported, New England Journal of Medicine, New England Journal of Medicine. They look at people who are undergoing a procedure called a carotid and are directly. So they remove the plaque in the arteries that supply the brain. They study that under a microscope and in a laboratory. And they divided into two groups. One group, which represented two thirds of the people, had evidence of micro and nano plastics visibly in the plaque. The plastic was in the plaque.

Surprisingly, one third of the group had no evidence of of plastic. You would think most people have evidence of it, but one third of the group did not. Here's the deal. They followed them for three years. The group with the plastic had three times the rate of heart attack, stroke

Seafood, Omega-3s, and the Power of Wild Salmon 20:35

and dying in a three year period three times that. It makes it a bigger risk factor than high blood pressure, diabetes, smoking, obesity combined combined. So back to the salmon. So we tested the wild salmon. Well it contained zero plastic in there. So when people talk about microplastics and nano plastics it's out there. And you get it from a lot of different places. And that ultimately damages the body leading inflammation, oxidative stress and disease. All the things we've talked about. But it's not coming from these healthy seafoods, I'll tell you that much.

Yeah, I would say, you know, the number one source there is going to be all the plastics we're using, especially with hot beverages. Right. Like, like I just did a, Instagram reel on, like, my wife and I, we went to a coffee shop to get coffee, and I was showing people I'm like, I never drink. If I get coffee at a store, I never drink it with the lid on. Right. Take that lid off because that's like, you're just basically mega dosing microplastics into your system. If you're drinking a hot beverage through a plastic top.

Yeah, I think it's, you know, it's always best. And what I do is I drink out of the metal container. So matter kind of guy walks into, like, who walks into it, you know? And I put on in my own Yanni container and, you know, I am a big coffee drinker, so, you know, I drink, I drink, of course. Organic and mold, micro toxin free coffee. And there's actually some organic instant coffees, but, you know, that is a major offender. You're right. The plastic, you know, that's there, the plastic in the cup itself, all of the, you know, if you go to a grocery store, maybe they're selling some kind of a salsa.

that is going to have all this high, you know, citric acid levels and stuff like that that are just eating away at the plastic container that it comes in plastic. You and I are talking right now. And if we take a breath in, there's probably some nano plastic that, again, is just that. Not probably it is. So I really think it is twofold. Right. It's about how do we, decrease the exposure and then how do we improve our detoxification systems to avoid the consequences of it. Yeah, absolutely. And so how should people go about improving their detoxification systems.

So critical. Well, you know, as you know, there's just so many different strategies that, you know, that people can use. Give the body what you need to take away what it does. And you know, so for detoxification, I think that there's a lot of good evidence these days of people using the binders. I don't know about you, but we're pretty good fans of, you know, quality of eggs with all the acid, humic acid. There's some pretty good chlorella spirulina products that probably have some benefits. But I think the main thing is really just kind of keeping your, you know, excretory pathways open, you know, so, you know, good hydration status, good cellular hydration status with your, you know, what you're very familiar with as a mitochondrial expert, where your body is making all that high quality intracellular water, you know, through all the mechanisms that it does, but, you know, you know, stool, urine and then skin, so on and methodologies.

But, you know, another quick win, aside from the seafood, is really just telling people to get outside and spend more time outside. The longer we are outside, the more often we're outside, the longer we'll live. It's, it's very simple. Yeah. For sure. I always say you gotta pee and poop your way to good health, and then we can add in. You got to breathe and and sweat your way as well. Right. And so and then talking about getting outside of so many benefits. Right. Obviously the sun plays a big role with vitamin D, but you also have infrared impact.

We talked about that that mitochondrial energy a fourth phase of of water, right. Creating ton of that crystalline effect in the system and helping improve cell to cell communication. Infrared exposure is big. Like it. It changes the water systems in the cell, communication inside of us. And, you know, our ancestors were all getting it because they were out in the sun. They were out outside getting infrared exposure all the time. Today we're not. And, you know, now, fortunately, we've got technology where even if you're living in a, you know, a climate where you're not able to access the sun as much, you can get infrared sauna, you can get infrared.

I have an infrared, map that my wife and I infrared and PMF that my wife and I will lay on and pray together at night before we go to bed. Right. And helps improve sleep quality. Helps with cell to cell communication, drainage, detoxification, loss. So many great little things that we could be doing. But like you said, just getting out in nature so critical when it comes to overall health. And it's free, you know, it's free. I mean, getting our solar panel outside, in the natural light, preferably in the sun, like our ancestors did.

You know, all of our ancestors came from the Middle East. They came from northeastern Africa. They came from that area. And they were outside all day, every day. All plants and all animals are outside. The skin is the solar panel. The eyeballs are a solar panel. Unfortunately, we moved away from that. Unfortunately for our health and a lot of people, they live in, you know, Buffalo, New York, in my hometown of Chicago and Seattle and Portland. Then there's a lot of beauty in all those different places.

But the reality is that, the further we get away from the equator, our health is going to suffer. And, you know, you and I both spoke the truth about cancer years ago. And that's one of the things I say from the stage is that you can't get healthy in the same environment where you got sick. Now, it doesn't mean you have to necessarily move, but the more you change up your environment, then that could be your food environment, your sleep environment, your sunshine environment. You know, the toxins in the home environment.

The more you change that up, the better chance you have of getting healthy. Yeah, that's so key. You know, in in Japan, Japan is one of the healthiest countries in the world. But they're also some of the hardest working people are people that, you know, it's not uncommon they're working 60 plus hours a week. It's actually one of the big health risk factors they have. But when they when they deal with a stressed out businessman, one of the first things I recommend is forest bathing. They actually have facilities where they'll send some of these guys right.

And they just cut out no electronics and they're just in the forest. And, you know, their health care system is they're spending a fraction compared to what we're spending because they're getting there. They're actually addressing root cause factors helping improve this person's environment. You know, they get them out into a healthier external environment, and that improves their internal environment. Well, I think the Japanese too, as well, you know, is that they have a big, you know, seafood component to their, you know, which I think ultimately leads to their longevity and their rates of smoking are much, much, much higher than it is.

You know, in the United States, I think it's the seafood, you know, really, that makes a big difference, you know, for them as well. And certainly the Okinawans, I mean, that's one of the blue zones, you know, that's there when you talk about forest bathing and stuff like that. You know, we start to, we start to lose people.

Microplastics, Detoxification, and Getting Outside 27:25

We start to get people to roll their eyes about us being tree huggers and stuff like that. I will tell you this. The first time I hugged a tree, I, I, I had a very moving, you know, experience again, I basically, like, just welled up tears, cried like a baby. It was a very it was a very emotional thing, for me. And, I don't know, I just, you know, again, I was kind of like, channeling my, you know, thinking about my father. You know, who I lost to when he was 63, back in 2007. And, you know, really kind of embracing, nature as how God created it.

And we've just lost touch with that in just every way. and and these are, again, these are real easy things for anybody to do, to reclaim their health. And, and again and all that is going to get back into the topic here, which is, yeah, just different strategies to lower inflammation. Yeah, yeah. And you don't have to be like, I mean, Jack, I'm glad you had such an amazing experience. But the tree hugging. But even if you don't believe in that, you know, just going out in nature, it's been documented that there are healthy electromagnetic frequencies that come from being around nature that all of our ancestors were exposed to, that have a calming effect.

They stimulate your parasympathetic nervous system and get you out of flight, fight or flight and help create balance in your nervous system, which creates a healing response in your body. And then there are also essential oils that are being released from all of these plants that you were taking in that have antimicrobial, effects. I have pro immune have like immune balancing effects in your body that have all these positive effects, anti-inflammatory benefits, that support your body. So you don't you don't have to, you know, it's like you don't have to have a profound spiritual experience out there.

It's great if you do. I'm I'm all for that. But just go out there and just just be in a sense and you're going to get healthier as you're out there in the woods like that. Well, I think it's really just, you know, the ability to embrace, you know, nature. Yeah. you know, how our ancestors did. And like you said, you know, this kind of communication that's existing out there, and the communication could be, you know, osmotic, you know, what you're smelling in, you know, different phytochemicals that you may not be able to smell that are being released in that sense, that have all those medicinal values to it.

Like you said, the electrons, you know, from the Earth, you know, and really, in a lot of ways, just breathing in the fresh air, and the oxygen that are being produced by the plants in this kind of symbiotic effect, you know, with us and. Yeah. How does that come back and nourish the gut microbiome as you're breathing in all that in you may be breathing in, obviously, a lot of healthy microbes that you will then also be swallowing down, all those things are going to be consistent with improving your health.

Yeah, absolutely. And then what should people do to obviously to help improve sleep? You know, nature just being out in nature is going to help with that. What are some of your other top hacks for helping improve sleep? Well, the most important thing is that, you know, our ancestors went to sleep, you know, with the with the sun down and shortly thereafter. So, you know, in the beginning there was darkness and then there was light. And that essentially that's that's circadian rhythms. And we should not violate those.

It's interesting, you know, David, that there was a recent study that showed that people who consider themselves night owls, people who go to sleep later than those who go to sleep on time shortly after the sundown, those who go to sleep later, the night owls, they had double the risk of coronary artery calcium vacation. So we need to make sure that we go to sleep on time. our ancestors went to sleep shortly after the sundown. It's the best strategy for us to stay healthy. I don't make the rules.

You know, I'm not the rule maker. That was God. God created the rules, and we need to follow those. Those circadian rhythms are very important. And it's nice when science, validates that, to show people, including the medical doctors, hey, you know, tell your people to go to bed early, or if you go to sleep at 11, make it ten. If you go to sleep, you know, midnight. Make it. Make it 11. Make some small little changes. You know, the Wolfson household. I know in the Jocker's household, like, you know, we're not staying up.

you know, late at night. We're not sitting up on tech. you know, we, you know, the Wilsons go to bed between 830 and 930, every night. And in the winter time, it'll be even earlier. We'll go to sleep at 730 sometimes. And me personally, because I wake up, you know, I wake up early. Naturally. I go to bed early. Naturally, my body just calls for that. When the sun goes down, I feel it, and I smart about it and I want to go to bed. Yeah. So listen. Listen to the sun. Don't try to, you know. And really, what you gotta do is you gotta, you know, dial in all the lights in your house so artificial lighting can tell your brain that it's still daytime even though it's at night.

So you gotta dim those lights as the sun setting, you know? And there's a proverb that says, if you want to have great energy during the day, watch the sunrise. And if you want to sleep well at night, watch the sunset. That's where there's highest rays of infrared. You get red light, you know, so you got a lot of a lot of, circadian rhythms, supportive, wavelengths of light that come out during those periods of time. But, you know, most people out there are they're mal illuminated, meaning that they've got the wrong lights on at the wrong time, in a sense.

Right. And so they're telling they're giving information to their brain that it's daytime when it's really nighttime. And for many of them, they have trouble falling asleep. You know, if they try to go to bed early. Yeah. And we're not I mean, from my from a nature standpoint, we know that that decimates a lot of our nature, decimates the trees, decimates the birds. You know, the plants again that we are, you know, leading to this, you know, this light pollution that's causing destructive nature to it.

And to your point, the sunrise, sunset, our ancestors used to, watch those. I think we we are so attracted to those because our bodies understand the health benefits of it. Why do we find the sunset and sunrise so beautiful? I it's it's different than looking at a beautiful, painting, you know, if you will, you know, it's it's a different sense of, that our body just really is naturally attracted to that. And people have lost that. People live in high rise buildings. They live in suburbs, they're surrounded by other houses.

They've gotten the opportunity to watch the sunrise, sunset. whereas our ancestors, you know, clearly understood that, and, you know, so much of, you know, again, in, in, Western, you know, cultures is, is at least, you know, praying to the East, you know, praying towards, you know, Jerusalem. and in doing so, you know, facing that way when you're praying, you know, I think also maybe you're doing that you're you're getting that sunrise. You're looking as that sun's coming up over the horizon. So I think that there's, something to that as well.

Yeah. For sure. Great benefits there. And so let's talk about some of the some of the labs that you like to look at when you're, when somebody comes in to see you.

Sleep, Circadian Rhythms, and Sunlight 34:25

what are some key labs that, that give you an idea what's taking place in somebody's body? Yeah. You know, and I know you feel the same way about this. You know, when people kind of rush to all this stuff about cholesterol and LDL and HDL at this point in my career, I think that those tests are totally worthless. I'm not even interested. I'll, I'll order them because people want them and we can talk about them, but I have no interest in them when it comes to lipids. The main thing I look at is that apolipoprotein B to apolipoprotein A ratio, we look for something at which the genetic marker help a little. A, you know, a side note, I do not believe in bad genetics.

I believe our genetics are perfect. we are built again. Perfectly. and our genetics are perfect until we screw them up, if you will. So those markers, I look at it from a lipid standpoint, but I think the most important thing is really checking for the inflammation and oxidative stress. And you can actually do an oxidative stress urine test in your own home without a doctor's order, get the results, you know, and and now you know what? You know what the situation is now. Make changes in your life and then retest, you know, three, four months down the road and see how you did.

But the inflammatory markers I like CRP, of course. The most famous, AMA will excuse me. pla phospholipids E2 is a good marker as well. there are some other markers of inflammation that, that I don't think are overly necessary. I think if you hit a few of them, you're pretty good. But crp ala too. And then the markers of oxidative stress are like oxidized LDL in the blood. I like looking at MPO in the blood. A good data on all those, and then looking at the lipid peroxides in the urine, I think is another good strategy.

So like I said before, it's amazing how some people come in. They've never had that lab testing done even though they have significant cardiovascular disease. And then we get those results. And then you move forward and say, okay, well how are we going to fix all these things? But, you know, you love the advanced blood testing. I do as well. It's just it's sad that a lot of people don't get this. Maybe they don't have access to it, or they don't work with a physician who even offers it to. But, you.

Yeah. Every lab testing company, you know, in the United States, you know for sure, you know, you can order an CRP and see your inflammatory status. Yeah, absolutely. I think all those are really good. I would also add in fasting insulin, I think is a really good one, to look at. And and I've seen a lot of people really move that number with things like intermittent fasting, you know, improving their omega three ratio or maybe a three to mega six ratio, like you were talking about getting the omega threes.

getting more exercise in for many people, fasting insulin and so on is one of those big things. When insulin is elevated, it's going to drive up inflammation in the body. And so we got to get that under control. So it's kind of a precursor in a sense to all those other inflammatory markers. So I think that's really key. How about any nutrients. Do you look at any specific nutrients, vitamin D levels, anything like that? Yeah. So we do serum and intracellular, testing and all vitamins and minerals.

So we do that. You know, one of my favorites is intracellular vitamin K2. You know, so we talked about the Japanese and their longevity. One of the secrets may be that they consume a lot of the fermented soy food called natto, which is very, very high in vitamin K2. I think that's one of their longevity strategies. the kicker with not whole, should anyone choose to do that, is that it has to be organic. And again, preferably in glass, you know, so there are there is one company that actually does that organic in glass.

so somebody could choose to do that if they eat soy. I'm not a huge soy person, but, you know, again, maybe one of the secrets that, you know, to the Japanese. But test your levels and see what your K2 status is. but I think also, you know, we're really going to test for that leaky gut. that's very easy to test for. Simple blood test for that. And then looking at all the different environmental toxins, you know, you can look at dozens of different, you know, pesticides and phthalates and parabens, VOCs.

You can check for the plastics, you can look for, all these different mold mycotoxins. You can easily test your home for mold and bacteria growth with a simple Swiffer test. So that's why our methodology is that the test. Don't guess. super. Key. Well, what are some of the benefits of vitamin K2 as I so key to to test. So K2 is what keeps the calcium in the bones and out of the arteries people with high levels of K2. That's exactly what they do. It's good for you know, it's great for strong bones and what it does.

It leads to the prevention and also the reversal of coronary calcification and plaque and helps to stabilize any plaques, that are there. So vitamin K2 is a great and an accident, as part of the immune system. And it's something that most people are deficient in for really for multitude of reasons. One of which also is that the healthy gut microbiome converts vitamin K1 into K2. But most people don't have a healthy gut microbiome, so therefore they don't make the conversion. But ultimately you just want to test that level.

You can supplement your way. You can diet your way, to it, a lot of different strategies there.

Advanced Testing for Inflammation and Nutrient Status 39:25

And you mentioned, you know, the mitochondrial health, you know, so you can look at markers of CoQ10, you can look at the, Omegas, you can look at some of these, cofactors that are very important inside of the mitochondria and the electron transport chain, things like, copper, you know, for example, intracellular copper. Copper is one of the components of, cytochrome c oxidase, which is the fourth component of the electron transport chain. there's other, you know, metallic cofactors that are there, including, zinc and selenium is important in those regions. So, molybdenum, manganese mean these are all, you know, trace minerals that can be tested, and optimized.

So, lots of cool things that we can do from the testing. And of course, there's got panels that people can do looking at the gut microbiome. And that's the beauty of doing the testing, is you test at time zero, then you come up with a new strategy and many different strategies, and then see how you did. And if you are improving, then you know you're on the path to success. Yeah, that's really good stuff. And so if you're out there, you're dealing with some of these cardiovascular symptoms or you have a family history of it or maybe a family member that's dealing with it, you can reach out to NaturalHeartDoctor.com, as Dr. Jack Wolfson Clinic.

And you guys work with people all around the world virtually. All right. Yeah. No, we totally do. I mean, listen, for anyone who's on blood pressure, drugs, you know, they've been one of the big, you know, presentations I do regarding blood pressure drugs. It's it's really spectacular. So they looked at four, four different groups of people, and three groups of the people had hypertension and one group did not. So the three groups with hypertension, it was kind of like this mixture of who's got high blood pressure.

Are they taking pharmaceuticals or not? The group with the highest risk of cardiovascular events heart attack, stroke and dying were the people with normal low blood pressure, blood pressure, drugs. They had a higher risk than the people with high blood pressure, no drugs. They had a higher risk than the people with high blood pressure. And on drugs, the worst categories were the people taking pharmaceuticals, and their blood pressure is 120 over 80. And they think that they're safe. Somebody with 120 over 80 on pharmaceuticals thinks that they're in the same situation as Jack Wolfson and David Jockers, and they're not they're at high risk and nobody is telling them that's 2019 Journal of Hypertension, owned and sponsored by the American Heart Association, of all people.

And, you know, so if you know, if you or someone you know are on high blood pressure drugs, you better be devising a plan or working with someone to get off of the drugs ASAP. Yeah. I mean, clearly all of these pharmaceutical drugs are never meant for long term solutions. They're meant for very short term. you know, symptom relief in a sense. Right. And then ultimately getting to the root cause and, and addressing it and getting things back and balance and homeostasis in the body. So you shouldn't just be taking that thinking you're healthy.

But that is that is a really surprising finding. You would think the person that's taking the drugs and still has high blood pressure, you think that they'd have the worse outcomes, but it's actually the people that wear the drugs in a sense are working. Those are the people with the worst outcomes. Wow. What is your hypothesis there? Well, I think what probably happens, my hypothesis is really is that maybe it's like there are more drugs with more side effects and more problems. That's one thing.

the other thing could be, is that there could be some intermittent hypo tension or like an overshoot where some of these people, you know, occasionally are suffering from lower blood pressure.

Supplements, Blood Pressure Drugs, and Final Takeaways 43:15

That's probably the factor there. But I think ultimately it's just highlights is that the pharmaceutical industry has one intention to make money. And the more and the faster that people understand that that is their mission. then then they'll understand that. So, you know, again, the pharmaceutical industry is very good at, you know, a pill for every ill, but they've got nothing when it comes to cures. And that's why I'm just I'm so excited to be on with you to kind of share this message. Yeah for sure.

So again, you can reach out to Dr. Jack at NaturalHeartDoctor.com. Last question. What are top 3 to 5 supplements that you and your family take on a regular basis? Well, we definitely take a lot of binders. We take the, you know, the humic acid, Volvic acid, shilajit products we like that. We take organ supplements, we take salmon, ro, supplements. We also eat those foods. But we're really going towards a food based strategy. first and foremost, we talked about vitamin K2 and one of our favorite sources of that is Australian emu oil.

So EMU is very high in fat soluble vitamins ADK including K2 is Mk4, which is a really good supplement to for pregnant women because it helps too. It crosses the placenta. There's some concern about Mk-7 leading to placental calcification. So that's, a potential concern there. But, you know, food is medicine. We've known that forever. We can deal with some food based supplements in addition. I mean, I definitely think there's a place for, you know, products like nitric oxide boosters, which can be amino acids, L-arginine, Citrulline, taurine, nitrate, type products like organic beetroot powder are very good.

there's some, you know, if people are looking at dial in and kind of inflammation, oxidative stress. there's some good things, for that, you know, something like berberine, for example, could be useful, you know, for a lot of different people that, you know, maybe they've gotten advanced disease, maybe they've suffered a heart attack. Instead of taking a statin drug, they can take a natural alternative like berberine, you know, and and, you know, good. micro, you know, gut microbiome enhancing strategies.

And that certainly is gonna come from food first. but there may be some supplemental, you know, probiotics that people can take, along with it. Well, great stuff, Dr. Jack. We talk all day about this, guys. Reach out to him again. NaturalHeartDoctor.com. Always, always fun having these conversations and we'll see you soon. Dr. Jack, be blessed everybody.