Unveiling Longevity: Secrets Beyond Traditional Medicine

Melanie Avalon

First of all, thank you so very much for having me. I’m excited to be here. Yes, I love talking about this, and I’m similar to you. I do dinner only. I’m a late-night eater. My chronotype. I’m very late. I wish I was an early-morning person, but I’m not. I’ve never been hungry in the morning. I don’t intuitively feel that it feels right for me to eat in the morning. That said, like you just mentioned, there is a lot of research on early versus late-time restricted eating or feeding, whatever you want to call it. Yes, the majority of the studies do seem to show that eating earlier is better for circadian rhythm, metabolism, and all of that. Dr. Valter Longo was recently interviewed on my show. He’s done a lot of work on this. I mean, he’s a big advocate of not skipping breakfast. He points to studies linking skipping breakfast to increased mortality and an increased risk of gallstones, they believe. All of that said, I have thoughts on this, and it’s that one: there aren’t a lot of studies that look at isolated intermittent fasting patterns where you’re eating just in the evening.

Compare that to eating just in the morning. There’s not a lot to say; set it up exactly that way. The majority of them are looking forward to just eating later. In addition to eating earlier, it’s hard to draw firm conclusions if you’re following a fasting pattern where you are just eating later, but you’re not eating earlier. Are you maybe getting some benefits that you don’t see when you’re comparing eating later when you’re compared to still eating throughout the day? The second point is that I think even if you step back and eat earlier, it is better for you. I think in the long run, it’s about what you can do and what you can stick to. Some people, like I just mentioned, like you, don’t like eating breakfast and feel better at lunch or dinner. I think finding the pattern—the intermittent fasting pattern that works for you and your circadian rhythm—is something you can stick to consistently. I would pick that over trying to force yourself into eating earlier if that just doesn’t vibe with you. I did sit down one time, and I tried to just close my eyes and not be biased.

Just look at the research about how different eating times throughout the day affect our different hormones. like ghrelin, leptin, cortisol, all of these things, and looking at them as objectively as I could, just when those different hormones naturally peak and rise, it seemed to me, and I wrote a blog post about this, but it seemed to me that eating is not right upon wakening, because once you wake up, you typically have a cortisol spike, and then the different other hormones aren’t quite in line with a situation that would be welcoming to eating. It seems to be a little bit later, like the hours after you wake up while the sun is out. I still like late lunch, maybe early evening, and then finishing eating before the light is down. That was what I felt—just looking at the hormonal patterns. But that was a long-winded way to say that. Yes. Based on the research out there and what people say, they say that you need to eat earlier. But I think it’s more about what you can stick to and what works for you intuitively. That was a long answer.

David Jockers, DNM, DC, MS

Yes, well, it makes sense. A sustainable lifestyle pattern. I think that if you’re able to pull it off and a lot of people feel good doing something like a morning meal and maybe an early afternoon meal or a late morning and then a later afternoon meal, like a late or early evening meal, some people can pull that off, and it works well for them, whereas other people have families, a busy life, and whatnot. A lot of times, dinner is a time that you’re able to gather together with your tribe. I’ve got four young kids. My wife and I and our kids—I mean, we have dinner together every night. That’s what we do. Then there are the other meals; like my wife and me, we don’t eat breakfast. It’s just the kids on their own. Typically, we’re eating lunch on our own, oftentimes as well. Just because we’re busy, we’re running around. Finding something sustainable, I think, is key. There. You’re still getting that fasting window and all the great benefits of fasting. Now, let’s talk about how you kind of touched on light exposure. Let’s talk about light. There’s a lot of talk in the biohacking world about red light and infrared, whether it’s infrared, saunas, or something like a red-light infrared panel. I use those regularly, seeing great results with them. But is that, like, what else should we be looking at when it comes to overall light exposure?

Melanie Avalon

Okay. I’m excited about this question. I’m very similar to you. I do the red light, and I do the near-infrared. I love all of it. For the longest time, I was kind of siloed in my approach to light. like I was looking at light and I was thinking, blue light, bad, red light, good, near-infrared good. That’s kind of like it. I used, like, a full spectrum of what they called the satellites, which are bright white lights. I use those to light my space in the morning, but I sort of felt like I wasn’t quite getting the full picture of light, especially because there’s much talk about red light in your room for light, which, as I said, I’m a huge proponent of. I think it’s great for pain and inflammation, for skin health, for the mitochondria, and for circadian rhythm because that red light is like the rising and setting sun. It’s great to bookend your day, or, like me, kind of just run it. But I recently started researching full-spectrum light, which kind of goes back to that sad light that I was talking about but is a little bit different.

We are indoors often today, and we’re not getting exposure to natural light outdoors, which is overexposing us to blue light. It is great to block that with things like blue light-blocking glasses. It creates a deficit of red in your light. That’s great with those devices, but we’re still not getting the full spectrum that we would be getting outdoors, which isn’t like white light. that includes this is controversial; that includes a little bit of UV light as well, which does help and has health benefits in the end, the full spectrum, vitamin D production, and other things like that, especially with our eyes. I’ve more recently been looking into full-spectrum white light that is not oversaturated and blue light that still contains red in the full spectrum. That’s been my new light obsession that I’ve been kind of on recently. Now, when I wake up, I have a device that is full-spectrum with all those wavelengths that I mentioned. It’s not sunlight, but it’s the closest you can get to sunlight. I use that in the morning for like 15 minutes, and it’s been great.

I love it. Then, for the rest of the day, I still run it on near-infrared to counteract that blue light exposure kind of. I still use the red light. But yes, I think people aren’t talking about the full spectrum light as much, especially in the red light near infrared world.

David Jockers, DNM, DC, MS

Yes. I mean, that’s good. that, when they say mal-illumination, it’s the body—what malnutrition is to the body. Light is a form of nutrition; it’s a form of information that enters the cells of our body. We want to make sure we’re getting the right light exposure. Full spectrum makes sense because if we’re out in the sun, we’re going to get just a varied array of all of these different wavelengths of light, depending on what time we’re out there. You feel like you’re more awake when you’re getting that full spectrum in the morning.

Melanie Avalon

Yes, I think it’s great for my energy, my mood, and something else. This is fascinating to think about. There’s only one area of our body that exposes our bloodstream to the world, and that’s our eyes. All of our blood goes through our eyes and gets exposed to light. By exposing our eyes to this full-spectrum light, we can help, like, purify the blood because of that UVA exposure, which is crazy, and also get the nutrients, which is why I think people don’t quite realize that light is a nutrient. Yes, I’m all about it.

David Jockers, DNM, DC, MS

Yes, it is. It’s not in the same way. It’s not like you’re consuming vitamin C or something like that, but it’s sending powerful information into the body. We know that light UV rays will help stimulate vitamin D production. But all the light is helping to trigger mitochondrial function. It’s kind of how the body adapts to the light exposure. I think that’s kind of like an adaptation process that gives us the benefits of it. You mentioned the UV exposure to your eyes, which, again, is controversial. Because people would say, Well, you got to shield your eyes, particularly when people are getting more attuned. For years we heard, don’t go out in the middle of the day and get high-intensity sun exposure in the summer without sunscreen on, and we know you need a certain amount of that for vitamin D production. You need a certain amount of UV production in your body. That’s great. I try to get 45 minutes or more of high-quality sun exposure, especially during the summertime. Every day, if I can, around the middle of the day, I like to work outside of my shirt off, things like that. But getting your eyes exposed—that’s still very controversial. But you were talking about how that helps cleanse the eyes. Can you explain that in more detail?

Melanie Avalon

Yes. I will clarify a few things. One, I’m not advocating going in like staring at the sun. It’s not what I’m advocating. I do still think sunglasses are great, and I’m not saying to, like, shock your eyes with the exposure. I’ll circle back to that. I want to comment quickly. I’m similar to you, though, in that I do think there are benefits to producing vitamin D, like letting our skin do it for us and even for me. In the winter, especially, I’ll even go and be controversial again. I’ll go to the tanning salon, and I will do just the UVB beds, which are vitamin D-stimulating rays. I’ll go in for like a minute, like super minimal. The nice thing is that those tend to be the cheaper beds because people want the other ones. But the tanning. Yes, I’m a big fan of, like, letting your skin naturally produce vitamin D from that. That said, about the aging effects of that exposure, I’m not saying to do it 24 hours a day.

I’m still a fan of sunscreen, but I don’t use those chemicals because I think that the chemical issues with sunscreens are kind of shocking, and it’s probably creating more issues than not using them. I think using sunscreen or something like zinc oxide or something, which is a physical barrier to UVA, is a good way to go. But yes, the light device that I have has a very small amount of UV. It’s not the equivalent of the sun in any way. It just has like a very small amount that you do get those benefits. That’s why I found that super beneficial. You don’t have to worry at all about overexposure to your eyes, anything like that, or damage to your skin.

David Jockers, DNM, DC, MS

Yes, that’s good to know. I’m a fan of using tanning beds. As long as you’re not getting burned, as long as you’re going in for some time where you don’t notice a lot of pink, anything like the pink inning or any sort of burning taking place, I think where people go wrong when it comes to the average person out there that’s going to the beach and getting sunburn and using tanning beds, they’re eating a diet that’s full of processed seed oils, that’s high in sugar, and they have a very long feeding window. When they do that, they’re, in a sense, already having the gasoline there, and then they’re hitting it with the sun. It’s almost like they’re adding it. It’s just lighter on the gasoline. They already have an environment that’s ready to create a fire or an explosion, whereas when you’re taking good care of your body and getting that sort of exposure, you’re going to help your body adapt to it. It’s going to be a more hormetic stressor, and you’re going to adapt to it. You’re going to create vitamin D; you’re going to create you’re in a sense; you’re just going to get the benefits of it without the downsides. I think that’s the key there. For myself, I just do a lot better when I’m getting some level of either sun exposure or, like, a vitamin D tanning bed in my house. It’s like, yes, I use that in the wintertime; I probably use it three times a week now. I only go in there for 10 minutes or so—ten, maybe 12 minutes at most. But I just feel much better when I’m doing that regularly, as opposed to going two months without getting very little sun.

Melanie Avalon

I feel the same way. Like when I go in for, I mean, like I said, I go on for like a minute, but the feeling you get just feels good. Like, it helps my mood. It just feels wonderful. I think there’s something to that intuition there. I’ll make one caveat. I will say that for our women in particular who are obsessed with things like their faces aging and things like that, I would recommend paying attention and using a facial sunscreen just because the skin is sensitive to those aging effects. I love all the contacts you made about diet, lifestyle, and exercise. But I think people can probably get the best of both worlds if they’re using sunscreen on their faces and then letting their bodies create vitamin D. That’s how I would like to make the happy medium between the two.

David Jockers, DNM, DC, MS

Sure. You try to prevent any sort of oxidative stress in the face and any sort of wrinkle. Let’s transition to talking a little bit about the French paradox. You wrote a book, What Happens When Wine Loses Weight? and you feel great with Paleo-style meals, intermittent fasting, and wine. You had wine in there. That reminds me of the French paradox. I mean, they consume wine; they consume cheese. Oftentimes, they’re even smoking. The prevalence of smoking is higher in a lot of these European countries, and they have lower risks of cardiovascular disease, cancer, and a lot of other common diseases. They live longer. They have greater longevity than Americans, including a lot of people who are living so-called healthy lifestyles. Why do you think that is?

Melanie Avalon

Yes, it’s a big question. the more that I’m just pausing because I’ve just heard many different theories about why it is, and people will make strong cases. They’ll say it’s the environmental toxins; it’s the gluten; it’s the wine; it’s the diet; it’s the lifestyle. It’s one interview I did on my show with Mark Schatzker, who wrote a book called The Dorito Effect and another book called The End of Craving. He talked about how he thinks it’s the fortification with vitamins in food that is causing that, which blew my mind. He makes a good case for it. I say all of that to say that I don’t know that it’s any one thing. If I had to guess, I think a lot of it goes down, though, to the food that we’re eating specifically the processed foods in the US. Just as far as the compounds and things that can be included in those compared to the Europeans. In Europe, they have different standards, and they also have a completely different relationship with things like Roundup, Monsanto, and pesticides. I think that is huge. I think it’s something in the food, though, that is creating that issue. I honestly, after interviewing Mark, found that his theory is that giving our body vitamins and calorie densities that don’t match up with what the food normally would confuse our body, puts it into a state of metabolic confusion, and switches it into a fat-burning mode. He has studies that show this. I found that fascinating as well. It could be a lot of things, but I think it does come back to the food the French paradox often refers to, you were saying things like how they eat a lot, like a high-fat diet and butter and drink wine, but don’t have these health issues.

David Jockers, DNM, DC, MS

I mean, just think about the cheese and the wine you’re going to have less of because they don’t use the same type of pesticides and herbicides over there. You’re going to have a lower toxic load in the cheese and the wine. A lot of the wines out here are just loaded with chemicals. There’s going to be a big difference there. They tend to prefer more of the drier wines, which are lower in sugar in general. So, when you’re eating something like food that’s higher in saturated fat, it’s a good idea to have polyphenols on board to help support the gut microbiome. Wine has polyphenols in it. It’s got alcohol in it, but it also has polyphenols. In a sense, it helps balance those nutrients because the cheese has protein and fat. It helps balance any sort of blood sugar effect that you might get from the wine. Then the polyphenols help reduce any sort of inflammation-induced effect from the microbiome. because when you’re just consuming, like if you’re consuming saturated fat with processed carbohydrates, the bacteria will hitch a ride right on the saturated fat into the bloodstream and drive up inflammatory pathways. But when you have polyphenols on board, it helps reduce that. kind of a good combination that people enjoy. On top of that, it has longevity benefits.

Melanie Avalon

Yes. I love some quick thoughts on what you’ve talked about. I think this is huge with the wine people, especially in the alcohol studies, because there are many studies on wine and alcohol and health and longevity and cancer and health issues. What is it? They pretty much just label it as wine or alcohol. They’re not taking that into account. As you said, there are many different types. like a glass of wine, could be many things. It could be a conventional glass of wine. In the U.S., it’s high in sugar, high in alcohol, and high in pesticides. That is very different from a glass of wine from France. That’s organic, low-sugar, and low-alcohol. The effects on the toxic burden, the amount of polyphenols, because in the dry farming system, in the organic system, that’s going to increase the Hermes assistant or the zinc hermetic potential of the plants. The plants have to be more resilient when they are just babied with pesticides, hydration, and water.

They have to create their compounds to defend themselves. that increases those polyphenols, which go back to being plant defense mechanisms for the plants. All of that is to say that it is interesting. There’s a huge difference. it’s hard. On the one hand, I wish we could almost redo all the literature that’s been out there and see what type of wine they’re using in the studies. That’s why I’m a huge proponent of this being something where people can take agency. If you’re drinking your wine, it’s not hard to find lower-alcohol wines, which I consider to be 5% or less. Then, as far as organic, you don’t have to find bottles of wine that say organic on the label. A lot of wineries, especially in Europe, are practicing organic practices. But you would only know that if you researched the winery. What I do is, when I’m at a restaurant, for example, because when I’m at home, I drink drive-from wines, which a lot of people in that health sphere do. They love their wines. But when I’m at a restaurant, for example, I get the wine list. I start with the ones; like I said, typically in France, I just Google the producer and then type the word organic and Google that, and it’ll usually come up right away if it’s organic or not. That’s how I kind of make my choices and my options. Then, from there, I’ll find the organic ones. There’s usually more on the list than you think, and then I’ll look at the individuals from there, and I’ll try to find the label on Google, and I’ll see what the alcohol percentage is. I find that when I do that, I feel much better. I don’t get the hangover because I don’t get the health benefits of, like you were saying, pairing it with the food. I think it’s something people can take action on and optimize their drinking for maximum health benefits.

David Jockers, DNM, DC, MS

Yes, it’s good to know. speaking of, just overall heart health because we talked about the French paradox. They have lower rates of cardiovascular disease than typical Americans. A lot of Americans are on the low-fat diet course in France. They’re eating a lot of cheese and a lot of high-saturated-fat foods. In our society, we’re told saturated fat cholesterol in our diet increases our risk of cardiovascular disease, although more and more research is coming out showing that that’s not the case. It’s your insulin levels and the way that your body processes carbohydrates, and the more ultra-processed foods you’re consuming, the higher the rate of cardiovascular disease and the less saturated fat cholesterol in your diet. But people are still waking up to that. A lot of people still believe that saturated fat and cholesterol in the diet cause heart disease. Let’s talk about: if we’re going to get some labs done, what are some key biomarkers you should be looking at for cardiovascular disease risk?

Melanie Avalon

Yes. I am fascinated by this whole topic. First of all, dietary cholesterol. I think now it’s pretty much, I mean, increasingly, more people are accepting that dietary cholesterol does not automatically correlate to increased total body cholesterol. The saturated fat is a little bit more complicated. that I do think, in general, it’s been massively vilified as being the issue with cholesterol issues. I do think people with familial hypercholesterolemia—I can’t ever say the word: familial hypercholesterolemia if that’s that. Yes, that one is like, I can’t ever say that one or which genetic tendencies. I kind of dive into this, especially with the APOE4 genetic variant. For some people, saturated fat can cause problematic rises in their cholesterol panel levels.

But for the majority of people, I don’t think it is as much of a concern. As far as tests go, many people are just looking at HDL, LDL, triglycerides, and total cholesterol, and that’s it. I don’t think that provides the clearest picture. I think there are some better markers that we can be testing. I have been diving into this by bringing some different guests on my show who have talked about it. For example, you can test APO B, which is more of a particle involved with LDL, but it’s more indicative of your actual CVD risk. That’s something that you can test, and it’ll be more telling than LDL, for example, as far as your actual, like I said, risk of heart disease and things like that. And then LP Little A is my new obsession. I interviewed Dr. Joel Kahn. He’s big in the vegan sphere, but he’s done a lot of work in this area, and he has a whole book on LP Little A, which is a particle related to cholesterol, and it’s genetic as far as whether you’ll be making it a lot or not.

If you are, then you have a much higher risk of heart disease and need to be, definitely stay on top of that and pay attention to everything more. The nice thing about it is that you can test it once like you can get it. It’ll be an LP Little A test, and it’s either going to be high or it’s not going to be high. If it’s not high, then you’re probably okay. You probably don’t have the genetic tendency to create that. But if it is high, then that can be an issue. This research is pretty new, but this might be one of the reasons, for example, that statins seem to work for some people and not others, and it can help maybe explain some of the paradoxes that we see. It’s because it’s a genetic thing. I would encourage the listeners to find a doctor, especially if this risk runs in their family. They can find a doctor who is knowledgeable about all of these tests and get a more comprehensive picture of everything. I am still on the fence about high LDL because people in the low-carb world will say that if you have high LDL but high HDL, you’re fine. I don’t know how I feel about that. I’m still like, my opinion is still out there on how all of that’s so.

David Jockers, DNM, DC, MS

Yes, I look at the triglyceride HDL ratio, which should be under two and ideally as close to one because your triglycerides show how much fat is in the blood, and that’s an important marker. Whereas LDL is a bus, it carries vitamin E and vitamin A; it carries all your fat-soluble nutrients; it carries phospholipids to the cell. It’s signaling that there’s a healing process going on. but if you have a lot of blood fat, that can be an issue. If your triglycerides are high and your fasting insulin is high, in a sense, your cells are overstaffed, and those extra fats in the blood are going to create a lot more inflammation and oxidative stress in the system. That’s super problematic. Just for LP little A, I’ve seen people change their LP little A in particular by getting their insulin under control and reducing seed oils, trans fats, and things like that. I used to test that on a lot of people, and a lot of times they were eating a lot of processed foods. As we started to reduce that, we’d see the LPA come down. A lot of people say it’s genetic, but I’ve seen the levels change on a pretty regular basis when they get the diet cleaned up.

Melanie Avalon

That’s going through my mind. I’m going to have to ask when I ask Dr. Kahn about that.

David Jockers, DNM, DC, MS

Start testing before and after. When people start getting rid of trans fats and seed oils, they get their insulin under control through intermittent fasting, exercise, and getting rid of processed carbohydrates. I think that’s key. Now, how about EMFs? Because you’ve been looking a lot at electromagnetic frequency exposure and how that impacts our aging response. Let’s talk about that. How important is EMF exposure?

Melanie Avalon

Yes. This is something I’m passionate about as well. EMFs are classified as a group by the IARC, which means they may be carcinogenic to humans. It means that there is ample evidence to suggest that, again, EMFs are possibly carcinogenic, and by impact, we mean electromagnetic fields and frequencies that are coming from our airpods, our Wi-Fi, our internet, and our cell phones. This is shocking if you have an iPhone, and this might change. But if you go into the settings in your iPhone, you can go into the legal settings, and they have a disclaimer in the iPhone that says, and I’m paraphrasing, but it communicates that if you want to be safe with the radiation exposure from the phone, you should not use it like a normal phone, as it says in the iPhone, to use it as a speakerphone.

If you and this like blew my mind that it’s in there, it’s like it’s worded very legally to make it seem like they’re not saying that. But if you read it, that’s what they’re saying. They’re like, use it as a speakerphone, not up to your head. In any case, the studies on this are pretty interesting, linking it to things like headaches, migraines, and anxiety. There are a lot of interesting studies linking it to fertility issues, especially with sperm quality, with men, especially because they’re carrying their phones in their pockets. There’s potential for women to have them in their bras and breast cancer issues. I think this is something we’re so saturated with today that I do think it’s important for people to evaluate cost benefit, and risk. What are the easy changes they can make that won’t affect their lives negatively, but they’ll still get the maximum benefits from protecting themselves? something simple. People are like them; they use those airpods. I just shudder when I see them because you’re putting them right next to your brain. Those EMFs affect the calcium channels in our cells. putting that right up to the sensitive cells in your head. It’s hard if you’ve been using AirPods to not use them, but I will tell you that you can be fine not using them. I think I do everything; I don’t use them.

These are EMF-free; these are air tubes. They don’t even, and they’re even less exposed than, like, plugged-in headphones that you would normally use with the iPhone. But I use those during the day. I can still listen to music and make calls like it’s not a big deal. I promise people. The reason I’m just trying to be convincing is that I have many friends, especially people like and the like in this world, but they just can’t get rid of the AirPods because they’re used to the convenience. But there was a time when you weren’t using them, and it was fine, and it will be fine on the flip side.

David Jockers, DNM, DC, MS

I never started using them because, yes, you used to play hard to get back. But yes, I knew right away when they came out. I’m like, That can’t be healthy.

Melanie Avalon

Can’t be good. It’s funny; I even have a friend who’s been trying to get him off of them for a long time, and he says that when he doesn’t use them, like when his headaches go away and his migraines go away, and then he brings them back, they come back. I’m like, is the thing? But something that you can keep in mind is that the exposure or intensity of the EMF exposure radically reduces the farther away the phone is. Even that small difference, like I mentioned, of holding it, like holding your phone to your head versus a speakerphone, doesn’t seem like much distance, but it makes a big difference. It’s exponential. Using a speakerphone, 

David Jockers, DNM, DC, MS

What do you think of safe sleeves? I’ve got my phone here, and it’s got something called a safe sleeve.

Melanie Avalon

Is that using Silver Shield?

David Jockers, DNM, DC, MS

Yes, it’s kind of a blocker. Yes, it’s got a shield on it; it’s in this. I try to keep it closed as much as possible. Supposedly, it reduces the overall intensity of the exposure. I keep it away from me, and I keep it closed.

Melanie Avalon

Yes. Okay. I wanted to clarify because there are a lot of different things out there for EMF blocking. Some of them are like what we’re using, quarts and crystals, and maybe they’re doing something. I’m not quite sure. But if what you’re using is the actual material, like silver nylon, that blocks. EMF: Yes, that works because it just blocks it.

David Jockers, DNM, DC, MS

It’s called safe sleeves. It’s just to block it; it’s not going all around it like there’s still. You still have your phone kind of on the sides, but it’s in the front and the back. If you were to have it in your pocket, it’d block a good percentage of the absorption.

Melanie Avalon

Perfect. Yes. because the way that works, that’s just a literal physical barrier. The way you could think about it is that if you have that barrier there, it just won’t go through. You could think about it like a Faraday cage, which, like a fun fact, everybody has a Faraday cage or most people do; it’s their microwave, or if you want your phone in the microwave, not on, but if you put your phone in the microwave, it’s like putting it in airplane mode. But in every case, yes. like I love the brand shield on your body. I use a lot of their products. I’m going to be excited. I’m going to be creating a co-brand with them, and we’re going to launch their air tubes like this: mint, rose gold, and black. and I’m excited.

But yes. What you’re using should be great and simple, like using airplane mode. At night, put your phone in airplane mode. You don’t like sleeping with your phone right by your head and the wi-fi versus the internet. like everything for me is hardwired. I do use it when I need it, but then I turn it off when I’m not using it. then minimize Bluetooth and such when you can. But, like I said, it is cost-benefit. Sometimes things are worth it to you. As I’m thinking about it more right now, like continuous glucose monitors, you can still use ones that are Bluetooth, but I think in the future they’re probably going to be all Bluetooth. When that happens, I’m still going to advocate for using a continuous glucose monitor, especially if you’ve never used one, just because I think the benefits are valuable. I just use that as an example of just looking at the cost-benefit of everything and making the wisest choices that you can.

David Jockers, DNM, DC, MS

Yes, you can’t avoid them all together. You just got to make, like you said, wise choices, not do stupid things like sleep with your iPhone or whatever your cell phone right next to you turned on more, so you can minimize exposure. I try to keep mine a few feet away if possible. I think it’s just that it’s super wise. Melissa’s been great. There is a lot of great information here. There are a lot of key tips that people can start practically applying now. You have some great podcasts. You have the Melanie Avalon Biohacking podcast. People can check you out on the intermittent fasting podcast as well. You already have this app, Food Sense Guides. Tell us a little bit about that.

Melanie Avalon

Oh, yes. Well, first of all, thank you very much for having me, Dr. Jockers. I’ve been looking forward to this. For listeners, we just realized we’re like neighbors like we live not too far away. it’s crazy. Yes, A Food Sense Guide—that’s the app that I developed, and it’s for people with food sensitivities. I created it just because I have a sensitive food-digestive system, and there are many compounds that people say you’re reacting to. There are histamine, oxalate, lectins, fodmaps, gluten sulfide styles, and nightshades. I was overwhelmed because I would like to make these charts, and I was like, I don’t know what I’m reacting to, and like, what is the reason? I want that to all be in one place where I could just see food, click on food, and see what’s high and what’s low for all of those, all in one place. That’s why I made the app. The Food Sense Guide has over 300 foods and 11 compounds; you can make lists. It’s great, especially if any of those compounds or things you may be reacting to. It’s just a great resource. I love it.

David Jockers, DNM, DC, MS

You’re innovative. That’s a great idea to make something like that. Guys, check that out. Food Sense Guide. I could just go into Apple iTunes, look for the app, and download it. Great. Yes. Then what’s the best website for people to reach out to you at?

Melanie Avalon

Yes. On all social media, I’m Melanie Avalon. My Website is melanieavalon.com, and I have podcasts.com. I have a supplement line; it’s at avalonx.us, and I honestly made the supplements because I’m reactive and sensitive to things. I wanted to have the cleanest supplements; purity and potency are important to me. I’m just taking all the supplements that I currently take. I just made my version, and I feel good about it. Yes, those are the websites, and I already have a bigger group on Facebook, or people can join me. It’s called iRF Biohackers. If you just type in Melanie Avalon on Facebook, you should be able to find me.

David Jockers, DNM, DC, MS

Awesome. Well, thanks again for your time, Melanie, and guys, check her out. Check out her Facebook group, her website, and her podcasts. We’ll see you guys in a future interview. Everybody be blessed.