Unveiling Longevity: Secrets Beyond Traditional Medicine

Introduction to fasting and longevity 0:00

Welcome to the Fasting and Longevity Summit. I'm your host, Dr. David Jockers. And today we are talking about longevity, secrets that you won't hear from your doctor. And we're going to talk about intermittent fasting strategies and the best approaches to intermittent fasting or to talk about light exposure and how important that is and the right types of light exposure. We're going to talk about the French paradox. Key biomarkers you need to understand to understand your risk of cardiovascular disease.

And we're going to talk about the importance of EMF exposure and reducing our overall EMF exposure. And my guest is Melanie Avalon. She's an actress, a top health influencer, and she's the author of What When Wine Lose Weight and Feel Great with Paleo Style Meals, Intermittent Fasting and Wine. And she is the host of the Melanie Avalon Biohacking podcast, and she's a top Apple app, creator of the Food Sense Guide and founder of the supplement line Avalon X. And so you guys are in for a treat with this interview.

And so without further ado, let's go right to it. Well, hey, Melanie, really great to connect and excited about this discussion. I know you're a huge advocate of intermittent fasting as am I. And you know, when it comes to fasting, I would say most people out there are you are fasting in the morning. And so they you know, they just find that it's easier.

Early time-restricted feeding and fasting patterns 1:31

And I know this is something that I've done for years where, you know, it's just easier for me to skip breakfast and hungry in the morning and then usually eat lunch and dinner. Now, I know that there's research coming out about early time restricted feeding. And so I'd love to hear, you know, your your thoughts on early time restricted feeding. What that is what the research says about that. Sure. First of all, thank you so much for having me. I'm really excited to be here. So, yeah, I love talking about this and I'm similar to you.

I actually do dinner only. So I'm and I'm a late night eater. My chronotype. I'm very, very late. I wish I was an early morning person, but I'm not. And I've never personally I'm just not hungry in the morning. Like I don't intuitively it does not feel 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. And yes, the majority of the studies do seem to show that eating earlier is better for circadian rhythm and metabolism and all of that.

And I actually just interviewed recently on my show Dr. Valter Longo. He's done a lot of work on this. And he I mean, he's a big advocate of not skipping breakfast. He points to studies linking skipping breakfast to like increased mortality and increased risk of gallstones, they believe. And 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.

So there's there's not a lot that said, set it up exactly that way. The majority of them are looking at just eating later. In addition to also eating earlier. So it's hard to draw firm conclusions about, you know, if you're doing 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 all throughout the day. Second point is that I think even if you step back and eating earlier is better for you.

I think in the long run, in the long term, it's about what you can do and what you can stick to. And some people, like I just mentioned, like you, we just don't like eating breakfast and we feel better in lunch and or dinner. And so I think finding the pattern, the intermittent fasting pattern that works for you and your circadian rhythm that 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. And I did sit down one time and I like I tried to just close my eyes and not bias.

Just like look at the research about how different eating timings throughout the day affects our different hormones. So like ghrelin, leptin, cortisol, all of these things and looking at and it's hard to be not biased, but looking at it as objectively as I could have just when those different hormones naturally peak and rise, it seemed to me and I actually wrote a blog post about this, but it seemed to me that eating not right upon wakening, because once you wake up, 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 still while the sun is out. 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 the hormonal patterns. But that was a long winded way to say that. Yes. The research out there and what the people say, they'll say that you need to eat earlier. But I think it's more about what you can stick to and what really works for you intuitively. That was a long answer.

Yeah, well, it makes sense. A sustainable lifestyle pattern. You know, I think that, you know, if you're able to pull it off and a lot of people feel really good doing something like like a morning meal and maybe like a early afternoon meal or like a late morning and then, you know, a later afternoon meal, like a late or early evening meal. Some people are able to pull that off and it works really good for them, whereas other people, you know, you have families and you have a busy life and whatnot.

And so a lot of times dinner is really a time that you're able to gather together with you're with your tribe. Right. I know. Like I've got four young kids. So my wife and I and our kids, I mean, we have dinner together every night. And so that's that's what we do. And then the other meals, like my wife and I, we don't eat breakfast. Right? So it's just the kids on their own. And typically we're eating lunch on our own oftentimes as well. Just because we're busy, we're running around. So finding something sustainable, I think is is really key.

There. And you're still getting that fasting window and and getting all the great benefits of fasting. Now, let's talk about you kind of touched on light exposure. Let's talk about light. Obviously, there's a lot of talk in the biohacking world about red light, about infrared, whether it's infrared, saunas or kind of like a red light infrared panel. And I use those on a regular basis seeing great results with them. But is that really like what else should we be looking at when it comes to overall light exposure?

Okay. I'm so excited about this question. I'm very similar to you. I do the red light, I do the near-infrared. I love all of it. And so for the longest time, I was kind of siloed in my approach to light.

Light exposure, red light, and full-spectrum light 7:24

So 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, I used a, like a full spectrum what they called the satellites that are, you know, bright white lights. I use those to light my space in, in the morning, but I sort of felt like I wasn't quite getting the full picture of light, especially because there's so much talk about red light in your room for light, which, like I said, I'm a huge proponent of. I think it's great for for pain and inflammation, for skin health, the mitochondria, also for circadian rhythm, because that red light is like the rising and setting sun.

So it's great to bookend your day or like me kind of just run it. 24/7 But I recently started doing research on a full spectrum light, which kind of goes back to that that sad light that I was talking about, but a little bit different. So basically we are indoors, you know, so often now today and we're not getting exposure to natural light outdoors and that is overexposing us to blue light. So it is great to block that with things like blue light blocking glasses. It is it creates a deficit of red in your light.

So that's great with those devices, but we're still not getting the full spectrum that we would be getting outdoors that that isn't like white light. And that also includes I know this is controversial, that also includes a little bit of UV light as well, which is actually does help does have health benefits in the end, the full spectrum and, you know, vitamin D production and other things like that, especially with our eyes actually. So I've more recently been looking into full spectrum white light that is not oversaturated and blue light and that still contains red in your bread in the full spectrum.

And so that's been my new light obsession that I've been kind of on recently. So now when I wake up, I actually have a device that is full spectrum with all those wavelengths that I mentioned. It's basically it's not literally sunlight, but it's like the closest you could get to sunlight. And I use that in the morning for like 15 minutes and it's been great. I love it. And then I just for the rest of the day, I still run it on near-infrared to kind of counteract that blue light exposure. And I still use the red light.

But yeah, I think people aren't really talking about the full spectrum light as much, especially in the, you know, the red light near infrared world. Yeah. I mean, that's really good. And that, you know, they say mass illumination, it's the body, what malnutrition is to the body. So light is a form of nutrition, it's a form of information into the cells of our body. And so 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, different wavelengths of light, depending on what time are out there.

And you feel like you're, you're, you're, you're more wakeful when you're getting that full spectrum in the morning. Yeah, I think it's great for my energy, for my mood and something else. This is really fascinating to think about. So there's only one area on our body that exposes our bloodstream to the to the world, and that's our eyes. So all of our blood goes through our our eyes and gets exposed to, you know, light. And so by exposing our eyes to this full spectrum light, we can actually help like pure because of that UVA exposure help purify the the blood, which is crazy and also get the like basically the nutrients from why I think people don't quite realize that light is a nutrient.

So yeah, I'm all about it. I feel so. Yeah, it really is. It really is. It's not in the same way. It's not like, you know, it's not like you're you're consuming vitamin C or something like that, but it is sending powerful information into the body. We obviously know that light UVA, UVB rays will help stimulate the vitamin D production. And but all the light is helping to trigger mitochondrial function. And so it's kind of how the body adapts to the light exposure. I think that's kind of it's like an adaptation process that gives us really the benefits to it.

And you mentioned how the UVA exposure to your eyes, which, you know, again, that's that's controversial, right? Because people would say, well, you got to shield your eyes, particularly like people are getting more more attuned. You know, for years we heard, you know, don't go out and in in the middle of it, you know, in the middle of the day and get high intensity sun exposure in the summer without sunscreen on and we know you know, you need you need a certain amount of that for vitamin D production you need a certain amount of UVA production on my body.

That's great. I try to get 45 minutes or so of high quality sun exposure, especially during the summertime. Every day, if I can, around the middle of the day, I like to workout outside of my shirt off, things like that. But but actually getting your eyes exposed, that's that's still very controversial. But you were talking about how that actually helps to cleanse the eyes. Can you explain that in more detail? Yeah. So I will, Claire, clarify a few things. One, I'm not advocating going in like staring at the sun.

It's really not not what I'm advocating. And I actually do still think sunglasses are great and that I'm not saying to, like, shock your eyes with the exposure. I'll circle back to that. I also want to comment really quickly. I'm similar to you, though, in that I do think there are benefits to actually producing vitamin D, like letting our our skin do it for us and even I. So 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 is the vitamin D stimulating rays.

And I will I'll go in for like a minute, like so super minimal. And the nice thing is those tend to be the cheaper beds because people want the other they want the other ones. But the tanning. So I yeah, I'm a big fan of like letting your your skin naturally produce vitamin D from that. That said, I know about the aging effects of that exposure, so I'm not saying to do it 24 seven. I'm still a fan of sunscreen said don't there are not using those chemicals because I think that the chemical issues with sunscreens it's kind of shocking and it's probably creating more issues than the not by using that.

So using a sunscreen or like a zinc oxide or something, which is a physical barrier to the UVA, I think that's a good way to go. But yeah, so the the light device that I have, it actually has a very, very small amount of UVA. So it's not the equivalent of the sun in any way. It just has like a very small amount so that you do get those benefits. And that's I found that super beneficial. And you don't have to worry at all about overexposure with your eyes or anything like that or damage to your skin.

So it's been. Yeah, that's that's really good to know. You know, I'm actually I'm actually a fan of using tanning beds. As long as you're not actually getting burnt, you know, as long as you're going in for, you know, a period of time where you don't actually notice a lot of pink anything like the pink inning or the the, you know, any sort of burning taking place. And I think really where people go wrong when it comes to, you know, 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 a very long feeding window.

And so when they do that, they're in a sense, it's like, you know, they already have the gasoline's already there and then and then they're hitting it with the with the sun. And it's almost like, you know, they're adding it. It's it's you know, it's just the lighter on the gasoline. Right. So so they already have an environment that's ready to create a fire, create an explosion, whereas when you're taking good care of your body, getting that sort of exposure, you're going to help your body's going to adapt to. It's going to be a more medic stressor and you're going to adapt to it.

You're and you're going to create the vitamin D, you're going to create you know, you're in a sense, you're just going to get the benefits of it without the downsides. So I think that's the key there. And I know for myself, I just I just do a lot better when I'm getting some level of either sun exposure or like I have a vitamin D tanning bed in my house. And so it's like, yeah, so like 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, right.

Ten, maybe 12 minutes at most. But I just feel so much better when I'm doing that on a regular basis as opposed to, you know, going two months without getting, you know, with getting very little sun. I know 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, the feeling you get it just it feels so good. Like, it helps my mood. It just feels really, really wonderful. I think there's something to that that intuition there. I will do I'll I'll do one caveat I will say for our women in particular who are like really obsessed with like set like their face aging and things like that, I actually would recommend paying attention and using a facial sunscreen just because the skin is so sensitive to those aging effects.

And of course, I love all the contacts you gave about the diet and the lifestyle and the exercise. But I think I think probably people can get the best of both worlds if maybe they're using the sunscreen on the face and then, you know, letting their body create that vitamin D, that that's how I would like make the happy medium between the two. Sure. You try to try to prevent any sort of oxidative stress

Sun exposure, tanning, and vitamin D 17:00

in that in the face and any sort of wrinkles. Let's let's transition to talking a little bit about the French paradox. I know you wrote a book What When Wine Lose Weight and feel great with Paleo style meals, intermittent fasting and wine. So you had wine in there. And that reminds me of the French paradox. I mean, they consume wine, they consume cheese. Oftentimes they're even smoking. You know, obviously prevalence of smoking is higher in a lot of these European countries and they have lower risks of cardiovascular disease, cancer, a lot of the common diseases.

And they live longer. They they have greater longevity than Americans and including a lot of people who are living, you know, so-called healthy lifestyles. Why do you think that is? Yeah, it's a big question. And the more that I, I I'm just I'm just pausing because I've I've just heard so many different theories about why it is and people will make really strong cases. You know, 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 the and also a book called The End of Craving.

He talked about how he thinks it's the fortification with vitamins of food that is causing that, which blew my mind. He makes a really good case for it. So I say all of that to say I don't know that it's any one thing. If I had to guess, I really think a lot of it goes down, though, to the food that we're eating and specifically the processed foods in the US. Just as far as the, you know, the compounds and things that can be included in those compared to the European in Europe. But they have different, different standards and they also have a completely different relationship with things like Roundup and Monsanto and pesticides.

And I think that is huge. I definitely think it's something in the food, though, that is creating that issue. And I honestly, after interviewing Mark, I actually found that basically his theory is that giving our body vitamins and also calorie densities that don't match up with what the food normally would be basically confuses our body, puts it into a state of metabolic confusion and switches it into a fat burning mode. And he has studies that actually show this. So I found that really, really fascinating as well.

So it could be a lot of things, but I think it does come back to the food the French paradox often refers to, like 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, you know, health issues. So yeah. And I mean, just think about the cheese and the wine you're going to have less because of the they don't use the same type of pesticides and herbicides over there. You're going have a lower toxic load in the in the cheese, in the wine.

Lot of the wines out here just loaded with chemicals. And and so there's going to be a big difference there. And they tend to prefer more of the drier wines, which, you know, are lower in sugar in general. And so, you know, when you're eating something like, you know, food that's higher in saturated fat, it's a good idea to have polyphenols on board to help support the gut microbiome. And so wine has polyphenols in it. Obviously, it's got alcohol in it, but it also has the polyphenols. And so in a sense, it helps kind of balance those nutrients because the cheese has got the protein and the fat.

So it helps balance any sort of blood sugar effect that you might get from the wine. And then the polyphenols help reduce any sort of like lipid raft, inflammation induced effect from the microbiome. Right. And so because when you're just consuming, like if you're consuming saturated fat with processed carbohydrates, the bacteria will actually 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.

So so kind of is a is a really good combination that people enjoy. And, you know, on top of that has has longevity benefits. Yeah. I love some quick thoughts to what you you've talked about. So I think this I think this is so huge with the wine people. So especially like in the alcohol studies because there's so many studies on wine and alcohol and health and longevity and cancer and health issues and what is what they always pretty much just label it as like wine or like alcohol. They're not taking into account that.

Like you said, there are so many different types. So like a glass of wine could be so many things. It could be it can be a conventional glass of wine. In the U.S., it's high sugar, high in alcohol, high in pesticides. That is very different from a glass of wine from France. That's organic, low sugar, low alcohol. The effects on, you know, the toxic burden, the amount of polyphenols, because in that in the dry farming system, in the organic system, that's going to increase the the Hermes assistant or the Zino hermetic potential of the plants.

Basically, the the plants have to be more resilient to when they are just babied with pesticides and weed with hydration, hydration and water. They have to create their own compounds to defend themselves. And so that increases those polyphenols, which really go back to being, you know, plant defense mechanisms for the plants. So all of that is to say that interesting. There's a huge difference. And so it's hard. And on the one hand, I wish we could almost redo all the literature that's been out there and and see what type of wine they're actually using in the studies.

And so that's why I'm a huge proponent of this is something where people can really, really take agency. Like if you're drinking your wine, it's not hard to find lower alcohol wines, which I consider a top 5% or less.

The French paradox and wine quality 23:00

And then as far as the 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. So what I do is when I'm at a restaurant, for example, because when I'm at home, I always drink drive from wines, which I know a lot of people in that health sphere. They love their wines. But when I'm at a restaurant, for example, I, 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 an organic and Google that, and it'll usually come up right away if it's organic or not.

And so that's how I kind of make my finesse, my options. And then from there I'll find the ones that are organic. There's usually more on the list than you think, and then I'll actually 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. And I find that when I do that, I, I feel so much better. I don't get the hangover because I don't I get more the health benefits, like you were saying, pairing it with the food. So I think it's something people can really take agency and, you know, optimize their drinking for maximum health benefits.

Yeah, it's really good to know. And speaking of, you know, just overall heart health because, you know, we talked about the French paradox. They have lower rates of cardiovascular disease than your typical Americans. And a lot of the Americans are on the low fat diet course in France. They're eating a lot of cheese, a lot of high saturated fat foods. And, of course, you know, in our society, we're told saturated fat cholesterol in our diet actually increases our risk of cardiovascular disease, although, you know, more and more research coming out showing that that's not actually the case.

It's really your insulin levels and the way that your body processes carbohydrates and the more more ultra processed foods you're consuming, the higher rate of cardiovascular disease and not saturated fat cholesterol in your diet. But people are still waking up to that. A lot of people still actually believe that saturated fat cholesterol in the diet cause heart disease. So let's talk about if if we're going to get some labs done, what are some key biomarkers you should be looking at for cardiovascular disease risk?

Yeah. So I am so fascinated by this whole topic. First of all, dietary cholesterol. I think now it's pretty much I mean, increasingly, increasingly, more people are accepting that dietary cholesterol does not, you know, automatically correlate to increase total body cholesterol. The saturated fat is a little bit more complicated. And that I, I do think in general, it's been massively vilified as being the issue with, you know, cholesterol issues. I do think people with like familial hypercholesterolemia, I can't ever say the word familial hyper cluster role anemia, if that's that.

Right. Got it. Okay. Yeah, that one is like I can't ever say that one or which genetic tendencies. And I kind of dove into this especially with like the Pope. AP Sorry, the AP for everybody for genetic variant, some people saturated fat I think can cause problematic raise rises rate can problematically raise their cholesterol panel levels. But for the majority of people, I don't think as much it is as much of a concern. And then as far as like what actually tests with that, so so many people are just looking at, you know, HDL oil, LDL triglycerides, total cholesterol, and that's it.

And I don't think that provides the clearest picture. I think there's some better markers that we can be testing. And I have been diving into this by bringing some different guests on my show who have talked about this. But for example, you can test APO B, which is a more it's a it's a particle involved with LDL, but it's more indicative of your actual CVD risk. So 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, your your risk with heart disease and things like that.

And then LP Little A is my new obsession. And so I interviewed Dr. Joe Economy. So he's actually really big in the vegan sphere, but he's done a lot of work in this in this area and he has a whole book on LP, little AI, and basically it is a particle as well related to cholesterol and it's genetic as far as as as far as either you'll be making it a lot or you won't be. So if you are, then you have a much more increased risk of heart disease and need to be, you know, definitely staying on top of that and paying attention to everything more.

And the nice thing about it is you can basically test once like you can get it, I'll be a little test and it's either going to be high or it's not going to be high. And if it's not high, then you're probably okay. You probably don't carry the genetic tendency to to create that. But if it is high, then that can be issues. And this actually 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.

And it is because it's a genetic thing. So yeah, I would encourage I would encourage listeners to find a doctor. That's if they especially if this risk runs in their family to find a doctor really nuanced in all of these tests so they can get a more comprehensive picture of everything. And then I am I'm still on the fence about high LDL, like because people sort of people mosquito in the low carb world will say that if you have really high LDL, but you have high HDL, you're fine. I actually don't know how I feel about you know, how I feel about that.

I'm still like, my my my opinion is still it's still out there on the on how all of that really it's so. Yeah I look at triglyceride HDL ratio should always be under two and ideally as close to one because your triglycerides it's showing how much, how much fat is in the blood and that's a really, really important marker. Whereas LDL is a bus, it's carrying vitamin E, vitamin A, it's carrying all your fat soluble nutrients, it's carrying phospholipids to the cell. It's basically signaling that there's a healing process going on.

And so but if you have a lot of blood fats, that can be an issue. So if your triglycerides are high, fasting insulin is high, you know, in a sense your cells are overstaffed and those extra fat in the blood, that's going to create a lot more inflammation, oxidative stress in the system.

Cardiovascular biomarkers and heart disease risk 29:30

So that's super problematic. And then, you know, actually just for LP little AA, I've actually seen people change your LP Little AA in particular by getting their insulin under control and also reducing seed oils, trans fats, things like that. You know, I used to test that on a lot of people and you know, a lot of times they were they were eating a lot of processed foods. You know, as we started to to reduce that, we'd actually see the LPA coming down. So 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 really cleaned up.

Yeah. So that's going to my mind. I'm going to have to ask when I asked Dr. Konner about that. And start testing like pre and post. Yeah, start testing pre and post. When people start getting rid of trans fats, seed oils get their insulin under control right through intermittent fasting, through exercise, getting rid of processed carbohydrates, it can it can balance out. So I think that's key. Now, how about EMFs? Because I know you've been looking a lot at electromagnetic frequency exposure and how that impacts our aging response.

And so let's talk about that. How important is EMF exposure? Yeah. So this is something I'm really passionate about as well. So the I.R.S., they actually they classify EMFs as a group to be, so that means possibly 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, frequencies that are coming from our, you know, our airports, our wi fi, our internet, our cell phones. This is shocking, if, you know, so if you have an iPhone and of course, this might change.

But if you actually go into the settings in your iPhone, you can go into the legal settings and they actually have a disclaimer in the iPhone that says basically and I'm paraphrasing, but it basically communicates that if you want to be safe with the radiation exposure from the phone, you should not use it like a normal phone, like it literally says in the iPhone to use it as a speakerphone. If you and this like blew my mind that it's in there, of course, it's like it's worded very like, you know, legally to make it seem like they're not actually saying that.

But if you read it, that's what they're saying. They're like, use it as a speakerphone, not like up to your head. So in any case, the the studies on this are pretty interesting, linking it to things like headaches, migraines, anxiety. There's a lot of really 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 the potential with women having them in their bras and breast cancer issues.

So I think this is something where we're so saturated in this today that I do think it's important to for people to evaluate cost benefit and and risk. And, you know, what are the easy changes they can make that won't really affect their their life negatively but they'll still get the maximum benefits with protecting themselves. So something really simple. People are so like they, they use those airpods I just, I shudder, I shudder when I see them because you're putting that right next to your brain.

And those EMFs actually affect the, the calcium channels of our cells. And it basically putting that right up to, you know, really sensitive cells in your head. So I know it's hard if you've been using AirPods to not use AirPods, but I will tell you you can be fine not using them. So like I think I, I do everything, I don't use them, I always use. So these are EMF free, these are air tubes. They don't even, they're even less EMF exposure than like, 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, I can still make calls like it's not a big deal. I promise people. The reason I'm just trying to be so convincing is that I have I have so many friends, especially people like and the like in this world, but they just can't get rid of like the AirPods because they're so 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. And I never started using them because yeah, you used to play hard to go back.

But yeah, I've always known right away when they came out, I'm like, That can't be healthy. I know, can't be good. It's funny, I even have a friend like I've been trying to get him off of them for so long, and he says that when he doesn't use them, like 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 the the exposure or the intensity of the MF exposure radically reduces the farther away the phone is.

So even that small difference, like I mentioned, of like holding it, like holding your phone to your head versus speakerphone, that doesn't

EMF exposure reduction and practical biohacks 34:30

seem like much, you know, distance, but it actually makes a big difference. It's exponential. So using speakerphone, using, you know, you're how do you think. Of what do you think of safe sleeves like I've got my phone here and it's got something called a safe sleeve. Right. So is that using is it is it Silver Shield? Like, do you know it's made out of a blocker? Yeah, it's it's got a shield on it so it's in this. Right. And so I try to keep it closed as much as possible. And supposedly it reduces is the overall intensity of the exposure.

So I keep it away from me and I also keep it closed. Yes. Okay. So I wanted to clarify because there there are a lot of different things out there for MF blocking. So some of them are like we're using like chords and crystals and maybe they're doing something. I'm not quite sure. But if what you're using is the actual like silver nylon that literally blocks. MF Yes, that works because it literally just blocks blocks it. Yeah, it's called this, but like I'm you. It's called the safe sleeves. So it's just to block it, you know, obviously it's not going all around it like there's still, you know, you still have your phone kind of on the sides, but it's in the front and in the back.

So if like if you were to have it in your pocket, it's blocking good percentage of the absorption. Perfect. Yeah. So because the way that works it, that's just a literal physical barrier. So the way you could think about it is if you have like that barrier there, it just literally won't go through you think about it like a Faraday cage, which like fun fact everybody has a Faraday cage or most people do, it's their microwave or so 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. So like I, I love the brand shield your body. I use a lot of their products. I'm actually going to be so excited. I'm going to be creating a co-brand with them and we're going to launch their air tubes like this makes a mint and rose gold and black. So and I'm really excited. But so yeah. So what you're using that should be great and simple things like using that airplane mode. So at night putting your phone in airplane mode, don't, don't like sleep with your phone like right by your head and the wi fi versus internet.

So like I everything for me is hardwired. I do have I use it when I need it, but then I turn it off when I'm not using it. And then, you know, minimizing Bluetooth and such when you can. But like I said, it really is cost benefit. So sometimes things are are worth it to you as I'm thinking about it more so 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. And like when that happens, I'm still going to be advocating using a continuous glucose monitor, especially if you've never used one, just because I think the benefits are so valuable.

And I just use that as an example of just looking at the cost benefit of everything and, you know, making the most wise choices that you can. Yeah, you can't avoid them all together. You just got to make, like you said, wise choices, not do stupid things like, like sleep with your with your, your iPhone or whatever your your cell phone right next to you turned on so more you can minimize exposure. I try to always keep mine a few feet away if possible. Right. And so I think it's just that's super wise.

So Melanie's been great. You know, a lot of great information here. A lot of key, key tips that that people can start practically applying now. And I know you have some great podcasts. You have the Melanie Avalon Biohacking podcast. People can check you out at the intermittent fasting podcast as well. You also have this app, Food Sense Guide Tell us a little bit about that. Oh, yeah. Well, first of all, thank you so much for having me, doctor. Doctors and Dr. Jockers. I've been looking forward to this.

And for listeners, we just realized we're like neighbors, like we live real lives not too far away. I know it's crazy. So, yeah, a Food Sense Guide. That's my app that I developed and it's for people with food sensitivities. And I created it just because I personally like I have a sensitive foods food digestive system and there's so many compounds that people say that you're reacting to. There's like histamine, oxalate, lectins, fodmaps, gluten sulfide styles, nightshades. I was always so overwhelmed because I would like make these charts and I was like, I don't know what I'm reacting to and like, what is why?

Melanie Avalonu2019s apps, supplements, and resources 39:00

So I want that to all be in one place where I could just like see a food, click on a food, see what it's high and what it's low. And for all of those, all in one place. So that's why I made the app food. Sense Guide has over 300 foods, 11 compounds, you can make lists you can it's really great especially if any of those compounds or things you may be reacting to. It's just a really great resource. So I love it. It's very little. You're really innovative. That's a really great idea to make something like that.

Guys, check that out. Food Sense Guide. I could just go into go into Apple iTunes and look for the app and download it. Great. Yeah. And then what's the best website for people to reach out to you at? Yes. So on all the social media, I'm Melanie Avalon. My Web site is melanieavalon.com and I have podcasts.com com I have a supplement line it's at Avalon x dot us and I honestly made the supplements like honestly to because I'm so reactive and sensitive to things I wanted to have the cleanest supplements you know purity potency is really important to me glass bottles so and I'm just basically making all the supplements that I currently take.

I just I make my own version and I feel really good about it. So yeah, those are the websites and I also have a bigger group on Facebook or people can join me. It's called IF Biohackers. If you just type in Melanie Avalon on Facebook, you should be able to find me so awesome. Awesome. Well, thanks again for your time, Melanie and guys, check her out. Check out her Facebook group and her website as well and podcasts. And we'll see you guys in a future interview. Everybody be blessed.