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Lewis HowesLewis Howes

DOCTOR REVEALS 4 Essential Foods YOU NEED To Eat To LIVE LONGER |Dr. Rhonda Patrick & Lewis Howes

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Dr. Rhonda PatrickguestLewis Howeshost
Jun 15, 20201h 33mWatch on YouTube

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Transcript

  1. 0:00 – 5:27

    How Psychological Stress Weakens the Immune System

    1. RP

      We used to think, again, the brain was separate from the body, and that the immune system and, and all that didn't affect the brain. Turns out that was all wrong. Absolutely wrong. [upbeat music]

    2. LH

      Welcome, everyone, back to The School Of Greatness Podcast. I'm super excited about this. We have Dr. Rhonda Patrick in the house, who is a published scientist, health educator based in San Diego. She's also a Ph.D. in biomedical science, someone who has done extensive research on aging, cancer, nutrition, and so many other things about optimizing your health. So I'm so excited that you're here. Rhonda, thank you for taking the time.

    3. RP

      Oh, I'm excited to be here too. I'm glad we've finally made this happen.

    4. LH

      Finally made it happen.

    5. RP

      [laughs]

    6. LH

      I've been begging you to come on for years. I've been-

    7. RP

      We just needed a pandemic to, to get you to go virtual. [laughs]

    8. LH

      To make it happen. We ... You, you never c- you never leave anywhere from San Diego. You're just obsessed in the research all day, teaching the world about how to be healthier. And, um, so we finally made it happen. We'll have to make it happen in person in the future as well. But I, I'm so excited about this because I feel like people need you and your information more than ever right now. Obviously, you've been sharing a ton of great content over on your podcast, and we are in a moment of a lot of high anxiety, a lot of high stress, and routine disruption. You know, my girlfriend who lives with me, she had plans, she had dreams, and those plans and dreams went on hold, just like most of the world. So what does that do to your body and immune system first when you have this routine disruption, anxiety at an all-time high, stress at an all-time high, uncertainty at an all-time high? How do we combat it, and what does that do to our immune system with all of that combined?

    9. RP

      That's a huge question. Um, that particular question hasn't been really empirically studied. But what I can tell you is there have been ... There, there's a lot of, you know, evidence and a, in fact, a growing body of evidence that psychological stress itself, um, which is what I think you're, you're referring to, I mean-

    10. LH

      Mm-hmm. Yes

    11. RP

      ... just the, the, the fear of n- of the unknown, not knowing what, you know, this, this COVID-19 illness is gonna do, whether you're gonna catch the virus. All those things. Whether you're gonna keep your job, your jo- you're gonna, you know, keep your job or your housing. I mean, so many stress, you know, st- stresses associated with the, with this pandemic. Um, we do know that, you know, psychological stress has a pretty profound effect on the immune system. And, um, it, it, it's known to depress immune function on the one hand, but also to cause inflammation on the other hand. It's kinda like this weird how is it doing both at the same time sort of deal. And it, it's funny. Often in biology you'll find a lot of systems like that where on the one hand something will increase inflammation, but on the other hand it's suppressing the immune system. And you might think, "Well, inflammation is active immune system, right?" Um, so it's, it's one of those ... It's just there's so many interconnected systems and, you know, one thing is doing, you know, one, one gene can activate one thing and then activate another, and hap- happens to be the opposite. So, um, but cortisol itself, um, does, does increase with psychological stress, and we know that, um, cortisol does depress the immune system.

    12. LH

      Mm-hmm.

    13. RP

      Um, so I-

    14. LH

      So any time we have stress, anxiety, overwhelm, uh, a fight or flight mentality, emotionally, psychologically it transforms into the body weakening its immune system. Is that what I'm hearing you say?

    15. RP

      Yes. Yes. People are ... You're more likely to, um, probably succumb to a pathogen. Um, and I think anybody ... I, I remember I've gotten the flu twice. Like, maybe I've had it more. I've, I just remember twice in my life really. Um, once was during finals week in college.

    16. LH

      Mm-hmm.

    17. RP

      And it was like, I was taking like all the like hard, you know, I was taking, uh, graduate classes and everything at once. And it was like, I had this Spanish final and my Spanish teacher was like, "If you miss the final you're gonna get an F." And I had an A in the class. So I came in to that final that day and I was, I had a fever, and I literally vomited like in, in the classroom. And

    18. LH

      No.

    19. RP

      He sent me home.

    20. LH

      In the middle of the test?

    21. RP

      On the day of the final I vomited. Like, I was like so sick. Um, so-

    22. LH

      With your classmates around you, or?

    23. RP

      Yes. [laughs]

    24. LH

      No way. You're just like, "Okay, I'm here. I don't wanna fail, but I'm gonna do whatever it takes."

    25. RP

      I went right to the trash can and threw up.

    26. LH

      No way.

    27. RP

      So my teacher sent me home. Um, you know, it was ... That, that, that was like something I remember. That time I had the flu, and then the other time I had it was, um, right after I had my son. I was getting no sleep, and sleep is also really important for immune function. And so, um, I got the flu then. But anyways, I think w- my, my-

    28. LH

      Mm-hmm

    29. RP

      ... the point of my, my l- my story was that I think people have their own anecdotes where they're like they remember getting sick when they had this stressful thing happening. Uh, you know, that sort of thing. So, um, stress definitely can depress the immune system.

    30. LH

      Yeah.

  2. 5:27 – 11:30

    Innate vs. Adaptive Immunity and the Role of Microbes

    1. LH

      do you think there's a way to defend ourselves against all disease and viruses? Do you think it's possible if we have the purest mind and psychological wellbeing, we eat the perfect foods, we have nine hours of sleep every night, we have the perfect environment, is it possible to just the immune system say, "Nope. Anything that comes in through the, the body or the skin, like, um, we're just gonna reject it because we have defended ourselves so well"?

    2. RP

      I think the only way you're gonna do that is if you never expose yourself to a pathogen somehow by living in a bubble. So no, I don't think that, um, that you can You fight off every single pathogen ever. Uh, you know, like, that's ... That's just ... It's not, it's not possible.

    3. LH

      Yeah.

    4. RP

      And that mostly has to do with, you know, when, when you're exposed to new pathogens, things that your body's never seen before, um, the, you know, there's no ... There's, there's t- there's really two arms to your immune system. There's the innate immune response, which is what happens when you, uh, encounter any pathogen. It's sort of this generalized response where you're basically, you know, trying to, trying to fight it off, and that happens, um, through a variety of mechanisms involving mostly what are called myeloid cells, macrophages, neutrophils. These are cells that are, um ... Like neutrophils, for example, incre- uh, produce hydrogen peroxide. They produce hypochlorite, which is like bleach. You know, they're producing these things inside of your, inside of your body to, to fight off pathogens. Um-

    5. LH

      They create ... You have ... Your body produces bleach or bleach-like material?

    6. RP

      Hypocri- hyp- hypochlorite. It does. Yeah, hydrogen peroxide as well. So [laughs] -

    7. LH

      So is this your immune system develops this, or is this, like, your cells? Is this bloo- what is this?

    8. RP

      Your neutrophils are, are producing it. It's a type of immune cell.

    9. LH

      What's a neutrophil?

    10. RP

      It's a type of immune cell.

    11. LH

      Okay.

    12. RP

      There are various types of immune cells. You have myeloid cells and you have lymphoid cells. Most people are familiar with lymphoid cells, which are B and T cells. You've probably heard of those, right?

    13. LH

      Yes.

    14. RP

      And that, those also could be involved somewhat in the, uh, adaptive immune respon- uh, sorry, in the innate, but mostly they're involved in what's called the adaptive immune response, and that's the immune response most people are aware of, um, that don't, you know, study biology. That's the response where your B cells basically form, um, what are called, like, B memory cells, and they m- produce antibodies, which can then recognize specific regions of a virus and, you know, protect you from that, from that virus, or protect your, protect you from the virus entering your cells.

    15. LH

      Yeah.

    16. RP

      Um, so, uh, you know, if you don't have ... But if you've never been exposed to that virus, then you're not gonna have that antibody, right?

    17. LH

      Yeah.

    18. RP

      You're not gonna have ... That adaptive immune system hasn't been activated, and so you don't have protection against it.

    19. LH

      So w-

    20. RP

      You rely on the in- innate one only.

    21. LH

      Oh. So w- we actually wanna be exposed to viruses and other bad, I guess, bugs. We wanna be exposed to some degree, but not full-on attack so that our body can build up antibodies. Is that what I'm hearing you say?

    22. RP

      It, I, y- yeah, I think that, that, that's a, um, a, an accurate statement. I think, you know, that, that it was thought for a long time that, you know, all pathogens were bad, all microbes were bad, and we wanted to have, you know, this clean hygiene. Um, you know, we wanted to-

    23. LH

      All the time

    24. RP

      ... all the time.

    25. LH

      Never touch anything with your hands.

    26. RP

      Exactly.

    27. LH

      Make sure you cover everything all the time. Yeah.

    28. RP

      And now, um, you know, as ... And this is how, this is how science is. The more tools you have, the more you can, uh, investigate, investigate questions and learn more answers from, from doing experiments. So, um, as time goes on, you're sort of, you know, your ideas change and knowledge changes, right? And that's, that's science. Science is the changing of it. So, you know, we know that microbes now, we've got the microbiome. We've got the skin microbiome, the gut microbiome. You know, w- the, the, the bacteria that are on our skin, the bacteria that are in our gut, um, also have important roles in helping us, um, in helping our immune system, in fact. Um, in fact, actually there's been many studies showing now that, um, early life exposure to dirt, you know, or even, like, pet dander, you know, growing up with-

    29. LH

      Huh

    30. RP

      ... like, a dog, um, can help protect against, uh, asthma and even other types-

  3. 11:30 – 14:40

    Feeding the Gut Microbiome with Fermentable Fiber

    1. LH

      How do we get more of these T cells that are good?

    2. RP

      Well, that's ... Well, you know, I think one, one thing to keep in mind would be what, what regulates the gut microbiome. One of the major things that regulates the gut microbiome is what I just said, eating a, a diverse ar- array of fermentable fiber, um, because that's-

    3. LH

      Give me an example. What's, what's a diverse array?

    4. RP

      So you have blueberries. You have, um, you know, you have nuts, mushrooms.

    5. LH

      Mm-hmm.

    6. RP

      You have some, you know, dark leafy greens. These have different types of ... Or, you know, you've got onions and garlic. Those have a different type of fermentable fiber. Um, there's ... That should be differentiated from, um- Non-fermentable fiber, which would be-

    7. LH

      Broccoli

    8. RP

      ... cellulose, lignans. Well, just like, well, broccoli has fermentable fibers an-

    9. LH

      Uh-huh

    10. RP

      ... but yeah, most of, like, most of the, the bulk of fiber in plants is non, is, is non-fermentable. So what that's doing is basically just helping move stuff through the intestines, right? Pushing it out.

    11. LH

      Mm-hmm. The fiber.

    12. RP

      That's important.

    13. LH

      The fiber's pulling it down and cleaning it out and-

    14. RP

      Cleaning it out, right, and that's also important. But, but the fermentable fiber, the stuff that's, that can be eaten by this bacteria in our gut, like, that is the good stuff.

    15. LH

      Really?

    16. RP

      That's what's allowing the bacteria to make short chain fatty acids.

    17. LH

      S- what are the top three to five f- key foods [laughs]

    18. RP

      [laughs]

    19. LH

      I'm trying to simplify it for myself. These foods-

    20. RP

      Well-

    21. LH

      ... that can really develop that. Yeah, what are the, what would you, what do you-

    22. RP

      There's different, so the thing is, different foods have different types, and different types-

    23. LH

      Oh

    24. RP

      ... feed different types of bacteria. So if you want, you don't, like, for one, for example, some people wanna hear, "Oh, well I can supplement with inulin. I can get an, an inulin powder." Inulin is a type of fermentable fiber. You can find it, um, you can find it in a variety of plants, uh, I think onions, for example. Um, but, you know, if you only eat inulin, then you're gonna be, you're gonna be basically feeding a certain t- certain types of bacteria that, that use inulin, or di-

    25. LH

      So it's-

    26. RP

      You know, that ferment

    27. LH

      ... so it's the variety is what you're looking for.

    28. RP

      That helps with the diversity, you know, because these bacteria are playing different roles. Uh, so-

    29. LH

      Interesting

    30. RP

      ... you know, there's-

  4. 14:40 – 20:35

    Patrick's Ideal Four-Food Meal: Salmon, Kale, Blueberries, Avocado

    1. LH

      If you, if you were going to, let's say you came up with a, a new company, a product that was a, a meal, that you had to have the same meal every day for lunch and dinner a- and snack, and this would be the, the thing that you could sell to people, what would be included in that meal that you were like, "You know what? If you ha- if you don't have the, all the variety and time to make these foods all day, but if you could do this three times a day, you're setting yourself up for a really good immune system and good gut b- gut bacteria health."

    2. RP

      The same act- the same meal three times a day or different meals?

    3. LH

      Yes.

    4. RP

      Yeah.

    5. LH

      Same meal.

    6. RP

      So I would say basically-

    7. LH

      Whole meal

    8. RP

      ... oma- I would, I would get salmon. I would get wild Alaskan salmon. Um, a- and that's because salmon is one of the best sources of the marine omega-3 fatty acids, EPA and DHA, which are extremely important for health, a- particularly brain health, but even cardiovascular health. I mean, just, there's just been so much emerging ev- evidence, um, showing that the omega-3 fatty acids are really important for brain health and for-

    9. LH

      Okay

    10. RP

      ... uh, for cardiovascular health.

    11. LH

      Piece of wild caught salmon.

    12. RP

      That would be my pro-

    13. LH

      Yeah

    14. RP

      ... that would be my protein.

    15. LH

      Mm-hmm.

    16. RP

      Um, and it's also lowest in mercury. There's, there's like four micrograms of merc- or sorry, two micrograms of mercury per four ounces cooked, um, so that's really low in mercury.

    17. LH

      Mm-hmm.

    18. RP

      Um, I would definitely-

    19. LH

      And, and cooked, cooked or raw fish?

    20. RP

      Well, actually cooking it even lowers the merc- mercury bioavailability even more, so definitely, and raw you don't wanna like, I think there's too much concern with parasites and all that.

    21. LH

      Yeah, yeah.

    22. RP

      So I would say cooked.

    23. LH

      Cook your meat. Okay.

    24. RP

      And-

    25. LH

      Number two

    26. RP

      ... number two, I would say s- I, I have to, and in fact, I always feel like I'm depriving myself, and I'm kinda quoting my mentor here a little bit, if I don't have dark leafy greens with a meal.

    27. LH

      Mm-hmm.

    28. RP

      Literally, like every meal, I like to have dark leafy greens. And, and I would say-

    29. LH

      What are the top two or three leafy greens?

    30. RP

      I would say kale, because I would also like to have my sulforaphane, and sulforaphane, um, uh, it, it plays an important role in so many ins- there's just so many, so much evidence that sulforaphane, I think, uh, may be important for longevity. Um, but so that would be my greens.

  5. 20:35 – 23:02

    Is Kale Harmful? Sulforaphane, Iodine and Thyroid Concerns

    1. LH

      I saw some, maybe it was another doctor, I'm trying to figure out who said this, that there was some research actually potentially saying that kale was not good for you, that it had some negative side effects as well. I don't know if you've seen that research or if that's just something I'm-

    2. RP

      There's no research I've seen on that.

    3. LH

      Okay.

    4. RP

      I've heard it. Um-

    5. LH

      Okay

    6. RP

      ... but it, it, it's just, it, it's one of those things where people like to talk about potential antinutrients, and, um, one of the what they're calling an antinutrient is actually sulforaphane.

    7. LH

      Mm-hmm.

    8. RP

      Um, because it can compete with iodine for transport into the thyroid. And, um, but there's been studies, so for human studies where they've loaded up with sulforaphane a- there's been no effect on thyroid function. Um, those were short-term, like a week-long studies. There have been long-term studies on animals that have actually, that actually have hypothyroidism. They were given sulforaphane, and believe it or not, actually they were given broccoli sprouts, uh, extract, which, um, is one of the best sources of sulforaphane.

    9. LH

      I hear those are amazing for you.

    10. RP

      Yes. So broccoli sprouts have, like, 100 times more sulforaphane than mature broccoli. Well, anyways, my point was is-

    11. LH

      So should we throw some broccoli sprouts on top of the kale or the avoc- or the avocado?

    12. RP

      The broccoli sprouts actually would, if I could add more, I would absolutely put the broccoli sprouts in there, yes.

    13. LH

      Okay.

    14. RP

      Um, but the p- but the, the, my point was that the animals that had hypothyroidism, it didn't make their hypothyroidism any worse at all. In fact, it helped, uh, the antioxidant status of their thyroid. It improved some functions.

    15. LH

      Wow.

    16. RP

      So I think, uh, that doesn't mean, you know, people with hypothyroidism should be, you know, weary or concerned about consuming too much sulforaphane, particularly if they're not getting iodine. Most people aren't iodine deficient. It's, it's, like, in salt. You know, most people are eating foods that already have salt in them. Now, um, you know, iodine, so iodine deficiency not, is not a big thing, um, particularly in the United States. But, uh, so I would, I would say that that, that, uh, those statements by some people that are-

    17. LH

      Mm-hmm

    18. RP

      ... kind of more into the, the camp of don't eat any plants-

    19. LH

      Right

    20. RP

      ... um, aren't, aren't really, um-

    21. LH

      Not enough research on it, yeah.

    22. RP

      There's not. There may be, you might find one study with one case report with a female who had some crazy fu- disease or something-

    23. LH

      Mm-hmm

    24. RP

      ... and she was juicing, like, you know, un- just ungodly amounts of kale every day, where it's like, I mean, okay. Like, maybe there, maybe you can create a situation-

    25. LH

      Sure, sure, sure

    26. RP

      ... where, you know, it, it may be harmful.

    27. LH

      There's not enough research backing it, though, yeah.

    28. RP

      But yeah, so.

  6. 23:02 – 28:02

    Whole Foods vs. Supplements and the Food Matrix

    1. LH

      I, I'm curious about this. You have some great points here. I love your five foods that we should be eating for every meal. Um, now, as a, I'm a 37-year-old man, but I've got the, I'd like to think curiosity and imagination of a seven-year-old. But I also have the palate of a seven-year-old, and I don't like blueberries.

    2. RP

      [gasps]

    3. LH

      I don't, I don't like avocado. I'm the pickiest eater. I'm probably a pickier eater than, than your, than your child. And I wanna ask you, for the picky eaters of the world who don't eat berries and don't like avocado or aren't creative enough to go that far and they're limited in their creative thinking in terms of foods, is it better to just have the supplementation, the vitamins and supplements that are the exact same nutrients, and just take the supplements and vitamins as opposed to the actual food itself? Or is the organic, fresh-caught food always better than the, the fish oil or the blueberry vitamin? What do you think about that?

    4. RP

      Ye- yeah, so, um, I think that, that it, there's huge differences when you're talking about eating a food, uh, versus taking a supplement. And I, I do think, for example, a multivitamin supplement is, is, I take it every day and I think it's great insurance to make sure, because, you know, there are 40 essential micronutrients, which are vitamins, minerals, and essential fa- fatty acids and amino acids we have to get from our diet. Um, and they're important for not only Helping us, you know, not die, [laughs] for example-

    5. LH

      Right

    6. RP

      ... you know, scurvy, but also for long-term function, for a- the way we age, um, preve-

    7. LH

      Mm

    8. RP

      ... preventing insidious damage. But there's also a variety of these compounds we don't know about. You know, there's the fermentable fibers that are feeding the gut microbiome and which are making all these chemicals, like little drug factories in our gut, that are regulating the immune system. We've got polyphenols, like blueberries have been shown, you know, to inc- in multiple clinical studies, it's been shown to increase blood flow to the brain and improve cognitive function and memory in both young, uh, adolescents, um, and older adults.

    9. LH

      Hm.

    10. RP

      Uh, so, and this was, this was due, thought to be due to the anthocyanins in blueberries and, you know, so there's, you know, food has so many comp- and probably so many things we haven't even discovered yet, you know? So many compounds that we're just... You know, there's this new, new compound that was discovered in dark leafy greens called, um, sulfa- sulfoquinol- quino- quinolovine or something, which is now been shown to, like, have o- a specific purpose of feeding the gut microbiome, kinda like the fermentable fiber. So it's one of those things where you, you know, food has so much to it and there's so many, there's so many parts to the story. It's not just about getting the vitamin, right? It's not just about getting that one mineral. Um, so, um, and I will say that, uh, in my, when I was a postdoc with Dr. Bruce Ames, um, at the Children's Hospital, uh, Oakland Research Institute, uh, there was a, a variety of clinical studies that I was a part of where they, my colleagues had designed this, this nutrient-dense bar that had a variety of vitamins and minerals. It also had DHA, which is one of the marine omega-3 fatty acids found in fish.

    11. LH

      Mm-hmm.

    12. RP

      And it also had fiber, a fiber matrix. And there was a variety of studies that we were doing in obese and lean individuals, and it showed-

    13. LH

      So it was like the ultimate food bar.

    14. RP

      It was like-

    15. LH

      It was like everything you need in this meal

    16. RP

      ... it was like the, y- you know, it was like the micronutrient bar, where you were giving the micronutrients, but you were delivering them with a f- with a food matrix.

    17. LH

      Ooh.

    18. RP

      Like fiber, right?

    19. LH

      Yes.

    20. RP

      And, and so there's all these benefits that were found from this, from this bar that were particularly benefits found in people that were overweight or obese that we didn't ask them to change their diet. They were eating their same diet, but you give them this bar on top of that, and you would have improvements. You would have improvements.

    21. LH

      Hm.

    22. RP

      And in inflammation, in like, you know, um, HDL cholesterol, which is the good type of cholesterol. Um, you, so you'd have all these improvements, but if you took away the food matrix, if you took away that food matrix and just had the bar without the fiber, um, and just the, the micronutrients, some of those benefits would go away. And-

    23. LH

      So the, the matrix-

    24. RP

      But if you gave the fiber by itself, the benefits would go away.

    25. LH

      Hm.

    26. RP

      It was the whole package. It was everything together that was important. So, you know-

    27. LH

      Wow

    28. RP

      ... with that said, um, I do think there is a place for supplementation and, um, you know, particularly with fish oil. I think fish oil is, is one of those supplements that I, every day I take it, and I think that the, there is just mounting evidence that it's beneficial. I mean, high dose, it has to be in the right dose for some people, and it's, I mean, it's been shown to really lower triglycerides, for example.

    29. LH

      Hm.

    30. RP

      But again, there's conflicting studies, and a lot of times when you look at these clinical trials, it all has to do with dose. It has to do with were they taking a statin-

  7. 28:02 – 31:00

    Conflicting Nutrition Research and How to Weigh Evidence

    1. LH

      I know, right? How are you supposed to know when there's so much information out there about medical news, about health news, nutrition news, supplement news? How do you know what to trust when there's just so much news out there about what's working and what's not working?

    2. RP

      I mean, it's hard to know. [laughs] It's, it's hard. I have to, it's hard for me to kinda sort through it. You know, then you add the list, this layer of genetics that's also complicating, particularly with the randomized controlled trials. Like, there's genes that people, um, have where they actually need a higher dose of fish oil to have benefits-

    3. LH

      Hm

    4. RP

      ... which is super interesting. There's also genes where people that get omega-3 from the plant source, because there's a plant form, alpha linoleic acid, ALA, that, um, from chia seeds or flax seeds or walnuts, they don't convert that ALA into the EPA and DHA very well, and those EPA and DHA are ultimately what are regulating everything that's important for health. So again, you know, you have the genetics that comes into, and this is also the case for, for studies on saturated fat. You know, the genetics plays a role in that as well. So there's all sorts of, there's so many factors when, when, when designing a clinical trial, and I think, I think the burden is on the researchers. The researchers have to come to a consensus-

    5. LH

      Right

    6. RP

      ... and, and realize, "Look."

    7. LH

      But then, but then a decade later they may come to a new consensus with new research-

    8. RP

      [laughs]

    9. LH

      ... where it's like we, we thought, I don't know, leafy greens were healthy, but now it's actually killing you, right? It's like, I don't, not that it's gonna happen, but I'm just saying it seems like over decades what scientists and researchers think sometimes is accurate, we find later evidence that it may not be 100% true.

    10. RP

      That, that is true. That is true. But I think, I think when you have overwhelming evidence in mo- in multiple fields and multiple areas, so you have the epidemiological evidence, you have the associative studies, you have the randomized controlled trials-

    11. LH

      Mm-hmm

    12. RP

      ... where they're, you know, you start and you give someone something and then you measure an endpoint. And then you have-

    13. LH

      The, the double placebo testing, everything.

    14. RP

      Right. And then you have the mechanistic studies where you start to look at how it's happening and you do these animal studies. You know, that together combined, the wh- the whole-

    15. LH

      Mm-hmm

    16. RP

      ... the whole, you know, comprehensive, um, literature I th- I would say is, is what really strengthens.

    17. LH

      Yeah, the matrix of studies makes it a whole.

    18. RP

      When every- right, when everything starts to come and point to that direction.

    19. LH

      I, I have so many questions. This, this one just came to my mind really quick. As I, you know, I live in Los Angeles. I'm from Ohio, so being from Ohio, you grow up eating meat and cheese and milk. I remember I lived in a, uh- ... a, a dorm. I went to a, in eighth grade I went to, uh, a private school, boarding school, and I lived in a dorm with a bunch of other kids in middle school. And I actually had a milk dispenser, a five-gallon whole milk dispenser, and I would drink that every three days by myself. Five gallons within three days, 'cause I thought milk was good. You're supposed to drink it all day long. So you know, you drink it before sleep, everything. [smacks lips]

  8. 31:00 – 38:37

    Vegetarian vs. Meat Eater: Mortality, IGF-1 and Lifestyle

    1. LH

      I have a question about being in LA now. Growing up in Ohio, which was all about meat and potatoes, now being in LA, it's all about being vegan.

    2. RP

      [laughs]

    3. LH

      And everything is around, everything is around either keto or veganism or paleo or vegan. It's like you're, you're good, you're bad, you're right, you're wrong. There's documentaries that are coming out all the time about veganism, all that stuff. If you had to, um, calculate with your wealth of information and knowledge, who would be healthier, the person who is vegan eating the best foods all day, or the meat eater eating the best, healthiest foods all day? Who do you think would have a, a healthier-

    4. RP

      Well, the meat, the meat eater also would be including pla- eating vegetables as well, right?

    5. LH

      Including plants and vegetables as well.

    6. RP

      Okay.

    7. LH

      But to someone who's-

    8. RP

      So they're omnivore.

    9. LH

      Yes. They're eating meat, but they're also eating all the other good foods, or someone who's eating all the other good foods excluding meat.

    10. RP

      So taking out all the processed-

    11. LH

      Veganism win or-

    12. RP

      So taking out all the processed foods in both camps, right?

    13. LH

      Both camps, no unhealth-

    14. RP

      They're eating whole foods. They're eating-

    15. LH

      Whole foods, healthy. One is having meat every day, a portion of meat, and one is not having meat. Who is a healthier, happier human being that lives longer?

    16. RP

      Well, I can tell you I don't know. Um, but we can talk about what the evidence has shown, and I think probably the, the strongest evidence to date, most of this evidence is unfortunately epidemiological, because you're never gonna get a randomized controlled trial that's 50 years long. You know, I mean, you're just, you're not gonna ... That's just not gonna happen. It's too, it's too expensive and people won't follow the same diet for that long, right? So you wouldn't, you won't ever have a longevity study.

    17. LH

      Sure.

    18. RP

      That's a randomized controlled trial.

    19. LH

      Okay.

    20. RP

      But looking at the epidemiological studies, um, for a long time you'd have study after study coming out showing, oh, eating, vegetarians have a lower what's called all-cause mortality than non-vegetarians, or than an- people that eat animal meat. All-cause mortality means basically dying from all types of diseases that are non-accidental.

    21. LH

      Diabetes or-

    22. RP

      Like cancer, type 2 diabetes

    23. LH

      ... obesity. Yeah, yeah.

    24. RP

      Yeah, exactly. Um, heart disease. So, um-

    25. LH

      So vegetarians die less

    26. RP

      ... lots of studies, sci- lots of studies have shown that. But-

    27. LH

      Huh

    28. RP

      ... with the pr- the problem with epidemiological studies is there's what are called confounding factors. So you have people that are also obese. You have people that are sedentary. You have people that exercise. You have people that smoke. You have, you know-

    29. LH

      Right

    30. RP

      ... so what about all those other things? How do those come into play, right?

  9. 38:37 – 44:27

    Epigenetic Age, Fish and Poultry, and Red Meat Nuance

    1. LH

      What would be, if you were a meat eater but you said, "You know what? I wanna cut out certain types of meat. I wanna be a more conscious meat eater," if that's a, a thing, um, "and I wanna be a healthier meat eater, and I only wanna choose, like, one to three different types of meat." We've got wild Alaskan cod salmon as one piece of meat. What would be the other two that you would add if these were the only meats you were gonna eat, 'cause you were to try to minimize your consumption of meat, what would be the other two types of meat that you think would be beneficial for your health and brain, memory, and all that stuff?

    2. RP

      Well, I would s- I would say, um, based on interesting studies that have been done looking at what is called epigenetic age, um, epigenetic age is probably one of the grow- I would say it's the, the fastest growing, uh, biomarkers for what's called biological age-

    3. LH

      Uh, yeah

    4. RP

      ... uh, versus chronological age. So people can be biologically younger or biologically older than their chronological age.

    5. LH

      R- right. Like, I'm, I'm 37, but I could be 17.

    6. RP

      [laughs]

    7. LH

      Right? Like-

    8. RP

      Yeah, maybe. With the-

    9. LH

      ... with my health, my internal health

    10. RP

      ... I would say genetics would probably play a bigger role in that-

    11. LH

      [laughs]

    12. RP

      ... than, than lifestyle.

    13. LH

      Right, right.

    14. RP

      I don't think diet and lifestyle will put you back that far, but yes, definitely.

    15. LH

      Or I could look like I'm 45 or 55 if I was smoking all day, drinking all day, eating-

    16. RP

      Right

    17. LH

      ... anything crap, like-

    18. RP

      Obese.

    19. LH

      Yeah, exactly.

    20. RP

      Not, you know, sedentary. There's, there's lots of, there's lots of lifestyle factors-

    21. LH

      Hmm

    22. RP

      ... that can make you have an older biological age.

    23. LH

      Yeah.

    24. RP

      And those are the things we just mentioned.

    25. LH

      Okay.

    26. RP

      Obesity, sedentary, smoking, excess alcohol consumption. But there's also been studies looking at dietary patterns and their, you know, um, supplement intake as well. And, um, what epigenetic age is is basically it looks at, um, what are called methylation patterns. Methylation are, methyl- it's like a, basically a carbon with three hydrogen atoms, and they're, what they're doing is they're basically sitting on top of your DNA and changing the way genes are turned on and turned off. And what's really interesting is that this methylation pattern, um, this work has been done, was really pioneered by Dr. Steve Horvath at, uh, UCLA, and, um, he, he basically showed that he could look at these, he could take some DNA and look at the methylation pattern, and with, like, 96% accuracy, he could predict your age plus or minus four years.

    27. LH

      Wow.

    28. RP

      Like, it's super accurate. And then he's developed a bunch of other clocks, these epigenetic aging clocks, that can be, more accurately predict biological age. And so, um, what he's found is that, um, there's an association with lower biological epigenetic age when you're eating, uh, fish or poultry-

    29. LH

      Hmm

    30. RP

      ... which I found very interesting. I, I know this was a very long-winded answer [laughs] to your question.

  10. 44:27 – 58:53

    Genetics, Blood Glucose and Foods to Avoid

    1. LH

      How old is your child right now?

    2. RP

      Two and a half.

    3. LH

      Two and a half.

    4. RP

      Yes.

    5. LH

      As a mom and a scientist and researcher, what are the healthy foods out there that people in the, the mass population think as healthy that you will never want your, uh, child to eat?

    6. RP

      Oh, I think there's all sorts of processed toddler foods you'll find out there, and, um, I've experimented with a couple on myself. I wear a continuous glucose monitor just to see how my body responds to various foods in terms of increasing blood glucose levels, so it's called postprandial blood glucose.

    7. LH

      Uh-huh.

    8. RP

      And I'm also interested in my fasting blood glucose levels, um, how different lifestyle factors affect that. And I should mention this, that basically we were talking all about these studies with eating meat and vegetarians, and you know, there's also a huge layer of complication with genetics. Believe it or not-

    9. LH

      Yeah

    10. RP

      ... there are genes that, um, people have that eating a high protein diet makes them actually gain weight and have-

    11. LH

      Hmm

    12. RP

      ... poorer lipids, and there are genes that people have that eating a high pro- protein diet makes them lose weight, the complete opposite.

    13. LH

      So you need to know your genetics-

    14. RP

      The complete opposite. [laughs]

    15. LH

      You need to know your genetics first, really, before the diet you eat.

    16. RP

      The genetics may tell you the why of some of the conflicting research.

    17. LH

      Mm-hmm.

    18. RP

      And this goes for fats as well. There are genes, people that eat saturated fat, they can have an increased glucose response versus, um, most of, most of the time what increases your postprandial glucose response is actually carbohydrates, particularly from-

    19. LH

      Hmm

    20. RP

      ... refined carbohydrates. But, but there are s- in, there are situations that, that that's not true. There was this beautiful study published back in 2015 in the, in this, in the Journal of Cell Metabolism. It was done at the Weizmann Institute in Israel, and I love this study because they put continuous glucose monitors like I'm wearing now on 800 people. They gave these people a variety of different types of foods. You know, they gave them high fat, they gave them a high refined carbohydrate like white bread, they gave them complex carbohydrate like a banana.

    21. LH

      [laughs]

    22. RP

      Measured their glucose response to a variety of foods, and what was so en- enlightening and illuminating about this study was that everyone had different responses-

    23. LH

      Ugh

    24. RP

      ... to these foods. Um, and it was, they also then did genetic testing on these people, and they measured microbiome and also physical activity. And it turns out all those things play a role in their blood glucose response. Their genetics, their microbiome composition, how much they exercise. Uh, so you know, I think, and then sleep also, but that wasn't part of the study.

    25. LH

      Oh my gosh.

    26. RP

      That's another, those are other studies. But the point is that, you know, we're sitting here talking about people's response to, for example, red meat, and, um, I think that as moving forward, you know, th- this field of this interaction between genes and diet, it's called nutrigenomics, I think that field is growing, and more clinical studies will start to include it. The problem is it's more expensive. Any time you have to add another clinical test, particularly if it involves, you know, getting a sample of DNA, although these days now you can get them from saliva, and so it shouldn't be as difficult. But there's these, there's these foods that are organic, almond butter, little snacks, and all this. And so I was trying this stuff, and it, I mean, just tiny little thing raised my blood glucose levels, like just unbelievably high, like as if I had eaten, like two meals.

    27. LH

      No way.

    28. RP

      You know? And so yeah, it was insane, some of these stuff that just, just, just has some added, a little bit of added sugar-

    29. LH

      Hmm

    30. RP

      ... or a little, you know. So it, it's just really, I would stay away from all those foods that are packaged, like, you know, the, the, I see like children eating these squeezy foods and stuff, and-

  11. 58:53 – 1:05:37

    Food, Inflammation, Depression and Exercise

    1. LH

      You talk, we, we're talking about health in general here, but we're talking about the brain and food connection. Right now in the world it seems like mental health and depression, um, is a hot topic. It's something pe- a lot of people are talking about. They're having mental health challenges, depression challenges, and I'm sure there's many factors to this: social media, comparison, bad foods, a lack of exercise, a lack of sleep, anxiety, up all night, environment, lack of purpose, lack of comm- there's a lot of social factors probably that tie into, uh, uh, mental health challenges. How important is food by itself in relating to minimizing depression, social anxiety, and mental health?

    2. RP

      I think food is extremely important, um, because it's directly linked to obesity, and obesity itself causes low-grade inflammation. And foods that are really high, particularly when you combine a high saturated fat with a high refined sugar, so let's say you're eating your, you're drinking your glass of milk with your cookie. Like, that's the worst, because you're getting the saturated fat and the sugar. [laughs]

    3. LH

      That's my whole childhood. [laughs]

    4. RP

      And, um, and that's been shown to cause a very high what's called postprandial inflammatory response. So we've been talking about postprandial glucose response, which is after you eat, so postprandial. There's a inflammatory response that also occurs, um, after, after eating. And, um, inflammation itself has been shown to, i- inflammatory molecules cross the blood-brain barrier, and they, they have, they play a role in, in basically, um, depressing dopamine signaling and serotonin and all sorts of, uh, you know, affecting neurotransmitters, uh, and brain function. And there's been studies directly showing that if you inject a person, um, with an inflammatory cytokine, it causes depressive symptoms versus if you-

    5. LH

      Really?

    6. RP

      ... inject it with saline. Yes.

    7. LH

      So the more inflammation we have in the body, it increases depression.

    8. RP

      In- exactly. Inflammation, s- e- we used to think, again, the brain was separate from the body and that, you know, the immune system and, and all that didn't af- didn't, you know, affect the brain. Turns out that was all wrong. ... absolutely wrong. And these inflammatory mediators do get into the brain, and they-

    9. LH

      Wow

    10. RP

      ... get into the brain and they change, you know, they're changing the, the firing of certain neurotransmitters and things like that. They're also activating the resident immune cells in the brain called microglia astrocytes, um, the microglia, a type of astrocyte. And, um, you know, that, that also is linked to, to depression. And, um, so-

    11. LH

      Hmm

    12. RP

      ... we, I, we put out a little short video on this on, an animated video actually, on depress- inflammation and depression, and talk about a lot of the studies. Um, because it's something I don't think people realize that the food you eat, and not only the food you eat, your lifestyle, you know, being obese and overweight, being sedentary. Being sedentary, you know, exercise is one of the best anti-inflammatory medicines you can get, period. And it also happens to be one of the, you know, best lifestyle, um, remedies for depression as well. And I mean, randomized controlled trials showing that, all sorts of evidence. So, um-

    13. LH

      Is this any type of exercise, or are you a HIIT training, a cardio, a 30 minutes, 60 minutes? What's your opinion?

    14. RP

      Well, there's been, there's been studies looking at, you know, I, I would say the large body of evidence seems to show aerobic exercise is, is, is really important, um, w- with respect to depression. Um, and, and that is because, uh, aerobic exercise leads to increases in what's called brain-derived neurotrophic factor, um, BDNF as it's called. It's basically, um, a growth factor that's produced. You can, after just 20 minutes of a moderate intensity workout, you can increase your level, you can find levels increased by, like, up to 30% in plasma. It crosses into the brain, and in the brain, um, it does a lot of things. Not only does it, it do what IGF-1 does, it, it actually grows new neurons, it helps you grow new neurons, and it helps, um, your neurons survive. So it plays an important role in preventing brain aging. But something else very unique that it does, it plays a role in what's called neuroplasticity.

    15. LH

      Yeah.

    16. RP

      Neuroplasticity is, like, your brain's ability to adapt to stressful conditions, you know. I mean, this is what children can do pretty, pretty good. Um, as you get older, neuroplasticity goes down, as does everything. But it pla- neuroplasticity is important for, for, for being able to cope with stress. Like-

    17. LH

      Mm-hmm

    18. RP

      ... the stress of a pandemic, for example. You know, more neuroplasticity helps with those. A stressful divorce people are going through, you know, or losing your job. Um, lots of, lots of stressful things, but, but h- but, but neuroplasticity helps the brain cope with that. And brain-derived neuro- trophic factor helps increase neuroplasticity, which decreases with age. So, um, again, aerobic exercise was important, but you know, there's been studies linking strength training to-

    19. LH

      Mm-hmm

    20. RP

      ... um, lower depression rates as well.

    21. LH

      Yeah.

    22. RP

      So-

    23. LH

      Any type of exercise will help.

    24. RP

      I, exactly. I do. But I really think that aerobic, there is, there is a place for aerobic with respect to the BDNF, the brain-derived neurotrophic factor.

    25. LH

      I always tell people that every day I try to put myself through some type of physical pain that makes me feel discomfort, whether that's sweating for 10 minutes or a two-hour workout or playing basketball, hiking, whatever. I try to put my mind and body through something where I'm like, "Gosh, I don't wanna do this." But by putting myself through pain, controlled pain, it sets me up to be more under control when there is chaos and pain.

    26. RP

      Right.

    27. LH

      And I think that's the, the key we should get to, is, like, controlled pain, healthy pain, so that you're not out of control when there is chaos and pain in the world.

    28. RP

      It, your, what you're describing, um, scientists often refer to, uh, as hormesis, and that is basically a little bit of stress on the body, like exercise.

    29. LH

      Mm-hmm.

    30. RP

      Um, basically because our body tries to maintain homeo- what's called homeostasis, um, a little bit of stress will cause our body to respond to that stress with a lot of anti-stress.

  12. 1:05:37 – 1:12:36

    Self-Love, Sugar Addiction and Healing Depression

    1. LH

      Yeah. This is power, this is amazing. Um, I'm gonna say something that I hope I don't offend anyone when I say it, that I am all about self-love, self-care, loving yourself for who you are, accepting yourself for where you're at in your life, physically, emotionally, environment, financially, all that. The more I hear you talk about this, the, quote-unquote, "self-love movement" of accept who you are and accept where you're at with your body and what you eat, and it's okay to eat whatever you want, just love yourself for who you are. Is that self-love mentality, that specific type of mentality, killing people and hurting them if they aren't willing to adapt a, "No, it's not okay to continue to eat whatever you want all the time and just love yourself and accept yourself for who you are." You have to make sure you arm your body and your mind and your health with the nutrients, the tools, the exercise, in order to decrease depression and increase happiness.

    2. RP

      I, I think that there's the, you know, absolutely, if you're going to just eat what you want and accept being obese, um, that you will, you'll be causing yourself more harm and, um, both physically and mentally. And, um, and, and that also probably affects your loved ones as well, you, you know, that care about you or perhaps that you're interacting with and you're in a terrible mood. And so, you know, when your neighbor's happy, you're happy, right? You know, so I think that- There's- there's part of this movement, I think there's a fine balance between y- you don't wanna have your expectations so high that you can never be happy, right?

    3. LH

      Yeah, and you're, "I'm never gonna look perfect, and someone's always skinnier than me, and I'm not as strong or-"

    4. RP

      "I'm never gonna have blue eyes."

    5. LH

      Yeah.

    6. RP

      I'm never, I'm never... You know, so if I'm always like, "Well, only people with blue eyes are the prettiest," like, then I'll never be happy. So, like, that's an unreasonable expectation, right, um, i- in my mind. So I mean, there are things where, you know, like I- I'm never gonna be a billionaire, and if that, if that's all I wanted in life to be happy, I'll never be happy. So there are things I think that you can... There- there's a certain balance between, I mean, you want your expectations to be high in a, in a way. You wanna always aim for what you, you know, aim- aim for the stars in a way and, and, and try to, like, work hard to get there. So what I'm trying to say is I think that self-love movement came from somewhere, right? I think there was, there was something to that, right? But I think it sort of spiraled out of control, and, and, um, what- what's happened now is, is you're saying, "Well, accept things that I don't wanna change."

    7. LH

      Hmm.

    8. RP

      Rather than you can. Because you can change that. You can lose weight. You can, um, eat different foods and get healthier.

    9. LH

      Make different decisions.

    10. RP

      People that are eating refined sugar, people that are drinking these sugar-sweetened beverages, you know? And there's, there's a lot of people, maybe not so many people listening to the podcast or watching it, but, um, there are people that do. And, you know, there's been studies that have shown refined sugar acts on the reward pathway in the brain, dopamine pathway, um, in a very similar manner to controlled substances, um, drugs like nicotine-

    11. LH

      Yes

    12. RP

      ... um, meth- methamphetamine.

    13. LH

      Yeah.

    14. RP

      Not to the same degree, but they're acting on the same systems, and they're affecting the reward pathways.

    15. LH

      It increases a feel-good hormone-

    16. RP

      It does

    17. LH

      ... when you take it for the moment, but then it makes you decline afterwards and crash, right?

    18. RP

      It does. And, and, you know, I, I think the important point to realize with that is that when you take that away, when you stop, um, what happens is there is a withdrawal. And, and it's, it's been shown at least with, for example, with nicotine studies, that your dopamine's getting constantly fired, fired, fired. And so your, what's called dopamine receptors, um, which basically the dopamine acts on to make you feel good, those start to decrease 'cause your, your neurons are going, "Oh, well I have so much of this around, I don't need so many of the receptors." So when you take away that thing that's causing the dopamine all the time to go away, you have le- fewer receptors, and now you f- don't feel as much. I mean, it's just really bad.

    19. LH

      Yeah.

    20. RP

      You're not feeling any amount of dopamine, right? But it's been shown that that sort of normalizes within three months.

    21. LH

      Huh.

    22. RP

      And three months is a long time, but it's actually not that long.

    23. LH

      Of cutting, of cutting out the sugar, you mean, of like cutting-

    24. RP

      Well, uh, this has been shown with nicotine. I'm just drawing a parallel.

    25. LH

      Gotcha. Gotcha. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

    26. RP

      I'm drawing a parallel saying, "Look, it's not gonna be easy the first month."

    27. LH

      It's g-

    28. RP

      It's not gonna be easy

    29. LH

      ... it's so hard. It's so hard.

    30. RP

      It's not gonna be e- the first month. It may not be easy the second month, but it's going to get easier. And it's, not only is it gonna get easier, you're going to be happier.

  13. 1:12:36 – 1:17:37

    Obesity, Genetics and Resetting with Long Fasts

    1. LH

      Is there a genetic thing that, or DNA thing that holds someone back from losing that weight if they've tried for years? Or is this still, uh, you know, they're just lacking the discipline? What, what is that?

    2. RP

      There's absolutely many genes that regulate, um, obesity.

    3. LH

      Hmm.

    4. RP

      And, and, and my, like I'll, I'll just tell you, my mother-in-law, she is also, um, sh- little, sh- not yet, not obese. She's, you know, ha- has in the past had an overweight problem and has tried, I mean, she's the kind of person that- ... tries and goes-

    5. LH

      Yes

    6. RP

      ... all in, and she has tried every diet, just everything, and just nothing seemed to work. So I mean, there's d-

    7. LH

      But how does someone like that, if they've tried, tried, tried, and it's just like, "You know what? I'm beating myself up. The diets I'm trying, the exercise, it's not working," what do they need to shift to try to-

    8. RP

      Well, I do, so you asked about genetics, and it, it, it, there is a really important role, uh, for genetics as well. But I think that, um, in order to know that, you're gonna have to, you're gonna have to measure biomarkers in your blood. So you're gonna have to measure lipids, like your LDL cholesterol, different particle sizes of those cholesterol, inflammatory biomarkers, like high sensitivity reactive protein, your triglycerides, your HbA1c, which is a long-term measure of your long-term-

    9. LH

      Wow

    10. RP

      ... blood glucose levels. Measure those things, and also you can get a genetic test. There's a variety of genetic testing services out there, 23andMe, Ancestry DNA. I do have a genetic report that basically we look exclusively, um, we're looking at genes that are affecting, basically interacting with diet. So people that are eating a high protein diet and some people with a certain SNP, which is a one change in one nucleotide of DNA in a gene, basically can gain more weight. Uh, and the opposite is true, like I mentioned. Or eating the ratio of saturated fat to polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats. So saturated fat's found in foods like dairy, red meat, fatty cuts of red meat. Polyunsaturated fat's found in fish. Monounsaturated fat is found in olive oil, olives, you know, nuts. So these things, like the, even the ratio of those things can affect, depending on someone's genetics, their ability to, to gain or lose weight.

    11. LH

      But can you-

    12. RP

      And, and, and more so. Like even people-

    13. LH

      So-

    14. RP

      There's some people have it where they eat a high carbohydrate diet-

    15. LH

      Uh-huh

    16. RP

      ... and they gain more weight.

    17. LH

      So is there-

    18. RP

      And so [laughs]

    19. LH

      Is there a w- is there a, so it's not as simple, is what I'm hearing you say, as just eat less calories a day and you should lose weight.

    20. RP

      Not always.

    21. LH

      Like if you, if you suppress the calorie intake, you're gonna burn more, and eventually you're gonna burn, you know.

    22. RP

      I think that's the one thing that's pretty tried and true is that your caloric restriction, most of the time people will, you know, lose weight.

    23. LH

      Lose weight, got it.

    24. RP

      They will.

    25. LH

      Okay.

    26. RP

      But you know, the question is how sustainable is that? You know, so you, maybe, maybe you, what you would need to do... You know, the other thing is that a lot of times obesity, there's, there's a dysregulation in hormones.

    27. LH

      Mm-hmm.

    28. RP

      Hormones like insulin, leptin is another big one.

    29. LH

      Yeah.

    30. RP

      And you have to reset those hormones in order to, like, have a normal biology.

  14. 1:17:37 – 1:30:02

    Daily Supplements: Vitamin D, COVID-19 Severity, Fish Oil, Multivitamin

    1. LH

      The one question I wanna, uh, finish with before I ask you the final, uh, two questions I ask everyone is the main vitamins and supplements you feel like every human being should be taking every single day. Like, what are the supplements that you take and you recommend for us? If we could take three to five every day, whether eating great food or bad food, what would you recommend?

    2. RP

      Uh, so I will say of course that I'm not giving medical advice. I'm not a medical doctor.

    3. LH

      Yes.

    4. RP

      I will tell you that, um, there are a few supplements that, that I think are important and I think the evidence shows are important and that I take every day. Um, the first is vitamin D, and, you know, vitamin D actually i- it gets converted into a steroid hormone.

    5. LH

      Mm.

    6. RP

      So it's a hormone, not just a vitamin. It's a hormone.

    7. LH

      Okay.

    8. RP

      And it regulates like 5% of the protein coding human genome. That's a lot.

    9. LH

      How much-

    10. RP

      5% genes, 5% of all your genes-

    11. LH

      Is vitamin D

    12. RP

      ... you need vitamin D-

    13. LH

      Wow

    14. RP

      ... to do its thing. Right. It's a lot, right?

    15. LH

      Do you, is there, is there, can you overdose on vitamin D?

    16. RP

      Well, here's the thing with vitamin D and the reason I th- and the reason I think it's so important, because, um, you can make it from the sun, and you ha- exposure to UVB radiation, you make vitamin D3 in your skin. But you need the UVB radiation to do that, and UVB radiation, um, certain times of the year in certain parts of the, of the world, you know, northern latitudes, doesn't reach the atmosphere, you know, five to six months out of the year. Long time, you know, may- maybe five months, I don't know. Um, fall, winter, you know.

    17. LH

      Mm-hmm.

    18. RP

      So people in northern latitudes, the way they're adapted to that is they typ- they typically have fair skin because melanin, which is, um, w- pigment, it helps you give, gives your skin pigment, and, um, pigment protects you from the burning rays of the sun.

    19. LH

      Right.

    20. RP

      It protects you from getting skin cancer-

    21. LH

      Right

    22. RP

      ... from, you know, basically. Um, people, people that are living closer to the equators in southern regions, um, so you have, like, you know, South, South Asia, South India, uh, Africa-

    23. LH

      Brazil

    24. RP

      ... they're, they have more... Brazil, exactly, they have more melanin, right? They have darker skin. Um, which is great when you're close to the equator and you're in the sun all the time, right? Because you can make vitamin D. Um, but when you take a person with that darker skin pigmentation and you move them, as now we're a global country, right? People, people live from all over the w- the world live in the United States, and they, they live, they live in a place in like Minnesota or Washington State-

    25. LH

      Yeah

    26. RP

      ... or New York, you know, they're gonna be severely vitamin D deficient.

    27. LH

      Wow.

    28. RP

      You know, they're, they're not getting that UVB radiation.

    29. LH

      All those exchange students from Brazil going to Wisconsin, make sure you got your vitamin D supplements.

    30. RP

      But here's the thing. 70% of the entire United States population, everyone included, has what's called insufficient vitamin D levels.

  15. 1:30:02 – 1:33:51

    Three Truths and Definition of Greatness

    1. LH

      Th- this is, this is, uh, the final couple questions that I ask everyone at the end of my interviews. Uh, this is called the three truths. So I'd like you to imagine a hypothetical question that you're as old as you wanna be. You've figured out the longevity code. You're 300 years old, you're 120, however old you wanna be. But eventually you gotta turn the lights off and go to the next place after you, you leave this earth. You gotta go at some point. And, uh, you've gotten to achieve every dream that you have. Rhonda, you have changed the world, you've cured cancer, whatever it is the dreams are, you've done it. You've grown up, you've seen your family grow up and have an amazing life. Uh, and for whatever reason, all of your work materials, your research, your findings, your, uh, podcast, videos, they all have to go with you to the next place. So no one has access to any more of your content, any of your research. It's all gone for whatever reason. Hypothetical question. And you could share three things you know to be true with the world before you go. And these would be the only three things that people to have re- rem- remember you by, or three lessons you would share with the world, three important things they should do. What would you say are your three truths?

    2. RP

      Oh, wow. I would say, um, I would definitely, there, there is a, a low-hanging fruit to be happy and, and that low-hanging fruit is, um, accomplished through Making sure your body has the right micronutrients and, um, um, exercise. I think that, uh, there's a low-hanging fruit. The low-hanging fruit is, is the main thing I would, I would probably the, the common theme. Um, the low-hanging fruit to, uh, living longer also is, is basically through just, just, you know, look, trying to, trying to find and, and, and get the right micronutrients from your food, and you, when you do that, you end up eating healthier. Like, because there's no micronutrients in refined sh- foods. So, um, you know, that's gonna help your body, um, I think help your body be healthier as well. And then I think lastly I would say, um, to just enjoy the things that you love doing. I mean, being happy is, it's so important, you know, to take time and enjoy those things, for sure.

    3. LH

      Yeah. I love it. Back to the basics. I love it.

    4. RP

      [laughs]

    5. LH

      Uh, before I ask the final question, I wanna acknowledge you, Rhonda, for just being a, an incredible source of helpful wisdom and knowledge in a time and in a, a, a place where there's so much noise. You bring peace, clarity, found research, and, uh, you do it with such a grace and, and wisdom and joy a- and happiness. So I'm just acknowledge you for constantly showing up every day, being a mom, being a wife, taking care of yourself, being a human guinea pig so that, that we can all learn how to become happier, healthier as well, and I just really appreciate all the work you do for all of us. It's, it's really helpful. So I thank you for that. My final question for you is what is your definition of greatness?

    6. RP

      My definition of greatness. Oh, s- I think my definition of greatness is honesty. I think that, that is the most important. Honesty, just pure honesty, period.

    7. LH

      Period. I love it.

    8. RP

      Period. Yeah.

    9. LH

      Dr. Rhonda Patrick.

    10. RP

      [laughs]

    11. LH

      Thank you so much for taking the time. I appreciate it. Very grateful.

    12. RP

      Thank you. Thank you for all the flattering words too, Lewis. It, it was, it was really fun chatting with you.

    13. LH

      Thank you so much for watching this interview with Dr. Rhonda Patrick. If you enjoyed it, make sure to like this, click the subscribe button, and leave a comment. And also if you want more great health tips, check out this video right here.

    14. RP

      Has led to increase in homicides and violence and suicides around the world, and we've gotten higher on these refined Omega-6s and low on Omega-3s.

Episode duration: 1:33:51

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