RawPetMedics Tuesday Live(ish): More Questions Answered April

Live-ish. Live-ish. Do you feel live, Trent?

So, hello guys. Yes, I'm afraid today we're on pre-record.

Oh, you got your earphones in?

You got your earphones in? I have. Oh, Pete is in trouble. See, we even do this on pre-record and we still don't quite get it right.

I was going to say, sorry, I'm just out of bed, but of course we're not. It's actually 7 o'clock, isn't it? So yes, here I am, totally ready to go. Absolutely. Big steaming cup of coffee. Have you got a cup of coffee, Brent? You wake up with a cup of coffee?

I've had— it's my fruit smoothie day today, so I'm on the water.

Oh, you're just having smoothies today?

I had a fruit smoothie this morning. That was my breakfast.

Right.

And I'm just on a bit of water. So yeah, not so much coffee at the moment.

No skipping breakfast for you.

No, I tend to— I don't do it. I do it on some occasions and some not. But I'm about to do a new trial as it is with— so I've sort of— I relaxed myself for the last 2 weeks. I went to— I'm a 50-year-old bloke and I want to do what normal 50-year-old blokes do. So you're really busy, you're grabbing food, you're not necessarily thinking about diet, you're doing all of this. And I slipped, actually, I think I shared with you one of the profiles that we were talking about, and I'm talking to a human nutritionist about this and just having a little bit of a chat as to which profiles we should look at, because the aim would be to take a standard profile as a standard person would at my age, and then to review the bloods after 10 weeks of doing the adjustment in diet and the things that I would normally do. So the things that I've talked about in the past that I've been doing, because the last time I did these bloods, the nutritionist said, what are you seeing me for? You're doing fine, everything's great, what's the problem? And it's like, damn, that's not really proving the point of, you know, because that could just be me. So I've done a bit of not quite Super Size Me, Okay, I didn't want to go that route because I think that was artificial. Yeah, but I've just taken my foot off the health drive. Yeah, I'm doing a little bit more, you know, just occasional bit of fast food, occasional bit of things. So inverse Lent, you could say.

Nice.

Yeah, everybody else is doing their good thing for Lent. I'm doing my bad thing.

You're kind of getting your, you're getting your naughty control and then you're going to do 10 days of good health and you're going to see what it could look like And if there's a major, major difference, you'll consider a health change in the future.

10 weeks. 10 days is too short.

Oh yeah, sorry, I meant to say 10 weeks. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But if there's no major change, the danger is if there's no major change between your slightly naughty phase and your very, very healthy phase, if there's no major changes in that, you're going to think, ah, jeez, I can take a little bit of naughtiness.

There's a cohort of about 15 of us doing this. Okay, that's good. So it's going to be a sort of investigation as to how good that dietary change is across. There's a bit of a 50/50 mix, probably a 60/40 mix, male to female of a similar age.

And any major dietary shifts or what are you going to do? What's the major good things? What are the top 3 good things?

There's a little bit of alternating mTOR, AMPK days. There's a—

which is—

I'm not going to go into that. It's going to go—

yeah, functional role has evolved. Rowan is involved. That is a fact. I know he's not listening to the show, but when I hear that, Rowan's involved anyway. Yes. So, okay, so you're going to, you're going to do it, but you're going to do it with a few supplements as well and you're going to see what going this route doesn't make any difference because a lot of it must be placebo initially. Because like I said, when I was trying to shift that weight after Christmas and when I was losing, the weight comes off quickly initially and you think, oh, this is great and it's a total mental thing. You feel amazing, everything's better, you're straight down the gym. And every gram after 3 weeks is difficult. And, and then you lose that mental kind of, this is awesome, it's so easy, it's great. It becomes difficult and hard. And that's the hard bit to get past because then when you don't see the results as quickly as you want. So I— it'll be really interesting to see if 10 weeks of this has this kind of profound effect. So I expect in the first couple of weeks you will feel great. You'll be doing your intermittent fasting, you'll be eating really healthy food, doing your best, you know. You know, and laying off the booze and doing everything that, you know, we can do for periods of time. It'd be interesting to see the results. Cool. And what are you going to measure at the end of it?

So there's a few things. So rechecking, there's a load of hormones and what's happening with liver and kidney function, what's happening with various stress hormones, the homocysteines, all of those sort of things come into this blood test. So there's lots of stuff that is going to be looked at, as well as our blood counts. So it's looking at levels of inflammation.

Yeah, I love it.

Levels of fat is there, so looking at what's going on. I will say in this relax phase, I feel like I've put more abdominal fat on. Yeah, already, you know, that's, that's a given. Um, and that's even with, you know, I was talking last week about doing the stuff in the lakes, you know, with the woodland, and, and, you know, that's quite an exertion each time I go up. You know, it's not a small amount of work. So I don't feel like I've not had the exercise and the work. I'm still doing the stuff with the goats, still, you know, on my feet sort of 6 hours a day doing consulting. So, you know, all of those sort of things are within my normal day-to-day. So I've not adjusted that too much. It's literally just food habits, just letting it go, just going— number of coffees, number of lattes probably has increased, number of, you know, amount of dairy that I've been taking, all of those things.

But I think you're absolutely right.

A little bit like the vegans that have that honeymoon period of feeling better. You do, you know, because they've done so much more concentrating on the diet and then it all relaxes and it all goes to pot, doesn't it? Yeah.

Yeah. So I think like, I think I heard some, I heard a great, I think it was a TED Talk, placebo and nocebo, and they were talking about the importance of placebo. And she was saying the medical, the health, the evidence-based medicine establishment, like, hate placebo. They hate it. And they, they set up their experiments to avoid it and to make sure it's not happening. So we know if we take a red pill, it helps our headaches way better than a blue pill. And depressive pills are blue. And there's a reason for that, because we believe in it. And she said, like, but this is a medical phenomenon. This is amazing. This shows that your mind can heal you. And this placebo is that, you know, if you believe you're going to get better, you're probably going to get better. And I always related back to this amazing story of World War I, bottom of the cliffs in Gallipoli, and the Aussies and the New Zealanders were getting pounded by Turkish guns. They arrived at the bottom of these cliffs, it was an absolute massacre, and they ran out of morphine on the first day, and they were running around telling the guys, your leg or arm has to come off and we're injecting you with morphine now, and it's actually seawater. And the soldiers just lay there and took it and it was fine. So it was like a pure, like, you know, so there's many of these examples. We've got it with pharma, we've got it with all sorts of pills if you believe you're going to get sick. Nocebo is where you remove hope from someone and you will get sicker. So where they tell— they had loads of case studies where they say, at around this age you're gonna die. And like, in the case studies, they die like within a week or so of the age they were told, and all this kind of stuff. But like, um, I would say, uh, this placebo thing when you're losing health is a great thing. If you think you're getting better and you can hold on to that, that's fantastic, you know. So people kind of say like it's That's the important bit of a diet, 'cause it hooks you onto it. And if you can hang onto that placebo effect long enough, it might get you through that slump after 3 or 4 weeks where, mm, I'm not seeing the changes as quick. The first 3 weeks are easy because you get off carbs, essentially, you get off the things that don't work for you. And that's usually carb, you know, gluteny carbs for a lot of people. You're storing a lot of water. So the first couple of weeks of a diet, you lose that water and you think, wow, I've just lost a kilo a week. This is easy. I mean, who is giving out about losing weight? And then for me, it's kind of plateaued because you're in the gym, And then weight loss isn't really the goal, really. It's just looking a bit trimmer and being a bit leaner. And anyway, very interesting.

I can see you in front of that mirror doing that.

I am. I'm weighing myself every couple of days. I'm writing it down. It's like I've never done that before. I'm just like, oh, come on, I want to get back in shape. And I was like, this is not as easy as it used to be. And I'm in the gym, I'm doing that, but my diet is not 100%. So that's really interesting what you're doing. I'll be interested to hear all the—

Conor, you shouldn't be in the bums and tums with all those mums. It's not the right place to be.

That's a lot of oms, but, uh, that stuff works in the short term. But anyway, listen, bloody hell, we haven't even started our Q&A here. We did do Q&A there. Look, we are, uh, we are Raw Pet Medics. You'll find us on patreon.com, uh, forward slash Raw Pet Medics. We are minus one because Nick is still away, but we're taking a break for the Easter holidays. Very rhymey today we are. Um, so, uh, listen guys, price of a tea or a cup of coffee, we really appreciate it. Everything we do is free, we put it out for free, and that's great, but it really does help that you guys go to Patreon and give us that price of a tea or cup of coffee each month. That's all we ask. Couple of quid is great. If you can do it, great. If you can't, not to worry, we're gonna be here anyway. So tonight, Bren, we had a number of, we always do, we never get to a quarter of the FAQs, but some of the ones that were hopping off the page yesterday, we just get straight back into 3 FAQs all around the same thing, which was the first question was salmon oil, should I stay away from it? And another person saying, how much oil do I need to add and which is better? We have done this, covered this before, but what are your thoughts on those, on the old omega-3 fish oil, salmon oil? What are your thoughts there?

Yeah, it's always been one for me. I mean, you're also great on this because you love your oils and which one you go for. But for me, knowing the farming techniques and what tends to happen in fish farms and actually the majority of salmon oils come from that, some of which are then further adulterated with other oils being added back in.

Yeah.

So, you know, you've not just got salmon oil, you may have salmon and another rapeseed oil or something like that. It's knowing that fats are great at grabbing onto and storing those toxins. So things like the medicines that they use to delice the fish, because they're in so much compact space that there's all of their mates around them. Parasites love that environment because they can pass from fish to fish very readily. They've got more than enough food themselves to feed on, which is the fish. So farmers have to go in in an intensive system and medicate. And a lot of those medications are things like organophosphates used to be used. Okay. And I think to some degree still are. They've modified some of the medicines, but they're still antiparasitic drugs and they will concentrate in the fats. So alongside that, a lot of these fish farms are in estuaries or, you know, very close to sort of coastal areas that may be frequented by shipping lanes, by, you know, outflows from rivers. And if you've got that concentration of effluent coming from manufacture, you worry about, well, you know, there is no barrier between the fish and that. They are going to take those up. So, you know, things like mercury we find in some of the fish oils, some of the heavy metals that may gather, and those are actually still toxic. They won't often declare those on the label because it's not something they have to, you know, even if it's in nanograms, you know, per ml, you know, they're going to say that's insignificant amounts, we don't need to declare it. But that still will build in your pet because those Yeah, it bioaccumulates. Absolutely. Because once it gets in, there's no efficient way of getting it out of the body and it just stores in the fat. That's one of those things we were just talking about, weight loss. It's one of those reasons why some people, when they go through crash weight loss, feel terrible. They get flu-like symptoms because all of that stuff that's accumulated in their fat suddenly gets back into their circulation and they just feel like lacking of energy and, you know, so frustrated with things and it all sort of suddenly crashes down. And that's when they start losing the will to continue with the diet and all of the rest of it. So that 2 to 3 weeks in when you've maximized the mobilization of fat, again, another reason why you might fail on your health drive. So going back a second, fish oils, I prefer one which is a mid-Atlantic. If I'm going for a fish oil, a mid-Atlantic sardine and anchovy, you know, it's going to be, you know, in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. You have not got, you know, close coastal sort of levels. And yes, you're still going to— obviously the oceans are connected. You're still going to get some degree of toxins transmissible everywhere else. But you're not talking about right on the coast where it's maximum sort of concentrations.

Yeah.

So I would go for something along those lines. There's an Icelandic herring oil which is also great that's used by some food companies. You know, they could be really great. And, you know, if you're going to use a plant oil, use one of the fruit oils. We talked about avocado last week. We, you know, think things like olive oil, as long as they're full of the antioxidants. So look for that deep, rich green, which is the polyphenols in those, those phenolic compounds or antioxidants that are preserving your oil. Away from oxygen. Keep the quantities low, keep it sealed, okay? Keep it out of sunlight, keep it in a dark bottle, preferably I would say in the fridge, okay? And just use that, try and use it in a reasonable time span. Do not leave it for months and then go, oh, do you know what? I'm going to use that.

Yeah, you want to be avoiding those big pump bottles, which is a good tip. So got from, got from Habib's show. And it was like, you know, these giant plastic bottles, plastic is porous to oxygen, if you can believe it, which is, that surprised me. So things rot, things rot in plastic where they don't in the jar in a fridge as quick. So you want to stop oxygen getting to the oil, just a tiny bit is going to do you damage. And they found that even 50/50 chance of the fish oil you buy off the shelf being right at the limit of oxidization. And if it goes over that limit, it's more oxidized than it is friendly. So it's more foe than friend. And so 10% of the oils were too dangerous to take. So this is like an issue that we're having. So like, it was some of the reasons they rot capsules in a brown jar in the fridge. As Brand said, buy a small amount, get them into you, and then finish them off. That's a good tip. Don't use the big pump bottles, you know, poor horses with the gallon plastic jar sitting in a stable, warm stables, you know, liters of flaxseed oil. Yeah, yeah. Like just pure full of glyphosate. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That'll get him going for a very short while and then he's dead. I was just checking out that, you know what I've never looked for? I've never looked for a big analysis of the kind of poison, toxic toxin, kind of PCB content of oils, of salmon oil. And what Bren was saying is definitely right there. The salmon oil industry has a problem. We know we use a lot of chemicals in it. They're getting better at it, I'm sure, as they are about most farming practices. Things are getting a little bit better. They're now even selling more wild salmon, if you've seen, in the supermarkets. And what they're doing with that is they're rearing them in the estuaries the wrong way, and then they let them go. And what do salmon do? Off they swim, and then they come back to the estuary they were raised in, and they catch them all, and then they sell them as wild salmon. So that is— that is— yeah. So that is— now listen, this is— this is not my in-depth knowledge of salmon fishing, by the way, guys. This is what I've heard from a fisherman, and, you know, he's a bit of a character, so I'm not quite sure. But, um, so I probably shouldn't be saying— passing off these things as facts. But as you were talking there, that scientific expert the size of one drunk man outside a pub. So I will check that out and I will come back to you next week. But as you were talking, I was looking at the, at the toxin content of fish oils, and there's lots of studies on it. Obviously, I'll come— I will get my head around it later. But they said that, you know, there's loads of studies to show that salmon oil has problems— PCB, PCDD, polychlorinated dibenzofuran, all these legacy pesticides and whatnot. And then you've got the wormers and it does accumulate in the fat of the meat. But in the last 10 years, they have been— they found better and better ways of decontaminating the oils, more and more processing, removing persistent organic pollutants. And it's like, if you think that's good news, guys, it's like, you know, it's like even more pasteurized milk. And so it's not quite the same as raw milk. So everything Ben is saying is right. It's like, you know, the more raw the oil, the better for you, for sure. And the less processed. So who knows about fish oil? I'd be staying away from farm salmon oil for all the reasons Brent said. It doesn't sound like the best one I could be reaching for. At a minimum, any one of the sea oils. In that paper there, it said the Pacific fish are cleaner than the North Atlantic fish for the oil industry that are pulling— they're pulling up fish for oils. They have less contaminants for whatever reason. Pacific is huge, maybe. So look, besides all that, I like— if you want to go pure and we're talking about pure, I like algal oil because they grow them hermetically in these glass tubes. And now they've found a way to get both these omega-3s we need. They're called essential fatty acids, EPA and DHA. They're written on the front of the label. So you might have a tablet, a capsule that says 500mg and one that says a gram of omega-3. And you'll think, or you think this is fantastic, but all that matters is the EPA/DHA content. Okay. They'll actually say a gram of whatever oil, but all you care about is the EPA/DHA content. So Look, in essence, what I'm trying to say is these algal oils are really clean. So if I had a dog that was suffering chronic inflammation, he was really sick, hypersensitive of all sorts of things, I'd be thinking, right, as little contamination as possible needs to go into this dog to rebuild up the force field. I'd definitely be reaching for the cleanest oils I could and eliminating any of that kind of stuff that you worry about. But other than that, as Brand says, any small oily fish oil, herring or even a sardine, anchovy, they're great little oils too. So I wouldn't overthink it. People feed raw sardines as well. Why not? They're fantastic. And they worry about—

so there was a question with that of raw fish versus canned fish because obviously you've got this cooking process going on. The number of things that are, you know, the lesser controls within some of that canned fish versus some of the raw fish options. Are you one for— and then the risk therefore of thiaminase, the big word for feeding some fish in raw form, and therefore reduction of vitamin B. And it causes beriberi, is it? That's the one where—

isn't it?

Yeah, yeah. Where you have some effectively mental degradation, he says, trying to struggle for the word. And therefore you have— it's all this trash food I've been eating. So there is that. What's your take on those couple of points?

I think the fish that are now being used in the raw dog food industry are all pretty much— you can be pretty sure they don't contain thiaminase. And most raw dog food manufacturers are on this because when I started off, it was very gray. 2010, you could use any fish you wanted. But then we realized— so things like salmon, you're okay. Sardine, you're okay. Many of the white fish, you're okay. And so there's many lists have been published on it. You can check it out on my website, dogsfirst.ie, type in thiaminase or what, you know, and you'll see. So most of the fish being sold for dogs have been checked for that sort of issue, and we know the species you shouldn't feed. They contain— some contain an enzyme that break down B1, and so you just don't want to be consuming too much of that. It shouldn't be a large part of your diet. So that is the first thing. So yes to that, really, the raw Regarding the raw and cooked fish, it turns out the omega-3 survives the canning process to a degree. So that's the first thing. But other oils can probably denature in that cooking process. I think what's probably more important in my head, I think it's great that you're getting some omega-3 in there at all. So if it's a tin of sardines, great. I still would prefer the raw stuff because I'm just— you just know that that's going to be better and have all the good stuff in there. But I think a tin of sardines, fab. Just don't have it in the veg oil. Because that brings with it a load of omega-6, and that totally negates the whole reason you're trying to feed the omega-3. So a lot of cooked sunflower oil, no, no, no, that's the opposite to what you want from your sardines. So brine, pour it off, or fresh water better still, or a tomato, you know, so it's just plain tomato. So they are great ingredients, and you get lots of good quality protein, and it's tasty, really tasty, so cats will like it as well. And it's the best bit of protein and omega-3 they're probably going to get, let's face it. So I think they're great. I think people can they feel safe feeding a tin of sardines. So I like giving people things that's like, oh, they can have sardines? It's like, yeah. And then it's kind of like you hook them that way. So, but raw sardines, surely the best. From frozen, they say feed fish from frozen because wild fish can have a few little wormy bits. And although a lot of people feed fish raw as well, but you know, you're talking about—

of course, not to stir a hornet's nest, but that can of tuna is not equivalent to 3 and a half cheeseburgers.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Bloody hell. All right, let's do it. Yeah.

So the other thing that I wanted to ask, um, I think, you know, it's great that we talk about these things, um, and people understand there is a lot, you know, we talk about omega-6s, there's a lot about, you know, adding in oils, certainly plant oils that have a lot of alpha-linolenic acid and linoleic acid. It all becomes really confusing. There's, you know, sometimes they'll say, yeah, but there's that small amount of DHA and EPA that increases down the bottom line, okay, and we've got these number of milligrams, yet they're almost ignoring and just saying, well, it's good fats, and there's a huge amount of those other oils coming in which are really poorly converted, if I'm not wrong, in dogs and cats. Yeah, what's your take on those?

So yeah, like the, the ALA is the, is the one that dogs, cats can't convert to, I believe one of the omega-3s, isn't it? To DHA. I think they can make some DHA, DHA, EPA, DHA, two essential fatty acids. 20, 25% of your brain is DHA. So like when you're taking omega-3s, your brain needs an awful lot of this good quality fat. And it turns out that dogs can make the conversion from plant oil, ALA version, to this DHA, the omega-3. And if I'm confusing one of those oils, that's just the way it is. But cats can't do that conversion at all. So cats have to have animal fat, eat like fish oil or outdoor— brains, brains, brains, bloody brains. Yeah. So eyes. So these are all great sources, but cats need it because they're carnivores and dogs essentially need it as well because they're crap at the conversion. So we know 1 in 4 dry foods don't contain any EPA/DHA, and then that which do contain these, they contain very small amounts of them. So to put in a plant oil thinking that your dog is going to get enough essential fatty acids, omega-3 fatty acids, completely not true. It's just, it's a really very, very poor substitute. That linoleic acid is interesting though, because that omega-6 is wonderful. It's in good, you know, from a good oil, as Bren's already told you which ones, a good veg oil like olive oil or 'Avocado oil,' that's fantastic, and breeders will tell you that'll make your coat nice and shiny, and that's all great. The problem is when people hear that is that they run off and buy plant oils and glug, glug, glug, glug, and put it into their dog's dinner, and then it's like, well, no, you know, we're talking very small doses of this stuff, probably enough from— if Nick was here— NHS, Nuts, Herbs and Seeds, you get loads of really good quality omega-6 from those. The worst type of those seeds is the, in the supermarkets they'll sell you flaxseed meal. So flaxseed meal is where after they've squished the seed, the oil comes out, the good stuff, and then they're left with the meat and the hull. And so they grind that up and you put it on your breakfast for a really good source of fiber, but a good source of omega-6 it's not. You want the initial seeds, but then the dog can't eat those seeds, he can't break them down. So this is the way up all the time of how do you get those seeds in there. The seeds need to be crushed. Even if you lightly cook them, you won't take apart the seed hull, it's too tough. For a dog. So how you get those omega-6s in, you're right back to Bren's idea, which is like really good quality olive oil is medicinal, probably, you know, a little drop of that, drop a good quality flaxseed oil that hasn't been refined, ultra-refined and that kind of stuff. That's where I am. I'm right on the line about plant oils. How much? What about you? Do you add much of them to your—

Oh, and then, well, we haven't mentioned phytates because as soon as you're into nuts and seeds, you're then into combating, you know, what level of of phytates. How are you going to process that? You know, is fermentation a way out of that? So, you know, making it into a ferment to preserve those, uh, oils but yet reduce the level of phytates within a food. Oh, we could go on. They talk about soaking the stuff at least.

Oh, that's really important, soaking this. Yes, I wish I said that. Um, that's how you get out of this, isn't it? If you soak it overnight, I'm sure that's going to help your, your little carnivorous because they hold on to the stuff in a way shorter time than we do. So we as, as, as true, you know, omnivores, we're, you know, a great example of sideways movement, grind those seeds down, you know, so that's the start of it. So it's already exposed by the time it hits your gut acids. We've probably got a better array of enzymes to break it down and then we hold on to that material for much longer. So it half ferments in our intestines, nothing like a cow or sheep, but we do a decent job. You compare this to a dog, no sideways movement because he's a meat eater, swallows the seeds whole, and he gets down to a system poorly adapted to breaking down this stuff, and then it shoots through the highway and the bacteria are like, I wanted that, you know, and out it comes in the poo. So yes to fermentation and soaking because it breaks down the lignin and the cellulose on the outside. So when your dog does digest it, you're hoping he'll get something out of it. Pounding the seeds would be a good idea, I'm sure. But good quality, look, there's ProFlax and stuff, those companies do buy good quality oils and that kind of thing. You can buy your good quality oils in capsules and jars. And so it's hard to say how much that the dog needs. They're not essential fatty acids for a reason. So I'm thinking I'm only aiming— I'm only ever really, when it comes to supplementing, I'm thinking of the essential stuff that's like, I need to have that in my diet, and I know I'm not getting enough fresh oily fish in my diet. So omega-3 will be one thing I'm pretty poor at supplements, but that's why I'm envious. I want to learn what you're taking at the moment, Bren, because whatever you're taking yourself and Rowan have taught him— have you taken a set diet? Has something been presented to you going, hey guys, let's see what you like after 12 weeks on this, or did you clobber it together yourselves?

No, we're in the process of clobbering it together. I start this process next week, so I've got to do my bloods this week. Yeah, so that's going to be the bad bloods, and then what we'll do is we'll do 10 weeks of a great diet.

You put the diet together, and are you all—

and that side of things. And yeah, are you all on the same— we're all, uh, yes, within limits. So you've got a bit of scope. So because I— if you go too formulaic, then it becomes really hard for people to absolutely stick to. So, you know, we're looking at the cohort that are doing the dietary stuff, have a little bit of maneuverability. They've, you know, got guidance on the best supplements to use, and we'll just do a little bit of a publication as this is, this is what we did, this is the results.

Great. You know, they're the most interesting studies. Like, I love when they take, like, you Type 2 diabetics and they just say, look, you know, check out what we can do with diet. They've done huge studies of this and it's like totally reversing this situation and saying, look how well you're doing once you get that excess weight off and improve your situation. And I love those studies. They just—

and some of these are great supplements, like so extracts of pomegranate, not just the fruit, but the whole, the whole thing with the skin and everything. They are— so they're in a company that has produced some great studies by a guy, a professor of medicine who was in Cambridge University doing— it's now oncologist and that side of things— started looking at prostate cancer and sort of like old man's disease. And, you know, so looking at Pomi Tea was one of their products and the other is Your Gut Plus. So we're looking at how those can integrate with this dietary plan, especially because we're aiming for, you know, let's say, I'm going to say middle age. Yeah, some people would say old.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

You know, it's the demographic of, you know, we start to get concerned about health issues. Yeah, we want to know a bit more. Fortunately, touch wood, I've not had anything particular at the moment, and, you know, but it one of those preventatives. So we want to just see for the various people how that works.

Yeah, we all wait till something goes wrong before you start pumping in antioxidants and all sorts of things. It's like these should be a common factor of our lives. We should be getting this constantly. Little bits of CBD to top ourselves up, you know, little bits of antioxidants. These aren't like supplements that we take. I always think coenzyme Q10, how that's not an essential part of the food pyramid. Like you could name any antioxidant that these are all essential compounds through the food chain and you're supposed to have them coming in, topping up your force field all the time. Remove them, like in ultra-processed dry pet food where they think it's just proteins, vitamins, and minerals, and then over time your shield comes down and you get ill, obviously, and then you start taking these compounds to try and get back up to a little bit of health, and then you stop taking them. And, you know, that's the way I look at it. I think you should be taking them all the time. I'm saying this, but I don't. How much is a full panel that you're doing of your blood? How much is a full, you know, car check?

So I think that full panel works out about 400, 400 plus fat, something like that.

What about vitamin and mineral-based? Do you get to check what they are?

Yeah, so you do get some key, uh, vitamins and minerals.

Yeah, you wouldn't get the whole lot because that seems quite reasonable.

Oh yeah, I mean, look, you know, you could go 2.5 grand and you could do every single— what's your amino acid spread, what's your fatty acid spread, what's your vitamins and minerals.

Are you going to do omega-3? Are you going to do that one? It's in It's in there. That's cool. Yeah, that's an important one, having those basics, the big and a few of the top minerals, zinc and magnesium maybe.

Yeah, they're in there.

Okay, cool. Yeah. Oh, great. I'm interested, Brad. And if you do well, I'm going to do the exact same thing.

Oh, well, you're going to have to follow the Health Sensei. That's the site that we're going to use, thehealthsensei.com. So that's something to look at. So that's a project with— I think we've got a Facebook page up there. Rowan's got a Facebook Facebook page up there already, so, um, you can follow that if you're interested in that journey. Join it, follow it, see what's going on.

Cool. Health Sensei, that's cool. Yeah, Roland is the boss for that sort of stuff. He's an absolute freak when it comes down to these, uh, amazing compounds, and his knowledge of the systems and how it works is intimidating. Real biochemistry stuff, which I imagine wags your tail, but I'm just sitting there going, I have no idea what he's talking about. I'm a big picture guy, and when it gets down to the detail, I am stone-faced and I'm waiting for it to finish. But yeah, if I was gonna follow anyone's plan, I'd follow Rome's, that's for sure. And so look, let's get to another couple of questions. Oh, do you know what, even before— oh yeah, okay, let's do Matt Berry's question because Matt is a, is a good follower of ours. And Matt was saying that his dog is long enough now on the planet— I can't remember because I can't— I don't have the question in front of me. I'm lost with all the questions. But he was 16 years and the dog is having— he believes the dog will be extremely well treated. And Matt's— there's probably not a lot you could tell, Matt. That's always the best questions. But he thinks that his dog is probably having a few little wobbles now, and he probably sees a little bit of cognitive decline in this dog. What else could he be doing? He's ticking all the low-hanging fruit. Good diet. You know, he's probably got a couple of the normal supplements in there and no flea treatments, worms, boosters at the moment for this older dog. Health checks from the vet. He's done all this. Where would you go then, Bryn? What's your go-to for a dog that needs a little bit of support there?

Yeah, look, this is not uncommon, you know, Matt. It's for your 14-year-old dog, you know, this is something that we see a lot of. And, you know, there's, you know, as they get those chronic diseases, they become a little bit more, you know, inflamed. That can affect their mental function. You're doing loads of things, I can see from your question, about, you know, trying to keep his mind occupied, you know, giving those brain games, which we always talk, you know, is great for ourselves. You know, keep yourself— don't just sit there sedentary in a seat. You know, don't let them just lie there sedentary in a bed, you know, just letting the days go past. You know, they need that stimulation still. They still need to be getting up and out and doing things. You know, keep checking on, you know, are there other issues going on? You know, Is there a pain element?

Yeah.

So what's happening that's, that's causing some of this stuff? And yeah, yeah, just, just as I've just said with regards to our own health, you know, the, the Your Gut Plus has some great stuff about long COVID signs, you know, that lethargy, that sort of not quite with it, that mental fog, you know, so the probiotics and antioxidants within that mix look at how you can mimic that for your dog with— there's loads of supplements out there that are similar, but there's some great studies. Now, these studies were not just brought out for COVID and shown great positive things for long COVID symptoms, but actually also they, they were starting to look at this stuff back in 2014, back with SARS and MERS and all of those sort of things. So it's that they just did it because of COVID You know, this has been something that's been studied for a long time about gut effects on your mental function. You know, I've talked about this with the Dog Training College. Conor, you've made a little post about this as well fairly recently, you know, the importance of keeping your gut healthy. Don't just, you know, we've talked about oils a moment ago. Don't just think, oh, we've got to replace all of the omegas. The stuff that you really need to make sure is that gut absolutely ticking on all the boxes, or are you just satisfied that, well, he's passing firm poops, he must be good? Well, actually, no, there may be other things. So all these phenolic compounds that you can add in, which aren't about antioxidants for the body as much as food for the vital gut bacteria that can improve your mental health.

Yeah, that's good. Yeah. Isn't it interesting about the GoodFlora? They showed in older people that the species richness narrows as you get older and older. So your want of different foods decreases because it's those good for that are calling for different foods. So that's what kind of leads you to pick up a fruit and a vegetable now and again and whatever. But as you get older, as you know, my mom's in her 80s, I'm sure she's not listening to this and she won't mind me saying that. But she is, you know, the diet gets simpler and it's like, you know what, you're having an egg. Egg, you know, it's like egg and like maybe a piece of toast, you know, and it's like a piece of toast for breakfast. And it's a real, it's a much simpler diet compared to what we would eat. We'd go to the Indian and we want all these beautiful flavors and spices. And that you would see less of that going in. They think that that would start to take a toll on you because all those different compounds are not coming in then. And you're, whatever reason, you just get less and less species richness. So yes to that. I mean, that's a great idea. Most of your happy head compounds are coming from your gut. Why wouldn't you try and develop that a little bit? I wonder how many good studies there are. I bet you there's a few of turning around problem cases by using probiotics. Now, the probiotics are targeted at mood enhancement. So, I mean, when you look at how utterly dire some of the research has been on certainly the SSRI kind of drama that came out there a little while ago, and there's some questionable results that have been used for about 20 years. Why not reach towards something like probiotics as a little kind of a little boost and pick one that's targeted at minds? They're all made for humans. I imagine you're going to get some of the same benefits yourself, but you'd have to talk that out with your vet. Very new stuff, all that. Is there any— could— would you take a probiotic brand that's been targeted for the mind of a human? Would you take that? Would you pop that into a dog? It's all lactobacillus and bifidobacterium. I mean, is there a—

well, they're not all lactobacillus and bifidobacterium, but there are, you know, some are. I mean, I know you're a lover of Bio-Kult and a good mixed population.

Yeah, any of them. I don't care about Bio Cult. Like, I was looking at Bio Cult recently— sorry to cut you off— but like, there's bits of fillers and shit in Bio Cult as well. It's not like I'm sponsored by this. If you find a better product, go for it. It's just that they happen to make a range and they're in all the health shops, so it's easy for people to go, oh, okay, that one's good. So I don't want to— I don't want to pin my flag to Bio Cult because I think I saw they've cellulose in one of them.

Oh damn, I wanted to flog you that minute.

Yeah, no, no, I don't the bio cult man, Brady bio cult. Who's the bio cult fella? No, no, I want to stop using that name. So human probiotics from now on.

So yes, so I think, you know, we've got to realize it takes time to change, and it's not necessarily just throwing in the bacteria. Be aware, if you're throwing in live bacteria, you've got to make sure that you're not going to put them through the acid bath of the stomach. So especially for dogs, because it's much more acidic than it is for humans. So you've got to think about taking that as a drink away from food times. Okay, so it goes straight through the stomach, doesn't sit in the stomach waiting to be denatured. And I think it's also important that those bioflavonoids, the polyphenolic compounds, these basically the bright colors that are in the fruits and plants that we eat, have great prebiotic effects So they are, it's feeding that diversity of bacteria that's as important as giving the bacteria themselves. And so if anything, don't just throw bacteria in and think that's the job done. I think, you know, trying to extend that level of colors within the food can make a big difference. And there's dried powders, you know, there's the various ones. I usually have props to hand and I'm just thinking, oh, there we go, there's one. So these companies, you see, It's my wonderful office. I've always got something to hand. But yeah, that's just a bilberry blueberry option that's there. They do blackcurrant, they do sea buckthorn. There's various ones out there.

So lots of sea buckthorn. It tastes like it's good for you. It's like, oh, how am I going to use this? I bought a big pouch of it. Yeah, the dog won't eat it. And I'm like, okay, I'm going to have to eat this myself, haven't I? Louvre is very good. You know what I noticed though? You know Bonnelon, which is an organic berry freezing company, and it's the dominant organic frozen berry brand over here. Anyway, it's a white box with black writing on it, very simple. But they— the blueberries that they sell, when you defrost them, they're small, they're almost like blackcurrants, and except it says blueberries in the front. And you eat them and you go, oh geez, you'd have to make jam out of them, they're pretty sour. But it turns out that they're the same wild bilberries as the dried stuff. So you can actually get them in your supermarket frozen wild wild organic blueberries, and they only cost like, for us, £3 for a 100-gram pouch. It's hard to compare the fresh weight of these frozen blueberries to the, uh, to the zips, because the zips are like— blueberries are 95% water, and freeze-drying removes all that water. So what you think is an expensive Ziploc of blueberry is actually quite a lot of blueberry for your buck. But both of those ideas, what Brent just held up there, I like. They sent me a personalized email after order. I thought that, or a video. Conor, thanks very much for your order. A girl in Sweden standing there chatting to me and doing a live video. If there's any questions, my name is whatever, send me a direct email.

How much did you order? I mean, to get a personal video log from a Swedish lady going, we love you.

Totally. Yeah. More videos. They knew what I liked. So I ordered loads of these berries for myself, this part is also for a friend of mine who got a bit of bad news. And so I was gonna get the top 10, 12 things that I could, the best versions of them and send them to him. It was interesting when I sent these, and I mean, you're talking some very basic natural supplements, best quality, this particular type of seaweed and a few other things. I said, be putting them in your smoothies and get these compounds going in now, you know, and a couple of natural tips and NAC and a few other things, NAC, a few other things that you need to get on right now. And the consultant had a look and said he had a quick look and he goes, yeah, you know, you can try those things. And I was like, you know, and this is a big problem we have because like, you know, there is a number of potently anti-cancer substances out there. To say that they're not supported by the science is just idiotic. There's hundreds of studies to back up all these things we're talking about, from blueberries to omega-3 to bloody seaweed. Loads and loads of studies to show it's effective. Anti-tumor, anti-cancer, anti-proliferative, all sorts of antis. And it's like, how much more do you need? Oh, we need a case-controlled study. And it's like, the only things that you get recommended these days, I feel, are patented, uh, kind of drugs. It's like, well, why couldn't you just improve your diet in the background as much as you can and, and hit that? Why do— why isn't that coming at the same time? Like, I mean, if you're going to the top cancer dude, why isn't it like, listen, man, you need to make sure your sleep is on target, you need to make sure your stress is down, you know, and let's have a look at your gut and diet. You must talk to— it's not an option to talk to a nutritionist. It's like, we've got to get you in absolutely firing shape so that the drugs I recommend work the best and you have the best chance. Not like, take the drugs and see how we do. That's— and so, yeah, that was a big—

I'll post a couple of these studies just so you've got an idea of, you know, what's going on with the anti-cancer sort of polyphenolic compounds and probiotics out there. What's going on with these chronic sort of lethargy stuff stuff as well with those probiotics and sorting out mental function. So let's get those posted. You know, rebirth after Easter. I mean, how religious is that?

Yeah, yeah, that is a good one.

Oh my word, we never thought we were religious until this moment.

Yes, sorry. Yes, I'm feeling a bit more religious now. My coffee's kicking in. I'm feeling, uh, reborn, right? Yeah, absolutely. I wanted, I wanted to cover— we don't have time. We've been, we've been on 50 minutes, Brian. Bloody Yeah, we thought we'd just do 30 minutes as an old treat. I just like talking this stuff. I'll leave my carbon bit till next week and we'll just talk to people a bit about this bit of back of the, back of the kind of, I was going to say fag box, back of the napkin workings that I've done on the carbon impact of meat and solar panels.

And you're giving yourself away. I thought you'd given up those bad habits.

Oh yes. No, I've been very good. They are, my electronic cigarette is a thing of the past now. Now, if I've had a few drinky-poos and I'm at a wedding or something and there's a cigar going around, oh yes, I will imbibe. But, uh, no, not, not sober and not day to day, week to week. It's been many, many, many months since any of that's been in. But, um, I haven't got on top of like, you know, complete sobriety. Still on the weekend, you'd have like a few drinks. And, um, my diet is 90%, it's not 100%. So like, I need, um I need— what I need is we're going to like a video shoot and RPM are going to be videoed on a beach. That's what I need.

I need to know back in 4 or 5 months he's going to be wearing one of those suits and a girdle.

So yeah, that's what I need. I need a good kick like that. But, uh, at the moment I'm going away to France in a few months and that's a, that's a sort of a medium kick, you know. It's not putting too much pressure on me. You're really—

that man, you Yeah, I know.

Yeah, so I'm still wobbly. It's not, um, it's not going as well as I thought it would, but I'm in the gym.

Handles, that's what we call them.

Brutal. I hate it. It's so annoying. It's just so— I mean, I don't care that much, lads. I'm losing any sleep about it. I really don't. But I did, you know, I was always my whole life a trim fella in doing sports, and then when you— as soon as you, you have the kids, and then, you know, uh, you work and you keep really unsociable hours I do 3 or 4 long days and come down and start eating like an absolute pig at 12 and 1 o'clock at night. That's not going to work.

So, so just a little message out there to the paparazzi that Nick gets to follow Conor so that we've got photos when he's not with us. You know, if you do catch a picture of him looking down at the shoes in front of the gym mirror with weight in one hand, sucking his tummy in, we'll post that next time.

Anyway, Speedos. But yeah, where's our Speedos gone? I can't see them. So yeah, bloody hell. I need to get on top. I'll do it tomorrow. Bloody hell.

Yeah. Mariana.

Yeah.

Okay.

Brilliant.

Thanks, guys. It's brilliant to see you all. Please do join us over on Patreon if you want some more hot tips and yeah, keep an eye on the Facebook page. See you next week. More about eco-friendly stuff.

Yes.