RPM LIVE

Commission to speak, Brendan.

He's there, he's live. Hello everyone, it's brilliant to be back. I'm going to, um, just say thank you to RPM. We had a great Raw Pet Medics last night talking about neutering in dogs and Inspired me with my great friend Rowan with the Health Sensei to talk a little bit more about hormones. We did some great stuff on female hormones and menopause a few weeks ago. We're going to talk a little bit about male hormones tonight and integrate that with why hormones aren't necessarily always going to be at the right levels, why they may in indeed change through what's going on in our environment, food, etc. So that's just a brief summary of where we're going to go tonight. So I'm really looking forward to tonight. If you've got any questions, please do say hi, pop them in the comments. You know, we're going live, we're going to be seeing those comments on our screen, so it'd be great to see what's going on. So, um, it would be wonderful if you're joining us on YouTube as well. Do please just pop some comments in. Uh, I can see those live too. And hi Caroline for joining us on YouTube. So from a point of view of, um, this is great, I just love it. Um, so without further ado, there is, you know, we talked a little bit about hormones a couple of weeks ago and, and, you know, what hormones are. So hopefully most of the viewers understand that, and, you know, we can, uh, sort of review how, uh, things are going, uh, with the female hormones. Just a very quick review. Um, I'd just like to touch on what stimulates them, how they go. So Rowan, do you want to just bring us through a very brief recap of what we discussed a few weeks ago on hormones, what they are, and I'll pull up the little graphic of how those hormones are produced within the body and see if you can just maybe talk everyone through what that graphic is about.

Brilliant. Okay, well, good evening and thank you, Brendan. How joyful to see you. You're on an absolute roll tonight. You could actually run your own cattle auction. Steady on. So basically, um, we covered female hormones, and just on that note, thank you for everybody who joined us on the female hormone masterclass. Just so you're aware, and this is the fun part, is we have loads more to give on this. Loads and loads, and we want to help everyone as much as possible. And the next part is— I've forgotten it, Brendan. No, I haven't. Um, no, we have got loads more to give on this. And the most important part— cliffhanger, cliffhanger— is actually everybody has, both males and females, way more influence over their hormonal levels, balance and expression than previously we realized. We did think that it was just either a part of aging or it was natural levels, but we now realize that environment, as in your environment, your diet, supplementation, and basically lifestyle practices can actually be harnessed to really optimize your hormones before you even start looking at hormone replacement therapy, or in male cases, TRT, testosterone replacement therapy. What we like to call it is we've taken a leaf out of Jay Campbell's book and we call it TOT, which is testosterone optimization. Theory. We're not just looking to replace, we're looking to actually enhance so it's at its optimum levels. So the cascade, to answer your question, Brendan, I just wanted people to realize that they're watching this for a reason, and actually this is really empowering. It's actually quite exciting because you can totally change your expression and levels. And in males, the difference is phenomenal, Brendan. I mean phenomenal day on day, but we'll come to that, so please keep watching. So the axis is basically called the HPG in men, hypothalamus-pituitary-gonad, and in females it's the HPO, hypothalamus-pituitary-ovary. Females do actually produce some testosterone in the adrenals from DHEA and in other places because obviously they don't have testes. So the hypothalamus sends a signal and it's GnRH, gonadotropin-releasing hormone, if I remember.

I'm going to just close your video off so that they can see the graphic a little better. So you're still— they can hear you, don't worry. Just keep going.

Far from worried, Uncle Brendan, thank you. And to the anterior pituitary, which then releases either LH, luteinizing hormone, or FSH, follicle stimulating hormone. Now we've all heard of those. They're just part of your hormonal cascade. In fact, it's probably easier to think of this as a chain of messengers. One messenger leaves a depot, goes to another depot, the pituitary, and that either goes to the next depot with a message to either the gonads, the testes, or the ovaries. And then this stimulates the creation and release of either testosterone in the males or estradiol and progesterone in females. Now, estradiol is one of your main types of estrogen. There's several different types. So that's basically it. It's not that complicated. There's 3 stops and 2 messengers.

Yeah. So that's a great sort of roundup of where those sex hormones are, are coming through. I would just like to ask, therefore, you know, because many people don't understand why estrogens and other female hormones are also looked at in some of the testing that we do for men. So just, just give us an understanding from the human sort of functional medicine side of things, you know, why are those important for, for men and to some degree women. And what is that, that interaction?

Well, this is really good. I mean, men do produce some estrogen and it's essential that you have your estrogen to testosterone correct. And people always think that more testosterone is better. There are some misinformed kind of mythomaniacs out there that think, you know, testosterone makes you angry. As you've seen with dogs, testosterone actually makes you confident and less aggressive. Or confrontational. And in fact, anecdotally, what we see with men is quite often they have more drive, but also more compassion because of their confidence rather than feeling threatened, which is a big overlap to the pet world. Now, estrogen is really important. It's important for brain function. And I'm sure lots of females are nodding wisely, saying that's why they're the smarter sex and why there should always be more females on the board. Acknowledged, no pushback here. Nobody wants a board run just by testosterone. Um, you know, that leads to lots of errors. Just look at history.

Repeat, repeat, repeat.

Um, estrogen actually, in the correct ratio to testosterone, Brendan, also ensures the strength and duration of male erection. And in fact, if men don't have enough estrogen they can't maintain an erection. They often say, and I've heard this many times, 'Oh, it's because my testosterone's down.' Well, actually, it might be that they don't have enough estrogen, but more often than not, the issue with men is not simply that they don't have enough testosterone, but actually their lifestyle. And this can also include their body weight, because actually excess body fat contributes to this process. It, but they are aromatizing their testosterone and changing it into estrogen. Now, this is a really important concept to get our heads around, um, for both males and females.

Why?

Why, Brendan?

Well, come on, why?

Why? Um, for a man, if he's producing— let's say he's producing, we're just going to keep it round numbers, are 100 units of testosterone, and there's a couple of different pathways that go through, but we don't need to jump into that now. But he has a highly inflammatory lifestyle, stressful, maybe smokes, maybe drinks too much alcohol, drinks too much caffeine, and maybe he's got some just endemic inflammation going on. The likelihood is And we've seen this time and time from testing, especially with the Dutch test, which is perfect for guys as well, is that that level of testosterone is actually transferred and changed through aromatization into estrogen. Now, when that male becomes estrogen dominant, he starts to accumulate more body fat. And then this is what we see with males who actually start to start drinking more to self-soothe. They become very emotional and estrogen dominant. And actually, this whole cascade is linked to male depression. It's even linked to things more seriously like suicide. You know, this is something we need to be aware of.

Why?

It's actually really easy to control. And antidepressants are really not the way or the most effective way of tackling this issue. Now, with females, what we see is if they go onto HRT and they feel awesome for 3 or 4 months, and then 2 or 3 things happen, and I've seen this happen like clockwork countless times, is that suddenly they put on 10 pounds of unwanted body weight and they don't feel as good anymore. Why is that? The underlying mechanisms which were stressing their hormones in the first instance have just been covered over with some HRT, and that dose of testosterone which was making them feel great, and suddenly they found the libido and their energy and the motivation and the purpose, is now being converted into estrogen, and they're already being supplemented with estrogen. So suddenly They come to me normally a year later going, I just don't understand, it's not working. And I test them and the estrogen is off the charts. I mean, it's huge. And you can see that they've got estrogen that they've been supplemented with. The testosterone that they've been supplemented with is now turning into estrogen. So they've got two lots of estrogen going around to one lot of progesterone, which is a massive imbalance. And in fact, I tested some people like 3 months ago, and I was like, holy moly, how have you even been able to function? I feel so sorry for you. It was like, well, I was just doing— I was just following the instructions. And it's like, this is a magical process that needs to be managed, needs to be tested. And just people need to be walked through it. That's it. You can't just give some really powerful drugs and then go, yeah, behave responsibly, I'll see you next year.

So let's come back a moment because this is really interesting for me understanding male dogs and, and why some male dogs don't always have the same balance regardless of the fact that they're entire or not. And I'm understanding something that you said there about actually there's some things that can change. So inflammation, for instance, that can change how they metabolize those hormones and change them within the body. Because it's not just about having two testes, you're going to have two lots of testosterone flowing around and it's all hunky-dory and it's all set. There are other influences, as you've said, one of those enzymes, how active that is on that conversion. There's going to be the level of GnRH and the level of LH that's coming out from the pituitary that's going to stimulate the gonads at various points. Do you feel that the, you know, the influence of certain diseases has a direct influence on that, you know, levels of inflammation? Oh, 100%. you know, whether that be from viruses, uh, is that, is that something that, that can occur? Do you see that?

From what?

Sorry, from viruses, from, you know, if people are coming down with viruses, how that affects, you know, how they metabolize their hormones. Do you see that in your practice?

Um, you know, this is really interesting, and what we've seen from actually using the Dutch test— and nearly 10 years you and I have talked about this a few times. And, you know, I have to give these guys credit. Not only have they created arguably the best hormonal test available on the planet, they've consistently developed both the test, the parameters, but also the education that goes around it. So rather than it being, you know, well, it's a virtuous circle because practitioners feed in information, they actually analyze it, learn from it, improve it, and we all end up learning, which is how really we should be working as a, as a community, as a society. And I learned this from Dutch Test. The number one influence on hormones is inflammation, and it affects it at all levels. Now, we've talked about basically the, you know, the HPG and HPO access. There's also things in there like steroid hormone binding globulin, SHBG, which will make the amount of testosterone you've got more or less bioavailable. And some people have lots of this. There's going to be a whole host of conversions in that testosterone-making process. And in females in particular, they make it into DHEA, dehydroepiandrosterone. That gets converted into another thing, a sulfate form. That can't be converted if there's inflammation going on, so it just stays there, it gets wasted. I look at this and there are going to be—

That's the hormone that they can use, isn't it, to suppress male libido and stuff? I think that's because it doesn't plug on the Dihydro version that doesn't that interrupt the receptor for testosterone? It clings onto that receptor and it stops the testosterone working. Is that the same hormone or is that slightly different?

DHEA converts to DHEAS, and that conversion, the one I'm talking about, is modulated by inflammation. And actually, in my practice— but I'm not sure about what you've just said there, Brendan. I would need to double-check that. I know that in females, and I'm sure if I get the hormone shout out from our super friends at Dutch, I'll be able to just double-check it.

But I think it's used in prostatic disease for, you know, trying to reduce the influence of testosterone on the prostate. That's why it's coming to mind.

This is really interesting because having spoken to Professor Robert Thomas on several occasions about this, uh, he's, he's a wonderful person and very pioneering in the realms of prostate and breast cancer.

Is your—

one of Europe's leading doctors on this. One of the things he says is that actually there's a lot of science supporting it's the correct level of testosterone which prevents prostate cancer. I mean, prostate cancer does not affect younger men. It's typically in your 50s when most people's testosterone is going down. So I think we need to question or at least have a deeper dive why they're doing that.

Absolutely. I think, you know, that this is often the case. We find that, you know, it's almost an illusion of we're going to switch off this pathway and it's going to sort it. And you rightly say, you know, the benefits with pomegranate tea, you know, for prostatic hyperplasia, for prostatic disease, generally, not just for cancer. Are you thinking of DHT?

Possibly. Which switches between the pathways, the 5-alpha pathway and the 5-beta pathway. So the 5-alpha pathway, what that means, for those of you going, okay, Brendan and Rhona just gone into algebra, for crying out loud.

Sorry, sorry guys, this is a 3-chili chat, which means that basically for the real geeks out there that want to know about, you know, the metabolic pathways. For you geeks, come into our cave and talk about your gonads.

So basically, if you imagine you've got 100 units of testosterone, a perfectly equilibrated balance— and I should stop looking like I'm holding two balls. Rowan, think before you choose gestures.

Holy moly.

I need to be more polished in the media, Brendan. Uh, half would go in the 5-alpha pathway, half would go in the 5-beta pathway. Okay, now the 5-alpha pathway is a lot, a lot more potent. So let's say 50 units of testosterone that go through the A pathway are more potent and shall we say androgenic than through the beta pathway. And actually we see this with some females who metabolize their hormones through there. They get more androgenic issues and sometimes that plus insulin resistance. We've got PCOS.

Yeah. So maybe that was an acronym too far. Go on. Yeah. So I'm going to rewind a moment because the interesting thing for me was maybe the reason we had such an elevation of mental health issues through the pandemic. If we've got massive amounts of inflammation going on from COVID-19, of course that's going to affect our hormones and that's going to affect not just because of the isolation that we felt in lockdowns and all of those side of things, but actually we were driving unbeknownst to us through all of those inflammatory processes. Sometimes it's the way we were eating. Within the pandemic as comfort eating, but that, you know, that could be inflammatory in its own right, all the way through to actually suffering from the various viruses that we were getting, you know, pushing us that way. And also the vaccines, you know, the vaccines giving us inflammation, you know, that's— well, those are all things that could lead to that process.

It was, and I am— when you look back on it, I'm surprised we all came out of it so well. Because that was probably the most unholy cocktail of combinations that have the biggest impact on your hormones and mental health. If you think about, well, okay, let's just go through the list that you would change in your lifestyle. Remove stress. Well, what did we have? We had loads of stress. We had loads of inflammation. We had vaccines which, well-intended or whatever people's perceptions are, are designed to provoke an immune response and therefore do create a cascade effect of inflammation. That's just the power of the biochemistry, you know, of waking up your immune system. These are knock-on effects. And I'm not going to go down the vaccine route right now, but But let's just look at more stress, uncertainty, confinement, lack of ability to actually get daylight, which resets your circadian rhythm, surrounded by news. So we're actually having news dictating what you see coming into your eyes. And news, by definition, is a business. It needs to be sensationalist to be commercial. Because it's competing against other news outlets. That's just the reality of the news before you even get into a conspiracy of you being controlled or whichever. I never watch the news. I will read it in short snippets and step away from it. Why? Because I find the videos way too graphic. But look, so yes, mental health. And then of course, we've got the whole intestinal permeability which goes with vaccines. Combined with viruses, combined with leaky veins. So we've got endothelial permeability and leaky brain inflammation. I mean, it's a wonder we're all normal.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And this is, you know, for so many people that actually are going to be seeing their dogs in different, like, you know, some sometimes being affected in different ways hormonally, behaviorally, as they go through disease processes. It gives them a help, an understanding as to why that might be, and indeed why in consequence some of the diseases they suffer from, whether that be prostatic hyperplasia, you know, whether it be joint problems, you know, sometimes skin problems, aggression issues, what's going on with dementia and elderly senilities, all the way through to obesity, even though they've kept them entire, can be explained. Well, actually, they may be entire, but they may start to act as if they're neutered because of some of these other processes that goes on. And vice versa, there are some dogs that manage incredibly well just because, you know, if you're doing everything else right, even though you've neutered them, they below the surface may well manage the process of being without testes and having an LH escape, you know, a huge amount of LH, or they may not have a huge amount of LH because they may have other things going on in their system. That is allowing them to cope. A lot of people have said, oh well, you know, I've had neutered dogs for years and they lived to 16. I always ask them to think, well, actually, by the time they got to 16, how many years had they been suffering from arthritis, issues with their joints, you know, maybe cruciate disease? Had they had any skin problems? Had they had increasing anxiety towards the end of their life? You know, I see that in, you know, neutered females as well as neutered males. Actually, there's almost a process at which point their behavior starts to ramp up with anxieties.

It's about quality of life. And, you know, sorry, Brendan, I'm jumping in, but it's out of an excitement to agree with you, frankly. Is that, you know, everything we're doing here about this health, it's to improve the quality of our and our pets' lives. It's not to set up a Shaolin monastery where nobody can actually do anything for fear of not living to 127. It's about— and it's not so much putting years on your life as putting life into your years, whether for you or your pet. And that's really important. It's being able to live vibrantly and optimally. And hormones are a critical part of this. You know, I bring it back to the whole male depression and suicide, um, conversation. We've seen males who have been put on prescription medications which dramatically alter their, their testosterone— before we've even discussed plus statins— who suddenly are depressed and suicidal. Now, I, I'm not going to take that any further, other than that is purely at that point a hormonal, hormonal issue or hormonally induced issue which can be reversed. And, you know, people make literally life-changing decisions on this and it totally affects the quality of their life. So hormones are to be respected and to be understood and dealt with intelligently for us. And our pets. We want our pets to live vibrantly and have fun. Yeah. And just an insight for you, Brendan, you might like this actually. Sorry, powerlifters have long known that they like to keep a relatively high amount of estrogen, and they do this by promoting a little bit more aromatization deliberately. Now, this isn't all powerlifters.

Why?

Because it actually keeps a little bit more water in the joints, a little bit more water retention, protects their joints. So this is why they don't try and get super lean. Powerlifters are looking to protect their joints, so they like to promote a little bit more estrogen. The converse point being, when we don't have enough estrogen, we get this arthritis.

Yeah, and, and those are really important things to understand for anybody who's going through exercise, certainly for women who go through vigorous exercise, that actually through their cycle, their normal cycle, there will be points when their LH is increased and that actually increases the risk to joints because there are receptors in there that will actually create increased laxity of the ligaments. So you're more likely to suffer from cruciate ligaments. And this is known in the football world for female footballers that actually if they're at the wrong time of their cycle, when they're going through a training exercise, or indeed if they're in a, you know, a World Cup, a tournament that lasts longer than a month, you know, they're at risk at one point in that month if they're not on other drugs to suppress their menses, that actually the LH can risk injury during that tournament. And it's the same for if you're training, if you're doing marathon training, if you're doing, you know, anything to do with, you know, really intense sports, you know, you've got to be really careful where your hormones are, where your LH is. Okay, and this therefore is for all of those dogs that are neutered that are doing intense things like flyball training or agility, that actually, or canicross, etc., that actually if you put them through that process, there is risk of increased injury, okay, in those circumstances.

That's absolutely fascinating. You know, I often, when I have female clients who come to me with any form of hormonal imbalance, the first thing I say is please kindly stop any sort of intense or excess cardio.

Swim?

Yes.

Go out for a walk?

Yes. Cycling? Yes. But doing some kind of midlife crisis, which is generally more male if I was to look at the pattern of clients and exercise over the last decade, but, you know, like suddenly I need to do an Ironman or Ironperson, you know, that is the worst thing you can do when you're in any kind of hormonal imbalance or lack.

Why?

It's putting your body into excess fight or flight, and it's really throwing your joints through the washing machine. You know, some of these things you will not be able to recover from.

So there are two things that I'd love to cover off just in the last few minutes that we've covered them off right now. And so I'll put— lay them down there so I don't forget them. One is replacement therapies and how we monitor and what the important things are for, for both men and women. And secondly, something that we discussed a little bit at length last night, and I really wanted to have an input from you. So we get something called false pregnancies in bitches, okay, which is because they go through a normal cycle twice a year where there's an estrogen phase that brings them into estrus. Then over the next 2 months, the luteal phases start to produce more progestogens. So that becomes effectively the follow-on phase. Okay, now that mimics pregnancy to some degree. So they're going through a normal hormonal cycle, and they then come— so in that phase, that lasts about 2 months. At the end of that, they start to drop off the progesterones, and that then leaves them into an anestrus, a phase where everything is dormant. Now, that drop-off point is when they start to produce milk. They may have— so some, it's almost like nothing happens. They're perfectly fine. For others, they can become extremely needy. They can, you know, want more attention. They can start to nest with toys. They can sometimes be snappy with other dogs that are sort of invading their space. Yeah, typically what you'd expect a bitch that's just had puppies to exhibit. Yes, all the way through to producing lots of milk, through to sometimes being totally off their food. Some of them get really depressed. And so there's usually— now, if they were delivering puppies, there'd be an oxytocin release because of actually giving birth and the milk production. And we know that oxytocin is that love hormone, that give them a hug and all of the rest of it. We all release oxytocin in those circumstances. So it would be really interesting to me to understand if there's a human equivalent where actually that changeover in hormonal balance, you know, what would it be that could cause those aberrances, those, those pushing into more depressive aberrant behaviors in that hormonal change? Do you think it's purely the lack of oxytocin? Do you think it's, um, just how they're metabolizing those hormones into the progesterones? What's— what do you feel might be there? So, so let's go with that bit first because I, you know, I've sort of laid it out, okay, about false pregnancies, um, and, you know, any experience with oxytocin that you may have, um, and, uh, what's your thoughts? Do you, do you have any thoughts? Do you think that's too complicated for you to get into because you've not come across it? What's your—

do you think that's too complicated for you, Rowan, to get into because you've very small brain.

Um, you've got a massive brain. You know so much about metabolic pathways that I'm often in awe of all of that because of the amount of studies you've done over the last 10 years on all—

It's too late, Brendan.

It's too late.

The cat's out the bag.

You don't think about that question. I do know that sometimes you don't always concentrate on dog stuff, and I've just really laid it out as far as—

You have. And you know what? This is one of the reasons that we talk is that I learned so much from you. You know, this is really interesting. Now, in humans, obviously we don't see this, okay? You know, we don't see a season twice a year, for instance. You know, let's state the obvious.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yeah. So although I'll just pull you back for a moment.

Go on.

So we do see polycystic ovaries Yeah, PCOS.

Yes.

Okay. Um, and that can sometimes be recognized as one of the causes of aberrant, um, sort of false pregnancy behavior. So it might have something there. So it'd be interesting.

I, I, I'm, I'm making in a kind of like an educated guesstimate because obviously this wasn't a question as I was expecting. So if I was to try and—

I know, I love to throw a curveball in for you.

You like that fast-moving ball game.

What's it called?

Jai Alai? Yeah, pallotta, but Jai Alai or something. So PCOS often has, for instance, a really pronounced element of insulin resistance. So excess insulin. And quite often inflammation. These things go hand in hand. And, uh, the way the females actually process their testosterone tends to be more through the 5A pathway. Now, this is when we've looked at it using the Dutch tests. Now, I'm not going to draw anything from that other than share that factoid with you, but when you see, uh, you know, depressive, low-energy, or insular behavior in female population, it's really difficult to put your finger on one particular thing.

Why?

Some of the symptomatology of low estrogen is very similar to the symptomatology of low progesterone. So unless you're testing, you are really guessing. But for instance, quite often when people are lacking motivation, they're feeling injured, they're not feeling very purposeful. Sometimes the term I often hear is, I feel like there's a void, which really, really makes me go, oh my God. There's a huge lack of progesterone. And in fact, we see this postpartum after females have had pregnancy is that there's a huge drop-off of progesterone. And whilst they might have the oxytocin from breastfeeding or not, this absolute shoot, this fall in progesterone leads to, and this is part of the postpartum depression. So some people choose to actually, shall we say, intelligently supplement with bioidentical progesterone to get through this phase. And in fact, progesterone is being used very effectively for females who have had difficulty conceiving and to ensure healthy growth, because progest obviously means, you know, it's pro-growth. So there are overlays, but I would struggle to draw correlations and similarities. Does that answer your question, Brendan?

Right, it does, it does. And I think that's, you know, it gets me even more excited with the thought of, you know, you know, we've talked about discussions with Dutch and, you know, how we might be able to develop looking at whether we can see in canines and urine the same sort of metabolites within the urine to detect what might be going on with these hormones for dogs too, not just for humans. And I'm, you know, really excited to start discussing with them, getting some tests through, and then, you know, how brilliant it would be if we get some normal values to then be able to start investigating you know, for those hormonal changes that we see in false pregnancies, for example, or, you know, inflammatory disease. Yeah, you know, cruciate rupture, you know, whether it is a hormonal problem that's going on. I had a dog just, you know, in the last couple of months, uh, that, you know, had all of the hallmarks that we would associate with being neutered as a male of bilateral cruciate disease, inflammatory skin, mast cell tumors, you know, issues with heart, you know, dilated cardiomyopathy, all of those factors, but yet was entire. And you just wonder whether there was, you know, other levels of inflammation going on in his environment that were leading to that lack of testosterone and these other things for sure. For sure.

When you think about the, the suite of vaccinations which may or may not be appropriate, uh, the chemicals that get used on dog's skin— I mean, I picked up Kismet once from the groomers, my Spanish water dog, and not only had she turned Kismet into a 1970s Charlie's Angel, such was the bouffant, she was also a fire risk. You know, I was like, holy moly, I have to take this dog in the ocean straight away. And I'm sorry for crimes against the ocean because thinking about this in hindsight, I should have just hosed her down. But, you know, it was like, what have you done to my dog? You know, these are huge endocrine disruptors. And, you know, this is something we talk about with men. It's like, what shower gel are you putting on your testicles? Do you know what that's— no, for real. I mean, this is a huge game changer. You know, if you think that you can change your testosterone score by nearly 20% just by actually having a couple of nights, really good sleep, lowering your stress. And occasionally, this is an old one, but Brendan, you might have heard of it or not, putting some ice on your gonads for 5 to 10 minutes a day, you can change your scores by 20% and more. And this is cumulative, right? What do you think you can— what are you doing to your dogs with these chemicals? You know, such is the power we have over our hormones. Now let's just say we've got 7, 8, 9 things we can do which all make 3 to 6% difference. That's a lot.

That is an absolute lot by the time you layer them in. Yeah, and that's an amazing thought because that then brings me back to that first part that I was going to ask you about, because it was really, you know, what can we do for supplementation of hormones? And is supplementation of hormones correct? Because there's very much stop guessing, start testing, you know, because we've got to, you know, if you're going to, you can't just slap any old patch on and hope that that hormone is going to be the right ratio for your particular problem.

Nobody likes a patch slapper.

Yeah, but from the point of, but from the point of view of actually there may be other things that people can do through supplementation that may reduce inflammation, stopping certain vices, stopping certain things, you know, such as shampooing with certain ingredients, you know, what they're giving in their water, you know, how they're hydrating their animals, you know, is there something that's influencing their health through that. As you say, you know, is it that they— their dogs, you know, have inguinal testicles. They don't actually sit down in the scrotum, you know. Are they superheated therefore, you know, and they're changing how the hormones are being released?

Have you got a dog who is lying on a carpet which has recently been chemically cleaned? You know, yeah, you know, the off-gassing I don't just mean from your bulldog, but the off-gassing from a new sofa full of chemicals.

Brand new and brand new carpets. Yeah, absolutely.

Holy moly, you know, these are not to be underestimated.

And underfloor heating, underfloor heating, if your dog's laid on underfloor heating all the time, is that an issue?

You know, if your dog is a competitive cyclist and wears really tight small shorts for long periods of time.

Now, now you're taking the mick. Okay.

If your dog smells, it smokes.

If your dog fumbles something back while cycling, have a word with your dog.

So here's a couple of things. There are some supplements you can take, but one of the best things, and this is what we will go into this more for when we rerun the masterclass. And there were lots and lots of things we learned from that. And I took away and I thought, you know what, we're going to get an infographic and we're going to make this like something that somebody can print on their fridge. I'm of the generation that likes something that they can print on the fridge and they're confronted with it every day. I assume that everybody else is. Bless me. Now, one of the things you can do which is game changing, I mean truly, is get your omega-3 to 6 fats in balance.

Why?

If they're out of balance, they're super pro-inflammatory. Super pro-inflammatory means it affects your hormones. And this new test that we've got involved with, Brendan, where you actually look at cellular health and the omega-3 to 6 ratio, the feedback from speaking to the provider has been across the board. Perimenopausal females suddenly finding their perimenopausal symptoms go away in the matter of 3, 4, 5 weeks simply by balancing their fats and getting out of this pro-inflammatory state. Now, this has a cascade effect onto brain health, the way you're thinking, motivation, you know, wow, quality of sleep is coming out. Now, as we've said, we'd love to roll this out for pets because, you know, you can't tell me that even if you're raw feeding your dog, that you can be assured of the omega-3 to 6 ratio? You know, has it been checked for? How do you know?

And, and it's individual, isn't it? It's such an individual thing, and how your gut flora are working, and so many other processes that could be in play, that just because somebody is reporting that your supplement or your food has got a level of omega-3s in there. Actually, also the ratio to omega-6s is just as important. And, you know, FEDIAF and AFCO, you know, all report, you know, that it's acceptable to have ratios of, you know, anywhere between 30:1 and 10:1. Um, yeah, that's way off the charts for most of the functional medicine practitioners.

No, no, you should be aiming for 3:1.

Yeah, just totally different.

You should be aiming for 3 to 1. You know, it's not— and this is it. Now, the other issue is, of course, is a lot of these fats are oxidized when you go and buy something. Let's just say— I'm sorry, Holland and Barrett, but I'm going to name you— and there's this quality fish oil which we don't know if it's been tested or how long it's been on a shelf. Is it being kept in the cold?

It's been in the dark.

How it's been extracted. Is it from larger fish which have got heavy metal in them? Mercury, cadmium, toxic metals. You know, you need assurance. And frankly, I can't be bothered to watch— don't have the time to go into the deep dive every time with all these supplements cleanly sourced. You need a reputable provider. And the best thing you can do rather than guessing is just do this test. Those guys, they test you once, they test you in 4 months. It's super cheap, it's super affordable. Uh, I think we're going to do some trial on some pets, aren't we, Brendan? Are we allowed to say that?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Um, I would love to see it happen on some pets who've actually got skin.

Yeah, so simple. It's just a fingerprint, like we take glucose, um, squished onto a blotting paper, test, it goes away. They do the test, so you don't even need a blood draw. If you're getting blood drawn for another purpose, of course you could use that. You know, you just use it on the home kit, you take it into your vet that's drawing the blood, send it away. They've got a great supplement that they produce, which is an Icelandic fish oil you know, which is really super great. And it's balanced with some polyphenols which sort of stop the oxidation process within the oil.

It makes me think of our conversations in London at the Health Optimization Summit. We won't go into that here, but my goodness, we did laugh. The— basically what they've done is the very— stop it. They've very cleverly blended it with a small amount of EVOO, extra virgin olive oil.

Why?

The polyphenol count is so pronounced in the brand they are using that it protects those omega-3 fats and prevents them oxidizing. Now, this all sounds really good. I did have a deeper dive into this. What's really sexy is that they tested those omega-3 fats and they hadn't oxidized after 36 hours, which is way above the time it takes to go from your mouth through your system to your cell, which is why they're promoting improved cellular health. But look, these are facts we can jump into another time. But yeah, well, you know, we can't talk about hormones. Without talking about inflammation. And we can't talk about inflammation without saying we need to have omega-3 balance. Thank you.

Okay. Very briefly, before I round up, other supplements outside of those that you would consider useful. You've talked about sleep, you've talked about essential fatty acids, any sort of base layer things that you would say, water source, hydration. Yeah, that come in.

Well, here are my big ones. Hydration. Now, I personally, and, you know, this isn't planet friendly of me, are currently drinking— I am currently drinking a naturally sparkling, naturally mineralized spring water. The reason for that, it's got a lot of magnesium in it, it's got bicarbonate of soda in it, it's got all of these things. Hydration is key. Now, when we actually move into a house we have purchased, we'll be fitting a filter, so we won't need to do that. So unless you've got access to filtered water, you do need to be very careful about what's in that water. Now, that could be chemicals such as chlorine fluoride. It could be, as we found in our water in the rainy season, it's because it actually contains Giardia because it comes from a mountain source. So you know, you have to kind of really be careful about what you're putting in your mouth. So hydration is key. Lifestyle, sleep, sleep in a dark room, stop wearing super tight underwear, especially you, Brendan. You know, do not be John Travolta on this one. You do not want something that's super heated environment, cold, cold exposure to gonads. Excess heat, avoid excess cardio. Cardio over 45 minutes has been shown to actually create a plummet of your, of your testosterone. Smoking, alcohol, caffeine, fried foods, stress, and obviously statins destroy all of your steroid hormones. So if you want supplements, some out-there ones for people Well, let's start with the basic ones. D3, K2, a B complex, zinc, magnesium, obviously copper.

You can't take out methylated B complex. Methylated B complex. Yes, yes, yes, yes.

Which will help your homocysteine factors. That's not Homer Simpson factors for the hard of hearing. Cystange. Which is a really interesting desert plant which stimulates testosterone. Coleus forskohlin, easy to remember, I guess, because it sounds a little bit like coleus. Anyway, so coleus forskohlin, if you actually take that with chrysin, because it can aromatase easily, they have massive impacts. Resveratrol, because of its anti-inflammatory benefits. So then you've got pine pollen and deer velvet and all of that.

But look, those—

if you take any combination of the ones we've just covered, starting with the base ones, you can dramatically impact your testosterone, especially if you combine that with those lifestyle factors which are stopping you opening the door to optimal testosterone.

Yeah. So for everyone out there, if you've enjoyed listening to what we talk about, you know, we're going to be doing more and more of this on social media, but we are— we also have a community. We'd love you to join our community on thehealthsensei.net. Okay, that's actually got a nice community growing on a platform which allows you to interact and to then further go through. So we're going to be doing some masterclass stuff, we're going to be giving you video content, articles, etc., which you'll be able to access, you know, if you want to join a little bit higher up in our community, but you'll also get some of the content that we produce on social media. And it's great just to see people interacting with each other. So you get to make friends that are on the same level as you guys are. So please, if you enjoy what you're listening to, you enjoy what we talk about, then please do come across to that platform and hopefully we'll have more content for you over the coming months. that you'll really be able to enjoy, and lots of little snippets that will come out on our social media too. Yeah, really great. Stay in post.

We— Brendan, it's always a joy, always a joy, even when you do pre-post some really, really unpleasant pictures of me. Um, you're forgiven. Um, the love was strong. Thank you, and thanks for being heart of the journey. I mean, frankly, just the feedback we're getting already from helping people is a joy. The increase in testing, people who are becoming aware of their hormones. And do keep your eyes peeled. There will be a heart health webinar coming out which has loads of gems in it for you to take control of. We're going to get rid of the good, bad cholesterol. Myth. We're going to give you some specific things to look for and some really cool tools to influence it. Peace out, shake it all about. I'm not going to use my sign-off of namaste.

You were worried, weren't you? This ain't going to be it, is it now? I am. Right, on that note, I'm going to mute him. Okay, brilliant to see you all. Thank you. Thanks, guys. Being posted. If you want to put some comments in on this, uh, this video cross-post, please do so. Uh, I'll get back to you and, and we'll answer where we can. Brilliant. Take care, guys.

Bye now.