Ask Mark Q&A #2: My Favorite Non-Stick Pots And Pans, Improving Brain Function, Managing PMS, And More

Hey, everybody, it's Dr. Mark Hyman. How y'all doing today? I hope you're surviving or thriving, as I like to call it. COVID has not been the most fun for all of us, but it's an opportunity to sort of think about our lives differently. I think it's sort of God's big timeout for all of us, sending humanity to our room to think about how we need to do things better. So I'm really excited to be here with you all today. We're doing a live Q&A show that I'm doing for my community. We're calling it Ask Mark. And it's where I take questions from my text community and invite those folks to join me live and ask their questions. So we have about 10 to 12 people that are going to join us today to ask their question. And if you want to ask a question in the future, you can just text me at 413-225-8995. That's 413-225-8955 with a hashtag ask Mark. And my team is going to pick your question hopefully for your future Q&A with Mark Hyman. That's me. Lastly, I can't give you any medical advice, but I'm going to give you a big picture about how I would deal with various health issues or health questions. And I'm super excited to be joining you with doing this today because we all need to know more about how to keep healthy, especially during COVID and COVID season, which is going to be unfortunately a long, long while. All right, our first guest is coming up right now and that is by Technologies Magic will show up on my screen and we will be right together and you get to ask your questions. So why don't you introduce yourself and tell me what your question is? Hi, Dr. Hyman, thank you very much for taking my question. My name is Shahar Z. Pelov and I wanted to know what kind of nonstick what pots and pans do you use for cooking? I do a lot of cooking and I'm so concerned about all the leakage and everything. Yeah, you want to be careful with obviously Teflon is pretty bad. There's a lot of PFOAs and various cooking materials. You know, I used to live in this little cabin when I was in college and I had found this old pan. this cast iron pan. And that's like 40 years ago now. And I still have this cast iron pan. And it's still good and it works amazing. And, you know, I find cast iron to be one of the best things to cook with. And you can get relatively inexpensive pans. Lodge is a company that makes them. There's the sort of more fancy ones, La Creuset and Straub, I think are the names. that are really good cast iron pans. And these last literally a lifetime. Like I said, I've had mine for 40 years. So, I love cast iron. And then also there's a little more expensive ones like the, like, Cruyff, like, Dutch ovens and various pots. But I find, you know, if you buy really good cookware, it just lasts forever. So, you buy it once and that's it. And you take care of it. Right. I also also use ceramic. Ceramic is the other material that I really like, the nonstick. And if you take care of your cast iron, it really is nonstick. It will, if you season it, you basically have to treat it a little differently. You can't leave it in water. So with the cast iron, you have to oil it after, you put it on the stove, you turn the heat up a little bit, you let it get cooked in, and the oil seeps in and basically makes it like a nonstick surface. So it's really pretty good. The ceramic ones are really great. I came across this new one, I don't really have anything to do with the company. But I love it. It's called Our Place, O-U-R Place. And it's the most amazing pan I've ever had because it's like a steamer, a stir fryer, like a saute pan. I mean, it's really pretty amazing pan. It's got all these little kind of contraptions. It's got this great lid. And so really, it's easy to cook with. It's super easy to clean. And it's great for making everything. So it's like my main pan now, plus the cast iron that I use. Great, thank you very much. I wasn't aware that the cast iron can actually be nonstick. I thought it's very, well if you don't take care of it right, it is. So if you wash it with soap and water, it's gonna remove the nice coating and that will actually lead to it rusting, which is really bad. So if you, once you cook with it, you kind of wipe it out, maybe wash a little bit of soap, clean it out quickly, and then put a little bit of oil in there and then turn the stove on with the oil without anything in the pan. And it basically seasons the pan. You probably could Google how to season a cast iron pan and I'll show you how to do it. And it's really great. And I have a big wok that I use. Like a giant big wok. It's cast iron. Probably weighs about 20 pounds, but it just evenly heats everything. It's great for cooking. It just makes everything so delicious. Great. Thank you very much. Of course. I think we have Isabelle coming on. Hi Isabelle, how you doing? Good. How are you, Dr. Hyman? Good. How's life? It's good. It's good quiet with COVID right now, but good overall. All right. So my question is, I am a health coach and I became a health coach Initially to help myself with multiple complex conditions, but I've discovered it is a big passion and on the way. And I want to help people, but I also suffered the devastating financial consequences of being sick for a long time. And I want to help people who are underserved, people who don't have access to the really expensive, top of the line things. and I want to balance that with, you know, making a living for myself. So what are your suggestions for me to be able to serve people and at the same time be able to, you know, serve my family financially? Yeah, man, that's a great question. I think, you know, there's such a need in communities for health coaches across the country. And I think, you know, I, I found that, you know, you, you you can plug into health systems that are using health coaches. Increasingly, companies and healthcare systems and community centers are using health coaches to deal with struggling communities. And in Cleveland Clinic, for example, we launched programs with our community health center where we use group models to work with underserved communities, helping them learn lifestyle change and healthcare issues. And, you know, sometimes it can be reimbursed by the healthcare system. Sometimes people can just pay as little as $5. And sometimes that's a lot for people, but it can make a big difference for people to join something and be part of a community. It's such a powerful model. So the group model, group health coaching, you know, if you have 10 people and they're spending $5 or $3, you make, you know, 30 bucks in an hour. you can actually start to earn a little money, but it makes them engaged, gives them skin in the game, and then makes them also have the benefit of being part of a community. So there are ways to engage in your community to actually activate those groups. And you can go to churches, you can go to, you know, local community centers, you can go to local health care systems. I mean, even community health centers, you know, they're always looking for help. And they may have some funds from federally funded funds to help serve these communities. You know, there are funds, for example, within any health service. There's funds within the VA. So there are places to plug into where you can use your services that I think will help a lot of people without, without having to burden you with having to volunteer your time all the time. And, and I think, you know, there's also online programs that are really great doing. I, I think coaching online and virtual group coaching. Now people can do Zoom and you can have 10 people on a the Zoom call and you can have a community support system and guide people through an experience like we do, for example, the Center for Functional Medicine in Cleveland, and really get people engaged together. And it can be a relatively small cost, but if people are willing to do it, it adds up if you have 10 or 12 people. Excellent. Thank you so much. Reaching out to those organizations will definitely be on my list too to do right away. Thank you. Great. Oh, thank you for what you're doing. We need more of you. Thanks. I think we have Lexi next. Hi, Lexi. Hi, Lexi. How you doing? Oh, we got two for one deal here. I was wondering. Who's that other guy there? This is baby Shane. Oh, hi, Shane. Hi. Nap time. I was wondering, when coming off an antidepressant, what supplements or food changes would you recommend for a successful transition? Well, that is a great question. That is a great question because the first question you should ask is what's causing depression? So when I have a patient with depression, it doesn't tell me anything about why they have it. right. In medicine, we're really good at naming diseases. I call it the naming and blaming game. So we say, oh, you have hopelessness and helplessness and you feel sad and you can't sleep and you're not hungry and you're not interested in your normal activities and you don't have sex. And I know what's wrong with you. You're depressed. You have depression. That's what's causing your symptoms. Well, that's not what's causing your symptoms. That's the name we give to people who have those symptoms. the real question is, what are the causes of depression? And there are many, many different causes. There's no one cause. For example, I read an article that popped up in my scientific journal box the other day, which said that giving pro and prebiotics to people can help treat depression. Why? Because your gut flora play a huge role in your brain function and your mood. But that's just one thing. you could be depressed because maybe you're eating gluten and that's caused an autoimmune thyroid condition that makes you depressed because you have low thyroid. Or maybe you have been eating terrible diet for years and have been taking acid blockers to deal with your heartburn and reflux. Well, that causes B12 and magnesium deficiency, which can cause depression. Or maybe you are hiding inside because of COVID-19 and you have vitamin D deficiency, which also causes depression. Or maybe you've taken antibiotics that cause damage to your gut flora that cause depression. Or maybe you eat too much sushi and tuna and have mercury poisoning. Or maybe you hate fish and you have omega-3 deficiency. Or maybe you eat too much sugar and have pre-diabetes, which also causes depression. And I could go on and on. So the real question is, before you get into what supplement or diet should you eat, is, you know, what is really the root cause? And sometimes that takes a little bit of detective work. With that said, you know, I could tell you that, you know, I wrote a book years ago called the UltraMind Solution. It was about how I started witnessing changes in my patient's mood and brain function and ADD and memory when I was treating all these physical problems they had. so they would come in with asthma or irritable bowel or they'd have a rash or they'd have migraines or they'd have arthritis or they'd have whatever. And I would treat whatever was going on with them or they have diabetes and I would treat it. And then all these other things would get better. Their panic attacks would go away, their anxiety would go away, their depression would go away, their sleep would get better. And I was like, well, what's happening here? And so I wrote this book called the UltraMind Solution, when I call myself the accidental psychiatrist, because just by taking care of the physical health overall, it often resets the brain. So, you know, with the caveat that, you know, there might be something going on like mercury or maybe, I mean, a friend of mine, it's like the cobbler's kids don't have shoes, right? So, this friend of mine is a top functional medicine doctor and his wife kept having issues with lead poisoning. she was also a functional medicine doctor, and she's like, couldn't figure it out. It turned out their, their building where they've been practicing for 20 years was full of lead. So she had lead poisoning from being in this thing. So you suddenly had to kind of dig deep and figure it out. But with that said, I think there's some basic foundational principles of eating and a few basic supplements that can really help with people, particularly if they want to get off antidepressants, although it's important to try to figure out what the root causes. So the first thing is It's not like there's one diet for depression and another for heart disease and another for diabetes and another for cancer. It's all the same way of eating. I call it the Pegan diet. And, that's just a basic philosophy, which was a joke originally of Paleo Vegan Wars. And, I'm like, this is ridiculous. Everybody we should be agreeing on what we agree on, which is that we should eat whole food, we should eat lots of plant foods, we should eat no processed foods, we get rid of starch and sugar, we should eat a lot of good fats, we should eat nuts and seeds. you know, we probably don't want to eat too much gluten or dairy. I mean, basically simple ideas that everybody agrees on. And if you, and if you really do that, you will see a tremendous Improvement in your mood for most people. And I've created something called the 10-day reset. If you go to getpharmacy.com, you can download the free guide on how to do it. Essentially, it's eliminating all the inflammatory foods because we know that depression is inflammation in the brain. that, that it's actually remarkable finding that on studies of brain inflammation and depression, there's a huge correlation. They even used, they even used drugs that are super powerful anti-inflammatory drugs to try to treat depression, which I think is a dumb idea. The question is, what's causing the inflammation? Right. Is it your gut? Is it toxins? Is it whatever? Gluten, dairy. So I basically have people do an elimination diet, which is the 10-day reset, getting rid of all the processed food, all the sugar and starch, dairy for a while, although sometimes dairy we find later on particularly sheep and goat and see how they feel. In terms of the supplements, I think there's some basic things that make a huge difference in mood. The first are the B vitamins, particularly B6, folate, and B12. And many people are deficient in those. And some people need a lot more of those than you think, you know, would be the average or the optimal amount. So getting a good B complex is really important. Magnesium is really important. 'cause that can also involve the neurotransmitter function and mood and anxiety and relaxation. Fish oil, also very important for brain health and mood. There's been a lot of good data on depression and omega-3 fats. So good fish oil. Those three things are really great. And I probably would add probiotics in there and a good prebiotic foods as well. And you can take pro and prebiotic foods. You don't have to take the supplements, but it's important to really fix your gut. so fix breaking on your gut, getting a clean diet, taking those supplements can really be helpful. For some people, as they're transitioning off of antidepressants, what happens is these often are what we call serotonin reuptake inhibitors or SSRIs, and they basically inhibit the neuron, the neuron in your brain, from taking up the serotonin, so it leaves more of it around to be there to actually be positively beneficial and give you a better mood. But the things that help serotonin the most are things like B6 and also certain supplements like tryptophan and 5-hydroxytryptophan. You want to be careful not to take too much of those while you're taking antidepressants. But as you're transitioning, you can kind of taper down and taper down on the SSRI and increase the 5-HTP supplements. Those can really be helpful as well. So there's a lot more you can do, but I think those are the basic things that I think of when I when I want to help people with these issues. Thank you very much. I hope that wasn't too much information, but that was perfect. I think it's just, you know, we tend to say, oh, you have depression. What do you do for that? Well, it's in functional medicine, you know, just because, you know, the name of the disease doesn't mean you know what's wrong with you. It's just an initial starting point for thinking about the problem. And then you have to dig into the why. And that's what functional medicine is. It's the medicine of why, not what. Thank you, Dr. Hyman. All right, we got Derek up next. Hey, Derek, how's it going? Hello, hi, Dr. Hyman. My question is, can you hear me okay? Yes. Okay, my question as a farmer, what can I do within the farm organizations I'm involved with to shape our organization policies to improve the nation's food, food supply, et cetera? Oh, I love that question. Okay, so wait, you're a farmer, where do you farm? I can't hear a thing you're saying. Oh, wow. Might be your computer. Can you hear me now? I can hear you. Can you hear me? No. I can hear a single thing that you said in the last question either, so I don't know. Okay. Okay. I'll just. I'll just go ahead and answer. But you can. You can't hear me, huh? It says I have volume. Oh, all right. Well, I don't know if there's a simple solution, but I think. Yeah. I think you're, I think, okay, well, I'll answer your question. I hope you may be able to hear the recording later. I know you probably can't understand me, or I think the best thing to do, I think maybe would be to have you come back and, and, and see if you can figure out the audio part, and I'll go to the next person, and then I can answer your question. So, Patrick and my team, maybe we can kind of work that out with him and send him a message and let him know. okay, we have Karen. Karen, we're gonna go to you because Derek guy is a farmer, and his computer wasn't working. And I want to talk to him about farming, and I want to make sure he gets working. So it's great to have you on, Karen. Let me know what your question is. I'm on my phone because it didn't work on the computer either, so I'm looking from my phone. Thank you very much for taking my question. I'm a big fan. I've been following you for a while now. My question is, I've done several sugar detox challenges with you two, and I do well for a lot of months, and then suddenly I fall back into the sugar trap. And I don't know. I. It's over and over. I do well for three, four months, and then it goes right back. And how do I truly stop that sugar habit. And I really feel like an addict. That's what it feels like. I'm like, I get a little bit sugar and then I can't stop anymore. Well, it's true. I think, you know, like all addictions, it's, it's something that keeps calling your name, you know? You know, people, the, the bottle of alcohol, the pack of cigarettes, that bag of cookies is going to keep calling your name your whole life. It's true, but you can't. you can really learn how to work with it and reset it. And I think, you know, I don't think anybody should have to stop all sugar for their whole life. I mean, maybe if you need to do it for a while to reverse diabetes, that's a good idea. But the whole idea is to make yourself more metabolically resilient. And so the more you can do to make yourself metabolically resilient, the more your biology will be in balance and we'll be able to resist the effects of the basic drive to eat sugar. So I think it's so important for you to actually understand that the way your brain works is that it's driving this process of addiction that is literally making you crave the very thing that's making you sick. And the way it does that is it increases insulin and insulin makes you have your blood sugar go down, which then makes your body think, I'm starving, I'm gonna die. Then you need more sugar and you're in this vicious cycle. So it works on the addiction center in the brain. And they've done studies where, for example, they looked at, and this is very fascinating to me, because they looked at a study where they took a group of overweight guys who had pre-diabetes and on one day they fed them a milkshake. that had the same amount of protein, fat, carbohydrate and fiber and calories as the next day. But when they fed them the one that was the quickly absorbed sugar on one day, it was very different than the one where they had the quickly absorbed sugar on the next day. And so what happened is that you have this incredible difference in the biology of your body when you eat a quickly absorbed sugar. Not only were these exactly the same protein, fat, carbohydrate and fiber and calories, they also had a very different kind of sugar in them. So it was a start. One of them had a starch that was quickly absorbed. One had a starch that was being slowly absorbed. And, and again, even though it was the same calories in the same ratio, protein, fat and carbs and fiber, the ones that had the quickly absorbed sugar, their brain lit up on an MRI scan in the addiction center just like cocaine or heroin. And they were hungrier and their insulins were higher and their adrenaline was higher and their cortisol was higher and their blood sugar was higher. So what happened is that the body, even if you can't taste the difference, even if it looks, feels and looks exactly the same, if it triggers those hormones, and there's neurotransmitters, it's very hard to overcome that. So the best way to do it is if you're going to eat some kind of sugar, make sure that you're eating it in a way that is in the context of an overall diet that's balancing your blood sugar, number one. And number two, never have it by itself. So having, for example, a piece of chocolate after dinner is different than having a chocolate bar at three in the afternoon when you're hungry. Right? So if you eat it by itself, it's literally going to spike your sugar, spike your insulin, and start this whole cycle of cravings. The other key is fat. So the more good fats you have, the more you'll shut down the hunger and the cravings. And the other trick is using MCT oil. which is medium chain triglycerides. It's a special kind of fat. It's derived from coconut. And what it does is it actually releases ketones in the body that shuts off the hunger signals in the brain. So that's another kind of hack you can use. You know, take a tablespoon of MCT oil and then, you know, you won't be as hungry and craving wanting that. And if you have a little piece of something, the other thing I would say is if you're going to eat sweets, Eat only whole food sweets. So for example, I like chocolate, but I found this incredible chocolate bar. Well, Hugh Kitchen is one I love. That's another good one. But I found this other one the other day. It's sort of raw chocolate. It's made with cacao powder and it's made with, I think a little bit of honey, but it's all whole ingredients and it's got a lot of fiber, it's a lot of good fats, and it's really delicious and I don't really eat that much of it. and it doesn't make me want to eat the whole cake, right? The whole bar. So I, I, I wouldn't eat, you know, I wouldn't eat a white sheet cake. That's gonna, that's gonna be like poison. But have sweets that are more natural sweets or fruit sweetened things or things that are, you know, just lightly sweetened. That's gonna also help. Also, exercise is going to help your metabolism as well. Make you more metabolically resilient. So you're going to be more insulin sensitive because the less insulin sensitive you are, the more you're gonna want sugar. So getting yourself metabolically resilient is really key by weight training and aerobic conditioning, interval training, that's gonna be really key. So eating the fats, you know, if you're eating sugars, eat them with something else. Make sure you, you know, get metabolically resilient and I use the MCT oil, things like that can be really helpful. Thank you very much. Okay. That was very helpful. Thank you so much. Good, of course. I won't try those tricks. Do the tricks. Yes. Okay, I think we might have Derek back. He can hear me, I hope, because I have a good answer for Derek about farming. Now can you hear me, Derek? Yes, I can finally. Yes. Oh, so good. Okay, because it would have been terrible if I gave you this wonderful answer and you didn't know what I was saying. You had to read my lips. So why don't you ask your question again, Derek? All right, my question, as a farmer, what can I do within the farm organizations that I'm involved with to shape our organization's policies to improve the nation's food, food supply, food quality, et cetera? Great question. I love this question. So, Derek, where are you a farmer? Southwest Wisconsin. Wow, and what are you farming? Dairy. We milk Jersey cows. So, produce Jersey cows. All right, okay. Great question. So, I don't know if you're familiar with the whole regenerative agriculture movement, are you? Yes, I've actually been listening to quite a few audiobooks because of Food Fix. I started listening to books by like, Gabe Brown, David Montgomery, and learning more about that. Yeah. So, you know, I think, you know, I'm not a farmer. I certainly have a garden, so it doesn't make me an expert. But, you know, what, what you're asking about is how do you learn a different way of farming that is good for you economically, that is good for producing high quality food, that is good for increasing the quality of the soil, conserving water, increasing the biodiversity, and even helping resolve the excess carbon in the atmosphere by drawing down carbon in the soil. These are really big problems because right now, and you know this better than everybody, farmers are getting squeezed. I mean, there's a dairy farmer, less and less people are consuming milk and dairy farmers are struggling to make money. And I think there's ways of actually engaging with your farming community and your own farm to start to adopt these practices. And there's a couple of really great resources. The most important one I think is the Soil Health Academy, which is a group that was formed by Gabe Brown, Alan Williams, Ray Archuleta, another guy, to train farmers like you how to do this. I recently talked to him and I asked him, you know, what is it like for farmers who want to transition? Is it economically feasible? Is it hard? What are the challenges? And he said, well, they found within the first year they're profitable and they use less and less agricultural inputs like seeds and chemicals, and that they have more profit and they do much better by adopting the six principles of regenerative agriculture, which are, you know, not disturbing the soil, no tillage, leaving the roots in the ground to not disturb them, making sure you integrate animals into the ecosystem, making sure you use cover crops and use no and crop rotations and never leave the ground bare. So there's a whole series of principles that are just ecosystem design principles that when applied work pretty quickly to build soil, to hold water and do all these things. And I think as a farmer, it's scary to transition because you're stuck in between the banks giving you the loans for the feed and the crops and the chemicals and the the crop insurance and the government supports that are dependent on you getting, you know, having that insurance to get those loans. And so you're sort of this middleman between the banks, the government and the agribusiness chemical companies. And by actually making your farm an ecosystem, you would really be able to get out of that loop and make much more profit. And these farmers are making up to 20 times the profit of their neighbors. by using these principles. And then your products, you know, we need more and more farmers actually to get out there and start making these food products. And they often are sold at a premium for now. I mean, I think eventually prices will come down as it scales up, but I think it's really a win-win for everybody. And what happens is if you continue to farm in ways that are destructive to the soil, it's harder and harder to make a living and you have to eke out less and less, you know, using more and more inputs. I mean, we've increased our fertilizer use seven fold in the last 50 years, and they're two-thirds as effective because of what we've done to the soil. So I think working, you know, with some of these training groups like, like the Soil Health Academy and those experts, because, you know, they're, these are guys are farmers. I'm not a farmer, but I think they're, they're phenomenal. And, and they really understand it. They're not just theoretical, theoretical Farmers. They actually been doing it, and they have examples of how to do it. And they've done this with millions of Acres. you know, really across, across the world. So my, my encouragement would be to work with, work with the, work with those guys and also, you know, Network with other Farmers in your community who are actually thinking like this and want to make the changes and start to help each other. Okay. Sounds good. I appreciate it. What are the obstacles? What are the obstacles you think they are, they are to doing it for you? The biggest thing is money and, you know, I think I'm learning enough that I can do it, but then making that transition to do it. And I also farm with my family, so it's convincing them that this is a good idea. But then also, like you mentioned, the banks, you need crop insurance and you need to farm it this way to make a profit. And that those altogether might be issues. Yeah, I think that's clearly the fear is that if you start to transition this way, you're gonna go under and you lose money. And I think that figuring out how to do that transition is really the key. And I think there should be federal policies that actually help you guys and give you that bridge so you can do that. But even in the absence of that, listening to these guys are Ray Archuleta and Alan Williams, and is that your son? No, our employee's kid. Oh, and also, you know, Gabe Brown. These guys have experience with farmer after farmer after farmer and examples that you can talk to other farmers who actually have done it and are making money in the first year. Okay. Perfect. Well, thanks Derek. Thanks for what you're doing. Being a good farmer. All right, we have Lena. Hi Dr. Hyman. How are you? Thanks for everything. Of course. So thank you for taking my question today and it will be about how to improve brain function and brain activity. Maybe there is food supplement or exercise you would recommend and maybe in particular for people with autoimmune conditions. For me personally, I have Hashimoto's thyroiditis. So, and I go through ups and downs as far as brain activity goes. forgetfulness, brain fog and things like that. Well, you know, I think it's important that you mentioned that you had an autoimmune condition because much brain dysfunction is inflammation. And as I mentioned when I was talking about depression, many other conditions of the brain that are problematic, whether it's ADD or autism or depression, or even Alzheimer's or Parkinson's, these are all inflammatory diseases of the brain or just brain fog, what people call brain fog. And I think we have to understand that in order to treat the brain, you have to treat the body. And I encourage you to check out my book, the UltraMind Solution, because it talks about how to fix your brain by fixing your body first. And it's all the basic principles. It's what you're eating, it's exercise, it's sleep, it's stress reduction, it's the right supplements and nutrients, it's taking care of your gut. these are just the foundational principles of functional medicine and really allow us to help fix the brain by, by actually activating the body's own healing responses. So, you know, diet is so important, and you can eat brain food diet. It's so great. My friend Max Lugavere wrote a book called, I think it's called Genius Foods, and he's, he's talks a lot about how, you know, the basic foods we eat play such a role. So sugar is a brain toxin. right? You want to be avoiding a lot of sugar and starch. And flour is just as bad as sugar. So whether it's, you know, white flour or white sugar, they're basically interchangeable in your body. So getting off of the refined foods, the processed foods, the starchy foods, that's going to make a huge impact on depression, on cognitive function, on neurologic alertness. Also, fats are so important for the brain. So eating really good quality fats, olive oil, avocados, nuts and seeds, even things like MCT oil can be used to help actually improve cognitive function and I can use that a lot as well. So those are really simple things you can do. And then there is really important nutrients for brain function. Like I was mentioning before, the B vitamins, B6, folate and B12. And those, you know, B6 and B12 often are found a lot of animal products. So, whether it's eggs or, I mean, liver is probably the best source of some of these nutrients, although people don't like liver. I grew up eating chicken livers 'cause they were cheap and we were very poor. And then of course, you know, the omega-3 fats from fish, really, really, really important. And so I think it's really important to have the right kinds of good fats, and then of course all the phytochemicals in our food that are powerful, that are brain protective nutrients, things like curcumin, which is in curry or the gingerols, anti-inflammatory things that are really, really great, really, really important. I think there's also some really great other hacks you can do for your brain by working on your gut. So the microbiome is so important for your brain function. So eating pre and probiotic foods is also great. My friend David Perlmutter wrote a book called Brain Maker, which is about how the gut affects the brain. And, I know, I was just talking to a scientist the other day about how, you know, doing fecal transplants on autistic kids can reverse their symptoms. And when you think about that, it's just mind blowing, right? Or when you think about using pre and probiotics to treat depression, it's sort of mind blowing. It's not what we normally think about, but actually focusing on your gut health is a great way to enhance your brain function. 'cause your gut and brain are completely connected. And that means, you know, eating prebiotic foods like resistant starches. I like artichokes. I eat those all the time. You can use plantains. They're great. And also other kinds of fibers, all kinds of fiber, any kind of fiber is a great prebiotic food. And of course, prebiotic foods like sauerkraut, miso, kimchi, you know, natto, tempeh, these are really, really great. So I think it's super, super important to actually work on all these aspects to activate your brain function. And then of course, you know, the issues around sleep and stress reduction are huge. So meditation, sleep quality is so, so important. I just read a study that came out a few days ago about Alzheimer's showing that if you looked at people who had good sleep quality, their risk of getting dementia and having declined with Alzheimer's was much, much less. so, you know, people don't realize how important sleep is, but it's one of the most critical things we do every day. And it's because in our brain, there's a. A cleansing mechanism. It's called the glymphatic system. It's. It's literally like a. Like a. Like a. Like a Pac-Man garbage collector that comes around and cleans up all the waste, and it only works when you're sleeping. So if you don't sleep enough, you literally can't clean your brain from the junk that's in there, and it causes all kinds of secondary problems. So I. I think. you know, there's a lot of strategies to enhance your brain function. I'm always focusing on that. How do I optimize my brain function? Sometimes intermittent fasting also is a great strategy, which, which isn't really fasting. What it really means by that is more time restricted eating. So essentially it's eating within a shorter time window. So rather than eating, you know, right when you get up and all the way to go to bed, like most Americans and snacking all the time, it's the worst thing you can do. Your body needs a break. so it could be 12 hours, right? If you think of you eat dinner at 6 o'clock and you have breakfast at 8 o'clock the next morning, that's a 14 hour fast. Okay. If you had two more hours on that, that's a 16 hour fast. That's what people talk about is time restricted eating. It's not so hard, but it means eating a little earlier, not eating until later in the morning, and that can make a big difference. Or, you know, it's probably not good to eat really late and then go to bed and do the fast that way, but. I think it's really great to actually try that because that can increase your metabolic function, improve your brain function, and really, really help you out. So those are just some simple ways to optimize your brain function. Okay, thank you so much, Dr. Hyman. Of course. Hi. Hi. Is Reina? Yes, how are you? How are you? I'm great, thank you. Good. Thank you for having me on. okay, so my question is, I am 30. I got off birth control about two years ago, and since then, my PMS has been awful. It brings me to my knees, and I'm crying, and I'm vomiting. And I've been doing an organic Whole Foods diet for about five years now, from what I can remember, and I've always felt. very intuitive in my body and in what makes me feel good. And since I've gotten off birth control, I can't figure out what's going on. I recently did a blood test and it showed that my testosterone was very, very low and my estrogen was a bit high. And I don't want to get back on birth control and I don't want to take hormones or anything like that. So I don't know what I can do to help the symptoms. and possibly heal what seems to be endoscopy. Yeah, well, there's a lot in there. Well, first of all, in general, you know, I deal with this a lot. And not personally, obviously, but with my patients. And we see a lot of people with PMS, a lot of people with what it seems like you have, we call dysmenorrhea, which is painful periods where you throw up and vomiting and you get really bad situation. And also with, with issues around estrogen and progesterone imbalances. And so these are really, really common. And 75% of women have some level of PMS, which when you think about it, doesn't really make sense. Why should women have to suffer from this? And is this a normal condition of being female? And I would say absolutely not. I think it's a sign of some imbalances and they're, they're, they're complicated because some of them have nothing to do with what we do to ourselves. For example, Xenoestrogens are rampant. These are foreign chemicals that are everywhere in our food, in our water, in our air, in that are in our body care products, and that are ubiquitous. And they're these petrochemically derived compounds that are estrogen mimickers. So they act like estrogen in the body, even at very, very small doses. And there's literally thousands of these out there and they work not just in additive ways, but they work in synergistic ways. So they actually are exponential. So one plus one doesn't equal two, it might equal a hundred in terms of its effect. And that can lead to all sorts of hormonal issues that lead to problems with estrogen metabolism and detoxification. And so when you're seeing high levels of estrogen in people, it's often because, you know, either they're eating a diet that's super high in starch and sugar, or they're exposed to environmental chemicals, or they have some genetics that affect their ability to metabolize estrogen. So you kind of have to look at all those things. And also the gut plays a huge role in hormone metabolism. So from a functional medicine perspective, we look at toxins, we look at your gut, we look at your nutritional levels, we look at the hormonal balances and what's in and out of balance, and we kind of come up with a personalized plan. There's no one size fits all. but typically what I would say is, you know, getting off of dairy is huge for people. Gluten is also very much often a trigger for people and is inflammatory. Eating a Whole Foods diet is great. It's really important. So I think, but getting very low on starch and sugar is very important. Alcohol can be very problematic because it raises estrogen levels from a lifestyle point of view. Exercise really helps. to balance hormone levels, sleep, obviously, meditation, all those things help. But my guess is you're already doing all that stuff. Yeah. So then there's a question of what's the next layer? And one of the things that I have people do is do in my practice at the Center for Functional Medicine or at the Ultra Wellness Center in Lenox, Massachusetts, where we treat patients. And I have some podcasts on this too. There's some other podcasts with with my colleague, Dr. Boham. I think we did a one on PMS. There's a test we measure your urine hormone levels. And the hormone levels are important because your body has to metabolize estrogen. And there's actually no such thing as estrogen. There are estrogens. Like, they're different flavors, right? And, and, and it goes down different pathways. And some of the pathways can cause more symptoms. Some of them cannot. and they can be modified by your diet. So they can be modified by various supplements. So for example, it goes down a pathway that creates one of the products called two hydroxy esterone or two estrogen, let's say. That's not good. Actually, that, that, that if you don't make that past, if you don't make enough of that compound, it's not good. If you make too much of the 16, it's bad. And the 16 is often increased with environmental toxins or poor diet, lack of exercise, stress. But the two you can increase by eating, for example, more cruciferous vegetables. You can actually take compounds like diindolmethane, which is a extract of broccoli essentially, as a supplement that can help to balance the hormones. You can use various compounds that help metabolize the estrogens like B6, folate, and B12. Sometimes you need higher doses of those. And then there are other ways to regulate hormonal dysfunction such as using herbs. And a lot of herbs can be very, very helpful like Chase Berry. There's also traditional Chinese herbs that work really well, magnesium and B6. These really help with estrogen metabolism. So we tend to use a comprehensive approach of all these things. Sometimes you do need to look at a bigger detoxification program. So you might need to do various kinds of detoxifying diets, various detoxifying supplements, things like glutathione. things like estrogen metabolizing beneficiary compounds like calcium D-glucarate, you might need to work on your microbiome a little bit with pro and prebiotics. So depending on what's going on and basically on your other symptoms, we'd figure out what a customized approach with. But I think that the fact that women suffer so much from PMS is so unnecessary. Sometimes I will use topical estrogen progesterone as a treatment to help balance out the hormones. So a little bit of topical progesterone in the last 10 days of your cycle can really stop a lot of these symptoms if you're struggling. But I usually start with the herbs, I start with those basic foundational things. I may look for other issues around the gut issues, I may look for other problems. And I think there's, there's often really straightforward solutions that you don't have to suffer with this and you don't have to take the birth control pill. So I think it's really important to understand that it may take a little work to figure this out, but Finding a good functional medicine doctor would be great and getting the right help is really important. And, at the Ultra Wellness Center now, we do all virtual consults, so we're happy to help anybody who's struggling. And, I think it's really, you know, it's a lot of stuff you can do on your own, but if you get stuck, you sometimes need a little help. Right. Okay. Well, thank you, Dr. Hyman. I really appreciate that. Of course. Well, good luck. Thanks. Bye. All right, Karen, how are you? I am wonderful. Thank you so much. I'm so excited to be talking to you today. You've already talked a little bit about inflammation. I know you've talked about brain inflammation. I'm interested I have polymyositis, so I have a muscle inflammatory problem. Can you speak a little bit more about inflammation and how it affects the body? And for, I mean, I do all the things that are essential. I eat well, I exercise, and I do those things. But there might be other things that I need to consider that I haven't considered. Yeah. So, you know, inflammation is the scourge of our age. It is the thing that is causing pretty much all chronic disease, whether it's autoimmune diseases like you have allergic diseases like asthma and allergies, or heart disease, cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer's, and even depression and neurodegenerative issues are all inflammatory problems. Autism, I mean, everything is inflammation. So, you know, as a functional medicine doctor, my perspective is that of an inflammologist rather than being focused on an organ or like you've got a muscle inflammation, but I don't want to be focused on your muscle. I want to focus on what is causing the inflammation. And so again, it's so personalized and it's very different for different patients. So I could have 10 patients with polymyositis and I might prescribe 10 different treatments based on what their problem is. So for example, it might be in one person they're eating gluten, which causes an autoimmune disease and a leaky gut. You're not eating gluten, obviously you're shaking your head. so it might be that they have mercury poisoning from eating a lot of fish, or they might have lead poisoning from living in a 100 year old house, or they might have got an infection with a tick, or they might have mold in their house, or they might have bacteria in their gut that are out of balance and dysbiosis. and need to have a gut reset. So each one of these requires a little bit of a different treatment. How I'm going to treat someone's gut is different than having a detoxify some from mercury or mold or treat a tick or deal with their dietary costs. So it's really very personalized to think about how do we one get rid of the costs? So functional medicine is pretty straightforward. You take out the bad stuff, you put in the good stuff. Right. There's a short list of stuff that bugs people, you know, that it causes irritation in the system. And that list of stuff interacts with you and your genes and everything that's happening in your life to create whatever is going on with your health in that moment. So it's a short list, right? It's toxins we talked about. It can be, it can be pesticides, it can be glyphosate because it destroys your microbiome, which is in 70% of all our crops. It can be heavy metals like we discussed. It can be like I said, infections, microbes. So it can be tick infections, viruses. For example, MS has been linked to various viruses like Epstein-Barr virus. It can be tick infections, which are really common and a big scourge, whether it's Lyme or other co-infections. And it can also be gut imbalances, microbes in the gut that are unhealthy. So microbes, allergens, toxins, stress, poor diet. Those are the five things that really drive most disease. So you have to be a detective to figure out which of those things. And there's a lot of options in each of those to figure out. And that's really my job as a doctor, is I figure out what are those things that are really problematic. And then I focus on what are the body's needs. So not only do you have to get rid of what it's not liking, you have to add in what it really likes to thrive. and it's the obvious stuff, right? This is not rocket science. It's, I mean, if you put a plant in the ground, you know it needs healthy soil, you know it needs water, you know it needs sunlight. I mean, it's just common sense. The body's the same way. You need the right food, real food. You need the right levels of nutrients for you, the right balance of hormones. You need clean air, clean water, you need movement, you need sleep, you need rhythm. you know, I found, you know, being home for COVID has really changed my health dramatically because I never was able to live a rhythmic life. I was traveling everywhere, lecturing, teaching, working, trying to change the world. And I never slept in the same bed more than a few nights. And now I'm in the same bed every night. I have a rhythm in my life, which has really helped elevate my own health. Also, making sure you have community, connection, love, meaning, purpose. These are all the basic ingredients for a healthy human. so that's my job as a functional medicine doctor is to be a detective and figure out what are the things on each area, what are you getting too much of that you don't like, your body doesn't need, and what are you not getting enough of that you need to thrive? And how do I get rid of the bad stuff and put in the good stuff? And the body's natural healing mechanisms take over and will actually help the body heal. So with your particular condition, I don't know the answer, but I think it's really worth exploring each of these areas and figuring out. Based on your story, what's going on? And usually by taking a very detailed history, I can tell. For example, my niece is telling me she's not feeling good. She has allergies, she's tired, she's having headaches. And I'm like, I think I need to get allergy medicine. I'm like, what's going on? I know she lives in Houston and I know there was a flood there. I know it's very humid there. I'm like, is there mold in your house? So I'm being a detective. and she's like, I don't know. Let me go look. So she'll show me, like, a video of her bathroom and the air conditioning vents. It's just black mold everywhere. I'm thinking, okay, this is why she's sick. So she could go to the doctor, he's gonna give her drugs, and she's gonna go back and live in the moldy house. You know, that's not good, right? So I. Each individual story will tell me what's really going on. So I think, you know, there's a really good way to navigate through these things, and there's some great books on this. It's a. I think a friend of mine, Amy Myers, wrote a book called the Autoimmune Solution, which is quite good. I think there's also a book by Susan Blum, which is quite good on this as well. I forgot the title about autoimmunity. They're both good friends of mine and functional medicine doctors, and they'll give you a good roadmap. Great. Thank you so much. I so appreciate it. Of course, Karen. All right. I think we have Kayla up next. Hi. Thank you so much for having me. You're an inspiration. Of course. How are you doing? inspiration to me and so many others. Thank you. I actually heard you speak in LA with Paul Hawkin back in March. Oh, you braved the COVID Yeah. See us. Okay. So my question is, if you feel like you're doing everything right, eating super, super clean, getting enough sleep, avoiding caffeine, exercising regularly, what do I do if I still feel extremely tired. I know this question isn't necessarily a one-size-fits-all. I mean, I personally check my thyroid. Everything's normal there. My cortisol levels are fine. Taking B12, vitamin D, all the supplements I need to be taking, but I just still feel tired. Yeah. Well, that's a good question. So, fatigue is one of those symptoms in medicine that can be a thousand things, right? And, I think that that often, you know, like I just went through with Karen, it's being a detective to figure out what is going on for you. Because if you're doing everything right and you still feel like crap, then there's usually something going on. So, for example, I, you know, I know how to live a healthy lifestyle and I'm, you know, do whatever I can to support myself. So usually when I, something's wrong with me, like, I know there's something else going on, so. A few years ago, I had mold in my house, which made me really sick. Or when I was living in China, I got mercury poisoning and I was exercising and eating great and doing everything and I barely could move. And it was because I had mercury poisoning. Sometimes it's because you might have a gut imbalance that you haven't tested there's a parasite or maybe there's something else going on. Maybe your hormones are off and your thyroid's not right and you need thyroid hormone. So there's a way to sort of sort through what fatigue is caused by. and again, it's the same list. It's like, is it one of those things that is causing your body to be out of balance and how do you get rid of it? And is it something you need that your body needs to be in balance that you're not getting of and how do you get it? And essentially that's what functional medicine is. It's a way of looking at your body as the ecosystem and trying to restore the natural health of the ecosystem and then disease goes away as a side effect. So the fatigue issues, you know, are challenging and it requires a little bit more detective work if you're already doing the right stuff. and you find nothing is really working, it's probably a good idea to work with a functional medicine doctor to try to figure it out. Because it takes a little digging to figure it out. I haven't checked my heavy metal toxicity yet, so I'm thinking of looking into that next. Yeah, I mean if you eat a lot of fish or if you're exposed to pollution, I mean that can be a factor. And how about natural remedies in terms of food? Is it okay to rely on something like matcha when I'm feeling down or tired? Sure, I mean, you can use matcha. There are a lot of adrenal issues that people have that can cause fatigue. So sometimes getting a cortisol adrenal test can be very helpful where you measure saliva morning, noon, afternoon, and evening. Was that normal? It was normal, yeah. Yeah, okay. So I mean, sometimes people have a lot of adrenal issues and that can cause fatigue and that can be restored through things like herbs and meditation and yoga. But if you're already doing all that, I think might be something else that's hidden and it may be something in your environment and maybe a toxic factor that's there. You might have a latent tick infection. I find a lot of times that people don't know this, but you know, you never have to know you've got a bite and you could still have gotten a bite 20 years ago and get be still sick now. And so that's something always to think about when I find unexplained fatigue and other symptoms, I always thinking about tick infections and I'm just surprised at how often I find people really struggle with it. And once you do, you can begin to start treating it. There are also incredible therapies out there that can help people. Intravenous nutrition can be a great way to kind of rev up your system. I don't know where you live and what clinics are available there, but there's a lot of things like IV nutrition. LA, yeah, I'm sure you can, there's a lot of IV clinics in LA that you can use things like glutathione, vitamin C, NAD, it's great for fatigue. Even things like ozone therapy can be very, very helpful for upregulating your immune system and helping with fatigue and brain fog and energy. So those are kinds of additional therapies that I go to, but I often try to figure out what the cause is. Okay, great. Thank you so much. Well, Kayla, I really appreciate you and everybody who joined us today. This has been so much fun. I really love doing these Q&As and I love talking to everybody because most of them I just talk to myself and my wife and we're all stuck alone. So it's great to hang out with people. I'm really glad you joined me and I want you to Come back for the next time. If you want to ask me a question in the future, just text me at 413-225-8995. Use the hashtag AskMark and my team might pick your question for one of our future calls. So thanks so much for joining us today on this special episode of the Doctor's Pharmacy. Hi everyone, I hope you enjoyed this episode. Just a reminder that this podcast is for educational purposes only. This podcast is not a substitute for professional care by a doctor or other qualified medical professional. This podcast is provided on the understanding that it does not constitute medical or other professional advice or services. If you're looking for help in your journey, seek out a qualified medical practitioner. If you're looking for a functional medicine practitioner, you can visit ifm.org and search their find a practitioner database. 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