Episode #148: “You Are Not Alone”: Estrogen Dominance, A Fitness Q&A And Why You Shouldn’t Slap Any Old Sunscreen On Your Skin.

In this podcast, why youy shouldn't slap on any old sunscreen, estrogen dominance, indoor trainers versus stationary bikes, achilles pain, natural anti inflammatories, juice plus mona v and shaky hands.

Welcome to the BenGreenfieldFitness.com podcast. We provide you with free exercise, nutrition, weight loss, triathlon and wellness advice from the top fitness experts in the nation. So whether you're an Ironman triathlete or you're just trying to shed a few pounds, get ready for non run of the mill cutting edge content from BenGreenfieldFitness.com.

Hey folks, it's Ben Greenfield podcasting to you from Kona, Hawaii, where I'm here to race the Hawaii 70.3 Triathlon. And that's why the audio may sound a little bit funny today. I'm using my portable microphone setup with my trusty laptop, so I apologize for any unprofessional audio quality, but hopefully you'll still get a lot of good information out of today's podcast. So we don't have a ton in the way of special announcements today, but I wanted to make one quick correction. Last week I responded to a question about protein intake for kids and I was doing the math in my head and I more than doubled the recommended protein intake in the recommendation that I made to a woman about how much protein her young girl who was swimming should be getting. So if you want to see the correct protein intake, I actually did correct that. It's on the show Notes for podcast number 147. So check that out if you want to make sure that you're not going to put your child into kidney failure from giving them too much protein. So. So other than that, let's go ahead and just jump right in to this week's questions and we'll go from there. And if you would like to keep track of what I'm up to on Saturday, I'll be trying to qualify for the Ironman World Championships and you can track that@ironman.com all right, let's go ahead and jump into this week's Q and A.

Listener Guest Q and A.

So if you have a question for the podcast, you can go to BenGreenfieldFitness.com and use the handy Dandy Ask Ben form. You can grab the free iPhone or the free Android app right over there@BenGreenfieldFitness.com and you can ask your question that way. Or you can of course call toll free to 877-209-9439. And if you get a lot of benefit out of these questions. Please try and donate to the podcast while you're at the website. You can push a button to donate $1 to kind of keep the podcast going and manage my expenses in bringing this one to you. So first question is from Melanie, who says, I need advice on how to reduce estrogen dominance. I'm not interested in using a progesterone cream. I'd like to reduce estrogen naturally. Any advice is appreciated since PMS derails my exercise and healthy eating. Well, this is a really good question because estrogen dominance affects probably more people than we actually realized. And it's been a big problem in the past few decades due to the prevalence of some issues that I'll be talking about in a little while when I respond to kind of the details of this question. But the basic idea is that about 100 years ago or last century, the average female would start her menses at about 16 years old and get pregnant earlier and also more frequently. And that's really not the case nowadays, where the average woman starts puberty at about 12 years old, has fewer children and menstruates far fewer times, and also has a host of other issues. The occurrence of a ton of different pathological conditions like infertility, cancer, fibroids, anemia, migraines, abdominal pain, cramps, fluid retention. All of these things are a bigger problem than they were last century. And it's due to this thing called estrogen dominance. And basically what estrogen dominance is, there's two female hormones that are secreted by the ovaries, and they're estrogen and progesterone. Now, estrogen is kind of like a growth hormone. It helps out with mood, it helps out with kind of giving a feeling of well being. But it's specifically responsible for growth and proper reproduction or the reproductive physiology in women. The problem is that too much of anything is not that great. And so there's another hormone that women make that helps to balance out progesterone. It helps to counterbalance a lot of its effects, and that's progesterone. Now, progesterone is produced from something called pregnenolone, and that comes from cholesterol. And women make progesterone in the ovaries. They also make it in the adrenal glands. Men make it in the adrenal glands too, actually. And men also make progesterone in their testes. So progesterone is something that's actually used by both sexes. But in females specifically, it's very, very, very important to balance out the effects of estrogen because it acts as, like this antagonist to estrogen. So, for example, estrogen kind of enhances salt retention and water retention and kind of the swelling effect, whereas progesterone is basically a natural diuretic. Estrogen has been associated, many people know this with breast cancer, endometrial cancer, and progesterone has kind of this cancer preventive effect. And so studies even shown that women who have deficiency in progesterone have about five times more the risk of breast cancer. And that's directly an effect of the estrogen progesterone ratio being off. So we get this combination of a dominance of estrogen or too much estrogen, a deficiency in progesterone that causes all of the weight gain, the pms, the swelling, water retention, and a lot of the more serious pathological disease issues that occur in women, especially as they get kind of up above the age of 35. But what happens is that women in their mid-30s or in their mid-40s during kind of those pre or those perimenopausal years, and basically all women during menopause, especially in America, they're overloaded with estrogen and at the same time suffering from a progesterone deficiency. So let's talk about some of the ways that this could happen in terms of progesterone being too low. There's a couple ways that that could happen. If a female, when she was in the embryo still developing, had a mother who was actually exposing the female embryo to high amounts of what are called xenobiotics or xenoestrogens, which are these environmental estrogens or pesticides or plastics or pollutions. All of that can affect ovulation and specifically cause a woman's follicles and the reproductive years to become dysfunctional. So no eggs are released. So there's no formation of what's called a corpus luteum. And the corpus luteum is what's responsible for. For actually producing progesterone. So that's one issue, obviously not something you have control over. It's more like something that if you're planning on having a child or if you know someone who's planning on having a child, they have control over how much pesticide and plastic and pollution they expose themselves to, especially while a female embryo is developing. Now, the other thing that can happen is what's called a luteal insufficiency. And a lot of times that can be more genetic. But. But what happens is the egg is produced, but the corpus luteum malfunctions, it just doesn't make enough progesterone. And in a case like that, it can become important to supplement with progesterone or to use some of the measures I'm gonna talk about in a second to keep the estrogen levels down, specifically the estrogen levels that are coming from outside sources. Because the issue is that the human body, it works okay until we expose it to some of these external sources that can throw off proper hormonal balance. So if you are producing estrogen naturally, that's not an issue. That's not going to hurt you unless your progesterone levels are too low or, and this is more often the case, you have a ton of excessive sources of estrogen coming in. So let's talk about what some of those excessive sources of estrogen might be. First of all, this is the one that a lot of people know about and that's commercially raised cattle, chickens, poultry, any of these animals that are fed estrogen like hormones or growth hormone, all of that gets passed on to the humans that eat them, that eat that meat. And all of those estrogen like compounds can cause estrogen dominance in women. The other problem is that the feeds that they use to feed a lot of the commercially raised animals, specifically the ones that you aren't like buying locally from your local farmer, non grass fed, non organic, they use a ton of different hormone disrupting toxins, pesticides, antibiotics, drugs, all of these things that can also throw off your hormonal balance. Pesticides, herbicides, biocides, anything that's used in like a non organic fruit or vegetables or vegetable, those have chemical structures that are very similar to estrogen. And so those can cause an estrogen dominance as well. It's not estrogen per se that's in them, but it is chemical that's very similar to estrogen that can cause this dominance. So not buying organic food or eating a lot of food without washing it, that can be another issue when it comes to estrogen dominance. Now I already talked about exposure to these xenoestrogens, especially avoiding that in a woman who's pregnant with a female embryo, to make sure that the female embryo, when they grow up to be a full grown woman, don't have estrogen dominance. But a lot of these same compounds have estrogens in them that can be contributory to estrogen dominance in women. And those would be a lot of things that you find in regular consumer products like creams and lotions and soaps and shampoos and perfumes, hairsprays and room deodorizers. I know this is kind of intimidating because it's a lot of stuff that we use on a daily basis. But there are natural sources out there. And for someone who's very serious about overcoming something like estrogen dominance or who is resistant to weight loss, it can be prudent to think very, very carefully about what type of household products, what type of cleaners you're using, and what type of things you're using on your skin, because the skin is a mouth and it will absorb the things that you put onto it. The other thing when it comes to these type of compounds are industrial solvents. And these are chemicals, they enter the body through the skin and they especially accumulate in fat rich tissue. They're fat soluble, so they'll accumulate in nerve tissue or in adipose tissue. Two of the places where we tend to have fat, and a lot of the common ones are found in cosmetics and fingernail polish, fingernail polish removal, lawn and garden sprays, insect sprays. It can be something as simple as, as rather than using a DEET insect spray, use a natural lemongrass. I mean, that's just one example. We've got a ton of other examples my wife and I do in the inner circle where we teach how to make your own household cleaning chemicals. Probably the wrong word there. Household cleaning compounds that are a little bit more natural and that aren't going to cause kind of those additive effects of chronic exposure to estrogen. Because using mosquito spray once or using fingernail polish a couple times a week is not going to give you estrogen dominance. But when you bring everything together and you get the cumulative effect of exposure to a lot of these xenoestrogens, that's where the problem tends to come up. And we have that direct correlation kind of that smoking gun between this rise in estrogen dominance and the rise in the use of industrial solvents and industrial type compounds. Hormone replacement therapy is huge when it comes to this huge cause of estrogen dominance in tons of women. People are becoming more aware of the alternatives and the use of natural hormone replacement therapy. I did an interview with Dr. Wiley a few months ago. You can go to BenGreenfieldFitness.com, you can do a search for natural hormone replacement therapy. But regular hormone replacement therapy with Premarin, which is basically an estrogen that doesn't have sufficient opposing progesterone in it, is something that's extremely serious when it comes to estrogen dominance. And as we found out in the past few years, can really Set the stage for endometrial cancer and for breast cancer. And if you're on a hormone replacement therapy, that's not like a natural compounded hormone replacement therapy. And you think that estrogen dominance is an issue, especially if you're a female, when you're trying to overcome a resistance to weight loss, that's one of the things that you should not be doing. Interestingly, you heard me mention that the adrenal glands produce progesterone, which opposes the effects of estrogen. Adrenal glands can shut down or produce fever, fewer of the compounds that they would normally produce. If you are stressed out, because the adrenal glands are what respond to stress. So if you are constantly stressed and if you are living kind of this high stress, fast paced lifestyle, what can happen is your adrenal glands can reduce their progesterone output and that will directly and deleteriously affect your estrogen progesterone ratio. That's something else to think about, obesity. And this is kind of a vicious cycle. Obesity is an issue because fat has an enzyme in it that converts steroids to estrogens. So if you're struggling with weight, what can happen is that excess weight can lead to increased conversion of steroids to estrogen and you get this vicious cycle going on. And really the answer to that is not necessarily to eat a low fat diet, because remember, progesterone is produced from cholesterols. A high fat diet is not necessarily going to cause estrogen dominance. What would cause estrogen dominance when it comes to fat accumulation is a high fat, high calorie diet. So the issue is not the amount of fat that you're taking in, but rather the amount of calories that you're taking in when it comes to estrogen dominance. Because of the importance of cholesterol and production of progesterone, I actually encourage women to eat a higher fat diet. But that does not mean that you're eating a higher fat diet without moderating calorie intake. So that's something that's very important. And I did mention that that's a vicious cycle. And I should mention also the adrenal gland issue is a vicious cycle because when your adrenal glands become exhausted, what can happen is you can become, you get basically these blood sugar imbalances and chronic fatigue. All of that can increase the excessive estrogen production as well. So the adrenal glands you get, the excessive estrogen production is kind of a secondary response to that stress. And the primary response would be the drop in progesterone production by the adrenal glands. The livers are really, really are the livers. Most of us just have one, last time I checked, the liver basically is very important in terms of having some enzymes that can regulate the production of estrogen and the utilization of estrogen. And if you are not treating your liver well, specifically if you have a high alcohol intake and also a high intake of high amount of processed foods, that can be an issue with estrogen dominance. Deficiency of vitamin B6 and magnesium is also an issue because both of these are necessary for the neutralization of estrogen in the liver. So making sure that you have adequate vitamin B6, making sure that you have adequate magnesium, that's incredibly important. And interestingly, caffeine intake is linked with higher estrogen levels, and that would be regardless of your age. They've done studies where women who consume more coffee, and specifically that 4 to 5 cup of coffee a day type of scenario, had a ton more estrogen produced during a specific phase of their menstrual cycle compared to women who did not. So the issue is that it kind of comes down to eating clean, avoiding caffeine, exercising and living clean. And that sounds kind of simple, but if I were to give the most simple explanation of how to reduce estrogen dominance, that would be it. A few of the things that you could do, you could increase your fiber intake, because fiber intake has been associated with lower levels of blood estrogen. And so you could make sure that you're adding in lots of dark leafies, nut seeds. If you're not doing like a paleo diet, you know, some legumes, some oatmeal, things like that could also help. Sulfuric foods can really help with your liver function, which again is directly linked to your ability to process estrogen properly. And sulfurous foods would be things like spinach, leafy greens, cruciferous vegetables, so broccolis, cauliflowers, your brussels sprouts. Doing a lot of these type of foods can help out quite a bit. Onions, garlic, egg yolk, all of those are really good in terms of the sulfur content as well. So I would be including things like that in your diet. Of course, you want to choose organic food or wash very well the food that you purchase that's not organic. And then as far as foods to avoid, like I mentioned, caffeine, high carb, sugars, processed foods, things of that nature. So you don't necessarily need to go on like a low fat diet. I don't recommend that, but those are some of the things that I would do. When it comes to estrogen dominance, it tends to be a huge issue. I see this in a lot of women who are resistant to weight loss. If you are a man who's resistant to weight loss and you've had your testosterone levels measured and they're very low, you should look into your estrogen levels as well, because those can tend to be very high. And you can get a form of estrogen dominance in men, too. And I've seen this happen before, and it requires a lot of the similar things that I just described in terms of ways to control that when it comes to women. So hopefully that helps. Next question is from Joy, who says, I am doing my first sprint triathlon in July. I own a stationary bike, and I was wondering if or what is the big difference between using an indoor trainer or a stationary bike? And the answer is, it kind of depends on the type of stationary bike that you're using. A lot of folks when they're using a stationary bike, they have these spin bikes in their home, or they're using the spin bikes at the gym. And a lot of spin bikes have what's called a flywheel, and that weighs about 30 to 40 pounds. And it's what keeps the pedals turning after your legs stop. And what happens is that your hamstrings respond to this added momentum from that flywheel by kind of contracting at the top of the pedal stroke. So your hamstrings tend to work a lot harder on a spin bike and frankly, use a lot of the muscles that you should be using for running. So, for example, you're running after you ride your stationary bike. A spin bike might make that a little less pleasant. The other thing about this flywheel on a spin bike is that if you are just kind of spinning at a very low resistance, the flywheel does most of the work for you. So it's also very easy to think that you are doing very, very well. And you're superhuman because you're spinning at 100 rpm on a spin bike and you're putting out X number of calories according to the computer, when in reality, the flywheel can be doing a very, very high percentage of that work. So if it's like a spin bike with this flywheel on it, that's one thing to think about. If it's just a regular stationary bike, that's actually going to simulate the type of pedaling that you would do outdoors on a regular bike a lot more closely. But the stationary bikes, from a biomechanical perspective, tend to Be less like a, like an outdoor bike or a road bike or a triathlon bike than a spin bike is because a spin bike can be modified quite a bit in terms of seat height, seat forward back position, handlebar forward back position. A lot of them even have like aero bars on them similar to what you'd use in a triathlon bike. Stationary bike doesn't have much of that. It basically has this big fat seat with huge pads on it that make you feel like you're sitting on, on top of just a huge object while you're riding on that bike. Designed for big butts, I guess I should say. And they can be kind of uncomfortable. The cranks on them are very short. It's hard to sit on them for a long period of time. And you know, they're convenient because you can throw them in your living room. But if you plan on committing to triathlon long term, I would recommend that you just get an indoor bicycle trainer like Kurt Kinetic or Cyclops makes a good one. A lot of these online bike retailers like performancebike.com they've got one that's a good deal. You just grab an indoor bike trainer and you put your bike on the indoor bike trainer and you get the best of both worlds. And it's very, very easy to get used to that. And if you buy it from a local bike shop, they can even show you how to set your bicycle up properly on the indoor bike trainer. So that's what I would do if I were you. And incidentally, I, I travel quite a bit. I spend a lot of time in hotels and I spend quite a bit of time training on a stationary bike. And as a matter of fact, even on a recumbent bicycle, for example, this, this race that I'm doing down here in Hawaii, my last training session was two hours of riding on a recumbent bicycle while I watched a big TV in the hotel gym. So you, you can definitely get fit for a triathlon by using these alternatives to riding a bicycle outdoors. But it's not ideal. If I were in your shoes, I would get an indoor trainer and throw your regular bike on it. So you were getting used to your regular bike. Don't have to put up with the flywheel on a spin bike. You don't have to put up with the inhibited biomechanics on a stationary bike. And that's what I'd go with. So, next question is from Chris, who says, do you have any advice for general Achilles health? I've had to modify a lot of my hill training, because after I do the hills, my Achilles will ache. Well, the reason for that is that the Achilles tendon is on stretch. When you're climbing a hill, because your ankle is flexed, it's in what's called dorsiflexion. And it's also having to go through a great deal of the opposite motion, plantar flexion, when you push off from that hill. And your Achilles tendon is the big, thick, strong tendon in your body that runs from your heel up to your calves and kind of attaches underneath your calves. And there are a ton of different things that can cause Achilles ache when you're doing hill climbing. But a few of the things that I've found to be most prevalent include calf tightness, which can be fixed with stretching, and in more advanced cases, a yoga and a foam roller, both of which can be done prior to heading out on your hill run. It can also be addressed with proper footwear. A lot of times, if you're using footwear that, for example, and this, this would be the most common case, is not over pronation, high stable footwear. And you tend to be an over pronator that's going to instantly cause your Achilles to be overworked and give you a lot of that tightness in the Achilles. Using shoes that are, that are worn or alternating between, like a high heel, like if you're wearing a boot a lot of the time and then you're switching to exercise shoes, that can also cause some Achilles pain. Because if you've got any weakness in your hip and your leg musculature, again, kind of intuitive, but you'll be overusing some of your lower leg musculature. So I'd be sure that you're doing lots of glute exercises as well as core exercises and doing some hamstring work as well, specifically with things like deadlifts and squats. If it's an issue of inflammation that you really need to get under control, then you start to look into some of these alternative therapies. Traditional physical therapy that you could try, and this would be something that you'd probably need to go through for two to four weeks, would be electrostimulation. Preferably try electrostimulation combined with ice. That tends to work very well. If you use ice, make sure you warm the muscle back up before you go out and exercise. You can try ultrasound. They also have laser photo stimulation for the Achilles acupuncture. A lot of people are very responsive to that with the Achilles. And the other thing that you could look into are injectables. And the reason I say look into them is because you'd want to have a very frank discussion with whichever surgeon or physician was injecting the Achilles because it tends to be very prone to rupture depending on what is injected into it. Specifically. If you get a cortisol injection, that's an issue where you'd want to speak with the physician about whether or not that's going to put you at risk for an Achilles rupture. And, and a lot of times that will. So that's something to be careful with. Prolotherapies, injections of anti inflammatory nutrients, platelet rich plasma injections, things of that nature. You know, I'm not a doctor, I don't want to dish out too much medical advice. Talk to your doctor about those. But in advanced cases of inflammation that can be an issue. But if your Achilles isn't hurting until you're like 13, 14 miles into a run or when you're climbing steep hills, you probably don't have that advanced case of inflammation with you. It's probably an issue with tight calves or improper footwear. So I'd be foam rolling, stretching, making sure you have the right shoes. And then try kind of the, don't take the big guns out until you try the little stuff. Try some acupuncture, try some electrostim, you can even try some laser or some infrared stimulation. And then at that point you talk to a doctor about taking the next step. So the next question is a good one. It's from Suzanne who says, I saw that you were taking phenocaine as a COX2 inhibitor. And don't worry if you don't know what a COX2 inhibitor is. We'll talk about it. She says, in your opinion, how would you compare this to saligesic, which is a medication, an anti inflammatory medication, or white willow stem bark for pain management? I know that everyone is different and they have to be willing to be your own test dummy sometimes. But I find it helpful to gain insight from others. So first of all, let's talk about the sphenocaine. This is the stuff that I take whenever I'm injured. I don't take it when I'm not injured. I don't recommend that you try and be shutting down inflammation all the time because it really is a natural response. And a lot of times the body needs inflammation in order to properly help muscle fibers repair and recover. But prostaglandin is basically something that shuts down the activity of an enzyme called cyclooxygenase 2, that stands for COX2. And COX2 enzymes are responsible for much of the inflammation that exists when we are injured, when we have a strain, when we have a sprain. Basically, for me, it's something, for example, I got hit by a bike, I hurt my shoulder a few weeks ago and I had to play in a tennis tournament the next week. And I used phenocaine to kind of shut down inflammation and shut down pain during that tennis tournament. What it has in it is it's got a cumin extract and cumin is a natural COX2 inhibitor, kind of an herb base, and also has curcuminoids in it. And curcuminoids are basically kind of, they're very similar to curcumin or to cumin. They're derived from turmeric and they're derived specifically through reducing turmeric through a 60 part reduction. And so you're basically extracting a very, very powerful part of the turmeric. So it's a lot more, it's a lot different than just like sprinkling turmeric on your salad. We're talking about like taking a whole bottle of turmeric and extracting the curcuminoids from that. Boswellia is something else that it has in it which also reduces COX2 and DLPA or DL phenylalaniline. It helps your body to maintain higher levels of serotonin. And serotonin can help with mood elevation and kind of help to shut down pain. So it's not going to shut down inflammation, but at least help kind of block you from feeling some of that pain. And then it's also got nattokinase in it. And that's an enzyme derived from natto, which is, it's a popular soybean food in the Japanese diet. It's specifically a fermented form of soy. Not an issue when it comes to phytoestrogens, but it has blood clot dissolving abilities. So it can assist with blood flow a little bit and assist with shutting down pain in terms of having a very good anti inflammatory response. Now, the reason you'd want to use something like a COX2 inhibitor in the first place rather than something like an ibuprofen is you don't get the same amount of gastric discomfort, gastric bleeding, a peptic ulceration, and a lot of the, the deleterious gastrointestinal effects that can happen when you take something like ibuprofen, specifically in athletes who are exercising and more specifically athletes who are exercising in the heat. Ibuprofen tends to have a lot of toxicity effect. And you can hear more about that in an entire podcast that I did on Alternatives to ibuprofen with Dr. Roby Mitchell. Just go to BenGreenfieldFitness.com, do a search over there for phenocaine, and you'll find that interview with Dr. Roby Mitchell. But the supplements that Suzanne asked me about, both of them, this salisgesic and also the white willow extract, those are forms of salicylic acid, the same stuff that aspirin has in it. And it's a species of willow that's found in Europe. It's also found in Asia. It's called Salix elba or white willow. And the problem with salicylic acid is it can be very irritating to the stomach, specifically caustic to the lining of the stomach. So you can get abdominal pain, cramping, diarrhea. And that's kind of the whole reason that we're trying to avoid a COX2 inhibitor in the first place. So taking something that has salicylic acid in it to shut down inflammation is a lot different than taking something that has like curcumin extracts in it, like phenocaine does for shutting down inflammation. And it's really not something that I recommend much. The other issue is that if you're on a blood thinner, like a Coumadin or a warfarin, you definitely need to be careful because it thins the blood a lot more than something like the compounds that I mentioned that you find in the phenocaine. So you got to be very careful with these, especially if you have a sensitive stomach. If it were me, and especially I'm saying this because I exercise and the stomach tends to be a lot more sensitive to these issues when you are exercising. If it were me, I'd choose more of a human based painkiller than I would a salicylic acid based painkiller. And specifically the issue is not necessarily efficacy. Both are going to help with anti inflammatory activity, but one's going to be far more irritating to the stomach. So good question. Brian says, I noticed a lot of pre workout supplements have 1,3 dimethylamylamine in them. And I was wondering if this is safe. Well, you're going to find these in a lot of bodybuilding supplements and a lot of weight loss supplements, kind of like the typical GNC super supplement store. A lot of them are going to have this compound in it. It's abbreviated DMAA because it's dimethylamyl amine. It's also known as methylhexenamine, and it has a lot of different names associated with it, kind of different trade pharmaceutical names associated with it. It was originally trademarked by Eli Lilly for use as a nasal decongestant, and now it is used a lot of times as a sports enhancer. And specifically, what it does is it's a vasoconstrictor, and a lot of times you will inhale it. And it's actually classified in the States as a dietary supplement. It's been classified as a dietary supplement since the 90s, and that allows for everything, such as vitamin C is also classified as a dietary supplement. So the issue is that this is actually prohibited by the World Anti Doping Agency because it's dangerous. What happens is when you are causing something like vasoconstriction during exercise, you're making the blood vessels smaller and you're increasing blood pressure. So whereas there may be a direct increase in sports performance, specifically kind of making you feel like you're on crack cocaine, you are risking cardiac failure when you use this type of stimulant. I personally don't recommend its use. I suppose if you were exercising in environmentally controlled conditions, you weren't in the heat, you weren't competing because it would be considered an unsafe drug that would give you an unfair advantage, then it might be something that could give you a little bit of kind of an added pump in the weight room. If that's worth it to you for the cardiovascular risk, then that's your choice. But I personally wouldn't use any dietary supplements that have DMAA in them, because I don't think that it's safe to be taking a potent vasoconstrictor when you exercise. So it's a great question. And now you can all go look at your man in a can. Bodybuilding supplements for dmaa. All right, next question is from Rich, who says, what are your thoughts on Juice Plus And Mona V. And then he says, I've been taking these two supplements for a while, and as a new listener, I'm thinking about maybe switching to or at least adding Living Fuel Super Greens to my diet. Well, Juice Plus, I've actually talked about this before over at BenGreenfieldFitness.com you can go there and do a search for Juice Plus. It should come up. Sometimes when a podcast is transcribed, it has difficulty finding it. But Juice plus really doesn't have a terrible ingredient profile. It's basically a Fruit and juice powder based vitamin supplement. And they also have different types of juice, juices and gummies and chewable tablets and vitamin formulations. They are marketed by distributors who receive sales commissions. So it's considered a multi level marketing model. But that doesn't necessarily mean that the product itself is bad. As a matter of fact, a lot of times I find that with these multi level marketing products, the product itself tends to be very, very good. It just tends to be very expensive. So Juice plus, if you look at a typical like blend, if you look at for example their garden blend, it's got vegetable juice, powder and pulp from carrots, parsley, beets, kale, broccoli, cabbage, spinach, tomato, it's got some barley bran and some oat bran in it. So if you're sensitive to gluten, maybe something to think about, cabbage fiber, plant cellulose, it's got a probiotic in it, it's got some magnesium in it. For the most part, you know, you aren't going to find a lot of those red flags. Aspartame and acesulfamine and sucralose and red number five and yellow number, whatever it is. But the only issue with these is they are fairly expensive because of that multi level marketing model. However, I am not against using Juice plus if it's something that you can afford or something that you bought into. In terms of their business model, it's really not a bad supplement. They use good ingredients and I do respect what they're doing now. Mona V is this acai berry juice and it is marketed as a potent antioxidant with a high orac value, which is oxygen radical absorbance capacity and that is basically the measurement of antioxidant activity. They promote a ton of benefit in terms of the fruit, what are called polyphenols that are in Monavie. The problem is that you can really get a lot of the same benefits that you get from something like monavie from buying a pomegranate fruit at the grocery store or drinking some concentrated pomegranate juice. This stuff is highly overpriced and whereas Juice plus is kind of overpriced. And like Monavie, it's a multi level marketing product. Juice plus has a ton of different compounds in it that would be very, very tough for, for you to have all at once. Whereas monavie is very, very easy. The type of things you find in monavie are very, very easy to reproduce by just going to the local produce section and picking up some organic dark fruits and veggies from your Local grocery store. So I'm not a huge fan. I think that Monavie is incredibly overpriced for fruit juice. So it's something that I actually don't really recommend unless you just like the taste of it. And I have people send me Monavie all the time. They send me bottles of Monavie because they want me to market it. And I like it. It tastes really good. And, you know, it's giving you a lot of the same benefits of like, you know, the same polyphenolic benefits as wine, the same antioxidant benefits as a dark fruit. But I personally wouldn't buy this stuff just because of the price tag. So hopefully that helps you out with your decision a little bit. And that Living Fuel Super Greens that you're comparing it to, kind of the difference between that and like a Juice plus is you're getting a lot of the greens powders and you're getting a lot of kind of that shotgun approach to a ton of different vitamins and superfoods. The difference with Living Fuel Super Greens, and trust me, I just had some about five hours ago, is it sticks to your ribs. It's actually like a calorie based meal replacement supplement. And, you know, Juice plus is more of like a, you know, a non calorie based supplement for the most part. So a Living Fuel is much more dense. I especially like it for people like endurance athletes who are burning through a lot of calories. Okay, we have one more question here from Jack, who says, I am 17 years old and for as long as I can remember, I've had very shaky hands. Usually not a big deal. But I'm a competitive rock climber and going into the army, which both requires steady hands. I've been to many doctors with little success. Any diet or supplementation advice that might help? Well, I don't know how far you've gotten with your doctors so far, Jack, but there is a condition called essential tremor, and it's a movement disorder. It's basically involuntary or uncontrolled shaking body parts. And it specifically can happen to the hands. It can cause basically a shaky hand syndrome. So there's a few different types of tremors. There's static tremors, there's kinetic tremors, and there's action tremors. So static tremors tend to happen when a body part is not moving. And that's a lot of times something like what you'll see with Parkinson's and if a body part is trembling when you move it or when you contract it, which would happen, for example, when you're rock climbing, that's a kinetic tremor. And so that's something that you could get when you're actually active. And then an action tremor is something that happens when you grab something and you hold onto it for a long period of time. And almost all of us have had action tremors before. If you grab something heavy or if you're even just like rock climbing and you hold onto the rocks for a long period of time, your hands start to shake. But in terms of what causes shaky hands, there's a lot of different things that can cause something like this. Obviously, Parkinson's disease is something I assume you've already been screened for. Neuropathies and multiple sclerosis specifically can cause these hand tremors. And they can also be attributed to metabolic disorders like a hypoglycemia or a low blood sugar or even a thyroid disorder. And thyroid disorders are a lot of times one of the common causes of shaky hands in children. So I don't know if you've had your thyroid checked out. Obviously, stress and anxiety can cause this involuntary shaking of the hands. But that's usually an issue that is, that is not so much neuromuscular related as like one of these genetic or disease related issues. So as far as actually treating shaky hands, one very, very interesting thing is that there is some evidence that the Paleo diet can reduce symptoms of Parkinson's and reduce some of these essential tremors. And the probable reason for that is because you aren't taking in any gluten and gluten consumption. Or eliminating gluten consumption could help to eliminate some of the neurological dysfunction that's associated with tremors. Because consumption of gluten and the inflammatory response to gluten, if you're very gluten sensitive, can have a direct effect upon your neuromuscular functioning. So I would look into going for kind of a cleaner diet and getting gluten into your body. I see that you're already taking magnesium. You did mention that, and that's fantastic. Some other herbal remedies that are recommended for like a tremor base is arnica chamomile. There's another supplement called Gotu kola G O T U K O L A that's been suggested for help with tremors as well. And interestingly, I'm right down here in Kona, Hawaii, and there's. There's a tea that they drink down here called kava. And kava has a. It's like a lactane derivative or lactase derivative in it or a lactose derivative in it that is supposed to be very, very helpful with things like tremors and seizure type activity. So that's something to look into as well. It's called kava. You can get that in like dropper bottles online. This is obviously not meant to be medical advice, but, you know, if I were you, the very first thing I'd do is clean up your diet. I would eliminate gluten, I'd eliminate soy, I'd eliminate dairy. I'd even consider, consider eliminating some other kind of protein based potential allergens like eggs. I don't know if you've actually done that elimination diet before, but that's one of the first things that I would do. And then going forward from there, I would look into your thyroid health to make sure that's not a thyroid issue that's causing this. I'm assuming you're being careful with caffeine intake and that this isn't simply an anxiety based issue. And then of course, I'd get screened for Parkinson's as well. So hopefully all that helps you out. I know we just kind of scratched the surface in terms of, of some of the steps that you can take, but hopefully that points you in the right direction. So that about answers most of the questions for today. And we have a quick interview, not a real long interview today, but I wanted to kind of revisit the whole sunscreen issue. And you'll remember possibly if you've been a listener for a while, back to podcast number 92, where I interviewed a gentleman named Nick Martens about this scape sunscreen. It's the sunscreen that I use. I actually have some here with me here in Hawaii. And I use it because it helps the skin to breathe a lot easier when you're exercising in the heat. And Dr. Martin's invented that sunscreen and I wanted to talk to him a little bit about how certain types of sunscreen can inhibit body cooling. I would suggest that if you find our brief interview interesting, especially with summer being here at the time this podcast is recorded, or summer quickly approaching that, you go back and listen to podcast number 92, where Dr. Martins and I go into a lot more detail about scape sunscreen. So remember that you can check out links to any of the stuff that I talked about in the Q and a over@BenGreenfieldFitness.com in the show notes for this podcast, which is podcast episode number 148. So let's go ahead and jump into the interview with Dr. Nick Martins from escapelabs.com.

Featured topic.

Hey, folks, it's Ben Greenfield here, and I have Nick Martins on the call. You may recognize that name if you listen to podcast number 92@BenGreenfieldFitness.com where Nick joined us and talked about what goes into making a sunscreen and really kind of answered all the things you always wanted to know about sunscreen but maybe have never asked. And while I do recommend that you go back and listen to podcast number 92 if you ever now or in the future plan on putting sunscreen on your body, because we go into quite a few different variables on sunscreen during that interview today, we're going to narrow in and really talk about, specifically for people who are exercising in hot conditions, what can happen when you actually put.

Sunscreen on your skin.

And some of the considerations, especially for people like triathletes or endurance athletes or people who are out in the sun doing exercise routines that may require them to maintain a certain core temperature, a certain body temperature. So, Nick, thank you for coming on the call today.

Happy to be here.

So can you kind of talk to me a little bit, first of all.

About.

In terms of sunscreen, if someone were to say, let's say I go down to my local Walgreens and I grab some sunscreen off the shelf and I put it on and I go out and I run for two hours in the heat, what would normally happen in terms of the way that the body would cool itself through the skin? And how does sunscreen interact with that process?

Sure. Maybe I'll step back a little bit and talk about why this whole notion of core body temperature is important, because literally only 50% of the athlete's metabolic energy is converted to useful work. And in this context, speed on a bike or a run, and the rest of that heat needs to be dissipated to avoid a raise of core body temperature. And as you may know, a raise of core body temperature immediately has an effect of an athlete's ability to perform and impact performance in a negative way.

So.

Getting rid of heat is a really important aspect of athletic performance. Now, the body does that to a very large extent through sweating. And the way this literally works is that the body sweats. You get moisture on the surface of your skin which evaporates, and through that evaporation process, it cools the body down. Now, the way sunscreen plays into this is you obviously put, if you use sunscreen, you put something on the surface of your skin. And if the product is formulated such that it contains a lot of oils, these oils tend to clog the pores in the skin through which the sweat gets to the surface of the skin. And therefore, these products will impact the skin's ability to sweat. And as I mentioned before, that is an important part of the cooling process, because the evaporation of water on the surface of the skin is really what does cool the body. And so sunscreens suddenly become very important in terms of maintaining core body temperature.

Interesting. Go ahead.

Yeah. So the bottom line is, if you choose a sunscreen which is not correctly formulated and not formulated with an athlete in mind, you may end up with a situation where you clog your pores, impact your ability to sweat, and therefore run the risk of raising your core body temperature as you exercise. In particular, when you talk about exercising in hot and humid conditions like Kona.

Now, you've been instrumental in developing sunscreens like Scape Sunscreen, which is the one that I use, like, when I go down and compete in Ironman Hawaii. And in terms of the technology used in a sunscreen like that, how does that differ from other sunscreens in terms of the ability for the body to cool itself?

Yeah. So what we've done is we've essentially created a polymer matrix which, when you put the product on the surface of your skin, it forms an ultra thin Gore Tex layer. It forms something which functions like an ultra thin Gore Tex layer. And what happens then is because of that, nothing will clog your pores. There's no oils which would run into your pores and clog the pores. And therefore, it doesn't interfere with the sweating of your skin. And as a result, your body can cool itself as if you were not using a sunscreen. So the big difference on Scape is really this notion of that you form this palma matrix on the surface of your skin which holds the sunscreen in place. So it works even if you sweat. And it doesn't run off and doesn't sweat off, but it doesn't interfere with the cooling mechanism of your skin as many other do.

When you use the term polymer matrix in describing the sunscreen, can you go into a little bit more detail about what that is and how it actually works?

Yeah.

Think of it as a lot of strains of molecules which are attached to each other, and you literally form a. Through those strings of molecules, you form a thin, permeable film on your skin. And that's why I mentioned the analogy to Gore Tex, because it is literally an ultra thin Gore Tex layer just on a nanoscale. And. And the advantage of that is that it's not clogging your pores because the stuff doesn't run into your pores.

Okay, gotcha. Interesting. So why don't all sunscreens have something like this? Is it just a matter of the knowledge not being out there, or is it, like, more expensive to make? Or why is it that other sunscreens aren't using a matrix like this on the skin?

Well, I think it's really because when you buy a product which is on the shelf at Walgreens, it was probably not designed for an athlete. It was probably designed for folks who walk the strand or hang out at the beach or play a little tennis. But it wasn't designed for serious athletes. And I think that's what. What makes scape different. It's designed for athletes. That doesn't make the product at Walgreens a bad product. They're great products out there for people who hang out at the beach. I think those products are not designed for athletes. I mean, the same way if you were to buy a running shoe, you wouldn't go to Walgreens and buy a running shoe. You would go to a running store and get the proper equipment. And we look at our products as equipment for the skin, where it protects you and it doesn't interfere with your aesthetic ability because it was designed with an athlete in mind.

Now, do you have a lot of athletes working out in hot conditions who are actually using something like this, who have been able to go out and use it and come back and kind of report the way they felt?

Yeah, actually, this whole notion of.

Maintaining.

Core body temperature and how important it is with respect to sunscreens really came from our athlete teams. Folks like Craig Alexander and Marinda Coffrey were instrumental to this. And they came back to me and said, look, I need a product which obviously stays on, so it protects me throughout my training and throughout the racing. But what I really hate about the products which I currently use is that they block my pores and I can't sweat, and I feel like I'm overheating. And so, you know, athlete feedback is instrumental. And really, this notion of, you know, overheating through sunscreens came as feedback from athletes to us.

Gotcha. Gotcha. Okay.

A little side story. I know that Marinda, in her. I think her first Ironman race, didn't use sunscreen because she was worried about exactly that effect. And she, you know, dealt with the sunburn she got, but didn't. She came to me like, I didn't use sunscreen when I raised Kona in you know, in 2009. And I said, you what? And she showed me pictures of her back and she had a, you know, second or third degree burn on her back.

Wow.

And that's so, you know, athlete feedback is very important for us and, and reveal some of these things which people wouldn't necessarily think about when they use sunscreens traditionally.

Gotcha.

Well, I know that as the weather starts to heat up, people are definitely going to be thinking about using sunscreen. And what I'm going to do in the links to this interview that we did today is I'm going to put a link to the other interview that we did. We had a fairly long interview where we talked about things like whether sunscreen use will affect vitamin D production and we talked about carcinogenic concerns and addressed some of those in terms of sunscreen and really went into a lot of detail. So I'm going to put a link to that podcast, podcast number 92, and I will also put a link to this Scape sunscreen that I've been using and actually do recommend this stuff. So, Nick, thank you for kind of outlining this for us today.

No, I'm happy to be here.

Well, folks, that's going to wrap up today's podcast. So you can of course go to the show notes for this episode, episode number 148@BenGreenfieldFitness.com and I really try and do a good job putting links to everything I talked about. So I'll put links to things like the phenocaine and the Living Fuel super greens. I'll put links to the Scape Labs sunblock that we talked about. And remember, if you have questions, if you have feedback, one good place to leave feedback is in the comments section. And if you haven't been over to the website recently, we've had lots of activity on a couple recent blog posts over there. One post about standing, standing workstations and a lot of people sent me photos of their standing workstation. And then we had another really good discussion based around a video series called why Thin People Are Not Fat. So also this Friday I've got a very interesting post that is guest post in response to the interview I did with Dr. Reverend George Malkamis about Hallelujah Acres and the vegetarian diet. A very thought provoking post on the vegetarian diet and whether it really is very natural. So that's going to be one to check out this Friday if you're listening to this podcast during the week that it comes out. So please remember if you enjoyed this week's episode. Donate a dollar to the the podcast to keep it going. You can do that over@BenGreenfieldFitness.com alright folks, until next time when I promise I will be back with slightly better audio quality. This is Ben Greenfield signing out from BenGreenfieldFitness.com did you know you can get.

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