Podcast Episode #67: Everything You Need to Know About Naturally Preventing Swine Flu

In this podcast episode, an expert interview on the swine flu virus, multiple listener questions on everything from ice baths to carbonated water, anorexia, triathlon training, and much, much more.

Welcome to the BenGreenfieldFitness.com podcast. We provide you with free exercise, nutrition, weight loss and wellness advice from the top fitness experts in the 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 podcast listeners, this is Ben Greenfield back this week from Jamaica where I was down doing race coverage for something called the Rose Hall Triathlon. Put together a pretty entertaining video for you that I'll put in the link to the show Notes about an eight minute video that really goes over everything that went on down there. It was actually a pretty fantastic time. Got a chance to race, put a lot of video footage up of not only the race but also a lot of the fun things that you could do if you ever decide to go down to Jamaica. So that was a, that was an interesting time and you want to check that video out. A lot of listener questions in today's episode as well as an interview that I'm very excited about bringing to you on the swine flu. I know that many of you are trying to take care of your bodies and you're trying to take care of your health and you're trying to do so as naturally as possible, not just for fat loss or health, but also to put yourself in a situation where you have peak performance. And so if you are one of those people, you're not going to want to miss today's interview in the future topic session with Dr. Roby Mitchell. The show notes for today's podcast, podcast number 67 are just jam packed. Tons of links, tons of resources for you. So definitely if you get a chance, pull up the show notes to today's episode once you listen in or even during the time while you're listening in if you want to follow along and get access to even more information. So with that being said, what we're going to do is go over a few special topics we're going to move on to again, just a jam packed listener Q and A. And then we will be finishing with today's can't miss interview with Dr. Roby Mitchell.

Special Announcements.

I know that many of you listeners out there like to ride bikes. You're doing triathlons and we actually have triathlon jerseys and shorts as well as cycling jerseys and shorts that have the BenGreenfieldFitness.com logo on them. I will be making another order on November 15 and this order is actually going to be for the triathlon top and the triathlon shorts. It ends up being about for the entire kit, $130. And I put a picture of what the shorts and what the jersey actually look like up on the show notes so you can check those out. But if you want to get in on that order, if you want to get that design added to something that you can race in or something that you can train in, if you're a triathlete, you're going to want to surf over there. Or email me ben greenfieldfitness.com if you want to get in on that November 15th order. So that gives you about one week to get your stuff together and let me know if you want in on that order. I put a video up in the show notes to this podcast that actually shows yours truly modeling that beautiful kit. So a couple of other things. Some of you may have noticed the recent article that came out in Triathlete Magazine about the six key performance factors that you want to look at if you are serious about optimizing your health and performance. And some of those that we had talked about were vitamin D, calcium, magnesium, your testosterone levels, cortisol levels. We looked at the metabolic questionnaire, the metabolic typing and several different factors that are key to your success, especially in sports, but also in things like weight loss and energy levels. Anyways, as you know, I was tested and I'm about six weeks now into my post test supplementation protocol really stepped up my vitamin D levels. I'm taking closer to 6,000 vitamin D now and also taking an essential amino acid blend because I was found to be deficient in essential amino acids. I was deficient in testosterone. I'm taking a kind of a hormone replacement blend. All that from a company called Bioletics. I will put a link to the podcast that went over that performance factor testing in the show notes to this podcast. And if you want to go to the Bioletics website, just follow the link that I have there in the show notes. You can also call Bioletics. They're very accessible and the numbers on their website. If you call Dr. Richard Cohen over there and you tell him that you heard about bioetics from Ben Greenfield and you're interested in getting tested, he will take very good care of you. So that's the deal with the performance factor testing, something that I would seriously consider getting taken care of this winter, the Triathlon Dominator package is still live for those of you who are still looking to get your training plans dialed in for this upcoming 2010 training season. And that's@triathlon dominator.com the other thing is that I am still taking people's names down who are interested in the official triathlon training camp that we're going to be doing down in Austin, Texas from January 18th through the 25th. That all inclusive training camp is still open and I put the registration details, the itinerary, everything about the food, our training, our activities, and much more up on a link in the show notes. So check that out. I have gotten an email from a few different people who have talked about wanting to know if their spouse or their significant other could come along. And I have put this camp at pretty much the lowest price that I can put it at for athletes coming to train. However, I can actually drop the price of the camp another couple hundred dollars if people want to bring a spouse along and that spouse wants to spouse, significant other wants to take advantage of the food, the house, the activities, but maybe not go out and do the training sessions. That is something that is available if your spouse wants to come along with you. So in terms of other announcements, I personally will be down in Clearwater this coming week at the Half Ironman World Championships. I did want to give a personal anecdote that I actually went to the doctor for about the first time in three years just yesterday and had a pretty severe kind of airline travel related ear infection that I picked up coming back from Jamaica. And just a little testimonial here. The only thing that I personally did differently in the past week prior to getting that ear infection was I quit taking one of my high antioxidants, kind of like a blended vegetable based supplement called Ener Prime. And I did not travel with the antiseptic antifungal oil of oregano that I typically travel with. And what's interesting is that actually comes up in Today's interview with Dr. Mitchell, protecting yourself against infection. You know, unfortunately I didn't get something like the swine flu that I ended up with an ear infection. But still, just because I have to go down and travel to a triathlon next week, I ended up needing to get tubes put in my ears to help them drain so that I could go do this triathlon next week. And so, you know, not taking a supplement that cost me about $40 a month ended up costing me far more than that in antibiotics and surgical charges. So there you have it. It's worth it to take charge and go after a prevention when it comes to your health. So we're going to go ahead and move on to this week's listener Q and a.

Listener q and a.

Today's first question comes from listener Patrick. And listener Patrick asks, I'd be interested in knowing the latest inf on ice baths. Are they helpful or full of hype? What's the ideal temperature range and immersion time? Should it be done before or after a warm post workout shower? And what to do about the grunts, screams, expletives on initial immersion? Well, the idea behind ice baths is that when you take a plunge in an ice water bath, it's supposed to help you recover faster and reduce your muscle pain and your soreness after an intense training session or maybe a race or a competition. So there's kind of two different ways of using ice therapy. One is to simply soak in something like an ice bath. Another is to use something called contrast therapy, which is shifting between an ice bath and heat immersion or simply shifting between, say, cold and hot water showering over your body after practice or an event. And the whole theory behind an ice bath is that when you exercise, and especially when you exercise at an intense level, it can cause micro trauma, which are these tiny little muscle tears in your muscle fibers. And so that muscle damage is good in that it does stimulate muscle activity and it helps repair and strengthen your muscles. But it's also linked with what's called delayed onset muscle pain and muscle soreness. And usually that peaks about anywhere from one to three days after you finish exercising. So the whole idea behind the ice bath is it actually when you expose that muscle to the colder temperature, it constricts the blood vessels and it helps to flush a lot of the waste products, you know, things like lactic acid out of the tissues. And then it'll also kind of decrease the metabolic activity of the metabolism in the muscle tissue, slow down the physiological processes, and thus reduce some of the swelling and reduce some of the tissue breakdown. Now, the whole idea behind the contrast therapy is that if you rewarm the muscle tissue, then the increased blood flow and the increased size of the blood vessels that comes from that heat, it speeds up the circulation and actually improves the healing process. So there's not really a gold standard protocol about time and about temperature. Most athletes, most training rooms are going to use water that is about 12 to 15 degrees Celsius and usually about five to 10 minutes of immersion, sometimes about 20 max. And that's what most people can handle maximum. I know for me to answer your question about the grunts and the swearing and the expletives when you first get exposed to that cold water bath, for me, I will get into the water, for example, I'll fill my bathtub full of ice from an ice tray in the freezer, fill that up with cold water, and get in after a hot run in the afternoon sun, and I'll literally just kind of count through gritted teeth trying to count to 100. And if you can make it to 100, typically by that time your body kind of starts to go numb and it feels a little bit better. As far as studies and recent studies, there was a study in July 2008 in the International Journal of Sports Medicine that found that cold water immersion combined with contrast water therapy would actually help recovery from short maximal efforts or during events where athletes had to compete multiple times on consecutive days, like a stage race, similar to something like the Tour de France. And in that study, they used four different recovery methods and took nine days off between each week of workouts that they did. And the four recovery methods that they used were immersion in about 59 degrees, that's Fahrenheit, 59 degrees Fahrenheit in a pool for 14 minutes, immersion in a 100.4 degree Fahrenheit water for 14 minutes, alternating between cold and hot water every minute for 14 minutes and then 14 minutes of complete rest. Now, the athletes that were immersed in hot water baths and the athletes that just got the complete rest, their performance declined. But the athletes who did both the water immersion or the contrast water therapy, their performance increased. There was Another study in 2007 in the British Journal of Sports Medicine that found that ice water immersion reported that ice water immersion offered no real benefit and could actually increase post exercise muscle soreness after heavy training. They said that the athletes that did the cold water immersion reported more leg pain the following day. So that was interesting that that actually found just the opposite almost in athletes. And then a Journal of Strength Conditioning research that we report on a lot on this podcast. In 2007, there was a study in there that looked at the effect of contrast water therapy on delayed onset muscle soreness following leg press exercises. And they found significant but fairly small reduction of strength and power in athletes who were using contrast water therapy versus those who are using passive recovery. So when we talk about studies, some of them actually suggest that it may not necessarily help your performance and may not necessarily help your soreness. When we're talking about case studies, I know for me Personally, and a lot of the athletes that I work with, it works very, very well. Not only to help you feel a little bit better the next day, but the other trick that I've used this for is that when I exercise late in the evening, let's say that it's 8pm and you just found the time to go to the gym or maybe to hop on your indoor bike trainer or the elliptical trainer out in your garage and you do an hour of hard exercise, you can often find yourself lying awake at night staring at the ceiling, unable to sleep. And I find that the decreased metabolic activity and decreased core temperature that occurs when you immerse yourself in cold water or take a cold shower following a workout like that actually helps you to sleep after a evening workout. So my opinion is do it. It's not necessarily going to be a magical cure, but it definitely has helped me out and helps a lot of the athletes that I work with recover from their exercise sessions. So great question, Patrick. And let's see, did I answer all your questions?

Yeah.

As far as temperature range and immersion time, again, not a lot of evidence out there, but 5 to 20 minutes temperature range, anything from the coldest, your shower is actually going to turn to literally filling up your bath with ice and sitting in that. And I would do if you're going to do a warm shower, do it after, not before. Listener Mark asks, In an effort to give up soda, I have started to drink carbonated water, which is naturally flavored. I drink roughly 36 ounces per day. Are there any health risks associated with drinking carbonated water? I recently heard that carbonation depletes your body of calcium. Is this true? I think the whole idea behind the thought that carbonated water could cause calcium breakdown, although I'm personally not aware of any studies, is the fact that carbonated water is so slightly more acidic. And that's because the process of dissolving carbon dioxide gas into water, that process of carbonation forms something called carbonic acid, which is the chemical formula H2CO3. And because it's a little bit more acidic than regular water, and because calcium is the most alkalinic mineral in your body, it's possible that you may leach calcium from the bones to actually bring your body back into a more non acidic state. I have no clue if there's ever been a study done on that. If you're listening to the podcast and you have heard of such a study and you want to comment or call in, definitely let me know. But as far as the health of seltzer water or soda water. The reason that I personally use it is that I used to be addicted to diet Dr. Pepper. I used to drink it all the time. And I found that one of the best ways for me to get over that Dr. Pepper fix was to start drinking something that still kind of tasted like soda. Almost like fooling my brain into thinking it was drinking soda, when in fact I was just drinking carbonated water. I don't think that a Perrier or a Pellegrino or a naturally flavored sparkling water once a day is going to do that much damage. I wouldn't make it a habit to drink purely carbonated water all the time. The other thing that I would also caution you against even more is the fact that a lot of these healthy carbonated water beverages or soda replacement beverages that are out there, if you look at the label, most of them contain aspartame or acesulfamine potassium, rather than, for example, the natural flavors that you talk about, Mark. So make sure that, you know, if you turn over something like Pellegrino lemon flavored carbonated water, it's literally just carbonated water and a little bit of lemon essence or lemon oil, and that's fine. But there are a lot of brands out there that have a lot more in them than just water and natural flavoring. And then as far as soda replacements go, there are some great brands out in the market that use stevia, which is a kind of a root based sweetener that is just as sweet, actually sweeter than sugar, but doesn't have the same effect on your insulin levels and doesn't have the same number of calories. And there's one brand of soda out there called Zevia. You can literally get, you know, a root beer flavored soda that's carbonated, that tastes like root beer, but that doesn't have a lot of the damaging effects of root beer and none of the high fructose corn syrup syrup and calories and all that nasty stuff. So as far as health risks associated with drinking carbonated water, I think there are more things that you could be worrying about, but just don't make it the only form of water that you drink all the time. I recommend a filtered, purified water. And if you are able to do a central water filter in your home, because remember that it's not just about the water filter, say in your refrigerator, because your skin is a mouth. So what you're bathing in, what you're showering in that water is also going to be absorbed by your body. So I personally Have a carbon water filter installed in my home. Listener Shantelle asks, I don't know if you've ever addressed this one before, but one of my near and dear friends is addicted to laxatives and then exercises almost to the point of anorexia. But she doesn't know how to get off the laxatives because then she becomes constipated. And that of course, makes her feel fat. She eats a lot of high fiber foods, but even just a bit of salt or bread makes her constipated. Would this be something that you would even address as far as what she should eat, how to quit, etc. Technically, it's not something that I would address very often in my consultations with my clients because I am not a registered dietitian. Counseling someone for an eating disorder kind of goes outside my scope of practice, just like counseling someone for controlling diabetes through nutrition technically goes outside my scope of practice. But what I do do with people that come to me who I suspect may be engaging in eating disorder type of activities is I make them aware of the dangers of something like anorexia nervosa, which is essentially just starvation. So one of the things that can happen, and this is probably one of the more serious effects, is that you can develop an irregular heartbeat because of the damage to your heart. You can get what's known as bradycardia, which is a low heart rate of less than 50 beats per minute. Now, that can also be an irregular heartbeat. And any of these can trigger what are called fatal heart arrhythmias. Not only abnormal rhythms or rates in your resting heart rate, but also greater risk of having a cardiovascular incident, having a heart attack, literally dropping dead while you exercise. And in addition, because you're going to have dehydration, because you're going to have electrolyte imbalances, which is an imbalance in your blood salts, things like sodium, that can also cause cardiac arrhythmias and death. You can get actual atrophy, essentially cannibalization of your heart muscle. And when that happens again, you're going to increase the risk of you actually destroying your cardiovascular system and dying early or dying during exercise. Now, constipation is a pretty common complication with anorexia because your gastrointestinal, what's called your mobility will slow, so it'll take longer for your gastric system to empty. You can get some kind of abnormal muscle activity. Heartburn, regurgitation in the esophagus, and all of that, again, can lead to quite a bit of discomfort, and it'll affect your social life as well. And so if you start chronically abusing something like a laxative, that can then damage your stomach nerves, and it can actually worsen your constipation once you damage those stomach nerves. So it's kind of a vicious cycle. And if you stop the laxative, what happens is you get severe swelling, you get edema, and that usually happens within about 48 to 72 hours. And you get a weight gain, you can sometimes gain 10, 20 pounds. And so you put yourself into this vicious cycle when you start doing something like that and understand that that weight gain is not necessarily fat gain, it's literally just inflammation. If you can actually stop something like a laxative and begin to feed yourself intelligently and give your body the nutrients that it needs, eventually you'll return to that set point and not experience the same amount of constipation, etc. But you're doing a ton of damage to your body in the meantime. Now, in addition to the cardiac arrhythmias, you're going to have increased risk of osteoporosis, which increases your chances of a stress fracture or a bone abnormality. Infertility and birth complications. If you ever want to have a family again. Anorexia nervosa can do a lot of damage to your potential for fertility and also increase the risk of your baby being born prematurely if you're actually pregnant and you're doing anything like that. So other things that you're looking at, Depression is a pretty common complication. Enlarged salivary glands. Hypoglycemia, which is low blood sugar levels. Hypothermia, which is low body temperature. Kidney stones from the dehydration. Rough and scaly skin because your body actually isn't getting the nutrients that it needs. Brittle nails, kind of a blotchy yellow appearance to your skin. There's a lot of problems with your body when you actually engage in this type of eating practice.

So.

So be aware of the dangers and also be aware that as far as the constipation and laxatives go, the best thing that you could do is understand that it's not that you're getting fat when you quit something like a laxative, it's just your body responding by swelling and getting a little bit of inflammation over those first few hours or those first few days when that occurs. So I hope that answers your question, but I would really, really recommend that you go see a registered dietitian or someone who is certified counseling for anorexia I am a sports nutritionist, a personal trainer, strength conditioning coach and I can't help you quite as much as a registered dietitian would be able to help you. So listener David asks. I started listening to your podcast and really enjoy the informative topics and I'm slowly making my way through the archived podcast. Great stuff by the way. I am a triathlete with three Ironmans under my belt. As we enter the off season I am presented with a fork in the road decision. Last off season I subscribed to a training regimen counter to the conventional mainstream in which a training season begins, training one's base and performing long slow distance workouts at relatively mild intensities. Instead, last year my off season consisted of short duration, an hour or less small volume, but high intensity bike and run workouts to build more stimulus speed. I got significantly faster by several minutes in 10k runs, increased my functional threshold power in watts on the bike by about 15%. Then as the real training season began, volume and longer duration workouts were put on top of the new speed. In other words, speed first, then build distance on top of that speed. This was quite successful for me last year as I had several breakthrough performances and PRs in several Olympic and half iron distance triathlons. This training philosophy is almost opposite the mainstream build base than race specific speed as one nears a race event. My forked decision currently is the two training philosophies I described. Many of my friends insist my prior year speed first approach is crazy and adhere to the mainstream approach and that I was just lucky last year. I am curious on your opinion on these two different training approaches and possibly if other approaches may also be worth considering as a new off season and soon to be training season begins. Thank you, that's a great question David. It is true that the traditional model of training, especially for endurance sports, begins with volume, begins with endurance, begins with what's called a base foundational period, and progresses to building in both intensity and volume and then decreasing in volume and increasing intensity as race season approaches. Now the model that you described actually has a name. It's been used before, not only by pro triathletes but also by team coaches of endurance sports. And it's called reverse periodization where during the winter months or during the off season you work a lot on speed, you do a lot of shorter workouts, you work a lot on your VO2 max on your lactate threshold, and then as the season approaches you begin to increase your base training. Now there haven't been a lot of Studies done on reverse periodization. But there have been many athletes that have tried it out. And the advantages to it are that especially if you live in a northern climate that is cold, that gets dark early in the fall and the winter, and the late fall and the winter, you aren't trying to squeeze in say a four or five hour bike ride or a two and a half hour run in the snow and in the dark, because you're going to be saving all that for later on in the spring and the summer. Instead, you're just doing very short, fast efforts, say at the gym or in your home. The other advantage is that you have more time during the holidays and during a lot of time where we want to be with our family. Rather than disappearing to do a three hour workout, you're literally just doing a very short interval based workout. You're working on your power and your strength and your speed. And then because you have that speed and you have that fast twitch muscle, you go and essentially work the slow twitch later on when you have a little bit more time. I have seen several people use this approach and do just fine with it. I know one pro triathlete that I'm aware of, a guy named Gordo, he's used this in the past as well. The thing about reverse periodization is that when you engage in VO2 max style training and you engage in training to improve what's called your lactate threshold or your tolerance to lactic acid, that will usually stay with you for about four to eight weeks, that type of training, and then you start to lose the edge, so to speak. So if you use a reverse periodization model and you start to do more of your endurance training late in the season, you need to make sure that you don't completely neglect the speed and the higher threshold training when you get to that base training. And so the danger becomes that you're trying to accomplish too many physiological goals at once, rather than simply take advantage of the fact slow twitch muscle will retain its fitness much longer. And that base training that you did in the winter and the early spring stays with you a lot longer than the speed training does. So it turns out that you have to actually do a little bit more in terms of the type of training sessions that you do if you're using that reverse periodization model. And then the other thing that you'll need to bear in mind is that it's very easy to over train with this method because if you are increasing volume and trying to maintain intensity as you get closer to a race, you really run the risk of pushing yourself over the edge. Any good periodization model is going to have certain periods during the year where you are focusing on specific aspects of your fitness. For example, with my athletes I break it down into force, strength, skill, muscular endurance, low speed, and then high speed efforts. And we have certain times during the year when we're working on specific aspects of fitness. So I'm not throwing all sorts of different intensities at an athlete all at once. And so any model, whether it's the reverse periodization or the regular periodization model, should involve some structure such as that. But hopefully that clears things up a little bit in terms of the advantages, the disadvantages, the pros and cons of periodization versus reverse periodization. Either one is going to get you to your mark. The reverse periodization just requires you to be a little bit more careful that you don't lose that speed that you built up early in the season, because you will lose that if you completely neglect it prior to your race. So, moving on to listener Eric, Eric says, I have a few swimming questions I would like to hear you answer. I am training for open water triathlon where I wear a wetsuit but swimming in the pool without one. I've heard some people say that I should use a pole buoy when I train to simulate the wetsuit buoyancy, but read an article that says stay away from swim toys. Does the pull buoy help and if so, what frequency should it be used with when training? You are absolutely correct Eric, in that the pull buoy will simulate the feeling when you put that wetsuit on and your body becomes more buoyant and your legs raise towards the surface of the water. It becomes easier to swim and you have to worry about kicking less and you can worry about the quality of your pole more. So training with a pole buoy can really help you focus on the pole without having to worry about the legs. You can typically swim a little bit faster speed sets without experiencing the same amount of fatigue because your body isn't trying to shuttle blood into the kicking leg. So you have a little bit more oxygen to go around. Now, in terms of the frequency of training, I personally use the pole buoy about once a week and I'll use it for a few sets. I don't rely on it, I don't use it as a crutch because you do need to learn how to kick efficiently so that your legs aren't simply dragging like an anchor in the water. But the pull buoy can help out quite a bit. As far as staying away from toys in the pool, I used to actually adhere to that philosophy. But I found that as I begin using things like, like pull buoys, kick boards, swim metronomes that can go inside your swim cap, swim paddles that are shaped in a shape that put you so that you're in a proper freestyle position when your hand goes into the water, swim paddles that actually cause you to close your hand so that you reduce your hand and your force, use your forearm and your body a little bit more. All of these not only help your form in the water, but they also make your training sessions a lot more fun. They keep you you from getting bored. And so I do encourage you to use some toys when you're in the water and experiment and go ahead and throw some of them into some of the sets that you're doing and they will help out. So your second part of your question. Swimming is something that I never really did until about a year ago when I started doing triathlons. One thing that I never learned how to do when I was growing up was the flip turn, or any other turn method for that matter. When I reach the wall at the other end, I usually stand up for a second or two and turn around. I'm sure this is probably cheating, but should I spend time learning to do some other type of turn when my competition will actually be in the open water, which has no turns? There are no rules, Eric, that you have to do a flip turn. However, mentally for you, if you can learn how to do a flip style turn, you're going to feel more comfortable in the water. You're going to feel more like a real swimmer, and you're also going to find that the fluidity of your laps actually increases when you stand up. It seems to break up the set a lot more than if you simply do a nice fluid flip turn and maintain constant motion in the water. Now, I personally taught myself to flip turn literally by watching other people do it and then spending the first part of my swim session about 10 minutes or so, just swimming at the wall and trying to time my somersault and then turn around and swim back. And yeah, you look like an idiot for a little while, but that was because I never did traditional swim team. The best way that I found to learn was trial and error. So I learned very well just through trying something, figuring out what didn't work, and then trying it again over and over again. So it took me about a month to learn a flip turn using an approach like that. So I'd learn it. It'd be a nice little thing to add into your swim repertoire. And then number three, I read the article that says to use no pool toys. But I travel a lot, and many of my swim training days are either repl replaced with extra runs or done in a hotel pool while I'm on the road. I saw a bungee cord that you can strap to your legs and swim in place, which is ideal since most hotel pools are not big enough to get a good workout in. My question is, are there negative effects to something like this, or is that a good investment? When I travel, bungee cords are kind of fun. You put them around your waist or around your legs, you attach them to a ladder or some other stationary object on the side of the pool and you swim and they pull against you when you're swimming away from them. And then eventually they reach out to it to a certain point where you can't swim anymore. And then you can turn around and the bungee cord will actually pull you back in. So you almost get kind of overspeed training. It's almost like an endless pool effect when you get those smaller hotel room bungee or those hotel pool bungee cords that just let you swim and swim and swim without stopping. As far as where to get them. If you go to BenGreenfieldFitness.com you'll notice that when you scroll down the page, there's a bunch of different links on the right side of that page. One of those links is to a place called Swim Outlet. And if you click on the Swim Outlet link, that is typically the best prices on everything from swimwear to swim toys. It's pretty much where I get any of my swimming equipment is that Swim Outlet link. So if you want to get one of those travel style bungee cords, you can get one there. However, if you're looking at a shorter hotel pool, a lot of times what I'll do when I'm doing my hotel swim sessions, because I don't have one of those travel bungee cords, is I'll just do a very short, explosive style session. So, for example, one of my favorite sessions to do if I'm stuck at a hotel swimming pool that's very small, is I'll warm up by swimming back and forth in that pool about 10 times. And then I'll do something like 25 very high intensity repeats, just swimming as hard as I can from one end of the pool to the other, taking two to three seconds of rest and turning around and powering back. And you'd Be surprised at how big of a workout you feel like you just did when you do 25 high intensity power swims. So it comes down to that interval style training kind of taking precedence when you have limited training space or limited training time. So great questions Eric, and I hope that helps out. Listener John asks, how can someone train for an Ironman for eight months and cross the finish line with saddlebags? I mean, all that endurance training and the body responds with smooth, no definition. I can't figure out if it is diet, not enough weight training, or too much endurance training that does not allow the body to get cut up and muscular, not like a bodybuilder, but like maybe a cross between a bodybuilder and an athlete. This was an interesting question. It's just a matter of slow twitch muscle and the nature of endurance training requiring that the body actually have a little bit higher levels of fat to draw on. John Slow twitch muscle does predominantly use fat as a fuel, whereas fast twitch muscle, that bigger, more defined muscle that you might see in like a sprint athlete that uses a little bit more carbohydrate as a fuel. Now when I first started doing triathlon, I was coming out of the bodybuilding world and I personally was 210 pounds and about 3% body fat and I was nowhere near as fast as I am now. And Now I'm about 175 and closer to 7 or 8% body fat. Physiologically my body likes to have that little bit of extra fat to be able to draw on and that much less muscle to have to cool and carry around. And so, so an endurance athlete is not only going to have less fast twitch muscle, so they're going to have a little less definition, but they're also going to have a little bit more fat, which is going to mean a little bit more smoothness. Now you are going to get some athletes that tend to get too fat when they train for endurance because they're actually doing all long slow distance training, never stimulating fast twitch muscle, never getting that hormonal release that is conducive to lean muscle gain and fat loss when you're training. And I think that for those people, some of them are almost a little bit too slow twitchy, so to speak. That's a word, a highly technical term. And for those people, I do like to get them on some fast twitch, higher intensity, higher intensity interval style training. And a lot of that those times it would be with like a woman who has come to me who trained for Ironman the year before and somehow gained 20 pounds while she was training for Ironman. Well, when you're eating as many calories as Ironman actually requires per day, but not doing any high intensity training at all, you actually can gain weight and can gain quite a bit of fat. So you have to balance out your training. But you're always going to have slightly higher fat levels when you're looking at an endurance athlete versus, say, a sprint athlete. So listener Eric asks, I took many of your supplements last year and will continue to do so this race season. Just to clarify, those aren't my supplements. I think that he's referring to just supplements that I've recommended on this show. In putting together my supplement plan, I have a question on the Enterprime Superfood multivitamin, what is better to have or use the powder or the capsule? Or is it better alternate both for different uses? Powder to mix with drinks and smoothies, capsules to swallow in the morning, etc. Would there be a need to take in more than the recommended dosage of six capsules and what Eric is recommending to you on the Enterprime? That's kind of the superfood multivitamin that I personally take. It's got digestive enzymes and probiotics and all sorts of high fiber, high antioxidant compounds and it's kind of like eating 10 salads when you take a tablespoon of that stuff in the powder form, or you take about six capsules, capsules in regular form, which is the recommended dosage on that. The deal with powders is that they can be pretty versatile in that you could simply put powder into water in the morning, stir it in and drink it down. But you could also put powder in a smoothie to make kind of a superfood smoothie if you were to mix it with a little bit of fruit and ice. Powders give you a lot of flexibility with the dosing as well. So you can take a little bit less or a little bit more than you would if you were going to use a capsule format. And I also personally noticed that I feel the powder more quickly and that may be due to the rate of time that it takes for the capsules to break down, but both are going to give you benefit in terms of your question. Let's see, what is the question. What is better to have or use? Again, you're getting a benefit out of both. I personally use the Ener prime powder. When you order it, there's actually a comments box in the in the order section. If you order it from say like the supplements page. If you go to BenGreenfieldFitness.com supplements you could indicate there if you wanted to get the capsules or the powder. When I am feeling a little bit of the sniffles, come on, a little bit of a cold, anything like that, I will generally double dose. I'll take 2 tablespoons of the powder or I'll take 12 capsules, 6 in the morning and 6 in the evening and that helps out quite a bit. I like to warn people when they first start to take something like this because it has things like inulin and Jerusalem artichoke extract and some higher fiber compounds in it. You tend to be a little bit more regular than usual for the first few days. It's almost like a gentle cleanse and then your body gets used to it and that all goes away. Your second question, is there any benefit to the auto ship, that is no backorder delays and or continued discount? Your question about that Eric, is that Enterprime, another one that I carry, the Enter efa, a couple of those I order from what are called multi level marketing companies, which means that they put out great supplements, but the business structure of those companies are such that they like for customers to be on auto ship, meaning that you're guaranteed to buy X number of supplements over X number of months. Now what I personally do is I'll get the supplements, I'll hand pick the supplements that I like for my athletes to take or my clients to take and then I'll turn around and make those available to you on my website. But if I happen to be out of stock of something when you order, yeah, I have to turn around and order it from that company. So if you were to order directly from the company, you wouldn't experience the delay that you risk getting when you order straight from me. A lot of my clients, a lot of my athletes, they get special discounts. A lot of times I put special discounts on the show that you aren't going to get when you order directly from for example, the Impax company that makes the Enterprime, the Enter EFA and some of those other supplements that would be your primary benefit is that you're going to most likely get your supplement a little bit sooner unless you're in the Spokane Coeur d' Alene area and I have it in stock. If you're in that area, you're going to get it pretty much the next day. But yeah, a lot of times when I have an order come in, I have to turn around and order it order the supplement that you've ordered and then when it gets to me, turn around and ship it to you. So that's the way that works. Question number three have you ever given any thought to do a podcast on electrical stimulation devices? Are they actually good for recovery, strength training, pros and cons, and any side effects? I think that that question is a great question for an entirely separate podcast, Eric, and I'm actually right now looking to interview an expert on the electric stimulation devices and the uses of those for both recovery and performance. I personally do have an electric stimulation device, a portable E stim device that I use that's kind of a home version. One of my friends actually manufactures them and he loaned one to me to try out and I still have it and have used it a few times and it works out quite well, especially when combined with ice for recovery and decreasing inflammation. But I will actually do a separate podcast on the E stim devices, so look for that to be coming down the pipeline. And then finally Eric, you say, and this is really a great question, I'm looking for new ways to help offset some of the costs of triathlon. This past year I helped bring in a few sponsors to a new bike club that started in our area. The money from the sponsors and memberships was to help offset the cost for race fees and triathlon cycling gear. The ringleader had a scattered brain approach and mismanaged the money, so the only thing we benefited from was a small discount on some high end gear. But this year I'm looking to possibly break off on my own for sponsorships and maybe expand it to products that I actively use during a race and training. I'm no pro, but can the average Joe get, for example, a company like Goo Nutrition to sponsor, donate or discount their products? My training partner and I have been asked to race for a local charity team to help bring awareness and raise money for muscular dystrophy. Maybe it would be easier to bring in sponsors this route. What are your thoughts? If you don't mind, can you discuss your experiences or give any advice? This is a good question because something like triathlon and really any sport that any of you out there might be competing in can be an expensive hobby. And sponsorships are a great way to offset the cost of that. Whether it be a sponsor giving you free gear or free nutrition. There is a website, I believe the name of the website is sponsors.com that allows you to actually upload. There's a few different websites like this. They allow you to upload your profile as an athlete. And then the website actually sends your profile off to all the different sponsors who are part of that website. And those sponsors will give you 5% discount on this, 10% discount on that. I know a lot of athletes have gone that route and it's really not going to give you much. It means that when you order sunglasses, you might pay $80 instead of $100. We're talking about those type of sponsorships. A better way to get sponsorships is to develop a relationship. Now, to give you an example of what I do when I get sponsorships is I will approach a company and tell them what I can do for them. And that's very, very important, is that the entire relationship is not based around what they give you, which is something that will naturally happen if you develop a good relationship, but about what you can give them. Are you going to go to your local running shoe store and put on a, you know, for example, a nutrition talk or a talk about, you know, running 101, where you are featuring some of this company's nutritional products or using it as examples in your seminars, using it as examples in your talks? Are you going to wear the sponsor's logo on your jersey, put their bumper sticker on your car, recommend it to all of your friends who come over every week for a spin session in your basement? There are all sorts of ways that you can go about telling that sponsor how you're actually going to represent their product. But what is most important is that you figure out where you have the most influence over the most number of people, whether it be in your workplace or whether it be in your triathlon club. And you make the sponsor aware of how many people you're going to be able to affect when you recommend their product. And then you say, in exchange for that, I'd just like a chance to be able to use your product and maybe get X amount of free product per year or maybe get some airline miles to help me travel to races. The way that I do it is I have one sheet that goes up to all my sponsors and it's a two page sheet or two covered page. On one page is my introductory letter where I explain who I am and what I do and the sport that I compete in and the various ways, whether it be my bike, my helmet, my race uniform, my talks, my seminars, my websites, etc. Where I could help that sponsor out. And then on the backside of that page is my race resume, which shows my times and what I've done and, and the place that I've gotten in various races. And a lot of times sponsors are less interested in your results and more interested in the creative ways that you could actually help them to represent their products. So, yeah, you don't have to be a pro triathlete to get sponsorships, but the important thing is that you develop a relationship with the company. Get to know the first names of the people that are working in that company, get to know the people that you're going to be working with and then keep them up updated every time you do anything that helps that company out. Send them letters, send them videos, send them race reports, send them pictures. The better your relationships are, the more successful you're going to be in developing sponsorships. The other thing you need to understand is everybody and their dog is asking for free handouts right now from sponsors. And that's something that you need to be careful of is don't be asking a sponsor so much what they can give you as much as ask them or show them what you can do for them and then expect for a relationship. Really probably not to get to the point where you're getting free product or getting money or anything like that for usually about 1 1/2 to 3 years or so before you really, truly are getting tucked in by that company and they're offering you quite a bit. And the last question today comes from listener Aaron, who says, hi Ben, I've been reading your E Health handbook. Thanks for all the helpful information. And for those of you who don't know what the eHealth handbook is, that's the free handbook that you get when you sign up for the newsletter over@BenGreenfieldFitness.com and Aaron says, I have a question for you that has no easy answer, but I thought it worth giving a try. Whenever I participate in an exercise program, my trapezius muscles seize. I have trigger points that react the second there is any stress on the area. I have slight scoliosis at the base of my neck, which forces my head slightly forward. I avoid any exercises that might aggravate them but still end up in pain that results in a migraine from the compression at the base of my skull. I've been to the doctor, the osteopath, the physio and trainers, but other than new stretches, which I do religiously, it's not helped. I'm trying to work on my core muscles to support them, but even doing those, I have to be very careful. I know some people suggest exercising the muscles themselves to increase blood flow, but that would cause them to seize so quickly that I would be nauseous within minutes. I need to find a way to exercise that won't end up with me incapacitated from pain. Even cardio using the arms can do it. I do what yoga stretches I can to support my posture. Is there any way to really isolate those muscles during a workout to avoid using them? I'm already very careful with my head and don't do anything that may stress the neck. Anything could be helpful. Thanks in advance. So my two thoughts when I listen to your question, Aaron, is first, in terms of cardio, that's not going to require your trapezius muscles to be used. I would recommend something like the recumbent bicycle that can be a fantastic device that can allow you to exercise without any involvement of the upper body musculature. Be sure not to grip the handles on either side of that bicycle too tightly. But there are many workouts that you can do on a recumbent bicycle if you are able to do so without gripping the handles too hard. The elliptical trainer that doesn't actually have the arm handles on it could also help out quite a bit. Most swimming activities, even aqua jogging, those are going to use the trapezius muscles. A lot of times walking, there's some swinging of the arms and neck support that has to go on. But for example, walking up an incline on a treadmill or outdoors would probably be another thing that you could do. And in terms of weightlifting activities, machines are very useful in terms of their ability to be able to isolate certain muscles. And you could do, for example, a machine that works the inner thighs and the outer thighs, leg extension machine, leg curl machine. Those are probably about possibly a leg press machine, possibly. Those would be some of the main machines and cardiovascular pieces of equipment that you could use to maintain some amount of fitness and blood flow without triggering that trapped spasm. I would also. I know that a lot of this is biomechanical, and it sounds like some of it may even be genetic in terms of your skeletal makeup. But I'm assuming that you're doing activities that are going to help relieve some of the stress from your trapezius by strengthening the muscles around the traps. For example, scapular retraction and training of some of the muscles called your. Your rhomboids can be quite effective in relieving some stress on the cervical spine. If you're able to do something like a light row with an elastic band where you're squeezing the shoulder blades back, pulling or retracting the scapula, that can help out quite a bit. Any type of light rowing activities that doesn't trigger that spasm, those can help out quite a bit as well. And then I would also look into using something like magnesium. You can actually rub a top of magnesium into your traps and that can have a muscular relaxing effect and also decrease the frequency of those spasms when you exercise. And I'll put a link to a topical magnesium supplement that I use in the show notes. But creatively, there was actually quite a bit that you could do to maintain fitness with where you're at right now with your traps. But I would also try to be doing some things to, to support the muscles that can take some stress off your cervical spine. So those are all the questions for this week. If you have a question, you can email me BenGreenfieldFitness.com you'll notice there were no call in questions this week, but you can call in and ask a question. And I like that quite a bit when you do. So I like to always have a couple of audio questions. Those are a little bit more fun, a little more interactive. So the way that you can leave an audio question is you can just call 877-209-9439. I'll put that number in the show notes and simply leave a message. There's an extension as you listen to the message, when you call that number, there's an extension that says push extension. I think it's seven zero three. Leave a message for the BenGreenfieldFitness.com podcast. So we're gonna go ahead and move on to this we week's featured topic. An interview on the swine flu with Dr. Roby Mitchell. Featured topic One quick note before you listen to the interview with Dr. Roby Mitchell, I'm going to have to apologize for the scary dragon breathing that you hear occasionally during this interview. It just so happens that the microphone I was using was placed such that you could hear me breathing as Dr. Mitchell was talking. But it's still a fantastic interview. I just wanted to warn you that you may hear a little bit of breathing in the background.

Hey podcast listeners, this is Ben Greenfield and as promised, I have Dr. Roby Mitchell on the other line. And many of you know who Dr. Mitchell is because he made an appearance on one of our more popular podcasts several episodes ago. And I'll put a link to that show in the show notes. But Dr. Mitchell actually consults worldwide with physicians who are interested in transitioning their patients onto regimens that take them off drugs and onto helpful regimens using Nutrition, exercise, bioidentical hormone replacement, targeted supplements. But he has a background in both Western and Eastern medicine, and I know that he fuses both into his practice. I happen to subscribe to his newsletter. And his take on medicine, on health, on exercise, on weight loss, on fitness, is all grounded in very excellent and very respectable research and experience. And today we're going to be talking to Dr. Mitchell about the swine flu. So thanks for coming on the line, Dr. Mitchell.

Sure, Ben. Glad to be here.

Now, as far as the swine flu goes, I happen to have to have read some of the things that you've written about it, but I want to kind of lay down a base for the listeners to actually know the background behind the swine flu. Most of us know what it is and what it's all about. But in your opinion, how would you actually describe the swine flu?

Well, the swine flu is an influenza virus, and these are viruses, RNA viruses. They produce an enzyme. Once they make their way inside the body, they commandeer your DNA and use it to produce more viral particles. Those are released, of course, into your system, and then your immune system's response to that is what causes your symptoms. So the symptoms that you get are not really from the viral infection per se. It's from your immune system's response to the viral infection. So we see those every year, the common flu and the H1N1 is just another variation or different strain for this type of virus, the influenza virus again, that we see on a yearly basis. Now, back in 1918, there was a strain of H1N1 that was just devastating. It killed people by the millions and it just spread worldwide. So when this one started to precipitate back in the spring, it brought up the specter of this mass decimation of people that happened in 1918. So people understandably got a little worried and we started to gear up for the worst possible case scenario, which fortunately hasn't become the case. It has turned out that this particular strain of H1N1, not very potent, certainly no more potent than the regular flu that comes around each year. And this tend, at least right now, this is the predominant strain of flu that's floating around.

Now, if it's not very potent and compared to the regular flu, not that much more dangerous, why is there so much hype about it? And why are people scrambling to be immunized or to protect their children, their grandparents or themselves?

So a lot of that happened. Again, it's fallout from the initial hysteria that happened when we found out that this was a strain similar to the one that caused the pandemic in 1918. So, you know, when that type of hysteria catches on fire many times, it's hard to put that back into the bottle, so to speak. So that continued. And then, of course, the other thing was, in preparation for this, we got these companies to invest all this money and time and effort in preparing these vaccines and making these drugs and so forth. So we became very logistically and financially invested in trying to treat this thing. And then it turned out to not be anything. And people have this stuff stockpiled. And so, you know, we're kind of having a fire cell now as far as trying to make use of some of these things that we prepared for this catastrophe that really turned out to fizzle.

Well, in terms of the H1N1 strain, are there certain people that should be vaccinated? Because if you look at those charts.

You know, I was looking at one in my.

In my gym just the other day. They were getting ready to do a free H1N1. They called it a clinic, but it was basically just, you know, lining up to get your vaccination or your immunization. Now, are there certain people that should get vaccinated against the H1N1 virus?

You can make a strong argument for healthcare professionals being vaccinated because they come into contact with an immunocompromised population on a regular basis. So people that are healthy in most respects can be what we call carriers. So they can have the virus on their person but not get sick from it. Transmit that to a person who's immunocompromised, that then does get sick. So there could be a strong argument for healthcare professionals being vaccinated as far as the population at large. It kind of depends on the person's perspective as far as health and what they're doing to gird themselves for gird their immunity in general. So, you know, if a person is a smoker and they don't exercise and they eat donuts all the time and in general don't take care of themselves, then to do this kind of bailout mentality, vaccination process is a choice for them. That's what you have to think about it, as is a bailout mentality. Now, for those of us who do take the proactive stance and are doing the things that are proactive, to eat correctly and take the right supplements that boost the immune system if you're pregnant, to make sure that these hormone levels are where they're supposed to be, then the bailout approach is not necessary for people in that situation.

Well, now, when you say something like that, you know, if I'm a pregnant woman and I'm listening in and you say, make sure the hormone levels are where they're supposed to be, option one, obviously, is for me to just go get a simple vaccination and it's right there and call it good, because it's literally right there in front of me. What's the other option?

I mean, how do you go about testing your hormone levels?

How do you go about making sure that you are protected against the H1N1 if you aren't going to get vaccinated?

So the primary immunocompromise imbalance that happens with pregnancy is hypothyroidism or functional hypothyroidism. So when a woman becomes pregnant, she starts to produce these massive amounts of estrogen, and this, of course, facilitates growth of the fetus. The downside of estrogen is that it causes women to produce this protein called thyroglobulin, or thyroid binding globulin, that then binds up free thyroid in the bloodstream. Now, when that protein binds up this thyroid, then that makes it unavailable for women to use in the metabolic process. So again, they become functionally hypothyroid. Now, you can have a thyroid test at that time and it could look perfectly normal because the thyroid hormone shows up in the bloodstream. But again, it's attached to this protein and so it's not functional. So women, every woman, every woman, every woman, every woman ideally should have a tsh, which is the blood test for pregnancy, the blood test for hypothyroidism. They should have that test before they get pregnant. But at the very least, as soon as they find out that they're pregnant, then they should have a TSH done, and then that TSH should be followed throughout pregnancy. So as these estrogen levels go up through pregnancy, we'll see that TSH start to rise also, which says that thyroid levels are getting low and their doctor should put them on thyroid to make that TSH stay the same as it was in early pregnancy or before pregnancy. Use that as a guideline to try to make sure that number stays where it was before. Thyroid hormone has a huge impact on the health of the fetus in general, but particularly the immune system and organ function.

Now, are there other members of the population who should be considering also the fact that they could have functional hypothyroidism, or is that simply the pregnant population?

No, I find in my practice in general, I mean, that's probably 80% of our population, and that's probably a conservative estimate is low thyroid. Now, thyroid levels, of course, start to Wane around age 27, right? This is something that even most doctors don't understand. These hormone levels start to wane at around age 27. By the time you get in your age, middle mid-30s, we're starting to see a functional manifestation of low levels of these hormones. Now, around age 65, it takes a big dip. And that's why we see a big death toll in influenza with people 65 and older. Now, of course, younger kids have an immature immune system, immature thyroid function, and that puts them at risk. So if a person is in either of those extreme age groups, very young, very old, they need to be. Their immune system needs to be boost up a little more. People that have immune compromised diseases, any of these autoimmune diseases, HIV positive or aids, any respiratory infections like cystic fibrosis and those types of things that compromise the immune system, that's a population. Also, you can make a good argument for getting the vaccine, but in general, we want to just boost the immune system all the time, keep the immune system up. It's kind of like when you drive your car. You don't want to think about trying to buckle your seatbelt just before an accident, right? You want to keep that seatbelt buckled all the time. Now, you know, you can go the extra mile and, you know, put a crash helmet on and you know, put roll bars in your car and that type of thing. I mean, and really make sure that you don't get hurt in an accident, but at least put on your seatbelt. I mean, it just makes sense for everybody to put on their seatbelt. So these basic things like the supplements and making sure your thyroid hormones, hormone, is where it should be and not smoking and keeping this innate immune system boosted, that's the critical thing to protect yourself from these again, viruses that are what we call opportunistic infection, they're weak invaders, right? So they're like the crack addict on the street that's looking for a victim, right? Yeah, they're weak organisms.

Now, I don't want to dwell on the thyroid too long because I know there's a lot of other things that, that you recommend to your patients to boost the immune system. But if someone was found to have that high level of TSH and have the functional hypothyroidism, is it something as simple as just getting on something like Synthroid or do you have other recommendations for Your patients when you're trying to adjust a low thyroid.

So the Synthroid is that stands for synthetic thyroid. Basically, it is a component of the the thyroid hormone that your body normally produces. Normally, your body produces T4, which is a tyrosine molecule with four sticks of iodine on it. So that's where the name T4 comes from. And that's what Synthroid is. It is that molecule, that tyrosine molecule with four sticks of iodine on it. The actual functional thyroid Hormone, however, is T3. It's that T4 molecule with one iodide displaced that makes the functional molecule. Now, synthroid, being a T4 requires a person to take that molecule and then deiodinate it, take one of those iodides off and make it T3. Everybody doesn't do that so well. So if we're given synthroid or just T4 to a lot of people, they still end up with many hypothyroid symptoms because they're not converting it into T3. What myself and many other doctors do is we put patients on a combination T4, T3 product. Armored Thyroid is one West Throid nature throid, there's a couple of others. And then if you have a compounding pharmacist, then they can put those two together for you. But it's very important that you have the T3 because that's the actual functional unit. The other thing, many times people just need to boost up their iodine levels, right? So the iodine again is a substrate. That's one of the building blocks. So to start off, just make sure, making sure that you have good levels of selenium and iodine and iron, particularly for women. Those are things that facilitate this conversion of T4 into T3. Testosterone facilitates the conversion of T4 into T3, which is usually why men have a little less problem with hypothyroidism than women do.

And boosting iodine can include putting seafood or seaweed type of foods in with your meals. I also noticed that you have something called Iodorol on your website. Is that also an iodine supplement?

I'm assuming so.

The Iodorol is a combination iodine and iodide, and those are the two moieties of this halogen that your cells depend on in order to protect themselves. They use it as an antimicrobial. Some of your cells take up iodine and some cells take up iodide. Iodine, particularly for the breast cells in women and most likely the prostate cells in men. These cells will take up that iodine insert it into the wall of their membrane and then that iodine sits there and rides shotguns. So it's a very powerful antimicrobial. It keeps down the level of the. These fungus and bacteria and viruses is basically the same as putting chlorine in your swimming pool water. Chlorine, also a halogen. So these molecules are in the same column of the periodic table. They function very similarly and they all kill microbes. So chlorine, fluorine, bromine, iodine, Iodine just happens to be the one that our human cells have adapted as its natural antimicrobial.

Interesting. And I know that here locally, if I wanted to just get that done out of pocket, for me to waltz into a local lab and get a.

TSH, I think it's about $38.

So it's not like it's incredibly expensive.

For you to figure this stuff out for yourself if you had to.

Now, I know that there are some other barriers that you consider to be some great obstacles that you can put in the path of the swine floor flu. What other recommendations do you have to your patients to gird up their immune systems and protect them against this flu?

So again, let's use this. I think I used the analogy of a bank vault when I wrote that piece. And so you've got this big sum of money, right, that you need to protect. So you put it inside a safe. That's one barrier, right? And it has a combination lock. If you want to make things even a little safer, then you can put a guard out there. You can put motion detecting sensors and just barrier after barrier after barrier. And that's what your body does in order to protect yourselves from viruses, bacteria, fungi. So we have all these barriers that your body has in place. One, of course, is your skin. So you want to maintain the integrity of your skin. You don't want to walk around with no skin. Of course, no one's going to do that. But you want to protect yourself from scrapes and bruises and that type of. That's the entry point for this virus, which you have to consider as an intruder, a robber, somebody that's coming in to steal your health. Another barrier are these cilia or these hairs that are in our nose and our lungs. They're beating, flapping all the time, and they're kicking out organisms as they come in. So if you smoke, you destroy those. So you've taken away another one of your barriers. One of the primary barriers is the cell wall or the epithelium, the outside membrane of your cell. Now, that is where the actual combination lock is. That is this particular sugar, this alpha 2 glycan, where this virus is, that's where they go in to pick the lock. Now, if that is weak, right, if that lock is off or very easy to get into, you bought a cheap lock, then you're more likely to get infected. So how do we make that stronger? So this is where many of the supplements come in. So vitamin A, for instance, improves the integrity of the cell membrane. Thyroid hormone also boosts up the integrity of the cell membrane and enhances the immune system. Selenium, boost up your immune system's ability to produce these free radicals that they produce in order to fight off infection. Vitamin D allows you to produce an innate antimicrobial, so your body is able producing its own antibiotics. If there is vitamin D there so important to replace vitamin D. Now, in.

Terms of vitamin D, I noticed that you mentioned the fact that, that you start off in a letter that you recently wrote saying flu viruses appear to have inside help. And then you go on to talk about something you called the low vitamin D hypothesis.

Can you touch on that?

So, you know, we kind of start trying to figure out, well, you know, why do people get sick in the wintertime? And the actual word influenza, the etymology of that is from the Italian influenza de fredo. So the influence of the cold, because it seemed that that's when people sick is when the weather got cold. And a lot of people my age heard their grandmothers and parents talking about, you'll catch your death a cold or don't go outside without a hat on. Because we thought that cold caused the disease. Once we started looking at that scientifically, we found cold really doesn't cause the disease because we don't see the disease more. So in places where it's cold all the time, so it doesn't cause the disease diseases. But we kept trying to figure out why these viruses were able to proliferate or cause disease more at particular times of the year. And another thing that was noticed epidemiologically was that people that had low levels of vitamin D were a little more susceptible to infection. So that's what is. And of course, as fall comes and we get less sunshine and the days start getting shorter, then you're going to be make less vitamin D. So that seemed pretty reasonable that that might be a reason why. But then when we started looking from back from the time we started recording flu, incidence of flu, we see there's actually another hump in the spring, right? So there's a time in the spring, when there's an impact of the virus also, actually, that's when we saw this. The initial cases of this H1N1 now is back in April, right? In March. So again, that kind of destroys those two hypotheses, right? Because in the fall, even though things are getting colder in the spring, the temperature is getting warmer, the days are getting longer. So that dampens the vitamin D theory also. But we do know that there are these indigenous fungi that are in the body in the form of Candida albicans and these other fungi that have a temperature window that they can proliferate. So when the temperature gets at a certain point, like it does in, in fall and it does in the spring, then these fungi, they start to proliferate. And what they can do is they can produce toxins that then compromise your immune system. So they kind of open the door. Open your inside door. Right, and let the bad guys in.

Yeah, thatthat makes sense. Now, in terms of a lifestyle that you would consider an antifungal lifestyle or supplements that would limit the growth of such fungi, what would your recommendations be?

So a big weapon there, again, is the iodine. So if you've got that iodine molecule on every cell, I mean, there's a shotgun in every home, then it's less likely that that intruder is going to come in. Again, you got to think of these viruses as weak guys are looking to prey on ones that are weaker. So if they see a shotgun in every home, they're not going to be. They're going to be less likely to try to intrude. The other thing is to make sure that those cell walls are strong, right? So it doesn't do any good to lock your doors if you in your windows. So you want to take vitamin A to make those cells strong, make sure your levels of vitamin D are up. You don't want to feed fungus, right? You don't want to make it easier for them to grow. They love sugar or anything that turns quickly into sugar. So these foods that have a very high glycemic index, you want to stay away from. So things that have sugar, things that have white flour in them, those types of things turn very easily into sugar. Now, on the other side of that, you want to take in foods that have lots of these, what we call antifungals or sesquiterpenes is the chemical name for those. And there are other ingredients that give all these plants different colors and smells and that type of thing. And what those plants are trying to do they're trying to protect themselves from fungus. So if we eat them, then it protects us also. So all these dark reds and purples and cyanically colored and these volatile oils like oregano and sage and those type of things, putting those into your diet, using garlic as a spice, turmeric, those act as natural antifungals.

Interesting. Now, I heard you mention oregano. That's something that I always get on the plane with just because I know that it's a pretty volatile oil when it comes to protecting you from the spread via like an aerosol transmission of the flu. But in terms of getting into group situations for people who are in large crowds, getting on airplanes, subways, traffic, et cetera, are there ways that they can protect themselves and put up barriers prior.

To getting into those situations?

Certainly. And of course, one of the most logical barrier protections are these masks that are very. That's a very low tech way to protect yourself. Some people are a bit self conscious about wearing masks. Or if you're in a public situation where you have to communicate, that's logistically not so feasible. Another mechanism is to use these, what I call countermeasures. Right. So as I said, that virus has a docking place on your cell, right. So sugar that it has to attach to. Right. It has to attach at that particular place. Now, if you can put a decoy right in your body, particularly these entry points right of your sinuses, put a decoy in there for the virus to attach to, then it can attach to your cell membranes. Xylitol is one of these sugars. So there are products out there that, that are these xylitol nose sprays that people can just spray before getting on a plane or before they get into big crowds. You can use that. You can get xylitol just in the powdered form and make your own solution and just inhale that.

Absolutely. I mean, I have a xylitol. I think it's a xylitol grapeseed oil extract I use as kind of a nasal anticoagulant. But it was like $6 down at the grocery store. It's incredibly effective, affordable and accessible.

Yeah. So something that easy, again, can just again put a roadblock in the way of these viruses that again, they're very weak viruses and just a couple of roadblocks keep them from attaching to your cells. Taking high doses of vitamin C before getting on a plan or in that type of situation, Vitamin C is a fairly potent and very cheap, cheap, cheap antiviral also. So just high doses, say 5,000 milligrams of vitamin C before putting yourself in those situations.

Also interesting. So something as simple as, for example, popping an airborne, doing a couple sprays of a xylitol based nasal spray and maybe a few drops of oil of oregano before you hop on the train, subway or plane could really bump up your resistance to getting infected while you're.

In that group situation.

Oh, certainly, certainly. And again, those are things that we want to do during these times where the again, the ambient environment is a little more conducive to the fungal overgrowth than allowing these viruses to get into your body. So during the winter and the spring, you want to be just kind of like driving through a bad neighborhood. You want to be a little more circumspect about what's going on around you and protect yourself a little more during the winter and during this winter, rather the fall and the spring.

And try to. Now, vitamin D is a steroid precursor. And I know that steroid hormones are important in many of our physiological functions, including immune system. Do you recommend that people actually look at their actual steroid hormone levels if they're concerned about their potential immunity?

Certainly for immunity, but just in general. So these steroid hormones are involved in a lot more than just your immune system system, just your total ability to stay healthy. So we find that vitamin D is in that steroid family. And steroid just means that these molecules aretheir base is cholesterol. That's all steroid means. Now, a lot of people think about steroids and they think about guys injecting these anabolic steroids that are synthetic steroids. That's not what we're talking about when we're talking about steroids. We're talking about hormones that your body makes from cholesterol. Vitamin D is a steroid hormone, Testosterone is a steroid hormone. Estrogen is a steroid hormone, Progesterone is a steroid hormone, cortisol is a steroid hormone. And all of these hormones work together, right, to orchestrate good health in general, but certainly immune function. Also, vitamin D is one of those. You can get a vitamin D test and your doctor can tell you what your levels of vitamin D are if they are low. And I've tested people all around the world and it seems like everybody is low. And there are different hypotheses as to why that is. But everybody is low. Everybody needs to be supplement with vitamin D. Adults need to be taking at least 5000, and there's no danger in taking 5000, even without getting tested children can take 2000 again without ever being tested. But I was not taking any riding my bike all the time in this Texas sun. I got tested and I was low. I started on 5,000 and that just barely got me into the normal range. So I found that I have to take 10,000 of vitamin D. And that's true with darker skinned people. Right. So people that have darker skin need higher doses of vitamin D. Interesting.

Now I guess I have one other question about people's children and we've mentioned that a couple times. But in terms of children, are there any type of different approach that we should take? I've heard the discussion about natural immunity versus getting vaccinated and which one would.

Be better for kids.

Do you have an opinion on that matter?

Certainly the boosting the natural immunity makes a lot more sense. Again, we talk about not putting the putting your kid in the child seat when you first put them in the car. You don't want to try to strap them up just before you have an accident. So for the women to watch what they eat during pregnancy, to then breastfeed and then not to feed their children these high sugar content drinks and foods that lower their immunity makes the most sense. But then on top of that, to give your child fish oil. Now I didn't mention fish oil before, but that is fish oil has a molecule in it where that iodide docks. It's very important to have those two components in your diet or being supplemented with that iodide has to have a place to dock. And that DHA that's in the fish oil is the place where it docks. So to put a little bit of fish oil or some supplement that has DHA into your child's diet makes a lot of sense also. And then to give them just a regular multiple vitamin, one that doesn't have all the sugar in it, give them a regular multiple vitamin. There's a product out there called juice plus these fruit and vegetable capsules. If they're not a big fruit and vegetable eater, then you can give them those. They come in flavored tablets I think for the children or gummy bears. But to try to get them to sneak a few more fruits of these dark fruits and vegetables into their diet, particularly the darker ones, so purple and dark red cyanic color, the color of cranberries, the color of these purple grapes, those are the most potent antifungals. Don't smoke around them. Again, that affects the ability of the body to fight off these infections also. So it makes more sense to encourage this Natural immunity, rather than filling them up with what may be some potential toxins in these, some of the vaccinations, many of them have component of mercury in there. And we know mercury reduces the ability of the body to fight off infection. It's immunotoxic. It also can damage thyroid function. So it's thyrotoxic. If we can avoid that, then it just makes sense to do the other natural girding of the immune system.

Mm, yeah, that makes sense. And we've covered a lot today. And I know that the listener's head could be swimming with all the things they have to go do now toto check off their swine flu barriers. But Cliff Notes, I guess, would be vitamin A, vitamin D, some form of iodine supplementation, some form of an antifungal or antimicrobial like an oregano. I know colloidal silver is another one.

That I've heard you mention before.

Selenium. Selenium, yes, sir.

Selenium. The fish oils, and then also the darker fruits and vegetables that have those antifungal components. If someone were to put all that together, they would be putting themselves into a situation where they'd have a good natural immunity to the swine flu, certainly.

And then, of course, as we get older, we definitely want to start taking a closer look at what the hormonal status is. So the more. The further you are from age 27, you want to start looking at the hormonal balance, particularly the thyroid. The other thing that you have to look at as we get older is the ability to produce hydrochloric acid. So hydrochloric acid is the chemical that your stomach normally produces, and it sterilizes the gut environment when all this food that could be fermented by pathogens. Right. So we produce a lot of hydrochloric acid and we keep that sterile. As you get older, you're not producing as much hydrochloric acid. And so then the bacteria, fungi, can come in and start fermenting that food, and we get reflux and gas and a lot of those gastrointestinal problems that we see with the advent of aging. So if that is low, then people need to take supplemental hydrochloric acid.

Also interesting.

Okay, well, wow. We went through a lot, but I think this is going to be incredibly helpful for the listeners to be able to protect themselves, their children, and gird.

Up their home against the swine flu.

So, Dr. Mitchell, I'd like to thank you for coming on the show today. And you have a website I'LL put a link to it in the show notes. But it's Dr.fit with two Ts.com right?

Dr.fit.com that's correct on there. There's a blog on there and there's blog that talks about this H1N1 in particular and the swine flu. And I give those recommendations. People can go in and take a look at that again. But we want to think in a little bit in more broad terms than just fighting off the flu each year. We want to on a 24 month basis, Gird up that immune system so that you're protected not just from the swine flu, but from any type of infection from cancer. Right. Cancer tends to proliferate when the immune system is weak also. And the advent of all these other diseases has to to do with your body, with the proliferation of this fungi that's normally in the body, but this normally under control.

Well, great advice, Dr. Mitchell. Thank you for coming on the show and we hope to have you on in a later episode. Have a great Saturday.

All right, Ben, thanks a lot.

All right, so that wraps up this Week's podcast from BenGreenfieldFitness.com now please, please, please go to itunes and if you haven't yet subscribed, subscribe in itunes but also leave us a ranking and leave us a review that really helps the podcast out when you do that. Now remember, if you want in on that triathlon jersey order definitely email me. Ben greenfieldfitness.com All I need to know is what size top and what size shorts that you wear. And also email me if you want want to be added to the training camp list for January. We are really needing to get the final say on the athletes that are going to be there. So please email me if that's something that you want to do. Make it a Christmas present to yourself. And then finally, for those of you I know we have some listeners in the Coeur d' Alene and Spokane area. I'm actually going to be teaching a seminar Thursday, Thursday, November 19, I'll be over at Pilgrim's Market in Coeur d' Alene teaching a seminar for triathletes on how to put together a healthy off season. So look into that. It's just a free seminar on Thursday, November 19 for anyone in the Spokane, Washington or Coeur d' Alene area. Now until next time, we're going to be featuring, let's see, upcoming interviews are going to be on hormone fluctuations in male and female athletes as well as another interview you on Optimizing biomechanical movement patterns during exercise. Until next time, have a great week. Have a healthy week. For any of you triathletes out there racing at the Clearwater World Championships down in Florida, come say hi to me down there and I will check in next week from BenGreenfieldFitness.com.

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