Gary Brecka Answers Your Most Common Health Questions | TUH #098

It's time to get to some of your most commonly asked questions. I got a bunch of them, so let's get right into it. Can you expand on low testosterone in men? Gosh, that is a huge topic. Can mental health issues like ADHD and depression be linked to deficiencies? Can the 10XL system help? What multivitamins should you take if you have the MTHFR gene mutation? Make sure you look at my last podcast short directly answering this question and going through the science on the MTHFR G mutation. Can you help me get off diabetes meds on? I'm sick and tired of them. What are the two new biohacking tools to explore after pmf, Cold plunge and others? I would say the greatest biohack to ever be discovered in my opinion, is Ultimate Human hey guys, it's time to get to some of your most commonly asked questions. I got a bunch of them and consolidated them to the 16 most commonly asked questions, so let's get right into it. Is colostrum necessary or just a fad? I would say depending on whether or not you have gut related issues. Colostrum is excellent for repairing and healing the gut. So if you actually have gas, bloating, diarrhea, constipation, irritability or cramping, or you think that you might be exposed to leaky gut, then colostrum can be an excellent choice for you. It does have a calming effect on the gut. I actually drink natural raw colostrum, but you can also get it in pill or capsule form. Thoughts on using cold pressed hemp seed oil in smoothies and dressings? You can. You know, I don't have a lot of experience with cold hemp seed oil. I do think that shelled hemp seeds are one of the best things you can incorporate into your diet, especially if you are a vegan or a vegetarian. They have unbelievable omega 3 fatty acids in them. Very, very high in protein. As far as I know, they are the highest protein source in the vegetable kingdom. So if you're vegan or you're vegetarian, those are a must in a vegan or vegetarian diet. And they taste amazing. You can actually saute them and crisp them up or you can just put them into a salad or store them, stir them into some yogurt. What multivitamins should you take if you have the M MTHFRG mutation? Make sure you look at my last podcast short directly answering this question and going through the science on the MTHFRG mutation? I have a supplement called 10x Optimize which actually has the right specific amount of methylfolate. But you don't have to take my supplement. You can take another multivitamin. Make sure that your multivitamin is a methylated multivitamin and that it contains 5 methylfolate also on the label as 5 mthf. That is the most bioavailable form of folic acid or folate. And if you have the MTHFR gene mutation, it's an absolute must because you cannot process folic acid. Despite what you may have heard, folate and folic acid are not well processed, if at all. If you have the MTHFR gene mutation, can you expand on low testosterone in men? So this is a big topic. I would encourage you to look at the 2018 Journal of American Urology guidelines on testosterone. Go to just put into the Google search engine Journal of American Urology space Testosterone. Scroll down to section 13 and it will give you the practitioner recommendations for low testosterone. So there are a number of recommendations that a practitioner should tell a patient when they're deficient in testosterone. But namely those are things like it is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease, not the other way around. Low testosterone in men can read to erectile dysfunction, low sex drive, bone mineral density, lost anemia, all kinds of things that you may not think are directly related to low testosterone. And if you are hypogonadal, meaning that you have low production of testosterone in your testicles, you should get a full blood panel. Ask your doctor to pull a full complete hormone panel so you can see if your signaling hormones are low or if the testosterone production itself is low. Two different ways to treat that. One is to raise your own natural production of testosterone. The other is to supplement with exogenous testosterone. Remember, exogenous testosterone does come with some risks. It has a tendency to shut down your own natural production. So if you can supplement with things like dhea, reduce your sex hormone binding globulin, or you can look at your signaling hormones, luteinizing hormone or follicle stimulating hormone. Talk to your doctor about those. Those are the best ways to stimulate your own testicular production of testosterone. Better to be high on your own supply than to take something from outside your body and put it in. What's your take on aluminum free deodorant? You huge fan of aluminum free deodorant? Aluminum is a metal we methylated extraordinarily slowly in the human body. This is a heavy metal that causes all kinds of downstream consequences. The aluminum is actually used to block the pores in your armpits. And remember if you are a woman, your breast and your, your armpits, your axillary lymph nodes are right there. The upper axillary region is a region that is full, full of ducts drainage and also blood flow. So having aluminum that goes to the breast tissue in my opinion is a very bad idea. What supplements do you recommend for detox and hormone balancing? Gosh, that is a huge topic. But I would say start with a methylated multivitamin. Make sure that you are getting all of your essential amino acids and all of your essential minerals. Every day of my life I take a quarter teaspoon of Baja Gold sea salt. I also drink hydrogenated water and I use something called perfect aminos. This is the blend of the eight essential amino acids that is non caloric and doesn't break fast. Remember, very often we are not hormone deficient, we are nutrient deficient. I would also suggest pulling a full blood panel and talking to your doctor about SHBG and DHEA as well as looking at your signaling hormones whether you are a man or a woman. Also very, very good to have adequate level levels of vitamin D3. If you are going to supplement with D3, 5000ius of D3. Make sure that your D3 has something in it called vitamin K2. I prefer the MK77 version of vitamin K2, but when you combine these, the D3 molecule, which is a calcium transport molecule, amongst other things, acts as a hormone, acts as a vitamin. One of the things it does is transport calcium. K2 will help that calcium deposit into the bone and not into the arterial wall. Is homemade bone broth safe for breaking a fast? Yes, homemade bone broth is excellent. Homemade bone marrow broth very safe for breaking a fast. I use a bone broth brand called Kettle and Fire because they only use organic bones. It is one of the least expensive health hacks that I'm aware of. You get pure protein, you do get some hydration from it. It tastes amazing. You can put all kinds of things in bone broth just like you would use a um, a bullion cube. Bullion cubes have a tendency to be full of a lot of chemicals and binders and fillers and bone broth. If it's from grass fed, grass finished cattle is one of the purest sources of protein you can put in your body. I am a huge fan of Kettle and Fire. They have organic chicken, organic bone broth. They even have organic vegan and vegetarian options. What kind and how much fish oil should I take? So you want to take an omega 3 fatty acid. What usually happens in human beings is we are omega 3 fatt deficient. The omega 3 to omega 6 fatty acid ratio should be 1 to 1. A lot of us are 45 to 1. Omega 6 to omega 3. This has a tendency to cause a lot of inflammation in the body. Look for the words DHA and EPA on your fish oil. You want to make sure your fish oil has both of those. I am also a huge fan of black seed oil. I take a Black Seed Oil Omega 3 every day of my life. But fish oils are another great source. So if you're going to use a fish oil, make sure it is a DHEA and EPA fish oil. How does perfect amino play into daily protein intake? Remember, a serving of perfect amino is equivalent to 28 to 30 grams of whey protein. The reason why we try to take in so much protein is because we need the amino acids. It's the eight essential amino acids that create magic in the human body. We not only build our muscles, we think of amino acids as only building muscles. Remember, amino acids are not proteins. They are the building blocks of proteins. But they don't only build protein. They build our natural killer cells which forms our immune system. They build our red blood cel cells. They build all kinds of protein structures in the body, including muscle. So being amino acid deficient is very bad for us. Very often when we take an imperfect protein like bcaas. I'm not a fan of branched chain amino acids. I'm a fan of the full spectrum of essential amino acids. I take a perfect amino acid by Body Health. There are lots of other good amino acid supplements on the market. But just make sure they have all eight of the essential amino acids. That's super important. Can you help me get off diabetes meds? I'm sick and tired of them. My clinical team may be able to help you get off of diabetes meds if you're talking about insulin. It's very often people think that once they have diabetes they can't actually reverse diabetes. We know that to be patently false. Things like ketogenic resets, lowering our glycemic profile, taking things like berberine, which is a glucophage like metformin, but just in the natural form. It's a root. Metformin is a, you know, first line diabetic medication glucophage that they use in diabetics or even pre diabetics. My preference is roots like berberine and limiting our high glycemic carbohydrate intake, stopping processed foods Staying adequately hydrated. Believe it or not, yes, adequate hydration is very important for diabetics. So if you want to get off your meds, I'd suggest that you go to 10x healthtest.com and you can order the blood work there and you can make an appointment with with one of our licensed physicians. They've done this several times. Is weight loss surgery the best option for me? I'm obese and I have diabetes. The question that you should be asking yourself is why are you obese and why do you have diabetes? Very likely the root cause is a high intake of over processed foods. I really think that all too often we go to surgery, GLP1 inhibitors, GLP1 and GDP inhibitors as a way of trying to circumvent a good healthy diet and exercise program. You cannot supplement your way around a bad diet, you cannot surgically remove a bad exercise program, and you certainly cannot surgically or chemically alter a really, really poor diet and sleep schedule. I would do three things. Number one, I would focus on getting adequate sleep. I would start an exercise routine. If you are morbidly OBEs, minimal exercise broken into multiple times throughout the day. 15 minutes of walking 3 times a day rather than one 45 minute walk is a great idea, especially if you do it right after meals. Secondly, I would look into something called berberine, which is a route that you can take to help control your blood sugar. And I would begin an exercise program and I would eliminate processed foods from your diet and begin to eat a whole food diet. You very well could be one of the victims of a highly processed diet that is non satiating, causing you to dramatically overeat. I think that our cells are bathed in a toxic soup of pesticides, herbicides, insecticides, preservatives and all kinds of glyphosates and chemicals. And these are largely found in highly processed foods. Cut out the seed oils, get off the highly processed diet. Three bouts of 15 minutes of exercise per day and stay adequately hydrated. Focus on your sleep. And I think you might actually see your weight loss journey begin for the first time in your adult lifetime. Best of luck with that. Can mental health issues like ADHD and depression be linked to deficiencies? Can the 10XL system help? You have to watch the podcast that I just did. I just did a podcast short on this. I go through all of the research. I was so excited to see that the researchers were able to link the genetic mutation MTHFR to a very specific deficiency in 5 methylfolate. And they were also able to prove that supplementation with 5 methylfolate caused up to a 10 fold increase in the availability of this ultra important micronutrient that's used in the process of methylation. We know that gene mutations are now related to things like attention deficit disorder. I'm not saying that your ADHD is caused by the gene mutation, but it very well could be. If it is, supplementation can help and there's adequate science to prove that. So the 10x health system can help. If that's your situation and you can go to 10xhealthtest.com and we'll drop that genetic test right to your front door. Suggestions for managing MTHFR and COMT mutations in children and adults this is where supplementation can be absolutely crucial. If you know that you have either or both of those gene mutations, you know which alleles are the polymorphisms that you have, meaning the polymorphic genetic SNP that you have and you can supplement for these deficiencies. If you have MTHFR, it's imperative that you supplement with something called 5Methylfolate. Usually these bottles will say 5MTHF 5Methylfolate. This is a result of having inefficient folate or folic acid metabolism in the body. COMT mutations usually benefit from the complex of B vitamins and from a special form of B12 called hydroxycobalamin. I'm also a big fan of the methylcobalamin form of B12. These can be imperative for people with a COMT gene mutation. Remember, COMPT stands for catecholo methyltransferase. It's essentially a fancy way of saying the gene that codes for the enzymes that break down catecholamines. Catecholamines are fight or flight neurotransmitters and create awakened state in the mind. Can you dive deeper into cholesterol and plaque myths? I'll just give a 30 second overview. It would take me two hours to do a deep dive into cholesterol and plaque myths. But I want you to think of cholesterol as the fireman. It shows up to put out a fire. So every time there's a fire, the firemen show up and they put the fire out. The firemen do not show up and light the fire. This is an important concept. So the theory that if we had less firemen, less cholesterol, we would less fire. Endothelial damage is not proving to be the case in many of the scientific peer reviewed publications. What you have is you have damage to the endothelial lining of the blood vessel and this is an oversimplified explanation. And when there's damage, cholesterol shows up to repair that damage. And if you continue to damage that endothelial wall, then what's called the endocalyx or the glycocalyx, or the inside lining of the artery, then cholesterol continues to pile up. And as it piles up, it actually begins to restrict the arteries. But remember, cholesterol is. The fireman did not light the fire. It was called to the location of inflammation for a reason. Better to start thinking about cholesterol in terms of what kind of inflammatory factors do I have in my body. Talk to your doctor about looking at your C reactive protein, your homocysteine level, your sugar levels, and your insulin levels. Insulin resistance creates a lot of this damage, as do diets that are high in processed foods and sugars. Any biohacks for hair loss? Yes, there are a couple of biohacks for hair loss that are proven to work very effectively. There are some topicals that you can use. Finasteride, ketoconazole, and minoxidil. These are chemicals, but you do apply them to the scalp. They're very good for restoring and reversing hair loss. The reason I prefer to apply those to the scalp rather than take finasteride orally is because one of the things that oral finasteride does is it lowers a key hormone in your body called dht, dihydritestosterone. DHT binds to the hair follicle, chokes out the hair follicle. And so propecia and finasteride target this dht. But DHT also has benefits, especially in men. It actually improves your libido, which is why there's a downside of loss of libido and erectile dysfunction. Low energy. So before we go and put something in our body that's going to directly inhibit our hormones, I would rather apply those compounds topically. There are also some amazing peptides. One of them is G H K C U. G H K C U. C U stands for copper, is a copper peptide. It's a foam that you apply directly to the scalp in the morning, and it actually puts this copper peptide into your scalp. The other thing that you could do is look for other reasons why you might be losing your hair. Full thyroid exam done. And have a hormone check done. What are the two new biohacking tools to explore after pmf, cold plunge and others? I would say the greatest biohack to ever be discovered, in my opinion, is red light therapy. You do not have to ride a big expensive red light therapy bed. My preference is if you want to spend zero, you expose your skin to sunlight for about 15 to 20 minutes a day, preferably first thing in the morning where there's very little or no UVA or UVB rays. This is the very special blue light that comes from the sun that doesn't create damaging rays for your body. But when you're ready to take that next biohacking step, start thinking about a red light therapy bed or red light therapy panels. Any recommendations for managing restless leg syndrome? Yes. Magnesium and sodium and potassium. So this is a great place to introduce you to Baja Gold Sea Salt. It is a mineral salt that very often can stop leg cramps that are due to deficient or inefficient amounts of sodium or potassium. But sodium, potassium and magnesium are all have been directly linked to restless leg syndrome. I'm not saying that's only cause of restless leg syndrome. I also take a magnesium supplement at night and I take Baja Gold sea salt in the morning very often. We're just mineral deficient guys. We are just nutrient deficient and therefore we get leg cramps as a result. The other common link for leg cramps is clinical levels of dehydration. So make sure you're well hydrated. I think that wraps it up. That was the 16 questions. Tried to get to them as fast as I could. If you continue to submit your questions, guys, every once in a while we will do these podcast shorts and I'll do my best to answer them in a quick, concise manner so that doesn't take up too much of your time. And as always, that's just science.