21. Catharine Arnston: Decline in Mitochondrial Health After 30, the Most Nutrient Dense Food on the Planet, the Alkaline Diet and More

We did a clinical trial last year. We took a number of military veterans who had post traumatic stress disorder. They'd been discharged for 15 years, still had anxiety, sleep issues, all sorts of mental health issues. We did a brain scan, gave them 30 tablets of energy bits every day for a month. So one little pouch. Then we did another brain scan. Within 30 days, the inflammation completely gone. Did nothing else, changed nothing else, and just started. Just taken. So I refer to spirulina as brain food.

The following is an operation. Podcast production. All right, welcome. Katherine Ernston. Gosh, I almost called you my dear friend because I've looked forward to meeting you for so long, for so many years.

Thank you for being here. I'm so honored to be here.

Well, it's funny, you know, the intention of this podcast, podcast, honestly, was to highlight all of these wellness trends that are happening, but the ones that stick and the ones that stick, I'm finding, are all rooted in ancient healing. They're things that have been practiced by all of our ancestors for centuries, and they typically end up being free also.

Yes. It's so funny. I tell people that all the time. Yeah, yeah.

Chlorella algae is one of that. Those phenomena. Right.

First life on Earth. First life on Earth 4 billion years ago. I call spirulina spiritualina.

Now, I love that we're going to tie in the spirituality aspect of it, too, because I feel like that's such a big part of my healing journey and for my clients also. But when we think about, you know, before we dive in, I want to know a little bit about you.

Sure.

So the idea of rooted in wellness is, like, really becoming rooted in ourselves, in our life, and also our inner wisdom to heal.

Yeah.

And, you know, what would you say? What are three things that help you feel really rooted in your life and your happiness, your health?

Well, it's funny. I'll start with the easiest one and you'll laugh because it's trees. And, you know, of course they have deep roots, but I have always been a tree person, not a tree hugger. I just love being in forests. Maybe it's partly being Canadian. You're outdoors all the time. I've visited Arizona a couple times. I could never live there because there's no trees. And I mentioned I just moved to Miami and there's trees right out my windows. They're just so stabilizing. I'm also a Virgo, which is very earthy. The smell of the moss, trees are it for me. Some people, it's the ocean, the sun for me. It's trees. And I live In Boston, about 32 minutes away from the Esplanade, where there's lots of trees. So I go walking there in the evenings and that really grounds me. So it's trees for sure.

I love that. And do you have any practices that you practice every day that really help you anchor in feeling rooted?

Well, I always start and end my day the same way, just very. It's not technically a meditation, but just very calmly. I end always with candles and some calm music. But the other thing that roots me is, is my path, what I'm doing. I don't think I was rooted until I started down this rabbit hole of algae and discovered what it could do for people. And it made no sense for me to do this whatsoever because as you're gonna find out, there's so much science around it, both scientific studies and understanding our bodies and what algae does for our bodies, particularly the mitochondria. But I had no science background and so. But I just had this voice inside me saying, you can do this. You keep going. So now it's all starting to show up. 14 years. It's been almost 15 years since I started this and it's been nerve wracking. But I just knew this voice couldn't be wrong. So I just, I just stayed with it, even though it made no sense whatsoever. So my passion for my purpose is very grounding and it steers me. It's never let me down in any of my choices.

So that's beautiful.

That would be number two. The other thing that I would say is very grounding for me are I have two sisters. All my, my. All my other. My parents, grandparents are all passed away and we had a difficult upbringing, which I can talk to a little bit later on, but they're. They're all I have. And that's why when my sister, younger sister, got breast cancer, which led me down this path to algae, it was, it was just like, okay, what do we got to do? But being with them, because we've been together all our lives, it's just very. Everything's very natural and simple and no pretend. We just are very connected. And so I feel very. And I'm going to see them both next week. So I'm really excited about that. We get together once a year. At least once a year, the three.

Of us, all the time.

Yeah, yeah. We'd laugh and we giggle and it's amazing. It's just so natural. So they're my other sort of grounding element in my. Because they're all the family I have.

I love asking this question because I feel like our listeners typically want to know the protocol, tell me what to do. They're looking for consistency from all the guests that I have on. But I promise you, virtually every single guest so far has said something different or has a different reason for feeling rooted. So thank you for sharing that.

That's beautiful. Yeah.

Especially because just before the show started, we're talking about how our journeys really shape our purpose. And that's such a gift for you to come into this. Yeah. So to that point, then, on the opposite side, I work with so many people who treat their wellness protocol or daily, you know, activities to get rooted as a checklist.

Yeah.

So much so that they're not even serving their function anymore. It's just they're checking things off a list. And this is uprooting them.

Right.

Distracting them from feeling a sense of peace or achieving their goals or stepping into true healing. So what are three things that make you feel uprooted?

I know. Well, I realized. So as I alluded to earlier, we had a sort of a. Everybody has a difficult upbringing. I think there is no family that is normal. Every family is dysfunctional. But in my family, my father left when I was quite young. Well, 12, and so. And he moved to the United States, and we had literally no contact with him for almost the rest of our lives, other than maybe once every couple of years for half an hour or something. So it was very destabilizing. And my mother went into a depress depression that never left. So we kind of raised ourselves, which is unbelievable. And it was also very financially stressful because there was no financial support at all. So most of my life has been very driven by fear of not having enough money. And so I ended up going into a business career thinking, well, maybe that's a way to make money. But it wasn't. It wasn't. It's. It was too stressful. And everything I did was based on, will this make money? And I'm not even. I don't even really actually care about money. That's what's so funny. So I said, security. It's security and seeking. Thinking, even dating, because I'm still single, never married, never could find the right person because I know I was seeking the wrong person because I was seeking security. And then it finally dawned on me. I don't have to be this way. And maybe I can just enjoy life and make a contribution. And maybe money isn't as critical as I thought it was. And it Just flipped everything, Flipped everything. And it was like, wow. Because I've never allowed myself to relax because I was always driven to try to make something work. So, so that's number one. I completely changed my perspective when I understood that maybe there's a way to be happy and stable and it's not really based on money. So that was number one. Number two is when I, I've always had a business career, marketing, international business. And. But I was not right for corporate. I'm too sensitive and I'm too caring and my business is not sensitive or caring. So I never could get my, you know, my juice. It was just, I always felt out of place. So when I started, I just. When my sister got sick with cancer, I thought, forget it, I'm just going to focus on her. Forget the career, I don't care anymore. Let's just help her get well. And I can go into that story what happened. And I'll tell you, it was so freeing because she was now my purpose and the whole business thing and money thing was just completely disappeared. But what happened was as I dug into it and tried and learned things to help her with plant based nutrition and then ultimate algae. I had to read all these science papers. I've read about 3,000 of them. But I thought, this is crazy. I have no science background. But I was determined to learn what was going on. And this is so weird. I can't. Why do I. Why am I so passionate about science? It's turned out I'm a science geek. I love science and in fact you're the first person I'll tell this to. But some places won't let me speak even though I've written incredibly detailed analysis about mitochondrial health and algae. So they wouldn't let me speak because I didn't have an MD or a PhD. So I thought, okay, I'll get one. So I've been studying and I just finished my exams and I finished all my coursework and yesterday I got the email that I passed. Come on. And I now have a PhD in natural health.

Lucky me that I get to sit.

With you because you just yesterday. Yeah, so I get, I got chills. I told my team today because I want people because I had no idea that I had this ability because. And we'll talk about this too, that other things that are weird. I love art and I love design and I still like business, but not as much, but I love science. And so I was refusing to allow myself to embrace this new part of me that I'd never known about before and was. I love spending hours on PubMed and reading because I'm trying to solve the problem like every other scientist about longevity and health. And and so it's like I thought, well why, why could I me more mere mortal find something that maybe nobody else has found? But it's so. But you know, we have these skill sets and denying them is very disturbing to your system and to your health and to your psyche into your emotional stability. And I'm not denying them anymore. It's like, well, I guess I'm. I guess I could do this.

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Yeah. Yeah.

So when you follow this chord of your heartstrings.

Yeah.

It's funny. I'm enrolled to get my PhD. Are you really in natural medicine for the same thing? Because, you know, I was working with this amazing woman and what do I want to do? I love helping people. I love learning. I love being like, learning about things that can support other people and share information.

Right.

Live in a world where they want to see this doctor. It's probably your second or third doctor that you've technically done.

Yeah. Probably with all the research. Exactly.

Over the years.

But people didn't believe me because I had an mba and they. How could someone with an MBA have. Have this skill set to be scientifically oriented? And so it's the credentialism of our. Of the world that we live in. And so I took that to heart. I guess I can't do that. But. But you're right. And. And I'm so lucky because all I wanted to do was help my sister. And in the process of helping her and stepping out of my comfort zone and my needs to address hers, that led me. And there was this little voice, but this led me to this whole new world that has opened up for me that I would never in a million years have discovered. And so.

And your sister's healthy.

She's. She completely healed. And we celebrate every year her being cancer free. So I, you know, it was a happy ending for both of us. But, yeah, it was. So God bless you. Yeah. And, you know, people just think things are impossible. And this is the other thing. The other thing that kept me unrooted, so to speak. It's like, you know, what if I'm wrong? I kept thinking, what if I'm wrong? I'm spending all this time to try to help people. But what if I'm wrong? And I flipped it and I found that what if I'm right? What if I'm right? And, you know, Columbus, you know, found out the earth wasn't flat. You know, he took a shot, he took a chance, and he was right. So anyway, so that was very uprooting for. For me to think that I couldn't do something like this. And I'm doing it for other people. I want to be able to explain to them and have them trust me that I've done my homework and I'm not just making stuff up.

Absolutely. And like your experience through this is everything. So let's just go back a little bit and break down in your study and pursuit of supporting your sister, the concept of an alkaline diet. What did you, you know, help, prescribe and recommend to me?

Yeah, well, it was easy because it was online and there's lots of science about it. So. Because again, I knew nothing about this, so I just thought, well, let's just start at the basics. And so for people who aren't familiar with with alkalinity, all processes in your body, digestion and all foods that you intake, in fact, emotions as well, have a acidifying or an alkalining effect on your body. And the range goes from 0 to 14, with 14 being the most alkaline, 0 being the most acidic. And so I believe my sister's oncologist, which is a cancer specialist, who by the way, was a woman. And women tend to be more open to nutritional activities. So it turned out that an alkaline diet was primarily a plant based diet. And this is because phytonutrients and chlorophyll have been studied for decades as having an alkalining effect on the immune system. And when you have a stronger immune system, you would be able to survive chemotherapy because chemotherapy decimates your immune system. So that's number one. I think she wanted her to have the benefit of a stronger immune system from the phytonutrients and the chlorophyll, which are primarily in plants. The other thing is, it turns out that there was a German scientist back in the 30s, his name is Otto Warburg, W A R B E R G who won a Nobel prize, I think, in 31, for discovering cancer cannot exist in cells that are slightly alkaline. And so because when the cells are slightly alkaline, it turns out they need to be 7.1. That indicates there's oxygen in the cell. That indicates that the cell is healthy, that it's communicating. And as soon as it becomes acidic, it opens the door to cancer. Because cancers also grow through an anaerobic process they go through from fermentation. They don't communicate with each other, so they don't know that they're sick. So they don't go through this process called apoptosis, which is healthy cell death. So keeping the cells slightly alkaline ensures that additional cancer cells could not multiply. And so that was, I believe, the other reason. By the way, your blood needs to be even more alkaline. It needs to be 7.34. And it's a really interesting thing. Of course, I'm probably getting too geeky, but when you're in your blood, your hemoglobin is what carries oxygen, and your hemoglobin have an iron atom in the middle. But in order for that hemoglobin to carry the oxygen atom, it needs to be round and it needs to be able to flow through the capillaries. But when your blood becomes too acidic, what happens is, if you've ever held magnets up to one another, you know, they. They repel one another. So there's a negative charge on hemoglobin, and that's to make sure that they don't clump, because if it's too acidic, it strips off the negative charge. They clump. Now they can't carry oxygen, and now they also can't get into those tiny capillaries. So this is also very devastating to your health because your body can't get oxygen. So when you keep it alkaline, what happens is your body, if you're eating too much, acidic food, will naturally pull minerals from your bones, from your cells, from your organs, and move them into the blood to neutralize that acidity. But if you do that over and over and over again, it wears down your immune system and it contributes to osteoporosis. So I think that's the other reason for the alkalinity issue for my sister and her recommendation by her can't hurt. If physician.

This applies to so many layers of health, though, too, right? Let's think about all of the things that we're doing in today's modern world that are causing more of an acidic effect to our bodies, right? Pollutants, the air that we breathe, chemicals in the environment, lack of sleep, stress. Stress, absolutely.

Cortisol sadness.

Cortisol diets that are high in rancid fats and processed oils and processed foods. I mean, the list goes on and on and on and on. And yet we still tend to look for, you know, the next best pill or protocol when ultimately, what you're saying and what a lot of, you know, studies like Ayurveda have known all along, it's going back to a diet that really supports alkalinity, supports giving your body the right nutrition and everything. Right?

And that's one of the reasons, and we'll get to this, why I like algae so much, because it is the most alkaline food in the world. So we. What I've learned, and I'm also guilty of this, it's very Hard for people to change habits. And so if you're telling people they need an alkaline diet, they're going to resist. So what I tell people is, well, hey, you don't have to change anything right now. Just add these algae tablets. Just add them. They will plug the holes in your boat, keep you afloat, and then you'll start feeling better, that maybe you can choose to make additional changes. But you don't have have to, because if you start, and this is the problem with a lot of these particular diets, they're asking people to make a 360 degree change, and that's too dramatic and too sudden and unsustainable because people are. They have habits, they have routines, and, and they will resist if you make it too dramatic for them. I say algae. Algae. There's no drama with algae. Not, not in anything. I love it. So sort of like me, I hate drama.

Same drama or things I feel too intense or too hard. Life is hard enough.

We don't need to do anything anymore.

So we'll talk about the power of algae, other simple ways, like print out a list of alkaline foods, take that with you to the grocery store every single week. Try to reduce your stress. Practice the things that we talk a lot about in this, this podcast.

Yeah.

Okay, so let's really talk about the differences. Two products that I absolutely love, Chlorella and spirulina.

Correct.

So how about we talk about spirulina first?

Sure. I usually do. Well, because historically it was the first life on Earth, because people probably have no idea about this, but spirulina is not even a plant. It's a bacteria. It's called a cyanobacteria. And I won't spoil. Well, I'll tell a little bit about. So cyanobacteria was the very first life on Earth almost 4 billion years ago. Before cyanobacteria, it's a single cell organism. There was. Earth was just gas and water, no life, nothing, not even any oxygen. And this little cell started growing. Nobody really knows why. That's why I call it Spiritualina, because you can only be the first life once.

Right.

And it's still here, by the way, four billion years later. And it released so much oxygen after a billion years that other life forms could grow. Chlorella was next, which does belong to the plant kingdom, and then other plants and then other life. We've only been on Earth to 200 million years, so algae predates us by many, many billions of years. So. And I mention that because of this fact that it's a bacteria and chlorella, as I mentioned, is a plant. Why is this important for us? A couple of things. First of all, spirulina, because it's a bacteria, has no cellulous wall, so it and all the nutrients in it get absorbed almost instantly. Definitely instantly, if you chew them, because they go in sublingually through your mouth and in minutes in your bloodstream. Because all the pro. And by the way, spirulina has the highest protein in the world. United nations has endorsed it since 1974 as the answer to world hunger because it has three times the amount of protein as steak, chicken, fish. Nothing in the world has more protein than spirulina.

Wow.

Yeah. Pretty crazy, right?

Can we hover on that just for a second? Because protein is all the craze. Yeah, right, yeah. There's a lot of doctors showing that, you know, eating too much protein isn't going to cause any issues with your kidneys. But I mean, I just think about the amount of animals that people are consuming every single day. Right. The amount of effort that it takes for your body to break things down. Right. Just to try to get this miracle protein number. Right. So can you talk to us about how much?

Sure. Well, first of all, you need to know that animal protein cannot be absorbed by the body as it is. It needs to break it down into smaller components called amino acids. In animal protein, most people do not have what's called the factors and co factors and enzymes and coenzymes to allow that to occur efficiently. So you may have eaten 50 grams of chicken, which is about the size of a wrist, but because most people miss all of the critical nutrients that allow it to get broken into aminos, many times you only absorb 10% as Aminos. So you ate maybe 50 grams of chicken, but you only got 5 grams of Aminos. In algae, both spirulina and chlorella, the protein is already in amino form. Again, nothing for your body to break down. It has 18 of the 20Aminos, including the nine your body can't make. So it's already a complete protein. And so we sell them, the tablets in little pouches of 30 and large bags of a thousand. But if you took 30 tablets, which is really more the medicinal quantity we recommend people take, start with 10 spirulina tablets in the morning and 10 chlorella at night and I'll explain the difference in the time of the day. But 30 tablets would give you 5 grams of protein and 5 grams of Aminos because it's absorbed. Absorbed instantly and immediately and efficiently, unlike chicken. So you could have eaten 50 grams of chicken but only got 5 grams of Aminos. So a little pouch, even though it looks like it, you say, well, it's only got five grams of protein. Yeah, but it's five grams of aminos. It's very efficient protein. So. And the great thing is a lot of people are go carnivore because they have had stomach issues. And a lot of the stomach issues were from lectins or, or oxalates that are found in certain land plants like kale or spinach or nightshade vegetables, which are like tomatoes. And these lectins and oxalates are sharp proteins that puncture your stomach lining and then food gets into your bloodstream and can contribute to autoimmune. Well, the great thing is algae doesn't have any lectins and oxalates because the plants develop those to protect themselves from bugs or predators and because they do the same thing to their tummies, too. Algae is not a land plant. It started in the ocean, so it didn't ever have to protect itself. So. So whether you're a paleo or carnivore or vegan or fasting, you can eat algae and enjoy the protein and all the nutrients. So very efficient protein. Easily absorbed, no what's called anti nutrients, like these lectins or oxalates. And then spirulina's main claim to fame is it gives you energy and it's mental energy, physical energy, and all of that is because of the cellular energy, because it energizes the mitochondria. But it's not like a stimulant. I tell people a stimulant like coffee or sugar, is like putting a paper on a fire. You get a burst and then a crash. When you take spirulina, it's like putting a log on the fire. It's very steady and you may not even notice it unless you were working out because there's no rush and there's no crash. You just notice, oh, I'm not tired, or oh, I'm not hungry, or, oh, I can think better. And it's food. This is the thing I want people to truly understand. People think algae tablets are supplements. They're not. We call them bits because they're bits of food. Algae is everywhere. It's in the oceans and the lakes and in the rivers and streams. But we grow ours as an agricultural crop in triple filtered spring mountain water. And we air dry it without heat, and then we press them into these little tablets that we call bits. It's food, it is not a supplement. And in fact, most people wouldn't know this. It is a multi billion dollar agricultural crop in Asia. Billion. It's been grown in Asia for over 60 years. They take it every day.

They eat algae every day.

Every day. The Japanese have spirulina and chlorella every day. And guess what? They have the best longevity. Great skin, low cancer rates, low obesity rates. It's not just the algae, but it contributes to it. So people don't know about algae and we're going to talk about some of the benefits because it's, it's not grown here. 99 of algae, spirulina, chlorella are grown in fresh water. Like I mentioned, it's an agricultural crop, but it's grown in Asia and 99 of it is consumed in Asia. So you wouldn't go ride your bicycle here on the way to work or school and go buy an algae farm. But they do in Asia. So people a don't know about it. And then even though there's a hundred thousand studies that document all the health benefits we're going to talk about today, that's a big number. And this research has been going on since the 1980s, since the 1800s.

Oh my goodness.

But there's no incentive for anybody in America to tell people about it because it's a plant. You can't, you can't get a patent on it.

So it's too easy.

It's like broccoli, except, you know, a thousand times more nutrient dense than broccoli. So, so there's been no. And food companies don't launch new, new, new food groups. So I tell people you didn't know about collagen powder or bone broth or chia or matcha, even though those have been around for centuries in other countries until somebody brought it to you, packaged it, educated you about the health benefits and that's what we're doing with algae.

And sadly there's not, there's no doctors out there that are lobbying for any of these things. Right. Because they tend to just come from the earth and from the environment.

Well, and doctors don't get any nutritional education. That's why I was so lucky that my sister's oncologist had an interest in nutrition. So. So the chances in here in America are like slim. Yeah.

Let's hope that's changing. So, oldest bacteria on the planet, incredible source of protein, alkalizes the body has the amino acid, so it takes all of that Aspect about a vegan protein not giving you everything that it needs. Spirulina is something that I give to all of my vegans, especially because it is so fueling for them. It gives them, takes care of their lack of energy that might come up from not getting a. Yeah, yeah.

Has all the B vitamins, including 12. Yeah. And it's not an analog bee, it's a real bee because bees are made in your gut with bacteria. And of course, spirulina is a bacteria. So it has 40 vitamins and minerals. Over 40 vitamins and minerals, the highest protein in the world. And I tell people, look at you can replace fish oil, a multivitamin CoQ10, a lot of other nutrients. And this is from food. And the great thing about algae, when you take algae, because it's a gift to us from mother Nature, I take credit for growing it carefully to preserve all the nutrients. But mother nature created it, she concocted it. And so it has all the these enzymes and coenzymes and factors and co factors. So synergistically, all the nutrients work beautifully together. And I make the difference between algae and a supplement is like, think of taking a supplement as listening to like a grade three soloist, you know, not really well performed and you know, doesn't really do much for you. Algae is like the Boston Symphony Orchestra. It's all the harmonies, all the synergies, they're already there. So they up level each other, improve the absorption of each other. Sometimes, you know, you have to take one supplement with grapefruit or not with grapefruit, and it becomes like a, you know, a challenge just to what to have with what you don't have to think at all with algae. Just open your mouth, down the hatch, you're good to go.

And most people have no clue about bioavailability. They have no clue if they're absorbing the supplements that they take, when to take them, how to eat them, how nature intended us to take them.

Right.

So you brought up an interesting point that I want to bring up also because another massive trend is, you know, taking an omega 3 fatty acid supplement, right? Inflammation is all the buzz. We're studying more about this. People are taking fish oils and there's so many poor quality fish oils in the marketplace. So any studies on that that have.

Come up that are relevant, endless. And virtually every fish oil is rancid by the time you get it. You just can't stop it because it oxidizes. And, and I tell people, well, where do you think the fish get the Omega 3 from, they get it from algae. And a couple years ago there was a Netflix movie conspiracy talking about how, you know, the poor ocean is being devastated by overfishing for the fish oil or for the fish. And I tell people, look it, save the fish, save the oceans, save yourself. You can get the Omega 3 you need from algae. Now I will admit there's not a lot of omega 3 in the spirulina in particular, chlorella is not a source really for Omega 3s, but what you need to know is there are other essential fatty acids in the spirulina that behave like an omega 3. And one is called GLA, stands for gamma linic acid. Now it's technically an omega 6. And normally we know, oh, but you know, omega 6s are terrible, which most cases they are, but they become terrible when they are heated because that's when of course there's exceptions like canola oil is just bad, flat out lives. But it's the heat that makes them inflammatory because we do not use high heat to dry our algae. Our GLA behaves like an Omega 3. And if you ever wondered why, if GLA was truly important for you. Well, the only place that has more of it than spirulina is mother's breast milk.

Wow.

Yeah. And it's in mother's breast milk because GLA is a critical anti essential fatty acid for helping the body's brain develop. And in fact, I am the one that did an analysis on the nutrient profile, particularly the aminos in algae, spirulina. And I noticed that they're virtually the same as mother's breast milk. The same amino, same proportion. And this explained to me why I had read a paper that said that in Japan, if babies are premature and they can't digest mother's breast milk, the only thing that keeps them alive is spirulina and water. And now I understood why. It's the gla, it's the amino acid profile, vitamins, the minerals that they're getting from it. So, so it behaves. So, so you're getting all the, you're getting essential fatty acids from a safe source. It never goes rancid, ever. In fact I can mention now, but our algae tablets have a three year expiry date. What vitamin or what food lasts for three years safely? Right, so. And also something else people probably would never know. But, but I have because I've done all this deep dive. Both algae have very high chlorophyll, chlorella has the highest. And we'll talk more about that when we swing over to chlorella. Chlorophyll is a fat based pigment. Spirulina has two pigments in it. The blue one, which I do want to address because it is proven to kill cancer cells and that's pretty important. But the blue one, phycocyanin, which is spelled P H Y C C O C Y N I N A N I N. I'm spelling it because I want people to be able to Google it.

Absolutely.

Google phycocyanin and cancer treatments and you'll see that chemotherapy companies use phycocyanin that's in spirulina to kill cancer cells and it does it on its own. But anyways, we can talk more about that. But it's a, it's a water based pigment. Chlorophyll is a fat based pigment. So once again, as a fat, it's healing the cell walls. It's doing everything that healthy fats need to do. And I think this is maybe one of the reasons why people see results when they do a juice fast. The chlorophyll is healing the cell walls. And when your cell walls, they're made of pigments or they're made of lipid, which is a fancy way to say fat. Healthy cells allow nutrients in and toxins out. So this is one of the reasons why you need these essential fatty acids and any fat ed chlorophylls right in there. So. And for your brain, of course, so much to unpack. I know, I'm just fascinated. It's crazy.

Okay, let's go back. Just one thing you mentioned. So with babies, okay, so I've been trying to give my kids green water. So, you know, we know it's an old study now. So it was in 2005, they did a study and they found over 200 toxins that are found in umbilical cords.

Right? Yeah, yeah, I know, it's terrible.

So knowing this with my kids, when they got a little bit older, I started giving them green water. And it's like these chlorophyll drops that I put in. But God knows about efficacy now that I'm speaking with you. My kids are only five and nine and this sounds like an incredible way to give them the nutrients that they need. Especially as they move towards the teenage years and they're eating way too much processed foods. Is there a way to dissolve energy bits?

They don't dissolve very well. The kids actually love to chew them because they turn their tongues green. They think that's hilarious. I know when I was a kid, we had these blue pops, and we used to. Nobody liked the flavor, but we just like the fact that our tongues turn blue. So if you turn it into a game and the chlorella actually tastes really good with sea salt or pistachio nuts. I eat it all the time with pistachio nuts. We're doing a clinical trial right now that I wanted to talk to you about with. For measuring mitochondria health, the impact on spirulina has. And Natalie Nadeem is one of our participants in our. In our clinical trial. She's a fellow Canadian biohacker, and she came up with a nice little recipe where she chopped up the. The spirulina with coconut and some. Some almonds. And she loves it. So you can. You can mix this with, you know, the spirulina is a more difficult flavor to acquire. I noticed that when I tried. So chewy. So. But the chlorella is definitely better. But. But you can grind it up and put it into smoothies, but it doesn't actually dissolve.

Okay.

So. So to speak. But I do want you to know it has 25 times more chlorophyll than liquid chlorophyll. There is nothing, nothing in the world with more chlorophyll than algae.

Nothing.

In fact, chlorella is called chlorella because of the chlorophyll.

Yeah. I just figure out a time and, you know, where we are at and all the toxins that we're exposed to, especially our kids. It's just. It's such a valuable, easy resource to give to them. Especially. We want them to get their greens also.

Yeah.

So I'm going to get to the kitchen. By the time this episode goes live, I will have some recipes up to share with you. Yeah.

And we'll talk about chlorella later, obviously. But. But it does pull out toxins. So I refer to spirulina as your nutritional insurance because it gives your body absolutely everything it needs, whether it's the chlorophyll, the protein, this really critical blue pigment called phycocyanin. And I do want to talk about a very critical antioxidant called superoxide dismutase, also known as SOD. And there are 25,000 studies done documenting how critical this antioxidant is and how it stops inflammation, prevents Alzheimer's, prevents heart disease, prevents virtually every single disease in the world. This antioxidant called superoxide dismutase. And the good news is our body makes it from the moment we're born, just like it makes all these hormones and melatonin and all these other things. The bad news is when you hit 30, like a lot of things, it slows down. And by the time you're 40, you have none. None of this antioxidant. So what does this antioxidant do? It protects your mitochondria from free radical damage. And free radicals are a byproduct of something called cellular energy. Your mitochondria make your cellular energy, and it's called ATP. You need cellular energy for everything, not just running the grocery store or doing a, you know, a good workout. It's thinking, walking, talking. Your neurotransmitters, your lymphatic system, your immune system. Everything requires cellular energy. But as you've known, as we all know, by the time you're 35 or 40, people are getting more disease. And I believe it's because this supply of superoxide dismutase, which has been neutralizing a very damaging antioxidant or a free radical that's released in the process of ATP called superoxide, our body supply of it is gone. So it's like having your superpowers taken away. And the way I describe superoxide dismutase is like, you know, these free radicals are being issued naturally every single nanosecond as a byproduct. But it acts like a big golf umbrella. It protects your mitochondria from being damaged. So up until 30, you can do whatever you want. Your mitochondria is being saved because your body's making it for you. And then by the time you're 30, that big golf umbrella is about the size of a totes umbrella, not sit, not protecting you very much from the rain. And then by the time you're 35 or 40, it's a cocktail umbrella, and it's virtually gone. And that's exactly when all these chronic diseases start hitting. And so what happens is your mitochondria get damaged. They die. You have less of them, so you have less cellular energy, so you have less ability to fight any kind of disease or. Or just protect yourself from anything. And it's a downward spiral from there. And spirulina and the chlorella, but mostly spirulina, have the world's highest concentration of superoxide dismutase, period. Crazy, right?

That is insane.

And the science. Nobody knows this, and I only know this because I've been doing all this deep dive, that there's tens, like I said, 25,000 studies showing how Important this antioxidant is, but nobody knows that. It's in spirulina and chlorella, but mostly spirulina. But here's the downside. It's also an enzyme. And anyone who knows anything about nutrition knows that enzymes are deactivated by high heat. So if you go to Target or any, and buy one of the lower priced algae companies, which are mostly in China, by the way, and they cut corners because they are lower priced and they need to sell more to get to make money. One of the things they use is high heat to dry their algae. Boom. Just knocked out the superoxide dismutase. It's gone. It may be there, but it's deactivated. I tell people it's like buying a car with no engine. Looks great, but it's not going to do anything.

And this is the case with so many antioxidants, and I've worked with so many people in the past. They know the importance of eating more fruits and veggies that are organic and stuff like that. But due to lack of time or whatever it is, they, they can't get them in their diet.

Yeah.

Then they go out, they buy this antioxidant formula and you look at the ingredients and they're just, they're garbage. And they're full of sugar and binders or you don't know how they're made or they're not organic.

Yeah.

So this is incredible to know because I think you know anyone over 30.

35, especially every single person in the world, but definitely by the time you're 30, because here's the thing. They call damaged mitochondria, what's going on is inflammation. They call it the silent killer because you can have inflammation going on in your cells for 10 years without any symptoms at all. So if you're 30 and think you're home free. No, no. You want to start, you want to start now to protect what you have so that you don't have to unravel everything. And maybe this is a good time to tell you my age because I'm 68.

Come on.

Yeah. So I'm two years away from 70. Okay. And in my age group, people are usually on five medications, have two or three chronic diseases, take like 20 supplements. I take no supplements except algae. I am on no medications. My brain works, my sleep is great, my poop is great, my energy is great. Hey, I just finished a PhD at the age of 68. Who does that? Right. So I'm the poster child. Like, I want people to Know, this is possible. And what I also want to reemphasize or emphasize is it's effortless. You don't have to if you want to. This really up levels all biohacks, whether it's red light, sauna, cryotherapy, hyperbaric chambers, it improves everything, but you don't need those. And you all have to, you have to go somewhere. Unless you're lucky enough to be able to buy them at home. This is something you can do effortlessly. If you can swallow water, you can take 10 tablets a day. Take 30 if you are on a. If you have a health condition you want to reverse. Although usually after you take 30, you feel so great you might want to keep taking them. But even 10 tablets a day, work out to a dollar a day when you buy the large bag. And we have a discount code. A dollar a day to save, protect or regain your health. I'd say that's worth it.

It's pretty incredible, right?

Effortless.

Catherine, you are stunning too. Like, you're radiating. Your skin is glowing like. Yeah, yeah.

I have no wrinkles. It's crazy and it's. It freaked me out for a while. I thought, like, because I'm watching all my friends get older and, and decrepit and wrinkled and it's like, you know, I'm like Benjamin Button. I'm like getting younger every year. And this is all my hair. There's no extensions here. I don't use Botox. So everything moves.

This is so special and powerful because I think that we tend to over complicate anything and everything when it comes to healing especially. We're bombarded with what to do and people are overwhelmed.

Yeah.

And a lot of people, when they come to see me, are taking 20 or 30.

Oh, yeah.

Supplements a day. And it's like, well, that's not going to undo the damage that you're doing every single day.

Yeah.

So looking to nature, I always say trust in nature. So this is just so special to me.

This is Mother Nature at her best, honestly.

And it should be, you know, front page news.

Yeah, I think, I think so, you know, and I have the science to prove it.

Okay, so spirulina, you know, the super healing spiritual bacteria. Let's shift this over to.

Well, one last thing. I just want to emphasize. For people, the most mitochondria, which of course control your health and your age, are in your brain. There are 2 million mitochondria per cell in your brain.

2 million mitochondria per cell in your brain.

Crazy, right?

Crazy.

The next highest are women's eggs, which are about 800,000 per cell. After that, it's your heart, which is 8,000 per cell, and then it's muscles at about 5,000, and then skin and fat and everything else has got like about a thousand. But your brain has 2 million mitochondria per cell. This is why. And we did a clinical trial last year. We took this number of military veterans who had post traumatic stress disorder. They had been discharged for 15 years, still had anxiety, sleep issues, just all sorts of mental health issues. We get. We did a brain scan, gave them 30 tablets of energy bits for every day for a month. So one little pouch. Then we did another brain scan. Within 30 days, the inflammation completely gone.

Come on.

Completely. They did nothing else, changed nothing else, and just started just taking. So I refer to spirulina as brain food. We also know that fatty fish, cold fatty fish, are brain food. And because the omega 3 and obviously spirulina has lots of omega 3 in it, but it's definitely brain food. We have Alzheimer's clients who tell us their brain fog is gone within 24 hours. This does not take long to work. And so anybody who's listening, you have for your parents, your grandparents, please, please, please get them taking spirulina if you can only take one. Spirulina is the one for your brain. And it's food. It's food. And you'll get all sorts of other benefits. 40 vitamins and minerals, increased energy, your skin will be better, everything will improve, but most importantly, your brain.

Are you actively conducting studies then?

Yes, yes, because I realized, you know, there's thousands and thousands, tens of thousands of studies, but people want to know, well, what about your brand in particular? So this is the other reason I wanted to get the PhD, because I love working with, with the other PhDs who are doing the research and working with me. So we did one last year. We started one about two weeks ago. Get the data mid September. And this is with a company called MI Screen. They've developed a blood test to test your mitochondria health with certain markers. And so we had people do the test. They're taking the algae now. We did another test after seven days because this time I want to see if it works after seven days. And then we're going to do another test in 30 days. And the PhD team, who's doing all the analysis for us, you'll love this, because it's back to the spiritual thing, is Hemel, who is the main scientist, he has a Whole lab at University of Southern California in San Diego. He does all Joe Dispenza's research, all his brain research. Really? Really. Dr. Hemel Patel, great guy. And we met him at Dave Asprey's show back in. In June, so. And he. They were right beside us. So we started up a friendship and said we got to work together. So. Yeah. So there's a lot of really great stuff happening.

Yeah. I think it's important to point out because often like anything, when anything sounds too good to be true or like, you know, before Dispenza was doing the work that he was doing, people would call that woo woo being backed.

I'm exactly where he was probably about 10 years ago, and I can hardly wait to work with him. Joe, if you're listening, I want to talk to you. I have all of his books and I follow his work and. And he's. He's changing the world, you know, he.

Is, but so are you. I think it's really important. You know, you're first honoring the people who just intuitively understand that this is something really special that they want to take and they'll see and feel the difference. But you're also honoring the people with the scientific brain, the logic behind it, to say, okay, here's the data.

Yeah.

And here's how we can create impact.

Yeah.

Yeah. Okay, so let's talk about the chlorella.

Okay. Spirulina's brother. One other little thing I will want to mention is that if people go to our website, energybits.com we actually have two spirulina brands. One is Energy Bits and the other one is called Beauty Bits. They are absolutely identical. And I'm not trying to trick anybody, but what happened was the women after the first couple years just weren't buying the Spirulina. And my girlfriend's said, honestly, you need to make it pink and give it a cute name and it's beautiful. And it turns out that Spirulina has more collagen in it than collagen powder, so. Which is one of the reasons why your skin is so healthy when you take it and your hair is so healthy. So. And I designed all the packaging, by the way. I taught myself package design. Like PhD design, you do everything. So. So I. Because I wanted the. The packaging and branding to look as vibrant visually as what algae does for you on the inside. So it's really, truly beauty from the inside. So just not to confuse people, there are two brands of Spirulina. One is blue, called Energy Bits. And the other one is. Got this beautiful pink flower on it called Beauty Bits. That's the one I travel with and women love it. And so I'm happy.

So I was also unsure on when to take what I wanted to go for, like the biggest bang for my doctor. So I'm happy you pointed.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And most people take the spirulina, as I mentioned, in the morning.

Okay.

At lunch, in the afternoon, because that's when you're tired and hungry. But it's cellular energy, so you could take it any time of day, but definitely take it in the morning. A pouch could be 30 tablets. By the way, if anyone's taking the GLP1 drug, please take spirulina, because if you aren't, you're generally not eating when you're on the GLP1, and so you're not nourished and you're not certainly not getting protein. So this will help prevent wasting of muscle because of the high concentration of the protein. So.

And you mentioned, too, also during fasting.

Oh, it's great. And I know you had Mindy Peltz on your. On your podcast. I love Dr. Mindy and I've been on her podcast and she loves us and it's a, you know, love affair. But she points out that because there's zero carbs and rapid absorption. Absorption, this will not interfere with your fast. So if you. If you're. You get hangry, as they say, you can have this and still stay in a fasted state. I do it every day. I love it. I eat the spirulina and I actually take the chlorella as well in the morning until about 11, 12 sometimes or 1. And then, then I'll have a. I try to get. I'm trying to get into the one main meal a day routine, but the spirulina just makes it so much easier because you're not hungry, you're not tired, you're focused, so it's great.

Thank you for pointing that out, too, because in terms of GLP1, I think this is going to be around for a little while now because people are so, so desperate. Yeah. And for the people who I've worked with, like, they are becoming so, you know, mal. Sorry. They're becoming so malnutritioned.

Yeah, yeah.

Right. And I'm trying to get to, you know, however I can get as many nutrients.

Oh, please get on taking this. I will say, though, that a lot of people, GLP1 is their last resort. And of course, I'm sure, you know, when you are counseling people, food very often is a substitute for emotional needs or not following your path. And so. And so people are eating when they're not even hungry. So I will say when, if you're on the GLP1, you get some hunger, but what happens is it makes you really conscious of that hunger. So I think it probably could help people change their eating habits because they stop reaching out for grabbing things just because they're emotionally upset or there's. And, you know, I've experienced that in my own life, so I know that you know how this works. You reach for something and you realize afterwards, well, that was a substitute for me. It wasn't food, it was shopping. Yeah.

You know, we could do a whole show on that. And I feel like we should, because I really don't think if you're eating quality food, it's not the food that's the problem. It's the state of your body. And I believe that, you know, the onset of inflammation and stress and disease really comes from either toxins or trauma. And that trauma can be from food. It can be from physical, emotional, spiritual life events. Like, there's so many aspect to it. It's a big topic.

Yeah.

But your body, if you give it the right fuel, it tends to come into balance pretty quickly. Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right.

Okay, now we get to go to the chlorella spirulina's brother, Chlorella, or sister, however you want to refer to. So chlorella does belong to the plant kingdom, so it does have fiber. And spirulina is a very nourishing, energizing algae. And that's why I call it your nutritional insurance. Chlorella is a wellness detoxing algae. So I call it your health insurance. So how does it do that? Well, a couple things. First of all, that hard cell wall, the cell wall has fiber, so it feeds your gut biome, and your gut biome needs fiber to create what's called short chain fatty acids, which help you have a proper gut biome blend of healthy bacteria. The most important thing about chlorella is that hard cell wall is the hardest in the plant kingdom, and it attaches to toxins, heavy metals, glyphosate, pesticide, aluminum, lead. Of course, that stuff is everywhere in our water and everything, and it chelates them. So it also has the highest chlorophyll in the world, which is very cleansing and kills bacteria. And spirulina has chlorophyll, too. But chlorella is a detoxing algae, chelating Chelating means it attaches and pulls the toxin out, and it does it for all heavy metals, alcohol, by the way. So if anyone's drinking alcohol, you definitely take this before bed. So. So, number one, it pulls out toxins. Now, for the health benefits and the wellness benefits, 10 tablets, and we recommend it at night, and I'll tell you why in a minute. 10 tablets is sufficient for detox. You need the full 30 tablets. You might be able to get away with 20, but 30 is probably the better number. And there's a doctor by the name of Dr. Klinghardt who's up in Seattle. He's been recommending Chlorella for 50 years. He's a German physician and he says the same thing. You need enough chlorella to pull out the toxins, because if it doesn't, if you don't have enough, it won't pull them out and move them through your bloodstream and out. Toxins are removed four ways from your body. Breath, sweat, urine and bowel movements. So this will help all four processes to eliminate the toxins. Now, the downside is you may not everybody, but some people do have detox reactions. And so if you have any doubt that you, you know, might be one of those people, we encourage people, rather than go to energy bits and buy a big, you know, expensive bag of product, go to Amazon. If you live In America, there's $6 for a little pouch of 30 tablets. You'll be able to tell immediately if you're one of the people that with just the 30 tablets, and if you're okay, come back to the website and knock yourself out and buy the larger quantity.

It's also indication, like, maybe you should dive into this a little bit more and how to clean up. Right?

Yeah, yeah. So. So chlorella very detoxing because of the hard cell wall, very cleansing because it has the highest chlorophyll in the world. People may not know this, but the chemical composition of chlorophyll is virtually identical to your hemoglobin. The only difference is chlorophyll has a magnesium atom in the middle, and your hemoglobin has iron, which is what carries oxygen. So it builds your blood. Chlorophyll builds your blood. So chlorophyll, chlorella is building your blood. And when you have healthy blood, you're going to have a healthier body, more oxygen, everything's better. Chlorella also has something called chlorella growth factor in that speeds up the growth of your cells and also stimulates stem Cells. So these are some of the reasons why we recommend chlorella before bed. Because your body goes through a detox repair cycle when you are sleeping. And the good news is chlorella also has the highest tryptophan in the world, which is a precursor to melatonin. And melatonin is what helps you get into a deep sleep now. Now, it won't make you sleepy, but it will help you get there when you are sleeping. So when you're having your beauty rest, your chlorella, it's like the cleanup crew. It's in there pulling out toxins, aluminum out of your brain, toxins out of your cells. It's restoring your cell walls with the chlorophyll, which kills bacteria. Chlorophyll kills bacteria. In your mouth, in your colon, there's so much chlorine. Colon cancer. And here's the other great thing. It stimulates peristalsis, also known as a bowel movement. And I tell people, you got to get rid of that junk in your trunk, because if you are, and people don't like to talk about it, but you know what? Constipation is rampant. If you're on medication, I can almost promise you you're constipated. If you're eating dairy, I can almost promise you you're constipated. Rice, high protein diet, high protein, constipation, traveling constipation, stress, constipation, it's everywhere. But, and, And a lot of people will take vegetables to get the fiber to, you know, move the, get a bowel movement. But chlorella has fiber, too, and it's. And because it stimulates peristalsis, it's effortless. A lot of people, when they get older, they can't digest fiber. They don't have the enzymes. And so, you know, this is why, again, I want people to talk to their parents and their grandparents, get them taking this, because the spirulina will nourish them. The chlorella will get rid of all the junk in their trunk. And you have to have bowel movements regularly because if it's sitting there in your colon, what's sitting in your colon? Stuff your body didn't want. Waste, waste toxins, metals, pesticides. And what happens, the blood circulates around the colon, you know, goes, oh, there's some stuff in there. I'll take it for a ride. Circulates the call all the, all the toxins around your body again.

Yes.

And this is why there's so much colon cancer, because it's Constipation and gut issues.

Right? Gut issues, food sensitivity issues, leaky guts, you name it.

Yeah, it's crazy. So chlorella, the chlorophyll, kills bacteria. It, the, this, the fibers, feeds the, the gut biome, by the way, your immune system, 80% of your immune system thereabouts is in your, is in your gut. And so Chlorella has 40 vitamins and minerals. It has all the vitamins and minerals that the medical community. Zinc. I'm trying to use vitamin A. There's a bunch of particular amino acids that your immune system needs. And your immune system, I tell people your immune system is like your police force. What it does is it identifies invaders, kills them and removes them. You want a good police force, but if you don't give your police force ammo or, you know, a car to get to the site of whatever, you're not going to have someone protecting you. Your immune system needs nutrients so it can protect you. Create things like macrophages and killer cells and T cells. And chlorella has everything. So between the gut health, the microbiome, the colon health, the peristalsis, the stimulation of stem cells, the speeding up of the growth of your cells with chlorella growth factor, I mean, it's your. That's why I call it your health insurance. But you need to take it. You can take it any time of day, but definitely before bed because that's when all the action happens for the repair.

I love that you pointed that out. So one of the clients and my clients who will listen to this will know. I'm noticing that a lot of my clients who go plan, plant focused, I tend to run my clients blood labs once or twice a year. Typically twice a year. And what I'm noticing is that they are coming back with higher levels of heavy metals. And a lot of these heavy metals are coming from vegetables that are grown in the soil that, you know, we're consuming and God knows what water they're using to grow the vegetables. Like, it's a really deep topic. So I put them on chlorella and it really tends to support them into toxins.

Nice. Yeah.

But taking it before bed, that is great insight.

Yeah.

Not something that you have to take with food. You can take this right before you go to bed. Okay.

No. And, and again, you can have any, you can have it any time of day, but definitely. And anyone who's drinking it, it will pull out because your body converts alcohol into a toxin. It doesn't matter what's wine, beer, or any kind of spirit. And you will be stone sober in an hour and a half because it's like a Roomba. It just pulls the alcohol right out of your bloodstream, right out of your liver, and you will never have a hangover the next day. We've had people gone to Vegas for their bachelorette party, and they were the only ones taking the chlorella. And they felt great the whole time. It works. It's so funny because one of the. Of all the organized sports, because we fuel Olympic teams, Olympic athletes, hockey is one of the biggest sports that love us. And the hockey players, they take so 75 spirulina before a game because they want the focus and the energy on the ice. And then they take the 75 Chlorella after a game because it also pulls out lactic acid. But I also chuckled because hockey players are notorious for liking to drink a lot of beer. So they take this after they've been partying, and they're fine. So. So it's, you know, if you have college kids make, you know, load them up with some spirulina for energy to get to. To class, and chlorella to pull out the. All the alcohol after the party.

So let's go over the dosing then, because obviously, like, who knew that there was such a variety in how these two can really benefit us? So in the morning, for, you know, daily consumption, for somebody who's just sort of on maintenance, they're living a healthy lifestyle. You're recommending five or 10 capsules of cerulean.

Try to take 10. Yeah, yeah. And it's great for children, too, by the way. We generally recommend having half of their age. So if they're 10, give them five a day. If they're four, give them two a day. And pets love this stuff. Cats, dogs. We even had a. I had a friend who's a cardiologist. He sent us. Sent me a video last week. He had a pet raccoon, and they gave the pet. We have a brand called Vitality Bits, which is a blend of the two algae. Anyways, they gave the raccoon. It was just a little tiny thing, a couple of tablets, and he loved them. So then they brought the bag on the floor, and the raccoon just went straight into the bag. Loved. And we had somebody write us once. They were camping in the Appalachians and a bear broke into their campground. So everybody scattered, and they came back, you know, an hour or two later. The bear had found the baggies of supplements, ripped the baggies open. But all the supplements were still there.

Oh my goodness.

Then there was a bag of energy. But spirit spirulina tablets ripped open and licked clean. Bears, raccoons, cats, dogs, they. And by the way, our pets get the same diseases that we do.

Absolutely. Especially now.

Their coat will be shinier, their breath will be fresher, their digestion will be good. We've had people whose dogs had accidents. They will heal faster from the accidents. They get cancer. It's unbelievable at this time.

Stuff does great.

So, so but for children, give them, you know, and you know, they can have more. I've had the same doctor, he brought his 16 month to one of the conferences, chiropractic conference. This little girl, she was probably a foot and a half tall, 16 months, she ate at least 50 or 60 chlorella in the space of a minute or two. She just pounded them back. She. I finally said, I think she's had enough because I didn't want her to have diarrhea or anything. But I have pictures of her and she had the little green on the corner of her mouth. So again, it's food I want. We call them bits because they're bits of food, bits of nourishment. Not a single toxin in there. Nothing, nothing, nothing. So you can have as much as you like, but you can't have too much salad if it's, you know, clean. This is probably even, well, not probably. This is cleaner than any salad you'll ever get anywhere from anything. I believe it's crazy. So. But 10 spirulina in the morning would be sufficient. And you know what? If you don't want to take 10 all day at once, have five and then have five at lunch and just get an in you. That's all I say. And then. But if you have any kind of health condition you're trying to correct, whether it's hypoglycemia or you're losing, you want, you're on a diet or you have cancer or heart disease or you had it and you want to keep it, I would go for 30 a day for sure. And then if you have a, when you get a clear diagnosis, if you want to dial it back to 10 a day, that's perfectly fine. And the same with the chlorella. 10 at night would give you the chlorophyll and the immune enhancing benefits and the fiber and the peristalsis benefits. But for healing and detoxing, you'll need the full 30. And we do have a brand called Vitality Bits which as I mentioned, is the blend of the two algae. So if you were taking 10 spirulina in the morning and 10 chlorella at night with the vitality bits, you would take 10 vitality bits in the morning and 10 vitality bits at night to make sure that you keep up the same sort of dosage amounts. But again, there's never any upper limit. I don't even. You know, I eat way more than that. I've probably. For the last. I've had it every single day for the last 15 years and probably averaging 100 tablets a day. Now, I'm not suggesting anyone have that much. Ten is plenty. Absolutely fine.

Okay.

But. And I'll point out that I had some biomarker tests done recently. Well, about a year ago. And, you know, there's this guy, Brian Johnson, who's getting all this news about all this longevity stuff, and he's doing. He's getting all these. He has all these devices. He takes 100 supplements, and he spends an average of 2 million a year. So he spent in the last three or four years 5 or 6 million, and he's knocked, I think, one and a half years off his chronological age. One and a half. He spent 6 million. So with this biomarker test that I did, I had the equivalent of two pouches of algae, and they tested me. And as I mentioned, I'm 68. I was 67 at the time. My biological age is 30.

Wow.

I spent the equivalent of $12, waited two hours, and knocked 30 years off my life. So, Brian Johnson, let's have a smackdown. I want to. I'm gonna. I'm gonna. There's a company called True Diagnostics. I'm gonna wait till I actually turn 38 in, like, three weeks. I'm gonna do the test. Because he uses their tests and they have a dashboard where they show people's, you know, numbers to see who's doing the best. And. And I'm gonna challenge him. You know, it's algae versus everything else that you're doing. I know algae is going to win.

I love that. And this also makes me want to join as well.

Yeah.

Because I think the whole point of this is, you know, how we're aging, how well we're doing in the long run. Right. Because otherwise, what is the per. The purpose?

Right.

But, gosh, your health ritual should not feel like they're depleting you. And to come at that expense. Like, we're not meant to live that way. Right. I totally get it. For Brian Johnson, if it's his hobby.

And he feels got $600 million. He's got nothing else to do do. So knock yourself out, Brian. I'm happy for you. And, and I will say he's drawing attention to the issues and he's bringing awareness. So, so I'm very happy about that. But the problem is it's so extreme that people think, well I can't, you know, do anything about my health issues or improve my longevity unless I have $2 million a year. My whole point is, yes you can. And it should be effortless, affordable. 10 tablets a day will cost you a dollar a day. That's affordable. Yeah, effortless. If you can drink water, pop those 10 tablets down, you don't have to go anywhere. Done and done.

And you now have the studies to point out that do nothing else. Just add in your algae every single day and you'll see the difference and feel the difference and then you can.

Take it from there if you want or just leave it where it is. It's because the whole nutritional situation is not going to improve our food, our soap over process. The crops are grown so far away, they're harvested before they're ripe. There's no minerals or enzymes in the fruit or the, and they've cross bred them. So you think you'd buy these red peppers and they're the size of a Volkswagen and there's no nutrition in there. It's a waste of money. So where are you supposed to get the nutrition from? Well you're gonna, it's from algae. And then the average adult I read had 700 toxins in their bodies. Now and those toxins lodge in your cell walls, prevent the good nutrition from getting in there. Nothing works properly when you have too many toxins. And so chlorella gets rid of those for you. So it's like your superheroes, you know, they're the Dynamic duo.

Absolutely, yeah. Before I even touch, you know, nutrition with my clients, often it's your, the rest, the quality of the sleep that you're getting and then the quality of the toxins that you're exposed to. You don't take care of those two first. I would say any diet or any protocol that you go on in the world might not work its best for you. So this is such great, great, great answer.

Well, and when we started, and I want to bring it back, you were talking about how in the ancient world there's things that were always done and it's, and I tell this to people all the time, the things that will make the biggest impact on your health are, are simple and free. Or almost free. And what are they movements. So that's walking, breathing, meditation and yoga, sleep, sunlight sleep. And I do put algae in there because it was the first life on earth spiritual Lena. And it's affordable. So these things, sleep, movement, sun breath and algae, that's what I, that's what I use. And, and the algae, of course, I don't have to pay for mine, but it's still very affordable. They are gifts to us from Mother Nature, ancient Indian, Ayurveda, all the ancient traditions, they focus on this. And with the sunlight. I used to, I found out that the Indians, 2,000 years ago, they used to get up to their yoga at 3 o', clock, 4 o' clock in the morning. Why? Because that's when the red light from the sun was struck.

Strongest, strongest circadian rhythm. This is everything. It's something we're not talking about.

And you know, we need the red light. You may have devices or you can get up at 4 o' clock in the morning if you want. But we also need the UV rays because it creates the vitamin D. So I've never used sunscreen ever.

Wow.

And I, no, I just stay out of the sun. I get peak. I don't do much sunning. I always wear a hat to protect my skin and my face. But the sun is not the enemy. And you know, there's so many chemicals in our sunscreens those are causing more problems, deficiencies, all sorts of deficiencies. You just have to monitor your exposure and be careful. I mean, zinc is a good thing to put on if you are going to be out, you know, skiing or something. But yeah, I've also never had a mammogram. I refused my. I've had two doctors fire me as patients. Patients.

Because I got fired too.

Yeah, I refused. I refused. I've never had. I will never have one because I read the science that showed that when you squish your breasts of it, there may be cancer cells in there, but they're just. We always have cancer cells in us, but they don't meant they don't multiply. When you crush the, the breast, it causes them to disperse and sometimes ends up. So that's another topic, but another topic for another day.

But yeah, alkalize the body.

Yeah.

That's essential to, for prevention.

Yeah.

You know. How long have you been taking algae then?

15 years. Well, 14. Almost 15 years. Yeah. Since I started. Yeah.

In that 15 years you've probably gone through some major hormonal shifts. What has it been like for you? Hormones. Yeah. Nothing Right.

I will say that, you know, running a company and I kept saying, you know, I started the company when I was 52. I kept saying, this is age inappropriate. Like, there is a reason why 20 year olds usually start companies because it's a lot of work and very stressful. And I didn't want to take investors because I knew they wouldn't understand and they didn't. They're impatient. And I was not going to cheat the world or my path. I just knew it was going to take a long time, but it was very stressful and financially very risky. And so for a while, I think I was. My hormonal system was off and my sleep was off because I was just so stressed, because I didn't want to give in to taking investor money. But people are starting to see that I'm telling the truth, that the science is there. And I've redesigned the packaging like six times and I now have a team. I mean, I was by myself for the first five years. So things are starting to really settle in and I'm feeling comfortable and my health is. My health was never bad, but it was, you know, I was stressed. There's no question. I'm sure my cortisol was off the charts, but I. I've. I'm so postmenopausal, I can't even remember what it was like not to be post menopausal.

Yeah, no, I asked that question because I feel like women are finally just being given the attention to their hormones that we need. And yet most women are still lost and doctors are still at a loss for giving them the perfect recommendation for their constitution. Instead, we're kind of putting women into buckets of where they are. And I think that's something that we've now learned is that there's not one perfect protocol per person. Exactly right.

Although I will say that spirulina in particular will help with hormones as well, because there are hormonal receptors in mitochondria. And so. So they affect your hormones and your lack of hormones affect the mitochondria health. So if we could just get those mitochondria back in line and working, everything else seems to start working better too.

This is kind of the segue that I was hoping for. So, you know, as a woman, you're told, oh, wait, when you're 40, it all just like goes downhill. I was in complete denial that that was gonna happen at 40. I felt amazing at 41. Just started to just rapidly dis. Decline.

Yeah.

And I think that a lot of that with the science that is emerging. One, the awareness of toxins that are within us, that are fueling just improper function of all of our body functions, including our brain, but also mitochondrial function, which is on the rise.

Yeah.

So tell us a bit about the studies that you know.

Oh, man, now you're getting into my sweet spot. I love the mighty mitochondria, but I.

Think that the mitochondria are going to be the essence of how we're looking at aging.

Everything is.

And disease prevention.

Yeah, everything comes down to the mitochondria. It's where the rubber hits the road. And I tell people I never eat alone. I always eat with my mitochondria. So I'll help people understand what exactly these mitochondria are. And so you can put everything in context. So there are these little organelles that are inside your cells that generate. It's called cellular energy. And think of your. Compare your body to like a big office tower. Now, in an office tower, they have offices, and that's where the work is done. Well, in your body, you have cells and that's where the work is done. The thing that allows the work to be done in the offices are lights. You can't do any work if it's dark in there. And in your body, what allows the work to be done are the mitochondria. Now, in the building, when the lights go out, you just pick up the phone, call maintenance, they come and replace them, easy peasy. In your body, which are the mitochondria, which are your lights when they go out? No maintenance, people, there's no help. And it gets even worse. In the building, your lights are on because of something called electricity. Well, in your body, not only are the mitochondria the light bulbs, they are the electricity. So as you get older and your mitochondria start to die, this is what happens when you're. By the time you're 35, certainly by 40, they start dying. They mutate and there's less and less of them. So you're literally, your lights go out, your lights go out, lights go out. And then your body has less and less cellular energy to perform anything. And this is when chronic disease, weight gain, hormonal issues, everything is due to decrease increased functionality and presence of mitochondria. And the reason they're dropping is. And decreasing and damaging is because of the lack of protection from the free radicals that are released in that process of generating ATP. And this is where this thing called superoxide dismutase comes into play. Because your Body stops making it after the age of 30. By the time you're 40, you have none. And so what people don't know is your mitochondria have their own DNA. You know that you have about 22,000 regular DNA. Your mitochondria only have 37. And you think 37. How important are 37? Well, those 37 control all the other 22,000 DNA control all communication in your entire body. So, so when they get damaged, it's not, it's, it's, it's not pretty. So it's. They're like the air controllers. There's not many of them, but when they go down, it would be. It's a night. Everything goes down. So. So when you're in your mitochondria, DNA are located exactly inside the inner membrane of the mitochondria where all those free radicals are. This is why they're getting exposed and damaged and dying. And so you need to protect them. And it, it gets even more complicated because there's, the way it's produced is there's this thing called the electronic electron transport chain, and that's what actually is producing the energy. And the way I explain this thing called the electron transport chain, I try to make it easy. I know everyone's probably watched a relay race. You know, you have a relay race, you have a runner with a baton and they pass it to the next runner, and then that person runs a distance and hopefully they win. Well, that's sort of how energy is created in this thing called electron transport chain. Except instead of runners, you have molecules, and instead of a baton being passed, you have electrons. And so you want this electron transport chain to be really efficient, because when it is the baton, which is electrons, get passed quickly and boom, you get ATP at the end. But what happens is when you have too many free radicals and they're closely knit together, and you have two little helper molecules too, which I'll talk about in a minute. But when your mitochondria have too many free radicals, what happens is they start to expand. What does this do? It makes the. Those molecules which are the runners, further and further apart from one another. So they can't pass the baton, they can't pass the electrons. So two things happen. As the mitochondria gets damaged and they start to expand, you get less energy because the baton can't be passed. Now that. And it drops. They drop. It's like dropping the baton. Those electrons don't disappear. You know what they do? They turn into free radicals, which causes more Damage, which causes the mitochondria to expand even more. So you have even less energy and it's a downward spiral. Increase inflammation, increased inflammation. ROA. It's just unbelievable. Now there's two things. There's two little helper molecules. One is called CoQ10, which people have heard of, and one is called something called Cytochrome C CoQ10. When you expose CoQ10 your body to chlorophyll and red light, it recirculates the CoQ10 molecule. So this is one of the reasons why algae or chlorophyll and red light can improve and reduce inflammation, improve your mitochondria. So that's one little helper molecule. The more important one is one probably people have never heard of. But I'll tell you, this is where real hot new research is occurring. This little helper molecule is called cytochrome C. Right, okay. So. And it's actually a water based molecule. The elements. Yeah, it's water based. So what's so important about the cytochrome C molecule? Well, well, in a healthy cell, it speeds up the movement of those electrons. It's like having a Tesla in your, in your relay race instead of the runners, it, vroom, moves it. So you get more energy. It's one of the reasons why spirulina works so well, because the blue phycocyanin triggers that cytochrome C molecule to move quicker. So, boom, you get more energy. That's the good news. And it's actually even better news because that cytochrome C molecule, when it is triggered by the blue phycocyanin in the blue pigment spirulina, if it's a senescent cell or a cancer cell, that blue pigment triggers the cytochrome C molecule, which triggers something called cap A, which triggers something called apoptosis, which kills the senescent cell and the cancer cell automatically. Automatically. This is why I call spirulina intelligent food. You have to be intelligent to take it and it knows what to do in your body. The blue phycocyanin, like, do you believe they use it in chemotherapy? They measure how much cytochrome C molecule is in your plasma. Because if there's, if it's a high amount, then they know it's working. Because the trouble with cancer cells, they do not go through apoptosis, which is programmed cell death, because they've become a rogue cell. There's no communication. They don't know how to die normally. If you have a healthy cell apoptosis like I said, is like healthy cell death. It's sort of like having a cell go into retirement. You've had somebody working at the office. They've been there for 60 years. They've done a great job. And so they. But they go, oh, my time has come. It's time for me to leave. And so what they do is they give all their projects to all the younger people in the office, and they go, good. Have a good time. It's been great being here. That's what apoptosis is. The cell goes, I'm not feeling so well. I've done it. I've done enough work here. Time for me to go. But before it kills itself, it takes all of its good nucleus, all the healthy pieces, and divides itself into smaller, other healthy cells so there's no inflammation. That's called apoptosis. That's controlled cell death. It's sort of like, oh, hi, it's been great being here, but I gotta go. And so here's all the good stuff. And, you know, good luck with everything. When you have cancer cells, it doesn't know that it's un. It's not healthy. And so it never does that. And so the unhealthy cell just keeps growing and growing and growing. And. And then you go into a process that can be called necrosis, which is when the cell explodes. And this is when you get inflammation because all the free radicals and all the garbage that's been in that sick cell gets sent out to the rest of the mitochondria in your cells, and that causes more inflammation. This is why cancer grows so quickly, because it just keeps spilling out into the neighboring cells. So the fact that spirulina can trigger this thing, there's unbelievable new research about cytochrome C molecule. It's considered the molecule of life or death. It determines whether your cell is healthy and lives or whether it triggers something and gets rid of the garbage. Cells, like senescent cells, are pretty cool. And it's so hidden. It's just this little, teeny, tiny. It's like diamonds. Like, they're so tiny, but they're. They're so beautiful and so powerful. So, yeah, it's pretty. Pretty amazing stuff.

Also pretty amazing with the studies that are coming out now that are fairly recent and fairly new, that we're just starting to hear about the fact that something within nature has been there all along to help.

Yeah.

Deal with it.

Yeah.

Right. And all I can think about is, like, oceans. We literally are witnessing how algae and seaweed is cleaning our oceans. And Washed up to shore, doing its job just effortlessly.

It's the cleanup crew. Yeah. Yeah.

So you have had this incredible wisdom to trust an edge, to look back to nature and have uncovered, rediscovered, or brought to light something that can not only protect our heart, lower inflammation, detox our bodies, our brains, heavy metals support our skin, our hair, our nails support our mitochondrial function.

It's almost unbelievable. I know.

Stimulate our sensitive cells, restore our cell walls, the science to back it up. And I feel like the most important aspect of this. How is this relationship for you with algae impact?

I'm married to it. I call my brands, my children. Yeah.

But how is this really kind of influenced your. The spiritual journey. Right. So we call it spiritualina.

I know.

You know, talk us, talk to us about, like, if we're really just again, back and rooted.

Yeah.

To how nature has given us this superfood because it is a food for us.

Yeah.

Let's just go back to that aspect and, like, the wisdom behind it.

I can't believe that I. I hung in there. That's why I just. Because again, no science background, this little voice inside me just said, you. You gotta keep going. And so I just thought, well, I'll. I'll keep going until something stops me. And nothing did. And this is why I. I kept. Originally, I thought, I can't do this. And I thought, I am doing this. I did this. So I'm proud that I didn't give up, because people are finally. And so my journey is really just starting because I did so much to understand and unearth what was really happening. Why is this so powerful? And then why don't people know about it? And how can we get it to the world? So. And I'm realizing I really don't want to run a company. Eventually we'll probably, you know, but I do want to educate people. So. And I have a book in me that I want to have like three books. So I, I just want to keep going and help people understand this amazing food gift to us from Mother Nature. Make sure it's provided in a safe form so all the nutrients are preserved like we do now. Because you don't want something that's only, you know, going to give you half the. The impact. So I'm, I'm. I can't believe I did this. I really. Because it gives you think of one person. What can one person do? Well, you know, but Gandhi or anybody who did anything remarkable, they just kept going. And they were just human. All of us are just individuals. I don't have a Family. I don't have children. I mean, I don't have children. So I've poured every ounce of myself into this and I just want to hand it off to the world like this. There's no ego in this. And I guess that's the other reason why I was able to keep doing it. It's not about me. This is not about me. This is about algae in the world. This is about every person. They're desperately needing something. We're in a crisis. Emotional psychology, environmental, nutritional disease crisis. And I can't believe there's something as simple and as basic and as old as this that could potentially do everything for everyone. I mean, it's almost impossible to believe if the science wasn't there.

I really hope that this is something that is promoted as a primary source of healing.

Yeah.

The state of the world and our health moving forward. I'm so grateful you are such a great educator and speaker and you are so passionate. You have these incredible analogies that make this knowledge so tangible. To wrap things up, you know, we ask our guests some questions.

Okay.

Just quick Rapid fire would love to hear your thoughts. How do you think that people are making healing and health too complicated?

Oh, man. Well, they, they. They're a. Every new thing that comes out. They're living on Instagram and well, maybe I try that and maybe I'll try that. And then they don't look at their own situation. You need to look at yourself first. And then. And I think probably getting some tests done, find out where the absences are. And you have to be patient. People think things are going to happen over. I've waited 14 years to algae's waited 4 billion years to get noticed. Things just take. They take. Illnesses take a while to manifest and they take a while to unravel. And so they're grabbing at straws or grabbing at anything. And again, the isolated soloist, a bunch of grade three soloists does not make beautiful music. You need to harmonize yourself throughout your symphony. Yeah. Be your own symphony and bring back the stress as damaging to us as the lack of nutrition. And, you know, I think the young age, the new. I'm a baby boomer. The Gen X's, they're just not taking. They're not going for that stressful life. And I think they're probably right. You need more balance. And so maybe you didn't need that fancy new car, but you do. You will always need balance. So I think people are just, they're so. They're grabbing at stuff, not doing their research, expecting rapid Improvements. And you know, I say look at nature. Seasons don't change overnight. Everything is gradual. So it doesn't have to be complicated, just. But you have to be consistent and you have to listen to your own body.

Beautiful. This might be obvious, this might be obvious, but what is your favorite healing remedy, your ancient healing remedy that you love?

Well, definitely algae. But my number two is sleep. Yeah, sleep. Oh man, it's gold. Absolute gold. And I feel badly for people around, you know, shift changes and stuff. It's, it's hard. It's really hard. But sleep is, is number two for, for me.

If you had to pick something about modern medicine that excites you, what would it be?

Well, I. Modern medicine, well, they have done an amazing job to help us when we have an emergency, whether it's a car accident or a heart attack or something. And I think there's some interesting shifts going into this preventative medical field, which is sort of looking, I think they're looking at the longevity area. So I'm grateful for that because people do want to live well. Aging is natural, declining is not. And so anything that they can do to help with the improving our lives as we age. Because you know, the reason why our bodies stopped making melatonin and superoxide dismutase and hormones at the age of 30 is because, guess what? For almost since we've been around, we died at 30. We've been on Earth for 200 million years and only in the last 150 years have we started living past 30.

Yeah, much longer. Right.

So I'm grateful that the medical and the research community is looking into the things that are shifting as we move past that age of 30 and finding ways to shore up what's missing. It doesn't necessarily need to be a pharmaceutical drug though.

Amen. What are the top three things that we can start doing right now to optimize our health?

Well, of course, number one, start our morning routine. Get your spirulina in the morning and your chlorella at night, please. More movement. Especially women, especially after the age of 50. I've been reading that our metabolism does not drop. What drops is, is our muscle mass. And of course your, your muscles are your fourth highest concentration of mitochondria. If you can just start, please, ladies, and men too, but mostly ladies, start building your muscle mass back. Buy yourself some 8 and 10 pound weights. And while you're waiting for your tea to be made, just do a few pumps up in the air. And every time you go to the bathroom, do 10 or 15 squats. I read that. I think a minute of squats gives you the same health improvement as 30 minutes of walking. So throw. Just. You know, you don't even have to have weights in your arm, just. But it's better if you do.

Absolutely.

If needed, just. Just get some more movement with weights and then increase the protein. And I think the spirulina aloe is a good way to do that.

I love that. Love your muscles.

Love your muscles. Love your mitochondria.

If you could leave our listeners with just one takeaway that you're most passionate about right now, what would it be?

Oh, just be patient with yourselves. Love yourselves. Strip away the noise. I had to. There's so much, so many distractions in our world. Whether it's. I stopped watching TV 15 years ago. Don't miss it. Ever. Listen to the little voice inside you. You. You'll know when you're being told the truth. You'll know. Your body will tell you if something is good for you, by the way. But you have to pay attention. And it's hard to pay attention when you're so distracted. So strip away all the noise. Listen to your little voice inside. Follow a simpler life. The things that are best for you, like we talked earlier, are either free or they're just so natural and they've been used, so. But that little voice, it's harder. It will never shout. Your mind, your ego shouts, and your ego shouts fear. Your soul whispers love. And that's the difference. And love will never let you down. Never. I call this algae. Love.

I love that. And you started this conversation with honoring your path and your purpose, honoring your own inner happiness. You cultivated the environment within you. To maybe listen to that voice tends to get a little bit louder when we tune in.

Yeah.

So thank you for painting such a big vision. Thank you for being. Just following your path, but just being such a great role model.

Thank you.

I am going to be such a cheerleader for this. Continue to be such a cheerleader for this. I think that the more that we can trust in the. The beauty and the gifts of nature, our bodies and our minds can feel faster. Absolutely right. So for those of you listening or watching, you want to head over to energybits.com yes. You've given us a beautiful code of to give us 20 off. So the code is Mona M O N A at checkout to get 20% off. Highly recommend. If it wasn't for Spirulina, I don't think I would have gotten off coffee if it wasn't for chlorella, I don't think I would have cleared the mold from my body. Y so I have a lot to owe your products. I'm so grateful for that.

Cool. Yeah.