Transcription
Okay, so this is my supplement cupboard. It's a mess, but I've pulled out things that I'm personally interested in. Good, bad, indifferent.
The first one that jumped out at me when I was looking is reduced and active glutathione. This is something that I think people should be aware of. There's marketing involved here. Glutathione is a major antioxidant. We make it in our body. We make it in our brain.
What does it do?
So, it's a very important antioxidant. It helps negate oxidation, which is causing brain aging. It's negating oxidation, which is aging yourself, right?
People want to supplement with it because they've heard about glutathione and how beneficial it is and how it's a great antioxidant. The problem is because our body makes it inside of our cells, we don't have a transporter to get glutathione from the outside of our cells, like if we eat it and if it makes it through our digestion, which it really doesn't, into our cells. And so, this kind of glutathione isn't going to make it inside of your cells.
So, this is just a waste of time.
It is. You're going to want to get something called liposomal glutathione. Liposomal glutathione has been shown to get inside because liposomes, it's essentially taking the glutathione molecule and encapsulating it in something that's going to fuse with your cell. Liposomal products in general have a higher bioavailability for that reason.
So, let me repeat that back to you. So, I've got it. So, if it's liposomal, it's basically in a packet which can get through into the cell. If it's not, this one is reduced and active, then it's never going to get in the cell. So, it's a waste of time. It's just going to be excreted.
Yeah, I would say that it's really not doing much and that if you're going to want to supplement with liposomal glutathione, that's what I have.
What about this vitamin D3? I've always been confused because people say take vitamin D, but then this one says D3.
D3 is the form of vitamin D that you make when you're in the sun. That's the major way we make vitamin D is from sun exposure. There is a plant form of vitamin D called vitamin D2. It's found in things like mushrooms, for example. The problem is is that there have been studies showing that vitamin D2, which is unfortunately what a lot of vegetarians take because they want a vegetarian form. Vitamin D3 is also found in like sheep skin because the sheep are making it in their skin when they're exposed to sunlight. Vitamin D2 is not as effective as vitamin D3. If you are a vegetarian or a vegan, you're going to want to look for vitamin D3 from lichen. Lichen is that like green stuff that you can find on trees and stuff that also makes vitamin D3 and so it's a much better option than getting the vitamin D2 which is what a lot of vegetarians do. So there's actually a recent study showing that people that are vitamin D deficient, so they're not getting enough vitamin D3 because we don't go out in the sun anymore. They have accelerated aging. And if they supplement, this is a very large study, by the way, if they supplemented with vitamin D3, they slowed their biological aging by almost 2 years. That didn't happen in people that were not vitamin D deficient from the start. So it's not like a vitamin D3 supplement is going to do something miraculous if you already have enough vitamin D. The point is to avoid deficiency and so you know someone like yourself that probably doesn't go outside a lot but also well you go outside but you're not you have darker skin so melanin is a natural sunscreen and so people with more melanin have to spend a lot more time in the sun and so that is something to consider as well.
Well, I can always just take my multivitamin.
Multivitamin. I think I might have talked about one study last time we talked last episode where men and women that were older adults, they were 65 years and older, they took one Centrum Silver a day. And I'm not, you know, I'm not advocating for Centrum Silver, I'm just saying that was involved in the study. And after 3 years, they had reversed their brain aging, global brain aging by 2.1 years. And they reversed their episodic brain aging by almost 5 years. So episodic memory is the kind of memory involved in remembering events and people and things like that you know as you get older you know that stuff doesn't come as quick. So it delayed that aging by 5 years. Well, this same study also just recently published literally like a couple of weeks ago again part of this large study, it's called the COSMOS study, they looked at the multivitamin use and biological aging, epigenetic aging and they found that the Centrum Silver multivitamin also slowed slowed biological aging, epigenetic aging by a few months and this was only after two years. And you might go, oh, a few months, but that was after two years and that trial was two years long. So if you add two years and then you add another two years and then you add and then you're talking about 20, talking about 30, talking about 50 years, that is slowing aging the entire time. It adds up. It's cumulative and it's one of the easiest things that someone can do to basically you know make sure that they're aging better. There's things that are harder to do, but that to me is such a low-hanging fruit. It's easy.
What is it about this? What is in here that's making a male multivitamin have such profound effects?
If you look at the back at the supplement facts, there's a lot of vitamins and minerals. Things like vitamin C, vitamin D3, vitamin E, vitamin K, niacin, the B vitamins, folate. You have things like selenium, the essential elements. These are all things that we need to run everything in our body. All of our metabolism, our neurotransmitter synthesis, our immune system, you know, our liver, all these these are co-factors that are really important for all those things. And you don't realize how important they are until time goes on and things start to fall apart. It's basically filling the gaps because we're supposed to get these things from our foods. We're supposed to be getting all these vitamins and minerals from our foods, from our water, and it's just not happening for many reasons. One, our soils are depleted. You know, the organophosphates like glyphosate is depleting our minerals. And so the foods that are being grown in the soil aren't getting their minerals that they're supposed to. And then the second problem is we're not eating the right foods because we're taking we're eating takeout. We're eating foods that are not micronutrient-dense. Things like dark leafy greens. We're not eating the colors of the rainbow. And those are really important for vitamins and minerals.
So I've got two questions there. Is there a multivitamin that I could take that is not good for me? Because when I go to the shops, there's so many different types these days and I don't know which one's good, bad or how to tell the difference. And so honestly, sometimes I just go based on the most expensive because I assume the most expensive is the best quality.
Yeah. So, you know, the problem with supplements is they're not regulated. I mean, not that I necessarily want them, but it is a problem because supplement companies can kind of put whatever they want in the supplements. They don't necessarily have the amount of active ingredient that they say or they can either have too little or too much.
And so that is the problem with.
Too much.
Yeah. So for example, some vitamin D3 supplements and some melatonin supplements have like some in some cases like a thousand to 10,000 fold more. And it was a really big problem with melatonin because melatonin is that hormone that you make to help you fall asleep and there was excessive amounts in them. So it's not regulated. So that you really don't know the amount you're getting. So, I would say number one, go to a trusted brand that is third-party testing. There's so much third-party testing now. ConsumerLab does it. You can look up what they've tested. But for a man, I would say the thing that's essential here is you don't want to get iron. You don't want supplemental iron.
Well, someone told me to start drinking these iron drinks.
Were you iron deficient?
No.
Okay.
I was just sick one time and they said this would really help.
This wasn't a scientist, just a friend. Most men do not need to supplement with iron unless they have a problem with iron and they're anemic. For example, iron can be very bad. I mean, if you're supplementing with iron, it's very reactive and it causes oxidative stress easily. It's called free iron. The free iron reacts with other things with your DNA, your cells. And so, most men do not need to. In fact, even you know something called hemochromatosis where there you're basically you have too much iron already and you if you have those genes it's actually quite common then you're really talking about iron overload. So you really do not need to supplement with iron.
Women.
Women, premenopausal women are different because premenopausal women do lose a lot of iron from menstruation when they're menstruating. And so I would say about 16% of menstruating women are iron deficient. And then if you add exercise on top of that, you know, a lot of endurance exercise, you can get lysis of your red blood cells. And so you do need iron for your red blood cells. If you're eating meat, if you're not a vegetarian, you know, maybe that would be a case if you're like a vegan or something, maybe some iron could come in, but you have to get your iron levels measured. You don't want to be too high because it is it does cause damage.
But I would say that premenopausal women, iron is especially around your cycle is good. Post-menopausal women, once you hit menopause, you kind of shift to like what a man needs. You don't need the iron again. So, it's very it's very much just premenopausal women that need iron.
That's so funny. I've been drinking these. Omega-3.
Does that.
Yes. Omega-3 fish oil, as we've talked about before. I mean, this is probably one of the best and easiest things that people can do to improve their health, improve the way they age. Um, omega-3 fatty acids. 90% of the US population is not getting enough of them. 80% globally, everyone. Nobody's getting enough omega-3 fatty acids, particularly from seafood. So the EPA and DHA from fish oil are probably the best forms. You know, we talked about studies if you have a high omega-3 index, you have a five-year increased life expectancy compared to low omega-3 index. If you're a smoker and you have a high omega-3 index, then you're going to live as long as a non-smoker with a low omega-3 index, right? I mean, so the low omega-3 index is like smoking, basically. You have a 66% lower chance of getting Alzheimer's disease with a high omega-3 index. And even more recently, there were studies showing that omega-3 slows epigenetic aging. Um, and this is this is not just in deficiency. I guess because everyone's deficient, maybe that's why, but a study showed that omega-3 fish oil supplementation. This was a study out of Switzerland. These individuals are mostly active. There were 88% of them were already physically active at the start of the trial. And I mentioned that because the trial involved omega-3, it involved vitamin D, and it involved resistance training or the combination of all three. And only the omega-3 was able to slow epigenetic aging, biological aging, because for one, they were already physically active. So adding resistance training on top of their baseline didn't do much. And they were vitamin D sufficient. So the omega-3 was able to slow epigenetic aging. The combination of all three slowed it by four months. This was just after one year.
So slowed it by four months. And if you imagine that, it doesn't sound like a lot. Again, it's compounding. But also within that study, they looked at real-world outcomes. So that also correlated with they had a 60% less likely chance of being pre-frail. So pre-frailty, right? Um, they also were less likely to get cancer as well. So I mean, it's really kind of translating to these health outcomes that we think of. And all you need to do is supplement with about 1.6 to two grams a day of omega-3 to get a good omega-3 index. But I will mention one thing, Stephen, it's at room temperature. I don't think that's a great idea. Um, because fish oil is a polyunsaturated fatty acid. It is prone to oxidation. So you want to put it in a low-temperature environment. I keep all my actually I keep all my fish oil frozen. Frozen and then when I'm ready to use it, I put it in the fridge. So like I have a store of it. I have a stock of it I buy and then it's in the freezer and then I put it in the fridge with the bottle that I'm using from and it's freezing it does nothing. It's fine. It's basically just keeping it really, really low oxidation.
So I need to put this in the fridge.
You need to put it in the fridge and also make sure you're getting a quality brand, right? So, you're going to third-party testing. Again, you want to have a total oxidation, ideally less than 10. And there are brands out there that do have a oxidation less than 10.
Which means it's more fresh and pure.
It's more. Yeah, it's less oxidized. You don't want to be consuming oxidized fat because that's also not good.
Okay. So, what else jumps out to you here? We've got creatine.
Yeah, creatine is like my new I travel with it everywhere. You got micronized. Is this this is.
I've got so many different types.
This is the one I take. Yeah, I take the creatine monohydrate because it's the most well-studied. And you know obviously for I do a lot of training and workout train you I do a lot of resistance training and strength training. So I at least get five grams a day which is what I always was doing in the past. I upped that to 10 grams a day as my baseline because I wanted to have benefits in my brain. Studies out of Germany show that once you get to the 10 gram mark, you're actually your brain is able to take it up and it's increasing creatine in certain brain regions. That doesn't happen much at lower doses and that's because your muscles are very greedy. The creatine in my brain, honestly, I've for me, I've mentioned this before, it's a game changer just on a daily basis. I feel like I don't have that afternoon slump. I'm in my mid-40s. My brain isn't as sharp as it was. Creatine has really helped me kind of get a little bit closer to where I used to be. And also when I'm sleep-deprived, I go up even higher. Sometimes I do 20, 25 grams. And that is because studies have shown if you go up to a higher dose like that, depending on your weight, it's kind of a scale, that it helps you basically negate the negative effects on your brain from sleep deprivation where not only are you cognitively functioning, you're functioning beyond what your even normal baseline was, which was kind of mind-blowing.
The question I had is around loading and how long it takes to feel the impact. Because when I first heard about creatine, I was 16 and my brother was bodybuilding and they were told that you need to like load up on big loads of it and then in like two weeks time your body would be saturated. What's the truth?
Right? So the reason that creatine loading was done was because there's a short window of time when researchers are doing a study and they want their muscle stores to be saturated. They want their muscle stores to be saturated and so you have to do a 20 gram loading phase in order to saturate them after you know three or four days. If you're not about to compete and if you haven't been using creatine and you're not participating in the study, it takes about four weeks, three to four weeks of five grams a day consistently to saturate your muscle. So you don't have to do any loading phase. If you are supplementing with five grams a day and you've been doing it for a month, your muscle stores are saturated until you exercise and you get that five grams in again. They're saturated, right? So, they keep they're already that five grams a day is keeping them saturated. And that's why I said your muscles are really hungry and greedy. They're wanting that five grams. They're wanting that five grams. And that's about what it takes daily to saturate them. However, if you're starting from ground zero where you've never taken creatine, it's going to take four weeks to really get the effects. Otherwise, yeah, you'll have to get higher doses. are not going to be saturated after 5g.
So, some people might have tried creatine for a week, have not felt any effect, and given up.
That's a good that's actually a really good point. Yeah, it's about a month-long experiment. I would say close to four weeks. I think some people can saturate it at three weeks, but it all depends body size and all that. So, four weeks is a good experiment time and five grams is a good dose to start with. If five grams a day actually helps makes you more bloated and nauseous, cut that down to two and a half and two and a half grams so that you split the doses. If you split the doses, if you take it with food, particularly carbohydrates, it seems to help negate some of the bloating and nausea and negative effects people feel. And obviously, if you're not working out, you know, creatine is not going to like grow your muscles. You have to put in the work. You have to put in the effort. It's what it's doing is it's helping your muscles, you know, grow and give you the energy to do more training volume so that they can grow bigger and also so that you can be stronger. If you're traveling and stressed and all those things, yes, creatine is good for the brain. I was seeing I think it was James Smith did a video about different creatine percentages in the creatine products we drink or eat or consume and he looked at creatine gummies and found that some of the creatine gummies don't even have any creatine in them at all. And it was quite shocking because you just assume that if it says creatine there's going to be creatine in there.
This goes back to the whole problem where supplements are not regulated and so you never really know what you're getting and you have to have third-party testing and go to a quality brand. Gummies in general. So, there was a study that was published not long ago. It was a consumer study that was done where people went and got a lot of different creatine gummies off the shelf and then measured how much creatine was in them. And essentially almost all of them had none. And I've talked to some supplement manufacturers and their basically their statement was it's really hard to get active ingredients in gummy in general, not even just creatine in general. But the other thing I did want to mention with creatine is that you do want to make sure it's NSF certified. That's a really important thing because there are contaminants that are even produced in the processing of creatine and creatine monohydrate. And so you want to make sure that you're not getting those contaminants which can be harmful. And some of them are like lead for example, but even some other compounds that are formed. And so you want NSF certification. And that's always what I look for when I'm buying a creatine supplement is NSF certification or any supplement. I really like to have all supplements NSF certified because that really means they've one looked at contaminants and two it's got that active ingredient in there and that's really what you want.
And the NSF certification is just a little logo on the side of the tub here that says NSF Certified for Sport.
That's it. Yeah. And it's all on websites too if you buy online. Yeah.
Okay. So, I've got one challenge for you. If you had to pick five supplements for me to take, assuming that I am male and female.
Okay.
Okay. So, it's neither gender. Um, and it can be things that are either currently in my cupboard or not. What's the top five? And ideally give me them in order if you can in order of importance.
Fish oil.
Number one.
Number one. Vitamin D. Multivitamin. All three very, very strong evidence that you're going to slow aging, you're going to improve your brain function, lower disease risk, live longer. And creatine is going to be there.
So that's one, two, three, four.
And then the last one is magnesium. Magnesium would be I mean, it might be number four and creatine number five actually.
Really?
Yeah. Um.
What is magnesium doing for me?
Magnesium is running. It's important for 300 different enzymes in your body. It's important to repair damage to your DNA that's being done all the time. It's being done from the iron that you're taking. Um, it's being done from normal metabolism, normal immune activation, but when you're in a state where you have you're not eating a good diet or you're not getting enough sleep, magnesium is really important to repair that damage. And that's why studies have shown that magnesium is really important for preventing cancer. And it also helps with sleep. It's really good for sleep. But more importantly, 50% of the population doesn't get enough magnesium. And I bet you're probably one of those people because most of us are. Do you eat a lot of dark leafy greens or almonds? You're supposed to be getting 400, about 350 to 400 milligrams a day. Are you physically active? Yeah. You're sweating magnesium out. Let's make it six supplements. So, there's a new supplement uriththn that I'm pretty excited about. The other thing I take that's really important is that I don't necessarily see here.
What's it called?
Um, so curcumin. All those supplements you've mentioned, the first one which I can't say and the second one cumin, we have on the table in the studio. So, let's get back into the studio and we'll pick up from there. If you love the DEO brand and you watch this channel, please do me a huge favor. Become part of the 15% of the viewers on this channel that have hit the subscribe button. It helps us tremendously and the bigger the channel gets, the bigger the guests.