AVOID These 8 Gut Mistakes (They’re Ruining Your Health)

Today, I want to cover the amazing herb ashwagandha. Top potential benefits of ashwagandha: 1. Lowers stress and anxiety 2. Supports weight loss 3. Reduces insulin resistance 4. Promotes quality sleep 5. Enhances cognitive function 6. Improves stamina and strength while exercising 7. Reduces inflammation 8. Stimulates the thyroid 9. Enhances the immune system 10. Supports healthy testosterone levels 11. Decreases pain 12. Improves muscle spasms 13. Reduces fluid retention 14. Increases heat shock proteins When to avoid ashwagandha: • If you have a sensitivity to nightshades • If you have excess iron or a genetic tendency to accumulate iron • If you have hyperthyroidism • If you take barbiturates or thyroid hormones Consider consuming 250 milligrams to 500 milligrams of ashwagandha twice per day. If using a tincture at a one-to-five ratio, it’s recommended that you take between two and four milliliters three times a day. DATA: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti... https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31517... https://www.nmi.health/ashwagandha-a-... https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24882... https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36516...

7 Dec 20236min

Let’s talk about stress and cortisol. I’ve seen many people get on the right track with their diet and exercise—but they're still stuck in fight-or-flight mode. Being in fight-or-flight mode, having elevated cortisol and adrenaline, for a long period isn’t healthy. Chronic stress has been known to negatively affect the body in many ways, including: • Shrinking your grey matter • Shrinking your thymus gland • Creating muscle atrophy • Decreasing testosterone • Running the body on sugar (even when you’re not eating sugar) • Disrupting healthy digestion • Reducing quality sleep Chronic worry and stress can also lead to ulcers, inflammation, and disease. An interesting study measured 39 people’s cortisol levels before and after a 45-minute art therapy session. This study found a significant reduction of cortisol in participants. I have found that hobbies are a fantastic way to stop the fixation on stress and move your attention to something more positive. DATA: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti...

6 Dec 20235min

Let’s talk about fatigue—the root cause and how to fix it. It all starts with your mitochondria. The mitochondria are the energy factories deep inside your cells that make ATP. ATP is the energy of the body. Certain foods contribute to the energy-making process of the body more than other foods. It’s almost impossible to extract energy from ultra-processed foods. Important nutrients to support energy include: • Vitamin B1 • Vitamin B2 • Vitamin B3 • Folic acid • Vitamin B12 • Magnesium • Manganese • Selenium • Vitamin C • Coenzyme Q10 A healthy person makes a massive amount of ATP. You generate more ATP when you exercise, but ATP doesn’t get stored. Your body can either store sugar or fat as fuel. Fat is a much more efficient fuel source than sugar. When you go on a low-carb diet and get into ketosis, you become fat-adapted. Once you’re fat-adapted, you can burn fat as fuel a lot easier. This is why the keto diet, with a lot of nutrient-dense foods, is the best diet to increase energy. Exercise is the number one way to produce more mitochondria and boost your energy. This is just one more reason to exercise consistently. Other things to add to increase your energy and get rid of fatigue: • Intermittent fasting • Cold therapy • Phytonutrients Things to avoid to help support healthy energy levels: • Refined sugar and carbohydrates • Stress • Heavy metals • Smoking • Alcohol DATA: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti...

5 Dec 202315min

Let’s talk about stress and how to take care of your body during chronic stress. Stress can cause deficiencies—these deficiencies can then alter your ability to react to and recover from stress. Chronic stress can be very dangerous to your health. Too much stress can lead to: • Ulcers • Heart attack • Osteoporosis • High blood pressure • Anxiety • Depression • Poor immunity Deficiencies caused by stress can include: 1. Magnesium 2. Zinc 3. Thiamine (vitamin B1) 4. Potassium 5. Vitamin B5 6. Amino acids 7. Calcium 8. Vitamin D 9. Vitamin C When you go through stress, it’s easy to reach for junk foods. But it’s crucial you avoid sweets and junk food, even when you’re stressed. It’s also important to avoid foods high in sodium when you’re feeling stressed. The more stress you go through, the healthier you need to eat. Consuming red meat and a big leafy green salad would be a great meal to consume when you go through stress. An HRV (heart rate variability) device is a fantastic tool to help you measure your stress and how you respond to stress. This device can also help you better understand what type of exercise and nutrition your body needs at different times. The best ways to take care of your body during stress: • Stick to a very healthy diet (Healthy Keto®) • Get quality sleep • Exercise

4 Dec 20238min

Let’s talk about autophagy. Autophagy is an incredible process. It basically eats up the junk in your body and transforms it into usable things. This “junk” is unusable damaged proteins, which trigger inflammation. It also helps get rid of pathogens and viral antigens. Autophagy is like an anti-aging cleaning system of the body. But it doesn’t just clean things up—it provides raw material to build new cells and provide fuel when you need it. Two major things will stop autophagy: sugar and protein. But any significant amount of calories will also stop autophagy. Autophagy may act as a strong protective barrier against disease. But, if you already have cancer, autophagy can aid the growth and progression of cancer. Autophagy can help you if you’re healthy and can hurt you if you’re not healthy. Unfortunately, many people wait until they get sick before they utilize strategies like autophagy. The best way to trigger autophagy is to do fasting. You’ll notice more positive benefits from autophagy once you get into about 18 hours of fasting. You’ll notice even more benefits when you get up to 48 to 72 hours of fasting. You can take electrolytes, nutrients, and sea salt, but you shouldn’t consume any calories while fasting. An additional simple strategy to see more benefits from autophagy is to go on a low-sugar, low-carb diet. Consuming a moderate amount of protein is also crucial—not excess protein or low protein. Exercise is important to stimulate autophagy. Aerobic exercise (lower intensity and longer duration) will stimulate autophagy more than high-intensity exercise. But, I suggest doing both forms of exercise for different benefits. Certain phytonutrients and adaptogens can also trigger autophagy to a certain degree. DATA: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti...

3 Dec 202314min

Dr. Gil Carvalho made a video where he fact-checked one of my videos. I’m going to go through this video and fact-check the fact-checker. It turns out that Dr. Gil Carvalho seems to be a council member of a plant-based group whose president is very much against the keto diet. Listen as I dig deeper, uncovering conflicts of interest and searching for the truth.

2 Dec 202320min

Let’s talk about alternative sweeteners. Trying alternative sweeteners when starting the ketogenic diet can make the transition much easier. Notice I said alternative sweeteners and not artificial sweeteners. While alternative sweeteners aren’t completely natural, they are less artificial and less harmful than artificial sweeteners. Keto snacks and desserts often have different kinds of alternative or artificial sweeteners. Trying keto snacks and keto desserts isn’t a bad thing, but it’s crucial to check the ingredients. Just because it’s labeled “keto” doesn’t make it healthy. Out of all of the sweeteners, erythritol and xylitol* are two of the best. But it’s still better to only consume small amounts. Monk fruit and stevia are also great options. However, with stevia, it’s important to make sure that the product doesn’t also contain maltodextrin. Maltodextrin is higher on the glycemic index than sugar. Maltitol, agave nectar, and functional fibers should also be avoided. Including too much of these sugar alcohols (even the good ones) in your diet can cause bloating, fluid retention, diarrhea, and can upset the gut microbiome. They may also prevent you from getting rid of cravings. I think sugar alternatives are great to help a person transition off of consuming sugar and for an occasional treat—but they shouldn’t be consumed on a regular basis. *Pet owners should keep in mind that certain alternative sweeteners, like xylitol, can be highly toxic to animals. Sugar alternatives can be found in a wide range of products and may go by different names. It’s best to keep these types of products far out of reach from your pets. DATA: https://alexleaf.com/isomalto-oligosa...

1 Dec 202313min

Magnesium comes in many different forms. Today, I want to cover magnesium threonate or magnesium L-threonate. This is a specific type of magnesium. Threonate transports magnesium across the blood-brain barrier to the hippocampus. The hippocampus is involved in memory, learning, focus, and concentration. People typically take magnesium L-threonate when they want to support the brain. A magnesium deficiency can lead to various issues related to the brain and throughout the body. Benefits of magnesium L-threonate: • It may help reduce worry and anxiety (especially when trying to sleep) • It may help decrease neuroinflammation and neurodegeneration • It’s a calcium regulator and antagonist • It helps maintain and support the blood-brain barrier • It can act as an antioxidant • It helps support BDNF • It may help with androgenic alopecia If you want to use magnesium to support the brain, I would use magnesium threonate. To support other issues like cramping or fatigue or to support the heart, I would take magnesium glycinate. Magnesium citrate can be helpful as well, especially to help prevent kidney stones. DATA: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti...

30 Nov 20235min