The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka - 98. Gary Brecka Answers Your Top Health Questions: Hormones, Cholesterol, & More

Starting point is 00:00:00 It's time to get to some of your most commonly asked questions. I got a bunch of them, so let's get right into it. Can you expand on low testosterone in men? Gosh, that is a huge topic. Can mental health issues like ADHD and depression be linked to deficiencies? Can the 10X Health System help? What multivitamins should you take if you have the MTHFRG mutation? Make sure you look at my last podcast short directly answering this question

Starting point is 00:00:25 and going through the science on the MTHFR gene mutation. Can you help me get off diabetes meds? I'm sick and tired of them. What are the two new biohacking tools to explore after PMF, cold plunge, and others? I would say the greatest biohack to ever be discovered, in my opinion, is... Hey guys, it's time to get to some of your most commonly asked questions. I got a bunch of them and consolidated them to the 16 most commonly asked questions, so let's get right into it. Is colostrum necessary or just a fad? I would say depending on whether or not you have gut related issues, colostrum is excellent for repairing and healing the gut. So if you actually have gas, bloating, diarrhea, constipation, irritability, or cramping, or you think that you might be exposed to leaky gut, then colostrum can

Starting point is 00:01:19 be an excellent choice for you. It does have a calming effect on the gut. I actually drink natural raw colostrum, but you can also get it in pill or capsule form. Thoughts on using cold pressed hemp seed oil in smoothies and dressings. You know, I don't have a lot of experience with cold hemp seed oil. I do think that shelled hemp seeds are one of the best things you can incorporate into your diet, especially if you are a vegan or a vegetarian. They have unbelievable omega-3 fatty acids in them, very, very high in protein. As far as I know, they are the highest protein source in the vegetable kingdom. So if you're vegan or you're vegetarian, those are a must in a vegan or vegetarian diet,

Starting point is 00:01:56 and they taste amazing. You can actually saute them and crisp them up, or you can just put them into a salad or stir them into some yogurt. What multivitamins should you take if you have the MTHFR gene mutation? Make sure you look at my last podcast short directly answering this question and going through the science on the MTHFR gene mutation. I have a supplement called 10X Optimize, which actually has the right specific amount of methylfolate, but you don't have to take my supplement. You can take another multivitamin. Make sure that your multivitamin is a methylated multivitamin and that it contains 5-methylfolate, also on the label as 5-MTHF. That is the most bioavailable form of folic acid or folate. And if you have the MTHFR gene mutation, it's an absolute must because you cannot process folic

Starting point is 00:02:46 acid. Despite what you may have heard, folate and folic acid are not well processed, if at all, if you have the MTHFR gene mutation. Can you expand on low testosterone in men? So this is a big topic. I would encourage you to look at the 2018 Journal of American Urology Guidelines on Testosterone. Go to, just put into the Google search engine, Journal of American Urology Guidelines on Testosterone. Go to, just put into the Google search engine, Journal of American Urology, space testosterone, scroll down to section 13, and it will give you the practitioner recommendations for low testosterone. So there are a number of recommendations that a practitioner should tell a patient when they're deficient in testosterone, but namely those are things like it is a risk

Starting point is 00:03:25 factor for cardiovascular disease, not the other way around. Low testosterone in men can lead to erectile dysfunction, low sex drive, bone mineral density lost, anemia, all kinds of things that you may not think are directly related to low testosterone. And if you are hypogonadal, meaning that you have low production of testosterone in your testicles you should get a full blood panel ask your doctor to pull a full complete hormone panel so you can see if your signaling hormones are low or if the testosterone production itself is low two different ways to treat that one is to raise your own natural production of testosterone but the other is to supplement with exogenous testosterone remember exogenous testosterone does come with some risks it has a tendency to shut down your own natural production.

Starting point is 00:04:10 So if you can supplement with things like DHEA, reduce your sex hormone binding globulin, or you can look at your signaling hormones, luteinizing hormone, or follicle stimulating hormone, talk to your doctor about those. Those are the best ways to stimulate your own testicular production of testosterone. Better to be high on your own supply than to take something from outside your body and put it in. What's your take on aluminum-free deodorant? Huge fan of aluminum-free deodorant. Aluminum is a metal.

Starting point is 00:04:36 We methylate it extraordinarily slowly in the human body. This is a heavy metal that causes all kinds of downstream consequences. The aluminum is actually used to block the pores in your armpits. And remember, if you are a woman, your breast and your armpits, your axillary lymph nodes are right there. The upper axillary region is a region that is full of ducts, drainage, and also blood flow. So having aluminum that goes through the breast tissue, in my opinion, is a very bad idea. What supplements do you recommend for detox and hormone balancing? Gosh, that is a huge topic. But I would say start with a methylated multivitamin. Make sure that you are

Starting point is 00:05:16 getting all of your essential amino acids and all of your essential minerals. Every day of my life, I take a quarter teaspoon of Baja Gold Sea Salt. I also drink hydrogenated water and I use something called Perfect Aminos. This is the blend of the eight essential amino acids that is non-caloric and doesn't break fast. Remember, very often we are not hormone deficient, we are nutrient deficient.

Starting point is 00:05:41 I would also suggest pulling a full blood panel and talking to your doctor about SHBG and DHEA, as well as looking at your signaling hormones, whether you are a man or a woman. Also, very, very good to have adequate levels of vitamin D3. If you are going to supplement with D3, 5,000 IUs of D3, make sure that your D3 has something in it called vitamin K2. I prefer the MK77 it called vitamin K2. I prefer the MK77 version of vitamin K2. But when you combine these, the D3 molecule, which is a calcium transport molecule amongst other things, acts as a hormone, acts as a vitamin. One of the things it does is transport

Starting point is 00:06:19 calcium. K2 will help that calcium deposit into the bone and not into the arterial wall. Is homemade bone broth safe for breaking a fast? Yes, homemade bone broth is excellent. Homemade bone marrow broth, very safe for breaking a fast. I use a bone broth brand called Kettle and Fire because they only use organic bones. It is one of the least expensive health hacks that I'm aware of. You get pure protein. You do get some hydration from it. It tastes amazing. You can put all kinds of things in bone broth, just like you would use

Starting point is 00:06:50 a bullion cube. Bullion cubes have a tendency to be full of a lot of chemicals and binders and fillers. And bone broth, if it's from grass-fed, grass-finished cattle, is one of the purest sources of protein you can put in your body. I am a huge fan of Kettle and Fire. They have organic chicken, organic bone broth. They even have organic vegan and vegetarian options. What kind and how much fish oil should I take? So you want to take an omega-3 fatty acid. What usually happens in human beings is we are omega-3 fatty acid deficient. The omega-3 to omega-6 fatty acid ratio should be one to one. A lot of us are 45 to one omega-6 to omega-3. This has a tendency to cause a lot of inflammation in the body. Look for the words DHA and EPA on your fish oil. You want

Starting point is 00:07:39 to make sure your fish oil has both of those. I am also a huge fan of black seed oil. I take a black seed oil omega-3 every day of my life, but fish oils are another great source. So if you're going to use a fish oil, make sure it is a DHEA and EPA fish oil. How does Perfect Amino play into daily protein intake? Remember, a serving of Perfect Amino is equivalent to 28 to 30 grams of whey protein. The reason why we try to take in so much protein is because we need the amino acids. It's the eight essential amino acids that create magic in the human body.

Starting point is 00:08:12 We not only build our muscles, we think of amino acids as only building muscles. Remember, amino acids are not proteins. They are the building blocks of proteins, but they don't only build protein. They build our natural killer cells, which forms our immune system. They build our red blood cells. They build all kinds of protein structures in the body,

Starting point is 00:08:28 including muscle. So being amino acid deficient is very bad for us. Very often when we take an imperfect protein like BCAAs, I'm not a fan of branched chain amino acids. I'm a fan of the full spectrum of essential amino acids. I take a perfect amino acid by body health. There are lots of other good amino acid supplements on the market, but just make sure they have all eight of the essential amino acids. That's super important. Can you help me get off diabetes meds? I'm sick and tired of them. My clinical team may be able to help you get off diabetes meds. If you're talking about insulin, it's very often people think that once they have diabetes, they can't actually reverse diabetes.

Starting point is 00:09:09 We know that to be patently false. Things like ketogenic resets, lowering our glycemic profile, taking things like berberine, which is a glucophage like metformin, but just in the natural form. It's a root. Metformin is a first-line diabetic medication, a glucofage that they use in diabetics or even pre-diabetics. My preference is roots like berberine and limiting our high-glycemic carbohydrate intake, stopping processed foods, staying adequately hydrated, believe it or not. Yes, adequate hydration is very important for diabetics. So if you want to get off your meds, I'd suggest that you go to 10xhealthtest.com

Starting point is 00:09:48 and you can order the blood work there and you can make an appointment with one of our licensed physicians. They've done this several times. Is weight loss surgery the best option for me? I'm obese and I have diabetes. The question that you should be asking yourself is, why are you obese and why do you have diabetes? Very likely,

Starting point is 00:10:06 the root cause is a high intake of over-processed foods. I really think that all too often we go to surgery, GLP-1 inhibitors, GLP-1 and GDP inhibitors as a way of trying to circumvent a good, healthy diet and exercise program. You cannot supplement your way around a bad diet. You cannot surgically remove a bad exercise program and you certainly cannot surgically or chemically alter a really really poor diet and sleep schedule. I would do three things. Number one I would focus on getting adequate sleep. I would start an exercise routine if you are morbidly obese. Min minimal exercise broken into multiple times throughout the day. 15 minutes of walking three times a day rather than one 45-minute walk is a great idea,

Starting point is 00:10:55 especially if you do it right after meals. Secondly, I would look into something called berberine, which is a root that you can take to help control your blood sugar. And I would begin an exercise program, and I would eliminate processed foods from your diet and begin to eat a whole food diet. You very well could be one of the victims of a highly processed diet that is non-satiating, causing you to dramatically overeat. I think that our cells are bathed in a toxic soup of pesticides, herbicides, insecticides, preservatives, and all kinds of glyphosates and chemicals. And these are largely found in highly processed foods. Cut out the seed

Starting point is 00:11:30 oils, get off the highly processed diet, three bouts of 15 minutes of exercise per day, and stay adequately hydrated, focus on your sleep. And I think you might actually see your weight loss journey begin for the first time in your adult lifetime. Best of luck with that. Can mental health issues like ADHD and depression be linked to deficiencies? Can the 10X Health System help? You have to watch the podcast that I just did. I just did a podcast short on this. I go through all of the research. I was so excited to see that the researchers were able to link the genetic mutation MTHFR to a very specific deficiency in 5-methylfolate, and they were also able to prove that supplementation with 5-methylfolate caused up to a tenfold increase in the availability of this ultra-important micronutrient that's used in the process of methylation. We know that gene mutations are

Starting point is 00:12:25 now related to things like attention deficit disorder. I'm not saying that your ADHD is caused by the gene mutation, but it very well could be. If it is, supplementation can help, and there's adequate science to prove that. So the 10x Health System can help if that's your situation, and you can go to 10xhealthtest.com, and we'll drop that genetic test right to your front door. Suggestions for managing MTHFR and COMT mutations in children and adults. This is where supplementation can be absolutely crucial. If you know that you have either or both of those gene mutations, you know which alleles are the polymorphisms that you have, meaning the polymorphic genetic SNP that you have, then you can supplement for these deficiencies. If you have MTHFR,

Starting point is 00:13:11 it's imperative that you supplement with something called 5-methylfolate. Usually these bottles will say 5-MTHF, 5-methylfolate. This is a result of having inefficient folate or folic acid metabolism in the body. Comp T mutations usually benefit from the complex of B vitamins and from a special form of B12 called hydroxycobalamin. I'm also a big fan of the methylcobalamin form of B12. These can be imperative for people with a CompT gene mutation. Remember, CompT stands for catechol-O-methyltransferase. It's essentially a fancy way of saying the gene that codes for the enzymes that break down catecholamines. Catecholamines are fight-or-flight neurotransmitters and create awakened state in the mind. Can you dive deeper into cholesterol and plaque myths?

Starting point is 00:14:01 I'll just give a 30-second overview. It would take me two hours to do a deep dive into cholesterol and plaque myths. But I want you a 30-second overview. It would take me two hours to do a deep dive into cholesterol and plaque myths, but I want you to think of cholesterol as the fireman. It shows up to put out a fire. So every time there's a fire, the firemen show up and they put the fire out. The firemen do not show up and light the fire. This is an important concept. So the theory that if we had less firemen less cholesterol we would have less fire endothelial damage is not proving to be the case in many of the scientific peer-reviewed publications what you have is you have damage to the endothelial lining of the blood vessel and this is an

Starting point is 00:14:36 oversimplified explanation and when there's damage cholesterol shows up to repair that damage and if you continue to damage that endothelial wall, then what's called the endocalix or the glycocalix or the inside lining of the artery, then cholesterol continues to pile up. And as it piles up, it actually begins to restrict the arteries. But remember, cholesterol is the fireman, did not light the fire.

Starting point is 00:14:59 It was called to the location of inflammation for a reason. Better to start thinking about cholesterol in terms of what kind of inflammatory factors do I have in my body. Talk to your doctor about looking at your C-reactive protein, your homocysteine level, your sugar levels, and your insulin levels. Insulin resistance creates a lot of this damage, as do diets that are high in processed foods and sugars. Any biohacks for hair loss? Yes, there are a couple of biohacks for hair loss that are proven to work very effectively. There are some topicals that you can use,

Starting point is 00:15:30 finasteride, ketoconazole, and minoxidil. These are chemicals, but you do apply them to the scalp. They're very good for restoring and reversing hair loss. The reason I prefer to apply those to the scalp rather than take finasteride orally is because one of the things that oral finasteride does is it lowers a key hormone in your body called DHT, dihydrotestosterone. DHT binds to the hair follicle, chokes out the hair follicle, and so Propecia and finasteride target this DHT, but DHT also has benefits, especially in men. It actually improves your libido, which is why

Starting point is 00:16:05 there's a downside of loss of libido and erectile dysfunction, low energy. So before we go and put something in our body that's going to directly inhibit our hormones, I would rather apply those compounds topically. There are also some amazing peptides. One of them is GHKCU. A GHKCU, CU stands for copper, is a copper peptide. It's a foam that you apply directly to the scalp in the morning, and it actually puts this copper peptide into your scalp. The other thing that you could do is look for other reasons why you might be losing your hair. Full thyroid exam done and have a hormone check done. What are the two new biohacking tools to explore after PMF, cold

Starting point is 00:16:45 plunge, and others? I would say the greatest biohack to ever be discovered, in my opinion, is red light therapy. You do not have to ride a big expensive red light therapy bed. My preference is if you want to spend zero, you expose your skin to sunlight for about 15 to 20 minutes a day, preferably first thing in the morning where there's very little or no UVA or UVB rays. This is the very special blue light that comes from the sun that doesn't create damaging rays for your body. But when you're ready to take that next biohacking step, start thinking about a red light therapy bed or red light therapy panels. Any recommendations for managing restless leg syndrome? Yes, magnesium and sodium and potassium. So this is a great place to introduce you to Baja

Starting point is 00:17:27 Gold Sea Salt. It is a mineral salt that very often can stop leg cramps that are due to deficient or inefficient amounts of sodium or potassium. But sodium, potassium, and magnesium are all have been directly linked to restless leg syndrome. I'm not saying that's only cause of restless leg syndrome. I also take a magnesium supplement at night and I take Baja Gold Sea Salt in the morning. Very often we're just mineral deficient, guys. We are just nutrient deficient and therefore we get leg cramps as a result. The other common link for leg cramps is clinical levels of dehydration. So make sure you're well hydrated. I think that wraps it up. That was the 16 questions. Tried to get to them as fast as I could. If you continue to submit your questions, guys, every once in a while, we will do these podcast shorts and I'll do my best to answer them in a quick, concise manner so that doesn't take up too much of your time. And as

Starting point is 00:18:18 always, that's just science.

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The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka - 98. Gary Brecka Answers Your Top Health Questions: Hormones, Cholesterol, & More

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