Instagram Q & A 7/4/2024

Q: Thoughts on idea that leaky skin driving disease vs a reflection of health internally

A:

Everything is interdependent and bi directional. skin issues can be a reflection of health 'on the inside' like you mentioned, but they can also feed back into the problem and drive those changes as well. That is a credible idea. dermatological conditions will contribute to systemic low-grade inflammation and immune dysregulation. Remember, the skin is a large organ. It's a barrier and an active participant in immune surveillance. A compromised skin barrier will release pro-inflammatory cytokines that can enter enter systemic circulation. That inflammation will be perpetuated by your immune cells which will produce more cytokines and chemokines. So you get a feedback loop that maintains and exacerbates the inflammatory response. That's true in the gut (everyone talks about it) but it's also true with the skin (and really any organ) as well.

There are some good studies on spore based probiotics (I like the Just thrive which I think most people should be on. You can find that in the bio) on skin health.

Q: What effects does having mold in your air conditioning have? What should we do about it?

A: That's all information you can easily find online. As far as what you should do — move. That's really the only long term solution for most people if you're living in a mold infested house. With that being said, it wouldn't hurt to get either a full home air system like a REME HALO. Or some home air purifiers. I have the Mold Guard in bathrooms and then use a few Air Oasis filters. Bathroom and bedroom are probably most important areas to have them. Dehumidifiers (Morfy on Amazon are good and relatively inexpensive) and I would keep those in bathroom areas as well. The ones I use collect a ton of water here in Texas even is the spring and fall. Supporting the immune system and detoxification pathways (JT probiotic, glycine, taurine, broccoli sprouts for sulphoraphane and isothiocyanate etc) will be important to help with mycotoxin load. Most people that have been exposed to mold for a long time are usually co-infected with Candida as well. When you have a systemic fungal infection, you essentially become the moldy house so to speak. Fungal protocol with enzymes and anti-fungals like caprylic acid can be useful. You can find a full protocol I have posted up on the patreon. It's just called 'fungal protocol'

Q: Sun exposure benefits for Immune system aside From vitamin d??

A: Yes. UVB light can penetrate close to a centimeter into the skin. You actually have a lot of B cells on the surface layer (about centimeter or so) under skin as well. So UVB is necessary for producing vitamin D. But it also has a direct impact on the health of those immune cells (hopefully you cal connect some dots here to the question I answered about the skin as well). Vitamin D in some circumstances could really be viewed as more of a proxy for immune health. You're going to produce many itre sum exposure, tut associated that go beyond that. There is obviously a necessary balance here though.

Because too much exposure can damage the skin (and those immune cells) and cause problems as well. UVB radiation can impact regulatory T cells in a positive (adequate exposure) and negative way (too much exposure) just like it can stimulate the activation and proliferation (or damaged of) your B cells

Q: Thoughts on ketoconazole

A:

Here's a general rule of thumb for all prescription anti-fungals (oral or topical).

Stay away from them. Unless you have a serious infection. I have a lot of people that will ask me about taking anti-fungal medications for Candida (per the fungal protocol) and ask 'can I take [insert anti-fungal medication] along with [insert parts of the protocol]. When I ask 'why' people always say 'to get rid of the Candida faster'.

Do prescription medications work better than herbal or supplemental anti-fungal?

Yes. But most of the time (unless you have a serious infection) you're using a Glock to kill a fly. Most fungal infections (internally and externally) you can get rid of easily with alternatives that are not mitochondrial toxins. Sure these can work 'better' and 'faster'. But you'll have some 'systems' collateral damage that will make preventing things like reoccurrence more difficult in the long run. Most topical fungal infections can be knocked out with something like trea tree oil.

Q: Any supplements that work to protect skin from sun damage

A:

Yes. Niacinamide, COQ10, vitamin E and SPM's. Exposure to red and NIR infared light before sun exposure can also help prevent damage and burning. Anything that protects cell membranes will also be useful. I think plasnalogens could be helpful for that reason.

I believe there are a couple papers looking at them specifically for protecting tissues from ultraviolet radiation.

Q: How good is the evidence for shockwave therapy?

A: Evidence for what? In what context? When we talk about passive modalities, a lot of the application and wether or not it's going to be effective or not for [insert condition] is up for debate. This is precisely why I think it's I actually necessary to use mechanistic conjecture and or to extrapolate out on possible therapeutic applications. For example, there was a systematic review of 28 RCT comparing high energy vs low-energy ESWT or placebo for treating calcific tendinitis of the shoulder. In that SR ESWT was significantly better than placebo in reducing pain and improving function in calcific tendinopathy. Does that mean it's going to have the same impact on plantar fascitis or another MSK condition with different etiology and pathogenicity? You have to treat and see. I've used shockwave therapy successfully for A LOT of different conditions with good success. A lot of people will also use mechanistic conjecture to rationalize OUT of trying something. People do this a lot with jumpers knee. I've seen shockwave therapy work more often for jumpers knee than fail. But it's not something you'd know unless you tried it. This is why I'd avoid listening to most people in 'evidence-based' PT.

Q: Thoughts on PNC-27/28 for cancer treatment and leukemia. Additionally longevity once cure

A: Severely lacking in human trials. The idea of cell penetrating peptides for cancer and other therapeutic applications is very promising though. I do know of some 'alt' clinics and practioners that have treated people with PNC that had cancer and anecdotally claimed to get some really good results. It's definitely not the first thing I'd consider though.

Q: Are fermented veg (sauerkraut) good for your gut? Or is it too much salt?

A:

'Too much' salt just depends on how much salt you're already consuming. I think people that are active (which is probably a large majority of my audience) can and probably should go a bit over the recommended daily 2500mg. I get probably somewhere around 3000 on most days and maybe 3500 on hard training days.

Everyone's different though and a lot of that will be determined by underlying kidney function and activity level as mentioned. You can balance that out by consuming the majority of your salt via a source like the pink Celtic sea salt (needs to ge Celtic. Not pink salt in general) since it has 250mg of potassium for every 400mg of salt in each serving. This can be great for people that have BP issues consuming too much salt. Salt itself really isn't the issue. It's the lack of balance with other minerals coming in. And it can be good if you're not histamine sensitive. I haven't really seen anyone 'fix' a gut issue with fermented foods alone though. It doesn't replace spores

Q: Possible reasons behind facial hair turning white and methods to reverse them?

A: Aside from aging, coppper deficiency, B12 and possibly others like iron. Melanin also impacts the color of your hair, and low copper impacts melanin formation. If you buy into the idea that melanin is a semi-conductor in the body, then you also need sufficent copper to facilitate that. It's also important for preventing sun damage. Best way to get copper is Shilajit (I only recommend mitolife panacea which is in the bio) and maybe organ meat and canned smoked oysters. Both maybe once a week. Make sure you're also not mega-dosing Zinc. 15mg daily is plenty.

Q: Could more melanin increase the benefits of PEMF then (if it's semi conducting)?

A:

Maybe. Shout out to you for asking a good question though lol. There are melanin-like pigments in the heart called DCT's and there are some studies showing that mice lacking them have an increased susceptibility to arrhythmias I think. The heart is obviously a very energy intensive organ and we know the obvious, well-established connection there with magnetism and bio electricity And then neuromelanim (which is studied a bit more) is primarily found in dopamine-producing neurons in the substantia nigra where it modulates neuronal signaling pathways likely via some of those hypothesized semi-conductive properties. So I definitely think it's possible that it could potentially amplify the benefits for sure. Again, there's always an underlying reason why something works for one person and not as well in another. A lot of it definitely relates to underlying health status and there are extremely complex biological mechanisms (like melanin) that I think could account for some of this. I'm not going to go full kruse and tell you to bake in the sun for 6 hours everyday to increase melanin.

But I'd be lying if I said the underlying biology isn't fascinating. Maybe this could explain grounding as well and I think it explains some of the reason why it's important to get 'generally healthy' first before you try to do a lot of exogenous 'biohacking'