The Dirobi Health Show

084 Reducing Inflammation and Joint Pain: Turmeric Research with Dr. Sue Hewlings.

January 09, 2019 Dr. Sue Hewlings Season 1 Episode 84
The Dirobi Health Show
084 Reducing Inflammation and Joint Pain: Turmeric Research with Dr. Sue Hewlings.
Show Notes Transcript

Dr. Susan Hewlings is a PhD nutritionist, and an ultra distance runner and adventure racer. So when she was asked to write a paper about the benefits of Turmeric Supplementation she jumped at the chance.

The results were so impressive she has taken Turmeric supplements daily since discovering how powerful it really is. Her co-writer on the paper, Dr. Douglas S Kalman, actually went to India to see the fields of Turmeric and how it's grown.

If you suffer with joint pain and or inflammation, listen in to pick up some great info on the latest research in natural remedies!

 See all episode artwork, links and notes at:

https://blog.dirobi.com

This show is for informational purposes only. 

None of the information in this podcast should be construed as dispensing medical advice. 

These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

Find episode links, notes and artwork at:

https://blog.dirobi.com

This show is for informational purposes only.

None of the information in this podcast should be construed as dispensing medical advice.

These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

Speaker 1:

Yeah,

Speaker 2:

welcome to the show today, interview Dr Tsou Hulings, who I met at a trade show in Las Vegas, and as we got talking I said, I've got to have you on my show, and she was kind enough to agree and we set a time and it in the interview she shares with us some of the clinical research she's done on Tumeric as a supplement and for those of you who suffer with excess inflammation or joint pain generally, or if you just very active, you're going to want to listen to this. She's also an ultra distance racer and she knows what she's talking about. There's some fascinating stuff that she discovered in the research that she published. First of all, before we jump in, if you listen to my show, very much you know that I'm really big on nutrition, fitness supplementation. We experienced our entire lives through our bodies, so the better nutrition, fitness supplementation strategy, the better our whole life is. And so we've created the Dye Robbie transformation program to address all three of these things. It includes a year long customized nutrition and eating program of flexible and realistic workout program, and the core supplements that you need and are most likely to be deficient in already will help you lose weight, reduce cholesterol, managed blood sugar, increased energy levels, sleep better. The list goes on and on. Just go to[inaudible] dot com and click on any of our transformation and packages and check them out. They're very reasonably priced. As a matter of fact, the exact same coaching alone. Forget about the supplements. Just the coaching is$179 a month at other websites. We're doing the entire thing for as little as$67 a month. It's an incredible value. Make sure and check that out. And now onto my interview with Dr. Tsou humanists.

Speaker 3:

Hello everybody. Welcome to the dive roby health show and today we've got Dr Susan hulings and I'm really excited about this interview. I met her in Las Vegas at a large international supplements show and we just had a phenomenal conversation. She's got a diverse background and I'm, uh, happens to touch on several things that we're very interested in as a company and one of them of course, is what we met her about in Las Vegas, which is a subject called passive immunity that we want to ask her about, but she's also got expertise in curcumin and Tumeric as a supplement, which is a really hot topic right now. Everyone's talking about it. A lot of people are using tumeric supplements and some of them are, you know, they're all over the map in terms of quality, but we're gonna talk to her about our peer reviewed paper that she wrote about that Dr. hulings received her phd in nutrition from the Department of Nutrition, food and sciences at Florida State University. She received her bs in nutrition and her ms and exercise physiology also from Florida state. She's a registered Dietitian, a fulltime professor at Central Michigan University and Science Director for a neutral source diagnostics. She's cofounder and substantiation sciences at a substantiation sciences llc where she provides science, nutrition consulting services, and medical writing for the dietary supplement and medicine medical industries. She was an assistant professor, tenured in the Department of Integrative Health Sciences at Stetson University. Susan had completed a fellowship studying protein and fat metabolism at the University of Texas Medical Branch, shriners Burns Institute. She is also the author of nutrition, real people, real choices. Dr. hulings is also the founder of the ARF shock five o one c, three nonprofit animal rescue. She currently lives with her five dogs in the Florida keys and as a competitive ultra runner, an adventure racer. And to sum all that up, she probably knows more about a lot of these subjects and I will learn in my whole lifetime and I am excited to have her on the show. Dr. hulings. Thank you so much for coming on the show.

Speaker 4:

No, thanks for having me. I appreciate it.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I really appreciate it. And you, you probably remember me as the guy who, who made you get on camera and shoot a video because I was so excited about the things you were telling me in Las Vegas and you made this great clip for us. Which, um, I, I say that as a teaser because I'm not going to show that video yet because it's about this passive immunity product that we're very interested in and would love to bring to market. Um, but that will take months to accomplish. Um, so I, I'm just so grateful that you would get on my podcast after I've put you through that horrendous experience.

Speaker 4:

Oh No, it was my pleasure. I'm always excited to talk about new and, and, and, and also tried and true dietary supplements that can help us all out on a daily basis. And yes, we had a great discussion about a product. Hopefully a, you'll invite me back to talk about that when the time's right. But yes, passive immunity addressing gut health. So then therefore addressing immunity and inflammation, which is part of what we're going to talk about today. So definitely a good connection.

Speaker 3:

Yeah. And, and the product you're, you're involved with right now. Um, as an advisor it is fascinating. I am taking it as we work on coming up with our own directv version of this product. I'm taking it myself and I'll tell you something interesting about it is you guys had samples there at your booth and uh, me and my older son Austin who works for me, we were both there together and we both tried your samples and, and you've got a chewable version of the supplement that the next day when I came back to your booth, I wanted more of it. It's like there was almost like an intuitive. My Body needs that right? Just from taking it like, like one time, I don't know if you ever had that with supplements. I don't have it that often, but every now and then I take a supplement but I just have almost an intuitive sense that it's doing something good for me. That's what I had with your product. Why don't you tell us a little bit about that? Like I said, this is kind of a teaser because we're not ready to sell anything. We don't have a product for anybody, but I think it would be great for you to just spend a minute talking about this product and how cool this is, what you guys are doing,

Speaker 4:

right? Well, what we're doing is again, addressing gut health, which as we know has been a huge topic and I'm really. It's kind of a cutting edge science right now and that we've identified the connection between the gut and overall health, including of course, as I mentioned, inflammation and immunity, but it goes beyond that of course. Um, the, the gut brain access and having a healthy gut affects cognition, et cetera. And so this product which has actually been around for quite a while is utilizing passive immunity. And basically it's just that we take chickens and we, um, we specifically immunize them against pathogens that are known to cause disruption in gut health and humans. So the chickens create the antibodies and pass them into the egg. We spray dry the egg and pass that antibody onto the humans. But the difference is that the antibodies from the chickens are ige. Why? Whereas ours are igg. And the advantage there is that the guy does not trigger the human compliment immune system, so we don't tend to have negative reactions. Um, so yeah, basically, uh, working along with probiotics to have its best advantages and improving gut health. So that's the, we'll, we'll talk about it more in detail hopefully in the near future when you guys are ready to launch. But, uh, that, that's the summary and the product. Great.

Speaker 3:

And simple concept. I mean, one of the things you, you, the way you explained it to me was it helped me understand the concept of passive immunity was that it's a passive immunity. Is, is also what's happening when a mother is breastfeeding a child, right? That the child is getting the immunities that the mother has. Right?

Speaker 4:

Exactly. But in the form of Igg, but it's still passive immunity. So if everybody remembers a few years ago, colostrum was a big deal and the idea that claustrum could be beneficial even to adults because of that passive immunity or let's say colostrum from, uh, you know, cows, et cetera. And there's a benefits associated with that. But the downside is that it can trigger the human compliment immune system. So this is the same concept, just slightly different.

Speaker 3:

New and improved.

Speaker 4:

New and improved. Yes. Absolutely. Yep.

Speaker 3:

Excellent. And we will cover that in our company right now is experimenting with it and I'm personally taking their product and I love it. I'm a big fan. I'm excited to bring that to market in 2019 and as we're having this discussion and you have, I mean I read your bio, it took a while to read your bio because you've done so much and there's so much there and it's, it's, uh, you know, you've done work in various universities for various projects and have so much expertise. And one of those is you were asked by tsa to write an article about tumeric and the active ingredient, the curcuminoids in the, in the tumor. At the end you wrote a peer reviewed article that has been published and that really got my attention and I asked if you do a podcast about it and there's really nothing in this for you to do this. I understand that. So I'm so appreciative that you would come on here. It's not like you're selling books or really making money directly off of this. So I really appreciate you sharing your time. You're obviously passionate about this whole thing. I mean that this is really the only the second time we've talked since we met, but each time, even if as we were just talking about the podcast and uh, some of these things I can sense you're really passionate about the whole nutritional industry.

Speaker 4:

Oh, absolutely. It's a lifelong passion for me and I've been very fortunate in that I've been able to tie my passions in, into my work life. And so it's just seamless. In other words, I don't feel like I have a job. There's no distinction between my job and my life. They're very connected and driven by that passion. And so I connect what I do in my personal life to, to what we're discussing and that's why it didn't even occur to me that I needed to be on here selling something. I'm on here because, uh, you know, just sharing information and um, you know, hopefully to the benefit of everyone, whether it just be to increase knowledge and, and you know, whether you take ended up taking curcumin or not or need to, but it's still interesting. So yes, you're right. I'm very passionate about about nutrition in general.

Speaker 3:

Yeah. It comes through and of course you're living it. Tell us a little bit about your adventure racing and ultra running.

Speaker 4:

Well, uh, yeah, I, I am an endurance person so you're not going to catch me doing any sprints, I'll guarantee you that. Um, but uh, yes I do long distance running and adventure racing and 50 k and 50 milers are my preferred for the running. I haven't done 100 yet. Hope to in the near future. Um, do 100 but sticking with the 50 slash 50 milers and then the adventure racing. I do super fun. We do it in teams and in the swamps here in Florida and we bike track which sometimes means walking, swamp, stomping, whatever. And um, and can you and, uh, that the, the denture racing, use a compass to go from point to point and those can be anywhere from 12 hours to the longest one we've done is 36 hours. Um, so yeah, I kinda like to just get out there and, and keep going. It's, it's a, a euphoria that you can't describe why you do it.

Speaker 3:

That's so cool. And,

Speaker 4:

and here in the, in the, uh, you know, in the West we have a variety of adventure style races. We have like the dirty dash a, we have the spartan and its various legs. I've done the spartan beast stuff at the Olympic Park, uh, in Heber where they had the cross country ski event and the 2002 Olympics. That was a, I wouldn't describe it as exactly fun. It was 13 miles with 26 obstacles and at very difficult run up to the mountain and down the mountain. And they made it, you know, it wasn't like you got to run in a flat 13 miles circle they were making you go up the face. You know what I mean? It was just brutal, but it was so cool. I mean, we got, we all got muddy, we got wet. We had to, we had to, they had like a, a long trench probably 200 yards long with water in it with barbed wire, one foot above the water. So you had to like keep your head below the barbwire and do this doggy paddle thing, uh, along with several other obstacles and there's probably people listening going, why would anyone do that kind of thing on purpose as you described your version of the swamps and the canoeing get everything. To me it sounds like a blast, but there's got to be few people going. That just sounds crazy. Yeah, you definitely questioned yourself when it's going on, but afterwards, you know, it's one of those things you get to focus on how good you're going to feel. He did it, but yeah, the mountains and the elevation is a whole nother ball game. That's a whole nother set for sure.

Speaker 3:

So what are these runs called? So like I said, I've just kind of identified a couple that I'm familiar with around here. What do they call it out there in Florida?

Speaker 4:

Oh, there's a bunch of different ones that they have, um, that are 50 k's, 50 milers, you know, that people put onto raise funds. I mean, here we got a bunch of great guys that do the keys. 100, which is a real, that's a really you can do as either a relay team or as an individual. And they added a 50 mile or distance and they're, they're raising lots of money for prostate cancer research. Uh, so, so there's, there's many, all of all over the state. Um, the keys 100, it's no joke because of the heat. They do it in May and they start at Mile Marker here in the keys. We have one, two lane highway and it starts at Mile Marker. 100, you know, is where the race starts and it goes. Zero is in key west. A lot of, you know, Mile Marker zero. Um, anyway, uh, and they run down and they raise money. So there's tons all over Florida and probably just about in every state. I know I've done one in Virginia before and won one in Delaware, so, uh, you know, they're in every state. They're great way to get out there and um, I like the trail ones the best personally that getting in the woods and it sounds like what you were doing, but yeah, I mean, you get to a certain point where, let's face it, it's a stress on your body. You are no longer doing this for health and an improved fitness. This is the mental game, right? And you were pushing your body pretty far and further than maybe you should for health reasons sometimes. So I think that's where a lot of these supplements really, really do come into play because you're pushing your body to an extreme. And so recovery is a huge issue. Um, because most of us have to go to work on Monday. You go out and do this great event and even if you're fit, you're going to be sore and you're going to have some inflammatory responses, no doubt about it. And you're creating a lot of reactive oxygen subspecies during a long distance race like that. So an antioxidant also comes in really handy. Um, so in addition to thinking about your macros and thinking about your calories, um, I think then the fine tuning gets into supplements and things like curcumin and other antioxidants and antiinflammatory foods and supplements.

Speaker 3:

So when I approached you to write this paper, were you already taking a tumeric supplement or was this something that was an area of interest you wanted to study that you had not been introduced to before?

Speaker 4:

Well, I knew about curcumin and I had her things and I had, um, I teach, like you mentioned, I teach full time at central Michigan University and I teach in their graduate nutrition program. So my students are always doing papers and reviews on just about everything. So I was aware of it but no, I was not taking it. Um, uh, you know, because I hadn't researched it, I didn't have the evidence and I'm all about, you know, evidence base while supplements and supporting claims, etc. So anyway, I was, oh, I was anxious to get in there and dig into the literature and I have to tell you once I did, and I mean I read hundreds of papers about it. Um, yeah, I Started taking it in and have been ever since I wrote the paper, the paper was published in october of 2017, so I, I wrote it in like the late spring of 2017. I've been taking it ever since. So, and yeah, I definitely think it's beneficial, I think for, for, you know, a multitude of health benefits. But uh, yeah, I, I definitely, it's um, it's got a lot of evidence behind it or I wouldn't have started taking it myself.

Speaker 3:

Okay. And for our listeners, we have a product, mimi's miracle tumeric, which we have sent a bottle, a two dr[inaudible] to revIew for herself. I'm also going to send her over copies of the clinical studies done on that, including the major human clinical study with 120 people with osteoarthritis in their knees. And so I'm like dr. Healings, when I was introduced to this, uh, I also, I mean the reason I go to these shows and I'm, I'm, I'm trying to keep my education on supplements as high as possible because I'm just always looking for those things that have really good science behind. There's nothing like a product that's had a lot of people review it, a lot of people tested, a lot of people do animal and human studies on it to really give you the confidence that it may work for you. And I say that because I'm just being realistic. Not everything works on any body, not every drug a and the. Not every food, I mean, but, but the fact is you have so much more confidence in something if you know that there's a lot of science behind it. And so dr healings article is published on pub med. We will put a link in the show notes to this article about it and I'd like to jump into it because as she mentioned, she read hundreds of papers. She then wrote this paper. It was then pure reviewed. So this is really a solid piece of work that you did. How long did it take you to prepare this?

Speaker 4:

Um, well, you know, it when I am going to say from the time I started till it got published was around six months because I had it went into the review process and then I had to respond to reviewer feedback and incorporate them. um, you know, the feedback from the reviewers into this. In addition, of course, I must mentioned my co author Dr. Douglas kalman, he and I wrote this together so we would write sections and flip them so, you know, that takes time as well to make sure, you know, we always check each other's work and uh, he is cofounder of our consulting business substantiation sciences and so, uh, you know, with the two of us working on it together and then incorporating review and etc. It, um, it took about six months now dr kelman had the great opportunity to actually go see tumeric growing in India and was quite impressed with the process and everything about it. So he had a personal interest as well. So yes, both of us have a great passion for the topic and wantIng to put our all into this paper. So yeah, about six months.

Speaker 3:

Let's start with the very basics. What is tumeric?

Speaker 4:

okay. So like, like I mentioned, it's been around for a long time. It's a spice and it's received a lot of recent attention and we can talk about why the recent attention. It's actually a plant that comes from the ginger family and its main bioactive component Is curcumin. So if you're hearing us flip back and forth talking about tumeric and curcumin, you're like, wait, I thought, you know, what are we talking about here? Curcumin is the bioactive component. I'm a polyphenol that comes from tumeric. So that's, that's why we're jumping around sayIng that. And um, yeah, it's, it's, it's a spice. It's naturally grown and the, and the, it has been discovered that, you know, like I said a long time ago, they knew that it had health benefits but not, didn't know exactly. Sure what component created these health benefits. And the curcumin is where the health benefits come from. That being said, the, uh, the curcumin is not easily absorbed, so you have to kind of eat a lot of it to get benefits if you're eating turmeric. So the reason I think for the recent attention is that recent research has come up with ways to enhance the absorption, so there's different ways you can absorb that, enhance absorption to get the benefits to optimize it. I'm one of those is black pepper, bio purine, which is added to a lot of the supplements. The other one is my cells and light buzzsumo encapsulation that kind of protects it and that enables it to be absorbed more readily. Um, and there are multiple other ways that the curcumin can be added to things to increase bioavailability. And I think that, that, those dIscoveries and that research is what's driven the recent attention towards curcumin.

Speaker 3:

Okay. And let's see, one other thing out of the way right now. And that is that it's been generally found to be safe right there. There is no research out there saying that this will cause any harm or, or, uh, have contraindications with something else. Correct?

Speaker 4:

Correct. Yeah. Long established safety history, which is very nice and, and, and, you know, not commonplace necessarily so long established a safety history and yeah, I mean there's always the chance of minor gi things, etc. But yeah, no reports of toxicity or other issues related to the curcumin.

Speaker 3:

Okay. And along those lines of safety in your study, you focused on curcumin for generally healthy people. There is a lot of research being done on curcumin for people who have a cancer and uh, other health challenges. Right? And, and you alluded to that, there seems to, there's quite a bit of that going on, so you were more interested in how does this work, if you give it to you to help to a healthy population. But, um, do you know much about research being done on people who have disease or, or uh, various health problems?

Speaker 4:

Well, actually a curcumin as a dietary supplement can't make any dIsease claims. So the reason for the focus on healthy people is because dietary supplements by the dietary health supplement act of 1994 cannot not make any disease claims. So the focus here is for healthy people and to main tain health. Uh, so I, that's why I stayed away from any of the research related to the disease because once you get into that, now you're in a whole nother conversation and now you're talking treatment talk and that's not with dietary supplements or are meant to do legally speaking and I'm bound by that legality and we can all argue that they offer benefits to people with diseases. But we as a supplement company and supplement company consultant can't make claims for that. So that's why the focus for the healthy people.

Speaker 3:

Yeah. Staying on the, on the safe side of the line.

Speaker 4:

Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. It's very important. And you know, um, dietary supplements are not premarket regulated like over the counter drugs are and like prescription drugs are but they are regulated. Um, it is the responsibility of the manufacturer and ingredient people to be able to back up their claims and also to, to not make disease claims. And the ftc actually regulates that. So just to make the point that, you know, if there is regulation involved.

Speaker 3:

Yeah. so there is also research going on for people with diseases, so it will be interesting to see how that shakes out and then of course, what you do with that, I don't know because you can't make the claim. It's something we bump into all the time. We have products that have a clinical studies shOwing that they do certain things and we can't even say it. And so that's always a, a, a difficult but understandable aspect of being a supplement seller. Um, so

Speaker 4:

consider going the route of medical foods you can talk to. Um, you know, companies like xymogen and other companies that work with a naturopath and other doctors that can therefore, you know, go with slightly different route or per potentially, you know, when the research comes out strongly that a certain components benefits a disease population, um, they can go the drug route and some supplements have done that where they go, they go through the fda process and become something that can actually be prescribed. And it's not to say that, that, that won't happen with this. Um, you know, In an example that would be like vitamin d were at high doses, It becomes, you know, a prescription. So yeah, it's just a kind of an interesting tidbit, but in this paper we focus on the healthy population and uh, the, the benefits with, with mentioned to other things, but focus on the healthy population and the focus really to boil it down, the benefits of curcumin are related to it's anti oxidant and antiinflammatory properties. That's the primary mechanisms that really explain all the other health benefits associated with it. So, you know, it kinda then can give you some idea of what it might benefit based on those two primary mechanism of action.

Speaker 3:

let's start with the first one you mentioned. Explain to everyone, I mean the antioxidant is a word that the average consumer out there has heard. We all, we all know it, but why don't you first of all, give us a good definition of what an, what an antioxidant is, and then the antioxidant properties of curcumin.

Speaker 4:

Okay. Well, um, through normal metabolism in respiration on a daily basis, we create free radicals and basically it's a normal part of our metabolism, but they're based unstable electronics, so it's like an oxygen with an unpaired electron and it is looking to pair up, it's freaking out looking to pair up and it's got to grab an electron from somewhere. And so what we'll do potentially is grab it from your lipid biolayer and yourself because those are of, you know, uh, unstable polyunsaturateds. It's easy to go in there and grab up an and be like, yep, now I'm stable, but in doing that it becomes damaged. So what we like to do to those unstable free radicals is, um, have antioxidants that say, here, take my electron, don't do any damage, take this. And we have natural antIoxidants to do that. Like, you know, we have vitamin e, vitamin a and we have natural antioxidants, but we can always keep up with the free radicals we create with our natural antioxidants and therefore it's beneficial to consume. I'm extra exogenous antioxidants and curcumin is one of those. And so it helps to stabilize those unstable molecules. So that they can't do any damage, like, for example, to ourselves, wall to those delicate, a delicate tissue in the eye and these sorts of things. So that's sort of the simple of what we're looking at.

Speaker 3:

And I want to talk about something you alluded to earlier with your own adventure and ultra racist. Uh, there, there is a misconception in society sometimes that the, the, the fittest among us say olympians and, and people that are very lean, low body fat, that they are the fittest and healthiest that's actually not necessarily true. There is a point at which people are really damaging their body and shortening their life. We know of recent research where we find that people who are at elite levels of competition for very long time actually doing quite a bit of damage to their body. And uh, and so I imagine as you mentioned, like, like yourself and you do a big race on a, on a weekend and you got to go back to work on monday and your body needs time to recover a per people working out at a very high level and with low body fat probably need antioxidants much more than the average, but could you talk to that and, and, and what the kind of the safe zone of exercises and at what point you're kind of crossing over that line where you've got to be more careful. You got to pay more attention to what the longterm effectS of your exercise are.

Speaker 4:

Well, actually people who are fit, especially people who are endurance training the church, that's actually one of the benefits to training is that you increase your body's natural antioxidants. So fit people have higher levels of endogenous antioxidants then unsaid people. Um, so they actually do, you know, that Is an advantage of training. I think that it's hard to give a definitive answer to question and what is taking it too far. It's really impossible to say, but I think that anytime you overreach, like let's say after the holidays, you know, you've taken, taken some time off from your workout to accommodate holiday gatherings in this sort of thing, and then you go back in two months later and try to pick up where you left off. So you go from the couch to, you know, an hour of a really intense crossfit workout. Well, you're overreaching, you know, your training is here and you did your workout like, you know, 10 steps beyond. So you've challenged, you know, because workIng out is about your challenging homeostasis, right? You're creating a challenge and you want your body to meet that challenge over time, but you've got to slowly do that. Well, a lot of us go out or we say, oh yeah, a bunch of my friends, you know, I haven't been running, but a bunch of my friends that they're going to go out and do this relay race. It's no big deal. I can run 12 miles even though I haven't been running for a while. Well now that's pretty damaging. So I think any time you do something extreme that you're unaccustomed to, it creates an over-challenge and therefore you don't have your body's natural antioxidants to meet the challenge among many other things that cause inflammation. But, but that's just an example. So overreaching, it is a huge problem. Um, as far as long term damage that asked different athletes do, that's a, that's a long discussion that's debated. It's kinda, it's, it's specific to individuals. And another component about that, whether you're going out to do, you know, a tough mudder off the couch or you're an olympic athlete, you can't negate the importance of the healthy diet because the healthy diet and having the right amount of nutrients and macronutrients, that particular protein enhances recovered and you can't understate that. And so that's another mistake a lot of people make to their, their, their dieting. It's after the holidays, they're not eating enough, then they're also going to do that hardcore workout. And so now they've set themselves up aa for overreaching because they're not even supporting the recovery by adequate calories and protein. So there's so many factors involved here. I can't really give you the quick and dirty two posts to answer.

Speaker 3:

No, I liked your answer. It's solid. I like that you're not giving a, a two plus two. And Basically one of the things I'm hearing from you is it's largely based on the baseline that you have established on your nutrition. I mean, that makes, that makes total sense to me and, and also that maybe I did simplify it through things I'd heard and been reading about these elite athletes and shortening their lifespan, that type of thIng. Like I said, It's a also person to person. So I guess what we take from that is, is know yourself, know your own body, be smart about it. I'm, those are the things I'm kind of getting from your answer.

Speaker 4:

Oh yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And when you overreach, because we all do and anybody who's active and likes to exercise, we all do it at a time or another, um, or you know, we know we're doing this, we're going to be out doing this race that you're talking about or whatever for, you know, 24 hours or something. We'll prepare yourself, eat appropriately. You know, um, and the sub, any dietary supplements you do, um, they're great, but they're fine tuning. They are no substitute for the healthy diet, the well-prepared training, you know, over time and having an adequate nutrients. And I always say, remember I was telling my students, dietary supplements, what's the word? Supplement means it means in addition to not instead of. And so I think a lot of times people are seeking these supplements as a substitute for really eating healthy and they don't work that way.

Speaker 3:

Yeah. And just one quick thing before we move onto the next topic is a, I don't want anyone out there to hear me saying that, you know, I'm arguing against being to fit a fit literally means fit, like not. I mean we all know there are extremes anyone can go to in our country right now, a lot more people are unfit versus fit. So it really is just really just trying to talk about that person that's doing, you know, 15 to 20 hours of training versus, you know, I, to me, I consider about five to six hours of traIning a week to be very, very normal and probably necessary for almost everybody. And so I'm just talking about the people who are doing way more than that. I had this impression in my mind that, that can kind of get unhealthy and be just kinda wearing yourself down. And on this topic of antioxidants, I thought I assumed they would need more in the way of antioxidants, but

Speaker 4:

do they do need more? You are right. That was a correct assumption. It's just that if you train properly and adapt slowly with, you know, gradual increments in, in, in workload, you can adapt quite, uh, quite effectively. Um, and I think the mistake people make and where they run themselves down is the fact that they, they increased to too fast and that they don't cycle the workouts because no matter what kind of training you're doing, you know, there's a certain amount of training cycle that you go through throughout the year and the training period, etc. Um, where you do like active recovery and things like that. So a well planned training and diet, you actually can do what most people would think is quite extreme and be quite healthy doing it and plenty of people have. And when yOu see, you know, studies that talk about, well, you know, where they're decreasing their lifespan, well, how do we know that I want to see that study because I want to know how they know how long that person was going to live if they hadn't done that. And are they saying that because, because of the increased reactive oxygen subspecies, because they may be, you know, I don't know, I haven't seen this, but are they increasing that because of the reactive, uh, um, increase in reactive oxygen subspecies and I don't know. But, and, and, and, and you just measured that you would say, yeah, they increased, but if you don't measure antioxidant status, you're not looking at how did you, I apologize for that.

Speaker 5:

Are you there?

Speaker 4:

Yeah, sorry. The dogs are barking. I had to mute. Sorry about that. Everybody. I can't help it. The mailman, you know. But anyway,

Speaker 3:

as a, everyone

Speaker 4:

dr hildings rescues dogs, this is a very cool thing. She's got five right now and seeing as your dogs are making an appearance on the show, why don't you, why don't you just spend a minute on that? Because I think it's a wonderful thing you're doing. Oh, okay. Yeah, I have a nonprofit, the, uh, the arf, arf shack a, it's a five zero, one c three nonprofit dog rescue. I forMed in 2009 and I rescue dogs and cats, but I'll really help any animal. And I helped to support other rescues, etc. So I have five dogs of my own, four of whom are rescues. It never lasts for whatever reason, um, but my amazing volunteers and donors have helped me raise lots and lots of dogs over the years. I'm currently, I have hannah, she's 15. She's a retired seeing eye dog from southeastern guide dogs. Kali ma. She is a pit bull. I actually found running down the street 12 years ago. She's almost 17 and you know, uh, then I've maaco who's 12 laila who's Ten. And so my dogs live a long time because I actually applied this stuff to them. And what I try to do, and I think this is important, is I try to mix in their care with my training and my health so that I take them running and walking with me. And so it's easier than it seems actually. But, uh, one thing I can't control is embarking at stuff outside, so I apologize, but

Speaker 3:

no problem at all. The dogs are welcome to be on the podcast. This is a dog friendly show.

Speaker 4:

Great. Awesome.

Speaker 3:

Let's jump into the next point. Anti-inflammatory.

Speaker 4:

[inaudible], okay, so again, one of the things that happens when we create these reactive oxygen species is we create something called oxidative stress and one thing that happens when this occurs is that it stimulates a inflammation. It's not, of course the only thing that stimulates inflammation, but it is part of the mechanism that, that is related to activity leading to inflammation and we all talk about that, like if you go out and do something or even if you do some around the house that you're not used to, you're standing on a ladder for a long time, you know, people will take sometimes like um, aspirin or aDvil or something like that because you know, they've aggravated something because they did something they weren't used to. Well, part of the thing that causes that inflammation that we're familiar with this is this oxidative stress. And so that's kind of the connection here and how we create a connect the two primary mechanisms by which the current human enacts its health benefits. So it's just, you know, it creates a signal, it starts a cascade, if you will. When these reactive oxygen species are increased, it stimulates a lot of inflammation and people, you know, that's another thing in the word inflammation is it is kind of a popular term in the literature right now because there's been a lot of connections. A lot of people are walking around with what we call just sort of this subacute. They don't have a diagnosis or anything, but they've got the systemic inflammation and it can be caused by a lot of different things. This is one of them. It can also be connecting to what we started talking about in the beginning of the show. It can be connected to having an imbalance in the microflora in the gut and more and more information about that. So several things. So the idea is not. It's kinda to identify and address all the things that might be leading to this inflammation and this is one way of doing that. And then the reason is is because long term inflammation has been connected to a being a risk factor for, for multiple diseases. So why we're not talking about treating diseases, we're talking about maintaining health so that we never get these diseases. So inflammation has been connected obviously with heart disease and joint diseases, but also with alzheimer's. Um, you know, multiple gi disorders like ips, collitus, etc. So, um, you know, there's a lot of different connections, but at the root of it is the antioxidant, anti inflammatory mechanism.

Speaker 3:

And you found that the humanoids made a positive impact.

Speaker 4:

Absolutely, yes. Yeah. The research indicates that it kirk human, uh, has it suppresses inflammation through several different mechanisms that are sort of like beyond the detail I think we want to go into verbally without diagrams and things to explain it. But basically the catechumen suppresses inflammation by, uh, interacting with a lot of the different inflammatory pathways and there and in suppressing them. And so therefore by doing so then helps to prevent like joint pain, joint inflammation, um, different aspects related to risk for heart disease and also inflammation related to activity or just everyday life. Um, and potentially inflammation. You know, one of the things about being overweight and obese is a fat tissue puts off pro inflammatory markers and creates, in and of itself this sort of inflammatory environment. And so curcumin can help with some of that for people as they try to lose weight.

Speaker 3:

Okay, excellent. Now, speaking of joint pain, the next point you researched in regards to the ones for a few minutes, benefits was arthritis and of course arthritis is something we all are aware of. There's various forms of it and that would be, you know, once you have arthritis is, you know, chronic joint pain. Right? So what did you find in regards to aiding with arthritis?

Speaker 4:

Well, again, arthritis would be considered a disease state. So, uh, really it's more an idea of I'm suppressing inflammation to prevent chronic inflammation and therefore to prevent your chances of, you know, ben, but becoming diagnosed with diseases, which then takes you into a whole mother a category, which means now you're requiring treatment. So we're trying to offset the inflammatory cascade that ultimately can lead you down that road by the dietary supplement.

Speaker 3:

Okay. And I want to read a quote from the end of the article that, uh, that you included from a matter of u of m turk humanoids on arthritis. The quote is this systematic review and meta analysis provided scientific evidence that eight to 12 weeks of standardized tumeric extracts typically a thousand milligrams a day of procurement treatment can reduce arthritis, arthritis symptoms, mainly pain and inflammation related symptoms and result in similar improvements in the symptoms as ibuprofen. And I'm going to say this wrong, diclofenac, diclofenac sodium, I don't know what that is.

Speaker 4:

Well, either way, just traditional treatments.

Speaker 3:

Okay. Uh, therefore to merck extracts and curcumin can be recommended for alleviating the symptoms of arthritis, especially osteoarthritis. Okay. So that is a quote you. This is not from your research, this is a, this is something you're quoting other people's research that they found in their studies, correct?

Speaker 4:

Correct. Well, pretty much it's a review paper. So I didn't actually conduct any studies myself. I compile the data, but yes, that's a quote from a systematic review. And I think the key to see there is that, um, that is reducing the symptoms. So it's not curing, treating or you know, it's not curing or treating osteoarthritis, but it's helping to relieve the symptoms. So that's the key and that's kinda the way we, that we look at it there. And so they expect, okay, now that's a higher dose. So that. So that you bring up, since you brought up dosage, um, so you, you start, you know, I would say I don't know what you guys recommend on your product, but I would say that I'm starting at 500 milligrams twice a day is a good place to start if you don't see the benefits, you know, achieve the benefits you were seeking than I think I'm a thousand milligrams is adequate, but starting with 500 twice a day I think is a good place to start.

Speaker 3:

Okay, excellent. And the next area that you, that you researched was a few minutes effect on metabolic syndrome. Again, it might be helpful for those who don't know what medicine, no metabolic syndrome is for you to just start with a definition. What's metabolic syndrome?

Speaker 4:

Okay. Metabolic syndrome is, it's basically a combination of things. For example, insulin resistance, high blood sugar, high blood pressure, elevated ldls, which are the cholesterol is that you don't want to be elevated and elevated triglyceride levels usually associated with being overweight as well. Um, so metabolic syndrome kind of evolved as a term because we realized that very few people had only one of those things. So in other words, very few people only have high blood pressure. They're usually gonna have one of one or two of these other things. And so if we just treat high blood pressure, we'll miss it. So we got, you know, we got to take into account that it's a syndrome of spanx. So that's where that team from. And so again, we don't have a treatment or a cure for metabolic syndrome, but we can help to manage some of the symptoms and try to definitely prevented with lifestyle behaviors and some supplements like, like for example, curcumin.

Speaker 3:

No, I'm going to be unbelievably non politically correct in this next comment slash question. So, uh, go ahead and virtually slapped me if you don't like it. But is metabolic syndrome something we consider a first world problem?

Speaker 4:

Um, yeah. For us an end, uh, you know, we see the incidence increasing in developing countries for sure. But yes, for it's, it's, it, it is primarily an issue of western culture first world. It's a good way to put it, um, because as we move forward in time here where it's not just western culture that's becoming or seeing this in. So yes, a fluid cultures is where we see this. And also when we, when we look at third world countries, if we look at the um, the, the wealthiest classes are wealthy, wealthy is part of their demographic, we see it there as well.

Speaker 3:

Yeah. So back to what you said about nutrition, you know, the fact is we're an indulgent society and we eat too much and too much of the wrong things. And so I just don't know that we can say that enough that the nutrition really is key and I've said it on the show many times and I'll continue to say it, that nutrition is number one and exercise is number two and supplements or number three. And I'm a supplement seller. Okay. Like I haven't. This is how I make my living is selling supplements, but at the end of the day, I'm not really interested in being that guy that makes my money just selling bottles of stuff to people, uh, I want it to support their health healthy lifestyle, which is why I do the podcast. This is the best way I could get this whole message out and really share with my customers what's going on kind of behind the scenes and what we really think and what we believe. And so that's why I asked that question and brought that up, is that metabolic syndrome is something that it is kind of a disease of, of athletes that might be insulting to someone who is suffering from it. But again, it's, it also should be encouraging because by just you can change your lifestyle and turn those effects around. Correct?

Speaker 4:

Uh, yes, absolutely. Um, you know, and I think the number one thing you can do, of course we can't ignore the fact that obesity is a key component of metabolic syndrome. And oftentimes by losing weight you can then affect the other aspects. So in other words, insulin resistance oftentimes can reverse itself with weight loss. So I think that's, that's where you start a healthy diet that leads to weight loss and then a lot of these other things fall into place, um, you know, without always. Now again, you know, it, it, it's up to where someone is on the spectrum of it. Sometimes you do require medication and I think that's an awesome thing that we have is that we have the option for yes, medications, you know, we, we, we, we have availability to pharmacology, but we also can do lifestyle and supplements and complimentary. So it's the idea of bringing them all together to help people.

Speaker 3:

Great. And so to do that. So the person listening now it goes, okay, I got metabolic syndrome, I'm going to change my diet, I'm going to work on a few more vegetables, a little less sugar, a little less ice cream, whatever the case might be. And take her acumen to help out. And what can they expect the curcumin lights to do the person suffering with metabolic syndrome?

Speaker 4:

Well, you know, I think that you can expect that some of what the curcumin benefits will provide you. You won't be able to see, you're not going to be able to see it functioning as an antioxidant, but if you have joint pain or inflammation or you find that when you do try to work out, you're very sore afterwards. I think that, that you will see a decrease in that with curcumin news. Now, I wouldn't want you to only just, if you know, if you're overweight, I want you to be trying to lose weight in by losing weight. You will also see the benefit as well. But I think the biggest thing that you can see by taking the curcumin will be a decrease in inflammation. Um, you know, as far as things you can actually see because you're not gonna be able to see the antioxidants working. But when it's working it's decreasing inflammation. And I think again, the other thing that people need to keep in mind with a lot of supplements is, again, remember what you said up there when you quoted the systematic review, eight to 12 weeks. It can take that long for you to see a benefit and I think that we have, uh, uh, take this pill, feel better immediately mentality that, um, you know, people will say, okay, well, like they take whatever it is, if it's curcumin or another salon, they're sitting there waiting to feel different immediately. Well, a lot of things don't work that way. Especially natural products like tumeric that the curcumin comes from. If you're eating a healthy diet, you're not going to feel better immediately. Like you might if you took some sort of a drug or medication, but longterm it'll work and you're not going to have the side effects that you would if you took it.

Speaker 3:

Okay. So in the end you are a fact based, evidence based phd nutritionist, not easy to impress his impression I get from you. You do your homework, you do your research, you were asked to do this research which you've spent six months on. You were healthy personally when you did this research. And in the end, after you did the research, do I understand correctly, you started taking curcumin as a supplement?

Speaker 4:

I did, yes. I did. Um, and I continue to take it a year or so later, um, and mostly because I do run a lot, I am healthier, right. And I don't have a whole lot of complaints, I have to say I feel pretty good. I'm all overall, but I do sometimes after a long run, you know, have hamstring issues and uh, I think that taking the curcumin has really helped with that. Um, and yeah, I just, I was convinced by that and I also understand the benefits of an antioxidant and that by helping to offset some of that oxidative damage I'm doing by training all the time and just by living, I know the benefit of that long term. I might not be, it may not be tangible right here now, but I know there's a benefit. So yeah. Uh, I do, I still take it as my coauthor dr kalman, although I don't want to speak for him per se, but I know that he does. Yeah.

Speaker 3:

Well he, he and he, he went over there to India and saw that the field's growing. I mean, he really, you know, jumped in there and uh, then took this very seriously and when it was all over, both of you are quite impressed.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 3:

Okay. So thank you so much for covering that. There's a couple things a while I've got you on the podcast with, with your expertise and your resume and the research. You've done everything. I can't let you go without asking a couple more questions. Um, especially about your own diet. Uh, I, I, I always liked to find out what to really healthy people who are at the top of the nutrition game. Enjoy eating. What's your favorite healthy breakfast?

Speaker 4:

Okay. Well let me just tell you this right now because if anybody I know ever listen to this, they would be like, eating for me is fuel. It's fuel. I understand that most people really like to eat and they get real. I, I, it's not my thing. I just never been. I never get super excited. I really love to watch people who are passionate about food, but I'm not one of those people. So that's my disclaimer upfront. Love oatmeal. I eat oatmeal every. I don't, I just love it and it's consistency. I eat for consistency a lot. I think more so than taste. Plus I run in the morning so I get up in the morning about five, 5:30. I start walking dogs, then I braun and then um, dogs are going to bark again. Sorry. And then, um, I come back, I eat breakfast and I eat oatmeal with berries now again, I like, I do like the way the berries taste, but I also knew they provide a lot of nutrients as well as antioxidants and I take the curcumin and other, any whatever else other supplements I'm taking and I drink a glass of either soy milk or skim milk to get protein. So that's, that's my breakfast the most part. Sometimes I do a protein shakes out, but more often than not that's my breakfast.

Speaker 3:

Do you do a mid morning snack? Are you, are you a grazer or do you do.

Speaker 4:

I am not a grazer. I do two main meals and then midday I'll have some source of protein. So usually midday I'll have either a clean yogurt or I'll have it a peanut butter and I know it sounds really boring, but yeah, but that's what I eat midday. And then for dinner, a bunch of vegetables, a mix of vegetables, whether stir fry or whatever. I'm sweet potato. A lot of your last few potatoes in a lot of beans. Yeah. And occasionally a, I don't eat meat but uh, you know, occasionally somebody but for the most part, um, yeah, he uh, again I'll eat some more plain yogurt and vegetables so it's pretty, pretty standard for me. I'm a bronx tale, that kind of stuff.

Speaker 3:

Talk to you about the peanut butter just by itself.

Speaker 4:

Yeah. You asked them.

Speaker 3:

Yeah. You know what I've been telling people for years that's the best way to eat peanut butter. People will see me take a spoon and stick it in the peanut butter and I just eat it and they think it's crazy. I'm like, hey, don't mock it till you try it.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Um, now I eat and just to be clear, I'm not eating a, what's it called? Skip beat skippy or jiffy or any of that. This is a fresh ground. Peanuts only says nothing added to it. I get it from the art grocery store. Puts it out there. They grind it. They have like a peanut grinder. I know a lot of times a whole foods and those kinds of markets. How to, but yeah, it's not the kind of buying a jar. I just. It's just natural ground. Pretty much it. Sometimes I'll add, again, I'll add berries or a fruit spread to it, but that's. That's about it.

Speaker 3:

That's a really good point. I'm glad you made that point because a lot of people don't understand just how much sugar and other junk can be added to peanut butter. Now, luckily here, I don't know if it's nationwide, but we get peanut butter from costco that literally says ingredients. Peanuts.

Speaker 4:

I'm sure that there are a lot of grocery stores that have that. I think. I think you're probably right. I live in a pretty isolated area that doesn't have a lot of options, so I'm sure you're right. I bet you a lot of grocery stores have them in jars that I'm just not aware of it, but yes, and you make a good point. It's not the jar aspect of it. It's what's in it. And so reading the ingredients and if it's just ground peanuts and a little bit of salt, I think that that's fine. And um, you know, again, and I do, uh, you know, I will say, and again I have to be truthful. He asked, I do eat chocolate, so that's kinda my indulgence. I have chocolate pretty much on a daily basis, but yeah. Yeah, I love chocolate. I love chocolate.

Speaker 3:

I talked to, but I try not to have it every day. If you, if you told me as a phd nutritionist that I can have chocolate every day, do you realize how that could change my diet? Right.

Speaker 4:

But again, if, you know, if you got to a point where he gained weight or needed to lose weight, you know, you would know where to cut and certainly, you know, maintaining the portion size, that's key. So I'm not eating a whole chocolate bar. I'm not eating, you know, sitting down and just, you know, mindlessly popping chocolate in my mouth. It's very controlled and you know, I eat the organic and it doesn't, it's not, it doesn't have a lot of added ingredients, all that kind of stuff. So it's still chocolate though. I'm not gonna lie, you know, but,

Speaker 3:

but, but yeah, you're not, you're not picking out. It's not like a full king size snickers.

Speaker 4:

No, no. Although, yeah, that's important. I love to eat a same size. It is, but I, yeah, I don't so

Speaker 3:

well. Yeah, I, I gotta tell ya back to the whole food as fuel thing and what I was doing. Ironman triathlons, I gotta tell ya, there is nothing in the middle of a, of a four hour race. There is nothing like a snickers bar. There's just no substitute. I mean that was the thing. I looked forward to halfway into the bike. I pulled out my snickers bar. Now it kind of sucks on a hot day because yeah, worse for you than me. Uh, Florida. But uh, yeah, sometimes I pulled out a gooey mess and you know what? And then in the middle of a four hour event, you don't care, you just know you eat it and you, you lick your fingers off and you wipe them on the, on the, on your shorts or your shirt or whatever. You just keep going.

Speaker 4:

Oh yeah. And then while you're racing in the swamp and you drop it, just like, okay, well, yeah. So absolutely. And that's the time to eat a snickers bar because it's just going to, you're going to burn it right off. And um, you know, one of the advantages to it when you are exercising now again, when you do long, long duration endurance thing, you're going to slightly lower intensity. And so sometimes it's easier to eat, you know, if you're doing high intensity or you're one of the people who runs like a two and a half hour marathon, you're not gonna be able to eat a snickers bar is probably going to come right back up. So you know, again, but on the longer duration slower stuff, it's a great thing because it has fat in there. So you know, you're not just gonna like throw sugar writing. Um, because I think that's when you do shorter high intensity stuff, the gurus, the gels and the sports drinks workout. Great. But once you get beyond a couple of hours, you any good, you see, you're just want to vomit it right up. Like you got to start adding some solid food at that four hour mark for sure. Yeah. And so

Speaker 3:

how many podcasts I could do with you if I just had unlimited access? I mean, you, you have so much. I mean we could do a podcast on just adventure racing and fueling for that we could do on, on almost anything to do with, with a nutrition. Um, you know, like say you, you play, learned more about this stuff at you, you've played forgotten more about this than I've ever learned.

Speaker 4:

Well, hopefully because I've been studying for a long time now. If we're going to start talking about physics or we're going to stop talking about math or something like that, I'm probably going to hang up. So, you know, my, my knowledge spent a lot of time on this topic and it's just like other people who are experts in their field. I'm definitely. And like I said, it is something that I am passionate about. It's something I live. So I'm very fortunate to be able to tie that all in together for sure. And I think um, yeah, I think the thing about sports nutrition is it's cool because it works and you can just, you know, it's like when I teach sports nutrition in my students were like, oh yeah, I went out and ran this weekend, you know, I did what you said and it worked and, and all this stuff. And that's what's so cool about it. Sometimes eating a healthy diet in general, it takes longer to see the benefits. But the thing about it that's so awesome is it works. I've been doing this a long time on that. I took my very first nutrition class. I had an interest in nutrition all my life, but I took my first class. I'm gonna, I'm going to date myself here, but in 1988 and one thing I can say haven't been in it this long. It works. It's such an awesome thing about it. And, but the thing that a lot of people don't like is that you got to be in it for the long haul. The quick and the dirty. It's just not where it's at. That's why I'm not on here trying to sell a book, you know, if he were like, wait, what, what's your angle? What's your, what's your quick fix? Sorry, don't have one notebook to sell. But that's the whole thing. I can guarantee you that if you do this, this lifestyle that you talk about the eating, uh, the exercise and supplements and I would add sleep is the number four for you. It will pay off. It will work either guaranteed. I heard arnold schwarzenegger say one time because he was on a talk show and it was a long time. Got some sort of kind of the quote you said about, well I heard you know, the, the exercise and eating healthy, you know, these people are like dropping that out, running marathons and then it won't necessarily improve the length of your life. And he's like, well, I don't know, it's like guaranteed that, but he said, what I will tell you is that if you do this, you will have a better quality of life. That is for certain and sure there's always people are going to have genetic predispositions to certain things, but for the time you're here live in this way, it works.

Speaker 3:

I love it. And those are great closing remarks. So we do. Let's just tie a big bow on this episode and thank you for being here dr. Sue healings. This has been phenomenal. Thanks so much for being on the show.

Speaker 4:

Lots of fun. Thanks for having me and I'll look forward to hearing from you soon. That would be fantastic and I'm sure we'll look forward to getting the mimis tumeric from you and yeah, and trying out that version of tumeric. Looking forward to it. Thank you dave.

Speaker 3:

Thanks again for all of you listening. This is dave sherwin wishing you health and success.

Speaker 4:

Thanks for listening to the dire roby health show. Visit[inaudible] dot com. To learn about our free bottle friday contest and subscribe to our newsletter to get sweet deals and flash sales. And if you're sick of shallow, unrealistic fitness plans, check out the day roby transformation program so you next time.