160 | Miracle Molecules: Nitric Oxide (Part 1)

Decode the truth behind health and longevity with me in our groundbreaking mini-series on "miracle molecules." Unveiled in this episode is the intricate Neuroendocrine Immune Supersystem, the unsung hero of our biological orchestra. Prepare to expand your understanding beyond the norm as we probe the validity of popular health trends and scrutinize the molecules that shape our existence. We navigate the murky waters of health myths and dissect the allure of Intermittent Fasting, questioning its universal application and advocating for an individualized approach to wellness.

Dare to challenge the mainstream narratives spun by internet gurus as we introduce Nitric Oxide, a small molecule with a big reputation as impressive as its functions. Its remarkable influence on our bodies, from brain health to immune response, is just the tip of the iceberg. This deep dive into the health scene peels back layers of oversimplification, offering a nuanced perspective on how our bodies interact with these molecular marvels. Expect to emerge more informed and equipped to make choices that resonate with your unique health blueprint, as we continue to explore the science behind the molecules that could redefine the future of human health.

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Transcript

Speaker 1 0:01

One of the greatest obstacles to crafting health and wellness is identifying and controlling inflammation. It's at the core of all complex and chronic diseases and is the driving mechanism that underlies the most common symptoms that people like you struggle to overcome. Join us as we explore cutting-edge science and research to give you the information and tools you need to create the quality of life you want and deserve. And now here is the host of Inflammation Nation, dr Stephen Noseworthy.

Speaker 2 0:29

Hey guys and welcome back to the Inflammation Nation podcast or actually maybe I should be saying that to myself, since this is the first episode I've done in a couple of months. My wife Kathy and I have done a bunch of traveling in our RV since the new year, seen kids and grad kids, and I've also been teaching some functional medicine seminars. I was in Omaha, nebraska, I was in North Carolina just in the last couple of months, so we've just been on the road doing a lot of stuff. Nevertheless, today I am going to start a new mini-series on what I call miracle molecules, and what we're going to be doing is going through the neuroendocrine immune super system, kind of segment by segment, and talking about some of the most important molecular aspects of how these systems work and how they integrate with each other and, to be honest, like trying to cone it down to just a few things that we can have a sensible conversation around is a little bit difficult, because human function is complex, it's a multi-layered thing and there are many important, if not critical, molecules that play a central role in how the systems work and how they contribute to your health, your wellness, your longevity, your quality of life and, I think the best way to approach this is to talk about things that we can either measure directly or indirectly, or things that we have some degree of control over, because it doesn't make sense to me to talk about things that might be interesting but for which we have no avenue to explore or a lever to pull to actually make a difference in that thing. There are many things that we know of that go on in the human body that we can neither measure commercially, say through a lab test, and there's no diet or lifestyle or supplement choice that we can make. That we know conclusively will change that. But there's a lot of stuff that goes on inside the human bodies, a lot of very interesting molecules. So we'll stick to the things that we have some control over Now.

Speaker 2 2:31

Along the way, I might also point out some things that tend to get a lot of attention, especially on social media, but maybe haven't lived up to their hype. And that doesn't mean that people are necessarily exaggerating what certain compounds can do for you, but sometimes they overstate what you can expect from certain supplements, for example, that are designed to support the thing that you might be interested in. Now, if you haven't noticed, maybe every six months or so, there's a new kid on the block. Right, there's a new kid that comes into town that everyone starts talking about, and then that conversation eventually fades into the background when the next big shiny toy comes around. Or sometimes the new kid on the block causes a big splash and then it hangs around because there is enduring merit to it. Enduring merit but the people who embraced it at the start and who made everything they said about that one thing eventually start to shift and change their message as they realize that one thing won't fix everything and, instead of being a cure-all, they start to realize it's just one more tool in the toolbox, and so now we have more tools that we can use, but making the choice to use it for the right person at the right time. Now intermittent fasting and this conversation today is not about that, but I'm going to use it to illustrate some of these concepts Like intermittent fasting and all this talk about longevity and autophagy specifically is one of those things that made a massive splash pretty much for a year or more.

Speaker 2 4:06

Every fitness and health influencer online with any traction at all was talking about intermittent fasting and how that improves longevity and autophagy, and as a group. They created this expectation that everybody should be doing intermittent fasting every day, and if you weren't doing it, then you were missing out, perhaps even failing to take care of yourself. But now those very same people a lot of them are backing off that initial one-size-fits-all message and have become more nuanced about who and how and when to do something like intermittent fasting. Now I also don't like it when influencers cite research and they present research as if it's a done deal, as if it's ironclad and absolute. And in the world of intermittent fasting and autophagy is one of the big ones you've heard influencers say things that well, if you fast for 12 hours, then this is going to happen, and then if you fast for 14 hours or 16 hours, then something else happens. And then at 18 hours something else happens, as if there was a time clock on this that everyone can absolutely be assured that if they fast for 16 hours, for example, then XYZ is going to happen. So they present it as if it's a rule for everyone, all the time, with no exceptions. And we know it's not true, like we kind of always know that it wasn't true. But that's how these messages seem to come across and sometimes the things that they say might be true on its face, but they don't necessarily capture the rest of the story.

Debunking Health and Longevity Myths

Speaker 2 5:43

And again, using the intermittent fasting example, you have probably heard that, or I should say you have heard people say that fasting causes growth hormone to increase by 300%. It's a number you'll commonly hear and that might be true for some people some of the time. But just because you increase the level of something like growth hormone doesn't mean you get more action from having more of that hormone present in your body. In the case of growth hormone, unless growth hormone gets converted to its active metabolite called IGF-1 and can then bind to the growth hormone receptor, then having more doesn't make any difference, because action and function comes when a hormone binds to a hormone receptor. And we've known since at least 2008 that fasting, while it may increase growth hormone to a certain degree, it also decreases the conversion into that active form called IGF-1 and it causes the growth hormone receptors to stop working as well what we call receptor resistance, and which ultimately means that, yes, you might have a little bit more growth hormone, but nothing changes because you don't have what needs to happen downstream, like the conversion into IGF-1 and the activation of the receptors. So, to say it another way, you end up with more growth hormone for a short period, but it doesn't work for you. It doesn't change anything. In fact it actually the research says it reduces igf1 and the growth hormone receptors don't work as well. It's the exact opposite of actually what the message has been, and a lot of times they don't even mention that.

Speaker 2 7:22

Like the vast majority of longevity research or research on autophagy using fasting has been done in mold species living in a petri dish in a lab, or sometimes it's on fruit flies and some rodent studies. There's actually been little to no research on the impact of fasting in humans on longevity and autophagy in humans, on longevity and autophagy. It's just simply too expensive and too cumbersome to do human studies on things like longevity and autophagy, because you have to control multiple variables and hundreds, if not thousands, of people over very long periods of time, and that's why they use fruit flies, for example right, which live on average for maybe six weeks or so. Or they use mold in a Petri dish because they can examine that over a very short period of time, which does represent that organism's entire life, but it's not the same as measuring it in a human. So again, it's way cheaper to run a six or 12-week study on a fruit fly or a fungus than a 50-year study in real people, and that's assuming you can control all the variables that go into longevity or autophagy or whatever the topic of interest is.

Speaker 2 8:31

So all of these guidelines that internet experts are espousing about specific things happening at specific places on a fasting timeline this is not gospel truth. It's just simply not. That doesn't mean that fasting isn't beneficial. That's not my message. My message is be careful when you're listening to internet experts, even when they're talking about research, because sometimes you just don't get the whole story. Now, another problem that these experts usually make or create is that they just simply make things way too linear and they tend to speak in terms of absolutes, kind of like what we were just talking about. Right, they might talk about the specific effects of a supplement or a compound or a nutrient and point out that you know well the research says that compound X does action Y and the implication is that if you take X, then Y is going to happen.

Speaker 2 9:28

So recently, things like NAD and resveratrol like take NAD and resveratrol, especially together, and it will enhance your longevity. Well, will it? Maybe, maybe not, in functional medicine, particularly in the world of thyroid and Hashimoto's. We know that the enzymes that convert thyroid hormones, like T4, to T3, which is the active version these are selenium dependent. And so there's this thought well, all I have to do to fix my thyroid is take selenium and my thyroid's going to work better. And I can tell you, after having seen hundreds, if not thousands, of people and run lab tests before and after using selenium.

Speaker 2 10:08

It doesn't always work. It works in some people, it works better in some people than others, but it's not an absolute, and there are so many more examples that we could pull from to illustrate this idea that we're talking about possibilities and probabilities rather than absolute gospel truth. The bottom line is that human physiology is just simply not that linear. It would be much better to say something like in studies over large populations when people take XY or X supplement, then Y tends to happen, or if they change this factor in their lifestyle, this tends to be the result. But these are averages over large populations, so it might be better to say I have to go back and redo that, but human physiology is not that linear. It would be much better to say something like in large populations, when people take X, then Y tends to happen. Or perhaps if you take X then Y might happen, but there's no guarantee because human physiology is more complex and it's simply not linear.

Speaker 2 11:26

So you know the whole do-it-yourself world of getting healthy, especially relying on the glut of information that you can get from social media and the internet. Like it's, it's just a murky world for sure. Here's another problem I want you to be aware of that health and fitness influencers, who quite often have sponsors for YouTube channels or for their podcasts, sometimes promote products that I imagine they probably wouldn't use personally. Now, I respect anybody who gets behind a product that a sponsor offers because they truly believe that it's helping them or has a chance to help you. I totally endorse that. This time I might even call somebody out by name, although I'm kind of hesitating, but I think I'm going to do it anyways, and I mean no disrespect to this person on a personal level I really don't, but recently and you know she's become very popular in the last six months to a year Gabrielle Lyons she has a podcast that I've listened to some of her episodes.

Speaker 2 12:40

She's been promoting a protein powder. I don't know if she still does, but I know she has in the recent past, and it's from a company called First Form, and I will say that First Form makes protein powders that are very tasty. They're mostly whey protein powders. They're some of the better tasting and have better texture than protein powders that you find throughout the internet or in stores. They have that going for them.

Speaker 2 13:11

But the particular products that she was promoting is full of several questionable ingredients for some people, especially people who have health issues and who are doing their best to make their own decisions about what to do or what not to do. And in this particular case, these protein powders include several different artificial sweeteners. They contain food dyes, depending on the flavor they use. Certain fillers and thickeners can be troublesome for some people with GI issues and some even use milk creamer as one of their core ingredients. And I guess this is the mix of things that you might have to use in a product to make it palatable and to make it taste good. And don't get me wrong, first form products taste really good and sure they give you a dose of protein that your body can use to do good things with.

Speaker 2 14:01

But again, I don't know her personally and please don't misunderstand my intent here. I'm not attacking her character or her intellect. I'm simply pointing out that sometimes there is a disconnect between the main message of someone's online content and what gets promoted on those channels through paid sponsorships and that's what they are. Or just because someone's an influencer and they get behind products or services of a paying sponsor doesn't mean that those products or services are actually in alignment with the content creator themselves or with you as an individual and what you need or would respond well to. There are probably many of you who don't handle fillers and dyes and artificial sweeteners, at least for now. Maybe that can change for you, but I'm willing to bet that many of you listening don't. So take these endorsements for what they are. They're paid endorsements and they're paid sponsorships. All right, let me get off my soapbox. I went on a little bit of a rant there.

The Miracle Molecule

Speaker 2 15:01

So miracle molecules the first miracle molecule I want to talk about and this is really an introductory episode I want to talk about something called nitric oxide. We've known about nitric oxide since, I think, the 1950s is when it was first discovered, so to speak. I'm going to use the rest of the time to kind of paint the big picture of nitric oxide and then we'll come back in the next episode and develop more details so that you know why it's important. You can look for signs perhaps that you might want to support your nitric oxide levels and how you might do that. Now some of what I'm sharing is actually from a two to three hour conversation I had with one of the top researchers and experts in the world of nitric oxide, and I'll be. I'll probably release my interview with him here in a month or two. I've I've already published this on my uh clinician facing podcast, um and it it gets a lot of really good comments about the quality of the information, but I'll probably be releasing it here at some point, just in the Inflammation Nation, so you guys can listen to that as well. Now, on the flip side so part of what I'm going to share are things that I've learned by talking to the guy who's probably the world's top researcher in this area. But the other flip side of that is that some of what I'm going to share is from my own study and my own research and my own clinical observations, because I've been paying attention to nitric oxide physiology and the benefits of that in many of my coaching clients for years now whose complaints range from hypothyroidism specifically Hashimoto's disease other autoimmunities, head injuries specifically Hashimoto's disease, other autoimmunities, head injuries, chronic fatigue, lyme disease and more.

Speaker 2 16:54

So what is nitric oxide? It's generally considered to be what we call a signaling molecule, and a signaling molecule is defined as a molecule that transmits information between cells In multicellular organisms, which is what we are right. We're not just a single cell, we're multicellular. Signaling molecules are essential for processing both internal and external stimuli or signals and communicating that information to all of our functional control systems. In other words, nitric oxide and other signaling molecules coordinate your body's chemical and cellular response to both internal and external triggers and stimuli, in an effort to maintain balance or homeostasis. Some signals, or some signaling molecules have a narrow window of function and they work in a very small part of your biochemistry. Others, like nitric oxide, are multifunctional, in that they can communicate and coordinate chemical responses in your brain as well as your hormonal systems and your immune systems. In other words, nitric oxide is a key part of how the neuroendocrine immune super system actually works. It's part of how those different things communicate with each other.

Speaker 2 18:11

Now, if you're new to the podcast and you don't know anything about the neuroendocrine immune super system. First of all, subscribe. Thank you for doing that, but go back to episode two, like literally the second episode I did in the whole podcast was on the neuroendocrine immune super system. Go back and listen to that episode and I'll walk you through all the basics of what that is and what it means. But on top of the role that nitric oxide plays in the brain, the hormones in your immune system, it also has interactions with your gut. But also has interactions with your gut. It has interactions and a role to play with your heart, with the health of your blood vessels and many, many, many more things. And while nitric oxide is generally considered a signaling molecule, again to help communicate between external and internal worlds and to allow cells to actually talk to each other I'm sorry, external and internal worlds, and to allow cells to actually talk to each other Generally, while we think of signaling molecules as having impacts right in the tissues where they're generated, nitric oxide also acts as a hormone which, by definition, is made in one place but travels to another place to have an impact somewhere else.

Speaker 2 19:25

For example classic example thyroid hormones are made in your thyroid gland, which is in your neck, but they travel throughout your entire body and your brain and they affect every single cell that you have. And again, that's the function of a hormone it's made in one place but it exerts its effort in other places. So nitric oxide does have an impact where it's made. That's what we call autocrine signaling. But it can also bind to another miracle molecule called glutathione, which increases its half-life. Basically it hangs around a lot longer and it allows nitric oxide to circulate throughout the body for a couple of hours where it can interact with any other cell in the body. So, for example, you might make nitric oxide in parts of your blood vessels, but then that travels to your brain and has an impact on your brain, or it travels to your heart and it has an impact on your heart. And one more thing nitric oxide can also function as a neurotransmitter in your brain, where it modulates and fine-tunes other major neurotransmitters like glutamate and GABA, and these are your primary excitatory and inhibitory neurotransmitters. And those have to be in balance. And so nitric oxide as such helps to control this delicate balance between excitation and inhibition, so that we have quality control in how our brain functions we don't get too much excitation or too little inhibition or vice versa.

Speaker 2 20:52

So in closing for this introductory episode, let me just summarize a few things here about nitric oxide that qualifies it as a miracle molecule, and then we'll dive into more details next time.

Speaker 2 21:04

So first of all, nitric oxide is a miracle molecule because it's a key part of fundamental human function across all major systems that control how cells and systems behave and communicate with each other. It has direct effects on your brain, it has direct effects on your hormones and it has direct effects on your immune system. It's also an important part of how well you protect your heart and your blood vessels and in some studies, can help reduce or control high blood pressure. It also has been shown in some studies to reduce plaque deposits in your arteries. It's a signaling molecule that transduces internal and external stimuli into proper cellular and chemical responses to keep your body in balance and control, and it acts like a neurotransmitter and a hormone. It's an awful lot of stuff. That's why we call it a miracle molecule. All right, I'm going to leave it there. All right, I'm going to leave it there and we'll be back with more details on nitric oxide and eventually other miracle molecules right here on the Inflammation Nation podcast.

Speaker 1 22:11

Thanks for listening to Inflammation Nation. If you enjoyed this episode, make sure you subscribe to our podcast. Be the first to know when a new episode drops, so you can stay on top of your game. It also helps others like you find the answers they need. You can use the links in the episode description to check out Dr Noseworthy's self-learning programs for thyroid detox and gut health, or you can submit a question for the podcast and even reach out to Dr Noseworthy directly.