The Hidden Cause of Your Inflammation | #009

Inflammation is one of the most talked-about topics in health, but are you actually addressing the root cause?

XFL ALCAT Test: https://xfactor-labs.com/products/alcat-food-and-chemical-sensitivity

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In this episode of The Power of X, we break down why inflammation has become a buzzword, how it silently impacts your energy, performance, and long-term health, and why most people are treating it completely wrong. From food sensitivities to misleading “anti-inflammatory” solutions, we uncover how personalized testing can reveal what’s really going on inside your body.

If you’ve ever felt like you’re “doing everything right” but still not seeing results. This episode will challenge everything you think you know about health, nutrition, and inflammation.

Stop guessing. Start testing. Unlock your true X factor. 

📺 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@xfactorlabs

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:14

What's up guys? Welcome back to the Power of X, where we stop guessing, start testing, and uncover the X factor that unlocks your true potential. Today we're talking about inflammation, uh, the buzzword, you know, that you hear all over. Um Joe, what has been your experience with inflammation and um regarding bodybuilding and your journey and uh and training as well?

SPEAKER_01 0:38

Yeah, well, you you know, you mentioned a buzzword. Um, it has become a buzzword in you know in the industry. And usually buzzwords are just overused scare tactics a lot of times. Um are we using it as a scare tactic in this episode? Uh somewhat. I think I think we should be, you know, I think we should be afraid of it. Um inflammation is not a great thing. Uh, but I think a lot of people use it almost as a crutch, and it's and it's used in the industry as, again, more of a I have a I have a pill, a potion, or whatever, or a book that can solve your inflammation. So people hear that stuff in their head, they might not be getting the results that they're getting. So they just say, I know I have to be inflamed, or right, inflammation has to be my problem. Um, right, their gut's not working just right, or it's kind of distended. Well, you know, it must be inflation and or inflation, inflammation. And you can dive into that, and yes, it could possibly be, but one of the things is nobody wants to dive into, okay, what is causing this inflammation? How do we get out of it, right? We have to identify it, figure out what to do with it. Then how do we cut this inflammation down? And you have to test. I mean, it's just, you know, there's, you know, we can identify them all day long that this might be a problem. I can read a book, I can do these things, but unless we identify what is actually creating inflammation in our body and what it's doing, it's it is literally just that. It's a buzzword that's gonna, you know, be here one day and gone the next, and it's gonna be on to the next thing.

SPEAKER_02 2:15

Right. Yeah. So which test specifically is gonna be the one that is gonna identify those triggers the most?

SPEAKER_01 2:22

Yeah. So in our repertoire, that would be the ALCAT. You know, it is it is testing somebody's neutrophil, right? If you guys want to travel back in time to eighth grade biology or whatever, you know, and uh learn about the cell. And, you know, when you thought, I'm never gonna need this information ever again. Here we are, we're bringing it up years and years later. But yeah, a neutrophil is like a first-line defense. It's it's it's basically an immune response to an outside factor that comes in. So what the ALCAT test does is it takes your neutrophil and introduces foods, um uh medicinals, um, medications, prescriptions, it just a plethora of items. And then it says, how does this body, you know, their immune response, is there a remote, is there an immune response, and how severe is it? Because one of the things I do want to stop here and say there is a big difference between sensitivities and allergies, right? And allergy is something that's typically going to be somewhat of an immediate response to you know, several hours, like, you know, if you eat a peanut butter sandwich and your tongue swells up and your throat closes, that's an allergy. Like we know that's a bad thing. Uh, we don't have to guess that typically, that's kind of known. Where where a sensitivity is something that typically does not gonna show up in something that you can feel, to where now all of a sudden we're creating chronic inflammation. Inflammation has cellular damage, cellular damage pulls a lot of our nutrients, and long term it's gonna lead to a ton of problems, right? You're gonna um uh autoimmune diseases, all these because we're constantly chronically inflamed. Chronic inflammation pulls tons and tons of nutrients out of our cells to combat the inflammation. So then we're chronically cellular deficient, just like we've talked about, like in the GLP1 episode, and all you know, all the problems that can go down. And it's like a lot of these are being caused by just things that we're eating on a daily basis, and we're gonna dive into that just it kind of in my own life, you know, how it worked for me personally, not some random stranger I know.

SPEAKER_00 4:36

But Joe, you've done a lot of tests for clients as well. And so one of the uh things that is intriguing is you know, yeah, it's it it is something that people should learn and and talk about. And I suppose testing's not the only way, right? You could keep a religious food journal and and monitor yourself, but I'll tell you from what's that's the whole 30 diet, yeah. Yeah, but I mean it the the error in in ability to really get accurate, I think is is much less than people realize. Now, uh it's possible, sure, but I guess what I'm saying is Joe, you've tested a lot of your clients. Um, what's the typical client come to you? What's the what's the thing that that makes you say you should do a food sensitivity test?

SPEAKER_01 5:37

A lot of it was my own personal story where I gave, okay, this is what I did. You know, I've been a bodybuilder, I've been shredded, I've been bulked, I've done every every walk of life in terms of a of a physical appearance. And um except for like severely overweight. I guess I've never been there before. Um, but it's it's I would show examples of foods that I ate on a daily basis, you know, and you were talking about ways to identify these things without testing, they you know, whole 30, um, the elimination diet. Yeah, there I there's no way that I could have done an elimination diet and figured out all this stuff on my own. There's just no possible way because I the foods I ate on a daily basis is what I thought agreed with me. Right. So when I did a test and I start showing, okay, uh, this showed up as a moderate, this showed up as mild, and there's different levels to this, and we can dive into here in a bit. But me telling my story was one of the biggest reasons that a lot of people kind of kind of dove in to it, or they were actually suffering from some kind of you know gut distress. You know, they'd buy a pill. You know, a lot of them in in my world, sorry to jump around a little bit, but in my world, I get messages all day long, right? My gut hurts, you know, I don't know what's going on. Uh, what do you think of this product? You know, and then they come up with some brand that I've seen that's supposed to be some gut cleanse and all this different stuff. And then they, you know, they're always looking for some kind of product to purchase to go fix whatever problem they have. And after a lot of those conversations, I say, again, it is probably inflammation, but unless we know how your body responds to these things, I don't care what gut protocol you do, because a lot of times these gut protocol pills, what they're taking, are on their sensitivity list. You know, so so that was kind of the thing was people would always reach out asking about products, asking about protocols that I found worked. And my conclusion is I don't know what protocol that is gonna work for you. So we have to run a test to see what items, what ingredients your body agrees with and doesn't agree with. Um but yeah, most of them, most of most of the the curiosity came from they were they were searching out a product, right? They would reach out and ask if I know any good products. Like a lot of people think it's probiotics, it's prebiotics, it's fiber, you know, it's some kind of gut cleanse. And they would send me all these labels and say, what do you think of this? And I mean, again, my response would always be, I don't know if these ingredients are going to be on your sensitivity or not.

SPEAKER_00 8:35

So that sounds like a very personal journey, Joe, because you've been doing this for quite a few years, and and I think I've heard you say before that you know, you you'd made recommendations prior. Yeah. So what changed? Because I I sense a very personal uh component here that for you to be able to just blanketly respond, I don't know. Yeah, yeah, where'd that come from?

SPEAKER_01 8:59

Where it was it was me coming in me coming to the understanding um of my own test when I did it on myself and I'm looking at all the mistakes that I was making. Um, no, it wasn't an ego burst, you know. It was, well, yeah, how would I have known, right? I mean, you know, most will be like, oh, look how dumb I am, you know. And and sadly, we do have a world that's well, I've been doing this for 20 years. Well, you know, what kind of test is going to show me anything? And no, it wasn't like an ego burn. It was it was awakening up of saying, like, yeah, there's there's a far better way for me to be able to do this. Um, you know, it was it was, I mean, I I welcomed it with open arms in all reality. It's not like I I didn't I didn't question it because you can't argue how somebody's body has an immune response or not. It's like, no, no, that's just you know, that's not happening. No, your body is having an immune response, whether it be severe, mild, moderate, right? There is something going on internally on a cellular level that you don't even know about it. And we keep tossing products and pills down our hatch, and and we don't know. And I keep saying we because this was me to a T. I knew everything about every product ever. This these are these are known anti-inflammatories, these are known, you know. Um, I mean, again, just the term anti-inflammatory means, well, I can't have inflammation because I'm taking anti-inflammatories. Well, no, that's not a lot of these anti-inflammatories can also be creating inflammation. And that's when, that's when there was like a, you know, there was a cog in my wheel and my brain thinking, what do you mean an anti-inflammatory can be inflammatory?

SPEAKER_02 10:47

Yeah, so what are the what are some of the different levels of like inflammation response? Like, because there are there things that inflammation can creep up on you over time, you don't feel it right away, or is there inflammation responses that are immediate? Are there different levels to that?

SPEAKER_01 11:03

So the way the test does it is severe is pretty much try and stay away from completely. There's moderate, which means doesn't mean you can't have it, it just means you should seldom have it. Mild means, again, maybe once a week, twice a week at max. And then there's green, meaning no, your body had no immune response to it possible. So, you know, we look at foods and all of a sudden we're looking at a diet, we're looking at, right, I mean, how to structure our lives to live optimally, right? Some people just don't even care. Um, you know, and you can tell. But if someone says, you know, I do want longevity, um, I mean, running a food sensitivity test is a is a great idea for anybody, but especially those type of people. But, you know, if you can live your life in the green, right, green light go, you know, if you can live your life in the foods that don't create immune responses, it's gonna be better. And then, you know, we all everybody who runs a test is gonna have foods they love that are gonna have some kind of inflammatory response. You know, and then if we can learn to be okay, here, I'll have this every once in a while, or you know, how often they should have it, again, we can structure a much better program when we understand the again, severe, moderate, mild, good to go.

SPEAKER_02 12:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:25

Because this is the alternative, because this is a big alternative, right? You can go to Amazon right now, you can go to Barnes and Noble, obviously go to Amazon because most people aren't gonna drive to Barnes and Noble and do this. But go type in the anti-inflammatory diet or you know, anti-inflammatory books, and you're gonna have tons of them. And they're gonna have all these so-called good foods, right? Because we always hear people say, I've been doing everything right and it's not working, right? I've been eating healthy and something's not working. Eating healthy is a blanket statement, right? It just because something might be healthy for somebody else doesn't mean it is for them. And and then we also have to look at what it means, what does the word healthy mean? Yes, it might be nutrient dense, it might be nutrient-packed, but if you have an immune response, we just find a better alternative than that particular ingredient that you had in immune response to. So if you go back to these books, you know, eat this for breakfast, get this super, you know, super food smoothie for breakfast, and then do this for lunch, and follow it up with this for dinner, and these are your snacks because these are known anti-inflammatory foods. But you're never gonna find a chapter in those books that say do a food sensitivity test first. You know, it's just they're just listing off foods. And, you know, and I can, and and this is a great example, and then we can dive into kind of kind of my my protocol of what I did. But as a bodybuilder, I mean, bodybuilders have rampant inflammation, right? I mean, part I mean, there is also a caveat to that, that I mean, muscle growth is a response to inflammation. So, right, I mean, bodybuilders and people who lift weights and exercise a lot are creating inflammation. You know, the idea is to keep it at bay to a certain degree, but I would get really bad tendonitis in my elbow, like really, really bad. I mean, it got to the point where I could barely do a bicep curl. And next thing I know, it's okay, well, I'm taking turmeric, right? Because turmeric is a very, very wide known anti-inflammatory. So my tendon, you know, my tendonitis in my elbows would get worse, so I would take what? More turmeric. I run my food sensitivity test. Turmeric is a moderate inflation, had a moderate inflammation response in my body. So I decided, you know, I had I had pretty much retired from bodybuilding, and I'm like, I'm going to do a bodybuilding prep based on a DNA test, a methylation test, a cellular nutrition test, and a food sensitivity. So I did all of them. And lo and behold, turmeric was inflammatory for me. I took it out of my diet. I cleaned up some of the foods that we can dive into here in a bit that were, again, known immune responses from my neutrophils and my tendinitis went away. Like it literally cleared up completely. It was gone. So was I taking a known anti-inflammatory? Absolutely. Was it doing anything for me? Not that it, no, it was actually hindering me. It was creating inflammation. But if I'd read a book that said these are no so it's just this is where all these things come out where yes, they're using the word inflammation as a buzzword to try and sell a particular product, to say this is the cure to your inflammation. You don't want inflammation, do you? No, I don't want inflammation. Okay, well, here's a great product that's gonna help stomp out inflammation in your life, and it's gonna be great. But again, are these ingredients anti-inflammatory for them? We just don't know unless, you know, unless someone can tell, you know, yeah, you don't need to test if you can tell me how your neutrophils, you know, have a right, have a have an immune response to a you know, a certain ingredient. Like, you know, if you have a way of knowing that outside of testing it, well then you wouldn't need one.

SPEAKER_02 16:18

Right. Yeah. I speaking more on buzzwords as the food pyramid has now changed and protein has become the buzzword. I've seen protein chips at the store. Like, do you see um what do you see as the effects of the buzz around protein foreshadowing?

SPEAKER_01 16:40

I personally really like it because I mean, the old, I mean, I I never coached a single person to the old food pyramid. It's not like that was something like, oh, okay, I gotta change my whole kid. I never coached anybody to it, regardless. I mean, I I always thought it was pretty low in protein. Um, you know, so it is it is great to do, but it's still the same thing. Like, there's again all the different protein sources out there. Um, again, myself personally, there I mean my my go-to protein sources were typically beef and turkey. And but lo and behold, both of them I had a mild response to from inflammation, a mild response, which didn't mean it was, you know, wreaking havoc completely, but it was definitely something I should not have been eating daily. And um, you know, again, another example of that, right? Bodybuilders, you know, it's well, do you eat sweet potatoes or white rice? I'm like, well, I ate both, you know, and sweet potatoes had a moderate inflammatory response for me. But my wife also did it simultaneously, and of course, ours were absolutely 180 completely opposites. Beef and turkey were fine for her, sweet potatoes were fine for her, but you know, rice um and the things that were good for me were not. So, I mean, we had to prep on completely different diets. And and again, we can dive into that here in a bit, but I mean, I I will go as far as saying, I mean, bodybuilding prep is hard, but when I eliminated the foods that had, you know, an immune response for me, and I added the foods that didn't, and the supplements that I was taking, all those types of things, I changed up based on this test. The right, one of the things of bodybuilding is inflammation can make us retain water, which in bodybuilding towards the end is a very bad thing. And I would have to do all these crazy water protocols to, you know, to expel water and stuff. I didn't I didn't even have to do it. I mean, it I mean, I just I I did not retain water the entire time. Um guarantee inflammation. I mean, I didn't have a single joint ache. I had never done a prep. Now I mean I'm 46 years old. I mean, and I started competing at you know, 36. And what you know, when I was younger, my joints would hurt more during prep, um, injuries were more prone, and I didn't have literally no issues whatsoever, other than some hunger, because I was obviously eating less, but none of the joint pain, none of the water retention, none of the sleep problems, none of the stuff that I ever had to go through during other preps because I just because I implemented exactly what my biology called for. You know, so I mean you talk about peace of mind and you know, knowing that you're doing the right thing, there's a lot more confidence in that too, as you know, as you as you run a plan out.

SPEAKER_02 19:38

Yeah. What do you think about um I want you to speak on maybe a trainer or or even an individual that thinks like, well, you know, I'm not performing at a high level. Why do I need to dial in my nutrition and training this deep? Like I can just do do the things that need to be done and and see results, right?

SPEAKER_01 20:00

That's you know, that's kind of a problem, I guess, on the planet, right? It's like, well, if I'm not gonna compete, if I'm not gonna take this to a high level, what's it matter? Well, I don't know, what's your health matter? You know, I mean, you know, there does come a point in time, and and I always say this. It's like, you know, it's it's an easy thing when you're 20 years old to, you know, go out drinking every night, wake up with the hangover for like an hour, and then it goes away, and then all of a sudden, you know, things are, you know, then all of a sudden you're 30, and that hangover is like 24 hours, and then, you know, then you get older and it's like a 72, you know, it's just like, yeah, we can wreak havoc on our body when we're younger, thinking, man, I mean, down the road, that's forever from now. Well, I mean, I'm 46. I mean, 16 years old feels like yesterday to me. Like, like, I mean, in my mind, it's like, yeah, that was not that long ago. And then you you're like, no, that was a long time ago. Well, 56 and 66 and 76 is gonna be a blink of an eye. And everybody always says, if I knew then, you know, if I knew then what I know now, life would be different. And you, you know, I talk to people all the time. They're always telling me that are a lot older than me, oh man, take care of yourself now. It only gets we know these conversations are gonna happen. We know we're all gonna age. And do you want to age gracefully? Do we want to have all the health problems? Do we want to have all these things? Because people say, well, eating healthy and taking care of yourself is expensive. It is cheaper than a heart attack, it is cheaper than cancer, it is cheaper than all these things out there. But if we, you know, take take note of that, it has nothing to do with performing at a high level in a sport or a hobby in all reality. You know, if that's your thing, that's great. But do you want to perform at a high level in your in your life and your health? Because I can also tell you, um, of all the years of coaching, I have seen so many people get a handle on their on their on their health and their business gets better. They're right. They're more apt for a promotion. They work better. They're a better spouse. They're a better father. They're a better friend. You know, I mean, is that always the case? No, but I'm saying this is the majority. Usually, when you can get a handle on those things and all of a sudden you have more energy and you have more clarity and you don't have all the ailments, you can focus on the other, you know, so could hypothetically could running a food sensitivity test, eliminating it, you know, eliminating a lot of the inflammatory foods out of your diet improve your income? You're darn right it can.

unknown 22:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:40

Yeah, I think that's a uh understated, to be honest with you, is the the impact across every component of your life. Inflammation isn't just in our joints or our muscles, uh, you know, inflammation also affects your you know your mood. And I mean, think what do you across the board? So uh it's a huge, huge thing. Um, so what can someone expect to that does the ALCAT test? Like what what are the big things that you've noticed? What are some of the maybe experiences? And so somebody out there maybe you know considering this and say, well, this could help me, or this, you know, is this just smoke and mirrors? What's what's the real real world benefits that you've seen your clients experience?

SPEAKER_01 23:31

So the ALCAT test comes with a giant warning. And here's the warning, right? Let's all go back to the movie The Matrix, right? Red pill, you know, blue pill. Like once you do an ALCAT test, now you know. If you don't take it, you know, there's uh, you know, being being naive to things can also be, you know, you know, where they say, you know, ignorance is bliss or whatever. Um, you know, my wife was like sweating bullets thinking that coffee was gonna be on her sensitivity, you know. She was like, please God, you know, like of all things, I mean, she was like praying that it wasn't on there, like literally. Um, and it wasn't. She was like, I mean, it was the first thing she looked for, and it was like, okay, I've succeeded, right? Um, but like I did have foods on there that I would rather not be. You know, it's kind of like, oh man. I mean, there, you know, there is that, but at the same time, they're just food. So I always say there is a warning because you are going to know, right? It I mean, there's gonna be a list right in front of you that now you know. Um, and then it's what you do with that information that's gonna make the changes. And every single client I have had do it, um, you know, like immediately they've dropped, you know, X amount of water weight. Like, I mean, like immediately, you know, so that gave them some momentum. Um, you know, they all talk about um every literally every single one of them um that have followed it, because again, just truth be told, not everybody has. Some people have gotten it, and it just, you know, it was it was too. I mean, I just again just being totally transparent on this, not everybody's followed it completely because it was hard and they would rather have taken the other pill. They were the guy in in the matrix that wanted to get put back into the matrix.

SPEAKER_02 25:20

Ignorance is bliss. Right, right.

SPEAKER_01 25:22

They were like, just put me, just put me back in there, you know. Um, but everybody talked about more energy, um, right, better results in the gym, uh, talking a lot about clarity, a lot more focus. Uh, they say they sleep better. I mean, I I mean, I just there's been tremendous improvements in everything they're doing. And then, and then they did say, yeah, you know, yep, I went and had whatever that was on my list, you know, Friday night at dinner. Yeah, you know, it was it was no big deal. It didn't do these are sensitivities again, not allergies, right? There is a big difference. But yeah, some people, yeah. I mean, it's been it's been phenomenal for probably 80% of the people, 20% wanted to get put back into the matrix.

SPEAKER_00 26:05

Yeah, and I think that's that's critical to understand. And and uh, you know, as a disclosure going into it, it's like, look, we can do this test. Are you gonna follow? Are you, you know, and and depending on how significant some of the results are, maybe that's a determining factor. But at the end of the day, is I personally, I mean, I would like to know so that I can modify, you know, it. I mean, for you, beef, right? It doesn't mean you can never have it again, but maybe you've been eating too much and you've created and built up a sensitivity to it.

SPEAKER_01 26:43

That was probably my body saying, All right, dude, try something else. Um, now beef did not mean red meat, lamb and bison were totally fine for me, elk, stuff like that, uh, deer, totally, it was, it was, it was just beef. Um, so yeah, I mean, it didn't mean red meat. Um, so I just found an alternative source. And then there's another client, and I and I have to mention this because sometimes even even myself, like, I bring my own biases into things because we're all guilty of it. I did get her sensitivity test back, and guys, I'm telling you, like, I was so scared to present it to her because it was like you can't eat anything, you know. I mean, it was it was, I mean, I it was it was bad. She was ecstatic. You know, I I'm I'm a pretty positive person, but like I went into it almost like, oh man, I'm so sorry, you know. But it what do I'm sorry for? You know, this is her body, this is how her body is gonna do better. Um, there was, I mean, it was literally beef, bison, elk, turkey, chicken. I mean, it was I mean, it was almost like you can eat fish and only a few fish, you know. Now, again, I don't want to, I mean, but this was like the most of them are nothing like this one, but she was ecstatic. She's like, well, man, I I really like those. I mean, it was so limited, she's like, well, this makes it easy.

SPEAKER_02 28:03

I was like, talk about the optimist.

SPEAKER_01 28:06

Yeah, I mean, yeah, I mean, talk about the eternal optimist. She was ecstatic, and she's followed it and followed it. I mean, she is, I mean, literally like the epitome of like the perfect client. And she was getting results before, and now that she's just simplified everything, her results just skyrocketed. And she is, I mean, um, we've already had the right the quote unquote client breakup. Like, she is no longer, I mean, she she's a gym member, uh, we help her, but like, you know, she's no longer a paying client. And she's just killing it, which is which is my coaching approach. I always tell people, like, my job as a coach is to like almost treat you like my children. Like, my job as a father is to raise two functioning adults who don't need dad anymore. You know, as terrifying as that sounds, like that's my job. Well, that's my job for clients. Like, you know, if Joe gets hit, you know, Joe gets hit by a bus, okay, yeah, send me a sympathy card, but it's like, no, they have their own life to live, right? My job is to teach them how to run their life, you know, and that's how I've always approached it. And she's literally, she has taken it and she's still getting phenomenal results, totally on her own, motivated to the hills. And and it was awesome, but yet I had my own bias, like, oh man, you know, this is gonna be a hard, you know, a hard thing to present because she can't eat anything.

SPEAKER_00 29:28

Right.

SPEAKER_01 29:29

Yeah, and I say can't eat anything. There's there's still a ton of options, but like for me, I'd be like, oh, this is, you know, like it, but all the all the options that she had were perfect for her. You know, and this doesn't even touch base on, you know, I've had other clients, three of their medications were on the list of moderate inflammation responses. Three of his prescribed medications from a doctor were on the list also because it goes more than just foods. It goes to medicinals, it goes to all these other things, you know. And here I'm sitting here drinking an energy drink while we're on here, and you know, just another thing. Like, um, you know, everybody out there talks about um, you know, sucralose and aspartame. Again, this is just just something to, you know, something to talk about, and you know, why we need to do natural alternatives like monk fruit and stavia, which I think monk fruit and stavia are are a great option. Guess what? Not for me. Monk fruit and stavia were inflammatory for me. Sucralose and aspartame were not. Now, should I probably still drink them? No. But it's good to know if I'm gonna have an energy drink, I can have the ones that taste good, not like monk fruit and stavia. Gym, funny story. I have, you know, as a gym, I've got wholesale accounts with a bunch of different companies for supplements. And, you know, another buzzword is ancestral stuff, right? Primal. You want to be primal, right? No, I like indoor plumbing and microwaves. You know, I don't want to be primal, but that's a buzzword. Ancestral, right? This is these are what our ancestors did, like organ meats and stuff like that. Now, again, organ meats are they're they're very nutrient dense. Well, one of the one of the supplement companies I can purchase from came out with like a um, you know, the uh beef beef organ pills, right? Like I don't want to eat beef organ, but you know, if you can encapsule it up in powder and eat it, it might be better because there's they I mean they are, they're incredibly nutrient dense. And I had I had just done my blood work for my uh food sensitivity, my ALCAT test. And I got this email from the company saying new beef organ supplement, you know, wholesale like this. And I'm like, well, heck, that might be good. And then I'm like, wait a minute, like I was I was this close to buying it. And I'm like, wait, dummy, wait on your sense. I go, you know, because I came to the conclusion, I go, I'm not putting another supplement in my body unless it can prove to me that it's beneficial and that it's not inflammatory. And then I got an email saying, buy them, oh man, that's a great price. And then I'm like, wait, wait, time out. I just said I'm not doing this until I get this test. Sure enough, beef. I mean, it literally would have been inflammatory for me. And I'd have been popping it every day thinking I'm getting again, I might be getting nutrients from it. Yeah, that's one thing. But again, the beef side of things, I actually uh technically I changed my fish oils around because I had I had a I had a sensitivity to mackerel and anchovies and and and sardines. So I went to a salmon source fish oil. Because people take fish oils as anti-inflammatory because omega-3s can be anti-inflammatory, but because of the source, I changed and I went to a salmon source, you know. So it just, I mean, you can dive in. There's no way I would have figured that out by doing whole 30. There's no way I would have figured any of that out by doing the elimination diet. Because when I ate beef, I felt fine. There's, you know, there wasn't, but feeling it and having the inflammation, again, that's the scary part because it's it's it's a hiding thing that's creating chronic inflammation. And the more and more you have, again, the more. Now, again, we're gonna do a different episode on this, but my cellular nutrition, I cellular nutrition-wise, I wasn't, I mean again, I was it was during show prep too, but my cellular, I mean, I was I was pretty deficient in a lot of things too, probably because I'm blaming turmeric. Um, I have a I have a grudge against turmeric now because I took it for so long thinking it was good and it was slowly, slowly destroying my elbows. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 33:52

Yeah. So if someone out there is is feeling the effects of chronic inflammation, what are some of the describe some of those symptoms and what they can do to take next steps?

SPEAKER_01 34:03

If if you're feeling it, it's it's it's it's typically gonna be joint aching, um, maybe you know, some changing in the gut. Um you can tell you're probably retaining and holding water at, you know, but uh maybe maybe chronic fatigue, maybe a little bit of brain fog. Um but that's those are some of the things that people can kind of notice, but a lot of a lot of it is you just don't even know. And that's the scary part.

unknown 34:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:40

Well, yeah, I mean inflammation. Uh, you know, we have another coach um, you know, talks about inflammation is the beginning of disease, and and there's a lot of truth in that, and and that can be scary, um, but inflammation is also something that it you know riddles people's bodies and lives with. Um, you know, think about like fibromyalgia. That is like an inflammatory response to breathing, you know. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01 35:09

Think of it like a picture. Think of like this cell, right? If if if people are listening, just picture this along with me. Say there's this cell that's like a perfect circle, right? And that's and that's the you know, that's the shape that the cell's supposed to be. And all of a sudden we start inundating it with immune responses because on that again, that cell has neutrophils, and it's gonna, right, every time we're introducing items, foods, uh, you know, supplements, um medications, all those things, again, they are they are being introduced to our cells. And if there's inflammation, let's start picturing that shell starts to kind of or that that cell starts changing shape. Now all of a sudden it's an oval. And you're right, we keep eating beef and turkey and sweet potatoes, beef and turkey and sweet potatoes, and throw some turmeric to it because beef and sweet potatoes are what bodybuilders eat, and bodybuilders pop turmeric because they have inflammation. So we keep doing this, right? Uh follow my sarcasm on that because this is me, right? So we keep throwing beef and sweet potatoes and turkey and turmeric on this thing. Because, again, I'm doing the right thing because every every bodybuilding coach says that's what you're supposed to do. And right, so I'm doing what I'm told. And now all of a sudden, that oval becomes another shape where one side starts getting a little bit bigger and the other side smaller, and then we keep eating sweet potatoes, beef, and turkey, and all the things that we're not supposed to be doing. Well, now all of a sudden it starts enlarging, and now that cell bursts. We talk about free radical scavengers and all that all of the waste that that cell is creating to then go eliminate and detoxify out, like we talk about methylation pathways and all these things. There is a process. That cell is supposed to carry waste to a specific pathway to then exit it. But if we blow it up before it gets there, where are those, where are those free radicals going?

SPEAKER_00 37:06

The garbage truck didn't make it to the dump.

SPEAKER_01 37:08

The garbage truck didn't exactly. I'm stealing that one, by the way. The garbage truck missed it, right? You know, like on a windy day when your garbage is blown over and it's like everyone's garbage is all over the yards. Like that's what's happening in your body, and you don't even know it. They are blowing up before the right, they're blowing up prematurely before they make it to the point that they can exit your body. So these free radicals are now running rampant all over your body. Now you have glutathione and all these antioxidants. Now we're pulling all these nutrients to go clean it up. Yeah, but Joe, I feel fine. I know, but eventually that is going to lead to some form of major illness, major disease. Yeah, but Joe, I'm not a bodybuilder. I'm not a high performance. It doesn't matter. Your body's not, you are a high performer, right? If you know, if you have a family, you're a high performer, or you better be, right? You if you have a job, you better be a high performer, right? No, so that's one of these things. This is what inflammation is doing. If if you've got a bunch of free radicals running all over your body because of inflammation, we have to find a which again, I say if you more than likely do. I mean, I just I'm just telling you, you do. In today's world, trust me, you are suffering from inflammation. It's just to what degree?

unknown 38:37

Right.

SPEAKER_01 38:37

You know, now, does this test say on a scale of one to ten, your inflammation is this? It doesn't say that. It's just saying these are the foods that are causing it. So if we can eliminate the foods and eliminate what we're doing in our lives that can right make it significantly less inflammation. And then again, our next episode is gonna be on cellular nutrition to see where those levels are and actually talk about anti-inflammatories. You can sleep at night knowing you know what, I've probably got inflammation under control. But again, you're not gonna figure that out through the whole 30-day diet. It's just not gonna. I mean, can you can you get some of that right? Absolutely. Can you get 300 and some items figured out?

SPEAKER_02 39:21

No, no, that's too much.

SPEAKER_01 39:25

Yeah, my wife had almonds on hers. Guess what she did every morning with her blessed coffee? She put almond milk in it every single morning. So, what did she do? She just found an alternative. You know, why why continue doing something daily that you know is not gonna benefit you? It's you know, now again, do you want to go back and live in the matrix? Well, just skip the episode, you know. If you don't want to know, I mean, that's I mean, again, that is a viable option.

SPEAKER_00 39:56

Well, but you know, I mean, on that last thought is um, I've done the whole 30, and and I think there's things I've also eliminated a lot of things, you know, uh caffeine, uh, you know, like uh soda. Um, I still drink coffee, um, but I've done the whole 30, and you will, you know, speaking to the people out there who are concerned about this or that with eliminating foods, you will be absolutely amazed. It it's like the first time I had an unwitch at Jimmy John's. Like, oh my god, I tasted the roast beef. I love their bread, but oh my god, the roast beef is delicious. Right? I mean, it's so I think your palate changes and and don't be so afraid, you know, the people listening, don't be so afraid of what you might have to or or eliminate for a period of time, because your your palate will awaken to other things that you don't even realize you are missing. So, somebody who likes sweets, there's plenty of natural sweet things that you miss out on because of the over-hypersensitive, you know, uh sugars that we've been fed.

SPEAKER_01 41:13

Absolutely, absolutely, absolutely. Our our our body, as miraculous as it is, will probably tell you most of these answers if we just listen, also. Like, you know, people ask, I mean, a side note. I mean, some people ask, like, how much salt should I? Well, your your taste will tell you. You know, I mean, there's times we crave things, you know, pregnant women might crave. It's I mean, a lot of times it's because our body wants it. And that and that's a great example of that client I had that I thought was restricting her so much. She loves it.

SPEAKER_02 41:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 41:44

I mean, you know, it's almost like her body saying, look, we'd rather have this than what you were doing before. You know, it's I mean, she just I mean, she she thrived a ton, even though it was a lot more limited.

SPEAKER_02 41:55

Right.

SPEAKER_01 41:57

But most people are that was an extreme case. Most are not. I mean, I had tons of options.

SPEAKER_00 42:02

So if if I've got inflammation and and and this test reveals all these different foods, uh Joe, you you've you've talked, you've mentioned uh like, all right, so with this cellular test, this CNA test, what's that gonna do? Like, okay, but how's that gonna help my inflammation?

SPEAKER_01 42:21

So the cellular nutrition test looks at vitamins, minerals, nutrients, and amino acid levels, not in the neutrophil, but in the lymphocyte, right? So go back to your textbooks and talk about lymphocytes, but um, and then it will look, okay. So for instance, let's say glutathione is low. Well, that means you've got inflammation quite a bit because glutathione is the body's master antioxidant. So if glutathione's low, you're definitely fighting off in, you know, it there's a high demand on it, so therefore your cells are gonna be low in it. Um, but then it also has something called a redox score that looks at how your lymphocytes now take on what is it, like 58 items or something, or 55 items and something like that, um, how it responds to turmeric, milk thistle, um, right, ocy, uh, resveratrol, rhodiola, right? All these things that we keep hearing in supplements, it will show, not to mention, not to kind of jump the gun on next episode, but my lymphocytes showed zero benefits from turmeric. There was no response. So not only was I taking it and wasting it, anyways, because it didn't do anything from an antioxidative, anti inflammatory standpoint, by doing the sensitivity test, it also showed that it was inflammatory. So, again, not only was it not even doing anything, it was actually completely in the negative because there was no benefit to it whatsoever.

SPEAKER_00 43:54

Interesting. Well, I I I uh I look forward to that conversation because I really think that that's the action, right? I'm I'm the action guy. I give me all the information, but yeah, great. Now what do I do about it?

SPEAKER_01 44:08

I I really like that whole redox score thing. So I mean obviously we're not gonna dive into today, but I I I geek out on that like crazy because these are I mean, this is this is absolute evidence. Like it's proof. Like this is, you know, it's it's the smoking gun for anti-inflammation.

SPEAKER_00 44:30

Sure.

SPEAKER_01 44:30

It literally shows this is how your body either either either this supplement does something for it or it does not. And they're they're nutrients and a botanical, right? There's two different ones out there. So yeah, I mean it just looks on a cellular level whether or not your cells respond positively or neutral.

SPEAKER_02 44:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 44:55

And neutral means it didn't do anything for it.

SPEAKER_02 44:58

Yeah. Yeah, looking forward to that conversation next week. So if you're listening and um are wanting to learn more about food sensitivity, we'll have the link in below. And if you're interested in learning more about the CNA test, tune in next week. But until next time, stop guessing, start testing, and unlock your true X Factor.