Is Water Enough? Start Hydrating Your Cells

• Are you drinking a gallon of water a day and still dealing with brain fog, fatigue, and slow recovery? You might be hydrating your blood while leaving your cells bone-dry.
In this episode of Cell to System, we are breaking the "Three Buckets" of hydration to reveal why most electrolytes never actually reach the "Engine Room" of your body: the cell. We move past the basic advice of "drink more water" and dive into the world of Intracellular Irrigation.

In this episode, we uncover:
• The Three Buckets of Biology: Why your blood can be hydrated while your cells are literally "deflating."
• The VIP Bouncer: How to use Osmolytes (Creatine, Taurine, and Glutamine) to force water into your mitochondria.
• The Medication Trap: Why GLP-1s, ADHD meds, and Steroids are quietly drying out your system.
• The High-Altitude Protocol: How elevation impacts your cell volume and what to do before your next ski trip.
• Osmolytes vs. Electrolytes: The missing link in your supplement cabinet for muscle protein synthesis and cognitive focus.

If you are on a longevity protocol, using peptides, or simply trying to optimize your energy, this episode provides the foundational blueprint that makes every other treatment work better.

🔗 Mentioned in this episode:
 ▸ NuBioAge iCell WaterTM
https://shop.nubioage.com/products/ic...

🎙️ Follow the Cell to Systems Team:
• Leonard Pastrana, PharmD: Co-founder of nuBioAge & nuHx.Health / www.instagram.com/leonardpastrana
• Franck Kacou, PharmD: owner of Progress Pharmacy; co-founder of nuBioAge, nuHx.Health, Source Pharmacy and nuCliniq / www.instagram.com/nubioagewellnessnetwork / www.instagram.com/progresspharmacy
• Suzanne Ferree, MD, FAARM, FSSRP: CEO and Senior Physician of Vine Medical Associates / www.instagram.com/drsferree
• Kristi Fury, CFNP: A board-certified Family Nurse Practitioner; founder of Beyond Health. / www.instagram.com/beyondhealthabq
• Craig Mullen, MSN, FNP, ACNP: Founder of Remedy Functional Health Solutions. / www.instagram.com/remedy.functional.health
• Jock Putney - CEO and founder of Nuvolum, Quantum PRM, Stemodontics / www.instagram.com/jockputney

🔗 Learn More:
Vine Medical Associates: https://vinemedical.com/
nuBioAge: https://nubioage.com/ 
Remedy Functional Health: https://remedyfunctionalhealth.net/
Beyond Health:

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

The Celda Systems Podcast is for informational and educational purposes only and does not provide medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Listening does not create a doctor-patient relationship. Always consult a qualified health care provider regarding your medical conditions or before changing your health regimen. Do not disregard professional advice or delay seeking it because of something you heard on the podcast. Reliance on the information provided is at your own risk. Guest opinions are their own. Zelda systems may utilize affiliate links, feature sponsored content, or discuss companies in which hosts or guests have financial or advisory interests. Relevant disclosures will be noted during the episode or below.

SPEAKER_05 0:38

Most people are dehydrated and they don't even know it and no one's talking about it. It's not something that your wearable tracks, like a continuous glucose monitor, and people are unaware of the actual amount of water that they need to drink, and how water may not be enough to actually keep you actually hydrated. So today on this episode of Cell The Systems, we're going to get into the deep dive on hydration, how important it is to every single thing that you do. Okay, well, let's go ahead and get into it. Frank, can you go ahead and kick us off, please?

SPEAKER_04 1:12

Yes, of course. Um, everyone is talking about hydration right now, but nobody's actually talking about what where the water actually goes. Um and, you know, I want to talk about something that's really close to me. I was talking to my son about this, uh, about hydration a couple days ago. And, you know, he's playing competitively here in South Florida. He's playing a lot of sports, playing tennis in you know, 95 degrees uh heat over here, and and you know, obviously he's trying to figure out to stay hydrated throughout his tournament, his practice. Um and he's confused, right? He's confused about you know drinking Gatorade, which is awesome, and and and staying and staying hydrated at a cell level. You know, he doesn't understand the difference. And um I was trying to explain that to him, and this is what I came up with, and and and he actually loved that. So I told him, you know, um to think about hydration in in three buckets, and that seems to really stick for a lot of people. Um when you think about it in three buckets, the bucket one, right? Bucket one is your blood, is your plasma. Uh that's where um basic hydration, uh, blood test, uh, that's what blood test actually sees, right? It's actually easier to fill that bucket because um it responds to drinking water, you know, um taking electrolyte clocatorate and and and getting a quick IV. So that's your bucket one. Then your bucket two is um is is the fluid between your cells, right? Think about it as almost like a your cellular like neighborhood, so to speak, right? And then bucket three is um inside the cell itself. Uh it's like the engine room. This is where the protein gets made, um, energy gets produced, um, and all the repair happens. So, you know, most hydration and you know, what patients need to understand out there, and some docs actually don't get it very either. Um, you know, most hydration, you know, um products out there, um like electrolytes products and such, never touch bucket three, which is the inside of the cell itself. So they top off all the other buckets uh and call it a day, right? You know, so you feel you feel like you're doing everything right, uh, you're drinking plenty of water, you're drinking your Gatorade, um, you know, but they're still but you're still running dry. And this is really kind of the core of hydration for me in in terms of 101. You know, so the next step on this one is like, okay, well, you know, what what what are electrolytes and what are you know osmolites? Because we talk about those things all the time. You know, um, so in terms of electrolytes, the the way the 101 version of it, you know, from the pharmacist standpoint for us, you know, electrolytes, you know, just bring water into your body, period. Right? They expand your you know your plasma volume. Um osmolite are different. You know, we're gonna hear you know more on that, you know, later on uh with Leonard. You know, you have criton, you have glutamine, you have taurine, you have glycine, you have all those awesome osmolites um, you know, that are different. You know, they they they're they're basically what's inside the cell. Um, you know, they they they hold on water, they they work differently, they help you recover, uh, they pull water inside the cell, right? They lock it in, you know, like the kids like to say, lock it in. Um, you know, and they activate all the cell signaling. And that's really the the main difference between between electrolytes and osmolites, in a sense. Um so you know, when you when you start thinking about that, then this is how I explained the last part to my son. And and he and that's really what he he got, and this that's what really stuck with him. Um so it's a very interesting analogy that I use for him. Um it's like, you know what? It's like think about it um from from going to the club perspective. You know, you have a bouncer out the door, right? So follow me on this one, guys. Um so when when your cell membrane, you know, your cell membrane is, you know, inside your cell is like it's like a it's like a door, you know, with a bouncer outside. Um so water doesn't just walk in freely, right? It follows certain molecules inside uh through specific channels that we learn in biochemistry, you know, like you have transporters and things like that. Then you have things like creatine, right? You know, it's got its own VIP entrance, right? So it's like, you know, it's we you know we call it C21 transporter, but it's got its own, you know, uh way to get in. So when creatine goes in, you know, water follows in, right? And that's not a side effect, it's more of the mechanism um of creatine. And so that's why athletes who load a lot on creatine gain you know a few pounds, for example, uh, of water right away when they drink creatine and water. So the water goes inside the muscle and and not in your belly, right? Then you have things like glutamen, right? Um, which is more of a well, I think it's more of like a sodium-dependent type of transporter, uh, where you know it literally drags water inside the cell, you know, and then you have the same thing with glycine and all this awesome thing like leucine that we're just talking about. They're all osmolites, right? You know, they their job is to change the concentration, the gradient inside the cell. So water is full inside, you know. So once you understand this nuance about cell membrane, you know, osmolites, what brings things inside the cell, then you quickly understand what cellular hydration is, or intracellular hydration is, and the importance of that. Um and and I think once you know, once once this is clear to you, then it's very easy to start talking about the importance of it. Right. So um, and I'm I'm curious to kind of to to hear from from from from from Leonard on this one and see what he thinks about it when he thinks of one-on-one when it comes to hydration. Um same thing for you know for Christy. So let me let me pass it to you guys and tell me what you guys think. If you like this, this this one-on-one think of way of thinking about uh cellar, you know, cellular hydration. Uh what do you guys think?

SPEAKER_03 7:25

Yeah, I like I like how you um your explanation uh put with your with your son because I was I was I was talking to everybody earlier about I we didn't have those conversations around hydration when I was younger, right? Like the way that we think about hydration, I don't know about you guys, but you know, my 10-year-old and my five-year-old, they take a bottle of water with them to school. We never took bottles of water with us to school. We would all line up, you know, at the water fountain. And um there was always that kid that just stuck his entire mouth on the water fountain that you didn't want to go behind. And but like hydration wasn't you know necessarily a thing. And I was telling Jock, you know, my football coach would say, like, we can't drink water the entire practice. And that's like that's how you really got strong. And that like, if we went and drank water, we would be weak, you know, and we'd be out there seeing double double vision and and now knowing like how bad that was and what we don't, you know, what we actually know about hydration, um, and and and how it has to do with muscle, how it has to do with you know, how your nutrients actually flow, how blood flows. Um, and it's it's it's funny, but I love that you're having that conversation with your with your son so early on in life because it's just gonna change the way that you know he prep performs and how he recovers from from tennis. Frank Scott, like uh his son is is amazing at tennis. Um, I would you would think he's like 16 or 18 years old when you walk by him, but he's how old is he now? He's he's only what 12? He's still he's still 13. 13 years old. I mean, and he he's looking, you're looking at him like eye to eye. Um so he's and then now that he's getting such great advice from his dad, you know, he's gonna be he's gonna be awesome. But um that's just like on a sports level. But Christy, I like, you know, I'm really interested because I know that you talk a lot about this with your patients. How do you think about this like kind of clinically?

SPEAKER_01 9:08

Um, hydration is not just about how much water we're drinking, it's about how much your cells are actually using. Um, and you know, how I, when I'm approaching it with patients, trying to educate them, um you know, it's a dehydrated cell equals sluggish mitochondria, which is the powerhouse of our cell, which creates the energy. Um, so a lot of patients that have sluggish mitochondria because the cells are dehydrated, you know, fatigue, brain fog, poor recovery, um, obviously constipation, GI issues, um, you know, it goes far further than just um, you know, the actual thought of thirst. I mean, to me, it's it's it's not even about the thirst. Um, and because water is required for ATP production as far as energy, and um our cells, if they're not hydrated, they're not gonna be moving energy efficiently. And so that's kind of how I start breaking it down, and then I move into the area as far as water inside the body behaves differently than a bottled water. Um, and then this is when I start bringing in tools like I cell water, you know, mineral support, and lifestyle optimization, um, is when I'll start trying to really wrap that patient around so that they have uh a correlation. And I think like it just it happened, I don't know, Monday or Tuesday this week. I have this judge, and she came to me about two months ago, and you know, she was doing hormones, um, her insulin was still higher than what we wanted it, and um, she still had her CRP was a little elevated, so she was still inflamed, right? And but she was just, I'm done with GLP ones. This is I don't like because her big concern was she didn't like how she fit in her suits anymore and core. And she says, I just I just feel completely just dehydrated. And I says, You're right, you are dehydrated, but it's not the type of dehydration you're talking about. And so I says, Do a deal, like don't stop the GLP one, start doing this I cell water on a regular basis. And then she actually came in yesterday and she's like, I'm so glad I didn't listen to myself and I listened to you. Because I mean, I, you know, I mean, we all see it. Leonard Frank, like, we see it every day as far as you can just see it in that patient when it's a dehydrated muscle belly, um, and and not necessarily hydration because she was like, Well, I, you know, I have a bottle of water on my on the desk all day long. And I was like, it's it's not that simple. Um, and then you know, part of our other issue is she wasn't moving right. Um, and so that was also just contributing more to that dehydrated muscle belly. Um, and you know, the other area that I I just feel like was fascinating for me as a clinician was during COVID. Like, you know, how like I and I know I mean Frank and Leonard, you guys probably got this, but like it was I think this is when I myself really understood mitochondria health from a hydration perspective. Because you had so many people coming in here so so sick with COVID, and it's because their mitochondria was completely sluggish and wasn't working at all. But truly the root of the issue, once they were over the COVID, was the dehydrated cell. Um, so you know, that was for me a a huge growth for me during COVID, really putting that correlation of what proper hydration um does. And then the other thing that I approach with patients is you know, like what we do here is not cheap, peptides, hormones, and it's gonna work so much better if your cell is hydrated. I mean, I'm I mean, I almost tell them like well, it happened this morning. A guy, I mean, he started three different peptides, and um, you know, and then I talked to him about the and he's a contractor, so we know he's not hydrated right. And so, you know, he also bought ice cell water and I know his results because we're stacking those peptides with uh um proper hydration with i cell water, his results he's gonna get great results. Um, and then there's this one patient in particular that so he's a professional race car driver, he competes with the GT Motorsports, he actually races for Mercedes and he's 54, so he's going he is an old racer, right? And um he this whole season, so he had a race on Sunday. So I think he started ISO water, I think right January or something, you know, what is before that? It doesn't matter, a few months ago. But like he was talking about just how much because I mean they weigh so much water in those suits when they're driving. I mean, between the heat of the car, what the the clothes they have to have on, I mean, they're losing gallons of water. And he well, he actually does like two, a total of four scoops um on those race days, just because I mean he he feels that and he he's noticed a difference. And what I thought was interesting, and I didn't realize and um that you know, touring is something that like Formula One guys and all these they actually use for focus. And I mean, he taught me something about touring as far as that focus. I mean, obviously at a higher, but he's he's probably been like, I mean, I bet all of his buddies from the I mean, everybody in his garage is on ice cell water. And and everybody that's working the pits with for his cars, they're on ice cell water. And I don't know, like to me, I mean that I love the story of the judge because I like she's gonna have a better day and she's not gonna have the brain fog because she's hydrated. Um, but I think um the race car driver, as far as being able to still compete at that level on the GT motorsports level at 54, and he is really contributing it because he's been on it, he was on your guys' the old formula, and then he kind of stopped it. But he like he loves the tauring.

SPEAKER_05 15:26

What's interesting about this for me as I listen to it, just like anybody else who would be listening to this, there's so much to learn. So we talked a little bit about taurine. Uh Leonard, let's go deeper into that, can we? Sure.

SPEAKER_03 15:41

Yeah, you know, uh, Christy, you actually reminded me about when we f when we first started even thinking about using amino acids for um for hydration. It was it was back in like 2020 when we were when uh COVID had just came and like nobody knew what was going on. And I remember we were probably in the same uh mastermind where we were thinking, okay, what are all the things that we can do for people to protect them? And one of the things that one of the discussions we were having was on intracellular water. And if you had an increase in intracellular water or cell volume, it actually inhibited uh viral replication. And this is when we didn't know anything. So we were using things like bicarb, we were using specific peptides because we were just, we didn't know what was happening. We're like, how can we protect people? And one of the things that we were discussing at that time was hey, if we can improve intracellular volume and hydration, you know, maybe that's one of the many tools that we can use. And so that's when we started thinking about or talking about this formula of using these amino acid osmolites that increase intracellular water or or cell volume. Uh, but you know, what what with this formula, and before we would just have these multiple, like just the all these amino acids, right? And so you'd have a counter full of glycine and glutamine and alanine and all these amino acids that we knew were really good that we wanted to put in water, and it'd be a mess, and you'd be putting your powder into your into your water every day before we decided one one day, hey, we should probably put this all together so that everybody else can use it as as well. Um, it was it was initially for like higher-end athletes because you know those like the CrossFit types that are running, they're lifting weights, and they're just they're they're burning a lot of calories, but they need to maintain muscle mass. They need to maintain that strength. And this is where it was being used in these like higher-end athletes to say, hey, here's some creatine, here's some amino acids, so that you stay hydrated, you increase your cell volume and improve your performance, and you don't um lose your strength or your muscle mass. And that's it was it was kind of niche. It was very performance-based. But then that's around the time that GLP ones came out, and that's when GLP ones came out and everybody was restricting their calories and everybody's losing a ton of weight. And this is where we really started to have issues with muscle strength loss and muscle mass loss. And so this is when the conversation kind of got reignited, where we said, hey, we need to put this together for people because this is by far going to be the best for people that are on GLP ones that are losing that strength and that muscle mass to keep them hydrated. And as we were putting that formula together, um, we we were doing more of the research to have a better understanding of it. And that's when we found out that GLP ones actually impacted hydration. And we found that, you know, there's plenty of studies showing that GLP ones actually decreased thirst perception. So not only is it your perception of drinking water, you actually forget. Um, and so people were drinking less water. So if you think about that, people are drinking less water, they're eating less food, and there's actually a lot of water in food. And so this is adding to that strength and muscle loss, right? Because if you think about what's happening when it comes to cell volume, like cell volume actually has metabolic control. So depending on if the cell is swollen or shrunken, it acts differently. And so when the cell has volume, it's in this like anabolic mode. It protects against protein degradation, but it's when it's shrunken, when you have low intracellular water, it actually is catabolic and actually enhances and signals protein degradation. And so this kind of blew our mind. We were seeing it in ourselves, but now we're like, okay, this makes tons of sense. Now we have to really start talking about this because um it is, it is, if we're thinking about longevity medicine, this is this is exactly what we need to protect, is um is muscle. And so we were using these amino acid osmolites. At that time, we were using leucine, which is an amino acid, but leucine at higher dosages improves protein synthesis. And so that's why this was put into the formula. But as we learn the research behind leucine a little bit more, we realized that you have to have those like two or three grams of leucine right away. You can't drink it slowly throughout the day to get that mTOR protein um impact. And so we realized that taurine actually was one of the strongest amino acid osmolites. And taurine has all these other benefits that you're talking about when it comes to cognitive. Um, but we liked it because it was also an osmolite that draw what drew water into the cell. And what we liked also was the studies behind it. When you look at some of the studies that were done in specifically in women, they were they were looking at the impact of taurine plus exercise. So they looked at taurine by this by itself and they're like, okay, there's there's mitochondrial function happening here. It's it's increasing these fat oxidation genes. And then they looked and compared it to exercise alone. And it's like, okay, yeah, exercise does, you know, upregulates these mitochondrial genes and these fat oxidation genes. But the interesting thing was that they looked at what happens when you combine taurine and exercise. And now you had this exponential increase in Ali's fat oxidation genes and mitochondrial function. And so that was really exciting because this is what we're trying to improve in patients all the time. And so um, we decided to take out the leucine that wasn't necessary and put taurine in there. And it was, I'm glad we did it because then it tasted a lot better. And um, and and people really like it for more than just hydration, more than just muscle, but for that cognitive function. Because um one of the key components in there is creatine. And creatine is probably one of the most studied um supplements that we have out there, not only for it acts people think about it about cognitive function, about energy, but it's also this really strong uh osmolite, like like Frank was saying. And so here we have this supplement where it's funny, and in this world, in this industry, there's always people trying to claim that everything is like the magic supplement or the magic you know medication, which it's never the case. And there's always this saying that people say, hey, that you know, BPC is so good, or if some people even say statins are so good, we should throw it in the water. Well, we just did we actually threw this in the water because we we said, hey, people are not drinking water all day long. They're not drinking enough water. Well, let's put the creatine and these amino acid osmolites in the water. So they're slowly drinking it throughout the day. And the goal is to get two to three liters of water per day, and they'll get the full full dose of creatine and these other amino acids. And so it's been it is like our go to when it comes to exercise performance, because the literature is there. The literature is there with creatine, the literature's there in athletes. They studied intracellular water in athletes and they found that, um. Leg strength and jump performance was higher in athletes with higher intracellular water. They've studied it in elderly patients where they were looking at like uh frailty and sarcopenia and performance. Um, because in the elderly population, they start to uh where Frank was talking about these compartments. When you see in aging, is you see there's more of this uh extracellular water that that that kind of increases as people as people age. And so it's great even in an elderly uh population. And so um, yeah, we're it's it's it's one of those, it's it's our go-to. Even when we were talking about the other day when it talked about metabolic breath analysis and we were talking about some of the markers that we we look at, like VO2 Max and some of the other ones, one of the one of the biggest things that we have issues with is people's metabolism. As people's metabolism slows down with GLP1s because they lose muscle, our the best thing that we can do is help them put on muscle. Um, and so this is our go-to. When we see someone with a reduced metabolism or metabolic inflexibility, this is our go-to with other peptides, of course, with other compounds. Um, and so it's um one of my one of my favorites, and it's it's something that you can kind of drink all day long. Jock, I know you've been, I've been seeing you online, you know, always uh drinking, drinking your water. So, I mean, have you have you been taking iso water very long? Did you notice an impact um in your exercise with it?

SPEAKER_05 23:21

Oh, I've been using it for a long time. Um, and yeah, it's had a profound impact. Um, you know, I could never in the gym, I never felt like I could get enough water. It's one of those things that was kind of funny that like as I go back to Franck's three buckets, makes even more sense to me now because we're training super hard. And I just could never quite satisfy that thirst. And by the time he got to the sauna after, you know, sort of going to sauna four or five times a week, uh I just feel totally depleted. So when I got to the I cell uh water, I started to go, whoa, you know, this is really like I I was having a a ma noticing a major difference, a major difference in stamina, major difference in strength. And um and that was what was really exciting to me. I think that was like uh just sort of a breakthrough. And then I I started to realize, okay, this makes sense. You know, you know, we're you know, before when you take about think about taking creatine, that's a good example. You always back in the day, you go back 1998, right? Yeah, it's uh when creatine really pops on the scene. It's uh Bill Phillips and he's talking about, hey, you know, you put it in and you gotta have some sort of sugar, you know, to get it into the cell. So, you know, you had that creatine from what was EAS back then.

SPEAKER_03 24:41

Yeah, I remember that. Remember there's the the big massive loading doses? Like you gotta take 30 grams to start, everybody ended up in the bathroom and bloated.

SPEAKER_05 24:50

Terrible. It was just awful, right? Um what I was thinking about, uh questions I wanted to ask you is I think it's really interesting. Uh not that long ago, you started to see the creatine gummies showing up with like, you know, hey, there's just two milligrams, you take these gummies throughout the day rather than taking what would be normally like, hey, I just drank my creatine for the day. But if you think about it, it's such a it's such a better way to go where you're adding it in throughout the day. And I'm wondering if you guys could really explain that for the listeners, like, why is that so much better to have that added in? I think it makes kind of, I mean, it makes sense to me, but I think we should explain that further.

SPEAKER_03 25:29

Yeah. Um, you know, I'll take the the first shot at it, um, and uh you guys tell us what you think. But when it comes to hydration, and and this is the problem with a lot of supplements, is you you put the powder in eight ounces of water and you drink it, and it's like, okay, I got my my ingredients. But what we're doing here is completely different. It's not, we're not trying to put just some vitamins into the into the system. What we're doing is trying to expand cell volume, and you want to do that throughout the throughout the entire day. And so you want to be drinking water and you want to be in this state for the entire day. When you're using things like peptides, when you're using other other modalities, you you know, the peptides are cell signaling molecules, right? And so you are basically creating the environment for everything to thrive. Some of the things that I didn't mention with hydration is that dehydration has an impact on even cortisol levels, right? So dehydration has an impact on blood flow and nutrient delivery. Um dehydration blunts, then this is the funny thing about thinking back to when I was a kid playing football and they told you not to drink water, is it blunts recovery. So depending on the state of your cells is how well you're gonna recover after that exercise. So if that exercise even really means anything. And so we want to put people in the right state, hydrated throughout the day. Um, and so it's just a little bit of a different thought process. And it's always kind of been kind of difficult for us because it is technically like a supplement, but it's more of a lifestyle. And it's hard to get that message across because people think of supplements like this is just something I take, I have what I got. This is a little bit different. Like we're trying to create the most optimal environment for ourselves throughout the day. We don't just want that for a short period of time. And so that's one of the reasons that I talk about, you know, drinking it slowly throughout the day.

SPEAKER_05 27:05

Oh, that really, yeah, that makes perfect sense. Franck, uh, what do you think?

SPEAKER_04 27:09

No, I'm I'm right there with with Leonard. Um, you know, drinking throughout the day, it is a lifestyle for sure. Uh but it's it's putting you in a better situation, in a better position to um, you know, to stay hydrated throughout the day, you know, and and I know the jury's still out about doses, um, concentrations of of of critten and and taurin and such. But you know, for a lot of people, you know, their ability to be able to take you know five gram, three gram of a lot of things that we're putting into ICL is extremely difficult to do. Um that that's what makes this product pretty pretty unique. Um, you know, think about you know weighing five grams of a product every day and taking that um in pill format or in in in in supplement in in powder format. Um it's it can become very difficult. Um, you know, so so it's it's a very unique product. So I I I'm right there with Leonard. You want the thing I wanted to add to what Leonard was talking about earlier is on the cr, you know, about creating, it's it's the importance because as we're getting older and as we're aging, you know, it's one thing. But even the kids now, right? As you're being exposed to the element out there, your your your ability to to retain, that's the thing, to retain fluid inside the cell is diminished. And that's what I like I cell so much, um, you know, is because you you you're actually training your cell to retain the fluid, retain, retain all those, you know, um osmolites in it, right? And and and that's makes that's what makes it different because it's easy to you know to hydrate the cell, right? But it's another thing to actually retain the the fluid, the the the the osmolites inside that cell to you know to maintain that pressure. And that's what craton does uh compared to other products out there. And and you know, Leonard, we're talking about GLP1s, uh, and right before we we we met there, uh we started talking today. You know, he mentioned something about um um drug depletion. You know, I love that. You know, we always think about when you take something, what is that what else does it deplete, right? Um, and why this is so important is because we do so many things every day and we take so many products every day, prescription drugs, for example, on top of the GLP ones that we're already taking, that depletes intracellular fluid even more. And that's what people need to actually also understand. The simple things that they're doing, you know, um uh can be detrimental. So, you know, number one is diuretics, you know. I mean, I think if you suffer from high blood pressure or if you're trying to lose weight, most people take simple diuretics, you know, and diuretics, you know, be used for edema, they use for hypertension, they'd be using for heart failure, they'd be used for so many other things, right? Things like ferrosamide, spirallactone, hydrochlorotiazide. You know, most people actually have tried once, potentially, if they if they have high blood pressure, right? Um, but it depletes your sodium, it depletes your potassium, it depletes your your magnesium, your zinc, all critical um uh osmotic, you know, all critical for osmotic balance, I guess. That that that's that's the that's the that's the piece. Um other things we see the GLP ones, right? Uh we already know about that, right? With this reduced, you know, reduced thirst that Leonard was talking about earlier. But another one is metformin. You know, metformin, I remember that when I did a uh a study on that. Metformin is another one. It depletes, you know, it does deplete the B12, which is in the in a sense, you know, affects your your cellular energy again, right? Which is in the cascade of you know in the down downstream cascade is is also affecting your your intracellular fluid as well. But the big one that we all take, I think, which is you know uh is is steroids. Steroids are something that we all take all the time, right? If you have I'm not a big fan of it, but um a lot of people take steroids, a major dose pack, for example, right? Um first thing that people give to people when you know they have, you know, they're fighting something, they have an operatory uh problem, for example, right? But steroids, you know, disrupt your osmotic uh gradient, right? So it's it's you know, it drives that intracellular, you know, potassium out and and the sodium in issue that we talked about earlier uh around the membrane. And that's what steroids do when you start looking into it a little bit more, like prednisone and and metal dose back and dexametazones, those are the things that can be problematic. But my favorite I talk about all the time ADHD medications. Okay, everybody, there's a lot of kids, not not adults, there's a lot of kids on ADHD medications, right? Think about you know, our kids on you know, I don't even know what what all there are now when they start them, but you know, we try to help them with those ADHD meds. Think about them just like GLP ones, you know, they suppress your appetite, they also suppress your thirst level, right? So so it's the same downstream effect of GLP1. Uh so that's something also to think about as well. So just wanted to uh to bring that little element of uh drug depletion into it.

SPEAKER_05 32:22

Yeah, I mean that's really interesting in the sense that um these medications that people may be on that their doctor uh isn't able to explain how that's gonna affect their hydration. I don't think I don't think it even maybe comes up. I I don't know one way or the other. Christy, what what happens there? I mean, there are there are these medications. We just mentioned metformin, we've talked about ADHD medications, we've talked about diuretics, steroids like prednisone. I mean, prednisone, they give you you have a skin rash, uh, we've got to decrease inflammation in some way, shape, or form. I mean, these are all things that are gonna deplete you. What so what's the balance? How do you how do you figure all that out?

SPEAKER_01 33:04

Well, I think it's just first being educated enough yourself so that you know how to educate your patients. I mean, I think that's first and foremost. Um, you know, it's one reason why I I love this podcast is because I learned so much from Leonard and Franck every time, and I kind of feel like I'm back at calm every week. And I I I have I'm kind of getting a little, a little um, you know, spoiled with it. And so I'm thankful for that. But you know, I I think it just starts with education and then, you know, as a provider, um, becoming an astute provider as far as just seeing it, like you can see it in patients. I mean, you can see them before walking down the hallway before they go into the room. Um, and it's just, you know, having that awareness, using the tools that we have, like embody. And then, yes, you know, the the labs are great, but when you're seeing on labs, they're already too far gone. I mean, you need to be catching it before you really start seeing it a significant shift in the labs. Um, and then it's just, you know, educating the patient then as far as what we're trying to do. And then with these meds of, you know, not wanting to stay on steroids on a regular basis, even for, you know, autoimmune to the best of our ability. Or, you know, I have a handful of patients that their specialists have them on a low dose steroid daily, sadly. And so I just know what I need to do. I mean, I can promise you, every I mean saw one yesterday, uh, he's on I cell water every day. Um, because he does a low dexamethasone two milligrams every day because of his autoimmune issues. And so it's you know, I I think it's having that awareness, knowing the drugs that can that can cause it. And then being prod um, you know, proactive with your patient so that you don't get him into a dehydrated mitochondria state.

SPEAKER_03 34:50

Yeah, that's such a such a great point. Um, I think we can just go in so many directions with this uh nutrient depletion or depletion by by medications. It's something that's so so overlooked. This this example on the dexamethasone is such a such a good one, even thinking about all the other things, um, you know, like what it's doing to their gut and and things like that, like what other things can you do to protect them while they unfortunately may have to take lower dose steroids. Um yeah, we start with something as simple as hydration and water, and then you you can see down the like the rabbit hole that you can go to to really help people just by knowing what they're taking when they walk in the door.

SPEAKER_05 35:25

Well, it's really clear though, at this stage uh where we are in this discussion that hydration is the foundation of everything. You have to stay on top of it, you've got to have it dialed in, and um, and that's something that you should be talking about with um hopefully with your provider or you're getting the right information. Um I'm curious, Christy, as a clinician, how are you educating patients about hydration? Because that's gotta be a discussion that takes some time. Um, and I know how busy you are in your practice. How do you manage to get all that in? Who's doing that education for you? How do you educate a patient about hydration?

SPEAKER_01 36:06

That education happens on multiple levels at my clinic. I mean, I'm blessed, I have nurses underneath me that are phenomenal. I have another provider, I have a health coach, um, a nutritionist. And so we're having that conversation, not only just coming from me, but from everybody. Um, and then just those those touch points. Um, you know, like kind of since we've talked a lot about the GLP one, you know, I know we totally understand it, but so many patients, they just they don't associate food with hydration. So if you're decreasing food, guess what? You've got to figure out a way to to replace that hydration. Um, and then, you know, just the the other pillars of it as far as making sure, you know, fiber is up. You know, you can do is cell water, but you also just from a gut motility, like to make you know that that fiber works better if they're also doing some iso water with it.

SPEAKER_03 37:01

Christy, how do you how do you deal with like compliance? Because I I found that you know you can tell a great story about it, but it's kind of some people that don't drink water every day. Do you have a hard time getting people to drink those at least two to three liters of water per day? Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:17

Basically, every time you come in here, you're getting an Mbody. Um, and then, you know, the majority of our patients, if they're on peptides, they're also talking to a health coach. I'm selfish, I want good results. And so I try to put the tools in place in the clinic. So even if a patient might not understand the importance, that eventually they will, because they are being told, you know, the importance of hydration and compliance from my health coach and then my nutritionist, and then, oh, here comes, you know, myself or my other provider or my nurses. Um, but I think it's also when they see it. Um, you know, understanding how to help them interpret, you know, so many people at the MBody, you know, they're just looking, oh, I weigh this much, I want to be, you know, they're they don't they're not seeing the big picture. Um, but then when you show it, and then I always tell them this is kind of my I think how I hook them is like, look, do it for a month straight. And if you honestly don't notice a difference, I will give you your money back.

unknown 38:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 38:18

And I says, but you have to be honest with me. Like you have to do it every day for a month. And if you can tell me I've noticed no difference, then I will give you back your money for ISO.

SPEAKER_03 38:28

Yeah. No, that's a that's a great plot. Just like just try it for a month. Have you noticed? Because uh there's the other thing we haven't even talked about is like aesthetics when it comes to hydration, just people's skin, uh the way it looks. Um that's a we didn't even go down that route. Just even if you weren't talking about metabolism or body composition or anything, I I feel like patients feel a difference after a month of of focusing on their hydration.

SPEAKER_05 38:50

Well, you know, it's really interesting you talk about that because in that presentation that we had at Calm.

SPEAKER_03 38:55

Dr. Joseph Greddzula. Yeah, he's a pharmacist and a dermatologist. So the the he he he knows the ins and outs of uh of everything from the from the skin to what's happening inside.

SPEAKER_05 39:05

Yeah. I mean, owning part of a skincare line, I found that to be like it just made perfect sense, right?

SPEAKER_03 39:11

I mean, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 39:12

You can put stuff as as much as you want on your face, but at the end of the day, you know, you'd have to stay hydrated in order for it to actually have any kind of real effect.

SPEAKER_03 39:20

Yeah, it's hard to get those before and afters when it comes to to aesthetics. And, you know, sometimes we were having you know we'd have uh before and after pictures with body composition, where the more shocking thing was just their their face. Um it was more an aesthetic thing. And I've always had the best outcomes when you had somebody that is on the right peptides, it's exercising, that's hydrated, um, compared to, you know, trying to just put on some some cream or or some aesthetic type protocol. Like that's that's not where we got those shocking kind of before and after pictures. It's always been with like hydration and metabolic health.

SPEAKER_05 39:55

Hey, can we go back to something really quickly though? On the leucine front, um, if you've got to get in order to signal mTOR, yes, uh, so obviously the stuff that signals muscle protein synthesis, right? The stuff that's gonna help us build muscle. So for the people like me, you want to get that post-workout sort of hit of that uh that leucine uh or the branch chain amino acids. So when you take the leucine out, uh, which I definitely noticed a big difference. Like there was it was it was a night and day difference in the product for me. Can you talk about like what's the best way to get that leucine in in this process?

SPEAKER_03 40:36

Yeah, you know, the leucine is what gave it uh a little bit of a taste. So everybody really liked the taste once we took it out and put the taurine in there because it was it was tasteless. But no, the the the leucine uh issue is is um is easy to solve. You just need 2.4 2.5 grams, however you you get it in. Uh post-workout, um in the middle of the workout, but it needs to be well, they showed studies that you need to get you know leucine to a certain millimolar level in the bloodstream for it to have that mTOR activation, and it has to be at least 2.5 grams. So if that's from a powder, if that's from certain amino acid things that you're taking, or just leucine by itself, as long as you get 2.5 grams in right away, um, it's gonna get there. And it doesn't happen from from food. They tested it with you know uh exogenous leucine versus like, am I getting like two grams of leucine and in steak or meat? And it was it was different the way that it increased levels in the blood system.

SPEAKER_05 41:28

So I want to make sure that we're super clear on this. What you're saying is you need to get 2.5 grams of leucine in not from food but but from supplementation. And in what period of time does that need to happen post-workout? So let's imagine I finish my workout. My my normal routine is I go sit down and I'm gonna do my post-workout shake, which has uh, you know, it's whey, water, myOSMD, um, and some BCAAs.

SPEAKER_03 42:01

Mm-hmm. Yeah, I don't think it can really go wrong, you know. Um, I don't think it can go wrong if you're doing intra workout or post-workout, you know, you're activating mTOR, you're trying to get that protein synthesis. You know, we all try to get that protein right in after the work, no matter what the studies tell us. We just feel like, hey, you know, muscles got activated. I want that protein synthesis now. But there's studies saying both things. Yes, it matters, you know, post-workout, um, uh, or it doesn't matter if you get the protein in hours later, you're still going to get the same amount of uh protein synthesis. So I don't think you can really go wrong with the timing.

SPEAKER_05 42:34

The question I have for you with regards to that, I'm sorry to go on such a huge deviation from where we are on this, but that almost just doesn't make sense that you would could wait longer. Your muscle has just been totally taxed, right? It's looking to repair, and you're not putting the stuff right back into it. I mean, how does that I know there are studies that say, oh, it doesn't matter, and there are some people that are out there saying it doesn't matter, but how does that really make sense that it wouldn't, you wouldn't need it immediately?

SPEAKER_03 43:04

Because protein synthesis is a process that that that that happens kind of over time, right? And there's a lot of reserve where it's it's constantly happening. What's more important post-workout is getting some carbohydrates in, right? Because what happens is post-workout, you've you've done something different to the muscle cell, right? So now it's translocating that GLUT4, which is that opening, that passageway that brings glucose into the cell that uh you know that gets stored as glycogen or turned into energy. And so post-workout is the best time to get those carbohydrates in because um so it's more of like an energy production for the muscle. But protein synthesis is something that's um, you know, kind of happening, you know, throughout the day. And so that's why they say that it's a good idea to have a combination of carbohydrates and protein post workout. Um, but I think that's if you're really looking for strength and recovery and really getting like the best out of the workout that you just had. It's actually, you know, most people think it's protein, but I think it's actually the mixture of carbohydrates and protein post-workout.

SPEAKER_05 44:06

So here I've got my shaker cup, right? With uh that I'm just putting water and the whey and the um portotropin in. What else do I need to put in there to actually get chief? So what would be a good what would be something good to put in there?

SPEAKER_03 44:22

I think you're good. I think you just go home, have a nice steak, and relax. I think I think you did all the work, Jock. You got everything. You got the isolate water, you got the hydration, you got whey in there. You just I saw your workouts. They're like two hours long. You're good, buddy. Go home and take it, take a break.

SPEAKER_05 44:38

Here's the thing. We do those workouts early in the morning. I gotta go to work after that, right?

SPEAKER_02 44:43

He's trying to keep up with his son. Yeah. Oh no, good luck with that. I saw your son.

SPEAKER_05 44:47

He is specimen. Like it's it's my days are over, right? I'm like, I'll I'll never achieve that. I'll never be that ever again. It's he's he's yeah, he's on another level. Frank, you were gonna say something. Let's uh hear it.

SPEAKER_04 45:00

Yeah, yeah, no. I was I was talking, you know, Leonard was talking about certain things um that you can do pre- and post you know, workout and things, and adding the carbs in there as well, being pretty good. You know, we're talking about ICL and you know, talking about osmolites. You know, here you're pulling water in the cell, you're holding water in the cell. Then you need to do a few more things, right? You know, especially around around workouts. You know, you want to you want to power the whole system, uh you want to improve the mechanism around there, right? And you want to support your your overall metabolism. And this protocol AKG, which is part of a Krebs cycle, uh, is extremely efficient at doing that. Um so when you're on ICEL or or any other um any other products out there that uh improve your intracellular fluid, adding things like AKG can can can literally keep the system running and provide the energy required to um um to create what you're trying to do, which is improve muscle right um activity. So adding AKG plus, for example, we call it AKG plus because that's it's one of the it's got a high dose of AKG compared to other products out there, would increase your your you know your intracellular hydration efficiency, basically. Um, what talk about ATP production at the cell level, at the mitochondria level, it's gonna increase your ATP production one more time. It's gonna improve your recovery even better and your performance even better over time. So uh this is just a little trick, right? Things that are are pretty pretty simple to do to to to you know to hack the system. Um and AKG is the perfect hack when you think about when you think about um cellular energy and you already optimize on things like ICell.

SPEAKER_05 46:53

So cell is swollen, and then we're putting AKG in with everything else. So at where where do you put the AKG in? Where where does that exist in the stream?

SPEAKER_04 47:03

Um dosing strategy, you know, I say pre personally, actually, pre-workout. Yeah, I agree. Yep, pre-workout.

SPEAKER_03 47:11

Uh there are some studies with uh AKG where um, especially when you're doing like zone two training, um, your need for um alpha-ketocluturate in the Krebs cycle um goes up by like 5x you know, within the first like 20 to 30 minutes of of exercise. And so when we're trying to support people when it comes to that zone two training or their mitochondrial function, right? Like everything we're doing is trying to create energy to get that final ATP, right? Even the creatine that we've been talking about, but part of that cycle is that Krebs cycle that Frank's talking about. Um, and part of that cycle to get to that final product of ATP is as alpha ketoglutarate. And so um we're always telling patients, you know, 20 to 30 minutes before before exercise is a great is when your body's gonna be like, you know, using your mitochondria um to produce that energy and uh produce better, better exercise.

SPEAKER_04 48:01

Yeah. One I used to work out in in Leonard's um garage back in the days. And what one of the um my favorite stack back then, and I used to tell people all the time, I was like, that was the one that actually felt is when let's say I was taking Icel, AKG, and amitochondria peptide, I can't say the name. And anything that can also help me, like any type of NED salvage stuff that I can keep in there, that was the the way for me to actually just be as optimal as possible pre-workout. It's almost like you know when you're repping and you're like, oh, here's the extra rep that that that's it. I cell AKG amatochondrial peptide in there and keep your NED in you know in your your NED availability in in check, and that's that's just the best deck ever.

unknown 48:56

Wow.

SPEAKER_04 48:57

When it comes to energy function, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 48:58

Yeah, the AKG Plus uh is that is that a product that you guys have?

SPEAKER_04 49:02

So we we we we call it AKG plus because we we had a yeah, it's a pretty high concentration of it. Uh okay. So Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 49:09

That's the one thing that people should uh pay attention to. You'll see alphacated glutarate in supplements all the time because anybody that's doing their research knows that hey, this is something that's interesting. And there'll be like 100 milligrams or 150 milligrams in a capsule, which is like just dust. That's you know, the any of the studies that were done were done with anywhere from like three to ten grams of alphacated glutarate. Great. And so um you want to make sure that you're you're getting the right dose.

SPEAKER_05 49:32

Yeah, one of the things I always I always love that Christy says, she's like, you gotta remember these reference ranges are on people that oftentimes don't fit your profile. Right. So the these these these um it's I think it's really interesting um to to hear all of this. It's like again, just I'm gonna echo what Christy said. It's just like to listen to you guys talk about these things and having had the experience of of just continuing to grow through this, it's just amazing. Um and uh gosh, man, I've learned so much in this episode. We could go on, I think, and talk about hydration forever. One thing I just as we have to wrap up, I would love to get just the key takeaway from the three of you. Uh Christy, let's start with you.

SPEAKER_01 50:19

I think for me, I mean just consistency. I mean, honestly, I tell I mean that's kind of how I live my life. I, you know, I think where I've been successful is I've I've just stayed consistent. I mean, I've known Leonard and Frank for years. I'm an avid learner, but when it it just and but then relate consistency just to health. Um, you know, even the eye sell water. And, you know, I think this is another way where I have as far as compliance is I mean, I tell patients, look, there if there's there's not a day that I skip eyesell water. Um, you know, I might not do all the rest of my supplements. And, you know, where I also notice a big difference, I mean, we all fly a lot. Um, it helps me so much, like, especially that female, that water weight we gain with flying, that I don't know if men, but it drives me crazy. I hate that water weight. Um, and you know, you don't look as good in your clothes. And anyways, I've noticed since I've been every day consistent with ISO water. Um, I don't get that with flying. So consistency. I don't know if you want it, if that's what you're wanting, but that's what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_05 51:22

That was great, Christy. Thank you. Yeah, consistency for sure. Um uh Frank.

SPEAKER_04 51:28

It's crazy. Every time Christy says something, I'm like, oh shoot, I didn't think about that. It's yeah, it makes sense now. Because I'm like, you know, what she just said there about traveling, you know. What the beauty of ICEL is just just just being able to, you know, to be this guard around your your cell membrane and and and you know, basically help really transition between in and out of fluid. So as you're getting older, as you're traveling, you're not moving, obviously, your cells, your membrane aren't doing the right job, it just makes so much. We can talk about this for a long time. But yeah, she's so right. But anyway, um, you know, in closing for me is is is really kind of just to keep it simple and quick here is I think we I think we spent a long time uh talking about the importance of people to to drink more more water. Um and and that's not wrong. But what we try to, you know, what we discovering that is that drinking water is good, but that narrative is very incomplete. You know, and and and thank you, Jock, for for allowing to talk, you know, allowing us to talk about the nuance around drinking, right? Drinking fluid, drinking water, drinking electrolytes. There's a lot of nuance to it. And and for me to take away here is just to kind of see it in terms of buckets, like you know, bucket one, two, and three that we talked about earlier. And once once you understand those three terms and three buckets, it makes a lot of sense downstream. So uh hopefully that was helpful.

SPEAKER_05 53:03

Yeah, those three buckets are game changers just to what I'm gonna I'm gonna go back and watch this over and over and over again because this is the episode that I think is like, whoa, just gonna blow, blow me away over and over and over again. The three buckets are amazing. All right, Leonard, hit us.

SPEAKER_03 53:18

Yeah, I think that the the take-home message here is that hydration is foundational before you think about anything, before you want to think about peptides, you want to think about anything. Uh just creating the right environment for yourself, for your cells to signal and do the right thing is is is the most important uh thing before you you go anywhere. Too too often we get really fancy with things and we have the quadruple peptide stack and a long list of supplements before you just get the foundation that's gonna make everything else you do later work better. And so hydration is is foundational.

SPEAKER_05 53:56

Well, guys, we have covered so much, and this is just I mean, wow, I've learned so much in this episode. I and I feel like I could just keep talking all day about it, but I want to thank you guys so much. Um, this has been a total blast. And so um for everybody out there that's listening, um, we'll be back on hydration, I'm sure. We're gonna get super technical uh beyond what we've already already covered. So it's been a lot of fun. Thank you guys. I hope you have a great rest of your day, and thanks to everybody for watching sell the systems.