The Better Body Lab Podcast
The Better Body Lab Podcast explores how science and lived experience intersect within the human ecology. Hosted by best-selling authors Dr. Taryn Marie and Mike Alden, each conversation brings together physicians, researchers, and wellness thought leaders to examine how we adapt, recover, and grow stronger—physically, mentally, and emotionally—in a complex world.
The Better Body Lab Podcast
Coffee, Cannabis, Psychedelics, and Clinical Trials
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What if the future of health optimization isn't hiding in the next trend — but inside clinical trials happening right now?
In this episode of The Better Body Lab Podcast, we sit down with clinical trial recruitment expert and Patients VIP founder Joseph Minkowitz to explore the discoveries quietly reshaping the future of medicine. Together, we examine how resilience, recovery, longevity, and performance are increasingly influenced by therapies most people won't hear about until years after they reach the public.
From psychedelics and personalized cancer vaccines to breakthroughs in Type 1 diabetes, chronic pain, hearing restoration, and regenerative medicine, this conversation offers a rare look inside the front lines of clinical research. We also discuss the reality that nearly 90% of potential therapies never make it from laboratory concept to human clinical trials, making the breakthroughs that do emerge even more remarkable.
Joseph shares how his work through Patients VIP and The Studies Guy has given him a front-row seat to some of the most promising developments in medicine. Together, we explore the relationship between coffee and dementia risk, the growing evidence surrounding alcohol and brain aging, the potential of psychedelic therapies for depression, and why patient participation may be one of the most overlooked drivers of medical progress.
At its core, this episode asks an important question: how do we separate scientific progress from hype, and evidence from optimism?
About Joseph Minkowitz:
Joseph Minkowitz is the founder of Patients VIP, a company specializing in patient recruitment for clinical trials. He got his start at Vanderbilt, learning digital marketing hands-on under one of the top practitioners in the field during the day, and spending his nights in the library teaching himself everything else. He put those skills to work helping his family's research site and other practices find patients, then went on to serve as a Marketing Director at a venture capital group before launching Patients VIP. Today, Patients VIP is trusted by over 45 sponsors and CROs across multiple therapeutic areas, having recruited for hundreds of studies across over 100 sites in over 5 countries. Joseph’s exposure to various studies sparked his social media channels, @TheStudiesGuy, where he has built an audience of over 250,000 people by breaking down cutting-edge clinical research for everyday audiences.
For information about Patients VIP visit: https://patients.vip/ and https://thestudiesguy.com/
Follow Joseph Minkowitz here:
Instagram: @TheStudiesGuy
Facebook: @TheStudiesGuy
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joseph-minkowitz-b9b9aa48/
Key Timestamps:
00:00 — Why 90% of Drug Ideas Fail
01:25 — Meet Joseph Minkowitz & Patients VIP
07:28 — How Clinical Trial Recruitment Works
15:08 — Cannabis, Alcohol & Brain Aging
20:13 — Coffee and Dementia Prevention
29:18 — The Future of Type 1 Diabetes Treatment
46:37 — A Potential "Switch" for Chronic Pain
56:15 — Psychedelics and Mental Health Research
01:04:28 — Gene Therapy Restores Hearing
01:07:59 — Personalized Vaccines for Pancreatic Cancer
01:11:09 — Regrowing Cartilage in Aging Knees
Follow The Better Body Lab Podcast here:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thebetterbodylabpodcast/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61582408795363
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheBetterBodyLabPodcast
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thebetterbodylabpodcast
Dr. Taryn Marie: www.resilience-leadership.com/
Mike Alden: https://www.mikealden.com/
Follow Dr. Taryn Marie here:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DrTarynMarie
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drtarynmarie/
Follow Mike Alden here:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MikeAlden2012
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mikealden
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What is the percentage of animal studies that do translate into humans? Is there a number out there that that that researchers kind of buy?
SPEAKER_03100%. So I think that most people don't know that the majority of drugs that are ideated, let's just say, never see a human. Where, you know, it's before it even can go to a clinical trial with humans, it has to go through so much stuff, right? Where first there's preclinical testing in a lab, they run simulations, they look at things in petri dishes, whatever. And then they'll proceed, if only that seems positive, to animal studies, right? And then they have to get FDA approval, right? And so it has to go through so much, which is why the figure is 90% of those drug ideas never make it to a human. Wow. Which is insane, right? So they have to go through a lot before they get in front of you.
SPEAKER_02Well, my name is Mike Alden, uh, and this is another episode of the Better Body Lab Podcast. I know what you're probably saying, you're probably saying, like, where's Tara? Where's Dr. Tara? Listen, uh, as I said before on one of our last episodes, uh, she's super busy or super busy, as we would say, from Boston, even though I'm here now here in Philly. Um, she asked me that, hey Mike, do you think you could carry the torch, so to speak, most of the summer? She will be back, don't you worry. Uh, but I am super excited for my next guest. My next guest is the founder of a company called Patience VIP. His name is Joseph Minkowitz. I actually found him uh on Instagram. Uh I wouldn't say of all places, because I think everybody's there on social media. And I found it really, really interesting, kind of like what he's doing, um, the information that he's providing in this world that we live in with just all this information slash misinformation, we're we're trying to kind of figure out, you know, what you know what we should do for our health, what is the research saying? And so today we're gonna have Joseph talk to us about a whole range of things from cannabis to alcohol to diabetes to PCOS to uh joint pain. Um, and and it's just gonna go on and on and on. So, like if you're interested in like what's going on in the world of research and studies, and also maybe you might even want to even participate potentially in some of the in some of the studies that are actually out there today that are actually looking for participants. Joseph's gonna tell you a little bit about how that's possible and uh and what he's doing at his company. Joseph, thanks so much for being here.
SPEAKER_03Absolutely, Mike. Thanks for having me.
SPEAKER_02So uh on Instagram, uh, which we'll have in the notes, your Instagram is the studies guy. So you get that blue check mark so people can see that. You got a really uh nice, decent following of 215,000 and growing. Um thanks for again, thanks for coming on. Tell us a little bit about your background, um, you know, kind of how you got involved in in like looking at like research, because uh, you know, I don't believe uh, I don't think you're a doctor, um, but but just tell us a little bit about you know how you got there.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, absolutely. And I think that before we dive in, is a very important caveat. I am not a physician, but I've just through my work had a lot of exposure to research, which is why I found so many amazing medical innovations, upcoming opportunities through that that I wanted to share with people, which I'll get more into a bit later. And so that's why I started the studies guy. But um, you know, it's funny, I always wanted to be a physician because I put my dad, who is an anesthesiologist, on a pedestal. But ultimately, when I was about to go for my freshman year at Vanderbilt's, I was, you know, pre-declared biomajor, I was gonna go to med school. But then I worked at this medtech startup and I was basically meeting with a bunch of doctors and I was looking around and I was like, uh, man, I don't want this life. It just seemed a little static and I wanted something more dynamic, you know? And then it took me to a hard spot freshman year where I was just like, now what do I do? But then everything really changed for me when this amazing guest lecturer comes to my digital, excuse me, comes to my marketing class, and he is one of the top digital marketers in the US. And the strategies and impact that he spoke about were so incredible. And I was like, I gotta learn from this guy. And eventually he agreed to let me learn from him over the summer, where, you know, during the day, I would go and take the bus to his house to enter with him. And then at night, I would go to the Vandy Library to just continue my learning, which is an indication of how social that summer was for me. But then at the end of the summer, my parents came to me and they said, you know, we tried a lot of different vendors and avenues, but we have a really hard time with getting patients to join our clinical trials for our research site in Houston. And they said, Maybe with all that you learned this summer, you can help us. You know, I was about to be a sophomore in college, so I was like, I don't know. Uh, but we can try. And then it was really a rudimentary approach, but it turned out to be huge for them. And you know, back then I was just happy that I could help my parents. I mean, their enrollment went through the roof, their costs probably went down by like 420%. And I think from there, my dad was just uh a bit maybe proud of what had happened. And so he mentioned it to some of his other doctor friends. And then they said, Oh, maybe your son can help me. And so then I ended up working with a number of research sites and not research, but just private practices and patient recruitment throughout my time at Bandy. But then when I graduated, I actually left all of that behind because I had a great opportunity to go serve as a marketing director with that same mentor from before at a new venture capital group. And oh my God, learned so much there. And we had such incredible success with scaling the companies in our portfolio digitally. And after a few years there, I thought, man, I would really love to take these winning principles that I've learned in this space and bring them full-time into the world of patient recruitment. And that's how I decided to go off and start patients VIP. And, you know, we've just had such strong efficacy with recruiting patients for clinical trials that about five years later now we've just grown very quickly through word of mouth.
SPEAKER_02I love it. I love it. That's such a such a great I you know, uh as an entrepreneur myself, been an entrepreneur my whole life. Uh it's it's kind of it's it's such a beautiful story because that's how a lot of great businesses start, you know. Um you know, kind of just something that you didn't even necessarily see, right? And then, you know, like, oh, I'm gonna help, and then and uh and then it's turned into what it is. So all right, so tell me specifically. So so patients VIP, and I again we're gonna get into all these studies that in your again, your Instagram is at the studies guide. So great, but um so someone so patients VIP, um like if if there's a uh a research study out there, if there's a physician group out there or what have you, and they're and they need patients, like tell me exactly again so it can understand. Talk to me like I'm in second grade, like what exactly you guys do.
SPEAKER_03Absolutely. Well, as I'm sure you've seen as well, in the marketing space, there's so much jargon thrown around, which is why whenever I do try to explain it, I like to just dill it down to just two simple questions, right? Because also it's important to note that uh the approach here is direct response marketing, not necessarily branding, right? Because you want a more immediate impact. So when you boil it down to two simple questions, first one is just how do we get the right people to our study website as cost effectively as possible, cost there being both money and time. And the second question is okay, great. Now that people are coming to the study website efficiently, how do we maximize the percentage of those website visitors to take the action that we'd like them to? Which in our case is getting involved in the study. And so basically, what my team will do is we'll do a deep analysis of the study protocol, which is the document that details all that the study entails. So that way we can understand deeply ourselves, again, as non-physicians, right? What is it about this study that's unique or special? Where, you know, a drug that is not yet approved and that is still being investigated is called an investigational drug or an investigational product. And so we always ask ourselves, what is novel about this investigational approach? And why might it be better than the options that are currently available to people who have this condition, right? And I think from there, once you have that strong understanding, you can better serve as the bridge between the clinical community and the layperson, and then they can see the value in the opportunity because most people don't realize that clinical trials really can be fantastic opportunities. And I mean, if you'd like, I can touch on a couple of personal anecdotes about how they've been amazing.
SPEAKER_02Well, I was gonna ask you that. And before I do, I was gonna tell you I didn't tell you this before, but so my mom uh is HIV positive, uh, and she was diagnosed in 1987, which was during that time there was just there were weren't very many options. Uh AZT, if you've ever seen the movie Dallas Buyers Club, that that was kind of like that was like the the drug of choice, but ultimately it turned turns out it was actually killing people. Um, and she got like George Little, I grew up in the project, so there was we didn't have a lot of options, and and and my mom just got really lucky uh to uh be involved in in innate uh a trial uh of an investigative cocktail, ultimately, right? Um and and here we are today in 2026, and she tests negative uh uh a lot of times. Wow. Yeah, so it's pretty wild. So like I when you know that's that's a that's a little bit of the personal side for me uh for what you're doing as well. Yeah, so tell us like so people come to come to you, they go to your site, they are they get involved in some of these investigative drugs. Tell me, yeah, I'd love to hear some of the success stories.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, absolutely. Well, I was also just gonna because I think a lot of people are very unfamiliar with the clinical research space, which is why I thought that help first just familiarize it with everybody. I could share uh a couple personal experiences where the first one is how basically during COVID, we had seen a lot of friends or people who were in our cluster, right? But we were still kind of concerned, and then we also went to an airport and then we came home for Thanksgiving. And so at the time, uh friend wanted us to have dinner with her grandparents. I said, you know, we just came from an airport and we're with some friends we probably shouldn't to be safe, right? And then ultimately, you know, everyone still chose to eat together indoors instead of outdoors. And then unfortunately, we did test positive for COVID, and so did the entire family. And it was such a stressful time because the grandparents got super sick, and it was such a scary time. And I remember like thinking, like, oh my god, I was just praying. Please do not let us be responsible for you know these grandparents. Right. And but then thank God my dad called and he said, you know, we actually are enrolling now a study of an investigational COVID treatment at our site, and uh, we could see if you guys are eligible and get you all enrolled. And so, you know, we all got enrolled, and then it was like miraculous, and I am forever grateful to my dad for uh including, you know, telling us about the study. But the next day, both of the grandparents were perfectly fine, and it was such a relief. And so I think that was such a strong example for me of how people can get earl, potentially get early access to those investigational treatments that could be huge for them, especially when you know there really aren't any other options that have been working for you before. I mean, on a more personal note, I was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis, and for a long time, it was such a challenging condition for me where basically, in case anyone's unfamiliar with the symptoms, for me at least, it was that you have pretty constant abdominal pain, and then you know, ultimately you can't stay away from a restroom. You just feel like a high urgency to go every like 45 minutes or so. And so, you know, at the time, I just didn't even want to make social plans because I felt like I needed to have easy access. And so it was a pretty lonely and depressing period. And I had tried, I had an amazing GI doctor, and I had tried so many different treatments, but ultimately nothing was helping. And uh it was hard. But then my doctor mentioned, hey, you know what? There's actually this newer drug available, and the data from clinical trial is very promising. So if you're open, we can give that a try. And so I gave that drug a try. It's called Antivio, and it's uh infusion that I was getting through an IV. Oh, I still do. And then, oh my God, I went from miserable to having zero symptoms, right? And so now I live a perfectly normal life and I'm so grateful. But you know, had I known earlier on that those clinical trials for AntiVia was enrolling, right, and I could have potentially gotten help sooner, then I would have loved to have been a participant in that study. But I'm also glad that all those people who were struggling with the same thing that I was, right, were able to get that help in the study too back then.
SPEAKER_02Wow, I love it. Again, back to kind of like that the the origins of like why you're doing this with that that personal anecdote is just really, really fantastic. I I love I love hearing that. Um thank you. Thanks for sharing that. All right, let's jump in. So um uh give some people like uh, you know, break the fourth wall down a little bit before um uh you know, we decided to go live. We talked a little bit about like you know uh your your Instagram page and some of your other social media sites, and uh so we decided decided to kind of almost cherry pick in away some of the stuff because you're just doing so much. Um let's start with let's start with a kind of uh an interesting topic. It's it still continues to you uh to be out uh obviously in the you know the kind of the the uh the social consciousness uh of people out there. Cannabis versus alcohol, which one is better for us?
SPEAKER_03Right. And it's definitely uh controversial topic, right? Because I think maybe people will have their different first choices for what they'd like to maybe unwind with, and I think a lot of people also just carry their own personal bias as to what they think is less harmful for them, right? But in the context of which one actually causes your brain to age faster, the data is pretty clear. So basically, um alcohol has been found to be a modifiable dementia risk, especially for regular consumption, right? And so I think that the largest challenge there is twofold with alcohol consumption. One is that it impairs your brain's clearing of toxic proteins, right? And I believe that a large part of that is because it, as a lot of people know, messes with your sleep, right? But I think in practice what that means is it can kill your non-REM deep sleep. And then I think that's where your brain goes through that's own waste clearing process. But when that's impaired, right, it can lead to more of a buildup, right? Which ultimately can increase your risk of dementia. And then I think outside of that, it just drives chronic inflammation, which is why, you know, the the answer there is one that really nobody wants to hear, which is that there hasn't been shown any truly safe amount of alcohol consumption, right? My personal opinion is you gotta just have balance with everything in life. Like we also know that cake is bad for you, right? But you know what? Wait, what?
SPEAKER_02Hold on. There's there's no there's not a study on the planet that says cake is bad for you. Take that back, Joseph.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, right. It's absurd. What's such misinformation? Yeah. But my personal opinion is that you know, we should all be armed with this data, but at the same time, make conscious decisions with a knowledge of that cost that makes you enjoy your life, right? Where, you know, although we know now, yes, there's no safe amount of alcohol, we know that cake is bad for you, right? But if you're celebrating a wedding, what a beautiful event, enjoy it, have a drink, have a glass, I mean, have a slice of cake, right? That's my personal perspective. And then going to the cannabis side, I think that because cannabis is only more recently become a more studied drug because I think the legality of it is a lot newer. So the data is still very mixed there, but overall it's still not pointing to it being necessarily safe for brain aging. I mean, they found that heavy teen onset use is linked to something like an eight-point IQ drop, right? And um, I think a lot of people just anecdotally refer to its general cognitive impairment, lack of drive. And so I think the overall conclusion is that you have to take away is that we know that these things are generally not going to improve your brain aging, right? And so it's just all about being armed with what are those trade-offs and am I happy to make those trade-offs in life, right? In order to do whatever it is that I'd like to do.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um I um cannabis as well, too. I you know, and also uh, well, cannabis and alcohol. So Dr. Drew O'Man, uh, we've been to a couple of his events. I watch, I see a lot of his stuff. He's out there talking a lot about it. And as it relates to teens, uh specifically with cannabis, uh, I was anti-cannabis my whole life. Um, never smoked anything. I have now taken gummies in my 40s. Um but you know, as the science that I've seen out there as it relates to cannabis for like a an underdeveloped or a brain that has not yet fully developed for lack of right.
SPEAKER_03Which isn't until about 25, usually.
SPEAKER_02Right, 25. And my my wife, Dr. Taryn, who also co-host, who's a psychologist, she said there's a reason why uh the car rental companies say you have to be 25 because that's when the that's when the brain uh is is fully developed. But cannabis for for like you know, teens or what have you has shown to be you know causes of uh things like psychosis, uh dementia, major depressive disorder, all these different things that you know the kids just think it's oh just this fun thing. So um it's really yeah.
SPEAKER_03And I think also it's important to delineate when we're talking about cannabis, or not necessarily talking about the CBD, right? As um, which is often a more anti-inflammatory agreement. Uh um uh talking about THC, right? Right, exactly. So it's really THC, right, which is the active ingredient of concern that we're talking about, especially in teens. So but it's interesting to see as we'll continue, right? And as it continues to get studied, what um it'll show.
SPEAKER_02All right, so for those of you that are watching, here we go. If if if you're really paying attention, the first one I had was empty. There's the second one of coffee, which is kind of my um drug of choice, and it has been since geez, I don't know how long. Um okay, so coffee.
SPEAKER_03Um mine too. Cheers.
SPEAKER_02We're both taking a sip. I love this coffee uh shop down down uh near my house. Um it's called Unity Java. If those of you who want to be out in the in the Philadelphia area, the great stuff. They actually support people who this is a weird. I was gonna say that they support uh not weird, but they support uh recovering uh addicts and they work there. It's just a great, great place. Really?
SPEAKER_03And they make great coffee anyway.
SPEAKER_02Um that's awesome.
SPEAKER_03Well then I feel bad about being buying from a chain called Starbucks today, but I think uh yours sounds much better to support.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, um okay. Coffee and dementia. Um, you um by the way, you can just so just so everyone understands like the the what we're doing here. So we're going through basically um it's at the studies guy Instagram. We're going through all the different studies that that he talks about, um, kind of basically in chronological order from top to bottom. Um okay, so coffee uh dementia. Tell us a little bit about that. What's this, what what is your research showing? What are the studies saying um as it relates to coffee?
SPEAKER_03Absolutely. And I think also potentially helpful to the audience, just a bit of context. Basically, my team is always doing research on different research news happening in this space, maybe through new PubMed articles, whatever it may be, or even trading stories that we just see on Instagram, right? And then we basically read about those and then turn those into social media scripts that can um be shared with everybody and anybody can understand and have strong takeaways from. So we're not actually connecting all these studies ourselves, we're just sharing the news. And then we're also, which I think we'll talk a little more about later, but we're also sharing a new tool that should drop by the time this episode airs at thesudiesguide.com that will basically help people who are interested in clinical trials more easily find them and then get involved. But we'll talk more about that later. But with that context, yes. So one of the Hosts are talking about the relationship between coffee and dementia, which was super interesting. It was a Harvard 43-year study. And so they basically tracked something like 130,000 people, right, for up to 43 years. And so it's also important to kind of preface this by saying this was an observational study, right? So there's no proof and causation. So you kind of just have to take from it what you will. But I think it's a very safe takeaway, so it's fine to proceed with it. So they found that regular caffeinated coffee drinkers had roughly an 18% lower dementia risk. But what was kind of surprising, Mike, is that decaf literally had no benefit. So with that, it looks like it's the caffeine itself that's actually bolstering those effects and reducing your dementia risk. But are you a tea drinker at all, Mike?
SPEAKER_02You know, I will have some green tea. Uh if uh if if if it tickles my fancy, I figured to throw that other little British there. I think that's I think they say that. Um I will have some green tea. Awesome chamomile tea sometimes at night. And I do uh every once in a while, well, we'll do like the classic, like um uh like a well, not classic, we'll uh we'll do like the sleepy time tea or like a valerian root tea, like that stuff. Yes.
SPEAKER_03If you ever I think that stuff is relaxing, I like sleepy time tea too.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, if you're ever having trouble sleeping and you want to really get you know some good sleep, I would say it doesn't have to be sleepy time, but any tea that has Valerian root that that and it's actually pretty hard to hard to find, actually, because that stuff like it it'll knock you out. But anyway, so yes, the interesting thing.
SPEAKER_03Wow, yeah. Okay, awesome. And the reason I asked is because some of the comments were also asking about like, well, like what about tea? And the answer is I think because you know the decaf versus calf kind of proves that it's the caffeine itself that's causing the impact, right? Or at least perhaps causing the impact. Again, this is observational, right? When people were asking about tea, the answer was there still was definitely an improvement in reducing risk from tea, but it was a lot more mild than the reduced risk from coffee. And I think it's just because, as a lot of people know, the amount of caffeine that you get in a cup of tea is a lot less than coffee. I think it's usually something like, I don't know, 30 to 40 milligrams of caffeine per cup of tea versus say 80, 85 to 90-ish per cup of standard cup of coffee, right? And so I think that was the um key driver. And then interestingly, when you're also like, okay, cool, but like how many cups of coffee do I have per day? They observed that the sweet spot for consumption was between two and three cups every day. And I thought that was kind of a cool takeaway. And it was funny because I was thinking, well, then theoretically, if I had six cups every day, would that reduce my risk by 36%? But unfortunately, no, that that's kind of the cap of where you want to stay. And the also kind of cool part was this benefit that was observed, right, from drinking two to three cups of coffee a day that's caffeinated, held even for people that had a high genetic risk of developing dementia. So it was a pretty awesome finding. And it's a very easy and small habit that everyone can ensure that they incorporate. And most people already do, right? So just something to keep up.
SPEAKER_02It's interesting. Um, you know, having been a coffee drinker since like high school, um, and the research that's out there, uh, even I'm saying coffee, because you know, you have the coffee bean, and there's some, there's, there's you know, also there's like polyphenols on there, and there's all these different like oh yeah, uh, you know, minerals, antioxidants and things like that. So it's interesting to see, okay, so we got the coffee bean, right? And then you have the caffeine. But I would say most of the research um that I've looked at, um, you and I didn't talk a little bit about this, but um, you know, uh when I practiced law, I um defended supplement manufacturers, right? So like I was, you know, pretty well versed in in looking at these studies as well. And um there I haven't really seen too many, if any, really negative studies about coffee uh andor caffeine, you know. Uh in fact, it's it's and you know, I don't know who's driving these studies. There could also be, you know, there could also be some I wouldn't use big coffee at work, right? Yeah, yeah, big coffee behind the scenes. But the research out because I've like, oh well, I'll just stop, you know, drink drinking coffee. And and I've had friends that say, Why? Like, what do you what do you you know well, you know, I drink too much. Well, okay, what's what's gonna happen? You're gonna stay up a little bit longer, or maybe your blood pressure might go. Um this the most of the studies that are out there is relates to coffee andor, and especially tea, we know tea, but coffee andor caffeine, they all seem to be fairly positive, right?
SPEAKER_03That's what I've observed as well across the board. I really don't see any downside, but I think the only risk, as you were kind of alluding to, with any caffeineated beverage is timing. I don't know if you're a fan of Dr. Matthew Walker at all, but he talks a lot about this. He's a sleep expert. And he points out how basically, you know, there is that rule of thumb that everybody knows of like, okay, cut off caffeine at maybe noon or 1 p.m., depending on when you go to bed. And he explains that the reason behind that is, you know, as we as soon as we wake up, we have a chemical called adenosina that starts building up in our brains. And then that increases our sleep pressure, which is the pressure to go to sleep, right? As we continue, which is why ultimately once we get to bedtime, right, that's increased enough that we will fall asleep, right? And so what's crazy is he explains how caffeine or coffee doesn't actually necessarily give you more energy or suppress that adenosine production, but instead it actually will just go and block your adenosine receptors. So the caffeine does. So therefore, your brain just doesn't process that it's there, which is why people have a caffeine crash, right? Where eventually that um blockage is removed, and then all of a sudden all this built-up adenosine hits you like a truck, right? And then you can have that caffeine crash. And so uh with that, you want to have that blockage removed by bedtime. And so I think he said it's usually like a half-life of um maybe four or five hours. And so that's generally the mechanism behind why you want to be conscientious of your caffeine timing. But other than that, yeah, I've also just seen it's an amazing thing that I think a lot of people should have.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah, I'm I'm I'm a fan. So um, all right. So uh you talk about you actually do several videos and posts about about diabetes, um, type one and type two. Uh a more recent one, there's a couple of them. Uh you talk about type one diabetes, and then you also talk about in another one of your uh videos, uh type one diabetes and an injection, like specifically in the thigh. Um, what's going on in the world of type one uh diabetes? What's some of the research uh showing? Um obviously, you know, you know, we got you know the GLP1s that are out there that are having such a you know massive impact worldwide. But type one diabetes, what's some of the research telling us? Where where are we going with this? Are we are we gonna cure this thing? What's happening?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, great question. There is so much happening in this space. I mean, off the top of my head, I remember reading about how basically taking GLP1s was associated with a lower risk of developing Alzheimer's, which is fascinating, right? However, my personal opinion is it seems like this is something that a lot of people like Dr. Markovin would refer to as perhaps type 3 diabetes protection, where basically taking that GLP1 will help you have better blood sugar management, which will stop those blood sugar spikes, which is what's suspected to actually lead to dementia itself. So it's not necessarily helping your um damaged brain cells. I think it's more so preventing them from getting damaged, but that's a little bit of an aside.
SPEAKER_02And what they call the uh isn't in other countries, uh they call it um type three uh diabetes, right? That's what I mean.
SPEAKER_03Yes, exactly. Type three diabetes, which is a very interesting term that I think is a great one.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, right. Yeah, which is dementia, which is dementia here, right?
SPEAKER_03Right, yeah, a hundred percent, right? Which is fascinating. And I think it's a very helpful sort of a perspective for all of us to think about how we can do so much and control so much to prevent dementia and you know enjoy our retirement years a lot more.
SPEAKER_02But I think going to the I'm probably gonna take you off a little bit on this, you might, but it but as it relates to that, and because we talked about it before. So if it's if in other countries they're calling it type three diabetes, right, and here uh here we're calling it dementia, what these other countries are saying is is is the correlation is is the the sugar that is causing the you know the neurons in the brain for misfiring, right? Ultimately, and if you reduce the amount of sugar and or just cut it out completely, in theory, right, you could either reverse andor prevent like dementia. I mean, that's the stuff that I've seen that's out there. I mean, what is that is that 100%?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yes, absolutely. And I also just want to suggest if anybody is interested in not just dimension and prevention, but um understanding blood sugar management better and why it matters and how it can keep you from having so many different chronic illnesses. I would check out um The Glucose Revolution, amazing book. You can also follow the author on Instagram, uh The Glucose Goddess. And what's cool about her is she does share her story and how she found a much healthier and happier life. But what I like about her is she's very realistic, where like anybody can tell you, don't eat cake at weddings or don't have a weddings, right? But she instead gives you, she basically explains to you the fundamentals of what's happening with your mechanisms of uh blood sugar and management and why it matters. And then she goes on to share a lot of tips for how you can still enjoy your life, but just in a safer way. And an example of this is she's not saying like, don't eat that thing that's gonna spike your blood sugar. She says, look, okay, yeah, you're gonna enjoy yourself. If you're going to eat that, try to just eat something with fiber first, because that significantly blunts that spike in blood sugar that comes in, right? And so if you're interested in things like that and how you can enjoy your life, live health, live healthily, I would check out her book or her Instagram page because she shares a lot of great stuff. But I think that's also an important note is how I was just speaking to an amazing person, Dr. Camilla Ricordi. And I'll speak more about him in a second. But part of what he was saying is how, yes, there's such a focus, of course, on how we can help treat diabetes, but he's such a large proponent now of there's so much that we can be doing to instead of treat, prevent, right? And so that's why I think that there's gonna be such a growing need for people like the glucose goddess, right? That can explain to all of us how we can just generally reduce chronic illnesses amongst Americans because the rates that it's growing is definitely concerning. But so going deeper into the type one diabetes space, I I think it's definitely an amazing time because there are so many exciting developments. So I got to interview Dr. Camille Ricordi recently, and one of I would say he's one of the leading uh researchers in um diabetes uh cures. He's just amazing. And so about 40 years ago, he invented something called the Ricordi chamber. And I guess to better explain what that is, Mike, you mind if I take a step back to just quickly explain simply the mechanism for type 1 diabetes? Absolutely. Yeah. Okay, let's get deep. So let's do it. Uh okay, awesome. So basically, you have islet cells, right, in your pancreas that produce insulin, right? And so let's just say you eat something and then it's absorbed into your blood now as blood blood sugar, right, floating around. And so that glucose or sugar needs to go into your cells in order to produce energy, things like that, right? However, you need insulin to almost serve as like a crowbar to open the door to that cell so that glucose can leave the blood and go into the cell, right? Otherwise, it's just gonna stay in the blood, and then you have what everybody knows is high blood sugar, right? Which um can yield a lot of issues. And so where um the problem comes from type 1 diabetics is it's an autoimmune condition. And so they're basically their immune system is basically harming their own islet cells where they often don't have them, right? And so if they don't have those islet cells, they cannot produce the insulin to open the door to the cell to let the glucose in. So they have to basically take insulin, maybe through a pump or whatever it may be, to manually bring their blood sugar levels down. And it's a very challenging um condition to live with. But what Dr. Ricordi invented 40 years ago, the Riccordi chamber, is basically an automated method that makes it possible to isolate insulin-producing eyelet cells from a human pancreas. And then he led the team that performed the first successful islet cell transplant that can, you know, effectively reverse that type 1 diabetes. And um, what's crazy is you know, that is an amazing invention that's now used in over 50 countries, right? But then Dr. Ricordi, salt of the earth, he gave the rights away for free to the Ricordi chamber because he was inspired by the inventors of insulin, where they said insulin is not ours, it belongs to the world. And so he did the same thing and relinquish the rights, which is insane. And so the challenge though still remains on two fronts, right? So it's like, okay, cool, we can transplant into type 1 diabetics, the or people with type 1 diabetes, those islet cells, but problem number one is okay, well, their immune system might still just kill those foreign cells, right? And then problem number two is okay, well, we need donors to human donors to provide those cells ultimately, right? And so that's a supply problem. And so there's a lot happening in the space that are different research approaches to type 1 diabetes that I think are very interesting. And him and I spoke a lot about them. And so the one that's made the largest headlines is Eladon's study of an investigational drug called Tagoprubark. And so, you know, historically, if you were to get the eyelet cell transplant, they were a bit reluctant to give it to people because it came with an immunosuppressant, I think most commonly tachylimus, that has a lot, it's a bit toxic and it has a lot of issues in and of itself. And so that's why he explained how it was usually reserved for maybe older people who have a very severe case, right? But if they have a long life, then you don't want to give it to them because you don't want to give them that toxic immunosuppressant that's required to keep the islet cells alive, right? But now here comes Elodon's investigational product, Tego Probar. And so also just important to note that this was a smaller study only with 12 patients, but it was just like, oh my God. So they take these 12 patients who have type 1 diabetes, and then they give them the islet cell transplant, and then with the recording chamber, I'm sure. And then they use the investigational immunosuppressant, Tego Pruebart, and it's basically an immunosuppressant that doesn't have all those tough toxic side effects like the old options do. And so now we have those 12 patients are all. I mean, I have to be careful about throwing this word around, but I would say like functionally cured, right? Where they are all totally, I mean, look, they're gonna have to keep getting that immunosuppression, right? But so far it seems like it's a much safer alternative, but they're all totally off insulin. Oh my god. And 100 meaning 100% insulin independent, like that's crazy, right?
SPEAKER_02So I've yeah, yeah. I was like, I was about to say, why doesn't everybody know about this? And now you basically answered because of the toxic um so so the immunosuppressant is something that they would have to take ongoing or or just seem that way. Okay, okay. So so it doesn't so far the research is is not is not showing that at some point the these cells that have been transplanted can ultimately just function on their own. Your your immune system. If you if you it so if you come off the immunosuppressant, it's possible that your immune system would just attack these cells and then yeah.
SPEAKER_03Exactly.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, okay.
SPEAKER_03And but but it's such a fantastic segue that we did not plant. But there's a lot of a lot of people have that same question, right? And that's why they are a a little bit overly excited, right? But I think there's reason for cautious optimism about something called the sauna study, where again, this is just done with one patient. But their thought is what if we can basically gene edit those insulin-producing cells to remove the antigens the immune system actually attacks, right? And so therefore, maybe you can do a transplant and not need immunosuppression, right? But you know, the efficacy data that was shown in, again, just that one person was uh very low and it still didn't really solve autoimmunity. However, the approach is still very interesting. And so I would say that it's you know definitely has a long way to go, right? But still, that potential path is something people are excited about. So I think there is still a lot of room um in that approach for cautious optimism. But so yeah, people are definitely excited about that, maybe a little bit too excited right now, given that you know it's still very early and limited data. But um, I think that's why what Elodon has shown with TegoPrubart and that immunosuppressant has been making serious headlines. And the type 1 diabetes community is super excited about that one. And it's cool, right? So Elodon, actually, I got to speak with the CEO of Elodon. He, I think, saw me posting about it and reached out, and he's an amazing guy, super smart. And he was explaining how now they're evaluating that same immunosuppressant for other potential valuable use cases. So a big one that they're looking at as well is kidney transplantation. So I think Eladon is an awesome company, and I think if anybody is interested in participating in any of their studies that are going to be opening up soon, then I would just go to Eladon's website and they should have resources in there that can point you in the right direction. But with that, we kind of talked about more so Eladon and that immunosuppressant side. But the other side is scalability, right? Where there are so many people that would need those islet cells, but you know, there are only so many donors. So that definitely creates that supply.
SPEAKER_02What's the issue with what's the issue with the donors? Is it is it just one, people don't know about it? Two, is it like the the is there blood types that you have to match and DNA and sequencing or whatever? Yeah. Like what's the what's the issue? Because like, you know, when you hear about stem cells or something like that, it doesn't seem to be that complicated. What's the what's the what I don't know if you know, but what's the complication with this, with these uh getting these cells?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, great question. And so the complication is really just supply and demand, where as I mentioned, right, as we in America are becoming um more and more afflicted with chronic illnesses, and we have cases of um any type of diabetes continuing to rise, the demand just continues to grow for treatments and solutions like these. And with that, because these are all donated from people, the supply is too limited to be able to service everyone, which is the next challenge. But to address that challenge of kind of scalability of being able to offer this to a lot of people, there's a lot of research being done in how can we basically artificially manufacture these eyelet cells in a lab, perhaps from, as you were saying, stem cells, right? And so a pharmaceutical company called Vertex, they're a big one. And they have seen a lot of promising early success in their efforts for those lab grown cells. And I think that. That type of an approach is also very important to keep track of and how it progresses because I think those two could be the fundamental keys to the puzzle of like, how do we get the cells? How do we keep the cells?
SPEAKER_02There's just a lot to it, man. And you're doing such a great job of you know of breaking stuff down. Again, we've been on with uh Joseph Minkowitz. He is the founder of Patience VIP. His Instagram, which I found him uh on, is uh is at the studies guy. Uh his this information is just it's it's entertaining. He they talks you can listen to him speak now. He does a great job of kind of breaking down these studies for our for as what I would say us lay people here, um, that don't spend a lot of time like uh you know looking at these studies because you know I have read these things before and they can they can be pretty complicated if you don't if you especially don't have a a degree in in biology or anatomy or or chemistry or all three. Um so if you'd like some information about Joseph, you can just check them out right on Instagram at the studies guy. Uh from there. Also, if you want to, or if you know somebody that might be interested in participating in, or you want to find some some um studies that are out there that that maybe you could benefit from, or you might know someone, um, you can also um you know get right to to his uh company um patients VIP from from his Instagram page.
SPEAKER_00Hey, the Better Body Lab podcast listeners. I want to tell you about Body Care MD. If you've been listening to this podcast, you already know we don't chase hype. We focus on what actually works, real science, real results, and real quality. That's exactly why we partnered with Body Care MD. Body Care MD is built around one simple idea. Give people access to high-quality, thoughtfully formulated wellness solutions without all the noise and confusion that's out there right now. Whether you're focused on weight loss, recovery, longevity, or just feeling better day to day, they're creating products that are actually designed to support your body, not just market to you. And the best part, they make it easy. If you want to check them out, go to bodycaremd.com and use code body25. That's B-O-D-Y-25 for 25% off your first order. If you've been waiting for a sign to start dialing things in, consider this your sign.
SPEAKER_02Um so uh again, you your stud your your uh videos are great, and there's just so many of them, and we've been going for a while too, and I'm gonna just try and keep you here as long as possible. But one of the ones I thought was super interesting is you talk about a hidden brain region that can help with pain and chronic pain. Like, tell us about this. I've been in the pain space for a long time, uh uh in my career and helping people with pain, but there's a hidden brain region that could potentially help reduce or and or eliminate pain.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, absolutely. And uh you've been in the pain space for a while?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah. What types of uh we we I involvement?
SPEAKER_02I built my my my company um based off of a glucosamine conjointin product that was made with N acetyl glucosamine, which is somewhat different, right? Because I'm sure you're probably aware when you take glucosamine in order for it to actually convert into the body, into the bloodstream, so that you can actually benefit from it, it needs to be converted into NACetyl NAG. Uh so ours uh was somewhat unique and still to this day. It's called R3D. We still sell it all over all over the United States, actually all over the world, and so helping people helping people uh with that as well. And also we had a topical cream, and then we did have a also uh a CBD product that we that we sold for a while for a while as well.
SPEAKER_03But primarily hopefully THC free, right?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, well it had it has to be, it had to be in order in order to sell it, right? 0.03%, right? So uh but exactly. Yeah, um so tell us it's great hidden brain region and pain. Tell us about it.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, absolutely. Okay, and thanks for that context. I'm sure that you'll appreciate this then. So I think that it's super important to, as we deal with all studies, preface this one by sharing that this has not been evaluated in humans yet. So all of this research is animal stage, but pretty promising. So basically, researchers identified a part of the brain, CGIC, as kind of like a decision maker in whether acute pain actually turns chronic, right? And so, you know, one in four US adults, I believe, live with chronic pain. And so after you have some sort of sagumatic injury, that pain should eventually stop. But you know, in millions of people, it doesn't, right? And so when they were evaluating this in RAS, they found that basically silencing that CGIC prevented the chronic pain from developing and reversed it once it was already present, which sounds like something out of a sci-fi movie, but it seems like a super promising signal. But again, we're not mice, so we don't know what the effects will be in humans, but I think that it's definitely something promising. And something else that's kind of funny is I think that the first author of that study now actually works at Neuralink.
SPEAKER_02Oh, really? That's interesting.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_02What is the uh I was had somebody else on uh talking about this? Um we were actually talking about BPC 157, and there's how there's no there's just no human studies out there. It's you know, we're talking about the research um peptide. But um what do you I don't know if you know, or maybe you can maybe just give us your opinion. Like, what is the percentage of animal studies that do translate into humans? Is there a number out there that that that researchers kind of buy?
SPEAKER_03100%. So I think that most people don't know that the majority of drugs that are ideated, let's just say, never see a human. Where, you know, it's before it even can go to a clinical trial with humans, it has to go through so much stuff, right? Where first there's preclinical testing in a lab, they run simulations, they look at things in petri dishes, whatever, and then they'll proceed, if only that seems positive, to animal studies, right? And then they have to get FDA approval, right? And so it has to go through so much, which is why the figure is 90% of those drug ideas never make it to a human. Wow.
SPEAKER_02Wow.
SPEAKER_03Which is insane, right? So they have to go through a lot before they get in front of you.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and it's interesting too, because like you know, having again uh defended supplement manufacturers and I still keep my license active, and and I and you look at you know whether or not you could substantiate certain claims you're talking about FTC FDA type claims, and um a lot of these a lot of these things are still are still based on animal studies. And if it if you're saying that most of these things don't even translate into humans, uh that's that's really interesting. I actually did not know that that that it was that uh I thought it was I thought it was gonna be like 50-50 or something. That's really, really interesting.
SPEAKER_03Um for me, that takeaway also gives me a little bit of comfort that you know it has to go through so much before I may receive that investigational treatment in a clinical trial, you know.
SPEAKER_02Before we get on the next one, I'm just curious, like what are your thoughts on maybe get a little political right now? Like um, what are your thoughts on the current administration? Um, and even before when his his first term, it seemed to really kind of quote, cut through the red tape, which accelerated the vaccines, good or bad, doesn't really matter. Um, it seemed to have really kind of changed things. And now with Kennedy uh there and and and the way they're kind of looking at things, they seem to be looking at you know, new drug development, um uh speed to market much faster, um, the thresholds and the and the and the things that they need to adhere to seem to be um changing. Um, what are your thoughts on that? And in and is it good or bad? I'm just I'm just what your opinion is.
SPEAKER_03Uh great question. I'm not terribly familiar with the legislation changes myself, but what I can say that I've observed, one, as we've spoken about, with just the example of supply and demand for certain treatments like islet cells, right, versus prevention itself. I generally like that idea of let's try to encourage America to make healthier choices so we can avoid any of those chronic illnesses altogether from the gate, right? So I think anybody would agree that's very cool. And then I think that you know, with the advent of AI, there's been a lot of news about how it fortunately can do a lot to speed up timelines. But I think that in practice, not terrible, not much has changed where you still have a very rigid and defined protocol that defines the series of steps that you must follow when you are with your patient in that clinical trial, right? And just like before, you have to present that efficacy data and everything that happened to the FDA for them, being a governing body who's impartial, to make the decision as to whether they believe, yes or no, this should be approved. And I think that something that's interesting that I didn't realize was an option, the FDA has uh to try to speed things along for some of these things that seem like they could really, really help people, and the data is really, really strong. They can offer fast track designation or other things like that that they can do to help some of these drugs move along more uh quickly.
SPEAKER_02But give them or give them like a uh classification, right? Uh that allows them to speed speed it through.
SPEAKER_03100%. Yeah. And uh of course, from the pharmaceutical company's perspective, that speed is very important to them, which we're mindful at my company because we know that we need to operate as quickly as we can for them at a high-level quality. And it just goes back to the fundamentals of how their business actually works, where let's just say they think that, oh, cool, we've just invented like this amazing new investigational eczema cream, right? And as we just talked about, you have to go through a lot before you can actually sell any of that cream, right? And so immediately they take out a patent that lasts for about 20 years on that eczema cream. And the thing is, after that patent expires, Jinairs can come onto the market, right? So that 20-year window is like that's their time to make their profits, right? And so that's why they want to get through everything as you know responsibly, but still at an accelerated pace so they can get hopefully to market quicker after showing strong data to the FDA and getting approval.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah, it makes sense. It's it I I'm following it pretty closely, uh, and it just seems like they there is obviously there's you know a new administration and and there and just new thought process. And with AI, I think that is helping a little bit. And they're they're looking at you know getting these drugs to market faster, um, and also looking at things like you know, psychedelics, right? You know, um and what we can do. Um, I you know, I I haven't actually seen if you've talked about that when we um actually let me ask you, what what are your thoughts? I mean, I just have so much to talk to you about, but like psychedelics. I know we didn't talk about it, and you and I did talk before, but like what do you have any thoughts about that? Have you have you looked at any studies out there? I mean, I know that there's so many different companies out there that are looking at, you know, specifically like derivatives of LSD for major depressive disorder, um, psilocybin for major depressive disorder, um, you know, obviously there's some MDMA studies, you know, as well for the depression and anxiety. Um, what what are your just curious? Like, I know we didn't talk about it, but do you have any thoughts about this? And have you seen any any of the research that's out there?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, absolutely. I think that that's definitely a very popular topic that people are very interested in, especially because you know it's traditionally been a more illicit substance, right? Um, but there are certainly interesting properties to be studied where I think these were older stories that we've shared a while back. So I'm just trying to remember those. Actually, let me mind if I pull up my notes on.
SPEAKER_02I know I put you on the spot a little bit on here. And yeah, absolutely. And you know what, we might not we're talking about even editing. I don't even know that we're gonna need to edit. I'll just again, while you're pulling this up, while you're looking at it, um, Joseph has so many different studies out there, he does have a whole team that's helping him kind of put this stuff together, and then it takes I've I know what it takes behind the scenes, like these little these videos may they may be you know one minute long or a minute and a half, but they might take days, actually, maybe sometimes even longer to put together. Uh, and then we move on to the next one. So there's there's so many things, but I was just curious, like since we're talking, you know, about so many things, if um, as it relates to you know uh psychedelics, I have been anti, like I said, you know, kind of uh call it recreational drugs, like my whole career. Um, and then but I have seen and and also even kind of benefited from some of these things, and I'm like, okay, like the idea of you know LSD, what we hear about it and what it's supposed to do to you, and then you hear the stories, oh, I took it and I was never the same. I, you know, I one kid thought he was a glass of orange juice and sat up forever, didn't want to spill. Like you hear all these kind of wacky things, but then you then you start to see some of the you know, you have you have companies that are being traded on the you know on the Nasdaq and the New York Stock Exchange that are studying these things, you know, for a reason because they obviously have seen some some benefits. In fact, there's one I think it's called right now in Phinium Therapeutics. It's just like I think today it's like 20 20% because they just wow they just um they just publish their top line data in uh uh for on a phase three clinical uh trial as it relates to uh major depressive disorder and and it's like the efficacy that's great and as it relates to placebo is just far and away so much better. But anyway, yeah, just curious.
SPEAKER_03Totally psychedelics. And psychedelics. So yeah, I remember seeing one quite a while back that was just generally pointing to how when given I think it was still a cyber, people with manager depressive disorder or who had tried so many different things, right, after seven years, felt um significantly better for about a year, which is or six months, maybe, which is a which is a long efficacy period, right? So I think that was um another.
SPEAKER_02Let the company sibin, does that sound right? Does that sound right to you? Because I because I uh they're um potentially that was from a while back. Uh twice a year, completely eliminated major depressive disorder.
SPEAKER_03Yes, but then this slightly newer study is where it gets a little bit more spicy. So, you know, uh a part of LSD is that it does often, and which is why people will take it as an illicit substance, right? Will have those hallucinations, right? And that sort of wallet tripping experience, right, that people seek out. And the challenge, though, is from a clinical perspective, when you're trying to offer that to people struggling with something just like uh depression, it's hard, it can be hard to tolerate that, right, as a medication, right? It can be a very significant impact. And so that's why what was really interesting was at the University of California, it was Dr. David Olson basically took LSD, right, and then basically managed to swap the positions of just two atoms. And so that created a molecule called JRT. And that keeps LSD's brain repairing abilities that have been shown before, but it removes the hallucinations. So it's pretty amazing where you know we can now get potentially the benefits without having to go through a difficult treatment to tolerate, right? Because you know, people say it's a very strong compound. And I think it's important to also just note that this was only done at the time in mice, where i the data seem to show, at least in mice, antidepressant effects about a hundred times more potent than ketamine, which is wild, without any um hallucinations or schizophrenia linked gene expression. So it was definitely very promising in mice. And I think that there's a lot of merit to the field. And I hope that you know, similar to JRT, we can continue to find those approaches that are easy for people to tolerate and aren't um a lot at once, right? And that can still have those same abilities to help people.
SPEAKER_02Thank thanks for going down uh that road road with me. Maybe, maybe, maybe your team could also maybe take a look at a little more close look at some of the stuff that's happening right now. Because I know there's a lot of companies, uh, you know, like the one Sybin that I'm talking about, uh therapeutics, there's another one called Beam Therapeutics. I think there's so many out there right now that are uh looking at these, you know, what was you know used to be kind of taboo stuff, you know, that are like, wow, like okay, it's really, it's really cheap.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. I also I also want to say though, on the because we've been talking primarily about the use case of depression, on the front of people who are struggling with depression, yeah. You know, it can definitely sound intimidating to take something like cell cyber and LSD. And you don't have to if you are interested, if you feel like you are struggling and you are interested in seeing what else could be available as an investigational treatment in a clinical trial. I mean, we've done a bunch of different depression studies that I think seem like amazing and novel approaches that don't involve those. So if you are interested, just know that, but you're scared of those options, just know that there are still plenty of amazing developments and opportunities in the space for you that you can seek out.
SPEAKER_02So if some more again, so someone goes to your Instagram page, uh, it's at the studies guy. You do have a link there. Um, if someone is suffering with depression or if they know somebody depression, or something, so they can go to your go there and then click through and then maybe see that the of some of the studies that you are helping get people in and they they could potentially maybe be a candidate.
SPEAKER_03So yeah, exactly. By the time that this airs, that tool should be line. If it is something that we heard a lot from our audience that they wanted basically to help finding studies because it's all written in very clinical language in places that they aren't aware of to find them. So we basically take a lot of trusted sources and uh government sources as well to source our listings of clinical trials. And then we basically have a mechanism where they can find those studies that are available to them. But then it also offers a simple English feature where it'll explain to them, like, all right, so here's the details, but in simple English, here's what this study includes. And then if they'd like, they can sign up and then their information will be passed along to the research team and then they can learn more.
SPEAKER_02Wonderful. All right, so again, if you're interested, make sure to just check them out at the studies guy. Um, so I told you I've been keeping you for a long time. I'm really not gonna keep you too much longer, but so I'm gonna jump around a little bit. Uh uh one of the videos that I saw, well, it's I mean, they're also interesting, um, was about people uh so I where I grew up, I went uh there was a school called the uh uh it was called Beverly School for the Deaf, and it was pretty um uh and there was there's another school in there that called Landmark, which which was worked with people who had um dyslexia as well. Um, but anyway, so one of the your videos um talks about uh deaf patients, people who were deaf, and they were given a treatment. And tell us about the results that you saw from this treatment for people who were deaf.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, absolutely, Mike. I mean, that one was also like a sci-fi movie, right? Where basically in that study, they were evaluating a single injection to evaluate in 10 people who were born deaf how it might affect their ability to hear. So these people are born with an something called an OTOF mutation, which is basically um affecting the protein that converts sound into signal that the brain can read. So, with that, basically, like, you know, their ears work, but the brain isn't actually getting that signal. And so it's effectively not hearing anything, right? And so they evaluated like a modified virus. To carry a healthy gene copy, right, via one injection at the base of the cochlea. And it's just amazing. Like there was one patient in the study who's seven years old and she'd lost almost all of her hearing, right? But then four months later, after receiving that inject investigational injection, you know, she was having daily conversations. And so it's important though to note that although this is amazing, the OTOF gene is only responsible for a fraction of genetic deafness. And so now that team is targeting more common forms. But I think that, oh my God, right? That's that's part of the reason why we love to do what we do and share this news from the clinical community with the greater world to understand, like, oh my god, did we just cure deafness? Like, that's crazy. And so I think it gives people a lot to be hope for about what could be coming next, especially from that team.
SPEAKER_02What I really love about how you're doing this and how you're approaching it, like your videos are great. Um, but they're not clickbait, they're not clickbaity. Like you're like, hey, I want you to know this is what we found. However, but I don't if there's a little caveat or a big caveat, whatever it is, you're letting people know that yeah, it's a maybe it's a this is a small study, this is a specific class of people, you know. Most people, if they're deaf, they they have a different genetic uh issue. I love the yeah because you you really just give the full picture and the perspective, and it's not again, it's it's the flacker, but it's just not clickbaity. And what I would love even more about it is you earlier when we started, you're talking about you know, you learning uh you know how to be a marketer, you know, um, and and and how to do it the right way. So thank you for that. Like, because there's just so much you know, clickbaity stuff that's out there, and we all fall, you know, uh to for some of these things, and and uh the way you're doing it's just fantastic. So thanks for that, you know.
SPEAKER_03I appreciate that, Mike. And I, you know, it's been nice that uh because you know, we're pretty much just objectively reporting on the situation of things and keeping people informed. We also have the opportunity to, when we do see something that seems like important, we can share that, right? And as an example, we saw these uh crazy results where there, you know, basically it's funny. We actually covered the story a while back, and it was basically how there was this mRNA vaccine approach, investigational mRNA vaccine, to uh treat pancreatic cancer, which you know, pancreatic cancer is a very challenging one, where unfortunately usually only one in eight people survive, right? But in this study, Dr. Vinon Balachandrin basically took each patient's tumor and then used it to make their own custom mRNA vaccine. And I believe that that pretty much allowed for those T cells to actually identify those cancerous cells and then um hunt them down. And so you know, the six-year update that came out recently at the AACR was insane, where oh my God, seven of eight of the people in the study who responded to the vaccine are still alive, which is insane, right? And so this is six years later, and then I believe it's it's suspected that like maybe this one treatment will be effective for eight years, who knows, right? But it's something that's been so miraculous and huge, and we were all like, whoa, you know, when we saw the update. And so then I was able to post kind of like an update video on when that news broke fairly recently. And then I saw that, oh wow, they actually have the next phase of that clinical trial that's available. And so, you know, we have zero affiliation with them, but I like that I was able to just tell people like, by the way, so this is what happened, this is the update. It seems very amazing. If you or someone you know could maybe benefit from this, right, you can go to studiesguide.com slash vaccine, and then it'll just take you to, you know, their page about it where you can learn more and potentially get involved. So, and even though hundreds of people did that and visited it. And so it's just cool that like whatever we decide this is important and can help a lot of people, we can just share that.
SPEAKER_02I love it. I love it. Um, all right, so we're running out of time, unfortunately, and I have a bunch more things I want to talk about. But I'm just I really want to encourage people to just check out your Instagram um at the studies guide where they can also get to your website, just watch these videos. They're just if if anything, they're just they're they're entertaining, they're interesting. So I've got a bunch of things I want to jump to, but I there's one uh that was uh that that I the one that actually got me uh interested in you, because I had mentioned I have been in the world of pain, uh, you know, and as relates to supplements primarily, right? Um, and so I saw this one video that you posted about an injection that was going into people's knees. Um uh people who effectively had no longer had no longer had cartilage in their knees, and this injection what it regrew cartilage? Like, tell us about this miraculous injection for for knee pain and cartilage, because it just does also seem not real.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, it's definitely an interesting one that caught a lot of people's attention, where you know, people will have osteoarthritis, right, in their knees, and it's very prevalent. It's like one in five US adults will have that. And so, you know, basically as you age, it's common, right? That cartilage in your knees wears away, and then it can just cause your knees to ultimately hurt, right, when you're walking. And so there isn't a drug available that fixes it, but you know, you can get knee replacement surgery, but that is a very significant procedure. I know it can also be expensive. Uh, also just small aside on total knee replacement surgery. Another good general benefit for joining clinical trials is outside of the fact that you can get you know access, early access to investigational treatments, right? You also don't have to have insurance, you get compensated for your study time and travel. Great. But another one that I think a lot of people don't know is you can get a lot of uh surgical procedures at no cost, where there are a lot of studies that are evaluating, you know, because of um, I think an afterproduct of the opioid crisis, right? There's a lot of demand for alternatives to opioids for post-operative acute pain management. And so you can get these standard surgeries that costs you know thousands of dollars. I think it told me replacements like 50 grand, but you can get it at no cost, and then it's part of that um post-operative acute pain management drug study. So there's a lot of great opportunities like that too for anybody who is considering something like that, just as an aside. But going back to the go ahead, Mike.
SPEAKER_02No, I just I just thought that was great. I mean, that's such a great benefit. Thanks for sharing that.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, 100%. And going back to the study. So this one it's not necessarily this is an injection that probably would be needed earlier on in people, where it basically is I don't know if it's necessarily regrowing that knee cartilage itself, right? But they found that there's a protein, 15 pgdh, that roughly doubles in your knees as you age, and that's what's responsible for destroying that cartilage cushion between your bones, right? And so they basically identified a molecule that can block that 15 PG DH, and then they injected that into old mice with worn-out knees, and then with that protein basically inhibited, so it's not necessarily like that injection caused it directly, but they observed that some cartilage did actually grow back thicker, stronger like it was younger again, which is insane, right? And so that was still an animal study. I mean, it's shown with human models so it can be a little bit more visually obvious as to the potential opportunity of something like this, right? But it is something that is still being investigated. But I think it's something that a lot of people should keep an eye on, the progress of it. Because if you're very interested and you do a lot of pain in your knees, maybe it is a cool study that you would like to join, right? And then for hopefully when it can come to market, then that's something else that you can seek as an option as an alternative to getting that total knee replacement surgery.
SPEAKER_02Wow. Again, I'm so uh grateful that you came on. I mean, things that we that we were going to cover are you know, heart attacks, colorectal cancer, bunions, ALS, addiction, this cool sprayable powder, PCOS. We talked about pancreatic cancer. There's just so much. So if you'd like some more information about Joseph and his company, you can just check him out. It's at the Studies Guy, at the Studies Guy. There you can uh also check out his company, which is called Patience, which is called Patients VIP. Uh make sure you give him a follow, share his content because you know ultimately what he's doing is really just helping people um and and he's making a living out of, which is also awesome, and uh and he's entertaining as well. So um thank you again, you know, for for being here. Uh my name is Mike Alden, that's Joseph Minkowitz, and this has been another edition of the Better Body Lab podcast. If you've been listening or watching this podcast, you already know that we don't chase hype. We focused on what actually works: real science, real results, and real quality. And that's exactly why we've partnered with Body Care MD. Body Care MD is built around one simple idea: give people access to high-quality, thoughtfully formulated wellness solutions with all the noise and all the confusion that's out there right now. So whether you're focused on weight loss, recovery, longevity, or just feeling better day to day, they've actually created products that are actually designed to support your body, not just market towards you. And the best part is they make it easy. So if you want to check them out, go to bodycaremd.com and use body25, that's body25 for 25% off of your first order. Now, if you've been waiting for a sign to dial things in, this is probably it.